Chapter Summaries

Xiao Mingxue awakened the Golden Crow Bloodline, but chose to enter the hall despite the Empress Dowager’s attempt to protect her. Chen Qing arrived to claim her, and the emperor turned the dispute over her betrothal toward a duel with Wutu Gu, who insisted it would be fought to the death.

• The palace matrons recognized Xiao Mingxue’s Golden Crow Bloodline and reported it to the Empress Dowager.
• The Empress Dowager rushed to stop Xiao Mingxue from being taken away and vowed to protect her.
• Xiao Mingxue persuaded the matron not to stop her and entered the hall, declaring that she would choose her own path.
• Chen Qing told the emperor he had come to take Xiao Mingxue back to Jiangnan and marry her.
• Wutu Gu proposed settling the competing marriage claims through combat and explained that Southern Barbarian duels ended only with a death.
• The emperor asked Chen Qing, as King of Qin, what he would do.

A Li, posing as Chen Qing, faced a challenge from Wutu Gu’s men while Ao Zhen acted as her guard. After Ao Zhen killed the attacker and unleashed her power in the Golden Dragon Hall, an ink-black force appeared behind the emperor and Ao Zhen vanished, leaving A Li standing alone.

• A Li dismissed Wutu Gu’s challenge and asked why he thought he had the right to demand a princess’s hand or challenge the King of Qin.
• A burly Southern Barbarian rushed at A Li, but Ao Zhen struck him into the golden dragon pillar and killed him instantly.
• Ao Zhen unleashed her aura and summoned a trident, forcing the officials and Wutu Gu to their knees as she demanded to know who stood behind the emperor.
• Ink-like darkness spread behind the emperor, and Ao Zhen suddenly vanished while A Li remained standing and grinning.

After Ao Zhen vanished in the palace, A Li kept her composure and talked with the emperor about his betrayal of the King of Qin and the failure of humans and demons to coexist. She challenged Wutu Gu to a future contest and left with her companions, while Xiao Mingxue realized the person posing as Chen Qing was not him.

• Ao Zhen vanished, leaving A Li and the assembled officials stunned, while the emperor remained calm.
• A Li inferred that the palace was using schemes because its power had limits, then held her composure as the emperor questioned her.
• The emperor explained why he had betrayed the King of Qin, and A Li agreed that humans and demons could not coexist.
• A Li challenged Wutu Gu to set a date for a contest and promised to fight for her wife herself.
• A Li left the hall with her subordinate after the emperor accepted the challenge, and Xiao Mingxue realized the person was not Chen Qing.

After Princess Ao Zhen vanished, Shen Qi tried to keep the Dragon Palace delegation from exposing its weakness and chose to approach the Chen Household for information and support. The Chen Household received Jiangnan's request to meet, and Chen Baiye summoned his children to decide their future.

• A Li reported that Princess Ao Zhen had disappeared, and Shen Qi persuaded the furious yaksha generals that she was probably still alive and their enemies had paid a heavy price to take her.
• Shen Qi learned that A Li's arranged duel with Second Prince Wutu Gu was the day after tomorrow and decided to meet the spellcaster families who had contacted Jiangnan.
• Shen Qi chose the Chen Household as the first family to approach, reasoning that its capital-based third branch might seek partners after being excluded from the South Sea gains.
• Chen Qingshan told Chen Baiye that Jiangnan had sent a letter requesting a meeting.
• Chen Baiye brought Chen Qingshan inside, sealed the area, and summoned his younger children to decide their future paths.

Chen Baiye told his third-branch descendants that the Chen Household had served the Dragon Palace and left their branch on the margins, then revealed that both Jiangnan and the emperor had contacted him. The family debated which side to support, with Chen Baiye leaving the choice unresolved as his second son argued for Jiangnan and the third son defended the capital.

• Chen Baiye explained that the Chen Household had served the Dragon Palace and that his third branch had been excluded from the family's plans.
• Chen Baiye told his descendants that the family had offered a limited number of places for their children to travel to the South Sea.
• Chen Baiye revealed that a Jiangnan delegation had asked to speak with the branch and that the emperor had sent a letter anticipating Jiangnan's request for intelligence.
• Chen Baiye said the branch had to choose between the capital and Jiangnan, prompting his sons to argue over which side had more to offer.
• Chen Baiye's second son defended relocating to Jiangnan, while his third son insisted the family should remain loyal to the capital.

Chen Baiye’s family debated whether to align with Jiangnan or remain with the court, and Laoda called for meeting Jiangnan’s representatives before deciding. Meanwhile, Chen Qing brought White Phoenix to the ruins beneath the capital, where he said the Tomb of King Xiang held their only hope of escape.

• Chen Baiye explained the risks and prospects of joining Jiangnan or relying on the court and left the choice to his six children.
• Lao'er, Laosan, Laosi, and Laowu cast opposing votes, leaving the decision tied at two votes each.
• Laoda asked to meet Jiangnan’s people before choosing, and Chen Baiye agreed.
• Chen Qing led White Phoenix to the ruins beneath the capital, near the Tomb of King Xiang.
• Chen Qing told White Phoenix that the Tomb of King Xiang held their only hope of escaping.

At the Tomb of King Xiang, Chen Qing learned that the Ghost King’s birth seemed impossible to prevent, no matter how players tried to alter events. He showed White Phoenix the Flying Star mark and wondered whether Wang Ye would still come to save him, while elsewhere A Li, posing as Chen Qing, met with the Chen Household about serving the King of Qin.

• Chen Qing and White Phoenix discussed the Ghost Domain’s history and the guilds’ attempts to control reincarnation.
• White Phoenix said that efforts to stop King Xiang’s birth had failed, as the Heavenly Python Palace and its events returned each cycle.
• Chen Qing led White Phoenix to the place where he had created the Yin-Yang Road, and White Phoenix recognized the Flying Star mark as connected to an Evening Elephant sorcerer.
• Chen Qing admitted he could not control the sorcerers and wondered whether Wang Ye, who had followed Liu Yu and was the Ancient Insect, would still rescue him.
• A Li, pretending to be Chen Qing, welcomed Chen Baiye and his family and discussed the King of Qin’s offer with them.
• Chen Baiye asked Shen Qi what terms the King of Qin would offer and whether he could defeat Wutu Gu in a duel.

Shen Qi negotiated with Chen Baiye for intelligence on the Xiao Household, while A Li secretly read Chen Baiye’s memories. The revelations led Shen Qi to suspect the emperor had used past crises to conceal the growth of his power, and he asked how many ghost temples had been built in the capital.

• Shen Qi assured Chen Baiye that his lord could defeat Wutu Gu and offered to protect the Chen family and grant ten descendants places in the West Sea Dragon Palace in exchange for information.
• Chen Baiye asked for two hours to discuss the offer with his son, and Shen Qi agreed.
• After Chen Baiye left, A Li revealed that she had read key details from his memories but knew no definitive faction behind the Xiao Household.
• A Li reported that Chen Baiye suspected the emperor had engineered the Duke of Wei’s rebellion to distract the great families while secretly establishing ghost temples.
• Shen Qi reasoned that the emperor began acting openly half a year ago because he had gained enough power to withstand the great families, then asked A Li how many ghost temples existed in the capital.

Shen Qi connected the ghost temples in the capital and the Southern Barbarians to the emperor’s growing power and the Xiao family’s ability to control Ao Zhen. He planned to identify and destroy the most important temples, leaving the group to seek their locations’ significance through Chen Baiye’s memories.

• A Li told Shen Qi that the Wutu Kingdom had built many ghost temples and recalled that Chen Baiye had suspected the temples would change the emperor’s power and attitude toward the clans.
• Shen Qi reasoned that the temples might grant unusual abilities, and A Li said the emperor’s aura still did not feel Transcendent to her.
• Shen Qi proposed that destroying enough ghost temples could weaken the force holding Ao Zhen and allow them to rescue her.
• Chen Ying marked the temples’ locations on Shen Qi’s map, but the group could not tell which sites mattered most because each had replaced a once-popular place of worship.
• Shen Qi decided they would have to learn more through Chen Baiye, and A Li objected that he knew nothing about the temples’ importance.

Chen Baiye concluded that Chen Qing was an impostor, while Xiao Mingxue doubted the King of Qin was the scholar she once knew. The empress dowager revealed the origins of the martial families and said she would entrust Xiao Mingxue’s fate to someone, who then appeared in her bedchamber.

• Chen Baiye told Chen Dalang that Chen Qing was likely a fake after noticing the spiritual energy around him had behaved strangely.
• Xiao Mingxue doubted that awakening the Golden Crow Bloodline would change her fate and suspected the King of Qin was not the real Chen Qing.
• Nanny He summoned Xiao Mingxue to the empress dowager, who welcomed her warmly and explained that the emperor’s power was tied to ancient forces.
• The empress dowager told Xiao Mingxue that martial families had gained demonic power through human-demon offspring and had later driven demons from the Central Plains.
• The empress dowager said she would entrust Xiao Mingxue’s fate to someone, and an unexpected visitor appeared in her bedchamber.

Shen Qi analyzed the emperor’s intelligence about the four major temples and concluded that the group should attack all of them at once rather than risk choosing the emperor’s trap. He suspected that destroying any one temple could weaken the force imprisoning Her Highness Ao Zhen, but the group realized one of the four locations would be a dead end.

• Seventh Master Shen showed Shen Qi, A Li, and Chen Ying intelligence from the Chen father and son pointing to the Three Stars Temple as a possible target.
• Shen Qi warned that the emperor might have deliberately supplied false intelligence, knowing A Li could read the Chen father and son’s memories.
• Shen Qi compared the faith and worshippers at the Three Stars, Guanyin, Confucius, and Martial Temples to assess their importance.
• Shen Qi decided they should split up and destroy all four temples, reasoning that the emperor’s forces would be concentrated at the location they had chosen to defend.
• Shen Qi suggested that destroying any one temple might weaken the power trapping Her Highness Ao Zhen, and the group recognized that one temple would be a dead end.

Chen Ying and Shen Qi’s teams faced powerful enemies at separate temples, and both encounters ended in disaster. Shen Qi received reports that every group had been wiped out, leaving the mission in ruins.

• Chen Ying recognized Wutu Gu at Guanyin Temple, and A Da sensed danger and threw her away with instructions to flee with the little fox.
• Wutu Gu revealed the Dragon Transformation Method and overwhelmed A Da with a strange, crushing aura.
• Shen Qi and A Er found the empress waiting alone at Three Stars Temple, where her supernatural allure affected A Er but left him clearheaded enough to attack.
• A Er charged the empress with Xu Hu’s Heavenly Spear, but she caught his trident between two fingers and twisted him to death.
• Shen Qi’s Thousand Eyes Spell relayed the outcomes from the other locations, and he learned that every group had been annihilated.

A Li’s instinct warned her that danger had returned, and she discovered that Chen Ying was a Spirit Devouring Demon acting for the empress. The empress forced A Li into a spell pact to impersonate Chen Qing and die publicly, then revealed that the scholar A Li had eaten was someone she knew.

• A Li decided to flee but found Chen Ying waiting at the door and learned that the other groups had destroyed three temples while Shen Qi’s group faced an ambush.
• Chen Ying told A Li to stall for time until Ao Zhen broke the seal, and A Li realized Chen Ying was likely a Spirit Devouring Demon who needed her to impersonate Chen Qing.
• A Li argued that the empress needed a convincing fake Chen Qing to win the aristocratic families’ allegiance, and the empress entered and questioned her about her past.
• The empress identified A Li as Lu Xiaoshuang, a top artist from the Development Team, and offered to explain why A Li had softened toward a human.
• A Li agreed to a spell pact requiring her to become Chen Qing and be beaten to death in public in exchange for the truth.
• The empress revealed that Cui Yan, the scholar A Li had eaten, was someone A Li knew.

A Li confronted the painful memories of Pan Kai and Cui Yan as the empress tried to break her will and make her forget her past. The next morning, the capital gathered to watch Chen Qing face a Southern Barbarian prince in a deadly duel that could decide Xiao Mingxue’s future.

• A Li vomited as memories surfaced of rejecting Pan Kai and later eating his heart and liver.
• The empress told A Li that Cui Yan’s reincarnation had not been arranged and urged her to keep her promise as A Li’s eyes lost their color.
• The empress left A Li staring lifelessly at the ground and apologizing.
• Thousands gathered at the capital’s martial arena to watch Chen Qing duel a Southern Barbarian prince over Xiao Mingxue.
• Xiao Mingxuan greeted the empress dowager and Xiao Mingxue, hoping Jiangnan would win so his sister could remain in the capital and help cure his impotence.
• Xiao Mingxuan sensed that the Southern Barbarian contender was even more dangerous than his father as the duel approached.

As the duel between Chen Qing and Wutu Gu approached, princes, merchants, nobles, and Yuchi Peng judged the fighters’ chances and weighed what Chen Qing’s defeat would mean for Jiangnan. The chapter left Yuchi Peng fearing that Wutu Gu was so powerful that Chen Qing might be in serious danger.

• Xiao Mingxuan worried that Wutu Gu was more dangerous than any opponent he had seen and feared losing the chance to benefit if Chen Qing fell.
• The princes mocked Xiao Mingxuan and argued over whether Chen Qing’s victory over Lu Ming proved he could defeat Wutu Gu.
• Commoners and merchants debated the fighters, with many merchants hoping Chen Qing would win so Jiangnan’s fair marketplace would survive.
• The great clans anticipated reclaiming Jiangnan and imposing controls if Chen Qing were killed.
• Yuchi Peng arrived, recalled Wutu Gu’s overwhelming presence, and concluded that Chen Qing was probably in serious trouble.

The emperor watched as Wutu Gu’s overwhelming presence humiliated Great Jin’s martial officials before Chen Qing arrived late through the crowd. The emperor and Wutu Gu recognized that the scholar was not the fake they had expected, leaving the contest’s true stakes uncertain.

• Xiao Mingxue told the emperor she trusted Chen Qing to win and vowed to become strong enough to make him see marrying her as the best bargain in the world.
• Wutu Gu walked toward the fighting platform, forcing spectators and military officers to look away or cough up blood; Yuchi Peng endured until Wutu Gu reached the platform.
• The empress dowager challenged the emperor over Great Jin’s humiliation, while the emperor argued that strength and victory mattered regardless of their source.
• After the eunuch called for the King of Qin twice, Chen Qing arrived late by squeezing through the crowd instead of emerging from the pavilion.
• The emperor and Wutu Gu realized that Chen Qing was not the fake they had expected and watched him with sudden seriousness.

Chen Qing arrived to fight Wutu Gu, while the emperor and empress dowager watched from the stands. After Chen Qing caught Wutu Gu’s opening punch, he revealed that he was maintaining a barrier around the arena himself, even as he fought.

• The emperor questioned Chen Qing’s unexpected appearance, while the empress dowager concealed what she knew and Xiao Mingxue said she planned to go to Jiangnan with her husband if he won.
• Chen Qing confronted Wutu Gu over the Ghost Temple and his treatment of the Southern Barbarians, declaring that he would never sacrifice anyone.
• Wutu Gu launched a lightning-fast punch, but Chen Qing caught it with one hand, and their clash shattered the court’s barrier.
• A new barrier contained the dust and debris around the arena, and Wutu Gu realized Chen Qing was casting it while fighting him.

Chen Qing fought Wutu Gu while maintaining a barrier around the training ground, revealing strength that made Wutu Gu unleash his Dragon Transformation Technique. Wutu Gu attacked the barrier to exploit Chen Qing’s apparent concern for the people outside, and the emperor immediately called him an idiot.

• Wutu Gu recognized Chen Qing’s ability to fight while using barrier arts and unleashed his Dragon Transformation Technique.
• Chen Qing identified Wutu Gu’s transformation as a Dragon Transformation Technique and wondered what breed he was.
• Chen Qing taunted Wutu Gu while dodging his attacks and maintaining the barrier, impressing the onlookers.
• Wutu Gu decided to strike the barrier, believing it was Chen Qing’s weakness.
• Chen Qing smiled as Wutu Gu charged the barrier, while the emperor called him an idiot.

Chen Qing trapped Wutu Gu with a barrier, then accepted the emperor’s claim that such a victory was dishonorable and chose to fight with a sword instead. He drew Xiao Mingyue’s Phoenix Cry and challenged Wutu Gu to withstand three moves, leaving Wutu Gu confident that he could survive them.

• Wutu Gu charged Chen Qing’s barrier, but Chen Qing trapped him in a tiny space and compressed it to palm size.
• Chen Qing called on the emperor to declare the winner, but the emperor dismissed his warlock methods as dishonorable for a martial duel.
• Chen Qing released Wutu Gu and expanded the barrier across the arena, alarming the fighters, warlocks, and emperor.
• Chen Qing said he would use traditional methods and drew Xiao Mingyue’s sword, Phoenix Cry.
• Chen Qing claimed he knew only Xiao Mingyue’s three moves and promised to concede if Wutu Gu withstood them; Wutu Gu accepted the challenge with renewed confidence.

Chen Qing defeated Wutu Gu with one of the three sword moves taught to him by the Grand Princess, exposing the weakness of Wutu Gu’s ancient trident technique. After winning, Chen Qing asked the emperor to honor his edict and return his wife to him.

• Wutu Gu built up his momentum while Chen Qing waited calmly, then charged at him.
• Chen Qing struck with a single exquisite sword move that reduced Wutu Gu to a skeleton.
• Chen Qing explained that Wutu Gu’s trident technique was outdated and praised the combat skills of the Central Plains.
• Wutu Gu crumbled after the barrier shattered and regretted not using the weapon and skills he had mastered.
• Chen Qing stepped down from the platform and asked the emperor to return his wife under the imperial edict.