Chapter Summaries

Zhang Lingfeng arranged Ye Fan’s marriage to Wei Hong and persuaded him to hand over six months of Qi and Blood Pills as the betrothal gift. He planned to use those pills to outpace Ye Fan and become Guo Wei’s favored disciple, leaving the struggle for the thirteenth hand unresolved.

• Zhang Lingfeng convinced Ye Fan to give Wei He the Qi and Blood Pills he would receive over the next six months, presenting them as a betrothal gift and a way to conceal his lost primal Yang.
• Zhang Lingfeng witnessed Ye Fan and Wei Hong sign a marriage contract and a pledge promising the pills as the betrothal gift.
• Wei He approved the marriage, while Zhang Lingfeng reminded Wei Hong to keep Ye Fan’s situation secret and helped him leave without being seen.
• After Ye Fan left, Wei He worried that he might break through to Transforming Jin, but Zhang Pingping said their signed statement could hold him to the marriage.
• Zhang Lingfeng declared that keeping Ye Fan from the pills would let him surpass Ye Fan and win Guo Wei’s favor.

Zhang Fugui broke through to Ming Jin and earned Elder Zheng’s approval, while Zhang Lingfeng pushed his followers to progress quickly. After Ye Fan received another Qi and Blood Pill from Guo Wei, he secretly passed it to Zhang Lingfeng, who consumed it and advanced his Iron Mountain Fist.

• Zhang Fugui broke through to Ming Jin after nearly two months of training, and Elder Zheng brought him into the inner courtyard.
• Zhang Lingfeng urged Zhang Fukang to keep training and challenged Zhang Fugui to reach Dark Force within a year.
• Zhang Lingfeng continued practicing the Iron Mountain Fist as his progress advanced to 67/600.
• Guo Wei gave Ye Fan a high-grade Qi and Blood Pill, but Ye Fan hesitated to take it while Zhang Lingfeng and the others watched.
• Wei He met Zhang Lingfeng in an alley and passed him a Qi and Blood Pill, which Zhang Lingfeng swallowed, raising his Iron Mountain Fist progress to 100/600.

Zhang Lingfeng bought a superior Qi and Blood Pill from Guo Wei, who covered the shortfall in his payment. After consuming it, Zhang Lingfeng's cultivation surged, and he defeated Ye Fan in a spar.

• Guo Wei watched Ye Fan practice and saw little change after Ye Fan took a Qi and Blood Pill.
• Zhang Lingfeng paid Guo Wei eight hundred taels for a pill, and Guo Wei supplied the remaining three hundred taels himself.
• Zhang Lingfeng ate the pill and rapidly advanced his Twelve-Routine Iron Mountain Fist and Dark Force.
• Guo Wei and the other disciples were astonished by Zhang Lingfeng's newfound strength, while Ye Fan suspected Zhang Lingfeng had taken the pill he had handed to Wei He.
• Guo Wei ordered Ye Fan to spar with Zhang Lingfeng, who broke through Ye Fan's defense and sent him flying with two strikes.

Zhang Lingfeng defeated Ye Fan and won Guo Wei’s praise, while Ye Fan lost confidence and felt abandoned. A month later, Zhang Lingfeng returned to oversee the Zhang Clan’s harvest and studied the tax collectors, intending to secure his family a place among them.

• Zhang Lingfeng defeated Ye Fan, prompting Guo Wei to praise Zhang Lingfeng’s exceptional constitution and prospects.
• Guo Wei scolded Ye Fan for losing his composure, while the martial hall’s disciples gathered around Zhang Lingfeng and praised him.
• A month later, Zhang Lingfeng returned to Zhang Family Gully with Chen Qing to inspect the rice harvest on Little Moon Mountain.
• Zhang Lingfeng watched county clerks and patrol inspectors measure the Li Clan’s land and collect taxes, noting that he wanted to learn which families supplied their ranks.
• Zhang Laochong told Zhang Lingfeng that the Zhang Clan should host the next tax collection, and Zhang Lingfeng promised no one would take their rice.

After returning to the county town, Zhang Lingfeng continued cultivating while Zhang Pingping planned the clan’s expansion and expenses. At the Zheng Family Martial Arts School, Yang Yu’s rapid breakthrough to Dark Force unsettled Zhang Fugui and threatened the Zhang Clan’s hopes of gaining Elder Zheng’s true teachings.

• Zhang Laochong gave Liu Dongsheng an extra two hundred shi of grain to ease Zhang Lingfeng’s dealings with the authorities.
• Zhang Lingfeng returned to the martial arts school and kept training, while news arrived that Zhang Fukang had broken through to Ming Jin.
• Zhang Pingping reviewed the eastern district map with Wang Ergou as the clan considered how to cover its growing expenses.
• Elder Zheng announced that Yang Yu had advanced from Ming Jin to Dark Force in a year and a month, despite having low-grade innate aptitude.
• Zhang Fugui and Wei He told Zhang Lingfeng and Zhang Pingping about Yang Yu’s achievement and worried he would receive Elder Zheng’s true teachings.
• Zhang Lingfeng urged Zhang Fugui to keep training and try to befriend Yang Yu rather than panic.

Great Saber Hong abducted Wang Biao, and Wang Fang begged Zhang Lingfeng to rescue her brother, offering most of the Wang Family’s land. Zhang Lingfeng agreed to attempt the rescue and required the family to transfer half its land to the Zhang Clan before he acted.

• Great Saber Hong’s men knocked Wang Biao unconscious in the fields and carried him off toward the mountains, leaving a ransom note.
• Chen Qing and Xu Laiyi alerted Zhang Laochong, who sent Xu Laiyi to the county town to inform Zhang Lingfeng and request reinforcements.
• Zhang Lingfeng sent Hei Hu and Sun Yan back to Zhang Family Gully, while Zhang Pingping anticipated that Wang Fang would seek help.
• Wang Fang visited Zhang Lingfeng with Great Saber Hong’s demand for fifteen hundred taels of silver within three days and offered the Wang Family’s remaining land for Wang Biao’s rescue.
• Zhang Lingfeng agreed to try to rescue Wang Biao and required the Wang Family to transfer fifty percent of its land to the Zhang Clan regardless of the outcome.

Zhang Lingfeng assembled support to rescue Wang Biao from Great Saber Hong, persuading his fellow disciples to join him and pressuring Huang Jiefu to take action. Huang Jiefu agreed to gather troops and set out with them to capture Great Saber Hong.

• Wang Fang suggested that Zhang Lingfeng use the chance to capture Great Saber Hong to win Huang Jiefu's favor, and Zhang Lingfeng agreed to approach him.
• Zhang Lingfeng asked Ye Fan, Wu Yun, Ma Fei, Yang Tao, Zhao Hu, and Liu Rushuang to help rescue Wang Biao, and they all agreed after he said they would mainly support Huang Jiefu.
• Zhang Lingfeng led his fellow disciples to the eastern district government office and offered Huang Jiefu the opportunity to capture Great Saber Hong.
• Huang Jiefu hesitated until Zhang Lingfeng's disciples declared they would help, then agreed to assemble troops and set out with them.

Zhang Lingfeng gathered martial artists and government men to rescue Wang Biao from Great Saber Hong, while Chen Sanshi secretly sent warnings to both sides. After learning that a rescue force was approaching, Great Saber Hong killed the messengers and prepared to face Zhang Lingfeng’s group.

• Zhang Lingfeng brought martial artists and Huang Jiefu’s bailiffs to join the rescue of Wang Biao, while Tang Baihu and Li Si spread news of the expedition around town.
• Chen Sanshi sent Sanjiao and Dapen to warn Great Saber Hong that Zhang Lingfeng and government men were coming to capture him.
• Sanjiao and Dapen delivered the warning, but Great Saber Hong killed them and demanded that Wang Biao explain who Zhang Lingfeng was.
• Great Saber Hong sent men to scout and learned that government men and Guo Wei Martial Arts School experts, including Ma Fei, Zhao Hu, and Ye Fan, were approaching.

Zhang Lingfeng led a group of martial artists and Huang Jiefu’s constables to rescue Wang Biao and arrest Great Saber Hong, but the bandit fled after realizing how many powerful people had come. The group returned to Zhang Family Gully, where word of Zhang Lingfeng’s role in driving off Great Saber Hong quickly spread.

• Wei He told Zhang Lingfeng that the preparations were complete, and Zhang Lingfeng promised Huang Jiefu that they would help capture Great Saber Hong.
• Great Saber Hong recognized the martial artists and Huang Jiefu approaching Shrimp Gully, freed Wang Biao, and fled into the mountains with his men.
• Wang Biao reached the group at Shrimp Gully and explained that Great Saber Hong had run away, leaving Huang Jiefu disappointed that the arrest had failed.
• Zhang Lingfeng invited the martial artists and constables to rest and eat at Zhang Family Gully, and Huang Jiefu led his group there with them.
• After Wang Biao arrived with the group, word spread through the area that Zhang Lingfeng had scared Great Saber Hong away.

After Zhang Lingfeng rescued Wang Biao, Li Mingtian sought help from Juren Zhang to reclaim Little Moon Mountain’s water supply and pressure the Zhang Clan. Zhang Qilin seized the water supply and detained Chen Qing, demanding that Zhang Lingfeng come meet him.

• Li Hongwei told Li Mingtian that Zhang Lingfeng had rescued Wang Biao from Great Saber Hong, and Li Mingtian worried about the Zhang Clan’s growing influence.
• Li Mingtian visited Zhang Qilin, who agreed to help reclaim Little Moon Mountain’s water supply and force the Zhang Clan to sell its farmland cheaply.
• Wang Jinshan transferred all but a tenth of his farmland to the Zhang Clan, and Zhang Laochong inspected the newly acquired fields with his sons.
• Xu Laiyi reported that Zhang Qilin had seized Little Moon Mountain’s water supply and detained Chen Qing, demanding that Zhang Lingfeng come see him.
• Zhang Laochong ordered Zhang Da to notify Zhang Lingfeng, while Zhang Da worried that the family could not contend with the martial juren.