Recaps

Chu Tianshu persuaded Abbot Miaofan that Southern Shaolin should use its strength to strike first, starting with the wokou, and asked how two Miaofans would fare against his master. The chapter ended with the master’s answer still unknown.

• Chu Tianshu presented himself as an heir of the School of Diplomacy and promised to help Southern Shaolin escape its predicament and become the dominant power in the region.
• Abbot Miaofan explained how Southern Shaolin’s growing enterprises and the spread of wokou and foreign sabers had made the sect a target for coastal factions and Flowing Cloud Manor.
• Chu Tianshu urged Abbot Miaofan to stop hesitating and attack the wokou first, arguing that the campaign would be righteous and would strengthen Southern Shaolin.
• Abbot Miaofan described the danger posed by Chen Zuqi, whose martial skill and past victories had made the wokou revere him.
• Chu Tianshu asked whether six masters of the Miao generation could make Chen Zuqi withdraw, then asked his master how many moves two Miaofans would need to defeat him.

Chu Tianshu tested his strength against Abbot Miaofan and overpowered Southern Shaolin’s master techniques with his exceptionally potent internal power. Miaofan agreed to discuss Chu Tianshu’s offer with his fellow disciples, while Chu Tianshu said he would return the next day and hinted that he brought more than his own martial arts.

• Chu Tianshu challenged Abbot Miaofan to a sparring match after Miaofan estimated how long he could withstand him.
• Miaofan used the Nine Diagrams and Six Seated Postures to evade Chu Tianshu, but Chu Tianshu tore his robes and disrupted his movement by striking a tree.
• Miaofan attacked with the Indra Claw and Tidal Sound Palm Technique, but Chu Tianshu met both techniques and showed that his internal power was superior.
• Chu Tianshu thanked Miaofan for going easy on him, and Miaofan praised his strength and invited him to discuss Southern Shaolin’s prospects with other disciples.
• Chu Tianshu said he would return the next day and revealed that he had brought more than his own martial arts.

Abbot Miaofan and his brothers debated whether Southern Shaolin should fight Flowing Cloud Manor or surrender, then Chu Tianshu brought them to the monastery’s weapons workshop to demonstrate the Fire God Secret Formula. The musket’s power won Miaofan and Miaokong’s support, leaving Chu Tianshu to begin cultivating Miaokong as an ally.

• Miaofan told Miaoyin, Miaokong, and Miaoguo about Chu Tianshu’s proposal and his defeat, and the monks debated the risks of fighting Flowing Cloud Manor or negotiating peace.
• Miaofan and his brothers agreed to send secret letters to Southern Shaolin’s lay disciples to learn their views.
• After midnight, Chu Tianshu arrived with Xu Zhicheng and Xu Ben, shared pastries with Miaofan, and asked him to bring Miaokong to the weapons workshop.
• Xu Ben inspected the workshop, made two rounds of ammunition, and demonstrated their power by firing a hand cannon at trees from over a hundred paces away.
• Miaofan asked whether Xu Ben could make long muskets, and Xu Ben said the workshop’s bladesmiths could learn to make them.
• Miaokong recognized the weapons as part of the Fire God Secret Formula, while Chu Tianshu used his ability to assess Miaokong’s feelings and judged him to be a potentially useful ally.

Zhao Yannian led Southern Shaolin fighters in a surprise attack on the Giant Whale Gang’s Pingtan branch, rescuing captive women and seizing its boats. Chu Tianshu and Miaokong arrived with armed monks and ordered the force to head for Ox Mountain Island, where they planned to attack the Japanese raiders.

• Zhao Yannian’s fighters infiltrated the harbor and killed nearly all the Giant Whale Gang members at its Pingtan branch, including its one-eyed leader.
• Zhao Yannian’s men found abducted women in the hold, freed them, and inspected the captured boats while awaiting Southern Shaolin’s reinforcements.
• Miaokong arrived with Chu Tianshu and more than two hundred selected fighters, then Chu Tianshu ordered them to sail for Ox Mountain Island.
• Chu Tianshu brought out a Divine Fire Gun and said he wanted to shoulder it and shoot the Japanese raiders.

Kichinosuke planned to expand the Ox Mountain Island wokou’s trade after a coming attack on Southern Shaolin, but a Southern Shaolin fleet launched a surprise assault. Chu Tianshu and Chan Master Miaokong helped rout the wokou, and Chu ordered the fleet to surround the island and prevent any escape.

• Kichinosuke dismissed Matsushita’s complaints about the wokou’s idle life and revealed plans to profit from an impending attack on Southern Shaolin.
• Kichinosuke and Matsushita went to inspect ships flying Giant Whale Gang flags, then realized the fleet was attacking when its men opened fire.
• The wokou tried to resist with arrows and Sonic Arts, but the fleet’s gunfire killed many of them.
• Chu Tianshu shot through the wokou’s shields, killed Matsushita with iron prayer beads, and wounded Kichinosuke after the chief deflected his bullets.
• Chan Master Miaokong used Southern Shaolin’s Lion’s Roar as Chu Tianshu charged onto the island and overwhelmed the wokou with his pressure.
• Chu Tianshu ordered the fleet to surround Ox Mountain Island, reload, and stop every wokou boat from escaping.

Zhao Yannian’s forces captured Ox Mountain Island, killing or hunting down the Japanese pirates and rescuing the abducted captives. Afterward, Chu Tianshu discussed using captured swords and expanding production of the Divine Fire Gun, while Chan Master Miaokong assigned Zhao Yannian responsibility for Pingtan County and warned that Chu needed protection.

• Zhao Yannian’s fleet encircled Ox Mountain Island, and landing parties searched for the pirates hiding there.
• Three monks using the Yaksha Staff Formation killed a pirate leader, while one young monk struggled with having killed a person before deciding to keep fighting the pirates.
• The search parties cleared the island, and Chan Master Miaokong asked Zhao Yannian to comfort the more than a hundred rescued captives.
• Chu Tianshu gathered Japanese swords as spoils and explained to Zhao Yannian that they could be used until guns became widespread.
• Chu Tianshu explained that outside workshops could manufacture Divine Fire Guns while Southern Shaolin’s workshops kept ammunition production secret.
• Chan Master Miaokong assigned Zhao Yannian responsibility for Pingtan County and said the four monks would accompany Chu Tianshu to protect him from Chen Zuqi.

Chu Tianshu returned to Southern Shaolin after the campaign against the wokou and reviewed the temple’s expanding operations and intelligence network. Back at the temple, he investigated why its hard-style practitioners did not cultivate internal arts and discovered that the world’s basic internal methods resembled Spirit Communication Aperture Opening.

• Chu Tianshu and Miaokong traveled back by boat with fewer than twenty monks, and Miaokong proposed allowing monks who wished to fight the wokou to become secular disciples.
• Chu Tianshu reviewed reports of victories in Zhao'an, Zhangpu, Haicheng, and near Dongshan County, then advised Miaokong to keep public reports vague and strengthen the ferryman monks’ intelligence network.
• Chu Tianshu crossed the water and climbed to Southern Shaolin, where he greeted the warrior monks practicing in the Arhat Hall’s training ground.
• Chu Tianshu recalled finding that Southern Shaolin had produced no one who practiced both internal arts and external hard-style arts, despite the two paths seeming compatible.
• After examining the temple’s manuals and consulting Abbot Miaofan and the other elders, Chu Tianshu concluded that the initial methods of internal cultivation resembled Spirit Communication Aperture Opening.

Chu Tianshu investigated how Spirit Communication Aperture Opening had led this world’s cultivators to develop internal Qi instead of Mind Power, then worked to refine a cultivation method that could connect the two. As Southern Shaolin’s resistance against the Japanese pirates gained support, an unknown swordsman appeared at the Arhat Hall, leaving Chu Tianshu to ask what kind of person he was.

• Chu Tianshu deduced that cultivators in this world had turned from Mind Power toward internal Qi to avoid the madness and dangers associated with the Mist and Rosy Clouds Realm Layer.
• Miaogao and Miaoji told Chu Tianshu they could not grasp the Sky-Spanning Divine Art’s introductory chapter, but demonstrated their progress with the Golden Toad Sect’s Immortal Force.
• Chu Tianshu praised the hard-technique monks’ improved fist skills and planned to simplify the divine art while using them to build a stronger force.
• Miaokong told Chu Tianshu that Southern Shaolin had cleared the coast of Eight Min and damaged the Japanese sword trade, but had found no sign of Chen Zuqi’s adopted sons.
• A young swordsman in black appeared atop the wall after circling around the mountain, and Chu Tianshu asked what kind of person he was.

Xiahou Feishan infiltrated Southern Shaolin while searching for someone, but Chu Tianshu challenged and defeated him. Xiahou agreed to answer three questions and serve Chu Tianshu by killing wokou, and the chapter ended with Chu sealing their agreement with Xiahou’s handprint.

• Master Miaokong recognized Xiahou Feishan as the Xiahou family’s second young master after spotting the maple-leaf mark on his scabbard.
• Xiahou Feishan agreed to Chu Tianshu’s terms: if Chu defeated him, Xiahou would answer three questions and work against the wokou until he killed three experts like Miaokong or a thousand true wokou.
• Xiahou Feishan launched himself into the air, and Chu Tianshu pursued him with a leap that shattered part of the wall.
• Xiahou Feishan drew his ordinary iron sword and unleashed a sword technique that filled the courtyard with fiery red maple leaves.
• Chu Tianshu broke Xiahou Feishan’s sword, disarmed him, and struck him down in the training yard.
• Chu Tianshu pressed Xiahou Feishan’s hand into blood on a sheet of paper to seal the agreement, then asked his questions.

After Chu Tianshu defeated Xiahou Feishan, Xiahou explained that he had come to Southern Shaolin seeking the mysterious swordsman who killed famous killers. Chu Tianshu learned that Xiahou wanted the swordsman to kill him over heartbreak concerning Ying'er, then asked him to explain how he had cultivated Sword Dao Divine Intent.

• Chu Tianshu gave Xiahou Feishan water and food, then asked the monks to repair the damage Xiahou had caused.
• Chan Master Miaokong explained the history of the swordsman who had killed dozens of famous killers, and Xiahou revealed that the man had defeated him.
• Xiahou said the swordsman planned to target the Flowing Cloud Manor Master and Chen Zuqi, and that he had come hoping to find him.
• Xiahou admitted he wanted a quicker way to die after learning Ying'er had married his elder brother, and Chu Tianshu stopped him from dwelling on it.
• Chu Tianshu asked Xiahou to describe how he had cultivated Sword Dao Divine Intent.

Xiahou Feishan explained how his pursuit of fame shaped his Sword Intent and how his ancestor had first comprehended the art. After Chu Tianshu recognized how Divine Intent interacted with the Mist and Rosy Clouds Realm Layer, he challenged Xiahou Feishan to stop his fist using only Sword Intent.

• Xiahou Feishan recounted how his ancestor made peace with failure and comprehended the Hermit's Sword.
• Xiahou Feishan described leaving Xiahou Mountain Manor to hunt criminals and developing a Sword Intent fueled by his desire to become famous.
• Chu Tianshu observed the mist and rosy clouds tempering Xiahou Feishan's Sword Intent and understood how Martial Dao Divine Intent worked.
• Chu Tianshu asked Xiahou Feishan to stop his fist with Sword Intent alone and offered to help him find the answer.

Eunuch Zuo Ziqing arrived at Southern Shaolin to investigate the missing Divine Machine Battalion soldiers and obtain the Fire God Secret Formula, while the temple stalled him by claiming its abbot had been injured. Chu Tianshu completed a new hard qigong technique and warned that Chen Zuqi might be waiting to act now that the imperial envoy had arrived.

• Zuo Ziqing told his companions that the Ming realm was prosperous, but suspected Flowing Cloud Manor of making the Divine Machine Battalion soldiers disappear and believed it would avoid open war for now.
• Zuo Ziqing reached Southern Shaolin and learned that Xiahou Feishan had supposedly injured Abbot Miaofan in a fight, then the monks denied knowing about the new firearms because Miaofan was unconscious.
• Miaofan and Xiahou Feishan spoke privately with Chu Tianshu, who had been using their martial exchanges to study sword intent and improve his own skills.
• Chu Tianshu completed the Arhat Mind-Settling Hard Qigong, and Miaofan recognized its unusual approach to cultivating internal force.
• Chu Tianshu suspected Chen Zuqi was either lost at sea or hiding in Eight Min, and suggested that Xiahou Feishan choose a sword from Dharma Hall.

Chen Zuqi, disguised as the merchant Zhou Quan, discussed the attacks on his children and Southern Shaolin’s growing influence before deciding to strike. He set fires across Mount Qingyuan, forcing Southern Shaolin to choose between protecting the mountain and guarding its hidden weapons workshops and gunpowder.

• Zhou Quan learned that assassins had killed or injured several of his children, while the swordsman targeting Second Miss remained at large.
• Chen Zuqi refused to use his double, judged that Southern Shaolin was his most urgent threat, and ordered his followers to act.
• Chen Zuqi’s men left town in small groups and used fire oil and thousand-mile fire to ignite multiple locations on Mount Qingyuan.
• The fires spread through the mountain forest, sending thick smoke into the sky and threatening Southern Shaolin’s concealed workshops and gunpowder stores.

A sudden arson drew Southern Shaolin’s monks and the imperial envoy’s party away from their posts, but the fires proved to be a diversion. As Abbot Miaofan and the others regrouped in Mahavira Hall, Chen Zuqi emerged disguised as a painted arhat and launched a deadly attack.

• Chan Master Miaokong organized the monks to fight fires across Southern Shaolin, while Zuo Ziqing led the imperial envoy’s party down the mountain.
• Chu Tianshu, Miaofan, Xiahou Feishan, and the others escorted the ammunition craftsmen from their workshop and returned to the temple as iron whistles signaled that fires were being put out.
• Abbot Miaofan dismissed the praying monks from Mahavira Hall, and Miaokong reported that groups of disciples were returning from the forest.
• Chu Tianshu suspected that Chen Zuqi’s men could have disguised themselves as monks, but the group found no intruders among those gathered at the hall.
• A painted Alms-Bowl-Holding Arhat attacked Miaofan; Miaoyin and Miaoguo struck it, and Xiahou Feishan stabbed it, but the attacker continued through their defenses.
• Chu Tianshu struck Miaofan and Xiahou Feishan to bolster them, sending the attacker through the hall wall, where Chen Zuqi revealed himself and praised Chu Tianshu’s internal force.

Chen Zuqi revealed how he had hidden inside an arhat statue and used his Divine Intent to turn the experts’ combined force against Abbot Miaofan. Chu Tianshu confronted him in the great hall, and Chen Zuqi began fighting at full strength after Chu tracked him through the wooden beams.

• Chen Zuqi emerged from the hollow arhat statue and explained that his Divine Intent let him redirect multiple opponents’ power without absorbing it.
• Chen Zuqi used his Divine Intent to make the people in the hall see their own skeletons, but Chu Tianshu pulled the monks and Xiahou Feishan clear of his attack.
• Chu Tianshu exchanged palms with Chen Zuqi and disrupted his attempts to borrow force, forcing him to flee through the hall’s rafters.
• Chu Tianshu sensed Chen Zuqi’s movement and found him behind a pillar on the northwest side of the hall.
• Chen Zuqi made black and white Qi stream from his body and declared that he would fight Chu Tianshu with everything he had.

Chu Tianshu fought Chen Zuqi in Southern Shaolin’s Mahavira Hall, overcoming the pirate king’s borrowed White Bone power with a rapid succession of lightning-charged attacks. After killing Chen Zuqi and destroying his evil spirit, Chu Tianshu left the onlookers facing the aftermath of the battle.

• Chen Zuqi drew power from the Mist and Rosy Clouds Realm Layer and used it to launch himself at Chu Tianshu.
• Chan Master Miaokong attacked Chen Zuqi with 108 prayer beads, but Chen Zuqi stopped them with his internal force and hurled them at Chu Tianshu.
• Chu Tianshu evaded the bead attack with an illusion of flames, then accelerated his internal force and met Chen Zuqi’s palm with a lightning-charged strike.
• Chu Tianshu overwhelmed Chen Zuqi with rapid palm strikes and claw attacks, then pierced his chest and destroyed his heart.
• Chu Tianshu summoned Chen Zuqi’s evil spirit in a blood grid and cut it apart with cyan lightning.

Zuo Ziqing and the Brocade Guards attacked the wokou raiding a hidden weapons workshop, where Zuo fought the steward using their rival martial arts. Chu Tianshu arrived with Miaoyin and Miaoguo, revealed that he had killed Chen Zuqi, and was identified as the true owner of the Fire God Secret Formula.

• The steward and his men overwhelmed the workshop guards and captured its craftsmen as Zuo Ziqing and the Brocade Guards arrived to confront the wokou.
• Zuo Ziqing killed four wokou and ordered his men to seize craftsmen and scatter, then fought the steward with his Iron Pipa Divine Art.
• The steward countered Zuo Ziqing with the East Sea Water Cloud Sleeves, but Zuo’s strengthened kidney meridian let him break the sleeves and press the attack.
• Chu Tianshu appeared behind the steward and cut off his head, then challenged Zuo Ziqing’s claim that the secret formula belonged to the imperial court.
• Miaoyin and Miaoguo identified Chu Tianshu as the formula’s true owner and announced that he had killed Chen Zuqi, leader of the wokou.

After Layman Chu Tianshu killed Chen Zuqi at Southern Shaolin, the news spread through the jianghu and drew the attention of powerful families and sects. Murong Shijie abandoned his plan to go to Quanzhou, while the Demonic Sect began investigating Chu Tianshu and preparing to exploit the turmoil in Dongying.

• Murong Shijie learned that Chu Tianshu had killed Chen Zuqi at Southern Shaolin and put aside his plan to travel to Quanzhou.
• Murong Shijie ordered his family to send its intelligence to Flowing Cloud Manor.
• Manor Lord Xiahou decided to send an apprenticeship gift to Southern Shaolin in thanks for disciplining his son.
• News of Chen Zuqi's death spread across the land, prompting some southern martial powers to seek ties with Southern Shaolin and others to look for new patrons.
• A leader of the Demonic Sect ordered an investigation into Layman Tian and sent people to Dongying to capitalize on the coming chaos.

Chu Tianshu checked his Fortune progress and discussed his injuries and new martial technique with Xiahou Feishan. He then decided it was time to meet the imperial envoy before dealing with the wokou in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

• Chu Tianshu checked his token and saw that his Fortune had reached about sixty percent of the transmigration threshold.
• Xiahou Feishan told Chu Tianshu that his appetite was still poor as he recovered from the clash with Chen Zuqi, and asked about Chu Tianshu's injuries.
• Chu Tianshu explained that his wounds had nearly healed and demonstrated a lightning-like technique he had developed from the Sky-Spanning Divine Art, Palm Thunder, and Indra Claw.
• Chu Tianshu named the move Thunder Qi Subdues the Waves while Xiahou Feishan lamented that he still had not fulfilled his contract to fight the wokou.
• Chu Tianshu said the time had come to deal with the wokou in Jiangsu and Zhejiang and stood up to meet the imperial envoy with Xiahou Feishan.

Chu Tianshu showed Zuo Ziqing evidence of corrupt officials and proposed replacing them while concealing the killings from the court. Zuo agreed to help after Chu offered a large supply of horses for the emperor, and Chu left him to recover before reporting their supposed good news to the capital.

• Zen Master Miaoguo showed Zuo Ziqing records of officials’ crimes, then Chu Tianshu arrived with Xiahou Feishan and challenged Zuo over the officials’ conduct.
• Chu Tianshu proposed accusing the corrupt officials of colluding with Japanese raiders and replacing them as they were killed; Zuo recognized the danger and asked whether Chu meant to kill him too.
• Chu Tianshu offered the court a large number of horses, and Zuo Ziqing saw a chance to gain influence by helping conceal the killings and secure official posts for Chu’s appointees.
• Miaoguo explained how imperial appointments and estates had fueled resentment and helped Flowing Cloud Manor infiltrate the provinces.
• Chu Tianshu laughed at the opportunity presented by the Great Ming’s corruption and told Zuo Ziqing to recover before reporting good news to the court.

Xiahou Yi brought the Xiahou Mountain Manor’s gifts to Southern Shaolin and met a wandering swordsman who wanted to see Chu Tianshu. Xiahou Feishan recognized the swordsman as an acquaintance, and the chapter ended with the man giving his name as Lu Shuangyan—or Yan Shuanglu.

• Xiahou Yi noticed Southern Shaolin’s followers teaching martial arts while farming and wondered about the manor master’s lavish gifts to the temple.
• A weary swordsman paid Xiahou Yi to ride in the Xiahou family carriage, and the party continued toward Southern Shaolin under guard.
• Xiahou Feishan met Xiahou Yi and learned the gifts were for Chu Tianshu, who had taken him as a disciple; he tried to inspect the presents and revise the gift list.
• Xiahou Feishan discovered the swordsman in the carriage and learned he had come from Dongying after uncovering an impostor posing as Chen Zuqi.
• The swordsman explained his Zhuxi origins and said his sword would not strike certain people with a killing move; Xiahou Feishan agreed to introduce him to Chu Tianshu.
• When Xiahou Feishan asked his name, the swordsman offered Lu Shuangyan, then added that he could also be called Yan Shuanglu.

Chu Tianshu assessed Southern Shaolin’s recommended officials and met Lu Shuangyan, who had come to study martial arts. Their conversation revealed Chu’s plans for the temple’s future, and Lu named his sword art the Thirteen Death-Claiming Swords.

• Xiahou Feishan brought Lu Shuangyan to the pavilion where officials waited to meet Chu Tianshu, who quickly assessed them and marked his recommendations.
• Chu Tianshu used the Mist and Rosy Clouds Qi Observing Technique to judge people’s merits, misdeeds, abilities, and allegiances, then agreed to meet Lun Wenxu and other candidates.
• Chu Tianshu invited Lu Shuangyan up the mountain, and they observed Southern Shaolin’s monks training among the trees.
• Lu Shuangyan recognized that Chu Tianshu was turning Southern Shaolin into a thriving center for martial arts, and Chu realized Lu had come solely to pursue martial arts.
• Lu Shuangyan named his thirteen-move sword art the Thirteen Death-Claiming Swords, and he told Chu Tianshu he had never heard of Yan Shisan.

Chu Tianshu and Lu Shuangyan demonstrated their martial arts and began a discussion through a sparring match. Lu Shuangyan revealed his fourteenth sword, but Chu Tianshu subdued its power and drove it into the earth.

• Lu Shuangyan showed how his Sword Qi could cut and spin a branch, and Chu Tianshu demonstrated his internal power by making a falling leaf strike the branch like a blade.
• Xiahou Feishan moved aside to watch without disturbing them as Lu Shuangyan attacked with the branch and Chu Tianshu intercepted his thrusts and successive sword moves.
• Lu Shuangyan unleashed his fourteenth sword, gathering the onlookers’ fear into a deadly point of icy light aimed at Chu Tianshu.
• Chu Tianshu used Thunder Qi Subdues the Waves to slow Lu Shuangyan’s sword light, then pressed it into the ground and swallowed its force.

Lu Shuangyan, Chu Tianshu, and Xiahou Feishan discussed their sword techniques after Xiahou nearly unleashed a Fourteenth Sword that seemed to come from outside his own understanding. Chu Tianshu suspected Lu Shuangyan’s sword art was attracting a forming evil spirit, and the chapter ended with Lu Shuangyan recalling that the Flowing Cloud Manor Master had broken his first thirteen swords using traces of highly skilled sword moves.

• Lu Shuangyan and Chu Tianshu compared the Fourteenth Sword with Chu’s Thunder Qi Subdues the Waves, while Xiahou Feishan listened.
• Xiahou Feishan used the battle as inspiration to imitate the qualities of Lu Shuangyan’s Thirteen Death-Claiming Swords.
• As Xiahou attempted a Fourteenth Sword, Chu Tianshu disrupted him and Lu Shuangyan sheathed his blade before he could complete the strike.
• Xiahou admitted the Fourteenth Sword had not come from his own work, and Lu Shuangyan explained that his sword art had begun urging him toward a Fifteenth Sword through dreams.
• Chu Tianshu recognized signs that a forming evil spirit in the Mist and Rosy Clouds Realm Layer had influenced Xiahou, then asked about the Flowing Cloud Manor Master.
• Lu Shuangyan said the Flowing Cloud Manor Master had no sword when he broke Lu’s first thirteen swords, but his sleeves had contained traces of several highly skilled sword moves.

Chu Tianshu invited Lu Shuangyan and Xiahou Feishan to explore Lu’s sword-making insights through poetry and prose after they discussed the danger of the Death-Claiming Sword’s fifteenth form. Meanwhile, someone at Flowing Cloud Manor awakened from meditation and addressed the fifteenth sword.

• Lu Shuangyan warned that the Flowing Cloud Manor Master might master the fifteenth sword and use it to kill powerful martial artists across the jianghu.
• Chu Tianshu decided to send a warning to the capital, then asked Lu Shuangyan to share the insights he had gained while creating his sword art.
• Chu Tianshu brought Lu Shuangyan and Xiahou Feishan to his room and showed them his collection of literary passages gathered for studying martial arts.
• Chu Tianshu proposed using poetry and prose to help Lu express the connections between Qi, body, and mind in his creative process.
• Someone at Flowing Cloud Manor awoke from meditation and asked whether the fifteenth sword wanted to be born through someone else's hand again.