Chapter Summaries

Li Yu, a secret agent of Western Xia’s First Rank Hall, stopped at a ruined temple near Gusu and encountered two Funiu Sect disciples who had captured a black-veiled woman. After the disciples drugged him and threatened the captives, Li Yu turned the wine’s effects into powerful internal energy, killed Cui Jingui, and defeated Guo Yanzhi, who mistook him for Southern Murong.

• Li Yu sheltered from the rain in a ruined temple and met Guo Yanzhi and Cui Jingui, who were pursuing a captured black-veiled woman.
• Guo Yanzhi and Cui Jingui drugged Li Yu’s wine with Ten Fragrances Tendon-Softening Powder and left him unconscious.
• Cui Jingui moved to kill Li Yu, but Li Yu woke and struck him with a palm that burned through his chest.
• Li Yu attacked Guo Yanzhi, who dodged the worst of the blow before the drug weakened him and made him collapse.
• Guo Yanzhi mistook Li Yu for Southern Murong, and Li Yu killed him while declaring, “I’m his father!”

Li Yu rescued Qin Xiu from Guo Yanzhi and learned that a mysterious Wine Worm in his dantian consumed his internal power and fed on wine. After Qin Xiu recovered enough to speak with him, she asked for his help evading her enemies, but an erotic book’s pages turned toward them and she accused him of lechery.

• Li Yu searched Cui Jingui’s body, found an erotic book, freed Qin Xiu, and gave her the antidote.
• Qin Xiu took the antidote and circulated Qi while Li Yu hid the corpses and reflected on his dwindling supply of aged wine.
• Li Yu drank Bow Moon and observed the Wine Worm in his dantian absorb the wine’s Qi and release internal power.
• Qin Xiu thanked Li Yu, introduced herself, and asked about the Flame Blade he had used.
• Qin Xiu explained that her enemies might pursue her and offered to repay Li Yu if he helped her.
• The erotic book’s pages turned in the breeze, and Qin Xiu shouted at Li Yu, “Lecher, don’t even think about it!”

Yan Ruhua investigated the two bodies at the ruined temple and guessed that Qin Xiu’s master had rescued her, then pursued a false trail toward the southwest. Li Yu and Qin Xiu traveled southeast to Gusu City and settled at an inn outside Chang Gate, with Qin Xiu warning him to be careful while buying medicine.

• Yan Ruhua examined Guo Yanzhi and the pockmarked fatty, determined that both had died from a single palm strike, and suspected Qin Xiu’s master was responsible.
• Yan Ruhua read the hoofprints as a deception, concluded the fugitives had gone southwest toward Lake Tai, and hurried to report to Madam.
• Li Yu drove Qin Xiu toward Gusu City while she worried that his striking appearance would attract attention and cautioned him about her enemy’s informants.
• Li Yu and Qin Xiu crossed the canal bridge near Cold Mountain Temple and reached Gusu City’s western outskirts.
• Li Yu and Qin Xiu found the Fortune and Peace inn on Ten-Li Street outside Chang Gate and settled there.

Li Yu met Gao Jingzong, deputy commander of the First Rank Hall, and learned that the sovereign’s Heavenly Mandate Token gave him authority to control half the organization. He was tasked with capturing Madam Wang and razing Mantuo Manor, then inherited Gao Jingzong’s post and the Fish-Dragon Gang.

• Li Yu used the First Rank Hall’s password to meet Gao Jingzong aboard a fishing boat near Cold Mountain Temple.
• Gao Jingzong identified Li Yu’s bronze token as the sovereign’s Heavenly Mandate Token, which could put Li Yu on equal footing with Helian Tieshu within the First Rank Hall.
• Gao Jingzong told Li Yu his assignment was to raze Mantuo Manor and capture Madam Wang alive.
• Li Yu questioned how he could tackle the powerful Mantuo Manor, which was connected by marriage to the Murong Clan.
• Gao Jingzong handed Li Yu responsibility for local affairs and left him the gang leader’s token for the Fish-Dragon Gang.

Li Yu and Qin Xiu shared a room at Anfu Inn, where he kept his distance while she fell asleep. Unable to sleep and short of money, Li Yu climbed onto the roof and decided to investigate the Fish-Dragon Gang using his token.

• Li Yu demanded that Qin Xiu repay him for the medicinal herbs, while worrying about the powerful factions shaping events in the jianghu.
• Li Yu made a bed from chairs and told Qin Xiu not to sleep too soundly; she went to sleep with her saber close at hand.
• Unable to sleep, Li Yu quietly left through the window and climbed onto the roof to look toward the night market and Cold Mountain Temple.
• Li Yu lamented his lack of silver and considered the wealthy sects and families of the jianghu.
• Li Yu examined his Fish-Dragon Token and anticipated learning whether the Fish-Dragon Gang was powerful.

Li Yu and Qin Xiu searched Black Earth Town for the Fish-Dragon Gang and witnessed its men intimidate locals and collect tribute. At Black Sand Wharf, they saw the gang’s Third Master impose a harsh catch-sharing rule on Lin Mang and the fishermen, while Li Yu watched from outside the tavern.

• Li Yu and Qin Xiu ate at a wharf stall, and Li Yu said they needed to find somewhere for Qin Xiu to recover.
• More than twenty Fish-Dragon Gang men drove vendors from the wharf as a ship from Mantuo Manor arrived and carried away sacks; Qin Xiu recognized the manor and called the gang its ally.
• Li Yu and Qin Xiu watched the old stallkeeper pick up the broken crockery, then headed to Black Sand Wharf as fishermen from the Seventy-Two Peaks arrived with their catch.
• Lin Mang offered the Fish-Dragon Gang’s Third Master a small gift and asked how the fish and shrimp would be divided.
• The Third Master insisted on a thirty-seventy split and declared that neither Lin Mang nor the gathered people could change the rules.

Lin Mang agreed to give Zhang Biao thirty percent of White Sand Island’s fish after Zhang Biao threatened two captured sellers. Li Yu and Qin Xiu intervened to rescue the woman, only to learn she belonged to the Fish-Dragon Gang and that the men they had attacked were from its enemy, the Black Flood Dragon Gang.

• Zhang Biao displayed the captured fisherman and woman and threatened to punish them for selling Lake Tai Silver Knifefish privately.
• Lin Mang accepted Zhang Biao’s thirty-percent demand, then left after failing to secure the woman’s release.
• Li Yu challenged Zhang Biao’s treatment of the woman, fought him, and joined Qin Xiu in rescuing her amid the gang’s men.
• Fu Rong told Li Yu and Qin Xiu that she was a Fish-Dragon Gang member and that the Black Flood Dragon Gang had taken her gang’s territory after its leader disappeared.
• Li Yu realized he had mistaken the Black Flood Dragon Gang for the Fish-Dragon Gang and cursed Gao Jingzong for the predicament.

Li Yu killed Zhang Biao and declared himself the new leader of the Fish-Dragon Gang, then returned with Fu Rong and Qin Xiu to the gang’s secluded hideout. Fu Rong asked him to take the leadership for real, revealing that the former leader, Gao Jingzong, had fled with the gang’s valuables, and Li Yu accepted.

• Lin Mang argued that the fishermen could not defeat the better-armed Black Flood Dragon Gang, despite their anger at Zhang Biao.
• Li Yu struck before Zhang Biao could give orders and killed him with a single thrust of his sword.
• Li Yu declared himself the Fish-Dragon Gang’s new leader and left the wharf with Fu Rong and Qin Xiu while the gang members hesitated to pursue.
• Li Yu, Fu Rong, and Qin Xiu reached the Fish-Dragon Gang’s hidden base, where Fu Rong thanked Li Yu for saving her.
• Fu Rong asked Li Yu to become the gang’s leader and revealed that Gao Jingzong had fled with the gang’s valuables two months earlier.
• Li Yu put away the token connected to Gao Jingzong and accepted Fu Rong’s request to lead the Fish-Dragon Gang.

Li Yu was acclaimed as the new leader of the Fish-Dragon Gang after proving he had killed Zhang Biao, and he kept Fu Rong as his deputy. He learned that Fu Rong sought revenge on Deng Baichuan and vowed to help her bring down Azure Cloud Manor.

• Fu Rong showed Zhang Biao’s Black Slaughter Great Saber as proof that Li Yu had killed him, convincing the gang members to accept Li Yu as their leader.
• Li Yu stopped the gang members’ greetings, named Fu Rong deputy gang leader, and rallied them to rebuild the Fish-Dragon Gang.
• After the others left, Li Yu asked Fu Rong why she had stayed with the struggling gang, and she revealed her hatred for Deng Baichuan.
• Fu Rong offered to leave if her revenge against the Gusu Murong Clan endangered the gang, but Li Yu invoked the plaque’s words and promised to help her break Azure Cloud Manor and take Deng Baichuan’s head.
• Li Yu flicked the Black Slaughter Great Saber toward Fu Rong, and she caught it before bowing to him.

Li Yu and Qin Xiu visited the Li Family Winery seeking ten-year-aged wine, but Li Yang’s prized eastern and western cellars failed to impress them. As Li Yang ordered them to leave, someone behind them granted Li Yu’s request to inspect the northern cellar.

• Li Yu and Qin Xiu discussed his ambition to become a gang leader as they walked through a plum grove toward the Li Family Winery.
• Li Yu and Qin Xiu challenged Li Yang to prove the winery’s boast of having the finest wine, and he took them inside to see its cellars.
• Li Yu dismissed the wine in the eastern and western cellars, prompting Li Yang to angrily accuse them of finding fault and order them out.
• Li Yu asked to inspect the northern wine cellar, and an unseen person behind them said they could.

Li Yu searched the Li family’s oldest cellar and recognized a jar of plum wine as a ten-year vintage rich in Wine Qi. Li Fengchun and Li Yang realized the supposedly spoiled wine was exceptional, and the Li family insisted Li Yu take it for free.

• Li Fengchun rebuked Li Yang for treating the guests discourteously and opened the family’s sealed north cellar for Li Yu and Qin Xiu.
• Li Yu explained that a wine’s age did not guarantee its quality, then found a vermilion jar of plum wine whose lingering Wine Qi suited his swordsmanship.
• Li Yang privately mocked Li Yu for praising plum wine that he believed had turned sour, while Li Fengchun examined the jar and began to weep over his failure to recognize it.
• Li Yang felt the jar’s weight and realized its wine had preserved its essence and vitality, revealing it as an extraordinary vintage.
• Li Fengchun and Li Yang refused payment and insisted that Li Yu accept the plum wine.

Zhang Hengye disciplined Zhu Tuo for abducting a fisherman's daughter and warned him that the Black Flood Dragon Gang needed to prepare for a force that could unite Lake Tai's Seventy-Two Peaks. With the Fish-Dragon Gang remnants still missing, Zhang Hengye planned a martial contest to draw out their new leader.

• Zhang Hengye defeated eight fighters with his whip and urged the gang to improve its skills.
• Zhu Tuo returned with an abducted pearl-diving girl, and Zhang Hengye beat him with the Spring and Autumn Annals while warning him not to mistreat the fishermen.
• Zhang Hengye told Zhu Tuo to consider the danger of a hero uniting the Seventy-Two Peaks, and Zhu Tuo realized his brother wanted to become that hero.
• Zhu Tuo reported that the Fish-Dragon Gang remnants and the man who killed Zhang Biao could not be found.
• Zhang Hengye announced a Flower-Honoring Banquet in five days, where the Black Flood Dragon Gang would challenge the Fish-Dragon Gang to a martial contest and try to draw out its new leader.

After reaching minor mastery of Returning Wind Brushes the Willow, Li Yu learned that Zhang Hengye had called a Flower-Honoring Banquet to draw out the Fish-Dragon Gang. He decided to seek allies among the Seventy-Two Peaks of Lake Tai and set out with Fu Rong to visit Lin Mang of White Sand Island.

• Li Yu used plum wine and the Wine Worm's internal power to master Willows Sway in the Wind, the first form of his sword art.
• Fu Rong reported that Zhang Hengye would challenge Li Yu at a Flower-Honoring Banquet in five days, and Li Yu recognized the invitation as an open stratagem to lure out the Fish-Dragon Gang.
• Li Yu decided to recruit allies from the Seventy-Two Peaks of Lake Tai and chose Lin Mang of White Sand Island as the first person to approach.
• Li Yu learned that Qin Xiu had left that morning and departed at once with Fu Rong to seek Lin Mang.

Quan Guanqing inspected the Gusu Branch and discussed avoiding conflict with the Murong Clan, while Abi criticized the Beggars' Sect's hypocrisy. Qin Xiu reached a weapons workshop seeking a Divine Crow Crossbow and learned it would cost eight hundred taels.

• Quan Guanqing arrived in Gusu with Chen Youchun and reminded the local disciples that Chief Qiao and Brother Ma wanted them to avoid clashing with the Murong Clan.
• Chen Youchun joked crudely about a Flower-Honoring Banquet, and Quan Guanqing explained that he had heard of banquets held for unusual occasions.
• Abi argued that the Beggars' Sect's rules and rapid growth would foster hypocrisy and eventually undermine the sect, citing Chen Youchun's misconduct.
• Qin Xiu visited a weapons workshop in Apricot Grove and asked its fat old proprietor for a Divine Crow Crossbow.
• The proprietor asked Qin Xiu for eight hundred taels to make the crossbow.

Qin Xiu traded the Jade Jiaolong Ring for a crossbow at the Hundred Refinements Workshop, then ambushed a Beggars' Sect search party in the apricot grove. She killed all six men and disappeared into the grove with her weapons.

• Qin Xiu paid the fat old man with her Jade Jiaolong Ring and received a crossbow case containing three Flying Crow Arrows.
• Jiang Kang led six Beggars' Sect members through the apricot grove searching for Qin Xiu, whom Chen Youchun wanted to capture as a peerless beauty.
• Qin Xiu ambushed the beggars with poisoned arrows and her curved saber, killing four before confronting Jiang Kang and the last young beggar.
• Qin Xiu killed Jiang Kang with a palm strike and slit the young beggar's throat after he begged for mercy.
• Qin Xiu retrieved the wooden case from behind a tree and vanished into the apricot grove.

Li Yu visited White Sand Island and asked Lin Mang to join the Black Flood Dragon Gang’s banquet, warning him that the Seventy-Two Peaks would otherwise remain at others’ mercy. Lin Mang showed Li Yu the Dragon God Temple and explained the islanders’ origins, but said their shared use of “dragon” was not enough to command their allegiance.

• Li Yu traveled with Fu Rong to White Sand Island and saw how its islanders lived in poverty while powerful families occupied the fertile islands.
• Lin Mang and his wife discussed Granny Wu’s missing grandson as Li Yu and Fu Rong arrived at their home.
• Li Yu invited Lin Mang to attend the Black Flood Dragon Gang’s banquet and warned that those who did not join the feast might become its victims.
• Lin Mang led Li Yu up Black Stone Peak to the Dragon God Temple and explained that the Seventy-Two Peaks descended from soldiers who had refused to submit to Song.
• Lin Mang said the shared word “dragon” was not enough to win the Seventy-Two Peaks, and Li Yu acknowledged the connection was slight.

Li Yu practiced the Returning Wind and Swaying Willow Sword Technique aboard the boat before a ship from Mantuo Manor intercepted him and invited him aboard. He left Fu Rong and Guo Xiaosi waiting as Abi ferried him across the lake, where he learned the ship belonged to her young master's aunt.

• At dawn, Li Yu sailed away from White Sand Island and practiced his sword on the rocking boat, deepening his grasp of the Returning Wind and Swaying Willow technique.
• Fu Rong worried that the Fish-Dragon Gang might struggle at the Flower Offering Banquet without support from the Seventy-Two Peaks.
• Guo Xiaosi spotted a large ship flying Mantuo Manor's banner, and Fu Rong recognized it as Madam Wang's personal ship.
• Abi approached on a bamboo raft and invited Li Yu aboard after someone on the ship admired his swordsmanship.
• Li Yu left Fu Rong and Guo Xiaosi behind and stayed steady as Abi tested his footing while rowing the raft across the lake.
• Abi told Li Yu that the ship belonged to her young master's aunt, and Li Yu recognized that he had encountered people connected to both Mantuo Manor and the Murong household.

Li Yu refused Yan Ruhua’s offer to become a guest retainer at Mantuo Manor, and she attacked him when he resisted her pressure. He escaped the bedchamber, only to find two guards blocking the exit with drawn sabers.

• Abi led Li Yu to Yan Ruhua’s bedchamber and warned him not to agree to anything Yan proposed.
• Yan Ruhua offered Li Yu a position as a guest retainer, but he declined and grew suspicious of her intentions.
• Yan Ruhua attacked Li Yu with her iron snake staff, and he used the room’s painting and vase to create an opening and escape.
• Li Yu ran through the doorway and saw two fierce camellia women slashing at him with sabers as he hung in midair.

Li Yu escaped Nanny Yan’s trap aboard the Camellia with Abi’s help, then returned to the Fish-Dragon Gang’s base as a major battle approached. He wondered why Miss Qin had not returned and resumed training, leaving his feelings unspoken.

• Abi struck down the Camellia women pursuing Li Yu, rescued him from the ship, and explained that Nanny Yan sought handsome men as servants for her own pleasure.
• Li Yu thanked Abi, who returned the jade and warned him that Nanny Yan would likely avoid openly using Mantuo Manor’s forces against him.
• Yan Ruhua abandoned the pursuit and studied a portrait of a young man, remarking on his resemblance to someone else.
• At the Fish-Dragon Gang’s base, Li Yu told Fu Rong not to search for Miss Qin and urged the gang members to prepare for the coming battle.
• Li Yu practiced Returning Wind Brushes the Willow alone, while the gang members praised his swordsmanship and Fu Rong watched.

The Black Flood Dragon Gang hosted a feast to establish its rule over South Canal, drawing leaders from rival gangs while the Fish-Dragon Gang stayed away. Li Yu watched from a room inside Lakeside Manor as Zhu Tuo brought a plaque bearing the Fish-Dragon Gang’s name toward the banquet hall.

• Third Master Wen and Old Kuai discussed the rivalry between the Black Flood Dragon Gang and the Fish-Dragon Gang as Sun Laoba approached Lakeside Manor.
• Sun Laoba hurled a box toward the gates, and Zhu Tuo caught it before welcoming the Tyrant Tiger Gang inside.
• Zhou Xiao of Wolf Head Stronghold and Leader Yang of the Red Flower Society arrived, leaving the Fish-Dragon Gang as the only absent South Canal gang.
• A disheveled Daoist sang outside the gates, but Zhu Tuo ordered two men to throw him out.
• Li Yu watched from a room as Zhu Tuo returned with a plaque that read “Fish-Dragon Gang.”