Chapter Summaries

Chen Xugu brought Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao to meet the Third Princess, who welcomed them into her home and spoke warmly about her marriage. After the two junior brothers asked how she and Chen Xugu had met, she began recalling their youth.

• Chen Xugu led Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao to Lü Family Village, where villagers greeted him gratefully for Pure Yang Palace’s help and protection.
• The three arrived at the Third Princess’s courtyard, and she welcomed Chen Xugu’s junior brothers inside.
• Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao shared tea and snacks with the couple, joking and growing more comfortable with the Third Princess.
• Zhang Qingyuan asked how the Third Princess had met Chen Xugu and mentioned his famous tale of flying into a rage for a beauty.
• The Third Princess said marrying Chen Xugu was the greatest blessing of her life and began recalling when they were both sixteen.

The Third Princess recounted how Chen Xugu’s kindness helped her overcome a lonely childhood, how they fell in love through years of meetings and letters, and how he entered the Feng Kingdom’s palace to rescue her from a political marriage. They escaped together after Chen Xugu entered the Dao, and the story ended with Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao suspecting he had left out details about the Purple Bamboo Grove.

• The Third Princess explained how Chen Xugu was the first person to appreciate her features and comfort her when they met in the palace.
• Chen Xugu and the Third Princess exchanged letters for years as he built his reputation in the martial world.
• The Third Princess told Chen Xugu that she was being married to the Feng Kingdom’s eldest prince, and Chen Xugu traveled to the capital to learn the marriage alliance’s circumstances.
• Chen Xugu attacked the Feng Kingdom’s palace during the wedding and entered the Dao while fighting to reclaim the Third Princess.
• The Third Princess threw herself into Chen Xugu’s arms, and the old emperor and Fengtian’s high priest allowed them to leave.
• Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao questioned whether Chen Xugu had omitted what happened at the Purple Bamboo Grove, so Chen Xugu challenged them to spar.

Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao sparred with Chen Xugu, repeatedly gaining combat insight and advancing their internal arts as the fight intensified. Chen Xugu finally forced them back, and they began a months-long seclusion to digest their gains while Pure Yang Palace disciples built shelters around them.

• Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao challenged Chen Xugu with Supreme Yang and Supreme Yin True Qi, testing their skills against his superior martial arts.
• The brothers combined sword, palm, finger, and Taiji techniques, forcing Chen Xugu to raise his strength as they gained sudden insights during the fight.
• Chen Xugu counterattacked with ninety percent of his strength and split the river with a sword strike, forcing the exhausted brothers back.
• Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao reached the eighth realm of their respective Meridian-Concentrating Divine Skills and began digesting their battle insights.
• Yuan Heqing and the Pure Yang Palace disciples surveyed the ruined riverbank, while Chen Xugu ordered shelters built for the brothers' two-to-three-month seclusion.
• Jiang Qinyue and another disciple told Yuan Heqing that he needed to feel pressure because the nineteen-year-old martial uncles had nearly caught up to him.

Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao emerged from five days of seclusion after both advancing their Supreme Yin and Supreme Yang techniques to the eighth level. Zhang Junbao shared his simple cultivation advice with Pure Yang Palace’s disciples, and Zhang Qingyuan offered to give a lecture on the Dao in ten days.

• Jiang Qinyue asked Yuan Heqing how long Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao would remain in seclusion, and he explained that insights took time to digest.
• Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao broke through to the eighth level of their respective Supreme Yin and Supreme Yang techniques and emerged after five days.
• Yuan Heqing and the other disciples welcomed the two martial uncles, who complained that they were hungry and asked for food.
• Yuan Heqing asked Zhang Junbao to explain how he cultivated so quickly, and Zhang Junbao advised learning martial arts moves thoroughly and following cultivation methods step by step.
• Zhang Qingyuan offered to give a lecture on the Dao at Pure Yang Palace’s martial training grounds in ten days.

Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao studied Pure Yang scriptures while Yuan Heqing secretly watched, hoping to discover their cultivation method. At dinner, they caught him spying and reassured him about his slower progress before inviting him to join their training.

• Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao read and discussed Pure Yang scriptures in the Scripture Repository while Yuan Heqing secretly observed them.
• The three met Daoist Chenyuan at dinner and heard about his work teaching scriptures and telling fortunes.
• Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao revealed that they had noticed Yuan Heqing following them and said their cultivation method was simply how they practiced.
• Zhang Qingyuan explained that Yuan Heqing’s slow cultivation came with a high ceiling, and Zhang Junbao compared him to slowly growing golden-thread nanmu.
• Zhang Qingyuan invited Yuan Heqing and the martial arts disciples to train with him the next morning, while Zhang Junbao began to offer to teach too.

Zhang Junbao challenged Zhang Qingyuan to prove that he could teach martial arts better, and the two arranged separate lessons for the Pure Yang Palace disciples. The disciples chose their instructors and followed them away from the courtyard, beginning the contest.

• Zhang Junbao challenged Zhang Qingyuan to a teaching competition after Zhang Qingyuan said he could not teach ordinary disciples effectively.
• Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao agreed to hold separate cultivation lessons the next morning and let the disciples choose between them.
• Yuan Heqing brought many Pure Yang Palace disciples, including several of Chen Xugu's disciples, to attend the lessons.
• Jiang Qinyue stood with Zhang Qingyuan because she had struggled to understand Zhang Junbao's previous lesson, while her fellow disciples chose their preferred instructor.
• The disciples divided into roughly equal groups, and Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao led their groups in opposite directions.

Zhang Junbao and Zhang Qingyuan taught the Pure Yang disciples, but Zhang Junbao struggled to make them understand his explanations while Zhang Qingyuan patiently broke techniques down. After hearing how the lessons went, Zhang Junbao conceded that Zhang Qingyuan was the better teacher.

• Zhang Junbao lectured his disciples on Pure Yang cultivation, led them through their routine, and tried to answer their questions about internal cultivation and the Two Forms Sword.
• Zhang Junbao diagnosed no problem with a disciple’s meridians, then demonstrated the Two Forms Sword so skillfully that the disciple still could not reproduce the final four moves.
• Zhang Qingyuan explained the Two Forms Sword by breaking down its positions, moves, and applications, then guided the disciples through practice.
• At dinner, Jiang Qinyue asked Fang Ming how Zhang Junbao’s teaching had gone, and Fang Ming described struggling to follow his explanations.
• Zhang Junbao brought his tray to Zhang Qingyuan and admitted that Zhang Qingyuan was the better teacher.

Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao left Pure Yang Palace after guiding its disciples and gathering supplies, then set out east toward Central Province. On the road, they avoided the growing conflict around Netherworld City and continued on their own path.

• Zhang Qingyuan helped Yuan Heqing overcome his impatience and accept a steady approach to cultivation, while Zhang Junbao gave up teaching and befriended Zhao Nianzhi through a series of fights.
• Chen Xugu and the Pure Yang disciples saw Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao off, giving them scriptures, Daoist robes, travel money, and provisions.
• After two days traveling east, Zhang Junbao asked to visit Netherworld City, but Zhang Qingyuan predicted it would remain powerful for decades and refused.
• Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao agreed to avoid the clichéd hero's adventure around Netherworld City and continued toward Central Province.

Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao continued their journey through Central Province, wiping out bandit strongholds and giving the rescued villagers food and aid. While watching a fight between Jiang Muye and the Eight Eminences of Central Province, Zhang Junbao found inspiration for the Thirteen Swords, but an angry outburst drew Zhang Qingyuan into the conflict.

• Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao killed the bandits in three strongholds, rescued abducted women, children, and villagers, and deposited the remaining valuables for their future sect.
• Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao carried stolen grain down from a mountain and gave it to passing woodcutters.
• Zhang Qingyuan teased Zhang Junbao about visiting Hundred Flowers Valley as they traveled toward Mount Zhongnan.
• At a restaurant near Mount Hua, Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao watched Jiang Muye fight the Eight Eminences of Central Province.
• After studying Jiang Muye's refined swordsmanship, Zhang Junbao found inspiration for creating the Thirteen Swords.
• When one of the fighters blasted force toward them and angrily demanded they stop making noise, Zhang Qingyuan drew his sword and prepared to confront the nine combatants.

Zhang Qingyuan killed the Eight Ultimates of the Central Plains after they provoked him and attacked him, while Zhang Junbao challenged onlookers who condemned the killing. The chapter ended with Zhang Qingyuan rejecting the claim that calling the violence a misunderstanding should make him forgive his attackers.

• Zhang Qingyuan approached the Eight Ultimates and Jiang Muye after their fight was interrupted, angered that they had blamed him and Zhang Junbao.
• Yue Chongluan attacked Zhang Qingyuan and died from a single sword strike.
• The other Ultimates rushed Zhang Qingyuan, who killed four more with his palm, finger, and sword techniques.
• Jiang Muye recognized Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao as the Twin Ultimates of the Daoist School from Taiqing Palace, prompting onlookers to accuse them of killing men of justice.
• Zhang Junbao rebuked the onlookers for expecting good people to accept bullying, and Zhang Qingyuan killed the remaining three Ultimates when Han Jingqiong called the fight a misunderstanding.