Chapter Summaries

After waking in Great Liang as Wu Youren, a low-ranking hostage from Great Jin, Wu Youren tried to determine who had pushed him into Jasper Lake. He learned his fall was tied to liquor containing mineral drugs that Shi Linyuan and the other hostages had taken, and the chapter left him explaining that he had sold it to survive on his tiny allowance.

• Wu Youren recovered memories after nearly drowning in Jasper Lake and wondered who had pushed him into the water.
• Two Liang patrol guards mocked Wu Youren, while he suspected that another hostage, rather than Liang people, had caused the incident.
• Shi Linyuan told Wu Youren that the group blamed an uncanny creature and that His Highness had ordered an investigation.
• Wu Youren questioned why fellow hostages would target him, and Shi Linyuan urged him to repay His Highness for the support he had received.
• Shi Linyuan revealed that the group had taken Wu Youren's jar of strong liquor, and Wu Youren realized it contained mineral drugs made by his predecessor.
• Wu Youren admitted he had made the liquor to earn money because he received only a small share of his allowance and could not afford blood food for cultivation.

Wu Youren negotiated with Shi Linyuan to blend liquor for the hostage princes, demonstrating that he could turn weak liquor into a potent spirit. Before he could finish a third batch or secure payment, an elderly Liang gardener was found dead with signs of poisoning.

• Wu Youren refused to hand over a liquor source or accept a small share of sales, and negotiated to blend weak liquor for the hostage princes instead.
• Shi Linyuan brought Wu Youren five jars of weak liquor, which Wu Youren blended over three days.
• Shi Linyuan and several hostage princes sampled the liquor and praised its strength, unaware that its effects might be dangerous.
• The hostage princes sent Wu Youren more weak liquor and tried to discover how he blended it, but guards and Wu Youren's precautions kept them from spying on him.
• When Shi Linyuan delivered ten more jars, he promised Wu Youren that a reward was being arranged and asked him to blend the batch for free.
• Before Wu Youren finished the third batch, an elderly gardener from Liang was found dead with a blue face, blood from his seven orifices, and a body reeking of liquor.

After the old gardener died and Liang briefly searched the hostage princes’ quarters, Shi Linyuan offered Wu Youren a chance to enter the Martial Academy in exchange for more strong liquor. Wu Youren waited for official confirmation, but the chapter ended with Liang announcing that the hostage princes might be sent to the front lines.

• Liang’s patrol guards searched the hostage princes’ quarters after the old gardener’s death, then stopped when an official from the Court of State Ceremonial intervened.
• Shi Linyuan visited Wu Youren, explained the search as a court maneuver, and offered to recommend him for the Martial Academy; Wu Youren insisted on an official written order.
• Five days later, Shi Linyuan demanded ten more jars of strong liquor in exchange for the order, but Wu Youren refused to comply without proof.
• Two days later, Liang announced that thirty hostage princes would be selected for the Martial Academy.
• An official from the Jin Protocol Office warned the hostage princes that they might be sent to the front lines, leaving them stunned.

The Jin hostages faced competition for thirty places in Great Liang’s intermediate martial academy, while Wu Youren returned to lessons and made the first successful-candidate list. After handing Shi Linyuan the stone medicine and its preparation method, Wu Youren learned that someone wanted to buy his place, leaving his selection uncertain.

• The Office of Protocol official clarified that the hostages would attend an intermediate academy and fight the Weird Race, prompting more than a hundred applicants for thirty places.
• Wu Youren returned to morning lessons, trained cautiously, and observed Liang’s academic rewards divide the hostages.
• Yan Sanmin questioned Wu Youren about his fall into the water, but he dismissed her concern and avoided a confrontation.
• Wu Youren’s name appeared on the first list of ten successful candidates, and he gave Shi Linyuan the remaining stone medicine and its preparation method.
• Liu Jingming visited Wu Youren and told him that someone wanted to buy his place.

Wu Youren refused to sell his place on the list and faced pressure from fellow hostages who wanted to take it from him. After he held his ground against Lei Lixing and Yan Sanmin, the chapter left him still refusing to yield despite growing resentment over his status.

• Liu Jingming asked whether Wu Youren would sell his slot, but Wu refused, and Liu said he might try to earn a place himself.
• Wu Youren arrived late at the crowded dining hall, ate outside, and dodged Lei Lixing's attempt to kick over his food tray.
• Lei Lixing demanded Wu Youren hand over his slot, but Wu mocked him and refused; the Duke of Wei's son stopped the confrontation from turning violent.
• Wu Youren finished several trays of food and left while other hostages watched and reconsidered challenging him.
• After morning lessons, Yan Sanmin urged Wu Youren to sell his slot, but he refused and told her to object to his status if she thought it improper.

Wu Youren faced five challengers for a place at Liang’s martial academy and decided to concede to one opponent rather than risk being overwhelmed. As his first challenge began, he gave up immediately, just as Liang guards arrived escorting two people.

• The third selection list allowed objections, and Wu Youren discovered that five people wanted to challenge him.
• Wu Youren told Liu Jingming he planned to accept defeat, while Liu urged him to hold out and shared his father’s bleak parting words.
• Three days later, Wu Youren took the platform for his first match, where the much stronger opponent prepared to compete carefully.
• Wu Youren cupped his hands and conceded at once, surprising the guard and spectators.
• Several guards from Liang hurried in, escorting two people.

Princess Yongning of Liang announced that she would choose a husband from among the Jin hostages, prompting Jin's leaders to consider Wu Youren as a possible candidate. After the tournament resumed, all of Wu Youren's challengers withdrew, securing his place at the martial academy while leaving him puzzled.

• A Liang protocol official announced that Princess Yongning would screen Jin's hostages as potential husbands and gave them a month to prepare.
• Wu Youren dismissed his chances, while Liu Jingming urged him to take care of himself and consider the opportunity.
• The seventeenth prince and two senior hostages discussed using Wu Youren to win Yongning's favor, though the Duke of Wei's concubine-born son worried Wu might resent Jin's treatment of him.
• Yan Sanmin reminded the seventeenth prince that Wu Youren's family ties to the baron were tenuous and could make him unreliable if he gained influence in Liang.
• Three days later, the tournament resumed under a ban on injuries, but Wu Youren's challengers withdrew and his martial academy place was effectively secured.

Wu Youren and four other Jin hostages left Jin Garden for Red Pine Martial Academy, witnessing both the humiliation directed at hostages and the power of Liang’s ability users. After a young marquis crashed into the road and departed, the guards waited for a builder to repair the damage, prompting Wu Youren to reflect on his late father.

• Wu Youren and He Wenhao left Jin Garden with three other hostages, traveling through Tianjing under guard in cars marked “Hostage.”
• Wu Youren remarked that Tianjing felt less tranquil than Zhongjing, and the guards explained that the weird race had been growing more rampant.
• A young marquis fell from the sky and cratered the road; the guards identified him as an ability user and went to arrange repairs.
• Wu Youren helped He Wenhao smooth things over after he wondered aloud whether the young marquis was human.
• When the guards said a builder was coming, Wu Youren recalled that his late father had nearly become one, and Feng Qianjun explained that builders were a lesser form of ability-based construction.

Wu Youren and the other Jin hostages traveled through Tianjing’s decaying Rust Zone toward the Martial Academy, where Liang guards planned to conceal their hostage identities. With Red Pine Martial Academy delayed and dark clouds approaching, the group prepared for possible Weird Race appearances and waited under the eaves.

• Wu Youren, Feng Qianjun, and He Wenhao argued with Liang guards over Great Liang’s growing strength in building and engineering.
• The group drove through Tianjing’s desolate outskirts and entered a weed-choked courtyard in the Rust Zone.
• The guard leader told the five hostages they would not have to reveal their identities at the Martial Academy, and Feng Qianjun promised they would honor the goodwill between Great Liang and Jin.
• Wu Youren warned that rain was approaching and began bending a piece of rebar into a weapon, while Feng Qianjun went to prepare weapons as well.
• A guard reported that Red Pine Martial Academy had been delayed, and the leader ordered the cars moved under the eaves as dark clouds drew near.

Wu Youren prepared crude alarms and traps while the guards and hostages waited out a storm in an abandoned factory. As the rain eased, a Night-Wandering Grade Qi Weird appeared behind him, and the guard driver opened fire.

• The group took shelter in a factory as a storm gathered, and the guards lit bonfires and headlights.
• Wu Youren scavenged scraps and set up crude warning devices and traps around the group.
• The storm continued for hours, draining the firewood and leaving the factory dark and cold.
• When the driver ordered him to check his mechanisms, Wu Youren sensed danger, triggered an alarm, and dodged a shifting black shadow.
• Wu Youren drew his wooden sword and rolled clear as the guard driver identified the attacker as a Night-Wandering Grade Qi Weird and fired twice.

Wu Youren and the other hostages joined the guards in defending themselves when qi weirds surrounded their factory. As the knights swept the creatures away, Wu Youren wondered whether killing monsters could grant him experience points, but he sensed no reward.

• A guard shot a nearby dark shape with weird-breaking rounds, and the guards soon spotted many more qi weirds in the rain and mist.
• The guard leader ordered the hostages to watch their surroundings while the guards fired at the approaching creatures.
• Wu Youren felt his Weird-Repelling Jue warm and his inner energy flow more smoothly, leading him to wonder whether killing monsters could earn experience points.
• Four knights advanced in formation and tore through the qi weirds with their saber qi.
• Wu Youren noticed that he had gained no experience points, while Feng Qianjun praised the knights for controlling their power.

Wu Youren and the other hostage princes survived a Weird attack at the factory and were transferred to Red Pine Martial Academy under Instructor Hong Yan. Wu Youren gained experience from a slain Qi Weird, but his new instructor’s hostility toward people from Jin left the princes uncertain about their future.

• Wu Youren sensed a Qi Weird hiding in the factory, and the guards killed it while protecting the hostage princes.
• Wu Youren realized that killing a Qi Weird connected to him had earned him experience, though he could not gain anything from the Resentment Qi Crystal.
• Instructor Hong Yan arrived with a Red Pine Martial Academy team and took charge of the five hostage princes.
• Wu Youren suggested leaving before the Resentment Qi Crystal attracted more Weirds, and Instructor Hong chose to take them to Red Pine.
• The princes traveled to Red Pine Martial Academy, where a Knight told them about the school and its Jin students’ advantages after returning home.

Wu Youren and four other Jin hostages entered Red Pine Martial Academy as foreign martial artists and began adjusting to life there. After learning the academy’s loose, self-directed system, Wu met Feng Qianjun and He Wenhao, who proposed a secret network among the five; they agreed to stay in touch while keeping a low profile.

• The unremarkable Knight advised the five hostages to conceal their identities and treat themselves as Jin martial artists studying in Liang.
• The five arrived at Red Pine Martial Academy late in the intake period, and Wu Youren was assigned a dormitory with two indifferent Liang youths.
• Wu explored the academy, received an identity token and communication wristwatch, and learned about its facilities, public lectures, combat assignments, and expenses.
• Feng Qianjun and He Wenhao stopped Wu after dinner and proposed creating a framework for the five hostages to keep in contact and support one another.
• Wu urged them to focus on fitting in and avoid collecting activity funds, and Feng agreed that they should keep in touch without drawing attention.

Wu Youren explored Red Pine Martial Academy while trying to keep a low profile and avoid compromising his ties to Jin. After meeting Cynthia, he turned down her request to be her companion by inventing a story about needing his mother’s permission, leaving his roommates to argue over his claim of Jin’s “male virtue.”

• Feng Qianjun asked Wu Youren to speak for the five Red Pine Martial Academy hostages and urged them to advance and retreat together, while He Wenhao warned him against taking a Liang master.
• Wu Youren learned that the Techniques Hall sold basic techniques but restricted advanced ones, and he reassured Feng Qianjun and He Wenhao that his Gale technique still required him to seek later parts from Jin.
• Wu Youren spent his first days exploring the academy before attending open lectures, then went to the mailroom after receiving notice that a package had arrived.
• Wu Youren met Cynthia, a seventeen-year-old Knight Apprentice from Liang, and exchanged contact details with her despite keeping his distance from three Jin martial artists they encountered.
• Cynthia invited Wu Youren to accompany her to a friend’s birthday, but he claimed his mother had to approve his relationships and marriage, prompting Salinen and Subar to argue over his talk of male virtue.

Wu Youren tried to keep Cynthia at a distance while strengthening ties with his roommates, but a group from the Life and Death Knot confronted him and demanded protection money. Their knowledge of his supposed startup funds left him suspecting the demand was tied to the Hostage Prince Corps.

• Wu Youren arranged to treat Salinen and Subar to lunch, and Cynthia joined them after learning of the invitation.
• The next day, Salinen and Subar arrived injured and accused Wu Youren of attacking them in his sleep; Cynthia called the trait useful for soldiers and demanded an equally expensive meal.
• After spending heavily on lunch, Wu Youren began keeping Cynthia at arm’s length, then met her in a grove when she asked to talk.
• Cynthia invited Wu Youren to join the Mirage Sea Alliance, but three figures interrupted and the burly man identified their group as the Life and Death Knot and demanded five silver dollars a month.
• The burly man revealed that the Life and Death Knot knew about Wu Youren’s fifty silver dollars in startup funds, while Wu Youren denied that the money existed and refused to be intimidated by talk of uniforms.

Wu Youren was forced to pay the Life and Death Knot protection money and was beaten, then argued with Cynthia and declared their relationship over. After making up with his roommates over dinner, he asked them to find out how he could take missions to kill anomalies.

• Wu Youren refused to pay much protection money, but agreed to give the Life and Death Knot ten silver dollars a month and endured a staged beating.
• Cynthia denied bringing the Life and Death Knot after Wu Youren emerged bruised, and offered to cover half his fee; he refused and warned her not to provoke the faction.
• Wu Youren returned to the dormitory and told Salinen that he and Cynthia were finished, then agreed to buy dinner for his roommates.
• That night Wu Youren seized Subar by the throat, and the incident spread around the academy; his roommates later accepted another meal and warned him not to repeat it.
• Wu Youren treated Salinen and Subar to dinner again, then asked them to find out where he could get missions to kill anomalies.

Wu Youren sought a chance to kill Weirds and gained an opportunity to accompany bounty hunters after Salinen made connections. After being moved into a room of his own, he quietly established himself at the academy and negotiated permission to grow vegetables by supplying liquor to an administrator.

• Wu Youren asked Salinen and Subar about killing Weirds and said he wanted to fight them rather than humans.
• Salinen arranged for Wu Youren and Subar to observe a Weird-hunting expedition, and Wu Youren treated his roommates to a meal.
• Wu Youren grabbed Salinen by the throat again, and the academy moved him into a small house by himself.
• A man from the Life-and-Death Knot questioned Wu Youren about his intentions, and Wu Youren said he wanted experience killing Weirds and needed money.
• Wu Youren fenced off a small patch to grow vegetables, but an administrator ordered him to remove it.
• Wu Youren gave the administrator jars of liquor, and the administrator allowed the vegetable plot in exchange for two more jars each month, with payment.

Wu Youren farmed a small vegetable plot at Red Pine Martial Academy, then asked Instructor Hong Yan for permission to go to the Rust Zone to hunt the Weird Race. Hong Yan approved his trip on foot and promised a written order, leaving Wu Youren preparing to take the risk despite his apprentice-knight strength.

• Wu Youren gave the administrator liquor in exchange for permission to farm and vegetable seedlings, then cultivated a lush plot of about a hundred square meters.
• A man from the Life and Death Knot criticized Wu Youren for farming instead of training, but Wu Youren said he needed money.
• Instructor Hong Yan visited after hearing about the farm and offered Wu Youren a much larger plot, but he insisted he wanted to advance to knight and hunt the Weird Race.
• Wu Youren asked to borrow Hong Yan's motorcycle, but she refused because he was not a great knight and could not ride it; he then asked to travel on foot instead.
• Hong Yan agreed to let Wu Youren go toward the Rust Zone and said she would send him a written order, while Wu Youren promised to keep communications open.
• The administrator questioned whether Wu Youren could kill the Weird Race, and Wu Youren admitted he might have to flee if he could not win.

Wu Youren received a special pass from Grand Knight Hong Yan and met Luo Xi, a young knight who volunteered to accompany him to search for the Weird Race. Though wary that Luo Xi might be connected to the Life and Death Knot, Wu Youren agreed to go with him and continued preparing for the trip.

• Wu Youren declined the administrator’s invitation to drink, learned that Hong Yan’s actions did not require him to suspect hidden intentions, and brought the administrator meat as thanks for their conversation.
• Wu Youren began preparing ways to improve his chances of surviving an encounter with the Weird Race despite his dwindling funds.
• Luo Xi arrived with written authorization bearing Hong Yan’s seal and struck up a friendly conversation with Wu Youren about his vegetable patch and the abnormal weather.
• After Wu Youren said he wanted to find the Weird Race, Luo Xi asked to join him, believing the young man might have a lead and offering to keep him safe.
• Wu Youren agreed that he and Luo Xi would go together, asked him to inform Hong Yan, exchanged wristwatch numbers with him, and continued preparing for the trip.

Wu Youren and Luo Xi prepared to investigate Weird Race activity, but the martial academy gatekeeper blocked Wu Youren from leaving because his identity card strictly forbade it. After an argument and a long wait, they agreed to travel to Suotu Town, where possible Weird Race activity had been reported.

• Wu Youren told the caretaker he planned to leave, then met Luo Xi the next morning with only a backpack and cheap daggers for weapons.
• At the martial academy gate, the gatekeeper found that Wu Youren’s identity card barred him from leaving, despite Instructor Hong Yan’s written order.
• After waiting over an hour, Luo Xi challenged the gatekeeper, who offered to let them leave if they investigated possible Weird Race activity in Suotu Town’s third district.
• Luo Xi confirmed the Suotu lead through his contacts and learned that two martial artist squads had already been sent to investigate.
• Wu Youren urged Luo Xi to accept the Suotu assignment, and Luo Xi agreed before warning the gatekeeper not to make them take the wrong road.