Recaps

Wu Youren secured explosives, a vehicle, and other supplies from Jin Garden and prepared an ambush in the wasteland to draw out Saina. After he exposed his location and attracted barbarians seeking Weird items, Daiqisi, Ranxue, Kenpa, and Bingma arrived to help drive them off.

• Wu Youren asked Hao Wei and Li Hu for explosives and a vehicle, and both agreed to supply him.
• A New Army armored personnel carrier delivered explosives, and Jin Garden later sent additional supplies while Hao Wei’s intelligence network investigated Saina.
• Wu Youren spent several days preparing, confirmed that reaching the mountains by road was impractical, and set up near their foothills before exposing his location.
• Scops Owl drew three waves of Weird Qi to Wu Youren, but no Weird items appeared, and nearby barbarians came to claim the area as their hunting ground.
• Wu Youren fired warning shots and launched grenades at approaching barbarians, then threatened them with land mines when they gathered tools to clear the snow.
• Daiqisi, Ranxue, Kenpa, and Bingma arrived and drove the barbarians away by asserting Red Pine’s authority.

Wu Youren prepared a network of dugouts to draw in Weird Qi while the four instructors joined him and debated whether to intervene against Saina. When Jeff reported that Saina's force was approaching, Wu Youren told the instructors to leave, and Daiqisi arranged to wait five kilometers northeast.

• Wu Youren warned the instructors that he needed to guard against people as well as Weirds, and the group identified Saina as a possible threat after Wu Youren named Li Hu of the New Army as his source.
• Wu Youren showed the instructors his dugouts and explained that killing enough Weirds could draw Weird Qi to him; the group fought several waves over the following nights and gained only one resentment qi crystal.
• Kenpa and Ranxue privately suspected Wu Youren could influence whether Weird Qi appeared, but they had no evidence to support the idea.
• Jeff told Wu Youren that Saina's group had set out, including a great knight, twelve knights, and other personnel, and reported that Saina was at peak knight level.
• Wu Youren urged the four instructors to leave before nightfall, and Daiqisi said they would camp five kilometers northeast and wait for him.

Wu Youren considered ways to attack Saina’s convoy after the Taowan prince refused to approach the mountain, but learned that the archer Jiuyou Feng had arrived to hunt him. He retreated toward the ridge and prepared traps as Jiuyou Feng searched the area and realized he had moved uphill.

• The Red Pine instructors relocated after deciding that staying near Wu Youren could make them appear to take sides, and they learned that Hong Yan doubted Saina would approach the mountain.
• Saina confirmed his position near the isolation point and decided to camp there, while Wu Youren lamented that his plans for a surprise attack had fallen apart.
• Wu Youren and Scops Owl rejected several possible attacks because the isolation point was heavily guarded, then learned that Jiuyou Feng was approaching from sixty kilometers away.
• Chen Quanxu identified Jiuyou Feng as a former enemy who had hunted his avatars, and Wu Youren took Little Ha toward the ridge to protect it from her.
• Jiuyou Feng swept the area with cold winds, found that Wu Youren had retreated uphill, and decided he was annoyingly alert.

Jiuyou Feng ambushed Wu Youren, but Chen Quanxu and the Scops Owl warned him, allowing Wu Youren to surprise and defeat her. As they struggled to erase the battlefield, a Weird Qi disturbance in the mountains drew the ridge troops' attention and threw the area into chaos.

• Jiuyou Feng tracked Wu Youren to the ridge and hid below the mountain, planning to wait for him to descend and snipe him.
• The Scops Owl confirmed Jiuyou Feng's ambush and warned Wu Youren, who prepared to strike her with Chen Quanxu's help.
• Wu Youren attacked Jiuyou Feng, cut through her foot bow and curved saber, and defeated her after Chen Quanxu's hallucination disrupted her escape.
• Wu Youren and Chen Quanxu began removing Jiuyou Feng's body and weapons, while the Scops Owl went to deal with the arrow she had fired.
• The ridge troops noticed a Weird Qi disturbance deep in the mountains and became too alarmed to focus on border-crossers.

Wu Youren and Chen Quanxu searched the dead attacker, found a Marching Stone, and destroyed the remaining evidence before returning to camp. As Prince Saina wondered where Jiuyou Feng had gone, Manna and Luo Xi arrived and confronted him over Taowan’s presence on Red Pine territory.

• Wu Youren met Scops Owl in a hidden cave, where they found two Resentment Qi Crystals, a Marching Stone, and gold coins among the attacker’s belongings.
• Wu Youren and Scops Owl burned the sensitive evidence and returned to camp as dawn broke.
• Red Pine’s instructors arrived to support Wu Youren, while Saina learned that the boy was still alive and Jiuyou Feng remained missing.
• Manna and Luo Xi returned from Tianjing, and Luo Xi slapped a Taowan Knight, setting off a clash between Taowan’s Knights and Liang martial artists.
• Manna demanded to know why Saina had come to Red Pine, and warned him not to cause trouble there.