Chapter Summaries

The heads of the Four Great Aristocratic Clans gathered among the Han ruins to lure Nie Hongxian and her allies into a trap, and Li Ju shared a divination that seemed to promise their side victory. Chu Tianshu arrived alone, and Pei Dongcheng challenged him to fight.

• Pei Dongcheng, Wu Chunlei, Kong Tianrui, and Li Ju waited in a ruined courtyard while their forces watched potential allies of Nie Hongxian.
• Li Ju revealed a divination verse that the clan heads interpreted as a favorable omen for their plan to seize the Divine Drum and kill their enemies.
• Wu Chunlei spotted Chu Tianshu approaching, and Chu landed on the bamboo pole outside the courtyard.
• Li Ju asked whether Chu had allowed Nie Hongxian to seek help, and Pei Dongcheng challenged him to fight.

Chu Tianshu fought Pei Dongcheng, Wu Chunlei, Kong Tianrui, and Li Ju, revealing the power of his Leakless Mystic Art and true meridians. He killed Pei Dongcheng with one saber slash, while Wu Chunlei and Kong Tianrui were forced back and Li Ju remained poised to act.

• Pei Dongcheng drew his sword and unleashed a formation of black smoke at Chu Tianshu, who sent his emerald rabbit lantern away and used spinning false bodies to gather the smoke into cocoons.
• Wu Chunlei retreated into a wooden building and attacked with enormous vines, but Chu Tianshu seized them and sent his power through the plants to disrupt Wu Chunlei through their connection.
• Kong Tianrui attacked Chu Tianshu with both palms, burned his hand on Chu Tianshu's thumb, and retreated; Li Ju noticed the danger and halted.
• Pei Dongcheng charged with his sword as Chu Tianshu drew his saber, and Chu Tianshu's slash pierced Pei Dongcheng and his sword with saber Qi, destroying all three of his souls.

Chu Tianshu killed Pei Dongcheng and fought Kong Tianrui and Li Ju, who revealed their formidable fist arts and unusual control over their bodies. After Li Ju escaped with a severe leg wound, Kong Tianrui blocked Chu Tianshu and prepared to attack him with cell-targeting palm force.

• Chu Tianshu killed Pei Dongcheng with a slash, while Kong Tianrui shed the skin on his arm to remove the Samadhi Divine Fire.
• Kong Tianrui explained how he could suspend and revive activity in his body, and Chu Tianshu recognized the technique as Leakless True Force.
• Li Ju attacked Chu Tianshu with water streams from underground, slowing his charge as Kong Tianrui moved behind him.
• Chu Tianshu used Great Void Formless Sha Fire to break through Li Ju's water curtain, but Li Ju saw his true movement and dodged.
• Li Ju enlarged his body to survive Chu Tianshu's follow-up strike, took a wound to his right leg, and retreated as he shrank again.
• Kong Tianrui blocked Chu Tianshu and reached for his wrist and elbow, confident that his precise palm force could kill him.

Chu Tianshu defeated Kong Tianrui and Li Ju in a destructive battle that ranged from the ancient city ruins to the wilderness. After confirming Li Ju was dead, Chu Tianshu checked his token and realized another powerful evil spirit remained to be captured.

• Kong Tianrui fought Chu Tianshu at close quarters until strange eyes opened along Chu Tianshu’s left arm and unleashed warped vitality that weakened him.
• Li Ju used the forbidden move of Dragon King Coming Ashore Fist to renew his qi and blood, then controlled Kong Tianrui’s movements as the two attacked Chu Tianshu together.
• Chu Tianshu drew in many kinds of qi and fought both men with overwhelming internal power, driving their battle through buildings and out of the ancient city.
• Chu Tianshu struck Kong Tianrui flying, broke Li Ju’s arm, and punched through his chest; Li Ju returned to giant form, spoke about his failed divination, and died.
• Chu Tianshu checked his token, saw that Pei Dongcheng’s Weapon Soul counted as a powerful evil spirit, and realized another evil spirit was still out there.

Chu Tianshu killed Wu Chunlei after explaining that Wu’s Wild Weapon Soul left him vulnerable to the Great Void internal force, then crushed the golden bowl. Nie Hongxian urged Chu Tianshu to join her in seizing the four defeated clans’ estates before their allies could react.

• Nie Hongxian intercepted Wu Chunlei as he fled, while the lingering effects of Chu Tianshu’s power repeatedly disrupted Wu’s senses.
• Chu Tianshu caught up with Wu Chunlei and used his Heavenly Eye to immobilize him before killing him with a sword-finger strike.
• Chu Tianshu explained that Wu Chunlei’s reliance on a Wild Weapon Soul had opened his heart-soul to the Great Void internal force, then crushed the golden bowl.
• Chu Tianshu examined the weapon traits and mused about using the Wuding River Sword’s effect to help cultivate spiritual medicines, though the sword had already turned to ash.
• Nie Hongxian reflected that four major experts had fallen in one night and grabbed Chu Tianshu, urging him to help confiscate their estates immediately.

Yang Jungong learned that Chu Tianshu had killed the leaders of the four great clans, then helped mobilize the Left Golden Guard as Chu and Nie Hongxian raided the clans’ Chang’an residences. After uncovering Kong Tianrui’s martial notes and visiting all four estates, Chu returned to Guo Lingwei, who had recovered, carrying the lantern Feng Bohu wanted.

• Yang Jungong spotted the giant Li Ju’s corpse beyond Chang’an and ordered the Inner Guard, Minister Tian, and the Left Golden Guard to respond.
• Nie Hongxian told Yang Jungong that Chu Tianshu had killed Li Ju, Pei Dongcheng, Wu Chunlei, and Kong Tianrui, then guided Chu toward the Kong residence.
• Chu Tianshu subdued the Kong household, found Kong Tianrui’s notes on the Stone Flower Colorless Palm, and visited the main residences of all four clans.
• Guo Lingwei recovered from his injuries while Su Xian, Li Chenxiang, and Feng Bohu waited with him south of Chang’an.
• Chu Tianshu returned from the woods with the lantern and told Feng Bohu she could embrace Guo Lingwei because his needles could be removed.

Kong Longren returned to Lingnan after the upheaval in Chang'an, hoping to reclaim his standing as a Kong Clan patriarch, but a swarm of insects ambushed and killed him. A man in red arrived afterward and learned from Kong Longren's dying words that the attacker was him, whom he called the Red Emperor.

• Kong Longren walked along a Lingnan riverbank, reflecting on his return from Chang'an and his hopes of regaining influence as a clan patriarch.
• Kong Longren struck at the irritating insects with his martial will, but their buzzing swelled into a massive swarm that swept toward him.
• Kong Longren crossed the river to evade the swarm, then discovered a human-shaped figure covered in insects standing behind him.
• Kong Longren unleashed a burst of force and produced twenty-three colorless flowers, but he screamed as the flowers collapsed and the insects withdrew.
• A black-haired man in white and red arrived with a red umbrella and found Kong Longren's mangled body scattered along the bank.
• Kong Longren used his final moments to tell the man that the attacker was him and begged the Red Emperor to avenge him.

While helping Nie Hongxian examine mirrors seized from the four clans, Chu Tianshu discovered they shared an unusual Weapon Soul. Hai Donglai then explained that Du Fanchuan’s prophecy about a Buddhist banner pointed to a locust plague and revealed that Mountain King had become a monster that spread locusts, leaving Chu Tianshu to suspect a failed attempt at reaching Returning Light.

• Chu Tianshu examined the mirrors Nie Hongxian had found in the four clans’ residences and sensed that their shared Weapon Soul connected them, but warned that he could not safely change its master.
• Hai Donglai returned and guessed that Chu Tianshu came from another world, then remarked that Mountain King’s drum had fallen into Chu Tianshu’s hands.
• Hai Donglai explained that Du Fanchuan’s prophecy about a Buddhist banner had led him to investigate locust plagues as the likely threat to the Great Tang.
• Hai Donglai said he had encountered Mountain King seven years earlier as a locust-like monster that spread locusts and made them toxic to birds.
• Chu Tianshu suspected Mountain King had failed to break through to Returning Light and feared what might have happened if Hai Donglai had attempted the same breakthrough.

Mahalun and Aduoluo sought Dharma Master Zengming’s help to conceal their identities and support their coming operation in Chang’an. Zengming used his life to cast a spell, attaining rainbow body, while Cao Mengzheng discovered that the spell had disrupted the Imperial Astronomical Bureau’s divinations.

• Mahalun and Aduoluo rode into the Ancient City of Zhangzhung and met Dharma Master Zengming at a temple.
• Mahalun explained that four holders of the Nine Luminaries Shared Heart Mirrors had died and feared the Imperial Astronomical Bureau would identify the remaining holders in Chang’an.
• Dharma Master Zengming tested Mahalun with a dragonfly, and Mahalun demonstrated powerful Saber Intent by animating a yak’s bones.
• Dharma Master Zengming agreed to disrupt the Bureau’s divinations and influence events in favor of the operation, then sacrificed himself and attained rainbow body.
• Cao Mengzheng saw the divination fail, sensed rainbow light from the northwest, and angrily denounced those who had obscured the workings of heaven.

Hai Donglai explained that the transformed Mountain King had been changing locusts and causing them to survive winter, so he wanted to use the Mountain King Divine Drum to strengthen a fungal culture capable of killing them. Chu Tianshu gave him the drum and named the culture Green General, while Hai Donglai hoped its effects would draw the Mountain King out.

• Hai Donglai told Chu Tianshu that the transformed Mountain King had eluded divination and that he had kept his search from the great families.
• Hai Donglai explained that Guan Changling’s notes had inspired him to develop a poison that targeted locusts after observing how the Mountain King changed them.
• Hai Donglai revealed that his fungal powder lagged behind the mutations and that he needed the Mountain King Divine Drum’s Weapon Soul to strengthen it.
• Chu Tianshu explained that the drum’s Weapon Soul carried the Mountain King’s essence and mutation, then gave the drum to Hai Donglai.
• Hai Donglai said the cultivated powder could grow on its own and that a mass die-off of locusts might lead the Mountain King to him.
• Chu Tianshu named the fungal culture Green General, and Hai Donglai approved the name.

Chu Tianshu watched Hai Donglai demonstrate the Mountain Collapse and Water Extinction Palm on a cliff, then used what he had learned to test his own inner force. Hai Donglai explained that his unfinished struggle with the Mountain King still kept him a hair’s breadth short of Leakless Innate Nature, while Chu Tianshu ended the demonstration by carving a slogan into the cliff.

• Hai Donglai showed Chu Tianshu the Seven Martial Competition Mountains and explained the strength, speed, and endurance contests planned for the Martial Exhibition of All Nations.
• Hai Donglai described how his Mountain Collapse and Water Extinction Palm used the properties and waveforms of materials, then destroyed the lower and upper halves of a cliff with two palm strikes.
• Hai Donglai told Chu Tianshu that he had achieved Leakless True Force but remained just short of Leakless Innate Nature because his unfinished conflict with the Mountain King had become a knot in his heart.
• Chu Tianshu used his Heavenly Eye and inner force to shape more than a hundred rocks into stone cones and drive them into the cliff as the characters “Ten Thousand Nations Compete In Martial Arts.”

Envoys investigating the ruined cliff suspected the Red Emperor had fought or sparred there, while the Turk envoy secretly nurtured ambitions for his people to rule the Great Tang. A locust-covered monster followed a strange rainbow thread toward Chang'an, and Chu Tianshu offered Guo Lingwei a sword technique to teach in Anxi if he won the upcoming speed contest.

• The envoys found a cliff wrecked by two attacks, and several of them speculated that the Red Emperor had returned or sparred there.
• Su Xian and Li Chenxiang recognized a familiar presence and quietly left, while the Turk envoy watched them depart and dreamed of Turk rule over the Great Tang.
• A monster covered in insects followed a rainbow thread toward Chang'an, deciding to approach despite sensing a presence it disliked there.
• Su Xian and Li Chenxiang joined Chu Tianshu, Hai Donglai, Guo Lingwei, and Feng Bohu at a meal, where they discussed the approaching Martial Exhibition of All Nations and Guo Lingwei's entry in the speed contest.
• Chu Tianshu carved a sword technique into a flower of frozen wine and promised Guo Lingwei he could teach it freely in Anxi if he won.

The Martial Exhibition of All Nations began on Mount Zhongnan as Chu Tianshu and Hai Donglai watched the opening contests and suspected that hidden enemies would exploit the gathering. After a contestant sabotaged a poison-endurance event and an attack on the Imperial Astronomical Bureau was reported, the chapter ended with the highest setting activated on a Ten Thousand Needle Iron Coffin containing a Viking Duke’s son.

• Hai Donglai explained the tournament’s customs to Chu Tianshu as officials and soldiers assembled for the opening ceremony.
• Tian Zhu delivered the proclamation, and the martial contests began amid cheers, betting, and displays of colored smoke.
• Chu Tianshu studied the endurance events as contestants were pulled from poison vats when the physicians judged them in danger.
• A white-head-wrapped contestant secretly kicked a Church of the East expert in a poison vat, provoking a confrontation between the Great Qin envoy and a Zoroastrian elder.
• Nie Hongxian reported that the Imperial Astronomical Bureau had been attacked, but Hai Donglai said Cao Mengzheng was already safely hidden.
• An official activated the Ten Thousand Needle Iron Coffin’s highest setting, and Chu Tianshu remembered that a Viking Duke’s son had entered it.

Chu Tianshu and the others faced a coordinated uprising as spies triggered fighting across the martial competition grounds, while Tian Zhu betrayed Hai Donglai and Mofu pulled them into a dark tunnel. The attackers then targeted Chu Tianshu, who confronted Mahalun as the Mountain King arrived.

• Chu Tianshu used Sanqi to rescue the Viking heir from the iron coffin, while Nie Hongxian and Hai Donglai suspected the Directorate of Construction official had sabotaged the mechanism.
• Fights erupted across the mountains, and Hai Donglai realized the Dashi Empire had planted agents among the envoys to provoke the clashes.
• Tian Zhu attacked Nie Hongxian and then Hai Donglai, but Mofu opened a dark tunnel and pulled them underground, where the two fought Hai Donglai together.
• A Persian swordsman used Saber Intent to deflect Chu Tianshu's attack, then Mahalun arrived and struck at him with a lightning-charged saber.
• Chu Tianshu met Mahalun's blow with Sanqi and challenged his assumption that Hai Donglai was harder to kill.

Chu Tianshu fought Mahalun and the transformed Mountain King on the mountaintop, using his sword and martial arts to counter their attacks. As Mountain King trapped him inside a shrinking hall and Mahalun waited outside, Chu Tianshu unified his sword, saber, and palm techniques and prepared a decisive divine sword strike.

• Chu Tianshu and Mahalun clashed blades, and Chu Tianshu struck Mahalun with a fiery burst that sent him flying through the wind and dust.
• Chu Tianshu swept Nie Hongxian off the mountain and ordered her to destroy the locusts while he faced Mountain King.
• Mountain King struck Chu Tianshu with both palms, forcing him backward into the hall, then used his Mountain-Moving and Shape-Molding Fist to compress the building around him.
• Mahalun returned to the hall doors, ready to attack as soon as Chu Tianshu escaped Mountain King's technique.
• Chu Tianshu linked his sword, saber, and Palm Thunder arts, spun his divine sword around himself, and gathered his strength for a strike to cleave the mountain and extinguish the water.

Chu Tianshu and Hai Donglai defeated the Mountain King and the conspirators behind the attack, while fungal culture weakened the locust swarm. The surviving envoys and warriors stopped fighting as Chu Tianshu faced them and Hai Donglai joked that there was no need to use his sword against people who had surrendered.

• Chu Tianshu disrupted the Mountain King's force field with three sword strokes, blasted through the hall roof, and killed Mahalun with the redirected light before pursuing the wounded Mountain King.
• Nie Hongxian used fungal culture on the Divine Drum to infect the locusts, while the Mountain King fed on them and hunted for more victims to restore his arm.
• Chu Tianshu pursued the Mountain King through the mountains, and Hai Donglai emerged from underground to help sever his wings and destroy his body.
• Hai Donglai killed Tian Zhu and gouged out Mofu's eyes, then joined Chu Tianshu in confronting Mofu; Chu Tianshu killed him after learning that fear fueled his greed.
• The fighting stopped as the envoys and warriors witnessed Chu Tianshu and Hai Donglai's strength, and Hai Donglai remarked that the assembled heroes had already laid down their arms.

After stopping the attack on the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, the emperor disguised himself and hurried to Mount Zhongnan, where Chu Tianshu and Hai Donglai had confronted the Mountain King’s threat. There, he met Chu Tianshu, discussed his work on mechanical limbs, and watched Hai Donglai reveal his Leakless Innate Nature.

• The emperor used the Huayang Needle Technique to subdue the foreigners attacking the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, then suspected the assault was meant to distract Great Tang during the Martial Exhibition of All Nations.
• The emperor saw a sword-shaped streak of light outside the city and disguised himself to reach Mount Zhongnan, where he learned that Chu Tianshu and the Red Emperor had fought a supreme battle.
• Hai Donglai examined the mold-covered locusts and proposed sending his Green General to regions where locusts remained, while Chu Tianshu warned him to monitor for infection.
• Hai Donglai recognized the disguised emperor and had Lu Youjie bring him to the summit, where the emperor awkwardly claimed he had come to check on Hai Donglai’s safety.
• An Jingsi explained that the emperor had taught him to make mechanical limbs for disabled people, and Chu Tianshu praised the emperor’s concern for ordinary people.
• Hai Donglai displayed his Leakless Innate Nature, and Chu Tianshu watched closely as the summit’s onlookers sensed his transformation into ordinary forms of nature.

Chu Tianshu deduced the Nine Springs Mountain Collapse Secret Hand and discussed possible paths for Heart and Blood Martial Dao with Hai Donglai. As the Martial Exhibition of All Nations continued, Guo Lingwei won the race, and Chu Tianshu urged his friends to live as long as they could before he left in three days.

• Chu Tianshu used the Calamity Chief Locust Demon’s traits and other materials to deduce the Nine Springs Mountain Collapse Secret Hand.
• An Jingsi and the others confirmed that the Heavenly Craft Canal could be repaired, and the Martial Exhibition of All Nations resumed as rival envoys remained tense.
• Chu Tianshu, Nie Hongxian, Yang Jungong, and Hai Donglai watched the gathering and discussed the differences between the Spirit Realm and Chu Tianshu’s homeland.
• Hai Donglai proposed a Heart and Blood Martial Dao path that used Fist Intent to control electricity and draw lightning to temper the soul and body.
• Chu Tianshu said he would take the Heart and Blood Martial Dao manuals home and compare how each world developed electrical science.
• Guo Lingwei tore down the ribbon for first place, and Hai Donglai urged everyone to do their best to live longer.

After returning home, Chu Tianshu read about sorcerers flocking to the Americas and practiced writing a secret manual. A two-headed black serpent then entered his house through a window to admire the Demonic Sect’s guardian treasured saber, while Chu Tianshu listened from downstairs.

• Chu Tianshu returned home and found that only two and a half days had passed there despite much more time passing in the Great Tang.
• Chu Tianshu read reports about sorcerers flocking to the Americas and watched videos of supernatural conflicts there, but decided not to go himself.
• Chu Tianshu used his inner force to write a secret manual in a notebook with precision.
• A two-headed black serpent arrived at Chu Tianshu’s house, claiming it had seen a treasure there while its soul roamed at night.
• The serpent slipped through a second-floor window and became captivated by the crescent-shaped Demonic Sect guardian saber, while Chu Tianshu listened from downstairs.

Chu Tianshu trapped and questioned Xiao Zuo and Bubai, a two-headed Treasure-Locking Rope from the Spirit Realm, after they tried to steal his demonic saber. Their account led him to suspect that a man called President Fu was also a Spirit Realm creature, and Chu Tianshu filed a report about him.

• Chu Tianshu used his voice transmission technique to tempt Xiao Zuo with a wish and provoke Bubai into attacking the demonic saber.
• The saber shattered Bubai's black-ice attack, and Chu Tianshu used an illusion to prevent the two-headed snake from escaping his house.
• Chu Tianshu questioned Xiao Zuo and Bubai, who explained that they had wandered from the Spirit Realm into reality through a spreading fog east of a lake near Lake Tai.
• Xiao Zuo and Bubai described seeing a Spirit Realm creature who looked human, was called President Fu, and had a human girl who called him Dad.
• Chu Tianshu called a female clerk and reported that the boss of Fuchuan Aquatic Products in Shencheng was suspected of being a disguised Spirit Realm creature.