Chapter Summaries

Wang Hao interrupted Prince Dula and Yang Jingzhong’s plot after Prince Dula stabbed High Person Linghui, only to discover that Linghui had survived and was concealing his injuries. As Linghui fought to prevent a wider war, Wang Hao faced him in a desperate battle that remained unresolved.

• Prince Dula poisoned and stabbed High Person Linghui, then prepared to blame his death on an expert from the Great Ming Eastern Depot.
• Wang Hao burst in after killing the guards, but High Person Linghui rose and wounded him with his gold and silver wheels.
• High Person Linghui let Prince Dula escape and ordered him to break Yang Jingzhong’s legs, while Wang Hao challenged Linghui’s plan to prevent war on the steppe.
• High Person Linghui revealed that he had been weakened by the poison and his chest wound, then attacked Wang Hao with his wheels and a transformed, powerful body.
• Wang Hao and High Person Linghui exchanged heavy blows, with Linghui forcing Wang Hao onto the defensive as both recognized the other’s extraordinary strength.

Wang Hao defeated High Person Linghui in their final exchange, then forced him to acknowledge his wrongs and surrender Five Wheels Temple’s inherited martial arts. High Person Linghui began writing the manuals in their original language while Wang Hao went to deal with a traitor.

• High Person Linghui unleashed the Vajra Great Handprint, and Wang Hao shattered the Shameless Greatsword but used the Ziwei Soft Sword to cut off four of Linghui’s fingers.
• High Person Linghui admitted that Wang Hao had not truly lost, dismissed the lamas, and agreed to hear his demands.
• Wang Hao made Linghui acknowledge his role in meeting Yang Jingzhong, framing his death on Wang Hao, and trying to kill him.
• Wang Hao identified Five Wheels Temple as heir to the Golden Wheel Dharma King and demanded the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Art, the wheel-controlling art, and the Vajra Great Handprint.
• Linghui agreed to write the three martial arts in the original grassland language after Wang Hao warned him not to make mistakes.
• Wang Hao left for the meditation quarters to deal with the traitor while Linghui wondered whether his actions had been right.

Wang Hao questioned Yang Jingzhong, who gave him evidence of the weapons trade and explained the Confucian School’s role in a plan to bring down the Great Ming. Yang Jingzhong asked Wang Hao to return his remains to Huaxia and offered a vast piece of Profound Iron, leaving Wang Hao with new delivery instructions and a jade pendant for Xiulan.

• Yang Jingzhong gave Wang Hao a ledger recording officials involved in selling weapons to foreign tribes and warned that a mental restriction prevented him from revealing other secrets.
• Yang Jingzhong said the Confucian School had planned a blow against the Great Ming and argued that the dynasty’s collapse was necessary to break its corrupt landholding order.
• Wang Hao warned that Confucian dominance had stifled Huaxia’s progress, and Yang Jingzhong agreed that only an outside force could break the school’s monopoly.
• Yang Jingzhong revealed that his lineage had been destroyed in an internal struggle and that he had been raised as a restricted chess piece; he offered Wang Hao a piece of Profound Iron a zhang across in exchange for returning his remains to Huaxia.
• Wang Hao suggested cremating Yang Jingzhong, who agreed on condition that Wang Hao send his ashes and jade pendant to Xiulan in Orchid Village south of Yangzhou.

Wang Hao received High Person Linghui’s three martial arts manuals after swearing not to misuse them, then found the badly injured Dingzhen and rushed her back to the temple for treatment. Linghui stabilized her and asked Wang Hao to find a high-quality Heavenly Mountain snow lotus to repair her damaged meridians, leaving Wang Hao to enlist Xiao Mengmeng’s Treasure-Seeking Function.

• Wang Hao swore not to pass on the three martial arts for others to cultivate or use them to commit evil on the grasslands, and High Person Linghui gave him the manuals.
• High Person Linghui warned Long Ling to avoid making Wang Hao an enemy and told him to cultivate the Supreme Yoga Esoteric Vehicle Divine Art.
• Wang Hao found Dingzhen gravely injured on the mountain path and carried her back to Five Wheels Temple.
• High Person Linghui gave Dingzhen a spirit pill that stabilized her condition, and Wang Hao offered to return the manuals in exchange for saving her.
• High Person Linghui asked Wang Hao to grant Long Ling one future request that did not violate his principles, and Wang Hao agreed.
• High Person Linghui asked Wang Hao to find a high-quality Heavenly Mountain snow lotus, so Wang Hao asked Xiao Mengmeng to search for the nearest one.

Wang Hao used High Person Linghui’s supplies and a medical technique to treat Dingzhen’s damaged meridians, then learned that Linghui had died. Long Ling relayed Linghui’s final request that Wang Hao not blame Prince Dula or the grasslands for Dingzhen’s injuries.

• High Person Linghui explained that Dingzhen’s damaged meridians and Dantian had ended her ability to practice martial arts, and Wang Hao recognized a way to repair her meridians.
• Wang Hao asked High Person Linghui to gather costly ingredients, then treated Dingzhen with a medicinal bath, Heavenly Mountain snow lotuses, and silver needles.
• Dingzhen woke during the treatment and hid beneath the quilt in embarrassment when Wang Hao called her out.
• After leaving the meditation room, Wang Hao found the lamas grieving High Person Linghui’s death, and Long Pu tried to attack him before Long Ling stopped him.
• Long Ling told Wang Hao that High Person Linghui had absolved him of blame and said the masked attacker had not been Prince Dula’s man and seemed to have come specifically for Dingzhen.

Wang Hao reunited with Wangcai, now the wolf king of a white wolf pack, and arranged for Dingzhen to take in the she-wolf Big White. When Dingyi and the other nuns found Dingzhen, they mistook Wang Hao for the one who had injured her and attacked him, forcing him to flee.

• Wang Hao encountered Wangcai leading a pack of white wolves and learned that he had become their wolf king.
• Wang Hao offered Big White to Dingzhen as a companion, and Wangcai persuaded the she-wolf and the pack to accept her.
• Dingyi and the other nuns arrived, and Dingyi accused Wang Hao of injuring Dingzhen before attacking him.
• Wang Hao escaped into the mountain forest with Wangcai, while Dingzhen defended him and calmed Big White and the pack.
• Dingyi brought Dingzhen back toward Mount Heng and agreed to rest so she could examine her injuries.

Wang Hao found the enormous Profound Iron deposit and learned it contained ten wisps of Star Essence, then secured it before continuing his journey. Meanwhile, Dingyi discovered that Wang Hao had given Dingzhen rare snow lotuses and an exceptional sword art, making her and the other nuns reconsider their suspicions of him.

• Wang Hao found the Profound Iron in a sinkhole, confirmed that it contained ten wisps of Star Essence, and diverted a stream to conceal it underwater.
• Wang Hao left the Helan Mountains, arranged for Yang Jingzhong's ashes to be delivered to Xiulan, sent martial arts manuals to the Dongfang ancestral residence, and gave Yang Jingzhong's account book to 9527.
• Dingzhen practiced Wang Hao's Foundation Establishment Sword Art while recovering, and Dingyi recognized that its moves surpassed the Mount Heng Sect's sword arts below the Acquired Grandmaster level.
• Dingyi asked Dingzhen where she had learned the sword art, but Dingzhen refused to reveal Wang Hao's identity or secret.
• Dingzhen offered Dingyi a peach-red Tianshan snow lotus and explained that Wang Hao had used eighty-one of them to heal her, prompting Dingyi and the other nuns to reconsider their judgment of him.

Wang Hao disguised himself and traveled into the mountains south of Xiangyang to harvest Pusi Qu Snakes and use their crest blood to cultivate the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Art. While he made rapid progress in seclusion, the ledger he had exposed triggered a major purge by the Great Ming court, and the Confucian School sent experts to hunt him.

• Wang Hao paid a hunter to guide him toward the strange snakes, then continued alone under his Zhu Yanzu alias with Wangcai secretly following.
• Wang Hao built a treehouse, found several Pusi Qu Snakes, and killed them because they could not be subdued.
• Wang Hao used the snakes’ crest blood and other parts to accelerate his Dragon-Elephant Prajna Art cultivation, estimating that a hundred snakes could let him master its first layer.
• 9527 delivered the ledger to Zhao Fengxue, who and Lu Weilou brought it to the director of the Eastern Depot and alerted Emperor Mingde.
• Emperor Mingde ordered a sweeping crackdown that implicated officials and jianghu sects, while the Eastern Depot avoided attacking the Confucian School’s foundations.
• The Confucian School gathered information on Wang Hao and sent experts to kill him, but his disguise and remote mountain retreat concealed his trail.

After more than half a year of training, Wang Hao defeated the Pusi Qu Snake King and broke through the Golden Bell Shield's limits. He planned to devour the snake king to complete the upper chapter of the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Art, while Dingzhen continued waiting for him at Mount Heng.

• Abbess Qingmiao and the Mount Heng nuns discussed Dingzhen's daily vigil and their search for the Foundation Establishment Sword Art, while Dingzhen waited at the mountain gate with her pregnant wolf, Big White.
• Wang Hao fought the Pusi Qu Snake King for a full day, wearing it down before stabbing its eye with the Ziwei Soft Sword.
• The dying snake king struck Wang Hao into a stone wall, shattering the Shameless Greatsword and badly injuring him before it died.
• Wang Hao recovered enough to inspect his attribute panel and discovered that the Golden Bell Shield had reached its peak and that his strength and Dragon-Elephant Prajna Art had advanced greatly.
• Wang Hao prepared to devour the snake king, expecting its body to help him fully master the upper chapter of the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Art.

After raising the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Art to its limit by eating the snake king, Wang Hao discovered the snake king’s cave and found two enormous eggs and traces of Dugu Qiubai’s former home. He buried the senior’s remains, packed up the eggs, and left the mountains with his golden glow concealed.

• Wang Hao’s strength and defensive power increased after he finished eating the snake king, though his skin began shining with a golden light.
• Wangcai led Wang Hao to the collapsed entrance of the snake king’s cave, where Wang Hao found two giant eggs and decided to raise the young snakes.
• Wang Hao discovered human-made alterations and faded sword-written marks in the cave, which he identified as the former home of the first Dugu Qiubai.
• Xiao Mengmeng revealed that Dugu Qiubai’s skeleton lay beneath Wang Hao’s feet, and Wang Hao bowed before sealing the cave entrance.
• Wang Hao carried the eggs out of the mountains, bathed, changed clothes, and covered the golden light on his skin with dust before continuing on.

After learning that the Confucian School still hunted him, Wang Hao returned to the capital to seek Elder Chu’s guidance and protection. Meanwhile, Zhao Fengxue discovered that Wang Hao’s medicinal meals had bankrupted the Blood Wind Hall and summoned those who knew what had happened.

• Wang Hao sent the snake eggs to Fuzhou, disguised himself in Xiangyang, and learned that the Confucian School still sought him over the case involving Yang Jingzhong.
• Wang Hao traveled through the forests with Wangcai and decided to return to the capital to ask Elder Chu for help and seek protection from the Eastern Depot or the imperial family.
• Wang Hao entered the capital in disguise and used a latrine entrance to reach the Blood Robe Tower’s underground passage network.
• Zhao Fengxue reviewed the Blood Wind Hall’s accounts and learned it had spent 7.93 million taels, including seven million on medicinal ingredients for Wang Hao’s meals.
• Deacon Liu explained that he had bought the ingredients under Zhao Fengxue’s order to satisfy Wang Hao’s requests, so Zhao Fengxue summoned Zhao Dachui, Li Dazui, and Zhao Fengrou for answers.

Zhao Fengxue discovered that Wang Hao’s enormous medicinal meals had drained Blood Wind Hall’s wealth and left it in debt, then flew into a rage when Wang Hao returned and asked to become Hall Master. Wang Hao dispersed Zhao Fengxue’s dangerously turbulent True Qi with one palm, leaving the recovering Hall Master astonished at his strength.

• Zhao Fengxue confronted Li Dazui and 9527 after learning that Wang Hao’s medicinal meals had cost Blood Wind Hall a fortune.
• Li Dazui showed Zhao Fengxue the gigantic pot used to cook Wang Hao’s daily medicinal meal, and 9527 admitted he had known about the portions.
• Wang Hao broke through the secret passage beneath Blood Wind Hall and emerged as Zhao Fengxue and the others stood guard.
• Wang Hao reminded Zhao Fengxue of his promise to appoint him Hall Master, and Zhao Fengxue spat blood and passed out in anger.
• Wang Hao struck Zhao Fengxue’s chest to disperse his turbulent True Qi, making him regain consciousness and wonder how powerful Wang Hao had become.

Wang Hao returned to Blood Wind Hall, where Zhao Fengxue explained that the Confucian School remained a threat and arranged for him to hide at the Martial Repository Pavilion. After revealing his strength and impressing Elder Chu with his cultivation and true appearance, Wang Hao eyed the pavilion’s collection of martial arts manuals as a potential source of Fortune Points.

• Zhao Fengxue told Wang Hao that the Confucian School’s threat had not passed, but that the Blood Robe Tower, Eastern Depot, and emperor could protect him in the capital.
• Zhao Fengxue stopped Wang Hao from openly discussing the Confucian School’s suspected targets and arranged for him to stay with Elder Chu at the Martial Repository Pavilion.
• Zhao Dachui explained that Zhao Fengxue had been furious about the cost of Wang Hao’s medicinal meals, then asked about Wang Hao’s strength.
• Wang Hao said he could draw with an ordinary late-stage Grandmaster Realm expert and might defeat one with a suitable weapon.
• Wang Hao reached the Martial Repository Pavilion through a secret passage, where Elder Chu recognized his mastery of the External Training Golden Bell Shield and Dragon-Elephant Prajna Art.
• Wang Hao released the Thousand Faces Divine Technique, revealing his towering true form, then considered exchanging the pavilion’s martial arts manuals for Fortune Points.

Wang Hao copied and comprehended the Blood Robe Tower’s martial arts manuals, strengthening his martial foundation before being summoned to meet the Eastern Depot’s director. His mistaken greeting offended the Wheel-Turning King, who questioned Elder Chu’s choice of Wang Hao as a subordinate.

• Elder Chu allowed Wang Hao to study upstairs in the Martial Repository Pavilion, where Wang Hao began copying manuals for Dongfang Bai.
• Wang Hao copied and comprehended more than a thousand second-rate manuals, over a hundred first-rate manuals, and more than twenty Grandmaster-level manuals, spending seven hundred Fortune Points.
• Wang Hao’s martial foundation deepened and his Ten Stances of Bloody Battle progress rose to ninety, while he held back his Golden Bell Shield and Dragon-Elephant Prajna Art progress to pursue a fusion.
• Elder Chu told Wang Hao that someone from the Eastern Depot had arrived, so Wang Hao packed his copied manuals and went downstairs.
• Wang Hao mistook the Wheel-Turning King for a eunuch and apologized after Eunuch Wang corrected him; Elder Chu’s teasing helped end the confrontation.
• After Wang Hao left with Eunuch Wang, the Wheel-Turning King told Elder Chu that he doubted Wang Hao’s loyalty.

Elder Chu asked the Wheel-Turning King to deliver a jade pendant to the Hongwu Great Emperor and request the body-tempering portion of the Longevity Dao Art for Wang Hao. Meanwhile, Wang Hao visited the Eastern Depot, where he impressed its director, Cao Haisheng, who tested him with a sudden palm strike.

• Elder Chu gave the Wheel-Turning King a jade pendant and asked him to pass along a request for the body-tempering portion of the Longevity Dao Art.
• Wang Hao followed Eunuch Wang to the Eastern Depot while sensing hostile Confucian School watchers along the way.
• Wang Hao gave Eunuch Wang a Mystic Yang Fruit, and Eunuch Wang advised him to offer local specialties to the director.
• Cao Haisheng heard Eunuch Wang praise Wang Hao's strength and conduct, then summoned him into the hall.
• Cao Haisheng struck Wang Hao with palm force, and Wang Hao swung his own palm to meet the attack.

Wang Hao impressed Cao Haisheng by defending the Eastern Depot as a royalist faction and arguing that land consolidation, not eunuchs, drove dynastic collapse. After Zhu Yijun praised the eunuchs, Wang Hao attributed his arguments to the dead Yang Jingzhong, leaving the prince and the others furious at the Confucian School for ruining him.

• Cao Haisheng tested Wang Hao's physical strength, then asked what he thought of accusations that the Eastern Depot caused chaos in the court.
• Wang Hao wrote that winners become kings and losers become bandits, then argued that eunuchs served the emperor while landlords and officials were chiefly responsible for dynastic collapse.
• Wang Hao called the Eastern Depot a royalist faction, and Zhu Yijun entered and solemnly thanked Cao Haisheng and his people for their service to Great Ming.
• Zhu Yijun praised Wang Hao, who claimed that most of his argument came from Yang Jingzhong.
• Wang Hao recounted Yang Jingzhong's supposed reasons for his past actions, and Zhu Yijun and the others lamented his death and condemned the Confucian School.

After Zhu Yijun arranged a reward for Wang Hao, the two princes’ interests converged on finding him a suitable divine weapon in Great Ming’s secret treasury. Wang Hao discovered a massive saber and a broken sword marked “Heaven-Reliant” and “Dragon-Slaying,” and recognized their names.

• Zhu Yijun accepted Wang Hao’s ugly calligraphy and Mystic Yang Fruits, then proposed rewarding him with a divine sword.
• Cao Haisheng and Zhu Yijun found that the Eastern Depot’s weapons were too small for Wang Hao, so Zhu Yijun promised to seek access to the imperial secret treasury.
• Emperor Mingde praised Wang Hao’s insight, gave Zhu Yijun a jade token to enter the treasury, and reflected on Great Ming’s peril and the Confucian School’s influence.
• Zhu Yijun reunited with Cao Haisheng and Wang Hao, and the three entered Great Ming’s secret treasury with the jade token.
• Wang Hao inspected the treasury’s treasures and weapons, then focused on a large saber and broken longsword carved with the words “Heaven-Reliant” and “Dragon-Slaying.”

Wang Hao chose the Dragon-Slaying Saber, the Heaven Sword, and a pair of heavy crude-iron hammers as materials for a greatsword, then returned to the Blood Robe Tower. Elder Chu gave him a manual called the Longevity Dao Art, leaving Wang Hao wondering what made it special.

• Wang Hao persuaded Zhu Yijun to let him take the Dragon-Slaying Saber, the Heaven Sword, and Li Xuanba’s heavy crude-iron hammers to forge a greatsword.
• Wang Hao carried the weapons from the vault himself, astonishing Zhu Yijun with his strength.
• Cao Haisheng invited Wang Hao to join the Eastern Depot, but Wang Hao refused because he wanted to preserve his family line.
• Wang Hao returned to the Blood Robe Tower headquarters, left the weapons at his residence, and went to the Martial Repository Pavilion to meet Elder Chu.
• Elder Chu gave Wang Hao the Longevity Dao Art, and Wang Hao realized it was likely a special Xiantian Grandmaster-level martial art.

Wang Hao comprehended the Longevity Dao Art and fused it with the External Training Golden Bell Shield and Dragon-Elephant Prajna Art, creating the first layer of the Nine Revolutions Body Tempering Instruction. He left the Martial Repository Pavilion seeking medicinal herbs for training and a chance to forge a new Shameless Greatsword, and Zhao Fengxue arranged to transfer him to Lu Weilou’s Blood Sword Hall.

• Wang Hao used the Dao Comprehension Function to understand the Longevity Dao Art and deduce a way to fuse three external body-tempering arts.
• Wang Hao used the Primordial Chaos Palm Art as a foundation and created the first layer of the Nine Revolutions Body Tempering Instruction, spending nearly all his Fortune Points.
• Wang Hao thanked Elder Chu for guarding him and left the Martial Repository Pavilion after Elder Chu marveled at how quickly he had comprehended the art.
• Wang Hao went to Blood Wind Hall and asked Zhao Fengxue to find someone else who could provide him with medicinal meals and herbs.
• Zhao Fengxue arranged to take Wang Hao to Blood Sword Hall to enter Lu Weilou’s tutelage before leaving the capital with Lu Weilou the next day.

Zhao Fengxue transferred Wang Hao to Lu Weilou’s tutelage and arranged for Lu Weilou to leave the capital with him to investigate the Mount Song Sword Sect. With Lu Tingfeng hostile to Wang Hao, the chapter ended as the two prepared to fight over Wang Hao’s daily medicinal food.

• Zhao Fengxue brought Wang Hao to the Blood Sword Hall and persuaded Lu Weilou to take him in, requiring a daily serving of first-grade medicinal food.
• Zhao Fengxue convinced Lu Weilou to travel with him to investigate the Mount Song Sword Sect, planning to leave Wang Hao an opportunity to act without Lu Weilou present.
• Wang Hao learned from Zhao Dachui that Lu Tingfeng resented him because Elder Chu had blocked Lu Tingfeng’s succession to the Blood Robe Tower.
• Lu Tingfeng brought Wang Hao a small bowl of medicinal food and challenged him, promising unlimited servings if Wang Hao won.
• Wang Hao accepted the challenge and readied the Dragon-Slaying Saber as Lu Tingfeng drew his saber and threatened to kill him.