Chapter Summaries

Chen Ye survived another dive in Blackwater Lake and was promoted to a fourth-level convict after turning in a valuable spirit pearl. After Zhao Qiu and his men targeted him for his unusually good harvests, Chen Ye wondered whether spirit pearls could activate the Boat of the Other Shore.

• Chen Ye found an eight-point spirit pearl in a spirit clam, then escaped the freezing lake just before his Yin-Dispelling Talisman failed.
• At the dock, Chen Ye watched a convict be killed for hiding a ninth-grade spirit pearl and felt an intense craving when he saw it.
• Chen Ye handed in his pearl and was promoted from a third-level to a fourth-level convict, receiving better supplies.
• Zhao Qiu and two other high-ranking convicts followed Chen Ye and planned to seize the place where they suspected he found spirit clams.
• Chen Ye evaded the men in an alley, heard their plans, and suspected that spirit pearls might be connected to activating the Boat of the Other Shore.

Chen Ye risked diving in Blackwater Lake’s central waters and obtained a ninth-grade spirit pearl, unlocking the Boat of the Other Shore. The boat then pulled his consciousness into a strange vortex.

• Chen Ye settled into his improved dwelling, prepared a dagger and warning traps, and decided to seek a spirit pearl in the central waters.
• Chen Ye noticed Zhao Qiu and two others watching him at the docks, then rowed out to the central pearl-gathering area.
• Chen Ye found and pried open a large spirit clam, but a strange fish wounded his arm as he reached for its ninth-grade spirit pearl.
• Chen Ye drove off the strange fish with his spirit shovel, took the pearl, and returned to his boat while Zhao Qiu’s boat remained nearby.
• Chen Ye used the pearl to unlock the Boat of the Other Shore, which appeared in his sea of consciousness and pulled his consciousness into a vortex.

After being resurrected as Chen Ye, a falsely accused servant in the collapsing Great Zhao, Chen Ye received the Petty Thief profession and stole a drunk man's money pouch to buy food. Just as he finished his first meal, several men confronted him over whose turf he was working.

• Chen Ye woke in a ruined temple after the Lin household had beaten his predecessor to death for supposedly stealing Lin Yan's jeweled hairpin.
• Chen Ye discovered his Petty Thief profession and the Lingering Fragrance on the Hands talent, then set off for the city without letting the Lin household find him.
• Chen Ye entered the city after dark, found the beggars' corner was claimed, and stole a drunk man's pouch with his nimble hands.
• Chen Ye used the pouch's copper coins to buy and eat a bowl of noodles at a street stall.
• Several men blocked Chen Ye as he prepared to leave, and their leader asked whose turf he was working.

Chen Ye joined Fang Tao's Rong Character Gate, learned its rules, and spent six months secretly training his thieving skills. His Petty Thief profession then reached its maximum level, prompting him to advance and change professions.

• Fang Tao confronted Chen Ye over stealing a pouch, then offered to recruit him into the Rong Character Gate after recognizing his talent.
• Fang Tao explained that the Rong Character Gate was the Thieves' Sect and described its three rules against stealing life-saving money, a chaste woman's hairpin, or wedding and funeral gift money.
• Chen Ye agreed to join and moved into the gate's shared courtyard, where Fang Tao gave him a room and promised to teach him skills.
• Over the next six months, Chen Ye trained with the old thieves by day and secretly practiced his techniques at night while hiding his true ability.
• Chen Ye practiced Fishing Coins from Boiling Water and his knife skills, then received a notification that his Petty Thief profession had reached its maximum level and could advance.

Chen Ye chose the Cat Burglar career, tested its leaping talent, and trained until he unlocked Running on Eaves. At a busy temple fair, he spotted a wealthy bully who had slapped an old vendor and followed him as a potential target.

• Chen Ye chose Cat Burglar over Tomb Robber and Water Bandit, gaining the Light as a Swallow talent.
• Chen Ye tested his new agility on an abandoned city wall and decided he would someday explore the imperial palace and confront the Lin Family.
• After practicing for several nights, Chen Ye unlocked Running on Eaves and continued training.
• In the twelfth lunar month, Chen Ye visited Fayuan Temple's crowded fair, where he saw a potbellied man berate an old candied-hawthorn seller over one copper coin.
• The man slapped the old vendor, tossed down two coins, and walked away, so Chen Ye followed him.

At Fayuan Temple, Chen Ye followed Lin Yan and discovered she was meeting someone in a secluded side hall. He recognized the disguised visitor as the man his predecessor had caught meeting Lin Yan in the Lin Family’s back garden.

• Chen Ye pickpocketed a man at the temple fair, replaced his money pouch with stones, and gave the stolen copper coins to the candied hawthorn seller.
• Chen Ye entered Fayuan Temple and spotted Mengtao, Lin Yan’s personal maid, hurrying toward the main hall.
• Chen Ye saw Lin Yan emerge from the main hall after offering incense, then followed her as she toured the temple and entered a secluded side hall.
• Mengtao brought a tall, disguised visitor into the side hall, and Chen Ye recognized him as the man his predecessor had caught meeting Lin Yan in secret.

Chen Ye discovered Lin Yan’s secret affair with Zhou Xian but chose to keep the information for a chance to expose it later. At the Eight Great Schools’ spring gathering, Yang Ze challenged Fang Tao’s Rong Character Gate to retrieve a coin from boiling oil, and Chen Ye offered to try.

• Chen Ye overheard Lin Yan and Zhou Xian’s secret meeting, learned Lin Yan’s mother planned to marry her off, and slipped away without confronting them.
• After the New Year, Fang Tao invited Chen Ye to watch the Eight Great Schools compare skills and divide territory.
• At the gathering, Constable Zhao opened the demonstrations, and the schools displayed their distinctive abilities.
• Yang Ze challenged Fang Tao’s men to retrieve a coin from boiling oil, wagering territory in the East Market.
• When Fang Tao’s veterans hesitated, Chen Ye offered to take the challenge.

Chen Ye impressed the crowd by retrieving coins from boiling oil without injury, raising his Deft Hands skill to level 9. Yang Ze then challenged him to a knife contest, and after demonstrating a precise cut, Yang Ze watched as Chen Ye requested help from a woman of the Cai Character Gate.

• Chen Ye plunged his fingers into boiling oil and swiftly retrieved every copper coin without burning himself, winning the first contest for Fang Tao.
• The crowd cheered Chen Ye, and his Deft Hands skill increased from level 7 to level 9.
• Yang Ze accepted the loss but challenged Chen Ye to a knife-skills contest, which Chen Ye readily accepted.
• Yang Ze demonstrated his fast knife by slicing a piece of raw pork atop an inflated pig's bladder without damaging it.
• Chen Ye smiled and asked a woman from the Cai Character Gate to come onstage and help him.

Chen Ye demonstrated extraordinary knife control by cutting and shaving wet paper from Little Bell’s wrist without injuring her, decisively defeating Yang Ze. After the skill display preserved the gates’ existing positions, Chen Ye joined Commander Zhao and the faction leaders at the banquet.

• Chen Ye asked Little Bell of the Cai Character Gate to roll up her sleeve and let him place wet paper against her wrist.
• Chen Ye split the paper down the middle without cutting Little Bell, then shaved the remaining paper off in one piece without harming her.
• Yang Ze recognized that Chen Ye had defeated him, while Commander Zhao and the elders praised Chen Ye’s knife work.
• Little Bell revealed her real name as Wu Xiaorui and left Chen Ye after teasing him.
• The skill display ended with the gates’ positions largely unchanged, and Chen Ye received a seat beside Fang Tao at the banquet.

Chen Ye learned that Lin Yan was to marry Second Young Master Lu in ten days and suspected the rushed wedding was meant to conceal her pregnancy. Seeing a chance to strike back at the Lin Family, he disguised himself as a scholar, surveyed the Lu Residence, and slipped out after dark.

• Commander Zhao boasted that Vice Minister Lu had invited him to Second Young Master Lu’s wedding to the Lin Family’s third young lady, Lin Yan.
• Chen Ye remembered seeing Lin Yan meet her lover at Fayuan Temple and suspected she was pregnant, prompting him to consider how to use the situation against the Lin Family.
• After returning to the shared courtyard, Chen Ye accepted his companions’ praise for his performance at the restaurant.
• Chen Ye bought a scholar’s robe and surveyed the walls, guard routes, and blind spots around the Lu Residence.
• After buying cheap paper and a brush, Chen Ye returned home, folded away his robe, and leaped out of his window after everyone had gone to sleep.

Chen Ye secretly delivered a letter to Lu Jingcheng accusing Lin Yan of having a lover and possibly being pregnant, turning Lu Jingcheng against the Lin Family. Lu Jingcheng vowed to break the engagement and expose them, while Lu Ying listened without revealing what he would do.

• Chen Ye infiltrated Vice Minister Lu's residence and identified Lu Jingcheng as the second young master.
• Chen Ye threw a letter through the study window, alleging that Lin Yan had secretly met her lover at Fayuan Temple and might be pregnant.
• Lu Jingcheng believed the allegation and grew furious, suspecting the Lin Family had chosen him to cover up Lin Yan's situation.
• Lu Jingcheng took the letter to Lu Ying and demanded that the engagement be broken and the Lin Family's actions made known across the capital.
• Lu Ying read the letter calmly and asked Lu Jingcheng what he intended to do before acknowledging his demand.

Lu Ying investigated an anonymous accusation against Lin Yan, then ended Lu Jingcheng’s engagement to her and publicly exposed her secret tryst and pregnancy. As the scandal spread through the capital and Lin Yan’s reputation was ruined, Chen Ye calmly ate noodles and checked his system panel.

• Lu Ying sent a steward to Fayuan Temple, where a novice confirmed that Lin Yan had visited and spent a long time alone in the rear hall.
• Lu Ying ordered the Lin Family’s gifts returned and called off the marriage, leaving Lu Jingcheng furious and humiliated.
• Lin Hong confronted Lu Ying, and Lu Jingcheng accused Lin Yan of having a secret lover and carrying his child.
• Lu Ying rejected any further marriage between the families and shut the residence gates on Lin Hong.
• The scandal spread through the capital, storytellers turned it into popular tales, and Lin Yan’s reputation was ruined.
• Chen Ye ate a bowl of noodles in a crowded courtyard residence and opened the system panel.

Chen Ye advanced his roof thief skills through a successful infiltration and six months of practice, reaching the maximum level and unlocking three new classes. Meanwhile, Lin Yan’s secret affair was exposed, and she was left disgraced after the Lin Family forced her to end her pregnancy.

• Chen Ye saw that his roof thief class had reached level three after his mission at the Lu residence.
• Lin Hong confined Lin Yan and ordered a physician to end her pregnancy, rejecting her pleas and her mother’s silence.
• Lin Yan learned that an anonymous letter about her and a young master at Fayuan Temple had exposed the affair, but she never suspected Chen Ye.
• The Lin Family failed to stop the scandal from spreading, and Lin Yan’s reputation was ruined.
• Over the next half year, Chen Ye trained his skills until Deft Hands and Swift Blade reached level ten and his roof thief class reached its maximum level.
• Chen Ye accepted a class change and received the options Mechanist, Nightwalker, and Thousand-Faced Guest.

Chen Ye chose the Nightwalker class and discovered that its Child of Shadow talent made him nearly undetectable in darkness. As war, famine, and unrest plunged Great Zhao into crisis, he decided to use his strength to change the world and chose the Lin Family’s grain shop as his first target.

• Chen Ye chose the Nightwalker class, gaining the Child of Shadow talent and moving silently through the darkness.
• Chen Ye practiced his new talent as life in the city continued peacefully until the Mid-Autumn Festival.
• A northern messenger brought news that steppe forces had seized Yu Pass, Stone Pass, and Ningwu, and further defeats spread panic across Great Zhao.
• War costs and disasters drove taxes and grain prices higher, while famine sent desperate villagers toward the cities.
• Chen Ye witnessed the suffering of the displaced and the profiteering of wealthy families, then chose the Lin Family’s grain shop as his first target.

Chen Ye infiltrated the Granary Full of Fortune and killed its corrupt head shopkeeper, Wang Shun, after discovering the shop hands had been taken down. He inspected the grain and woke the unconscious bookkeeper, leaving his next move unstated.

• Wang Shun drank and ate while Old Li counted the rice shop’s accounts, and he reflected on how he profited by adulterating rice with sand and old grain.
• Wang Shun noticed the courtyard patrol had gone silent and armed himself with a hand crossbow, ordering Old Li to investigate.
• Old Li found the shop hands lying motionless in the courtyard and saw Wang Shun collapse with a slit throat.
• Chen Ye knocked Old Li unconscious, checked the ledger, and opened a rice sack to inspect the grain.
• Chen Ye poured cold water on Old Li to wake him.

Chen Ye forced Granary Full of Fortune to open its doors and distribute the Lin Family’s rice to the starving, then watched from nearby until the grain was gone. The refugees praised an unnamed masked hero, while the Lin Family became furious.

• Chen Ye woke Old Li and the workers, then ordered them to open the rice shop and bring out its grain.
• Chen Ye ordered the workers to announce a free grain distribution for disaster victims and warned them to finish within two hours.
• A starving boy accepted rice, proving the offer was genuine and drawing refugees and commoners into a long queue.
• Old Li told the grateful crowd that a masked hero had forced the shop to give away the grain.
• Chen Ye watched until the rice was distributed, and the masked hero’s name spread through the capital as the Lin Family grew furious.

Lin Hong summoned retired Six Gates chief constable Cheng Ming and his granddaughter Cheng Zhiwei to investigate the masked thief who killed Wang Shun and distributed the Lin Family’s grain. After examining the scene and questioning the workers, Cheng Ming concluded the thief was an exceptionally skilled martial artist who likely acted for revenge, though Lin Hong could not name an enemy.

• Lin Hong ordered Old Li and the rice shop workers locked up, then asked the Six Gates to send its best chief constable.
• Cheng Ming and Cheng Zhiwei arrived at the Granary Full of Fortune and carefully examined the courtyard, rooftops, and Wang Shun’s body.
• Cheng Ming questioned Old Li about the masked man’s attack, disappearance, and distribution of the grain.
• Cheng Ming and Cheng Zhiwei judged the thief’s stealth and saber skills to be extraordinary.
• Cheng Ming asked whether the Lin Family had offended a powerful jianghu figure, but Lin Hong said he knew of no such enemy.

After Chen Ye’s raid on Granary Full of Fortune, Cheng Zhiwei helped Lin Hong set traps at Lin Family businesses while the capital’s wealthy families tightened security. Chen Ye gained a new stealth skill and, seeing through the Lin Family’s bait, slipped away to target another family.

• Cheng Zhiwei warned Lin Hong that the attacker might threaten other Lin Family businesses and advised him to use guarded shops as bait.
• Lin Hong strengthened security at important businesses and left openings at less important shops, prompting other wealthy families in the capital to increase their defenses.
• Chen Ye reviewed his gains from the raid and found that he had advanced to Nightwalker lv3 and learned Shadow Concealment.
• Fang Tao and the Rong Character Gate disciples celebrated the masked hero who had attacked Granary Full of Fortune, unaware that Chen Ye was among them.
• Chen Ye inspected the Lin Family’s silk shop, spotted the hidden fighters and crossbow trap, and left to choose a target from another family.

Chen Ye robbed the Everlasting Prosperity Bank and secretly distributed its copper coins to poor households across the capital. As the city’s powerful families united to hunt him, Cheng Zhiwei concluded that the thief might be a local master bandit, and Cheng Ming decided to consult Zhao An of the Arrest Bureau.

• Chen Ye broke into the Everlasting Prosperity Bank’s vault, removed its copper coins, and carried them to a secluded location.
• Chen Ye distributed the stolen money among poor households, and witnesses glimpsed a mysterious black-clad figure before he vanished.
• Bank clerks discovered the vault had been emptied, and the capital learned that hundreds of poor households had received money.
• Lin Hong and Minister Zhang condemned the robbery and joined the capital’s powerful families in a search for the thief.
• Cheng Zhiwei suggested the thief was a local master bandit rather than an outsider, and Cheng Ming resolved to visit Zhao An of the Arrest Bureau.

As officials searched for Treading the Moon, Chen Ye chose the notorious Li Chunfeng as his next target and announced that he would take Li’s head in three days. The warning was discovered at Duke Anguo’s Residence, where Li Chunfeng dismissed it as a personal grudge and the Six Gates recognized the signature.

• Zhao An mobilized the Eight Great Schools, the Six Gates, the Military Patrol Office, and the Arrest Bureau to search for the sky-flying thief, while the schools dragged their feet and commoners cheered the thief in secret.
• Chen Ye realized robbing the Everlasting Prosperity Bank had not advanced his profession, so he decided to pursue justice against Li Chunfeng instead of stealing for wealth.
• Chen Ye considered Li Chunfeng’s history of abusing and killing women and went to Duke Anguo’s Residence under cover of night.
• The next morning, Li Chunfeng dismissed a young woman he had abducted and abused, then found a message on the residence wall threatening to take his head in three days, signed Treading the Moon.
• Li Chunfeng ordered his guards to disperse the watching crowd and erase the message, while the Six Gates arrived and recognized Treading the Moon’s signature.