Chapter Summaries

After Li Yan was left with a lame foot, he decided to enlist in the army, and his family faced the prospect of his departure. The chapter ended with Li Yan lying awake beside Li Wei as their family quietly mourned in the next room.

• Li Wei apologized to Li Yan, who said he might become a general and bring the family a better life.
• Li Wei encouraged their mother and said Old Fifth might bring honor to the Li family.
• The chapter explained that border wars had led the local garrison to recruit soldiers and offer enlistment money to their families.
• Old Man Li went to find the village chief while Li Wei and Li Yan exchanged advice and promised to care for their family.
• Their mother and fourth sister sobbed quietly, and Li Yan lay awake thinking of his family.

Li Yan left his family to travel with the village chief to the county seat and enlist in Marshal Hong’s guard troops. As the carriage carried him away from Great Green Mountain, he watched his family disappear behind him and wept.

• Li Xiaozhu woke Li Yan and told him that his father and the village chief were waiting for him.
• Li Guoxin explained that Li Yan could have apprenticed in the county seat, but his family could not afford the fee, so Li Chang chose to send him to enlist.
• Li Guoxin said Marshal Hong was recruiting guards to protect the city’s officials, granaries, and armories, and Li Yan agreed to take the position.
• Li Guoxin set out with Li Yan and two other boys, while their families stayed behind because the journey was long.
• Li Yan’s family tearfully said goodbye as he promised to return with gifts and asked Third Brother to care for the household.
• The carriage carried Li Yan away from the village, and he finally wept as it disappeared around a mountain bend.

Li Yan traveled toward Green Mountain Pass with Li Yu, Li Shan, and Li Guoxin, imagining a future in which he could support his family. As they reached the imposing border city, Li Guoxin explained its defenses and recounted the danger of past attacks, leaving the boys worried about the threats ahead.

• Li Yan resolved to earn silver in the army so he could build homes for his family and reunite them.
• Li Guoxin advised Li Yan to seek his superiors’ favor and explained how villagers could send letters to him.
• Li Guoxin and the boys ate by the roadside before arriving at Green Mountain Pass in the afternoon.
• The boys marveled at the city’s towering walls as Li Guoxin described its mountain defenses and strict southern gate.
• Li Guoxin recounted a bloody Meng Kingdom assault that reached the walls, frightening Li Yu and Li Shan and reminding them of the dangers of war.

Li Yan and his companions reached the city, where Captain Liu Chengyong let them pass and encouraged Li Yan to enlist in the Imperial Guard. Liu later explained that Strategist Ji was searching among recruits for a talented successor, and he thought Li Yan might have potential.

• Li Yan reasoned that Meng Kingdom was unlikely to launch another major assault on Green Mountain Pass soon, impressing Li Guoxin and drawing the attention of a gate officer.
• At the city gate, Li Guoxin presented the group's travel permit and explained that Li Yan would enlist while Li Yu and Li Shan would become apprentices.
• Captain Liu Chengyong praised Li Yan's insight, warned that the Imperial Guard's recruitment quota might soon fill, and let the group enter the city.
• After the cart passed through the gate, a soldier asked Liu why he had treated Li Yan courteously, and Liu described Strategist Ji's search for recruits with talent and learning.
• Liu said Li Yan might have a chance of attracting Strategist Ji's attention, then ordered the soldiers back to their duties.

Li Yan entered the city with Li Guoxin and watched Li Yu and Li Shan begin apprenticeships at separate establishments. After Li Guoxin brought him to the Imperial Guard recruitment grounds, Li Yan joined the examination candidates while Li Guoxin went to wait for the results.

• Li Yan, Li Guoxin, Li Yu, and Li Shan rode through the busy city streets and stopped at Natural Wine House.
• Li Guoxin introduced Li Yu to Manager Li, and Li Yu said goodbye to Li Yan and Li Shan before entering the restaurant as an apprentice.
• Li Guoxin brought Li Shan to Ironworks Pavilion, where Lu Kui and his apprentice Liang Shi welcomed him.
• Li Guoxin drove Li Yan to the Imperial Guard recruitment grounds, where a soldier directed Li Yan to join the candidates for the examination.
• Li Guoxin went to the waiting area with the candidates’ escorts while Li Yan lined up for the examination.

Li Yan and the other recruits entered Marshal Hong’s drill ground, where they were instructed to wait in line before taking an unexplained turn in a tent. As Li Yan tried to work out how the recruitment process worked, he noticed Marshal Hong watching the tent with unusual attention.

• A veteran soldier warned Li Yan and the recruits to remain silent and orderly as he led them through the gate.
• Li Yan saw the drill ground’s three lines, the assessment enclosure, and Marshal Hong seated on the platform.
• The soldier explained that recruits would enter the tent, then wait for assessment; those who passed would join the far-left line, while those who failed would leave.
• Li Yan puzzled over the purpose of his line, fell behind while thinking, and was scolded by a soldier.
• Li Yan rejoined the line and watched Marshal Hong, who repeatedly focused on the tent as recruits entered and emerged.

During the army's recruitment assessment, Strategist Ji tested Li Yan's meridians with silver needles and discovered that he had a Mixed Spirit Root. Li Yan accepted Strategist Ji's offer to become his disciple and left with him, though Strategist Ji planned to investigate his background first.

• Li Yan entered a tent where a black-robed man tested recruits' meridians with silver needles.
• After Li Yan's face showed five colors of qi and he endured intense pain, the man removed the needles and identified him as having a Mixed Spirit Root.
• The man revealed that he was Strategist Ji and offered to pass his sect's knowledge to Li Yan as his heir.
• Remembering Strategist Ji's battlefield reputation and admiring his skill, Li Yan agreed to enter his school.
• Strategist Ji learned that Li Yan could read and write and had no martial arts training, then said he would investigate Li Yan's background and asked him to come along.

Li Yan joined Ji Wenhe’s sect and learned that serving as his disciple would bring him higher pay than joining the Imperial Guard. The chapter recounted Hong Linying’s rise to command and Ji Wenhe’s arrival at Green Mountain Pass, ending with Hong’s forces surviving a surprise cavalry attack and driving the enemy away after reinforcements arrived.

• Ji Wenhe told Li Yan to call him Teacher and promised him a squad leader’s monthly pay, which Li Yan accepted so he could send more money to his parents.
• Hong Linying’s history was recounted, from his martial training at Fatuo Temple to his rise as Grand Marshal of the Southwest.
• Ji Wenhe arrived at Hong Linying’s residence, demonstrated his extraordinary martial arts, and offered to serve as an adviser in exchange for choosing a disciple to inherit his sect.
• Hong Linying accepted Ji Wenhe’s proposal, and Ji Wenhe later warned him about an enemy attack and deployment.
• The enemy’s heavy cavalry ambushed Hong Linying’s withdrawing troops, killing at least ten thousand soldiers outside Green Mountain Pass.
• Hong Linying organized the city’s defenses until reinforcements arrived, forcing the enemy to withdraw.

Hong Linying recalled how Ji Wenhe’s intelligence and martial prowess helped Green Mountain Pass withstand Meng Kingdom, then grew increasingly intent on obtaining Ji Wenhe’s secret cultivation method. After Ji Wenhe’s chosen disciple died, Hong Linying watched the strategist’s recruitment efforts for clues, but still had no way to uncover the secret.

• Ji Wenhe repeatedly warned Hong Linying about Meng Kingdom’s movements, and Hong promoted him to strategist after his plans brought major victories.
• Ji Wenhe rescued Hong Linying from an encirclement by cutting through the enemy ranks and killing their deputy marshal, cementing his reputation as a peerless expert.
• Hong Linying tried to learn Ji Wenhe’s cultivation method by asking him to test his constitution, but Ji declared that he had no affinity with the sect.
• Ji Wenhe found a disciple in the central army camp, but the young man died a month later after Ji said he had practiced the technique incorrectly.
• Hong Linying suspected the disciple’s death involved poison or a dangerous cultivation method and continued watching Ji Wenhe’s searches for recruits, hoping to find clues.

Li Yan became Strategist Ji’s disciple, and Marshal Hong tested him but could not identify what made him suitable for Ji’s sect. Ji took Li Yan to his residence to cultivate, while Hong appointed him Deputy Commandant of Guarding Against Insult and arranged for his enlistment subsidy to reach his family.

• Strategist Ji introduced Li Yan to Marshal Hong, who questioned how he compared with Ji’s previous disciple.
• Li Yan, distracted by his good fortune, failed to respond until Ji ordered him to pay his respects to Marshal Hong.
• Marshal Hong seized Li Yan’s wrist and examined his meridians, but could not see what made him special to Ji’s sect.
• Strategist Ji said Li Yan would cultivate at his residence and help with minor military affairs, and Marshal Hong appointed him Deputy Commandant of Guarding Against Insult.
• Marshal Hong arranged for Li Yan’s enlistment subsidy to be delivered to his family, and Li Yan left with Strategist Ji.
• Marshal Hong watched them depart and wondered whether Li Yan’s constitution truly held something special.

Li Yan told Li Guoxin that Strategist Ji had taken him as a disciple and given him a military post, then followed Strategist Ji out of the city. Strategist Ji brought him to a secluded mountain compound, introduced him to its staff, and said Li Yan would live there.

• Strategist Ji let Li Yan explain his departure to Li Guoxin before taking him away.
• Li Yan told Li Guoxin he had become Strategist Ji’s disciple and been appointed Deputy Commandant of Defense, leaving his clan uncle stunned.
• Strategist Ji and Li Yan walked through the North City Gate and turned onto a path into the western mountains.
• Strategist Ji led Li Yan to a fortified clearing with bluestone houses, guards, and household staff.
• Strategist Ji introduced Li Yan as his new disciple and told the gathered people that Li Yan would live at the compound.

Li Yan arrived at Strategist Ji’s secluded valley residence, where Chen An and Li Yin helped him settle in and explained its routines. After eating and missing his family, Li Yan went to sleep, with Strategist Ji set to tell him about their school the next morning.

• Strategist Ji introduced Chen An and Li Yin as Li Yan’s assistants and guards, then led Li Yan into the valley.
• Chen An and Li Yin showed Li Yan around the Strategist’s Residence and explained how Marshal Hong had arranged for Strategist Ji to live there.
• Li Yan chose the stone house at the back of the valley and unpacked his family’s handmade clothes and food.
• A servant brought Li Yan dinner and explained that servants could enter the valley only for assigned duties and must not disturb the residents.
• Li Yan left his dishes on the stone platform, returned to his room, and fell asleep thinking of his family and village.

Li Yan explored the valley and learned about the Wood Shadow Sect, its martial and medicinal traditions, and Strategist Ji’s deadly illness. After hearing that his former senior brother died while practicing the sect’s cultivation method, Li Yan chose to accept the risk of becoming Strategist Ji’s disciple.

• Li Yan woke in the mountain valley, explored the pool, and met Strategist Ji, who directed him to come for breakfast and a lesson.
• Strategist Ji told Li Yan that the Wood Shadow Sect had guarded martial arts and studied medicinal herbs for generations, and explained that he had entered the army to seek a suitable disciple.
• Strategist Ji revealed that an unknown poison was slowly killing him and that Li Yan was one of only two soldiers he had found with the constitution required to practice the sect’s cultivation method.
• Strategist Ji explained that Li Yan’s senior brother had died after recklessly practicing the method without understanding it, and blamed himself for the mistake.
• Li Yan feared he might suffer the same fate but decided to accept the risk and learn under Strategist Ji.

Li Yan formally became Strategist Ji’s disciple and began learning the Wood Shadow Sect’s cultivation basics. After Li Yan left to practice, Strategist Ji revealed his worsening poison and continued trying, unsuccessfully, to unlock a mysterious book that might contain a cure.

• Strategist Ji accepted Li Yan as his disciple after Li Yan kowtowed three times.
• Strategist Ji taught Li Yan about martial arts, meridians, and the Wood Yin Technique, then gave him the Breath Guidance Art to study.
• Li Yan memorized the introductory method, passed the test, and returned the written instructions for Strategist Ji to destroy.
• Strategist Ji gave Li Yan a wooden meridian model to study and told him to practice the Breath Guidance Art.
• After Li Yan left, Strategist Ji lamented his disciple’s limited aptitude and his own worsening poison.
• Strategist Ji tried various methods to open his mysterious book, failed, and burned the Breath Guidance Art sheet with extraordinary power.

Marshal Hong and his junior brother plotted to approach Li Yan and learn the cultivation method Ji Wenhe would teach him. While Li Guoxin told Li Yan’s family that Li Yan had become Ji Wenhe’s disciple, Li Yan began practicing the Breath-Guiding Technique at the Strategist’s Residence.

• Marshal Hong and his junior brother discussed Ji Wenhe’s failing health, questioned why he had chosen Li Yan, and planned to obtain his methods through the boy.
• Li Guoxin returned to Li Family Village and told Uncle Chang’s family that Li Yan had entered the Near Guard Army and become Ji Wenhe’s disciple.
• Li Guoxin described Ji Wenhe’s reputation, and the villagers gathered in astonishment as Uncle Chang’s family reacted to the news.
• Li Yan studied the Breath-Guiding Technique’s routes and verses, then sat cross-legged and began cultivating while prepared to stop if anything felt wrong.

Li Yan awakened qi in his Dantian after sensing the coolness of water, and Strategist Ji confirmed that the unusual sensation did not mean he had failed. The next morning, Strategist Ji began Li Yan’s training with the Wood Yin Technique and a painful forty-nine-day herbal treatment to strengthen his meridians.

• After eight or nine days of unsuccessful cultivation, Li Yan sensed cool qi in his Dantian while meditating beside the pool and circulated it through his meridians.
• Strategist Ji confirmed that Li Yan had awakened qi and explained that the sensation could be cold rather than warm, then told him to rest before beginning the Wood Yin Technique.
• Strategist Ji privately realized Li Yan’s strongest affinity was water, though he had chosen a wood-element technique because Li Yan also had a strong green qi affinity.
• The next morning, Strategist Ji instructed Li Yan in the first level of the Wood Yin Technique and had Chen An and Li Yin bring a copper furnace and basin of herbal medicine to Li Yan’s stone house.
• Strategist Ji explained that Li Yan would endure seven cycles of seven days in the herbal treatment to cleanse and strengthen his meridians, then began the process while keeping watch outside.

Li Yan endured the painful start of his cultivation and gradually strengthened his meridians, but the medicinal power left him increasingly irritable. After discovering the valley pool could cool the heat within him, he learned Strategist Ji had withheld it to temper his endurance, and Strategist Ji used qin music to calm him during cultivation.

• Li Yan endured more than half a shichen drawing medicinal power from the furnace before Strategist Ji rescued him and helped him refine the medicine.
• Li Yan continued cultivating for more than twenty days, strengthening his meridians as the pain eased but his irritability increased.
• Li Yan wandered to the cold pool at night and found that its chill dispelled the heat inside him, then slept deeply and woke refreshed.
• Li Yan asked Strategist Ji about the pool, and Strategist Ji explained that he had withheld it so Li Yan could temper himself before using external aids.
• During Li Yan's next cultivation session, Strategist Ji played the qin, calming Li Yan's agitation and helping him enter a state of self-forgetfulness.

At a remote sect, the Peak Master ordered a search for the missing cultivation method stolen by a deserter. On the forty-ninth day of training, Li Yan endured a vastly intensified trial and sank unconscious into the pool, realizing his senior brother may have died the same way.

• The hawk-faced elder reported that enforcement disciples had found the deserter’s bones near a cultivator’s ruin, but not the stolen cultivation method.
• The Peak Master ordered a wider search and said anyone outside the sect who practiced the method must be eliminated.
• Li Yan noticed that Strategist Ji’s zither music was no longer suppressing the heat within him as the forty-ninth day approached.
• Chen An and Li Yin moved the copper furnace beside the pool, and Li Yan wondered whether his senior brother had died during the same trial.
• Strategist Ji began Li Yan’s final day of training as thick black vapor poured into Li Yan’s hands and ravaged his body.
• Li Yan fell into the pool while the vapor remained attached to his fingers, and he wondered if this was the path his senior brother had taken.

Strategist Ji rescued Li Yan from the medicinal pool, but an unknown force and a voice warning him not to open his eyes intervened as he hovered near death. Li Yan awakened inside his sea of consciousness, where a mysterious old man explained the structure of the realms and the stages of immortal cultivation.

• Strategist Ji pulled the unconscious Li Yan from the pool and tried to revive him with spiritual energy.
• A golden thread escaped from the strange book in Strategist Ji's sleeve and entered Li Yan as he was carried ashore.
• A powerful force repaired Li Yan's damaged meridians and subdued the fire poison, but a voice warned him that opening his eyes could kill him.
• Li Yan regained consciousness in his sea of consciousness and met a gray-robed old man, who explained that he had brought Li Yan's consciousness there.
• The old man described the Mortal Realm, Immortal Spirit Realm, and True Immortal Realm, along with the nine great cultivation realms and their stages.

The gray-robed old man explained the origins of cultivation in the Mortal Realm, spiritual roots, and the sects that linked it to the Immortal Spirit Realm. As Li Yan began to believe him, the old man revealed that he belonged to the ancient Gui Water Immortal Sect and began describing the Five Immortals Sects.

• The gray-robed old man explained how Immortal Spirit Realm cultivators descended to the Mortal Realm and established sects to pass on their inheritances.
• The old man described spiritual-root grades, cultivation prospects, and the dangers ordinary beings faced near spiritual veins and immortal sects.
• Li Yan struggled to believe the old man's account, but began to accept it when the old man said he would soon feel his body's condition.
• The gray-robed old man identified himself as a member of the Gui Water Immortal Sect and named it among the mysterious Five Immortals Sects.
• The old man explained that the Five Immortals Sects were feared for their overwhelming power and that outsiders could rarely find or join them.