Chapter Summaries

Zhang Qingyuan offered the Mystic Yin Manual to the Taiyin Dao Palace, winning the sect’s support and prompting plans to adapt it for their disciples. Their agreement was interrupted when two armed young disciples burst in and accused him of being a heretical Daoist.

• Daoist Master Bright Mountain and the other Taiyin leaders praised Zhang Qingyuan’s talent and compared his promise to Patriarch Pure Yang.
• Daoist Master Bright Candle warned Zhang Qingyuan that many geniuses failed to endure, while Bright Moon judged the Mystic Yin Manual a valuable martial art.
• Zhang Qingyuan offered the Mystic Yin Manual to the Taiyin Dao Palace, explaining that its ideas drew on their lineage and their guidance.
• Daoist Master Bright Moon accepted the manual and promised the Taiyin Dao Palace would support Zhang Qingyuan; he then planned to adjust its circulation sequences for their disciples.
• Zhang Qingyuan joked that they should add “Taiyin” to the manual’s name, but two young disciples rushed in with swords and accused him of being a heretical Daoist.

Zhao Guangjie and Bai Guangying accused Zhang Qingyuan of slaughtering righteous sects, but Li Guangye exposed how their claims were impossible and made them face their mistake. Zhang Qingyuan wondered who had framed him, then accepted Scorching Night, a treasured sword gifted by Daoist Master Bright Moon.

• Zhao Guangjie and Bai Guangying barged into Daoist Master Bright Moon’s room and accused Zhang Qingyuan of destroying Cloud Dust Manor and the Seven Luminaries Sword Sect.
• Daoist Master Bright Heart disarmed the pair, while Bright Candle scolded them and ordered them to copy two Daoist texts three thousand times.
• Li Guangye took Zhao Guangjie and Bai Guangying to Repentance Peak and explained why their accusations against Zhang Qingyuan and Li Qiuran were baseless.
• Li Guangye ordered the pair to reflect on their mistakes and serve Zhang Qingyuan tea the next morning to apologize.
• Daoist Master Bright Moon visited Zhang Qingyuan and gave him Scorching Night, a treasured sword he had won from the Demon Venerable.

Zhang Qingyuan learned that the martial world blamed him for the destruction of Cloud Dust Manor and placed a bounty on his head, so he decided to leave Taiqing Dao Palace to investigate. Daoist Master Bright Moon agreed to help him visit the Pure Yang Daoist Sect, where Zhang planned to balance the Yin and Yang energies in his cultivation.

• Bai Guangying and Zhao Guangjie apologized to Zhang Qingyuan and brought him breakfast after Daoist Master Bright Moon punished them.
• Zhao Guangjie told Zhang Qingyuan that rumors blamed him for Cloud Dust Manor's destruction and that a two-thousand-tael bounty had been placed on him.
• Zhang Qingyuan reasoned that Cloud Dust Manor's enemies had likely framed him to conceal their own involvement in its destruction.
• Zhang Qingyuan told Daoist Master Bright Moon he planned to leave and investigate who had slandered him.
• Daoist Master Bright Moon offered him a letter of introduction, and Zhang Qingyuan chose to visit the Pure Yang Daoist Sect to balance his cultivation.

After leaving Taiyin Mountain, Zhang Qingyuan traveled toward Taihang Mountain to investigate Cloud Dust Manor and clear his name. Three bounty hunters attacked him on the road, but he defeated them with his newly created Yin-Yang Unrivaled Palm and sent them away with a message for the mastermind.

• Zhang Qingyuan left town with Baolai and set out for Cloud Dust Manor at the foot of Taihang Mountain, planning to restore his reputation before continuing to Pure Yang Palace.
• Three men calling themselves the Three Heroes of Bashu confronted Zhang Qingyuan and said they had accepted a bounty to avenge Cloud Dust Manor.
• Zhang Qingyuan learned that the three had taken the mission through the Martial Arts Alliance but did not know who had placed the bounty.
• Zhang Qingyuan used his Yin-Yang Unrivaled Palm to knock all three men down without dismounting from his horse.
• Zhang Qingyuan spared the three men and told them to spread the word that he would personally seek out the true mastermind behind the Cloud Dust Manor massacre.

Zhang Qingyuan discovered that a pregnant couple who had approached his camp were bounty hunters sent to kill him, then uncovered a larger group waiting in ambush. He offered the couple a chance to back down, but the assembled fighters prepared to attack him.

• Zhang Qingyuan camped in the wilderness and let a pregnant woman and her husband warm themselves by his fire.
• The husband asked Zhang Qingyuan to divine their unborn child's sex, and Zhang Qingyuan warned that taking a job would endanger the baby.
• Zhang Qingyuan exposed the couple as bounty hunters who had followed him and waited for the Three Heroes of Western Shu to test his strength.
• The husband threw knives at Zhang Qingyuan, but his Taiji diagram deflected them, and Zhang Qingyuan urged the couple to abandon the job.
• Zhang Qingyuan called out the fighters hiding in the surrounding trees and bushes, then faced the crowd with his Questioning Heart Sword.
• The assembled fighters ignored Zhang Qingyuan's warning and shouted for everyone to attack together.

Zhang Qingyuan used the crowd of bounty hunters to test the Taiji Fist he had created during his seclusion at the Taiyin Dao Palace. After defeating them, he paid a nearby couple to dispose of the bodies and continued on his way with Baolai.

• Zhang Qingyuan faced more than fifty attackers without drawing his sword and began practicing slow, unfamiliar fist movements.
• Zhang Qingyuan evaded Zhu Xiaoliang’s swift saber slash, struck him with palm force, and used the attackers’ own strength and weapons against them.
• Zhang Qingyuan explained that he had created Taiji Fist and continued fighting, defeating the attackers with one strike each.
• Zhang Qingyuan opened his eyes to find the crowd sprawled on the ground, with seven or eight dead.
• Zhang Qingyuan gave the husband and wife fifty-five taels to dispose of the bodies and warned the survivors not to send weaker fighters after him.
• Zhang Qingyuan packed his bundle, took Baolai’s lead, and walked away beneath the stars.

Zhang Qingyuan encountered famine in Kaifeng Prefecture and spent the wealth he had looted to buy grain and distribute porridge, but he could not save a starving child. The tragedy led him to decide to make money by pursuing the martial world’s bounties.

• Zhang Qingyuan heard that Yang Chen had lost to Li Qinglian, the Thousand Eagle Devil Master had killed Grandmasters, and drought had devastated Kaifeng Prefecture.
• After passing through famine-stricken villages and dealing with bandits, Zhang Qingyuan sold the Black Lotus Sect’s stolen valuables for 4,800 taels.
• Zhang Qingyuan bought grain and had porridge cooked for the disaster victims, adding sand to discourage impostors from taking food.
• Zhang Qingyuan brought porridge to a starving mother and child, but learned the boy had already died.
• Zhang Qingyuan resolved to pursue the bounties on the martial world’s criminals to raise money.

During the Kaifeng drought, Zhang Qingyuan joined forces with the charitable grain merchant Tang Jie after learning bandits had seized Tang’s grain shipment. He set out alone to recover it from Listening Wind Stronghold.

• Zhang Qingyuan continued feeding disaster victims with grain bought using 4,800 taels, stretching supplies by mixing rice with bran and husks.
• Zhang Qingyuan met Tang Jie, who explained that his family’s grain prices had stayed steady and that he was running out of supplies.
• Tang Jie told Zhang Qingyuan that Chang Lai and more than a hundred bandits at Listening Wind Stronghold had seized two hundred thousand shi of grain.
• Zhang Qingyuan offered to retrieve the grain and demonstrated his strength by cutting a hitching post in two with Sword Qi.
• Tang Jie sent several dozen workers with horse carts, and Zhang Qingyuan set off toward the stronghold with them.

Zhang Qingyuan encountered a wealthy young master and his two skilled guards on the way to Listening Wind Stronghold, where he planned to recover stolen grain. After learning that the Dragon Gate backed the bandits, Zhang Qingyuan sought the young master's help and was asked whether one guard would be enough.

• Tang Zhong stopped the carriage ten li from Whistle Mountain, and Zhang Qingyuan continued toward Listening Wind Stronghold alone.
• Zhang Qingyuan overheard a wealthy young master arguing with Old Five and Old Seven about grain stolen by the stronghold, then revealed himself when the guards sensed him.
• The young master explained that the Dragon Gate backed the stronghold and was exploiting the disaster by stealing grain and selling it at high prices.
• Zhang Qingyuan proposed teaming up with the young master's guards to recover their stolen grain, but Old Five refused to leave the young master's side.
• The young master asked Zhang Qingyuan whether one guard would be enough, and Zhang Qingyuan looked toward Old Seven.

Zhang Qingyuan persuaded Zhu Zizhao, an imperial relative, to join him in attacking the bandits and reclaiming their grain. As they approached the mountain, Old Seven secretly eliminated the sentries, leaving Zhang Qingyuan to show what he could do next.

• Zhang Qingyuan said he could take on the bandits while Old Seven held off the Dragon Lord, and Old Seven promised to kill the Dragon Lord if given an opening.
• Zhu Zizhao agreed to go with Zhang Qingyuan and introduced himself as an imperial relative from the capital, traveling with household guards Old Five and Old Seven.
• Zhang Qingyuan and Zhu Zizhao discussed the hardships of roaming the jianghu and their own hopes for the future.
• As the group neared the mountainside, Old Seven left to deal with the bandits' sentries while Old Five protected Zhu Zizhao.
• Old Seven returned with blood on his sword and confirmed that all twelve guard posts and hidden sentries had been dealt with, and Zhu Zizhao challenged Zhang Qingyuan to prove himself.

Zhang Qingyuan and Zhu Zizhao confronted Listening Wind Stronghold over the stolen grain, and Zhang cut down the bandits who attacked them. He demanded the grain from Chang Lai and the Dragon Lord, but they refused, so Zhang drew his sword again.

• Zhu Zizhao identified Chang Feng at the stronghold gate, and Chang Feng defended the bandits’ claim that they were providing disaster relief.
• Zhang Qingyuan forced his way into the stronghold and killed the bandit squad that charged at him with the Twelve Immortal-Slaying Forms.
• Chang Lai and the Dragon Lord arrived with reinforcements and found their men dead.
• Zhang Qingyuan demanded the grain taken from Dingfeng County, but the Dragon Lord and Chang Lai refused to return it.
• Zhang Qingyuan raised his sword and attacked.

Zhang Qingyuan and Old Seven cut through the Dragon Lord’s forces, then faced the Dragon Lord’s Golden Bell Shield. Zhang Qingyuan found a way past the shield and struck the Dragon Lord in a humiliating weak spot.

• Zhang Qingyuan fought through the bandits while Old Seven clashed with the Dragon Lord’s assassins, and Chang Feng and Chang Lai joined the attack.
• The Chang brothers tried to exhaust Zhang Qingyuan, but his True Qi kept replenishing as he killed the men surrounding him.
• Chang Feng and Chang Lai attacked Zhang Qingyuan together, but he killed both brothers after evading their coordinated blows.
• Old Seven defeated the Dragon Lord’s assassins, and Zhang Qingyuan’s sword failed to pierce the Dragon Lord’s Golden Bell Shield.
• Old Seven targeted the Dragon Lord’s lower body while Zhang Qingyuan devised a trick and stabbed him from behind with a sword.

Zhang Qingyuan defeated the Dragon Lord by stabbing him through the backside, then tortured him for information about the Dragon Gate’s powerful backer. The Dragon Lord finally confessed that Kaifeng Prefecture’s prefect, Liu Xiangquan, was behind the sect.

• Zhang Qingyuan defeated the Dragon Lord by stabbing him through the backside, shocking Zhu Zizhao and the others.
• Zhang Qingyuan stopped Old Seven from killing the Dragon Lord and demanded to know who backed the Dragon Gate.
• The Dragon Lord denied having a backer, so Zhang Qingyuan used pebbles to make the sword wound more painful.
• Zhu Zizhao agreed that the Dragon Lord deserved punishment for profiting from the national calamity and urged him to talk.
• The Dragon Lord asked for a quick death and secrecy about how he died, then revealed that Liu Xiangquan, the prefect of Kaifeng Prefecture, backed the Dragon Gate.

Zhang Qingyuan returned from Whistle Mountain after defeating the bandits, rejoining the Tang Household’s workers and Zhu Zizhao. Zhu Zizhao proposed gathering evidence against corrupt Prefect Liu Xiangquan and appealing to the emperor, and Zhang Qingyuan agreed to help.

• Tang Zhong mistook the lookout’s report that people were coming down the mountain for a warning that bandits were approaching, so the workers began fleeing in their wagons.
• Zhang Qingyuan caught up with the wagons, revealed that he had dealt with the bandits, and explained the misunderstanding when the lookout arrived with three more people.
• Tang Zhong and the workers turned their wagons around and headed back up the mountain to haul grain.
• Zhu Zizhao told Zhang Qingyuan he wanted to gather evidence against Prefect Liu Xiangquan and take it to the emperor.
• Zhang Qingyuan asked about Zhu Zizhao’s family status, then agreed to join his plan after Zhu said his family was among the greatest under heaven.

Zhang Qingyuan and Zhu Zizhao discovered that Liu Xiangquan had stockpiled enormous quantities of stolen grain to win control over Kaifeng’s disaster victims and raise a rebellion. They sent urgent warnings to the capital, while Zhang Qingyuan and Zhu Zizhao suspected Liu Xiangquan had a powerful backer.

• Zhang Qingyuan, Zhu Zizhao, and Tang Zhong found a valley filled with grain stolen from merchants by Listening Wind Stronghold.
• Zhang Qingyuan and Zhu Zizhao realized Liu Xiangquan had gathered the grain to feed disaster victims and use them to build an army.
• Zhu Zizhao concluded that Liu Xiangquan planned to rebel and ordered Old Seven to stop the imperial commissioner carrying relief grain.
• Zhu Zizhao wrote a blood letter for Old Five to deliver directly to the emperor or crown prince, then asked Zhang Qingyuan to protect him.
• After Old Five and Old Seven left, Zhang Qingyuan pointed out that Liu Xiangquan might have hidden lookouts, and Zhu Zizhao wondered whether someone was backing him.

Zhang Qingyuan helped run a disaster-relief station and explained microorganisms to Zhu Zizhao, while learning that rumors had named him Great Emperor Zhenwu reincarnated. Worried the exaggerated fame would draw Liu Xiangquan’s powerful allies after him, he confronted Tang Zhong, then unexpectedly met the woman he called his wife.

• Tang Jie arranged grain transport and opened a relief station with Dingfeng County, where Zhang Qingyuan helped care for fifty thousand disaster victims and prevent illness.
• Zhang Qingyuan explained microorganisms and disease to Zhu Zizhao while serving porridge.
• Zhu Zizhao told Zhang Qingyuan that people across Dingfeng County believed he was Great Emperor Zhenwu reincarnated, and Zhang Qingyuan feared the rumor would provoke Liu Xiangquan.
• Zhang Qingyuan discovered that Tang Zhong had started the rumor after believing Zhang Qingyuan alone had defeated the bandits of Listening Wind Stronghold.
• As Zhang Qingyuan considered fleeing, the young Daoist woman he had longed for appeared, and he greeted her as his wife.

The Prince of Yu learned that Zhang Qingyuan had destroyed Listening Wind Stronghold and taken its grain, disrupting his plan to rally disaster victims for a rebellion. Urged on by Xiahou Jue of the Heavenly Principle Sect, the prince resolved to move quickly and ordered Dragon Gate experts to kill Zhang Qingyuan, while waiting for the emperor to die.

• Liu Xiangquan reported to the Prince of Yu that Zhang Qingyuan had wiped out Listening Wind Stronghold and distributed its grain to disaster victims.
• The Prince of Yu learned that Zhang Qingyuan had killed the stronghold’s defenders and that people were calling him Great Emperor Zhenwu descended to the mortal world.
• The Prince of Yu concluded that the loss of the granary had exposed his plans and ordered Liu Xiangquan to send Dragon Gate experts to kill Zhang Qingyuan.
• After Liu Xiangquan left, Xiahou Jue encouraged the Prince of Yu to seize the chance created by the drought and the court’s instability.
• The Prince of Yu admitted the rebellion was rushed but remained resolved, while Xiahou Jue said the emperor would die within another day or two.

Zhang Qingyuan reunited with Li Qiuran, who warned him that the Prince of Yu was conspiring with the Heavenly Principle Sect to rebel. After learning that his destruction of Listening Wind Stronghold had made him a target, Zhang Qingyuan followed Li Qiuran as she left.

• Zhang Qingyuan welcomed Li Qiuran to the Tang Household courtyard and teased her about coming to see him.
• Li Qiuran confirmed that Zhang Qingyuan had wiped out Listening Wind Stronghold and revealed that the prefect was backed by the Prince of Yu.
• Li Qiuran explained that the Prince of Yu was cooperating with the Heavenly Principle Sect, whose leader Xiahou Jue wanted to raise the sect's standing.
• Zhu Zizhao joined them and explained that the Prince of Yu had seemed so mild and unassuming that people scarcely remembered he was in Kaifeng.
• Li Qiuran warned Zhang Qingyuan that the Prince of Yu would target him and offered to protect him; she then left, and Zhang Qingyuan followed after her.

Zhang Qingyuan cooked for Li Qiuran, prepared sharpened wooden sticks to counter the Dragon Gate’s body-tempering experts, and insisted she rest while he kept watch. Three quiet days passed as he continued disaster relief and flirted with her; on the fourth night, he sensed the full-moon evening was ripe for danger.

• Zhang Qingyuan served Li Qiuran a home-cooked meal, and she relaxed enough to accept his attention and pour him tea.
• Zhang Qingyuan sharpened wooden sticks as weapons against Dragon Gate experts, explaining that he had discovered how to break external body-tempering arts.
• Zhang Qingyuan gave Li Qiuran a new quilt and persuaded her to sleep while he kept watch, promising to help her seek revenge.
• Zhang Qingyuan spent the night cultivating, then continued providing disaster relief and courting Li Qiuran over the next three peaceful days.
• On the fourth night, Zhang Qingyuan wondered why Zhu Zizhao had been away so much and remarked that the cloudy, moonlit night was suited to murder and arson.

Li Qiuran and Zhang Qingyuan waited uneasily through the night, and Zhang Qingyuan invited her to join him in Taihang Mountain after their affairs in Kaifeng were settled. Their moment was interrupted by a group of black-robed fighters, whom Zhang Qingyuan confronted with profane insults before challenging them to attack.

• Li Qiuran offered to keep watch, but Zhang Qingyuan said he was alert and claimed his martial arts had made him invincible below Grandmaster.
• Zhang Qingyuan invited Li Qiuran to Taihang Mountain, and she bashfully refused.
• A short black-robed man used a sonic technique to laugh at Zhang Qingyuan and Li Qiuran from a nearby rooftop.
• Zhang Qingyuan countered the laughter by shouting obscenities, leaving the black-robed group stunned.
• The short man identified Zhang Qingyuan and threatened him, and Zhang Qingyuan challenged the group to come after him.