Chapter Summaries

Wang Hao defeated the five Mount Heng Sword Sect elders after enduring their Sword Burial Instruction, then accepted Wang Lingbo’s offer to spare the sect in exchange for its four sword instructions. Wang Lingbo appointed Mo Da as the new sect leader, warned him and Liu Zhengfeng against revenge, and began teaching Wang Hao the techniques.

• Wang Lingbo and four elders used the Sword Burial Instruction, and their initial attack wounded Wang Hao before their power surged.
• Wang Hao fought back against the five elders’ formation, using the pressure to improve his Impermanence Swordsmanship until he could match them.
• Wang Lingbo withdrew and broke the formation, allowing Wang Hao to kill the other four elders with strikes to their brains.
• Wang Lingbo offered the four sword instructions in exchange for Wang Hao sparing the Mount Heng Sword Sect, and Wang Hao agreed on the condition that the sect never provoke him.
• Wang Lingbo made Mo Da the new sect leader and ordered him and Liu Zhengfeng not to seek revenge.
• Wang Lingbo began reciting the four sword instructions for Wang Hao to learn.

After Wang Lingbo died from using the Sword Burial Instruction, Wang Hao learned the Mount Heng Five Divine Swords’ secret and copied the sect’s martial arts and collected manuals for half a month. He reviewed his cultivation progress and, with only 376 Fortune Points remaining, decided to get more from Dongfang Bai.

• Wang Lingbo died after revealing the four great sword instructions and the secret of commanding the Mount Heng Five Divine Swords with the heart.
• Wang Hao refused to take the Mount Heng Sword Sect’s original manuals and entered its forbidden grounds to copy them himself.
• Mo Da and Liu Zhengfeng let Wang Hao copy the sect’s manuals and insights, while Liu Zhengfeng guarded the entrance and delivered food he never saw Wang Hao eat.
• Wang Hao spent half a month copying the sect’s collection and other martial arts, including his own three Nine Revolutions arts.
• Wang Hao checked his status, noting that his True Spirit Sword Intent had reached Second Tier and that his martial arts had improved through study and cultivation.
• Wang Hao lamented his dwindling Fortune Points and decided to collect more from Dongfang Bai.

Wang Hao offered Mount Heng Sword Sect the Divine Illumination Scripture in exchange for secret help locating martial arts manuals and information on Jiangnan’s forces. Mo Da and Liu Zhengfeng agreed, hoping the arrangement would strengthen their weakened sect without provoking Wang Hao.

• Wang Hao told Mo Da he possessed the Divine Illumination Scripture and asked Mount Heng Sword Sect to guide him toward martial arts manuals across Jiangnan.
• Mo Da agreed to assist in secret, and Wang Hao handed him a copy of the Divine Illumination Scripture before departing for the town below the mountain.
• Liu Zhengfeng explained that helping Wang Hao could weaken the sect’s enemies and buy Mount Heng Sword Sect time after its leaders’ deaths.
• Mo Da warned Liu Zhengfeng not to manipulate Wang Hao or expose their cooperation, and Liu Zhengfeng abandoned his plan to use Wang Hao against rival forces.
• Mo Da asked Liu Zhengfeng to copy the scripture and select trustworthy disciples to cultivate it, while Liu Zhengfeng recognized his senior brother’s generosity.

Wang Hao studied the Mount Heng Sword Sect’s intelligence on Jiangnan and discovered that the Beggars' Sect had become a corrupt human-trafficking organization. He decided to destroy it and offered Liu Zhengfeng the sect’s lost swordsmanship inheritance in exchange for Mount Heng’s aid, leaving Liu Zhengfeng shaken by the offer and Wang Hao’s warning.

• Liu Zhengfeng brought Wang Hao intelligence records on Jiangnan’s martial forces and their martial arts, crimes, and secrets.
• Wang Hao found that Jiangnan’s strongest martial arts fell short of Innate techniques and that the Beggars' Sect topped the list of evil forces.
• Liu Zhengfeng explained the Beggars' Sect’s decline, and Wang Hao read that its disciples abducted children and trafficked them or maimed them to beg.
• Wang Hao declared that the Beggars' Sect should be wiped out and asked Liu Zhengfeng to help Mount Heng Sword Sect join the attack.
• Wang Hao offered the Mount Heng Sword Sect the lost Five Mountains Swordsmanship inheritance, and Liu Zhengfeng eagerly asked if the offer was genuine.
• Wang Hao rebuked Liu Zhengfeng with a sonic attack, and Liu Zhengfeng apologized and explained that the offer was simply too important to his sect.

Wang Hao completed the Mount Heng Sword Sect’s lost Myriad Stars Swordsmanship and struck a deal with Liu Zhengfeng, trading sword arts for the sect’s help against Jiangnan’s major powers. After giving Liu Zhengfeng five sword manuals and agreeing to let Martial Uncle Zhang atone through service, Wang Hao left to prepare for the campaign.

• Wang Hao demonstrated the completed Myriad Stars Swordsmanship, and Liu Zhengfeng recognized the lost Grandmaster-level art.
• Liu Zhengfeng accepted Wang Hao’s deal on behalf of the Mount Heng Sword Sect and showed him the sect leader’s token authorizing him to command its forces.
• Wang Hao agreed to let Martial Uncle Zhang atone through meritorious service, then drew five complete sets of Mount Hengshan Swordsmanship for Liu Zhengfeng.
• Wang Hao left for the Beggars’ Sect headquarters, while Liu Zhengfeng headed back to deliver the sword arts to Mo Da.
• Wang Hao met Wangcai in the mountain forest, secured the scroll of manuals on him, and ate with him before continuing his preparations.

Wang Hao led an assault on the Beggars' Sect headquarters to punish its corrupt members while sparing seven innocent children. After he entered the Gathering Hall and repelled a surprise attack from the sect's four elders with one punch, they ordered everyone present to attack him together.

• Liu Zhengfeng told Wang Hao that most Beggars' Sect experts were gathered at the headquarters and identified seven innocent children there.
• Wang Hao ordered Liu Zhengfeng to place the children with good families, then headed openly for the headquarters while Liu Zhengfeng positioned his forces outside.
• Xie Feng lamented that he was a powerless puppet as elders and branch leaders discussed suppressing the Mount Heng Sword Sect.
• Wang Hao burst into the Gathering Hall, where Martial Uncle Zhang guarded the entrance, and challenged the Beggars' Sect's claim to its plaque's motto.
• Four Beggars' Sect elders launched a poisoned-dart and weapon attack, but Wang Hao's punch scattered their attacks and sent them crashing into a wall.
• The wounded elders urged the nearly hundred people in the hall to attack Wang Hao together and seize the secrets of his fist art.

Wang Hao routed the Beggars' Sect members and blocked their escape, while the sect leader Xie Feng revealed his long-standing opposition to the corrupt elders. Xie Feng asked Wang Hao to protect his wife and daughter, then prepared to fight the elders and other senior members.

• The Beggars' Sect members attacked Wang Hao with poisoned weapons, but his Imperial Dragon Divine Fist swept the weapons back and threw the hall into chaos.
• Zhang Yi guarded the entrance as the four great elders tried to flee, and Wang Hao stepped in to stop them.
• Xie Feng struck at one elder with the King of Hell Finger, cutting off the elders' escape and drawing their fury.
• Xie Feng confronted the four elders and explained that he had endured their rule because they threatened his family.
• Xie Feng asked Wang Hao to protect his wife, Xiufang, and daughter in exchange for the King of Hell Finger manual, and Wang Hao agreed.
• Xie Feng turned on the sect's senior members, ready to risk his life against them while trusting Wang Hao to handle whoever remained.

Xie Feng fought the Beggars' Sect elders and branch leaders after rejecting their poison-based control, using a dangerous secret method to kill many of them. When his strength ran out and Elder Sikong survived his final attack, Wang Hao appeared beside him and confronted the survivors.

• Xie Feng rejected Elder Zhang's threat that the elders controlled the antidote to his Heartbreak Powder and prepared to fight them.
• Xie Feng used Three Entries into Purgatory to kill Elder Zhang, then struck Elder Wang and burned him into a dried corpse.
• Xie Feng killed Elder Tan and attacked the branch leaders, while Elder Sikong rallied them and helped overwhelm him with hidden weapons and numbers.
• As Xie Feng's power waned, Zhang Yi urged Wang Hao to save him, and Wang Hao ordered Zhang Yi to guard the entrance.
• Xie Feng used his final Three Entries into Hell against Elder Sikong, who sacrificed branch leaders to block the attack, leaving Xie Feng near death.
• Wang Hao appeared beside Xie Feng and warned the surviving branch leaders and Elder Sikong that they would soon lose their chance to laugh.

Wang Hao fought off the Beggars' Sect branch leaders and worked to save the mortally wounded Xie Feng, whose meridians and Dantian had been destroyed. After Liu Zhengfeng gathered the ingredients for Wang Hao's Life-Creation Decoction, Xie Feng's condition stabilized, while Wang Hao continued to consider how to address his deeper injuries.

• Wang Hao channeled Innate Qi into Xie Feng, then killed the remaining Beggars' Sect branch leaders, including Elder Sikong.
• Wang Hao examined Xie Feng's ruined meridians, burned-away Dantian, internal injuries, and hidden poison, then decided to save him.
• Wang Hao ordered Liu Zhengfeng to gather ingredients for two prescriptions, including the Life-Creation Decoction and a second formula requiring Profound Iron and an ancient battlefield.
• Liu Zhengfeng returned the next morning with the Life-Creation Decoction ingredients, and Zhang Yi arranged for the medicine to be brewed.
• Wang Hao placed Xie Feng in the decoction and used Shock Force to aid its absorption; by the following day, Xie Feng's injuries had stabilized and his life was no longer in danger.
• Liu Zhengfeng and Zhang Yi celebrated receiving the valuable prescription, while Wang Hao privately judged the decoction's recovery rate disappointing compared with Bloodline Power.

After saving Xie Feng, Wang Hao recruited him for a dangerous plan and learned that his Blazing Fire Art came from a fragment of the Emei Nine Yang Art. Wang Hao then left to continue his campaign against Jiangnan’s criminal forces, with preparations complete for his next strike.

• Xie Feng pledged himself to Wang Hao, accepted the dangerous plan, and asked him to help Ning'er grow stronger.
• Wang Hao told Xie Feng that his name was Zhu Yanzu and explained that the plan would begin near Xiangyang in a month.
• Xie Feng revealed that he had based the Blazing Fire Art on a fragmentary cultivation method found at the former Emei Sect site, and Wang Hao identified it as the Emei Nine Yang Art.
• Wang Hao left the Beggars' Sect headquarters and met Liu Zhengfeng, who reported that the Beggars' Sect's branch divisions had been destroyed and more than two hundred thousand abused beggar children needed help.
• Wang Hao assured Liu Zhengfeng that someone would take in the children and asked whether preparations for the next attack were complete; Liu Zhengfeng said they were ready to strike.

Wang Hao confronted Fragrant Jade Fan at his brothel, seeking to kill him and claim his martial arts inheritance for his crimes. After Fragrant Jade Fan's Absolute Yin Finger and crossbow attack failed to overwhelm Wang Hao, the fight remained unresolved as a new sound caught Fragrant Jade Fan's attention and Wang Hao smiled.

• Wang Hao entered Fragrant Jade Fan's brothel, offered a ten-thousand-tael note, and asked to make a deal.
• Fragrant Jade Fan came to meet Wang Hao, who revealed he wanted Fragrant Jade Fan's head and martial arts inheritance.
• Wang Hao and Fragrant Jade Fan fought through the private room and into the brothel hall, where Fragrant Jade Fan's subordinates gathered.
• Fragrant Jade Fan used the Absolute Yin Finger, but Wang Hao sensed and shattered its hidden force with his sword and Innate Qi.
• Fragrant Jade Fan ordered his men to attack and had more than a hundred crossbowmen fire at Wang Hao, who deflected the bolts with the Ziwei Soft Sword.
• Fragrant Jade Fan considered retreating after Wang Hao stopped the crossbow attack, but a sound made him turn cold while Wang Hao smiled.

Wang Hao and his allies raided Fragrant Jade Fan’s brothel, where he defeated Fragrant Jade Fan after the man fled and drove his two Grandmaster guards into battle with Liu Zhengfeng and Zhang Yi. Wang Hao dragged the crippled Fragrant Jade Fan back to interrogate him about his martial arts and his father, Black Mountain Old Devil.

• Wang Hao’s hidden force of Super-First-Rate fighters stormed the brothel, killing the crossbowmen and cutting down many of Fragrant Jade Fan’s men.
• Liu Zhengfeng and Zhang Yi confronted Fragrant Jade Fan’s two Grandmaster guards while Fragrant Jade Fan attacked Wang Hao, then fled through the front door.
• Wang Hao endured Fragrant Jade Fan’s finger strikes and pursued him, wounding him with the Ziwei Soft Sword.
• Wang Hao overwhelmed Fragrant Jade Fan with Impermanence Swordsmanship and Imperial Dragon Divine Fist, ignoring his threats about Black Mountain Old Devil.
• Wang Hao severed Fragrant Jade Fan’s arms, crippled his Dantian, and dragged him back to the brothel after Liu Zhengfeng and Zhang Yi killed the two guards.
• Wang Hao told Liu Zhengfeng to take the remaining strongholds and their valuables, then took Fragrant Jade Fan away for interrogation.

Wang Hao killed Fragrant Jade Fan and learned about the evil cultivation method and the feared Black Mountain Old Devil behind him. He announced a future duel to draw the old devil out, then left for the Iron Sword Sect as Zhou Xueyi and Ding Dian arrived to help with his plans.

• Wang Hao learned that Fragrant Jade Fan, the son of Black Mountain Old Devil, had used an evil method to cultivate by harvesting women’s essence, Qi, and spirit, then killed him.
• Wang Hao concluded that Black Mountain Old Devil’s cultivation method would prevent him from reaching the Innate Realm, and Zhang Yi recounted the old devil’s escape from a force of over a thousand experts fifty years earlier.
• Wang Hao ordered Fragrant Jade Fan’s body hung at the city gate and challenged Black Mountain Old Devil to meet him outside the city on the fifteenth day of the eighth month.
• Wang Hao sent Xie Feng a mental cultivation method that could help with his upcoming plan, then told Liu Zhengfeng to investigate Fragrant Jade Fan’s other hideouts while he headed for the Iron Sword Sect.
• Zhou Xueyi and Ding Dian arrived after rushing several hundred li to answer Wang Hao’s letter, and Wang Hao left them to coordinate with Liu Zhengfeng and Zhang Yi.
• Zhang Yi sensed that Ding Dian was a Half-step Innate expert, while Zhou Xueyi watched Wang Hao leave with lingering resentment.

Wang Hao prepared an ancient battlefield ritual to refine Xie Feng into a Soldier Man, hoping to save him from his destroyed meridians and Dantian. The Blood Sha formed and began transforming Xie Feng, while Wang Hao kept Xie Feng’s wife and daughter back from the dangerous crimson radiance.

• Wang Hao raided the Iron Sword Sect and other Second-rate Jiangnan factions, taking their martial arts manuals and punishing or killing those identified as deserving death.
• Wang Hao sent the collected martial arts manuals to Dongfang Bai, while Zhou Xueyi, Ding Dian, and the others helped Yushu evacuate a hundred thousand child beggars and vulnerable brothel women overseas.
• In Xiangyang, Wang Hao confirmed that Xie Feng had mastered the Evil-Suppressing Heart Sutra and instructed him to bring his wife and daughter to a valley the next day.
• Wang Hao and Liu Zhengfeng prepared the ancient battlefield with supplies, and Wang Hao explained that his untested Secret Method would attempt to turn Xie Feng into a Soldier Man.
• Xie Feng chose to undergo the ritual, was chained to a copper pillar in a pool of bandit blood, and endured the start of the transformation as the Blood Sha formed.
• Wang Hao stopped Xie Feng’s wife and daughter from approaching the Blood Sha, warning that it would consume them while he watched the crimson radiance take shape.

Wang Hao tried to refine Xie Feng into a Soldier Man to test the limits of the Smiling Proud Wanderer World, but the process pushed Xie Feng close to losing his mind. After Xie Feng awakened and transformed, Wang Hao fled to find the Shameless Greatsword, leaving the chapter with Xie Feng closing in.

• Wang Hao used Blood Sha, buried soldiers' bones, and precious materials to refine Xie Feng, while Xie Feng's wife Xiufang and daughter Ning'er watched from outside the frozen valley.
• When Xie Feng began losing consciousness, Wang Hao threw Dugu Qiubai's remains into the pool, and the Sword Intent in the bones suppressed the Blood Sha temporarily.
• Wang Hao asked Xiufang and Ning'er to pretend he was threatening them so their cries would awaken Xie Feng, but Xiufang ran onto Wang Hao's sword and injured herself for real.
• Xie Feng heard his wife and daughter's cries, broke his chains, and attacked Wang Hao with a blood-red longsword formed from Sword Intent and Blood Sha.
• Wang Hao ran to find Wangcai and retrieve the Shameless Greatsword, but Wangcai fled when he saw Xie Feng approaching.

Wang Hao defeated the rampaging Xie Feng, learned that his Soldier Man transformation had succeeded, and explained how Xie Feng could grow stronger without losing control. After ordering Wangcai to carry the damaged Shameless Greatsword and stay hidden, Wang Hao returned to his Zhu Yanzu persona and headed down the mountain with Xie Feng.

• Wang Hao used the Shameless Greatsword to fight Xie Feng, whose strength and incomplete Nine Swords of Dugu improved during their battle.
• Wang Hao exhausted the Sha Qi in Xie Feng’s body, beat him down, and confirmed that Xie Feng had regained his reason.
• Xie Feng told Wang Hao that Dugu Qiubai’s Sword Intent had helped him retain some control while rampaging.
• Wang Hao explained how Xie Feng could strengthen his Soldier Man body and warned him that excessive Sha Qi and slaughter could make him lose control.
• Wang Hao ordered Wangcai to carry the damaged Shameless Greatsword and conceal himself in the woods.
• Wang Hao changed back into his Zhu Yanzu persona and set off down the mountain with Xie Feng.

Wang Hao reunited Xie Feng with his family, took little Ning'er as his third disciple, and arranged his next moves against the Five Mountains Sword Sect. Before departing, he gave Xie Feng sword manuals and advice, while Xie Feng asked him to teach the Imperial Dragon Divine Fist.

• Wang Hao and Xie Feng met Liu Zhengfeng and his people on the mountain and led them back to the valley, where Xie Feng reunited with Wang Xiufang and little Ning'er.
• After little Ning'er recognized her father, Xie Feng arranged for Wang Hao to take her as his third disciple and decided that his wife and daughter would leave the Central Plains with him.
• Wang Hao warned Liu Zhengfeng, then ordered him to send the Five Mountains Sword Sect a challenge and a warning that experts from the Heavenly Demon Sacred Cult would visit.
• Wang Hao told Liu Zhengfeng to deliver a challenge to Feng Qingyang from Dugu Jian, the Sword Saint of Peerless City, and Liu Zhengfeng wondered if Dugu Jian belonged to a legendary lineage.
• Wang Hao gave Xie Feng the Nine Swords of Dugu and the Mount Heng Sword Sect's four sword instructions, advising him to conserve his fused Sword Intent and use the manuals to develop a suitable cultivation method.
• Xie Feng accepted the manuscripts and asked Wang Hao to teach him the Imperial Dragon Divine Fist.

Wang Hao agreed to help Xie Feng reconstruct the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms and gave him an imperial token to use while clearing the Beggars' Sect branches. He then prepared to forge Xie Feng a sword and awaken Zhu Yuanwai's Bloodline Power, sending Xie Feng and Wangcai to capture a mutated giant boar for the task.

• Wang Hao wrote out the original Imperial Dragon Divine Fist for Xie Feng to study as a reference, forbidding him from practicing or using it.
• Wang Hao gave Xie Feng a gold imperial token and instructed him to memorize the martial manuals before clearing the Beggars' Sect branches and relocating its young beggars.
• Zhou Xueyi arrived with Zhu Yuanwai and the forging equipment, and Wang Hao praised Zhu Yuanwai for reaching the First-Rate realm.
• Wang Hao insisted that Zhu Yuanwai undergo a complete Bloodline Power awakening using wild boar blood, despite Zhu Yuanwai's fearful objections.
• Xie Feng recalled a giant wild boar near Zhongwei in Ningxia, and Wang Hao sent him and Wangcai to capture it while he stayed to forge Xie Feng a sword.

Wang Hao forged ten exceptionally sharp swords, then helped Zhu Yuanwai awaken Bloodline Power using the blood of a giant mutated boar. Afterward, he ordered his group to leave their exposed hideout and sent Xie Feng to investigate and deal with Beggars' Sect branches across the Central Plains.

• Wang Hao forged ten swords from Ten-Thousand-Refined True Steel and gave one each to Xie Feng and little Ning'er, while warning that Ning'er was too young to use hers.
• Xie Feng brought back a huge, resin-armored mutated wild boar, which Wang Hao judged powerful enough to rival other legendary beasts.
• Wang Hao took Zhu Yuanwai into the forest and used the boar's blood to help him awaken Bloodline Power, while the others heard Zhu Yuanwai's screams and understood the painful process.
• Zhu Yuanwai emerged from the forest pale but recovering, having successfully awakened his Bloodline Power.
• Wang Hao told Zhou Xueyi and the others to erase their traces and leave, then ordered Xie Feng to deal with the Beggars' Sect branches and gather intelligence on Central Plains powers.

Wang Hao created a new disguise based on Hu Ge’s appearance and explained to Xie Feng that he planned to unite the Central Plains martial world against the Confucian School. He kept his true aim of raising Dongfang Bai to martial alliance leader a secret, while Xie Feng pledged to support his plan.

• Zhou Xueyi watched Wang Hao leave and grew angry because he had barely spoken to her, while Wang Hao remained unaware that she had been willing to reconcile.
• Wang Hao chose a middle-aged Hu Ge as the model for his Sword Saint Dugu Jian disguise, crafted the face, and set his height at seven and a half chi.
• Xie Feng watched Wang Hao transform and asked about his ultimate goal.
• Wang Hao told Xie Feng he had fabricated the Heavenly Demon Sacred Cult to pressure the Central Plains powers into forming an alliance against the Confucian School.
• Xie Feng accepted Wang Hao’s plan as a worthy cause and vowed to help him achieve it.