Chapter Summaries

Zhang Xuezhou survived the explosion and shot Song Xianzhong five times, while Song Sijia revealed that her grandfather may have targeted the five Sequence Committee members ranked above him. As the group assessed their injuries and feared further blasts, Zhang Xuezhou recognized a familiar voice and suddenly realized something.

• Zhang Xuezhou used the chaos after the explosion to shoot Song Xianzhong, who escaped through a shattered window, and he treated the injured Song Sijia with the Supreme Purity True Technique.
• Song Sijia said Song Xianzhong might have planted more explosives and named Zhou Xin, Changkong Luo, Li Qi, Zhu Bufan, and Zhong Rang as the people who threatened him.
• Zhang Manqian suggested Song Xianzhong wanted to eliminate his rivals, and Song Sijia connected the explosion's electronic target announcements to those committee members.
• Zhang Weimeng said he no longer wanted to remain in high society, while Song Fengying and Wang Li reflected on the dangers and attractions of their lives.
• Hearing someone mention that Committee Member Song had been in the indoor shooting range ten minutes earlier, Zhang Xuezhou recognized the voice and looked alarmed.

Zhang Xuezhou warned Zhou Xin that Song Xianzhong had lost his mind and might use the shooting range’s ammunition to cause an explosion. Zhou Xin went to confront Song Xianzhong, but another blast struck as he shielded Zuo Denggao.

• Zhang Xuezhou spotted surveillance devices and urged the group to leave the shooting range before they could be caught in an explosion.
• Wang Li kicked aside the blocked door, and Zhang Xuezhou led the group past Zuo Denggao without stopping to speak.
• Zhou Xin recognized Zhang Xuezhou and asked for information, so Zhang Xuezhou warned him about Song Xianzhong and the ammunition inside.
• Zuo Denggao followed Zhou Xin as he approached the shooting range and called on Song Xianzhong to surrender.
• Zhou Xin sensed danger, formed armor around himself, and shielded Zuo Denggao as another explosion rang out.

Song Bu'er relived the Song Household massacre and became unable to distinguish his memories from the bloodied present, while Zhang Xuezhou and the others sought shelter amid the destruction. After the indoor shooting range exploded, Song Bu'er identified a stairwell where Song Xianzhong was positioned to hunt people, leaving Zhang Xuezhou’s group under threat of a sniper.

• Song Bu'er obsessively scrubbed blood from the ground until Song Sijia arrived, but he still saw her as covered in blood and refused to leave the Song Household.
• Zhang Xuezhou and Zhang Manqian took shelter against the castle-like building and waited for Zhou Xin and Zuo Denggao to scout ahead.
• The indoor shooting range exploded, and the blast tore through nearby buildings while the curved building where they hid remained intact.
• Zhang Xuezhou tried to wake Song Bu'er and ask about the Song Household, but the dazed Song Bu'er could not give him useful answers.
• After a gunshot, Song Bu'er said Song Xianzhong was hunting people from a stairwell and pointed out his position.

After explosions devastated the Song Household, Zhang Xuezhou and the others took shelter while Song Xianzhong fought Commissioner Zhou nearby. Song Bu'er prepared a supposedly prearranged stun-gun ambush, and the chapter ended as Song Xianzhong leapt onto the castle building with the ambush still a minute and thirty seconds away.

• Zhang Xuezhou concluded that Song Xianzhong was still carrying out a backup plan, while Song Bu'er insisted their shelter was the safest place and said he would take an hour to return to normal.
• Zhang Xuezhou and the others stayed hidden as Zhou Xin pursued the wounded Song Xianzhong, who continued firing at him.
• Song Bu'er drew a stun gun and claimed he had arranged to hit Song Xianzhong without aiming when he leapt over a drip line in three minutes and twenty-six seconds.
• Song Sijia urged her father not to act recklessly, while Zhang Xuezhou warned that Song Xianzhong could shoot anyone who aimed a gun at him.
• Song Xianzhong appeared through the dust and leapt onto the castle building; Zhang Xuezhou calculated that one minute and thirty seconds remained until Song Bu'er's ambush.

Song Xianzhong pursued Zhou Xin through the wrecked Song Household and tried to kill him with rocket launchers, but both launches failed. Song Bu'er and Zhang Xuezhou paralyzed Song Xianzhong with a stun gun and a shot, leaving Zhou Xin to subdue him.

• Song Xianzhong chased Zhou Xin through the damaged Song Household while Zhang Xuezhou and Song Bu'er took cover nearby.
• Song Xianzhong fired a rocket at Zhou Xin, but it crashed after traveling only a short distance, and his second launcher failed to fire.
• Zhou Xin climbed toward Song Xianzhong as Song Bu'er counted down and Zhang Xuezhou prepared to shoot.
• Song Bu'er fired a stun gun and Zhang Xuezhou shot Song Xianzhong as he approached, paralyzing him and causing him to fall.
• Zhou Xin jumped down, struck Song Xianzhong, and subdued him.

Ren Yisheng visited Zhang Xuezhou in the hospital and learned more about the Song Household disaster, while Zhang begged for treatment and a chance to return to school. Outside the ward, Ren Yisheng and Ren Wuyang discussed Zhang’s role in the fight and Ren Anran’s reaction to Song Sijia, then Ren Yisheng urged his son to improve his mental condition.

• Ren Yisheng told Zhang Xuezhou that Song Bu’er might be nearing normality after repeatedly simulating possible outcomes, and explained how the disaster had brought the Ren Household hospital patients and medical resources.
• Zhang Xuezhou asked Ren Yisheng to obtain X446 Repair Technology, treat his gunshot wound, and get him away from the dangerous patients; he then suddenly blacked out.
• Ren Wuyang reported Song Sijia’s account of Zhang holding down Song Xianzhong and breaking his fingers and toes, while Ren Yisheng questioned how Zhang could have managed it.
• Ren Wuyang told Ren Yisheng that Ren Anran had seemed hostile toward Song Sijia, who admired Zhang Xuezhou, and wondered if jealousy was involved.
• Ren Yisheng called Ren Wuyang’s suspicion an illness and urged him to improve his mental condition and help perfect the Mental Strengthening Chapter.

Zhang Xuezhou woke after seven days unconscious in the commandery governor's residence, where Wen Weng, Dong Zhongshu, and Pockmarked Wang Er had treated him. As he recovered, he confirmed that what he had experienced during X432 Body Repair Technology was real, while Wen Weng remained focused on the black pearl in his hand.

• Zhang Xuezhou woke in bed, numb and weak after surviving the flood.
• Dong Zhongshu, Wen Weng, and Pockmarked Wang Er examined him and explained that he had been unconscious for seven days.
• Zhang Xuezhou asked for a massage and thin porridge, and Dong Zhongshu kneaded his body to restore circulation.
• Zhang Xuezhou recognized Pockmarked Wang Er and confirmed that the people and events he had perceived during X432 Body Repair Technology were real.
• A servant brought Zhang Xuezhou pig's blood congee, and Wen Weng watched him regain color before asking about the black pearl.

Wen Weng, Dong Zhongshu, and Zhang Xuezhou confirmed that the black pearl was the Ba Snake’s lost eye and discussed using it to lure the injured creature into a trap. As they prepared to act, Zhang Xuezhou asked about ingredients for Grain Avoidance Powder to keep himself from starving during his periods of lost bodily control.

• Zhang Xuezhou confirmed that the pearl Wen Weng found in the flood was the Ba Snake’s missing eyeball.
• Dong Zhongshu explained that the Ba Snake had been unable to recover its eye because it could not control its size after surviving its Heavenly Tribulation, and that the eye carried no Yao Qi to help track it.
• Wen Weng’s concern eased when Dong Zhongshu explained that the Ba Snake could not repair its Yao Treasure by eating, and they noted that no unusual reports had come from Shu Commandery in seven days.
• Dong Zhongshu and Wen Weng agreed to use the eye as bait in a secure trap outside the city, where the Ba Snake would be limited in its small form.
• Zhang Xuezhou kept the eye despite having a use for it, then asked about the ingredients needed to refine Grain Avoidance Powder.

Zhang Xuezhou struggled to find enough money and ingredients to refine Grain Avoidance Powder after returning to the Han Kingdom. He began grinding and cooking the medicine at Pockmarked Wang Er's shop, but failed three times in a row.

• Pockmarked Wang Er gave Zhang Xuezhou nine kinds of medicinal ingredients, enough for only three batches of Grain Avoidance Powder.
• Zhang Xuezhou tried to sell Golden Elixir Sand, but Pockmarked Wang Er offered only two banliang coins, so he put it away.
• Zhang Xuezhou realized he had no money and urgently needed Grain Avoidance Powder before he could reach his wealthy patron.
• Pockmarked Wang Er said finished Grain Avoidance medicine cost three to five gold, so Zhang Xuezhou decided to refine it himself.
• Zhang Xuezhou borrowed a medicine pestle and began preparing the ingredients, but failed to make Grain Avoidance Powder three times in a row.

Zhang Xuezhou failed to make Grain Avoidance Powder because he could not measure the ingredients precisely, so he sought a scale at the governor’s residence. Dong Zhongshu agreed to help arrange a scale Law Artifact in exchange for the Law Treasure fan Zhang Xuezhou had taken from him.

• Zhang Xuezhou made three lumps of medicinal paste after failing to prepare Grain Avoidance Powder, and Pockmarked Wang Er told him a precise scale was hard to find.
• Zhang Xuezhou went to the governor’s residence and found Governor Wen and Dong Zhongshu at a blacksmith’s shop, where they were arranging the construction of a snake trap.
• Zhang Xuezhou asked to borrow a scale, and Wen Weng explained that precise measurements required a rare scale Law Artifact last seen with Grand Commandant Zhou.
• Dong Zhongshu proposed having blacksmith Liu Yishou make a scale Law Artifact using his refined gold, and Zhang Xuezhou offered his Law Treasure fan in exchange.
• Dong Zhongshu accepted the trade, and the fan returned to him after more than two years.

Zhang Xuezhou and Dong Zhongshu established a method for calibrating a balance Law Artifact, while Zhang secured more ingredients for Grain Avoidance Powder from Wen Weng. The chapter ended with the balance nearly complete and Zhang learning the Mohists' Treasure Refining Formula, though its current capacity was limited.

• Dong Zhongshu explained how to divide measured water into smaller units to establish an accurate weight standard for the balance Law Artifact.
• Zhang Xuezhou complained that Wen Weng had provided only three portions of Grain Avoidance Powder ingredients, and Wen Weng agreed to give him ten more.
• Zhang Xuezhou considered how Grain Avoidance Powder and the Grain Avoidance Technique could keep him alive during his trips back to reality, after he had nearly starved while unconscious for seven days.
• Wen Weng's soldiers finished the snake trap, fitted it with the Eye of the Ba Snake, and carried it away to set in place.
• Dong Zhongshu showed Zhang Xuezhou the nearly finished balance Law Artifact and taught him the Mohists' Treasure Refining Formula.
• Zhang Xuezhou felt the formula let him control the artifact, but learned that the balance could currently measure only up to one jin.

Zhang Xuezhou used a weighing Law Artifact to refine Grain Avoidance Powder while Kong Ning visited him with a message from the Venerable One. He tried to prove his usefulness by offering news that Emperor Jing had gone mad.

• Dong Zhongshu watched Zhang Xuezhou carefully measure ingredients and then left him alone to refine Grain Avoidance Powder.
• Zhang Xuezhou successfully made a batch of Three-Day Grain Avoidance Powder but ruined the next batch when the fire became unsteady.
• Kong Ning arrived while Zhang Xuezhou was cooking and said Left Envoy Feiyu was seeking medicine for his lightning-struck leg.
• Zhang Xuezhou asked Kong Ning to request Grain Avoidance Pills from the Venerable One, but she relayed the Venerable One's instruction to stop if he could not get things done.
• Zhang Xuezhou told Kong Ning he had learned that Emperor Jing had gone mad and asked her to pass the news to the Venerable One.

Emperor Jing and Crown Prince Liu Che discussed a fate-reading that linked Great Han’s chance of survival to Dong Zhongshu and laid out the dangers Liu Che would face as emperor. Emperor Jing left Liu Che with warnings about the court, foreign threats, and the need to build strength rather than rely on relics or inherited protections.

• Emperor Jing revealed that his imperial uncle’s incomplete Fuxi Eight Trigrams Technique had succeeded, though using it had shortened the uncle’s life.
• Emperor Jing explained that the reading showed a chance for Great Han to endure, tied to Dong Zhongshu and his work in Shu Commandery.
• Emperor Jing told Liu Che that Zhu Jiuyin remained hidden near the Xieluosi River and advised him to use Emperor Gao’s Red Empyrean Sword only as a bluff.
• Emperor Jing warned Liu Che about Xiong State, the empress dowagers, his imperial uncles, Li Guang, the Hundred Schools of Thought, and a dangerous old figure among them.
• Emperor Jing said Liu Che might eventually promote Confucian scholars such as Dong Zhongshu if the Han Dynasty grew strong enough to control those it employed.

Zou Bugui asked the Venerable One to recall Zhang Xuezhou from his dangerous mission in Chang'an City so he could help refine Life-Sustaining Pills and inherit the Yin-Yang School. The Venerable One agreed that Zhang could return if the mission proved too dangerous, while Zou Bugui resolved to preserve his school’s legacy.

• The Venerable One asked Zou Bugui to refine a thousand more Life-Sustaining Pills, and Zou explained that he needed Zhang Xuezhou’s help.
• Zou Bugui urged the Venerable One to summon Zhang Xuezhou back to the Xieluosi River Holy Land, fearing that Emperor Jing’s Chang'an City would put him in danger.
• The Venerable One said Zhang only needed to make an effort to gather intelligence and could return if he could not complete the task.
• Zou Bugui thanked the Venerable One and focused on having Zhang inherit the Yin-Yang School’s legacy.
• After Zou Bugui left, the Venerable One saw through his single-minded devotion and noted that it had helped him reach the Divine Ability Realm and refine pills.

Zhang Xuezhou passed Dong Zhongshu’s intelligence to Kong Ning, easing the pressure of his spying mission, but he still faced the problem of paying for food and medicine. As he recited the Vast Righteous Qi Instruction, he unexpectedly drew righteous Qi, astonishing Dong Zhongshu and leaving him to wonder what had awakened it.

• Zhang Xuezhou told Kong Ning that Dong Zhongshu had learned Emperor Jing’s plans firsthand, and Kong Ning accepted the information as reliable.
• Kong Ning hurried away to report to the Venerable One, while Zhang Xuezhou asked her to request a Spirit-Forging Pill and Grain Avoidance Pills from his adoptive father.
• Zhang Xuezhou considered how to earn money for medicinal ingredients and decided to look for opportunities after daybreak.
• After exhausting his Law Power with Grain Avoidance Technique cultivation, Zhang Xuezhou recited the Vast Righteous Qi Instruction and felt its influence grow stronger.
• Dong Zhongshu woke to Zhang Xuezhou’s recitation, saw green Qi rise from him, and wondered whether his pure Yang body, cultivation talent, virtues, or some combination had drawn forth righteous Qi.

Dong Zhongshu recognized Zhang Xuezhou’s virtue and decided to guide him into the Confucian School as a potential ally and future great Confucian. Zhang Xuezhou discovered that reciting the Vast Righteous Qi Instruction restored some of his Law Power, and he agreed to study more of it before dawn.

• Dong Zhongshu concluded that the Vast Righteous Qi Instruction had recognized Zhang Xuezhou’s virtues and considered recruiting him into his Confucian faction.
• Zhang Xuezhou told Dong Zhongshu that reciting the Vast Righteous Qi Instruction had restored his Law Power to thirty percent.
• Dong Zhongshu explained that continued cultivation of the instruction would let Zhang Xuezhou recover Law Power and described why other schools rarely adopted Confucian teachings.
• Zhang Xuezhou agreed to learn more from Dong Zhongshu and planned to study for the four hours remaining before dawn.

Zhang Xuezhou learned how Confucian cultivation used six jumbled scriptures and recitation to guide practitioners, and decided his memorization skills suited it. After realizing he needed money to buy ingredients for Grain Avoidance Powder, he asked Dong Zhongshu how to make big money, but Dong Zhongshu urged him to study instead.

• Dong Zhongshu explained that Confucian teachings were deliberately complicated or scrambled, and that reciting the six scriptures could activate acupoints and guide cultivation.
• Zhang Xuezhou decided he could manage Confucian cultivation through memorization and recitation, especially since the Vast Righteous Qi Instruction offered practical benefits.
• Zhang Xuezhou left the commandery governor's residence after speaking with Dong Zhongshu through the night.
• Zhang Xuezhou searched Shu Commandery City for work but found no way to earn enough to buy ingredients for Grain Avoidance Powder.
• Zhang Xuezhou returned to ask Dong Zhongshu how to make big money, and Dong Zhongshu told him to read diligently instead of chasing wealth.

Zhang Xuezhou failed to find a promising way to make money or attract patrons for pill refining, then witnessed Zhao Liang’s terror from the Ba Snake mission erupt into violence in the governor’s dining hall. Zhao Liang mistook the people around him for snakes and struck Zhang Shu with his sword, prompting Zhang Shu to retaliate and knock him down as the hall descended into chaos.

• Dong Zhongshu told Zhang Xuezhou that serious pill refining required support from a wealthy patron, but he knew no such patrons and doubted Zhang Xuezhou could attract students to his lectures.
• Zhang Xuezhou followed Dong Zhongshu to the governor’s residence dining hall, still discouraged about his chances of earning money.
• Zhang Xuezhou noticed Zhao Liang’s pale face and fear after Zhao dropped his bowl and reacted to the mallow greens as though they were a snake.
• Zhao Liang hallucinated that the diners and Zhang Shu had become Ba Snakes, drew his sword, and slashed Zhang Shu.
• Zhang Shu blocked with his bowl and punched Zhao Liang, sending him facedown as panic spread through the dining hall.

Zhang Xuezhou used the Supreme Purity True Technique to rapidly heal Zhang Shu’s sword wound, while explaining that he could not cure Zhao Liang’s madness. Zhang Shu’s mention of the Zhao Household’s fortune of ten thousand strings of coins caught Zhang Xuezhou’s attention.

• Dong Zhongshu cleared a path so Zhang Xuezhou could reach and treat the injured Zhang Shu.
• Zhang Xuezhou used the Supreme Purity True Technique twice, stopping Zhang Shu’s bleeding and healing most of his wound.
• Zhang Xuezhou told Zhang Shu the Technique had consumed his Blood Qi and advised him to replenish it with meat and other nourishment.
• Zhang Shu insisted on holding a banquet to thank Zhang Xuezhou, but Zhang Xuezhou declined because he was busy earning money.
• Zhang Xuezhou said he had already treated Zhao Liang’s internal injuries but could not cure his madness.
• Zhang Shu lamented that Zhao Liang might not inherit the Zhao Household’s fortune of ten thousand strings of coins, and Zhang Xuezhou immediately fixated on the sum.

Zhang Xuezhou watched physicians fail to cure Zhao Liang’s terrifying mental affliction while Master Zhao offered a huge reward. After Zhang Shu revealed Zhang Xuezhou’s healing abilities, Master Zhao begged him to save his son, leaving Zhang Xuezhou unable to help but newly aware of how valuable healing Techniques were.

• Master Zhao offered first five strings and then ten strings of coins to anyone who could cure Zhao Liang, but the gathered physicians and cultivators had no solution.
• Wen Weng and Dong Zhongshu discussed Zhao Liang’s fear of the Ba Snake, while Wen Weng said he had set a trap to capture it.
• Pockmarked Wang Er and Divine Physician Jiang proposed decoctions to keep Zhao Liang alive and prevent his condition from worsening, and Master Zhao paid them to prepare the medicines.
• Dong Zhongshu told Zhang Xuezhou that Zhang Shu’s household was wealthy and that Zhang Xuezhou had declined a banquet that would include a gift, leaving him bitterly regretful.
• Zhang Shu told Master Zhao that Zhang Xuezhou could heal injuries with Technique Methods, and Master Zhao begged Zhang Xuezhou to save Zhao Liang, but Zhang Xuezhou knew he could not cure him.