Danmei Recap Site

Seven Seas

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi

Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong

The Husky & His White Cat Shizun: Erha He Ta De Bai Mao Shizun

Thousand Autumns: Qian Qiu

Remnants of Filth: Yuwu

Stars of Chaos: Sha Po Lang

Guardian: Zhen Hun

Case File Compendium: Bing An Ben

The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish: Canji Baojun De Zhangxin Yu Chong

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi

The Story so far...
(Volumes 1–5)

Thirteen years after dying at the siege of the Burial Mounds, former demonic cultivator Wei Wuxian is forcibly resurrected into the living world when an abused, outcast youth named Mo Xuanyu performs a sacrificial ritual offering his own body and soul in exchange for violent vengeance against his tormentors. Awakening at Mo Manor, Wei Wuxian feigns insanity while investigating his surroundings, only for a catastrophic crisis to erupt when an unidentifiable, severely resentful severed left arm attacks the estate. The malevolent limb slaughters Mo Xuanyu's abusive kin, overwhelms junior disciples Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi from the Lan Clan of Gusu, and forces Wei Wuxian to covertly command corpses to defend the youths until Lan Wangji arrives and subdues the entity. Fleeing on a stolen donkey to Mount Dafan, Wei Wuxian finds hundreds of cultivators competing in a night hunt orchestrated by Jiang Cheng to advance his nephew Jin Ling. When Jin Ling unwittingly awakens a stone soul-eating Heavenly Maiden inside a mountain shrine, the creature devours the souls of numerous cultivators and traps the juniors. Desperate to save Jin Ling and the Lan disciples from the rampaging statue, Wei Wuxian carves a crude bamboo flute and plays a melody to summon a fierce corpse, inadvertently calling forth Wen Ning, the infamous Ghost General who was widely believed to have been reduced to ashes years prior. Wen Ning destroys the statue, but his appearance exposes Wei Wuxian to Jiang Cheng, who strikes him with the spiritual whip Zidian. Because Mo Xuanyu voluntarily gave up his body through sacrifice rather than external spiritual possession, Zidian fails to extract Wei Wuxian's soul. Lan Wangji deflects Jiang Cheng's subsequent assault, intervenes decisively, and takes Wei Wuxian directly into the custody of the Lan Clan at the Cloud Recesses.At the Cloud Recesses, Wei Wuxian attempts to get expelled by acting shamelessly, but Lan Wangji keeps him confined and ignores his eccentric behavior. While attempting to steal a pass token at the cold spring, Wei Wuxian discovers over thirty permanent discipline whip scars crisscrossing Lan Wangji's back, along with a Wen clan branding scar on his chest, revealing that the strictly righteous cultivator had endured severe punishment reserved for unforgivable clan transgressions. The setting brings memories of their youth fifteen years prior, when Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng, and Nie Huaisang arrived at the Cloud Recesses for guest lectures under the rigid scholar Lan Qiren. During that period, Wei Wuxian repeatedly antagonized Lan Wangji by flouting sect rules, smuggling Emperor's Smile wine, switching virtuous texts with erotic art, and gifting him rabbits. Their youthful dynamic deepened when Lan Xichen enlisted them to eradicate water ghosts in Caiyi Town, where Wei Wuxian identified the underwater threat as a Waterborne Abyss that had been driven into Gusu waters from Qishan by the Wen Clan. That past schooling ended abruptly when Jin Zixuan voiced contempt for his arranged engagement to Jiang Yanli, provoking Wei Wuxian into a violent brawl that forced Jiang Fengmian to dissolve the betrothal and take Wei Wuxian back to Lotus Pier. In the present, the peaceful sanctuary collapses when the severed ghost arm stored in the Nether Room erupts in berserk fury, grievously wounding Lan Qiren and resisting all pacification rituals. Combining guqin and flute in the song Evocation, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian temporarily contain the limb, which repeatedly points toward the northwest to indicate the location of its missing remains.Tracking the ghost arm northwest leads Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji to the Qinghe region, territory governed by the Nie Clan, where rumors tell of a man-eating fortress on Xinglu Ridge. Investigating the area, they find Jin Ling's spiritual dog Fairy barking outside a cluster of strange, windowless stone bunkers. Using the guqin ritual Inquiry to interrogate the spirits within the earth, Lan Wangji discovers that an answering soul belongs to Jin Ling, who has been entombed alive inside the fortress wall. Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji break open the masonry to extract the suffocating youth, dislodging a complete skeleton embedded in the plaster alongside him. While Lan Wangji chases a suspicious shadow fleeing the ridge, Wei Wuxian transports the unconscious Jin Ling to an inn, discovering a deadly black curse mark spreading across Jin Ling's skin that Wei Wuxian deliberately transfers onto his own leg to spare the boy. Jiang Cheng arrives, detains Wei Wuxian based on lingering suspicions regarding his behavior, and threatens severe torture, but Jin Ling orchestrates Wei Wuxian's escape to repay him for the rescue. Lan Wangji intercepts Wei Wuxian in the woods, acknowledges the transferred curse mark, and confirms that he had recognized Wei Wuxian's true identity back on Mount Dafan. Returning to Xinglu Ridge, the pair capture Qinghe Nie Clan leader Nie Huaisang, who confesses that the fortress is an ancestral Saber Offerings Hall. Because the Nie saber spirits grow violent and require dark energy to appease their bloodlust, the clan inters corpses alongside ancestral blades, and Jin Ling was sucked into the wall to replace a skeleton he accidentally blasted with a spiritual device. Dismantling the surrounding wall, Lan Wangji cuts open the garments of the buried cadavers, uncovering a torso stitched to legs that belong to a different body entirely. When severed and brought together, these legs resonate violently with the ghost arm, proving they belong to the same powerful, dismembered cultivator.Guided southwest by the ghost arm to Yueyang, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji investigate the total extermination of the local Chang Clan, whose deceased members continuously hammer against their coffin lids in terror. Lan Wangji recounts the tragedy from over a decade earlier involving righteous wandering cultivator Xiao Xingchen, a disciple of the legendary hermit Baoshan-sanren and martial brother to Wei Wuxian's mother Cangse-sanren. Xiao Xingchen and his companion Song Lan had captured the psychopathic murderer Xue Yang for slaughtering the Chang Clan, but Lanling Jin Clan leader Jin Guangshan shielded Xue Yang from execution by making him a guest cultivator so Xue Yang could reconstruct Wei Wuxian's catastrophic weapon, the Yin Tiger Tally. After Xue Yang was released, he blinded Song Lan and forced Chang Ping to retract his testimony, eventually executing Chang Ping through slow slicing with a sword. At the haunted Chang Clan cemetery, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji encounter a mysterious gravedigger who conceals his identity behind magical black mist and wields refined sword techniques characteristic of the Lan Clan. Lan Wangji clashes with the intruder, who flees, leaving behind an exhumed coffin containing a patchwork decoy corpse whose limbs and head are stuffed with cloth while the torso is real human flesh. This discovered torso matches the severed left arm and legs, confirming that a high-ranking conspirator mimicking the Nie Clan's suppression techniques deliberately scattered the dismembered remains in places of intense supernatural torment to prevent the corpse from reconstituting. That night, Wen Ning reappears in the Yueyang shadows, heavily restrained by black iron chains and driven into mindless obedience by thick skull-piercing nails embedded in his brain. After Wei Wuxian calms Wen Ning and plays Rest alongside Lan Wangji's guqin to quell the combined fury of the torso, legs, and left arm, the gathered limbs turn and point southwest toward Shudong, directing their investigation onward.Guided southwest toward Shudong by the dismembered left arm, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji enter the desolate, mist-shrouded Yi City, where they encounter Lan Sizhui, Lan Jingyi, Jin Ling, and other junior disciples suffering from lethal corpse poisoning. After Wei Wuxian treats the poisoned youths with fiery glutinous rice congee inside an abandoned mortuary, the group is stalked by a blind female ghost tapping a bamboo pole against the stone streets. A blind Daoist cultivator wielding the sacred sword Shuanghua arrives and offers guidance, but Wei Wuxian identifies subtle behavioral anomalies and tricks the man into exposing his true identity as the mass murderer Xue Yang. Having lived in disguise for years, Xue Yang captures the building, threatens the juniors, and demands that Wei Wuxian use demonic cultivation to restore the shattered soul of the real Xiao Xingchen from a spirit-trapping pouch. When Wei Wuxian refuses, Xue Yang summons the fierce corpse of Song Lan, who has been rendered a mindless puppet through thick skull-piercing nails driven into his brain. Lan Wangji descends into the street to engage Xue Yang in combat, allowing Wei Wuxian to direct the disciples, command surrounding corpses to immobilize Song Lan, and extract the metal spikes from the Daoist's skull. With his mind restored, Song Lan collapses in agony, while Wei Wuxian and the juniors prepare to uncover the history of Yi City by conducting the ritual of Empathy on the ghost of the blind girl, A-Qing. Using a silver bell and a spiritual array to tether his consciousness, Wei Wuxian merges his mind with A-Qing's residual spirit to witness the past events that doomed the righteous cultivators of Shudong.Through A-Qing's memories, Wei Wuxian witnesses the horrific tragedy that unfolded several years earlier after Xiao Xingchen gave his own eyes to restore the vision of his blinded companion Song Lan. While wandering the countryside accompanied by the spirited runaway thief A-Qing, who secretly possessed functional sight while feigning blindness, Xiao Xingchen discovered a severely wounded, bleeding young man collapsed in the tall grass and nursed him back to health in the Yi City mortuary without realizing the youth was Xue Yang. Exploiting Xiao Xingchen's complete blindness and the fact that Shuanghua detected hostile resentment rather than moral virtue, Xue Yang spent years playing house with them while covertly poisoning innocent local villagers with corpse powder and severing their tongues. Believing these living, mutilated villagers were walking corpses due to Shuanghua's reactions, Xiao Xingchen unwittingly slaughtered dozens of helpless townspeople under Xue Yang's cheerful guidance. The deceit collapsed when Song Lan tracked Xue Yang to Yi City to demand retribution for past atrocities. Xue Yang poisoned Song Lan with corpse powder, slashed out his tongue to silence his warnings, and manipulated Xiao Xingchen into piercing Song Lan's heart with Shuanghua. Once Song Lan fell dead, Xue Yang gleefully revealed the full monstrous reality to Xiao Xingchen, proving that the virtuous holy man had massacred innocent villagers and murdered his dearest companion. Crushed by overwhelming guilt, horror, and psychological despair, Xiao Xingchen severed his own throat with Shuanghua, willingly shattering his soul into tiny, irreparable fragments to prevent Xue Yang from ever raising him as a fierce corpse, after which Xue Yang pursued, blinded, and murdered A-Qing.Awakening from Empathy, Wei Wuxian assists Lan Wangji in the final battle against Xue Yang amidst the blinding Yi City fog. Guided by the relentless rhythmic tapping of A-Qing's ghost pole locating their adversary, Lan Wangji strikes through the mist with Bichen and severs Xue Yang's arm, recovering the pouch containing Xiao Xingchen's fragmented soul. Before Xue Yang can be taken alive, a mysterious conspirator concealing his identity behind a magical mask of smoke snatches the bleeding criminal away using a spiritual transportation talisman. Within an untouched coffin inside the mortuary, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji discover the dismembered right arm of the corpse, which resonates with the previously collected limbs. Handing Shuanghua and the soul-trapping pouch to the weeping, liberated fierce corpse of Song Lan, Wei Wuxian watches the Daoist set off to wander the mortal realm carrying both his own sword Fuxue and Xiao Xingchen's blade, determined to seek a way to mend his companion's shattered spirit. After burying A-Qing, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji resume their journey, during which Lan Wangji consumes alcohol, binds Wei Wuxian's wrists with his sacred forehead ribbon, and displays uncharacteristic possessiveness. Wen Ning reappears in the night, his sanity fully restored following the removal of his controlling nails, and confirms that high-ranking cultivators had hidden him away rather than burning him to ashes years ago. Later, upon meeting Lan Xichen at the Annual Blossoms Garden in Tan Prefecture, Wei Wuxian learns that the Lan forehead ribbon is an inviolable symbol of self-restraint that only a cultivation spouse may touch, while Lan Xichen helps deduce that the reconstructed torso, legs, and arms belong to former Qinghe Nie Clan leader Nie Mingjue.To find Nie Mingjue's missing head, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji travel to Golden Carp Tower during the grand symposium hosted by the Lanling Jin Clan, where Wei Wuxian's presence in Mo Xuanyu's body stirs hostility due to Mo Xuanyu's past expulsion for harassing Jin Guangyao. Deploying the Papercut Incarnation technique to slip a paper doll past security arrays, Wei Wuxian infiltrates Jin Guangyao's private residence, Fragrance Palace, and enters a concealed chamber behind a bronze mirror. Inside, he discovers Nie Mingjue's preserved, severed head held on an altar, a secret land deed for Yunping City, and his own stolen demonic cultivation manuscripts from his past life. Before he can escape, Jin Guangyao enters with his wife Qin Su, who has discovered an anonymous letter revealing that she and Jin Guangyao are half-siblings fathered by Jin Guangshan and that Jin Guangyao knowingly married her to consolidate political power and subsequently murdered their child to cover up the incestuous deformity. Touching Nie Mingjue's severed head, Wei Wuxian's paper effigy undergoes Empathy with the dead sect leader, witnessing Meng Yao's humiliating rejection by Jin Guangshan, his strategic service under Nie Mingjue, his expulsion after killing a Jin cultivator to steal military achievements, his infiltration of Qishan Nightless City, and his assassination of Wen Ruohan. The vision exposes how Jin Guangyao, protected by Jin Guangshan to replicate the Yin Tiger Tally using Xue Yang, retaliated against Nie Mingjue's righteous wrath by volunteering to play the guqin song Cleansing to soothe Nie Mingjue's violent saber spirit, only to secretly weave lethal notes from the forbidden Collection of Spirit Turmoil into the music to induce Nie Mingjue's fatal public qi deviation and subsequent decapitation.

Snapping back to his physical body beside Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian attempts to lead Lan Xichen and the assembly of sect leaders into the secret chamber to expose Jin Guangyao, but Qin Su suddenly commits suicide by stabbing herself with a hidden dagger in front of the horrified crowd. Anticipating the intrusion, Jin Guangyao grants access to the room only after covertly swapping Nie Mingjue's severed head for Wen Ruohan's trophy dagger, completely subverting the accusations and portraying Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji as malicious slanders manipulating an innocent tragedy. Executing a devastating counterstrike, Jin Guangyao publicly exposes Mo Xuanyu as the resurrected Yiling Patriarch Wei Wuxian, demonstrating that Mo Xuanyu utilized Wei Wuxian's forbidden sacrificial ritual to summon the dark necromancer back into the world of the living. To eliminate all doubt before the assembled clans, Jin Guangyao presents the spiritual sword Suibian, which had sealed itself shut after the Yiling Patriarch's death and could only ever be unsheathed by Wei Wuxian himself, forcing the truth into the open when Wei Wuxian draws the blade effortlessly. Overwhelmed by decades of grief, manipulation, and rage regarding the tragic deaths of his parents Jin Zixuan and Jiang Yanli, Jin Ling draws Suihua and plunges the blade directly into Wei Wuxian's abdomen. Breaking all ties with orthodoxy and defying the collective cultivation clans who demand Wei Wuxian's immediate execution, Lan Wangji draws Bichen, shields the grievously wounded Yiling Patriarch, and violently cuts a path through the hostile cultivators to carry Wei Wuxian away from Golden Carp Tower on his back into the sheltering rain.During the compulsory indoctrination camp imposed by the tyrannical Qishan Wen Clan, the young heirs of the prominent cultivation sects are stripped of their spiritual swords and forced to march to Mount Muxi under the abusive command of Wen Chao. Upon discovering a deep subterranean cavern, Wen Chao attempts to hoist Luo Qingyang over a dark subterranean lake to use her blood as bait for an ancient beast. Jin Zixuan and Lan Wangji physically intervene to shield the girl, prompting Wei Wuxian to launch a surprise strike, disarming Wen Chao and taking him hostage at sword point. Wen Zhuliu intervenes to protect his young master, and the cavern floor suddenly erupts as the dormant Xuanwu of Slaughter emerges from the black waters. Panicking, Wen Chao and his subordinates flee to the surface, severing the climbing vines and sealing the cave entrance with massive boulders to trap the disciples below. Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji discover an underwater current marked by floating maple leaves that offers an escape route, but the colossal creature positions itself over the submerged opening. To ensure the survival of the others, Wei Wuxian and the injured Lan Wangji deliberately distract the beast, drawing its wrath so Jiang Cheng can guide the trapped youths through the underwater tunnel to safety. Trapped alone in the subterranean dark, Lan Wangji reveals to Wei Wuxian that Wen Xu had burned the Cloud Recesses to the ground and that the Lan Clan leader lies critically injured. Swimming into the monster's submerged shell, Wei Wuxian discovers a mound of decaying corpses and extracts an ancient iron sword saturated with the deafening screams and resentful energy of thousands of human victims. Wei Wuxian wedges iron branding rods and the heavy blade into the beast's mouth to prevent it from closing its jaws, attacking its soft internal tissues while Lan Wangji wraps bowstrings around its neck, employing the Lan Clan's Killing Chord technique. After a continuous six hour battle, Lan Wangji strangles and decapitates the monster while Wei Wuxian impales it from within. Wei Wuxian succumbs to a severe fever and infected wounds, during which Lan Wangji softly hums a nameless melody to comfort him, until Jiang Fengmian and Jiang Cheng arrive with a rescue party to extract them from the cavern.Wei Wuxian recuperates at Lotus Pier, where the Jiang family learns that the Wen Clan has falsely proclaimed that Wen Chao single-handedly slaughtered the Xuanwu of Slaughter. Wen Clan aggression escalates rapidly when Wen Chao's arrogant mistress, Wang Lingjiao, arrives at Lotus Pier with an armed escort, demanding that Madam Yu cut off Wei Wuxian's right hand as punishment for flying a kite shaped like a sun monster. Madam Yu initially lashes Wei Wuxian with her spiritual whip Zidian to satisfy protocol, but when Wang Lingjiao presumes to establish a Wen supervisory office at Lotus Pier and insults Madam Yu's lineage, Madam Yu turns on her, delivering a violent beating. Wang Lingjiao fires signal flares to summon reinforcements, prompting Wen Zhuliu to breach the compound. Recognizing that Lotus Pier is doomed against the Wen forces, Madam Yu binds Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian together with Zidian, loads them into a boat, and commands them to flee to Meishan to seek shelter with the Yu Clan and Jiang Yanli. Madam Yu returns to the battle and perishes alongside her disciples. Sailing downstream, the boys encounter Jiang Fengmian returning home, but he uses his authority over Zidian to re-bind the youths and sends them away while he returns to Lotus Pier, where Wen Zhuliu melts his golden core and slaughters him. Sneaking into the ruined fortress that night, Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng witness the desecrated corpses of their parents and disciples displayed in the courtyard. Jiang Cheng subsequently slips away in an attempt to retrieve the bodies of his parents, only to be captured by the Wen Clan. Wei Wuxian returns to rescue him and discovers that Wen Ning has secretly taken Jiang Cheng into protective custody, recovered Zidian, and secured the corpses of Jiang Fengmian and Madam Yu. Wen Ning smuggles the brothers to the Yiling supervisory office, where his sister Wen Qing administers medical treatment. Jiang Cheng awakens to the devastating realization that Wen Zhuliu has dissolved his golden core, stripping him of his cultivation base. Determined to prevent Jiang Cheng from succumbing to despair, Wei Wuxian lies, claiming that his mother's immortal teacher, Baoshan-sanren, can restore lost cores. Wei Wuxian gives Jiang Cheng a blindfold and detailed instructions to ascend a secluded mountain in Yiling, sending him off to undergo the purported restoration. While waiting for Jiang Cheng's return in a local teahouse, Wei Wuxian is ambushed and captured by Wen Chao, Wang Lingjiao, and Wen Zhuliu. Wen Chao flies Wei Wuxian high over Yiling and hurls him alive into the Burial Mounds, leaving him to be consumed by the legions of resentful dead.Three months later, the four major clans of Jin, Nie, Lan, and Jiang unite to launch the Sunshot Campaign against the tyrannical Wen Clan, with Nie Mingjue scoring a decisive early victory by decapitating Wen Xu. Wen Chao and Wang Lingjiao are gripped by growing paranoia as mysterious massacres sweep through Wen supervisory offices across multiple territories. The slaughtered Wen cultivators are found mutilated by horrific means, and every household protection talisman at each site is altered by four blood-drawn brushstrokes into a smiling demonic face that attracts rather than repels evil spirits. Wang Lingjiao loses her sanity to supernatural terror and commits suicide by choking herself with the leg of a wooden stool. Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji track the fleeing Wen Chao and Wen Zhuliu to an isolated mountain post station, observing the interior through gaps in the roof tiles. Inside, a bald, emaciated, and terrified Wen Chao cowers under the sole protection of Wen Zhuliu. Wei Wuxian suddenly appears on the rooftop playing a black bamboo flute, manifesting an aura of dark power as he commands a ghostly child and a mutilated female fierce corpse to disarm and tear into the guards. Wei Wuxian reveals his survival, demonstrating that he has weaponized the resentful energy of the dead to wage war against his persecutors. Jiang Cheng drops into the room, and together the Jiang brothers confront their enemies. When Wen Zhuliu attempts a final strike to protect Wen Chao in repayment of a past debt to Wen Ruohan, Jiang Cheng ensnares Wen Zhuliu's neck with Zidian and strangles him to death, hanging him from the rafters. The brothers subject the screaming Wen Chao to brutal physical torture before ending his life, avenging the massacre of Lotus Pier. Lan Wangji confronts Wei Wuxian over his abandonment of orthodox spiritual cultivation, warning him that manipulating resentful energy inevitably corrodes the cultivator's physical health, temperament, and soul. Lan Wangji urgently implores Wei Wuxian to accompany him back to Gusu so the Lan Clan can assist him, but Wei Wuxian defensively rejects the offer, claiming full mastery over his spiritual state and asserting that he alone controls his chosen path.Returning to the present storyline following their escape from Golden Carp Tower, Lan Wangji carries the critically wounded Wei Wuxian directly into the Cloud Recesses, concealing him within his private residence, the Tranquility Room. Lan Xichen arrives and agrees to grant them sanctuary despite the scandal of harboring the resurrected Yiling Patriarch. Wei Wuxian recounts what he discovered during Empathy with Nie Mingjue's severed head, revealing that Jin Guangyao engineered Nie Mingjue's fatal qi deviation through malicious musical manipulation. Lan Xichen expresses disbelief, noting that he personally taught Jin Guangyao the righteous Lan Clan song Cleansing to soothe Nie Mingjue's temperamental saber spirit. To test the hypothesis, Wei Wuxian plays the altered version of Cleansing that he memorized from Nie Mingjue's recollections, and Lan Xichen immediately identifies an alien, hostile passage embedded within the melody. Lan Xichen guides Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian into the subterranean Room of Forbidden Books beneath the Library Pavilion to cross-reference ancient scores. Searching through foreign compositions, they locate the Collection of Spirit Turmoil, an obscure anthology of lethal songs from Dongying, and discover that a single page containing a tune capable of inducing madness, sensory loss, and death has been cleanly excised. This confirms that Jin Guangyao memorized the forbidden notes, tore out the page to eliminate evidence, and secretly wove the melody into his daily performances for Nie Mingjue over several years to ensure his public destruction. Lan Xichen reflects on this betrayal by confiding the tragic truth of his own parents, explaining that his father sequestered their mother in a gentian cottage after she killed his teacher, leaving the young Lan Wangji to kneel outside her closed door long after her quiet death. Jin Guangyao suddenly visits the Cloud Recesses to inform Lan Xichen that walking corpses across multiple provinces are massing toward Yiling, signaling the start of a second siege of the Burial Mounds. Lan Xichen conceals Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji from Jin Guangyao, allowing the pair to depart for Yiling, where they join Wen Ning, ascend the Burial Mounds, and liberate the captive clan disciples inside the Demon-Quelling Cave just as the allied cultivation sects arrive to execute a second siege.A dried peony blossom preserved inside Lan Wangji's book prompts a flashback to the grand Siege Hunt on Mount Baifeng held shortly after the victory of the Sunshot Campaign. Before thousands of spectators in the viewing pavilions, Wei Wuxian asserts his exceptional prowess by blindfolding himself and shooting an arrow dead center into the target, securing the most advantageous entry point into the hunting grounds. As he rides past the Lan formation, Wei Wuxian teases Lan Wangji by tossing a blooming pink peony directly into his hands from horseback. Later, resting alone against a tree deep within the forest with his black cloth blindfold still covering his eyes, Wei Wuxian plays his flute until an unseen intruder silently ambushes him, pinning his wrists against the trunk, stealing the peony from his robes, and kissing him with fierce possessiveness before retreating into the foliage. Unaware of his assailant's identity, Wei Wuxian unleashes Chenqing to summon all the ghosts and fierce corpses across Mount Baifeng, driving them into the Jiang Clan's spirit-binding nets and sweeping one-third of all available prey in the competition. An infuriated Jin Zixun and hundreds of empty-handed cultivators surround Wei Wuxian, accusing him of insolence and demanding he release the captured spirits. When Jin Zixun hurls insults at Wei Wuxian's character and low birth, Jiang Yanli steps forward and delivers a resolute reprimand, defending Wei Wuxian's martial skill and demanding that Jin Zixun apologize for his unwarranted slander. Jin Guangyao and Lan Xichen arrive to pacify the hostile crowd, and Jin Zixuan publicly confesses his romantic devotion to Jiang Yanli before the assembled cultivators, halting her departure. Two months later in Yunmeng, Lan Wangji visits the region and is pelted with flowers tossed by Wei Wuxian from a tavern balcony. During their private meeting, Lan Wangji once again voices urgent concerns regarding Wei Wuxian's visible loss of emotional control and temperamental instability during the Mount Baifeng confrontation, warning him that demonic cultivation will eventually consume his judgment. Wei Wuxian stubbornly deflects the warning, maintaining his unwavering confidence that he will never lose control of his path.Wei Wuxian discovers Wen Qing hiding in Lanling, learning that her brother Wen Ning and their medical branch were captured by Jin Zixun and taken to an abusive labor camp at Qiongqi Path. After confronting Jin Zixun at Golden Carp Tower to locate the prisoners, Wei Wuxian rides through the stormy night to Qiongqi Path, where he finds Wen Ning beaten to death by overseers. Enraged by the brutality, Wei Wuxian awakens Wen Ning as a savage fierce corpse, slaughters the abusive guards, and evacuates fifty surviving Wen refugees to the desolate Burial Mounds of Yiling. Jin Guangshan convenes an emergency assembly at Golden Carp Tower, manipulating the gathered sect leaders to condemn Wei Wuxian's defiance and demanding that Jiang Cheng confiscate the Yin Tiger Tally. Jiang Cheng travels to the Burial Mounds to force a resolution, but Wei Wuxian refuses to execute Wen Ning or abandon the defenseless refugees who once sheltered them from Wen Chao. Recognizing that the orthodox sects will not permit Yunmeng to harbor the Wen remnants, Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian agree to stage a fierce public duel to sever political ties. During the staged clash, Jiang Cheng fractures Wei Wuxian's arm while Wei Wuxian pierces Jiang Cheng's abdomen with Sandu, providing Jiang Cheng with the pretext to publicly denounce Wei Wuxian as a clan traitor and announce his permanent expulsion from the Jiang Clan.

Settling into the Burial Mounds, Wei Wuxian laboriously refines Wen Ning's corpse, successfully restoring his mind and speech to create the first conscious, sentient fierce corpse in cultivation history. While visiting Yiling with the orphan Wen Yuan, Wei Wuxian unexpectedly crosses paths with Lan Wangji, who was passing through on a night hunt. When the child clings affectionately to Lan Wangji's leg, Wei Wuxian drags Lan Wangji into a restaurant, where Lan Wangji buys toys for the boy and quietly reveals that Jiang Yanli is betrothed to Jin Zixuan with their wedding approaching in seven days. An alarm talisman ignites, prompting Lan Wangji to accompany Wei Wuxian to the Demon-Quelling Cave, where Wen Ning has awakened and temporarily lost control. Lan Wangji confronts Wei Wuxian regarding his ability to master such dark energy, warning that demonic cultivation inexorably damages both body and temperament, but Wei Wuxian stubbornly maintains that he has no other feasible path. After sharing a modest meal prepared by the Wen remnants, Lan Wangji parts ways with Wei Wuxian at the base of the mountain. Months later, Jiang Cheng secretly brings Jiang Yanli to a secluded courtyard in Yiling wearing her ceremonial crimson wedding attire so Wei Wuxian can see her before the ceremony. Jiang Yanli serves both brothers lotus root and pork rib soup, and Wei Wuxian bestows the courtesy name Rulan upon her unborn child, cementing their enduring bond despite his exile.A year later, Jin Zixuan sends an official invitation to the Burial Mounds for Jin Ling's one-month celebration, prompting Wei Wuxian to spend weeks crafting a protective silver bell that wards off low-level evil spirits as a gift for his nephew. Traveling through Qiongqi Path toward Golden Carp Tower alongside Wen Ning, Wei Wuxian is ambushed by Jin Zixun and hundreds of archers, who accuse Wei Wuxian of casting the fatal Hundred Holes and Thousand Sores curse upon Jin Zixun's body. When Wei Wuxian plays Chenqing to defend himself, Jin Zixuan arrives to de-escalate the conflict, rebuking Jin Zixun while pleading with Wei Wuxian to halt his fierce corpse and come negotiate. In the rising hostility, Wen Ning goes berserk, plunging his arm through Jin Zixuan's chest and slaughtering Jin Zixun alongside over one hundred cultivators. Crushed by grief and horror over killing Jiang Yanli's husband, Wei Wuxian suffers a psychological collapse, during which Wen Qing immobilizes him with silver needles for three days so she and Wen Ning can surrender to Golden Carp Tower to spare Wei Wuxian. Waking after three days, Wei Wuxian rushes to Golden Carp Tower and learns that the four major sects are holding a Pledge Rally at Nightless City, where Jin Guangshan scatters the Wen siblings' ashes and promises to exterminate Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian crashes the rally from the palace roof, mocking the hypocritical clans, but cultivators open fire and provoke him into summoning a vast corpse army. The chaos peaks when Jiang Yanli arrives searching for Wei Wuxian and is slashed across the back by a fierce corpse. As Wei Wuxian desperately plays Chenqing to quiet the corpses, a weeping young cultivator charges to avenge his fallen brother, and Jiang Yanli shoves Wei Wuxian aside, taking the fatal blade through her throat. Driven past all sanity by Jiang Yanli's death, Wei Wuxian snaps the killer's neck with his bare hands, joins both halves of the Yin Tiger Tally, and unleashes an uncontrollable bloodbath across Nightless City.In the present storyline at the Burial Mounds, hundreds of allied cultivators surround Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji inside the Demon-Quelling Cave during the second siege. Suddenly, the attacking cultivators bleed from their mouths and noses as their spiritual powers vanish completely, rendering their swords and talismans inert. Wei Wuxian deduces that someone wove a debilitating song from the Collection of Spirit Turmoil into their ritual music, deducing that the culprit is Moling Su Clan leader Su She by tricking him into demonstrating active spiritual energy. Exposed as the smoke-masked conspirator who wielded Lan Clan sword forms at Yueyang, Su She destroys the cave's blood array barrier and escapes via transportation talisman, unleashing a colossal wave of fierce corpses into the cavern. To save the defenseless cultivators, Wei Wuxian paints a Spirit-Attraction Flag onto his own robes with blood, drawing every corpse toward himself and the Blood Pool while Lan Wangji fights beside him. As the swarm threatens to crush them, the blood-soaked corpses of the fifty Wen refugees who were slaughtered in the first siege rise from the Blood Pool, tearing into the attacking dead with savage ferocity to defend the juniors and eradicate the horde. The Wen corpses crumble into red dust, leaving the allied cultivators stunned and humiliated that they were rescued by the very people they intended to exterminate. Drained and powerless, the sects descend the mountain and commandeer a fleet of boats to seek refuge at Lotus Pier in Yunmeng.At Lotus Pier, the gathering in Sword Hall is interrupted by two surviving witnesses, the scarred courtesan Sisi and Madam Qin's former maid Bicao, who publicly expose Jin Guangyao's monstrous crimes. They reveal that Jin Guangyao engineered Jin Guangshan's humiliating death by exhaustion with prostitutes, knowingly married his own half-sister Qin Su to secure status, and murdered his own son Jin Rusong to conceal the incestuous deformity. While the assembly turns against Jin Guangyao in an uproar, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji slip away to the Jiang ancestral hall to offer incense to Jiang Fengmian and Madam Yu. Jiang Cheng discovers them and explodes in fury, berating Wei Wuxian for bringing Lan Wangji and Wen Ning to Lotus Pier and blaming Wei Wuxian's savior complex for the slaughter of their parents and sister. When Jiang Cheng insults Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian strikes him with an explosive talisman, triggering a clash between Zidian and Bichen that ends when Wei Wuxian collapses unconscious, bleeding heavily from his nose. Wen Ning intercepts Jiang Cheng's whip and forces Suibian into Jiang Cheng's hands, commanding him to draw the blade. Suibian unsheathes easily because the golden core circulating spiritual power inside Jiang Cheng is Wei Wuxian's own core. Wen Ning shatters Jiang Cheng's reality by revealing that Baoshan-sanren was an invention, and that Wen Qing surgically cut Wei Wuxian's golden core from his conscious body over two days to replace Jiang Cheng's melted core, leaving Wei Wuxian permanently unable to practice orthodox swordplay. Lan Wangji carries the unconscious Wei Wuxian away on a boat, and after learning the agonizing details of the extraction from Wen Ning, travels with Wei Wuxian to Yunping City, locating Jin Guangyao's Guanyin Temple.Investigating the secret land deed found in Fragrance Palace, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji travel to Guanyin Temple in Yunping City, discovering that the sanctuary is heavily guarded by armed cultivators and fake monks under Jin Guangyao's command. Scouting the interior, Wei Wuxian finds Lan Xichen held captive with his spiritual powers sealed after being deceived by Jin Guangyao. Wei Wuxian is captured by Jin Guangyao and Su She, while Jin Ling arrives tracking Wei Wuxian with the spiritual dog Fairy and is taken hostage as well. While detained in the courtyard, Lan Xichen confronts Wei Wuxian over his perceived callousness, finally revealing the origin of the thirty-three discipline whip scars on Lan Wangji's back and the Wen clan brand on his chest. Lan Xichen explains that following the massacre at Nightless City, Lan Wangji defied the entire cultivation world, fought and wounded thirty-three senior Lan elders to protect an incapacitated Wei Wuxian, hid him in a mountain cave in Yiling while repeatedly confessing his devotion, and escorted him back to the Burial Mounds before willingly accepting thirty-three strikes of the discipline whip. When news arrived of Wei Wuxian's death, an immobilized, critically injured Lan Wangji dragged himself to the Burial Mounds, found only the feverish child Wen Yuan, and later branded his own chest while intoxicated with grief. Lan Wangji descends from the sky with Bichen to rescue them, but Jin Guangyao threatens Wei Wuxian's throat with a razor-sharp guqin string, compelling Lan Wangji to seal his own spiritual meridians. Facing imminent execution, Wei Wuxian abruptly shouts a public, explicit confession of romantic love and physical desire to Lan Wangji, stunning Jin Guangyao into loosening his grip and allowing Wei Wuxian to break free into Lan Wangji's embrace.Jiang Cheng storms Guanyin Temple brandishing Sandu and Zidian, having tracked down Wei Wuxian after pulling Suibian from its sheath and realizing that the sword recognized him as its legitimate wielder. Jin Guangyao weaponizes this volatile emotional friction by publicly exposing how Wei Wuxian always refused to carry a sword because his golden core had been removed, mocking Jiang Cheng for claiming sole credit for restoring the Jiang Clan while relying entirely on Wei Wuxian's donated spiritual core. The revelation shatters Jiang Cheng's emotional composure, and during a momentary lapse in his combat focus, Jin Guangyao strikes him with a guqin string, inflicting a severe chest wound that forces him to the floor. Collapsing beside Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, Jiang Cheng weeps with bitter resentment, accusing Wei Wuxian of self-righteous martyrdom and lamenting the broken childhood vow that they would forever rule Yunmeng together as the Twin Prides. Wei Wuxian rejects the burden of past debts, firmly declaring that their shared history is water under the bridge and refusing to harbor further mutual recrimination. Meanwhile, Jin Guangyao's subordinates finish unearthing a deep pit behind the main hall, but opening the buried chest triggers a cloud of lethal corrosive vapor that instantly dissolves the digging team into scorched corpses. Jin Guangyao burns his hand clearing the toxin, only to find the chest and coffin entirely empty, exposing that an unknown adversary had previously dug into the site from the opposite side and stolen the preserved corpse of his mother, Meng Shi, which he had intended to exhume and smuggle with him to Dongying.While Su She unfastens his robes to treat his wounds with medicinal powder, Lan Wangji notices severe scarring across his torso and commands him to turn around, exposing the gruesome lesions of the Hundred Holes and Thousand Sores curse covering his chest. Wei Wuxian immediately deduces that Su She, having harbored deep-seated resentment toward Jin Zixun for arrogance and class prejudice at past banquets, was the actual perpetrator who cursed Jin Zixun, proving that the Qiongqi Path ambush was engineered under false pretenses and clearing Wei Wuxian of inciting the original disaster. Recognizing that Jin Guangyao intends to execute the hostages before departing, Wei Wuxian smears his own blood across the Guanyin statue to rupture the spiritual array governing the temple. The broken seal unleashes a swarm of grotesque, burned female spirits who had perished in the brothel fire set by Jin Guangyao years earlier to obliterate his humiliating past, plunging the hall into supernatural chaos. Lan Xichen exploits the distraction to pin Jin Guangyao against the altar, but Jin Guangyao reveals a concealed, bloodstained guqin string embedded directly inside his own flesh. Slicing through his own abdomen, Jin Guangyao extracts the wire, slips past Lan Xichen, and takes Jin Ling hostage, threatening to sever the boy's throat unless the cultivators grant him safe passage. In that instant, Lan Wangji draws Bichen and strikes with lethal precision, cleanly severing Jin Guangyao's right hand at the forearm to intercept the lethal wire and rescue Jin Ling from his uncle's grasp.The dismembered corpse of Nie Mingjue suddenly breaches the temple gates, fully assembled with thick black stitches encircling his neck and radiating overwhelming resentment. Nie Mingjue rampages through the compound, obliterating the surviving Jin disciples and pursuing Jin Ling due to their shared bloodline. Wen Ning, who had tracked and fought the reanimated corpse through the streets of Yunping, hurls himself between Nie Mingjue and the juniors, taking severe physical damage, while Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian combine guqin and flute to suppress the monster and guide him toward the empty burial casket. During the melee, Su She attempts to stab Nie Huaisang to protect Jin Guangyao, prompting Lan Xichen to disarm Su She before Nie Mingjue crushes Su She to death against the flagstones. As Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji force Nie Mingjue into the coffin and prepare to drop the heavy lid, Nie Huaisang shrieks that Jin Guangyao is reaching behind his back for a hidden weapon. Operating on instinct, Lan Xichen thrusts Shuoyue through Jin Guangyao's chest, inflicting a fatal puncture through his heart. A dying Jin Guangyao confronts Lan Xichen with blistering fury, declaring that while he had murdered his father, brother, wife, and son, he had never once contemplated harming Lan Xichen. In a final act of vengeful spite, Jin Guangyao drags Lan Xichen toward the open coffin to die together, yet in his final heartbeat, Jin Guangyao shoves Lan Xichen clear of danger before Nie Mingjue snaps Jin Guangyao's neck. Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian immediately seal the coffin using the Guanyin statue and seven spiritual strings, terminating the supernatural crisis.Reinforcements from the Lan, Jiang, and allied sects arrive alongside Lan Qiren, led to the temple by Fairy after the dog alerted cultivators at Lotus Pier. Inspecting the aftermath, Wei Wuxian pieces together the hidden truth behind the entire conspiracy, deducing that the seemingly helpless Nie Huaisang was the overarching mastermind behind Jin Guangyao's downfall. To avenge Nie Mingjue's murder, Nie Huaisang had discovered Meng Shi's corpse, sent the anonymous incriminating letter to Qin Su, coerced Mo Xuanyu into performing the sacrificial reincarnation ritual, deliberately dropped Nie Mingjue's severed left arm at Mo Manor to trigger the investigation, and falsely feigned panic in the temple to manipulate Lan Xichen into delivering the fatal strike. When confronted with these deductions, Nie Huaisang maintains his buffoonish facade, claiming utter ignorance before slipping away into the background. As the cultivators prepare the iron coffin to be buried beneath seventy-two peach-wood nails, Lan Sizhui notices Chenqing, prompting the restoration of his suppressed childhood memories as the Wen orphan Wen Yuan who was raised on the Burial Mounds and rescued by Lan Wangji. Sizhui tearfully embraces Wei Wuxian and Wen Ning, providing long-delayed emotional closure to the remnants of the Wen medical branch. Outside the temple, Jiang Cheng watches Wei Wuxian depart, deliberately withholding the secret that he had originally lost his golden core because he surrendered himself to a Wen patrol to distract them from capturing Wei Wuxian. Having resolved the past and reaffirmed their devotion, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji leave the sect politics behind to wander the world together as committed cultivation partners.

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Volume 5

Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu

The story so far...
(Volumes 1–8)

Eight hundred years after the fall of Xianle, Xie Lian ascends to the Heavenly Realm for the third time, but the tremors from his ascension shatter celestial golden palaces and drop a massive divine bell, plunging him into enormous merit debt. To repay this debt, Ling Wen dispatches him to the northern mortal realm to investigate Mount Yujun, where seventeen brides have vanished under the predation of a mysterious ghost groom. Two junior martial officials, Nan Feng from the Palace of Nan Yang and Fu Yao from the Palace of Xuan Zhen, volunteer to assist him. Xie Lian disguises himself as a bride in an elaborate wedding sedan to bait the creature, but when a pack of wolves and strange phantoms ambushes the procession, a mysterious youth clad in vibrant maple red appears, takes his hand, and guides him past the mountain defensive enchantments beneath a crimson umbrella. After the youth disperses into a cloud of silver wraith butterflies, Xie Lian uncovers a hidden Temple of Ming Guang and a horrifying forest of hanging corpses. Xie Lian discovers that the ghost groom is actually Xuan Ji, a former general of Yushi who broke her own legs and died of resentment after being rejected by the northern martial god General Pei Ming. General Pei Junior descends from heaven to apprehend Xuan Ji, and Xie Lian briefly encounters a terrified boy whose face is covered in bandages, only to realize in horror that the child bears the cursed Human Face Disease that once annihilated Xianle. Returning to heaven, Xie Lian learns that the red-clad youth who guided him was Crimson Rain Sought Flower, Hua Cheng, one of the supreme ghost kings.Xie Lian descends to the mortal realm to collect scraps and establish his humble Puqi Shrine in Puqi Village, where he hitches a ride on an ox cart and encounters a handsome young runaway dressed in red who calls himself San Lang. San Lang displays vast knowledge of the three realms, perfectly paints a long-lost portrait of the God-Pleasing Crown Prince of Xianle, and crafts a solid wooden door for the shrine that easily withstands Xie Lian protective spiritual seals. Suspicious of his origins, Xie Lian tests him with fortune sticks and a palm reading, but San Lang reveals an unnatural reservoir of flawless good luck and an absence of evil aura, making it impossible to expose him as a ghost. A possessed empty shell cultivator suddenly collapses outside Puqi Shrine, claiming to have barely escaped the deadly northwestern checkpoint of Banyue Pass, which prompts Xie Lian to investigate the matter through the heavenly communication array. Ling Wen warns Xie Lian to stay away because Banyue Pass involves powerful forces, but San Lang offers to accompany him and provides detailed historical lore regarding the Kingdom of Banyue and its sinister state preceptor. Nan Feng and Fu Yao quickly volunteer to join the journey, bringing the demon-revealing sword Hongjing to test San Lang, but the youth casually avoids exposure, and Nan Feng activates a ground array that teleports the four of them directly to the northwestern border.Traversing the arid desert toward the ruins of Banyue, the group is caught in a violent supernatural sandstorm that sweeps Xie Lian into midair before Ruoye anchors him to the wrist of San Lang. They seek refuge inside a hollow boulder where they encounter a mortal merchant caravan guided by a taciturn young local named A-Zhao, who explains that deadly scorpion-snakes infest the ruins and only the local shanyue fern can neutralize their lethal venom. Inside the shelter, Xie Lian examines an ancient stone stele inscribed with Banyue script, which San Lang casually translates while teasing the merchants into kowtowing for good fortune. When an aggressive scorpion-snake drops from the ceiling to attack the mortals, Xie Lian shields a young merchant named Tian Sheng and takes the venomous bite on his own hand, forcing the party to journey into the ancient city to retrieve the antidote within twenty-four hours. Upon reaching the deserted royal palace of Banyue, Xie Lian encounters two suspicious figures in white and black strolling through the ruins and discovers a buried face in the mud, but monstrous Banyue soldiers led by the towering wrath ghost General Kemo ambush the travelers and herd them to the precipice of the Sinner's Pit. A-Zhao charges Kemo in desperation and is thrown over the edge into the pit where flesh-eating ghosts rip through the abyss, and San Lang casually steps over the ledge and leaps into the depths with a serene smile, prompting a panicked Xie Lian to drag Kemo down with him as they plummet into the dark.At the bottom of the Sinner's Pit, Xie Lian lands safely in the arms of San Lang, who has already single-handedly slaughtered all the rabid Banyue ghosts in a pool of blood without suffering a scratch. Xie Lian interrogates Kemo and learns that the kingdom fell two hundred years ago when their state preceptor, a mixed-blood woman of Banyue and Yong'an, deliberately opened the city gates to allow the Yong'an military to annihilate the populace. The scrawny black-clad corpse hanging above the pit is revealed as the real State Preceptor Banyue, who voluntarily endures repeated executions by Kemo to atone for her past actions, while A-Zhao drops into the pit unscathed and reveals his true divine identity as General Pei Junior. Pei Xiu confesses that he used his mortal clone A-Zhao and controlled the scorpion-snakes to herd innocent travelers into Banyue ruins, feeding mortal flesh to the dead soldiers so their lingering resentment would disperse and conceal the blood on his hands from the Heavens. The Wind Master Shi Qingxuan and the Earth Master Ming Yi descend in disguise to arrest Pei Xiu, allowing Xie Lian to collect Banyue and Kemo into sealed clay pots and return peacefully to Puqi Village. Back at Puqi Shrine, Xie Lian directly confronts San Lang about his true identity as the feared Supreme Ghost King Crimson Rain Sought Flower, and Hua Cheng acknowledges his title before slipping away at dawn, leaving behind a precious crystal ring suspended on a silver chain around Xie Lian neck.Xie Lian returns to the Heavenly Capital upon receiving an urgent summons from Ling Wen. At the Palace of Divine Might, General Pei Ming accuses Xie Lian of colluding with a supreme ghost king to frame General Pei Junior at Banyue Pass, but the Wind Master defends Xie Lian. In the hall, Xie Lian meets the Crown Prince of Yong'an, Lang Qianqiu, who is the Martial God of the East. Jun Wu dismisses the charges and secretly assigns Xie Lian to investigate Ghost City, where an undercover heavenly official went missing after firing an Ascending Fire Dragon signal. The Wind Master, Shi Qingxuan, reveals himself and accompanies Xie Lian on the mission, transforming into a female Daoist because his spiritual power is stronger in that form. The two gods descend to Ghost City and enter the crowded Gambler's Den, where mortals and ghosts wager lives and lifespans. Lang Qianqiu charges into the establishment to stop a desperate father from gambling away his daughter's life, but Hua Cheng intervenes from behind a red curtain, overpowers Lang Qianqiu, seals his spiritual power, and suspends him from the ceiling as a betting prize. To rescue Lang Qianqiu, Xie Lian steps forward to gamble against Hua Cheng. Hua Cheng guides Xie Lian's hands over the dice cup, teaches him the technique, and deliberately allows Xie Lian to roll winning numbers to secure the release of Lang Qianqiu.Following the gamble, Hua Cheng invites Xie Lian to his private residence at Paradise Manor, returning the crystal ring on a silver chain and discussing his personal control over Ghost City. Shi Qingxuan disguises himself as a maid, infiltrates Paradise Manor, and secretly locates Xie Lian in his bedchamber to resume their search for the missing heavenly official. Xie Lian uses the pair of dice and luck borrowed from Hua Cheng to roll double sixes, successfully unlocking a hidden mechanism behind a divine statue that opens the way to secret underground tunnels. In the subterranean corridors, Xie Lian spots a heavenly cursed shackle on the wrist of the Waning Moon Officer, who is later suspected to be the banished Martial God of the West, Yin Yu. Shi Qingxuan and Xie Lian navigate through several dangerous chambers and traps by rolling the dice, eventually discovering the missing Earth Master Ming Yi, who is bound to a wall and severely battered. Shi Qingxuan carries Ming Yi on his back, and the escaping group encounters the ghost child Lang Ying afflicted with Human Face Disease. Hua Cheng intercepts the gods inside an armory, demanding to know why they are fleeing with his captive subordinate. Shi Qingxuan uses his wind fan to create a diversion, but the violent winds inadvertently ignite a catastrophic blaze that sets Paradise Manor on fire. Lang Qianqiu smashes through the ceiling with his massive greatsword to assist their retreat, absorbing the storm of golden foil from the explosion. The four gods ride a tailwind to escape the burning estate and flee directly back to the Heavenly Realm.Arriving at the Palace of Divine Might, the gods deliver the wounded Ming Yi for aid, but Lang Qianqiu suddenly seizes Xie Lian's wrist. Lang Qianqiu recognizes Xie Lian's distinctive combat movements and the black sword Fangxin, realizing that Xie Lian was the State Preceptor Fangxin of Yong'an who slaughtered the Yong'an royal family centuries ago during the Gilded Banquet Massacre. Lang Qianqiu demands a duel to the death before Jun Wu to avenge his murdered parents, recounting how Fangxin had saved his life from assassins when he was twelve and taught him swordplay. Xie Lian confesses to the massacre and repeatedly requests banishment, but Jun Wu refuses the request and places Xie Lian under detention in the Palace of Xianle while barring Lang Qianqiu from entering. In the Palace of Xianle, Mu Qing and Feng Xin arrive separately to interrogate Xie Lian about his role in the royal murders, and their mutual animosity erupts into a violent fistfight in the main hall. Lang Qianqiu manages to roll the correct dice numbers to bypass the palace wards, throwing the sword Fangxin at Xie Lian's feet and demanding an explanation for why his family was murdered despite treating the displaced Xianle people with kindness. Xie Lian disarms Lang Qianqiu and refuses to offer excuses. Before their confrontation can escalate further, Hua Cheng raids the Heavenly Capital with a swarm of silver wraith butterflies, repels Feng Xin and Mu Qing, and rescues Xie Lian from celestial custody.Hua Cheng brings Xie Lian and Lang Qianqiu, who is temporarily disguised as a budaoweng doll, to the cannibalistic cavern lair of the Green Ghost Qi Rong. In the cave, Qi Rong is roasting and consuming human captives while using a kneeling stone statue of the Crown Prince of Xianle as his footstool. Hua Cheng ruthlessly beats Qi Rong and forces him to reveal the full truth behind the Gilded Banquet. Qi Rong confesses that he and Prince An Le, the last scion of the Xianle royal family, orchestrated the massacre to exterminate the Yong'an monarchy, but Xie Lian arrived during the feast to prevent An Le from murdering Lang Qianqiu. To prevent total war between the two peoples, Xie Lian had killed the assassins and the king, absorbed the full blame upon himself as Fangxin, and executed An Le to extinguish the cycle of revenge. Overhearing this revelation, Lang Qianqiu drops Qi Rong into a boiling cauldron, experiences profound grief over the deception of his teacher and friend, and departs in despair to hunt down Qi Rong's escaping spirit. Feng Xin and Shi Qingxuan arrive at the cavern to help free the three hundred mortal captives from Qi Rong's clutches. Hua Cheng parts ways with Xie Lian to return to Ghost City, while Xie Lian travels to the ruins of Mount Taicang to reflect upon his past among the ashes of the burnt Royal Holy Temple.The narrative shifts to Xie Lian's youth at age seventeen during the Shangyuan Heavenly Ceremonial Procession in the imperial capital of Xianle. Xie Lian performs as the God-Pleasing Martial Warrior in ceremonial robes on the Grand Avenue of Divine Might. During the third circuit around the city, a ragged, bandaged young child named Honghong-er falls from the towering city walls. Breaking ritual, Xie Lian leaps from the float and catches the child, disrupting the sacred procession and dropping a precious red coral pearl earring. The State Preceptors reprimand Xie Lian for tainting the royal ritual, but Xie Lian insists that saving a life cannot be an offense. Trainees on Mount Taicang later accuse Xie Lian's attendant Mu Qing of stealing cherries and the missing coral pearl, but Xie Lian intervenes and protects Mu Qing. Soon after, Xie Lian's cousin Qi Rong ties the child Honghong-er in a sack behind his golden carriage and drags him through the streets. Xie Lian rescues the bruised child, reprimands Qi Rong, and takes Honghong-er up to Mount Taicang with Feng Xin and Mu Qing. At the mountain, malevolent resentful spirits swarm the Palace of Xianle because Honghong-er was born under the ominous Star of Solitude. The State Preceptor warns Xie Lian to cast the child away or face doom, but Xie Lian rejects the prediction and vows to forge his own path.Three years after his first ascension to the heavenly realm, Xie Lian observes a catastrophic drought devastating the southern region of Yong'an in the Kingdom of Xianle. Descending secretly to the mortal realm against strict celestial prohibitions, Xie Lian witnesses widespread starvation, disease, and societal breakdown across the arid provinces. In a dilapidated shrine, he encounters Lang Ying, an impoverished father desperately attempting to bury his deceased son beneath a toppled golden statue of the Crown Prince. The King of Xianle, fearing economic ruination and civil rebellion, orders the gates of the imperial capital barred against the incoming refugees, dispatching armed royal guards to brutally repel the starving migrants from the city walls. Desperate to alleviate the water crisis, Xie Lian exhausts his own spiritual reserves to summon rain clouds, but mortal rivers and lakes rapidly evaporate. He journeys across the realm to the Kingdom of Yushi, where he borrows the sacred Rain Master Hat from Lord Rain Master Yushi Huang with the aid of her loyal black ox. Despite channeling immense spiritual power through the divine artifact, Xie Lian discovers that mortal moisture cannot be generated from nothingness, leaving Yong'an dry and resource-starved. As tensions reach an explosive climax, Lang Ying organizes the Yong'an refugees into an armed rebel faction and leads an assault against the capital. Defying Jun Wu and the foundational heavenly mandate that strictly forbids divine officials from interfering in mortal wars, Xie Lian descends directly onto the battlefield in full view of the people, fighting alongside the Xianle military to suppress the uprising.

Upon Beizi Hill, Xie Lian confronts the sinister supreme ghost known as White No-Face, the White-Clothed Calamity, who wears a chilling half-crying, half-smiling mask. White No-Face lures Xie Lian into a subterranean cavern infested with demonic flower creatures called the Land of the Tender, whose intoxicating venom releases an overpowering aphrodisiac mist designed to shatter divine chastity. To preserve his cultivation vows of purity, Xie Lian repeatedly stabs his own body with his sword, enduring severe physical agony until a devoted young soldier named Honghong-er arrives and helps him drive off the fiends. Shortly after this encounter, White No-Face unleashes the deadly Human Face Disease upon the imperial capital of Xianle. The terrifying contagion spreads uncontrollably from Buyou Forest, where infected citizens develop agonizing ulcers that swell into living, screaming human faces that demand food and speak in deformed voices. White No-Face reveals to Xie Lian that the parasitic faces are formed from the vengeful souls of dead Yong'an victims, and that the sole method of acquiring immunity is to kill another person and shed human blood. Xie Lian refuses to inflict the curse on Yong'an or sacrifice innocents, exhausting his spiritual power to nurse the infected in Buyou Forest. The epidemic spirals completely out of control, causing Xianle to lose the war as frantic citizens turn against Xie Lian, burning his temples and desecrating his golden statues as a god of misfortune. Xianle falls, the royal family is overthrown, and Xie Lian is stripped of his godhood and banished to the mortal realm.Returning to the present era, Xie Lian attends the annual Mid-Autumn Festival Banquet hosted by Jun Wu in the Heavenly Capital beside an ethereal moonlit lake. The assembled Upper Court deities participate in Drummed Flower Passing, a high-stakes drinking game where a circulating cup of wine, passed while thunder rumbles overhead, designates which official must sit through an embarrassing theatrical performance depicting scandalous mortal legends of their past. The performances expose General Pei Ming's licentious romantic conquests, while Shi Wudu pays a massive fine of one hundred thousand merits to force the curtains shut on a humiliating play mocking his family. When a satirical play ridicules Quan Yizhen and his troubled relationship with the banished martial god Yin Yu, Quan Yizhen shatters his wine cup in rage and leaps from the terrace to beat mortal playwrights. Ming Yi inadvertently passes the wine cup to Xie Lian, forcing Xie Lian to endure a dramatic theatrical display depicting his supposed romantic entanglement with the ghost king Hua Cheng in Banyue Pass. The banquet concludes with the competitive Battle of the Lanterns, where deities are ranked by the quantity of Blessings Lanterns of Everlasting Light offered by mortal worshippers at their primary temples. While the Water Master Shi Wudu claims second place with seven hundred and eighteen lanterns, the grand victory is claimed by the Palace of the Crown Prince at Thousand Lights Temple, which receives an unprecedented three thousand lanterns. Hua Cheng personally funded the entire display, astonishing the Upper Court and solidifying his unwavering devotion to Xie Lian.Back at Puqi Shrine, Xie Lian manages an unruly household consisting of the green ghost Qi Rong possessing Guzi's mortal father, the innocent child Guzi, and the scarred youth Lang Ying. Xie Lian visits Ghost City, where Hua Cheng escorts him through the bustling night market to the magnificent Thousand Lights Temple, which Hua Cheng personally constructed in his honor, housing a gorgeous divine statue and thousands of lanterns. Hua Cheng spends time with Xie Lian inside Paradise Manor, guiding his hand in calligraphy lessons and sharing intimate conversation. During this stay, their respective spiritual weapons engage in lively squabbles, as Hua Cheng's scimitar Eming and Xie Lian's silk band Ruoye compete for their masters' praise and affection while their masters share quiet intimacy. Xie Lian's peaceful routine is interrupted by an investigation into an aggressive pregnant ghost named Lan Chang and her bloodthirsty ghost fetus preying on mortals. After capturing the malevolent spirits, Xie Lian brings them before Jun Wu and the assembled Upper Court for formal interrogation. When the heavenly officials demand that Lan Chang reveal the identity of the divine official who fathered and abandoned the demonic child, Lan Chang abruptly points directly at Xie Lian. The accusation creates shock and controversy until Jun Wu examines the circumstances and promptly dismisses the false claim, noting that Xie Lian has strictly maintained his virginity and celibate cultivation for eight centuries. In the ensuing confusion, the ferocious ghost fetus attacks the guards, breaks free from custody, and flees down to the mortal realm, prompting an ongoing celestial pursuit.Seeking to display hospitality, Xie Lian cooks a lethal concoction called Love for All Seasons stew inside Puqi Shrine. The Wind Master Shi Qingxuan and the Earth Master Ming Yi arrive at the shrine in severe distress, consume the stew to appease the host, and promptly lose consciousness before Xie Lian revives them with fresh water. Once recovered, Shi Qingxuan confesses that he is being stalked by the Venerable of Empty Words, an ancient parasitic monster that feeds on fear by attaching itself to mortals during joyful moments and uttering sinister prophecies of inescapable tragedy. The creature first terrorized Shi Qingxuan during his childhood naming banquet, and it has returned with malicious warnings specifically aimed at disrupting Shi Wudu's imminent third Heavenly Tribulation in the East Sea. Determined to protect his brother from distraction during his mortal trial, Shi Qingxuan refuses to report the matter to the Heavenly Court and begs Xie Lian, Hua Cheng, and Ming Yi to help him eliminate the entity in secret. The party ventures to the southern town of Fu Gu, the original ancestral home of the Shi brothers, during the raucous celebrations of the Bloody Fire Social festival. While investigating inside a decaying Temple of Wind and Water, the four companions play a strategic dice game to maintain morale and test whether any of them have been mentally infiltrated by the monster. The Venerable of Empty Words uses cunning illusions to manipulate the distance-shortening arrays, separating the allies in the dark and locking them inside a dangerous psychological confrontation.Shi Qingxuan, Xie Lian, Hua Cheng, and Earth Master Ming Yi arrive in the southern town of Fu Gu during the Bloody Fire Social festival to hunt the Reverend of Empty Words, an ancient psychological parasite that feeds on mortal terror. In a dilapidated Temple of Wind and Water, the creature defiles the divine statues, causing clay eyes to stream bloody tears and forcing the establishment plaque to spell out death. To protect Shi Qingxuan from the creature's debilitating curses, Xie Lian performs a Soul-Shifting Spell to swap bodies with the Wind Master, taking on his vulnerable mortal form to confront the monster in direct combat. When the Reverend breaks through the protection array at the Terrace of Cascading Wine, Xie Lian repels the beast with physical blows, but the creature circumvents the defense by using a secret communication password to terrorize Shi Qingxuan. Shi Wudu, Pei Ming, and Ling Wen arrive in a golden carriage to retrieve the traumatized Wind Master, abruptly dismissing Xie Lian's warnings and attempting to cover up the incident as a private family illness. Shi Wudu confiscates the broken Wind Master fan, forcefully drags Shi Qingxuan back to the heavens, and leaves a reward of merits for Xie Lian through Ling Wen. Xie Lian realizes that the Water Master is desperately attempting to conceal a dark secret regarding how Shi Qingxuan managed to evade the creature's lifelong pursuit and ascend to godhood, suspecting that an innocent mortal's life was stolen to buy the Wind Master's divine glory.Xie Lian analyzes historical records and deduces that the Wind Master's ascension was achieved through an illicit fate-switching conspiracy orchestrated by Shi Wudu. Centuries earlier, a brilliant mortal named Scholar He lived in Fu Gu with identical astrological birth details and the character Xuan in his name. During the nighttime investigation in Fu Gu, Xie Lian asked Ming Yi three direct questions to verify his identity, relying on the rule that Reverends must lie once every three sentences, but Ming Yi answered truthfully and maintained his cover. To sever the Reverend of Empty Words from Shi Qingxuan, Shi Wudu used a forbidden ritual to shift his brother's wretched fate onto Scholar He while transferring Scholar He's destined heavenly fortune to Shi Qingxuan. The Reverend hounded Scholar He into ruin, driving his mother, sister, and fiancée to death and destroying his scholarly prospects, yet Scholar He refused to commit suicide out of pure determination. When Scholar He died of sheer exhaustion, his vengeful soul bit back and devoured the Reverend of Empty Words, transforming into an enhanced entity possessing full intelligence and lethal prophetic curses. Ling Wen assisted the Water Master by compiling a falsified scroll of the Reverend's victims to misdirect any inquiries. Determined to protect Shi Qingxuan from his brother's drastic measures, Xie Lian and Ming Yi locate the Wind Master inside a locked chamber where Shi Wudu is violently force-feeding him memory-altering medicine. Ming Yi uses his sacred Earth Master Shovel to dig a subterranean tunnel beneath the palace, allowing Xie Lian and Shi Qingxuan to flee celestial custody while Shi Wudu prepares for his third Heavenly Tribulation, though their escape only draws the vengeful scholar's wrath closer to the two brothers.Shi Wudu attempts to pass his third Heavenly Tribulation on a newly built divine vessel in the East Sea, accompanied by Shi Qingxuan, Pei Ming, Ming Yi, Xie Lian, and Hua Cheng. Massive supernatural waves and lightning storms push the ship into the forbidden waters of the Black Water Demon Lair in the South Sea, where all seafaring vessels lose buoyancy and sink. Hua Cheng explains that only coffin wood that has carried a dead body can float within the spiritual field of Ship-Sinking Black Water. Xie Lian and Hua Cheng rescue dozens of mortal fishermen caught in the tempest, while bone dragons and monstrous skeletal fish assault the sinking ship. Shi Wudu uses his elemental fan to channel external sea currents to keep the hull elevated, but the dark currents drag the survivors onto Black Water Island. While searching for an escape route around Black Water Lake, Pei Ming and Shi Wudu are ambushed by invisible forces, and a reflection in the water reveals Shi Qingxuan trapped inside an underwater iron prison. Xie Lian dives into the depths with Hua Cheng and surfaces inside the Nether Water Manor, where they find a revered human skeleton dressed in black robes. Xie Lian deduces that the real Earth Master Ming Yi died centuries ago, and the companion traveling with them is none other than the Supreme Ghost King He Xuan, Ship-Sinking Black Water, who assumed Ming Yi's identity to infiltrate the Upper Court and orchestrate his long-planned vengeance against the Water Master.He Xuan drops his disguise, binds Shi Wudu and Shi Qingxuan inside the Nether Water Manor, and forces the brothers to kneel before the funeral urns of his murdered family. He Xuan forces Shi Wudu to kowtow repeatedly until his forehead bleeds, then casts down a rusted knife and offers Shi Qingxuan a cruel choice to keep his divine fate by personally decapitating Shi Wudu, but Shi Qingxuan collapses in hysterical weeping and refuses. Fearing that Shi Qingxuan cannot survive as a disgraced mortal without his protection, Shi Wudu attempts to strangle his younger brother to death, but He Xuan intervenes and brutally tears both of Shi Wudu's arms off at the elbows. Despite his catastrophic mutilation, Shi Wudu laughs maniacally and mocks He Xuan, declaring that he has already won because Shi Qingxuan enjoyed centuries of stolen glory and supreme luxury while He Xuan remains a miserable ghost unable to revive his dead kin. Enraged by Shi Wudu's total absence of remorse, He Xuan tears Shi Wudu's head from his shoulders in one savage motion, spraying blood across Shi Qingxuan and driving the fallen Wind Master into a complete psychological collapse. He Xuan vanishes into the sea with Shi Wudu's severed head, abandoning the traumatized Shi Qingxuan as a mortal beggar. Pei Ming, Quan Yizhen, and Xie Lian lead an Upper Court recovery expedition to Black Water Island, discovering Shi Wudu's headless corpse being tormented by mortal madmen. The Upper Court falls into complete disarray over the scandal of the fraudulent ascension, the exposure of the false Earth Master, and the violent death of the Water Master, while Ling Wen and Pei Ming quietly bury Shi Wudu's headless body in a sparsely attended ceremony.Mount Tonglu reopens its gates to summon millions of ghosts for a new supreme battle, causing widespread supernatural tremors that severely disrupt Hua Cheng's spiritual stability. In the Heavenly Capital, Jun Wu dispatches Xie Lian and the naive Martial God of the West, Quan Yizhen, to locate the Brocade Immortal, an ancient cursed robe that forces wearers into total obedience before draining their blood. At an abandoned dyehouse near Ghost City, Hua Cheng's masked subordinate Yin Yu assists in rounding up ninety-eight counterfeit ghost robes, which suddenly animate, break free from racks, and attack the gods in a chaotic melee. Ling Wen arrives in male form to inspect the collection, but Xie Lian catches her in a trap by asking her to identify the color of a robe worn by Lang Ying, revealing that she only saw a ragged cloth sack because creators are immune to their artifact's illusions. Exposed as the original creator of the Brocade Immortal and the thief who stole it from heaven, Ling Wen admits she murdered her mortal lover Bai Jing centuries ago to destroy the Kingdom of Xuli. Inside Puqi Shrine, Xie Lian cooks Incorruptible Chastity Meatballs, which accidentally poison Quan Yizhen and leave him sprawling on the floor, while Heaven's Eye is blinded by a surge of Quan Yizhen's protective spiritual aura when attempting to storm the shrine. When the mortal cultivators attack, Ling Wen dons the Brocade Immortal, which grants her immense martial strength and shields her body against Xie Lian's sword because Bai Jing's spirit continues to protect her. The violent duel between Ling Wen and Quan Yizhen shakes the fragile wooden walls until Puqi Shrine collapses into complete rubble, allowing Ling Wen to escape custody and flee toward Mount Tonglu.

Following the catastrophic collapse of Puqi Shrine during a violent confrontation with mortal cultivators, supernatural tremors from the reopening of Mount Tonglu shake the realms, allowing thousands of captive ghosts to break free from celestial imprisonment. Xie Lian and Hua Cheng, whose spiritual power has temporarily regressed him into the physical form of a young boy, flee into the wilderness and seek shelter at an isolated roadside inn. The establishment is revealed to be a cannibalistic trap operated by demonic ghouls under the Green Ghost Qi Rong, housing the escaped female ghost Lan Chang and her lethal ghost fetus. Feng Xin and Fu Yao arrive in pursuit of the dangerous entity, triggering a violent skirmish when the feral fetus spirit attacks Feng Xin. During the chaotic struggle, Feng Xin recognizes Lan Chang as Jian Lan, his noble mortal lover from the Kingdom of Xianle eight centuries ago whom he had gifted a golden belt. Feng Xin realizes in horror that the monstrous fetus spirit named Cuocuo is his own biological child, but Jian Lan furiously denies his paternity, refuses his offers of protection, and flees into the night with Cuocuo. Jun Wu communicates through spiritual transmission to report that millions of malevolent spirits are converging upon Mount Tonglu to brew a new Supreme Ghost King. Because the celestial communication network is paralyzed and the southern defenses are compromised by Feng Xin severe injuries, Jun Wu mandates that a martial god must infiltrate Mount Tonglu directly. Xie Lian volunteers for the perilous assignment, and Hua Cheng agrees to guide him on foot toward the volcanic perimeter because teleportation arrays cannot penetrate the spiritual barrier of Mount Tonglu.Xie Lian and the child-form Hua Cheng reach the outer borders of Mount Tonglu, where hundreds of monsters gather before shifting mountain bluffs that migrate across the landscape to disorient travelers. They encounter the Martial God of the North, General Pei Ming, who has disguised himself as a demon by consuming Ghost Scent Candies from Ghost City, though the candy emits a foul stench that repels female ghosts. A cloaked demon claiming to be the Demon of the Swift Life-Extinguishing Blade ambushes the travelers, but Pei Ming slashes the creature in half, only for the corpse to vanish and regenerate stronger. The hostile entity is revealed as Rong Guang, Pei Ming former lieutenant and confidant from the Kingdom of Xuli, whose vengeful soul fused with Pei Ming famous broken sword Mingguang to seek retribution. As Mingguang attacks to sever Pei Ming limbs, Banyue and the banished Pei Xiu arrive with a jar of deadly scorpion-snakes, having separated from Lord Rain Master Yushi Huang to aid their allies. Hua Cheng endures a surge of spiritual agony as Mount Tonglu accelerates the evolution of ghosts, and amidst a shower of blood-red blossoms, he breaks through his regressed state to fully restore his true adult Supreme Ghost King form. Entering the second perimeter of Mount Tonglu, the party discovers ancient ruined settlements belonging to the long-forgotten Kingdom of Wuyong that existed two millennia ago. Inside an ancient Wuyong temple, Xie Lian scrapes off layers of protective ash to reveal a sacred four-tiered mural depicting the Crown Prince of Wuyong surrounded by divine radiance and four guardian officials, mirroring Xie Lian own past.Pei Ming mysteriously vanishes from the ruined town, prompting Xie Lian and Hua Cheng to track his spiritual trail to an underground cavern beneath the temple. They discover Pei Ming and Ling Wen bound in magical restraints, guarded by a malevolent stone statue possessing the soul of Jing Wen, the former top civil god of heaven. Jing Wen bitterly mocks his former clerk Ling Wen, but Ling Wen channels the demonic strength of the Brocade Immortal, breaks her bonds, and completely shatters Jing Wen stone vessel to dust. Hua Cheng uses his wraith butterflies to put the Brocade Immortal and Ling Wen into a deep sleep, but the cursed robe fiercely attacks and lacerates Pei Ming hands when he attempts to strip it from Ling Wen body. Reconvening with Banyue and Pei Xiu, the group explores a second Wuyong temple and uncovers murals depicting the Crown Prince of Wuyong having a terrifying prophetic dream of Mount Tonglu erupting with fire and lava to destroy his kingdom. The three sentient mountain spirits named Old Age, Sickness, and Death violently attack the travelers, forcing Hua Cheng to summon the Earth Master Shovel to tunnel directly into the belly of the mountain spirit. Inside the earthen tunnels, they encounter Hua Cheng masked aide Yin Yu, who escaped being swallowed by using the sacred shovel. Viewing psychic projections recorded within the cavern, Xie Lian witnesses how Jian Yu used the Brocade Immortal to ruin Quan Yizhen during a palace opening, which ultimately caused Yin Yu banishment. Xie Lian analyzes the legend of the four guardian gods and deduces that the missing fourth mountain spirit representing Birth is actually a living human, suspecting that his revered mentor, the Chief State Preceptor of Xianle Mei Nianqing, was originally one of Wuyong royal guardians.Ling Wen escapes when the mountain spirit swallows her butterfly seal, leaving the rest of the party to leap from the creature body and land upon the buried royal capital of Wuyong. Exploring the petrified mortal corpses buried under volcanic ash, Xie Lian uncovers gold pendants bearing the celestial phase of the Star of Glowing Befuddlement resting in the Heart Constellation, engraved with the title Saint Born Under the Ominous Star. Inside the imperial capital grand temple, they analyze three massive murals illustrating how the Crown Prince of Wuyong rejected royal schemes to invade neighboring lands, ascended to the heavens, and erected a colossal celestial bridge to evacuate his mortal citizens from the volcanic catastrophe. Disturbing their investigation, the ghost bride Xuan Ji arrives carrying the mortal child Guzi with Qi Rong green ghost fire affixed to her scalp. Hua Cheng ruthlessly pummels Qi Rong into the earth and seals his soul into a green budaoweng doll, rescuing Guzi while Xuan Ji ambushes Pei Ming in the temple and repeatedly impales his chest with Mingguang to force an oath of eternal love. Lord Rain Master Yushi Huang arrives riding her divine black ox, drawing the sacred guardian blade Yulong, which paralyzes Xuan Ji with ancestral royal authority and allows Banyue to seal the vengeful bride into a clay pot. The history of Yushi Huang is revealed, recounting how she slit her throat before the palace gates with Yulong to save royal hostages from Pei Ming army, triggering her immediate ascension to godhood. Leaving Pei Xiu, Banyue, Guzi, and Qi Rong behind to recover under Yushi Huang protection, Xie Lian, Hua Cheng, Pei Ming, and the Rain Master mount the black ox and gallop directly toward Mount Tonglu, arriving at its blood-drenched volcanic slopes to stop the birth of a supreme.Following their arrival at Mount Tonglu, Xie Lian and Hua Cheng are separated by a sudden massive avalanche that sweeps across the frozen peaks. Xie Lian regains consciousness inside an underground cultivation chamber and discovers an exquisite divine statue whose face is concealed beneath a light veil of gauze. Hua Cheng appears at the cavern entrance and escorts Xie Lian through the subterranean complex, which is revealed to be the vast Cave of Ten Thousand Gods. The cavern network contains thousands of divine sculptures depicting a single heavenly figure in diverse ceremonial attire and dynamic poses, yet every single statue has its face veiled. Hua Cheng displays uncharacteristic anxiety, repeatedly steering Xie Lian away from the statues and promising to unveil his greatest sculptural work at a later date. Their progress is interrupted when they discover Nan Feng and Fu Yao trapped inside enormous chrysalises woven from dense white silk. Upon cutting the cocoons open, the two junior officials shed their disguises and reveal their true divine identities as the Martial Gods Feng Xin and Mu Qing. A fierce argument erupts when Mu Qing, deeply suspicious of Hua Cheng motives, forcibly tears the veils away from several surrounding statues. To Xie Lian astonishment and horror, every single sculpture throughout the entire underground sanctuary bears his own face, revealing that Hua Cheng constructed this holy temple over centuries solely to worship the Crown Prince of Xianle. Mu Qing and Feng Xin also uncover intimate murals depicting Xie Lian, prompting them to accuse Hua Cheng of harboring an obscene, perverse obsession with their former prince. Hua Cheng reacts with lethal fury, ensnaring Feng Xin and Mu Qing in heavy butterfly silk restraints to neutralize their interference.Rather than feeling repulsed by the discovery of the statues and murals, Xie Lian is deeply moved by the staggering depth of Hua Cheng eight hundred years of devotion. He realizes that Hua Cheng is the young soldier Honghong-er whom he saved during the Shangyuan Procession, the devoted believer who left a flower at his desecrated shrine, and the soul who walked alongside him through his darkest tribulations. Before they can fully address these revelations, White No-Face ambushes the group by borrowing the stolen physical likenesses of Feng Xin and Mu Qing. The supreme ghost taunts Xie Lian and flees toward the Kiln at the volcanic core of Mount Tonglu to undergo rebirth and reclaim his supreme power. Xie Lian and Hua Cheng pursue the calamity into the depths of the volcano and leap together into the volcanic crater. Halfway down the descent, Hua Cheng is abruptly cast out of the abyss by the ancient wards of Mount Tonglu, which obey the commands of White No-Face. Xie Lian plummets to the fiery bottom of the Kiln alone, finding himself trapped within the subterranean chamber with his greatest tormentor. White No-Face easily overpowers Xie Lian, pinning him to the stone floor and forcing a duplicate half-crying, half-smiling mask onto his face. White No-Face declares that Xie Lian is destined to emerge from the Kiln as the next Supreme Ghost King, insisting that Xie Lian possesses the exact same nature as himself. To break Xie Lian moral resolve and force him to embrace hatred and slaughter, White No-Face forcibly extracts Xie Lian buried memories, compelling him to relive the agony and despair of his first banishment eight centuries ago.The narrative shifts eight hundred years into the past following the collapse of the Kingdom of Xianle and Xie Lian first celestial banishment. Stripped of his godhood and bearing his first cursed shackle, Xie Lian resides in squalid mortal dwellings alongside his ailing royal parents, Feng Xin, and Mu Qing. Burdened by severe poverty and the high cost of medical treatment for the King and Queen, Xie Lian attempts to earn copper coins by performing humiliating street acrobatics and breaking heavy boulders against his chest in public squares. Mu Qing grows bitter over their degrading lifestyle and the burden of serving a destitute royal household. When Mu Qing is falsely accused of theft by wealthy cultivators while gathering medicinal herbs on a mountain, bitter resentment boils over into open conflict with Feng Xin and Xie Lian, culminating in Mu Qing abandoning the household to pursue his own spiritual path. Desperate to secure funds for his dying father medicine, Xie Lian covers his face with bandages and attempts an armed highway robbery against a wealthy traveler on a mountain road. His conscience prevents him from harming the traveler, resulting in pathetic failure and profound self-loathing. Seeking to regain his spiritual cultivation, Xie Lian discovers an unoccupied blessed land on a mountain, only for thirty-three arrogant heavenly officials to violently beat him, mock his fallen status, and seize the territory for their own temples. Crushed by poverty and endless domestic quarrels, Feng Xin eventually departs as well, leaving Xie Lian completely isolated. Xie Lian returns home to discover that his royal parents, unwilling to remain a burden on their son, have hanged themselves with a white silk sash.Consumed by despair, Xie Lian is cornered by White No-Face, who orchestrates the ultimate psychological destruction of the fallen prince. White No-Face lures Xie Lian into an ancient Temple of the Crown Prince and gathers a frantic mob of mortal refugees who are terrified of contracting the lethal Human Face Disease. White No-Face places the black sword Fangxin into the hands of the refugees, falsely promising that anyone who stabs the immortal prince through the heart will receive absolute immunity from the plague. Driven by selfish panic, one hundred mortal citizens take turns stepping onto the altar, repeatedly driving blades into Xie Lian body and piercing his heart while he screams in agony and begs for mercy. During the gruesome slaughter, a tiny, devoted ghost fire hovers nearby in helpless anguish, its screams of sorrow transforming it into a ferocious wrath ghost. When the mob disperses, Xie Lian is left a bloody, mutilated shell upon the desecrated altar. Consumed by hatred for the mortals who betrayed him, Xie Lian embraces the half-crying, half-smiling mask and resolves to unleash the second wave of Human Face Disease to annihilate Yong'an. White No-Face rewards his malice by assigning him a masked warrior named Wu Ming, who is the physical incarnation of the devoted wrath ghost fire. Wu Ming obeys Xie Lian every command without hesitation, gathering thousands of vengeful spirits in Buyou Forest to prepare the extermination of the mortal kingdom. Despite his hatred, Xie Lian remains conflicted and devises a final test, lying face down in a muddy ditch beside a road to see if a single human soul will show him genuine compassion.As Xie Lian lies motionless in the cold mud while a heavy rainstorm drenches the roadside, indifferent passersby ignore him or curse his presence. Just as he is about to unleash the apocalyptic plague upon Yong'an, a humble mortal farmer stops, gently places a woven bamboo hat over Xie Lian head to shield him from the pouring rain, and pulls him out of the mud with kind words. This solitary act of kindness shatters Xie Lian hatred and restores his faith in humanity, prompting him to abort the catastrophe and dismantle the deadly array. However, the summoned vengeful spirits demand blood and turn their fury upon Xie Lian to devour his immortal soul. To protect his beloved god from destruction, Wu Ming steps into the vortex of malice, absorbs the entire curse and the millions of vengeful spirits into his own form, and disperses into nothingness on Xie Lian behalf. Devastated by the sacrifice of his only true believer, Xie Lian ascends to the Heavenly Realm for the second time, but he immediately rejects the celestial hierarchy and confronts Jun Wu. Remorseful over his near-destruction of the mortal realm, Xie Lian requests that Jun Wu strike him down, banish him back to earth, and bestow a second cursed shackle around his neck to permanently disperse his divine luck. Xie Lian then returns to the mortal realm as an impoverished scrap collector, carrying the bamboo hat as his most cherished possession while wandering the world for eight centuries until his eventual reunion with Hua Cheng.

Trapped inside the Kiln at the heart of Mount Tonglu, Xie Lian resists White No-Face's psychological torment and rejects the calamity's demand that he emerge as a new supreme ghost king. Drawing upon the boundless devotion and immense spiritual energy infused into the Cave of Ten Thousand Gods by Hua Cheng, Xie Lian animates the colossal stone statue of the God-Pleasing Crown Prince that Hua Cheng sculpted over centuries. Riding atop the crown of this giant divine statue, Xie Lian and Hua Cheng shatter the stone ceiling of the Kiln and burst out into the skies above Mount Tonglu. The emergence of the giant god statue turns the tide of battle, as Xie Lian uses sword techniques channeled through the massive monument to smash through the three hostile mountain spirits of Old Age, Sickness, and Death. White No-Face summons a massive black cloud composed of millions of vengeful spirits from the volcanic abyss, intending to unleash a devastating new outbreak of the Human Face Disease upon the mortal realm. Xie Lian, Hua Cheng, Pei Ming, and Lord Rain Master Yushi Huang mount the colossal stone sculpture to pursue the cloud northward toward the royal capital. Along the path, White No-Face hijacks the mountain spirits to intercept them, but the Rain Master uses her divine black ox and guardian blade to pin the spirits, while Banyue, Pei Xiu, and Feng Xin assist in subduing the demonic remnants. The stone colossus carries the gods across rivers and mountains directly toward the threatened mortal cities to stop the descending apocalyptic plague.The swarm of vengeful spirits converges over the heavily populated royal capital, forcing Xie Lian and Hua Cheng to coordinate emergency defenses on the mortal ground. Xie Lian determines that only a massive human protective array composed of five hundred living mortals possessing unbroken spiritual purity and positive energy can withstand the miasma of resentful wraiths. Because the local mortal cultivators led by Heaven's Eye are paralyzed by terror and refuse to risk their lives, the defense falters until the former Wind Master, Shi Qingxuan, arrives leading a massive crowd of impoverished beggars. Despite having lost his godhood, suffering from physical deformities, and living in squalor, Shi Qingxuan rallies the beggar community through sheer charisma and moral conviction, organizing five hundred volunteers to join hands and form the human barrier. The resentful spirits crash violently into the human line, but the beggars bravely hold their positions while Xie Lian, Feng Xin, and Mu Qing reinforce the perimeter with spiritual energy. Qi Rong, who continues to possess Guzi's mortal father, is cornered by the descending wraiths, but in a desperate act of paternal affection, he shields the crying child with his own body and absorbs the deadly ghost flames until his spiritual form is incinerated to near nothingness. Lang Ying steps forward to merge his afflicted form with the swirling faces of the contagion, neutralizing the core resentment of the plague and dissipating into peace. The human array successfully repels the descending spectral cloud, while the giant stone statue, fueled by Hua Cheng's spiritual reserves, intercepts and scatters the remaining hordes of airborne monsters above the city to secure the mortal populace.Following the defense of the mortal capital, Jun Wu descends from the Heavenly Realm in radiant divine light and summons Xie Lian to the Great Martial Hall in the Heavenly Capital to report on the suppression of Mount Tonglu. Upon entering the celestial palace, Xie Lian discovers that his long-lost teacher, the Chief State Preceptor of Xianle Mei Nianqing, has been captured and brought before the celestial throne, forced to play card games with enchanted paper figures. In a shocking reversal, Jun Wu's benevolent demeanor vanishes, and he is exposed as White No-Face and the ancient Crown Prince of Wuyong, revealing that the supreme heavenly emperor and the supreme ghost calamity are the exact same entity. Jun Wu immediately seals off the Heavenly Capital, activating ancient divine barriers that cut off all spiritual communication arrays to the mortal realm and transforming the celestial city into an inescapable golden prison. Jun Wu systematically subdues the Upper Court heavenly officials, stripping them of their authority, locking them inside their respective divine palaces with powerful confinement wards, and fastening a heavy cursed shackle onto Mu Qing's wrist to enforce total submission through excruciating pain. Jun Wu detains Xie Lian in the Palace of Xianle, attempting to force Xie Lian to accept his fatalistic philosophy and acknowledge that their tragic destinies and responses to human betrayal are completely identical. Despite Jun Wu's relentless psychological pressure, paternalistic threats, and attempts to groom him into a successor, Xie Lian steadfastly refuses to renounce his moral beliefs or bend to the tyrant's will.Hua Cheng infiltrates the locked Heavenly Capital in disguise as an armored celestial guard, slipping past the patrols outside the Palace of Xianle to secretly reunite with Xie Lian. Working together in stealth alongside Yin Yu, who uses the sacred Earth Master Shovel to tunnel beneath the divine foundations, Xie Lian and Hua Cheng extract Mei Nianqing from his subterranean prison cell to uncover the full truth behind the ancient catastrophe that destroyed Wuyong two thousand years ago. Mei Nianqing reveals that Jun Wu was once a beloved, benevolent crown prince who ascended to godhood at a young age and built a massive heavenly bridge to evacuate millions of mortal citizens from a catastrophic volcanic eruption. When the immense burden caused the heavenly bridge to buckle, Jun Wu attempted to hold it up with his own divine shoulders, but the deities of the old heavenly court refused to sacrifice their worshippers or territories to assist him. Mortal refugees panicked, violently shoving one another into the fiery abyss before the bridge snapped, killing thousands and prompting the surviving population to desecrate Jun Wu's temples. Driven into madness and despair by the betrayal, Jun Wu dragged captured soldiers from neighboring realms to the volcanic crater, slaughtering them to appease Mount Tonglu and birthing the parasitic Human Face Disease from their agonizing deaths. When his four royal guardians tried to stop his descent into villainy, Jun Wu slaughtered three of them and forged their souls into the mountain spirits of Old Age, Sickness, and Death, while Mei Nianqing fled into hiding for centuries. Jun Wu subsequently massacred the old heavenly pantheon, adopted a new identity, and established the current celestial court to maintain absolute dominion over gods and ghosts alike.Realizing that the heavenly officials are trapped as hostages in their palaces, Xie Lian, Hua Cheng, and Mei Nianqing orchestrate a desperate breakout across the celestial avenue. Yin Yu digs subterranean escape tunnels beneath the divine foundations, allowing Feng Xin, Quan Yizhen, General Pei Ming, and Ling Wen to break their confining wards, recover their weapons, and join the armed rebellion. When Jun Wu discovers the widespread prison break, he completely casts aside his benevolent facade, unsheathes his lethal blade, and descends into an uncontrollable murderous fury. Jun Wu unleashes his supreme spiritual power, summoning apocalyptic columns of divine fire that consume the Grand Avenue of Divine Might, the Great Martial Hall, and the surrounding golden palaces, setting the entire Heavenly Capital ablaze. The celestial architecture fractures and burning masonry plummets toward the mortal world as the captive gods scramble toward the Ascension Gates to escape the inferno. Jun Wu pursues them with terrifying speed and overwhelming force, but Hua Cheng unleashes his scimitar Eming, swarms of silver wraith butterflies, and boundless spiritual power to shield Xie Lian and engage the emperor in a fierce clash of blades. Xie Lian coordinates the dangerous evacuation at the threshold of heaven, holding off Jun Wu's lethal strikes while Feng Xin, Mu Qing, Pei Ming, and the surviving officials leap through the burning gates to plummet safely toward the mortal realm below. The total destruction of the celestial foundations marks the catastrophic fall of the Heavenly Court, leaving the golden city reduced to ashes. Xie Lian and Hua Cheng guide the battered survivors back to the mortal world, preparing their forces for the final decisive confrontation against Jun Wu at the ancient Heaven-Crossing Bridge.Following the catastrophic destruction of the Heavenly Capital, the gods descend toward the mortal realm, where Jun Wu traps Xie Lian, Hua Cheng, Feng Xin, and Mu Qing within the subterranean palace and crumbling paths of Mount Tonglu. The group navigates suspended stone structures above surging rivers of molten lava while pursued by malevolent fire spirits. Suspicion fractures the alliance when Feng Xin discovers that Mu Qing bears a cursed shackle on his wrist, leading Feng Xin to accuse Mu Qing of serving as Jun Wu's covert agent. The escalating tension culminates when the stone bridge beneath them collapses into the fiery abyss, leaving Mu Qing dangling by one arm over the molten rock while the cursed shackle tightens around his flesh. Refusing to abandon their former companion despite centuries of bitter estrangement, Xie Lian and Feng Xin risk their own lives by reaching over the precipice to seize Mu Qing's hands. Overcome by the realization that they genuinely care for him, Mu Qing breaks through eight hundred years of defensive pride and makes a raw, tearful confession. Mu Qing admits his deep-seated insecurities, his torment over being perceived as an ungrateful servant, his petty jealousy of Xie Lian's effortless brilliance, and his painful, unfulfilled desire to simply be accepted as their true friend and equal. With their long-standing resentments resolved through honest communication, Xie Lian, Feng Xin, and Hua Cheng pull Mu Qing up to safety, reuniting the trio of ancient companions in mutual trust as they advance toward the final battlefield.Upon reaching the ancient Heaven-Crossing Bridge, Xie Lian and Hua Cheng confront White No-Face, who sheds his mask and clerical robes to reveal his true identity as the supreme martial emperor Jun Wu clad in impenetrable white armor. Wielding the ominous black sword Fangxin, which he reveals was originally his own sacred blade Zhuxin, Jun Wu engages Hua Cheng and Xie Lian in a violent clash of divine weapons. Because Jun Wu's armor deflects every standard strike, Xie Lian recalls their duel during his second ascension eight centuries earlier, where he had pierced Jun Wu's torso over a hundred times in a single spot. Xie Lian directs Hua Cheng to concentrate the attacks of the scimitar Eming directly below Jun Wu's right ribs, successfully fracturing the armor and drawing celestial blood. Enraged by the injury, Jun Wu uses Mount Tonglu's spiritual domain to suppress their abilities, tears Ruoye apart, and seizes Xie Lian by the throat. Jun Wu repeatedly slams Xie Lian's body against the jagged rock wall to force him into submission, demanding that the fallen prince admit that humanity is fundamentally corrupt and that their tragic responses to betrayal are identical. Despite suffering fractured bones, severe internal hemorrhaging, and agonizing pain, Xie Lian screams that he will never change his principles or follow Jun Wu's tyrannical path. Mu Qing stabs Jun Wu's shoulder with a saber while Feng Xin pins eight arrows into the emperor's back to create a distraction. Hua Cheng swiftly slices off Jun Wu's right hand at the wrist, rescuing Xie Lian from the emperor's lethal grip and carrying him across the bridge, while Jun Wu casually reattaches his severed hand, plucks out the arrows, and severely wounds Feng Xin and Mu Qing.Holding the battered Xie Lian in his arms, Hua Cheng rejects Jun Wu's claim that their defeat is inevitable and declares that Xie Lian has always been stronger than the emperor. While Jun Wu draws strength from millions of fearful worshippers, Hua Cheng asserts that a single devoted believer is sufficient to empower his god. Hua Cheng pulls Xie Lian into a passionate embrace and channels his entire reservoir of supreme ghost energy into Xie Lian's body. The catastrophic influx of spiritual power causes thousands of silver wraith butterflies to explode across the cavern, shattering both of the black cursed shackles that had bound Xie Lian's neck and ankle for eight hundred years. With his boundless divine strength and supreme martial cultivation fully restored, Xie Lian rises to confront Jun Wu on the crumbling bridge. Armed with his recovered godhood, Xie Lian wields his signature martial arts alongside Jun Wu's own advanced sword techniques, completely overwhelming the emperor in close combat and disarming the blade Zhuxin. Realizing that Jun Wu cannot feel physical pain or fatigue, Xie Lian channels his immense divine energy into a colossal concussive strike that shatters the cavern ceiling and brings down a massive mountain boulder, permanently pinning Jun Wu beneath the collapsed bedrock. The Chief State Preceptor of Xianle, Mei Nianqing, emerges from the shadows to stop Xie Lian from delivering a fatal blow, requesting permission to remain behind in the volcanic cavern. Mei Nianqing resolves to spend the rest of his immortal life tending to his fallen prince and former student, offering Jun Wu companionship in his eternal defeat while the collapsing bridge gives way.Following the defeat of Jun Wu, Xie Lian turns to celebrate their victory with Hua Cheng, only to discover that the supreme ghost king has paid an irreversible physical price for their triumph. Having transferred every shred of his spiritual essence and core life energy into Xie Lian to break the cursed shackles, Hua Cheng's physical form begins to disintegrate into radiant silver wraith butterflies. Xie Lian collapses in panic, weeping hysterically and desperately trying to hold the dissolving specter in his arms while begging Hua Cheng to take back his spiritual power. Hua Cheng cradles Xie Lian's face, wiping away his tears with gentle devotion and assuring him that there is nothing to fear. Hua Cheng reminds Xie Lian that dying in battle for his beloved god is his greatest honor, declaring that his eight hundred years of devotion were the happiest moments of his existence. Hua Cheng promises that his soul will never truly perish as long as Xie Lian remembers him, swearing an eternal oath that he will conquer the underworld and return to Xie Lian's side no matter how long it takes. Hua Cheng's body completely dissolves into a magnificent storm of glowing silver butterflies that swirl gently around Xie Lian before ascending into the sky. Xie Lian sits alone in the quiet devastation of the cavern, weeping over his loss until he notices that the red string of fate tied around his finger remains unbroken, giving him absolute faith that Hua Cheng will keep his promise and return.

In the aftermath of the celestial war, the surviving heavenly officials establish an interim council to oversee the three realms and begin the arduous task of clearing the rubble of the fallen Heavenly Capital. Pei Ming, Feng Xin, and Mu Qing assume leadership responsibilities, while Ling Wen is temporarily reinstated under heavy celestial guard because her administrative mastery is indispensable for restoring bureaucratic order. Declining all offers of celestial status and palaces, Xie Lian chooses to return permanently to the mortal realm, residing in his humble Puqi Shrine and quietly resuming his eight-hundred-year routine of collecting scraps to support local villagers. Over the course of a full year, Xie Lian visits Mount Taicang to clear weeds around the burnt royal palaces, tends to his simple shrine, and patiently waits for his lover's return while carrying Hua Cheng's ashes in the crystal ring around his neck. During the annual Mid-Autumn Festival, the Upper Court hosts a grand gathering, but Xie Lian leaves early to return to his peaceful village. Along the road to Puqi Shrine, Xie Lian is astonished to see thousands of brilliant Blessing Lanterns floating into the night sky, illuminating the landscape with warm crimson light. Arriving at the door of Puqi Shrine, Xie Lian finds Hua Cheng waiting for him beneath a red umbrella, having successfully reformed his spiritual form through the sheer power of his unyielding love. Running into each other's arms, the two lovers embrace tightly beneath the lantern light, their eight centuries of suffering, separation, and devotion finally culminated in an unbreakable, everlasting reunion.

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Volume 5

Volume 6

Volume 7

Volume 8

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong

The Story so far...
(Volumes 1–4)

Shen Yuan dies in the modern world and transmigrates into the body of Shen Qingqiu, the scum villain Peak Lord of Qing Jing Peak within the Cang Qiong Mountain Sect from the stallion novel Proud Immortal Demon Way. A digital System binds Shen Yuan to the character, enforces an Out of Character protocol preventing deviations from the original villain persona under penalty of point deductions, and threatens deportation back to his deceased physical body upon reaching zero points. Aware that Luo Binghe is destined to awaken his demonic heritage and retaliate against his tormentors with brutal torture, Shen Yuan seeks to alter his fate while navigating the System constraints. Shen Qingqiu covertly assists Luo Binghe by supplying healing medicine for his injuries, replacing a sabotaged cultivation manual with a legitimate foundational text, and intercepting the abuse inflicted by head disciple Ming Fan. During secluded training in the Ling Xi Caves, Shen Qingqiu intervenes when Bai Zhan Peak Lord Liu Qingge undergoes a violent qi deviation, neutralizing the backlash, preserving Liu Qingge's life, and overturning a canonical murder that originally cemented Shen Qingqiu's infamy. Later, during a sect investigation into serial killings in Shuanghu City, Shen Qingqiu identifies the Skinner Demon as the concubine Die-er, who strips human skins from young women to conceal her identity. When Die-er captures Shen Qingqiu, Luo Binghe, and Ning Yingying with immortal-binding cables, Shen Qingqiu exploits the protagonist's plot armor to orchestrate a counterattack, enabling Luo Binghe to retrieve the Xiu Ya sword and cut the restraints so Shen Qingqiu can execute the monster.Demon Saintess Sha Hualing leads an unauthorized invasion force into Cang Qiong Mountain Sect, severing the Rainbow Bridges and isolating Qiong Ding Peak beneath an exclusionary barrier. Facing the invaders in the absence of Sect Leader Yue Qingyuan, Shen Qingqiu agrees to a three-bout challenge to settle the incursion, easily defeating Elder Single Arm without drawing his blade by manipulating Xiu Ya through telekinetic sword seals. For the second bout, Shen Qingqiu deploys a fifteen-year-old Luo Binghe against Elder Sky Hammer, whose body is covered in poisonous spikes. Luo Binghe secures an upset victory through martial agility, but Sky Hammer launches a suicidal charge at the boy. Subconsciously moving to shield his disciple, Shen Qingqiu intercepts the attack and kills the elder, yet suffers punctures that inject him with Without a Cure, a lethal demonic toxin that permanently impairs spiritual circulation. Liu Qingge arrives to expel the remaining demon troops, but Shen Qingqiu remains chronically crippled by periodic energy blockages. Soon after, the ancient Dream Demon Meng Mo infiltrates Luo Binghe's mindscape, entrapping Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe inside a nightmare illusion constructed from Luo Binghe's traumatic childhood memories. Shen Qingqiu absorbs a spiritual backlash to prevent Luo Binghe's psyche from shattering, which shatters the illusionary city and breaks the trap. Recognizing Luo Binghe's dormant bloodline of the ancient heavenly demon royal lineage, Meng Mo retreats into Luo Binghe's consciousness, offering to instruct him secretly in demonic cultivation techniques within his dreams.Cang Qiong Mountain Sect participates in the quadrennial Immortal Alliance Conference held at Jue Di Gorge, where disciples compete by hunting captured beasts. Demon Realm saboteurs dismantle the regional protective wards, unleashing high-level demonic monsters into the competition grounds to massacre participating cultivators. Shen Qingqiu enters the gorge alongside sect leaders to mount a rescue operation, tracking Luo Binghe as the youth defends vulnerable disciples from Huan Hua Palace, including Qin Wanyue. While defending fellow cultivators from monstrous beasts, Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe confront the ice demon Mobei-Jun, who emerges through a spatial rupture leading to the Endless Abyss. Mobei-Jun shatters Luo Binghe's spiritual sword Zheng Yang and launches a lethal barrage of demonic ice blades aimed directly at Shen Qingqiu. To protect his master, Luo Binghe retaliates with immense demonic power, prompting Mobei-Jun to forcefully unseal the suppressed heavenly demon bloodline within him, which manifests as a bright crimson crest upon the boy's forehead. The System issues an imperative command requiring Shen Qingqiu to execute the canonical catalyst for the protagonist's descent, threatening instant death if he fails. Shen Qingqiu adopts an emotionless facade, denounces Luo Binghe for concealing his demonic identity, and drives him toward the precipice of the Endless Abyss. Refusing to believe his master's hostility, Luo Binghe stands motionless, causing Xiu Ya to pierce his chest before Shen Qingqiu kicks him down into the flaming chasm.Following the closure of the spatial rupture, Shen Qingqiu conceals Luo Binghe's demonic revelation from the cultivation world, retrieving the shattered fragments of Zheng Yang and publicly claiming his disciple died honorably battling demonic beasts. Deeply traumatized by his mandated betrayal and facing an inevitable five-year countdown until Luo Binghe ascends from the abyss to exact vengeance, Shen Qingqiu urgently seeks an escape strategy. Suspecting logistical anomalies surrounding the monster infiltration at Jue Di Gorge, Shen Qingqiu interrogates An Ding Peak Lord Shang Qinghua. The confrontation reveals that Shang Qinghua is also a modern transmigrator, specifically Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky, the original author of the novel, who has been operating as an undercover collaborator for Mobei-Jun to ensure his own survival. Sharing mutual foreknowledge of their prospective fates, the two peak lords form a secret partnership to protect themselves. Guided by Gongyi Xiao of Huan Hua Palace, Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua venture into Bai Lu Forest to locate a rare Sun-Moon Dew Mushroom, a botanical entity capable of growing an artificial biological vessel to facilitate a soul-transfer escape. Inside the caverns, Shen Qingqiu restrains Gongyi Xiao from slaughtering a deformed snake demon, unaware the spared creature is Zhuzhi-Lang, the loyal nephew of the imprisoned former demon ruler Tianlang-Jun. Shen Qingqiu successfully harvests the mushroom to cultivate a duplicate body, preparing for the day the blackened protagonist reemerges from the Endless Abyss.Three years after the Immortal Alliance Conference, Shen Qingqiu investigates an outbreak of grotesque sower monsters causing a severe flesh-rotting epidemic in Jinlan City alongside disciples from various righteous cultivation sects, including Zhao Hua Temple and Huan Hua Palace. Shen Qingqiu discovers that Luo Binghe has emerged alive from the Endless Abyss two years earlier than expected, wielding the legendary demonic sword Xin Mo and positioned as the favored top disciple of Huan Hua Palace under the Old Palace Master. During their initial confrontation within the city, Shen Qingqiu experiences an acute recurrence of the Without a Cure poison, rendering his spiritual circulation erratic and leaving him physically vulnerable. Luo Binghe seizes the opportunity to slice his own palm and force his heavenly demon blood into Shen Qingqiu, establishing an internal demonic parasite that allows him to track Shen Qingqiu across vast distances and inflict severe physical agony at will. Following the capture of the remaining sowers, a public tribunal convenes in the Jinlan City plaza, where a captured sower directly accuses Shen Qingqiu of orchestrating the demonic infestation and breeding the plague monsters. The Old Palace Master exploits this fabricated accusation to undermine the reputation of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect, while Qiu Haitang arrives to publicly denounce Shen Qingqiu as Xiao-Jiu, the former slave who slaughtered her entire family and burned the Qiu estate to ashes. Faced with mounting hostility and the immediate danger of an armed conflict between the major sects, Yue Qingyuan and the attending peak lords reluctantly consent to Shen Qingqiu being placed in temporary custody for formal investigation. Shen Qingqiu surrenders his spiritual sword Xiu Ya and voluntarily submits to imprisonment in the subterranean Water Prison beneath Huan Hua Palace.Confined within Huan Hua Palace Water Prison and shackled with over a hundred immortal-binding cables above a caustic subterranean lake, Shen Qingqiu endures harsh interrogation from the Little Palace Mistress before Luo Binghe intervenes, shattering her weapon and forbidding anyone else from tormenting his master. Luo Binghe confronts Shen Qingqiu in private, demanding explanations for past cruelties and activating the heavenly demon blood to inflict excruciating internal pain throughout his organs. Despite the severe danger of execution, Gongyi Xiao risks his standing within Huan Hua Palace to assist Shen Qingqiu, navigating the complex subterranean maze array to facilitate his escape into Bai Lu Forest. Upon arriving in Hua Yue City, Shen Qingqiu discovers that the entire garrison of Water Prison guards, along with Gongyi Xiao, has been slaughtered by demonic poison, with Huan Hua Palace placing the entire blame on Shen Qingqiu and issuing a cultivation-wide arrest warrant with a massive bounty. The Little Palace Mistress leads an assault against Shen Qingqiu in the city, while Liu Qingge arrives to provide combat support. Luo Binghe appears to recapture Shen Qingqiu, but suddenly suffers a violent spiritual deviation from Xin Mo recoil. Shen Qingqiu channels his own spiritual reserves to suppress Luo Binghe demonic backlash. To prevent Cang Qiong Mountain Sect from bearing responsibility and refuse lifelong subjugation under Luo Binghe, Shen Qingqiu proclaims that he repays all past debts, destroys his spiritual core through massive internal detonation, and leaps to his death from the roof of the tallest building, dying in Luo Binghe arms and leaving the protagonist overwhelmed by grief.Five years after his physical demise in Hua Yue City, Shen Qingqiu soul awakens inside the matured Sun-Moon Dew Mushroom body planted in the borderlands. Adopting the alias Peerless Cucumber, Shen Qingqiu learns that Luo Binghe refused to allow Cang Qiong Mountain Sect to bury his original corpse, instead using immense quantities of spiritual energy to preserve the body in a lifelike state while assuming despotic rule over Huan Hua Palace and the Demon Realm. While investigating local unrest, Shen Qingqiu infiltrates Chi Yun Cave to rescue Liu Mingyan, Yang Yixuan, and captured Daoist cultivators from Demon Saintess Sha Hualing. Sha Hualing captures Shen Qingqiu in a massive net of immortal-binding cables, intending to offer his potent spiritual energy as a living vessel to alleviate Luo Binghe unstable condition. When Luo Binghe arrives, he recognizes Shen Qingqiu physical resemblance to his deceased master, triggering a furious surge of blood parasite pain that forces Shen Qingqiu to vomit blood. After realizing that the mushroom vessel rapidly replenishes spiritual energy, Luo Binghe takes Shen Qingqiu captive and transports him to Huan Hua Palace underground water pavilion. There, Shen Qingqiu discovers Luo Binghe sleeping beside and infusing spiritual energy into Shen Qingqiu pristine original corpse. Liu Qingge launches a raid on the palace to reclaim the corpse, leading to a violent clash with Luo Binghe. Shen Qingqiu intervenes to dislodge the body from Luo Binghe grasp, hurling his own corpse to Liu Qingge, who escapes into the sky on Cheng Luan while Luo Binghe is incapacitated by Xin Mo recoil.Remaining behind in the water pavilion, Shen Qingqiu is drawn into the dream realm by the lingering spiritual resonance of the heavenly demon blood parasite, where he witnesses Luo Binghe slaughtering conjured nightmare phantoms in an unending cycle of grief, self-loathing, and psychological despair. Luo Binghe breaks down upon confronting Shen Qingqiu presence, revealing his torment over driving his master to self-detonation and explaining that his obsessive preservation of the original body, coupled with his campaign to breach the demon race Holy Mausoleum, was driven solely by a desperate desire to resurrect Shen Qingqiu. Upon awakening in the waking world, Shen Qingqiu finds himself in the custody of Zhuzhi-Lang, who reveals his restored humanoid form and unyielding allegiance to the sealed demon monarch Tianlang-Jun. Zhuzhi-Lang explains that he repaid Shen Qingqiu past mercy in Bai Lu Forest by stealing the original corpse from Cang Qiong Mountain Sect to prevent Luo Binghe from exploiting it. Meanwhile, Luo Binghe mobilizes an overwhelming coalition army of Huan Hua Palace disciples and northern demon legions to lay siege to Cang Qiong Mountain Sect, encircling Qiong Ding Peak, demanding the immediate return of Shen Qingqiu stolen body, and threatening the total annihilation of the twelve peaks. Shen Qingqiu escapes his captors and rushes directly into Qiong Ding Hall, where he realizes that Luo Binghe orchestrated the siege knowing Shen Qingqiu would inevitably emerge to defend his home. To avert catastrophic slaughter and safeguard Sect Leader Yue Qingyuan and the sect, Shen Qingqiu publicly confirms his survival and surrenders his freedom unconditionally. Luo Binghe lifts the siege as agreed, carves open a dimensional rift with Xin Mo, and drags Shen Qingqiu into the Demon Realm under strict house arrest.Under house arrest in the underground Demon Realm palace, Shen Qingqiu interacts with Shang Qinghua and the System before abruptly awakening inside the restricted Holy Mausoleum of the demon race. His soul has been violently summoned from the mushroom vessel back into his original corpse, which Luo Binghe painstakingly preserved for five years using vast spiritual energy. There, Shen Qingqiu encounters the resurrected former Saintly Ruler Tianlang-Jun and his loyal nephew Zhuzhi-Lang, who utilized a Sun-Moon Dew Mushroom body to release Tianlang-Jun from his mountain seal under Bai Lu Mountain. Zhuzhi-Lang reveals that he deliberately unleashed the Jinlan City sowers and murdered Gongyi Xiao to sever Shen Qingqiu from human society as repayment for past mercy in Bai Lu Forest, intending to spare him from Tianlang-Jun's campaign to eradicate the four major righteous sects. Luo Binghe breaches the Holy Mausoleum alone to retrieve Shen Qingqiu, battling Tianlang-Jun across ancient trial chambers including the Hall of Delight and the Hall of Fury. Luo Binghe shields Shen Qingqiu from corrosive corpse rain, but collapses from severe spiritual exhaustion, prolonged dream combat, and Xin Mo backlash. Shen Qingqiu discovers that Tianlang-Jun placed the Ties That Bind parasite into his bloodstream, yet manages to carry the incapacitated Luo Binghe toward an exit while utilizing ancient Mobei clan ice magic to temporarily freeze Tianlang-Jun and Zhuzhi-Lang. When Tianlang-Jun breaks free and intercepts them outside the tomb, he forces his own heavenly demon blood into Shen Qingqiu, after which Zhuzhi-Lang transforms into a giant serpent, swallows Shen Qingqiu whole, and abducts him into the marching southern demon army.

Awakening within the traveling encampment of the southern demon host marching toward the Human Realm, Shen Qingqiu is rescued when Liu Qingge violently attacks the encampment, allowing Shen Qingqiu to break free alongside Luo Binghe. The group travels to Zhao Hua Monastery, where the righteous cultivation sects convene to prepare defenses against Tianlang-Jun's advancing invasion forces. Luo Binghe arrives at the assembly to offer military assistance, but the hostile sect leaders expose his demonic heritage and recount the history of the Battle of Bai Lu Mountain, where Tianlang-Jun was entrapped after courting Huan Hua Palace head disciple Su Xiyan. Infiltrating demon combatants led by Jiuchong-Jun launch a sudden assault on the monastery, prompting Luo Binghe to combat the invaders and protect the human cultivators from slaughter. Amid the chaos, Master Wu Chen reveals the concealed truth surrounding Luo Binghe's birth: Su Xiyan never betrayed Tianlang-Jun, but was coerced and poisoned with demonic toxins by the Old Palace Master within the Water Prison to abort her unborn child. Resisting the poison, Su Xiyan escaped with the secret assistance of Wu Chen, giving birth to Luo Binghe on a lone boat upon the Luo River and wrapping him in robes before dying of toxic necrosis, leaving Tianlang-Jun with the tragic misunderstanding that she had orchestrated his eternal imprisonment. When hostile sect leaders demand Luo Binghe's execution as a demonic menace, Shen Qingqiu draws Xiu Ya to defend his disciple and escapes with him, triggering an agonizing disciplinary shock from the System for violating established villain protocols.While recovering from the System's severe disciplinary punishment, Shen Qingqiu experiences visions of the hidden past concerning the original villain Shen Jiu and Sect Leader Yue Qingyuan. The memories reveal that young Shen Jiu suffered horrific physical abuse as an enslaved servant under Qiu Jianluo before slaughtering his tormentors to escape with rogue cultivator Wu Yanzi, while Yue Qingyuan, originally known as Yue Qi, failed to return for him because he suffered catastrophic meridian destruction cultivating in the Ling Xi Caves to gain power, permanently linking his life essence to his sword Xuan Su. In the waking world, Tianlang-Jun initiates the total merger of the realms by suspending the demonic mountain Mai Gu Ridge inverted in the sky above the frozen Luo River. Cang Qiong Mountain Sect, Zhao Hua Monastery, Tian Yi Temple, and Huan Hua Palace assemble a joint military coalition on the riverbanks to halt the celestial collision. Yue Qingyuan assigns Tian Yi Temple to evacuate surrounding mortal populations and deploys Bai Zhan Peak to confront the vanguard of southern demons, while Luo Binghe mobilizes his northern demonic legions and Huan Hua Palace forces to ally with the cultivation sects. Shen Qingqiu, Yue Qingyuan, Luo Binghe, Shang Qinghua, and senior Buddhist masters ascend the inverted precipice of Mai Gu Ridge on flying swords, cutting through swarms of airborne monsters and dense forests of withered bone to infiltrate the central skull cavern where Xin Mo is embedded deep within stone bedrock, actively funneling demonic energy to pull the two realms together.Inside the central cavern of Mai Gu Ridge, Yue Qingyuan draws Xuan Su to confront Tianlang-Jun while Luo Binghe engages his father in ruthless combat. Master Wu Chen confronts Tianlang-Jun with the truth of Su Xiyan's unwavering love and sacrifice, shattering the demon ruler's desire for vengeance as his artificial mushroom body succumbs to physical necrosis and demonic erosion. Shang Qinghua rides his sword to catch Mobei-Jun during a lethal fall, securing their mutual bond, while Luo Binghe suffers total psychological deterioration under Xin Mo's corrupting influence, frantically declaring he will allow the realm collision to obliterate Cang Qiong Mountain so Shen Qingqiu will never leave him. Yue Qingyuan binds Luo Binghe with restrictive sword arrays, but the cavern structure collapses into rubble. Shen Qingqiu entrusts the wounded Yue Qingyuan and unconscious Wu Wang to Wu Chen, returning alone into the collapsing labyrinth to face his disciple. He encounters a dying Zhuzhi-Lang coiled protectively around Tianlang-Jun beneath falling boulders, forgiving the creature before pressing forward. Shen Qingqiu embraces Luo Binghe, reassuring him of his devotion and channeling pure spiritual energy to quell the madness, enabling them to shatter Xin Mo together. The destruction of the demonic blade triggers an explosive blast that tears Mai Gu Ridge apart, dropping both men into the thawed Luo River where Liu Qingge retrieves them. The System unlocks the Self-Saving ability, fully restores Shen Qingqiu's life bar, and finalizes the complete genre transformation into romance, allowing Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe to withdraw from sect conflicts to live together peacefully.Following the stabilization of the realms, an alternate version of Luo Binghe from the original Proud Immortal Demon Way stallion timeline, designated Bing-ge, breaches the dimensional boundary using Xin Mo and infiltrates the Demon Realm headquarters. Bing-ge discovers Shen Qingqiu in the underground palace and masquerades as his alternate self, seeking to test and manipulate his former nemesis. Shen Qingqiu tends to Bing-ge under the mistaken belief that his disciple suffered grievous combat wounds, bringing him back to Qing Jing Peak. When Bing-ge initiates an aggressive physical confrontation in the Bamboo House, Shen Qingqiu detects the deception upon realizing Bing-ge lacks the specific sword scars left by Xiu Ya upon the true Luo Binghe's chest and palm. Shen Qingqiu immediately retaliates with a spiritual blast to repel the imposter. The true Luo Binghe, designated Bing-mei, returns from his own accidental displacement into Bing-ge's universe and engages Bing-ge in a ferocious duel to defend his master. Bing-ge attempts to psychologically destabilize his counterpart by mocking his lack of a female harem and exposing his vulnerability, but Shen Qingqiu publicly repudiates Bing-ge, embraces Bing-mei, and openly affirms his devotion to his disciple. Confronted with a version of Shen Qingqiu who displays genuine protective affection rather than tyrannical abuse, Bing-ge experiences profound alienation and departs back into his original reality, leaving Bing-mei secure in his master's love. Later recollections reveal an earlier joint excursion where Shen Qingqiu and Bai Zhan Peak Lord Liu Qingge hunted a succubus den to liberate Young Master Huang from Madam Meiyin, where a fortune-telling ritual foretold Shen Qingqiu's entangled destiny with a companion whose life he had saved.Chronological historical chronicles detail the concealed past of original scum villain Shen Jiu and Sect Leader Yue Qingyuan, originally known as Yue Qi. Surviving as destitute street orphans, Shen Jiu endured brutal enslavement, physical torture, and sadistic mutilation under the wealthy young master Qiu Jianluo, while secretly protecting Qiu Jianluo's naive younger sister Qiu Haitang. Yue Qi departed with a solemn vow to enter a cultivation sect, master immortal arts, and return to liberate Shen Jiu. After years of waiting in vain, Shen Jiu succumbed to violent desperation, slaughtered Qiu Jianluo, murdered the household guards, set the Qiu estate ablaze, and fled with the unscrupulous rogue cultivator Wu Yanzi. Years later, Shen Jiu encountered Yue Qi, who had attained the prestigious position of head disciple on Qiong Ding Peak under the name Yue Qingyuan, yet failed to provide any explanation for his broken promise. Consumed by bitter resentment and feelings of abandonment, Shen Jiu joined Cang Qiong Mountain Sect, entering Qing Jing Peak to cultivate out of spiteful ambition while harboring permanent distrust toward Yue Qingyuan. In truth, Yue Qingyuan had suffered catastrophic meridian destruction attempting rapid breakthrough cultivation inside the Ling Xi Caves to rescue Shen Jiu, resulting in his life force becoming permanently tethered to his spiritual sword Xuan Su. The tragic trajectory concluded in the original novel timeline when Luo Binghe severed Shen Jiu's limbs, presented the broken fragments of Xuan Su to the dungeon cell, and revealed that Yue Qingyuan had willingly walked into an inescapable demonic ambush of ten thousand arrows solely to fulfill his unkept childhood promise to Shen Jiu.Historical records chronicle the origins of Zhuzhi-Lang, born as a reviled half-snake demon who found refuge under his uncle Tianlang-Jun, the carefree Saintly Ruler of the Demon Realm who harbored a profound admiration for human literature, poetry, and theatrical plays. While wandering the Human Realm, Tianlang-Jun encountered Huan Hua Palace head disciple Su Xiyan, developing a deep mutual romance that defied racial boundaries. The Old Palace Master orchestrated a treacherous ambush at Bai Lu Mountain by deceiving Su Xiyan into drinking a lethal abortion potion and altering the meeting parameters, resulting in Tianlang-Jun being overpowered by the allied cultivation sects and sealed beneath Bai Lu Mountain for over a decade while Zhuzhi-Lang was blasted into a deformed serpent form. Simultaneously, author Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky recounts his transmigration into cannon fodder logistics disciple Shang Qinghua on An Ding Peak, detailing his desperate alliance with ice demon Mobei-Jun. Following the climax at Mai Gu Ridge, Shang Qinghua gains access to a System function allowing him to return permanently to modern Earth. However, when Mobei-Jun undergoes his martial succession trial in the northern ice fortress, his treacherous uncle Linguang-Jun launches an ambush to usurp the throne. Shang Qinghua intervenes at the risk of his own life, confronting Linguang-Jun and taking a severe physical beating to safeguard Mobei-Jun. Although Shang Qinghua subsequently flees to avoid retaliation, Mobei-Jun tracks him across the continent, offers to let Shang Qinghua strike him without retaliation to settle past debts, and personally transports the injured cultivator on a handcart while promising to prepare handmade noodles, prompting Shang Qinghua to abandon his return home to remain at Mobei-Jun's side.In the aftermath of the realm conflicts, Luo Binghe suffers a severe cultivation qi deviation that temporarily regresses his physical body into a four-year-old child, retaining his memories while leaving him physically helpless. Shen Qingqiu conceals the de-aged protagonist on Qing Jing Peak, but the situation deteriorates when Bai Zhan Peak Lord Liu Qingge, Qian Cao Peak Lord Mu Qingfang, and various peak lords storm the Bamboo House under the bizarre rumor that Shen Qingqiu has given birth to an illegitimate child. Shen Qingqiu expels his sect siblings and tends to the child until Luo Binghe's spiritual meridians naturally stabilize, restoring his adult form. Luo Binghe subsequently discovers the widespread black-market circulation of scandalous erotic booklets, including Regret of Chunshan and Song of Bingqiu, authored by Liu Mingyan under a pseudonym and distributed widely across the cultivation sects. Luo Binghe weaponizes the explicit texts and illustrated manuals to tease Shen Qingqiu and persuade him into indulging intimate desires. Seeking respite from sect scrutiny and relentless visits from Bai Zhan Peak, the pair embark on an extensive honeymoon journey across the human realm. While observing a mortal matrimonial ceremony in a neighboring city, Luo Binghe overcomes his persistent dread of abandonment and formally proposes marriage. Shen Qingqiu accepts the proposal by offering the traditional crossed-cup wine, prompting Luo Binghe to produce crimson ceremonial wedding robes. In private quarters, the two complete the full traditional marital rites, including bowing to heaven and earth, sealing their eternal partnership, consummating their vows, and formally acknowledging each other as lifelong spouses before returning to their shared life.

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

The Husky & His White Cat Shizun: Erha He Ta De Bai Mao Shizun

The story so far
(Volumes 1–11)

The tyrannical emperor Taxian-jun, born Mo Ran and courtesy named Mo Weiyu, swallows poison and ends his life after conquering the mortal cultivation world. In that prior lifetime, Mo Ran blamed his teacher Chu Wanning, titled Yuheng of the Night Sky and the Beidou Immortal, for refusing to save his beloved fellow disciple Shi Mei from death, leading Mo Ran to imprison Chu Wanning at Sisheng Peak until Chu Wanning perished in confinement. Following his death, Mo Ran awakens to discover his consciousness restored to his teenage body at Sisheng Peak alongside his cousin Xue Meng, his uncle and sect leader Xue Zhengyong, Shi Mei, and Chu Wanning. Retaining all memories of his previous atrocities, Mo Ran resolves to alter his fate, pursue intimacy with Shi Mei, and guard against Chu Wanning, whom he views with intense hatred and fear. Conflict ignites immediately when Chu Wanning catches Mo Ran sneaking away from a brothel and punishes him before the Platform of Sin and Virtue with the holy willow vine Tianwen, inflicting severe lashings that deepen Mo Ran's grudge. The sect subsequently receives an urgent commission from Landlord Chen to investigate supernatural hauntings in Butterfly Town, prompting Xue Zhengyong to send Mo Ran, Shi Mei, and Chu Wanning on an official exorcism mission. Mo Ran accepts the mission eagerly to orchestrate romantic advances toward Shi Mei, while Chu Wanning maintains strict vigilance over both disciples as they arrive at Butterfly Town to confront a string of mysterious deaths connected to local ghost marriages. During their travel, Chu Wanning notes the town's superstitious customs, where townsfolk conduct posthumous marriages for unwed corpses to avert perceived misfortune, setting the stage for their encounter with the haunting. Upon entering the Chen Manor, the cultivators discover that Landlord Chen's family is terrorized by manifestations surrounding their deceased son's red casket.In Butterfly Town, Landlord Chen reveals that a solitary blood-red coffin containing the corpse of his eldest son, Chen Bohuan, was unearthed on a nearby mountain, triggering fatal hauntings across the estate. To investigate the spiritual source, Chu Wanning and Mo Ran infiltrate an illusory realm governed by the Ghost Mistress of Ceremonies, an ancient local deity that feeds on the spiritual energy of posthumous weddings. Chu Wanning forces Mo Ran to participate alongside him in a staged wedding ceremony to locate the true master of the illusion. When Madam Chen attacks under demonic possession, Chu Wanning deploys a restoration barrier and commands Tianwen to interrogate the manifesting spirit, reversing the initial narrative of the hauntings. The ghost identifies herself as Luo Xianxian, Chen Bohuan's childhood sweetheart and legitimate first wife. Luo Xianxian reveals that the Chen family grew wealthy by stealing the proprietary recipe for Hundred Butterfly Fragrance created by her deceased father, Scholar Luo. To elevate their social status, the Chen parents concealed the marriage, fabricated false accusations against Luo Xianxian, and coerced Chen Bohuan into a lucrative betrothal with the governor's daughter, driving Luo Xianxian to suicide. Luo Xianxian's vengeful spirit formed a pact with the Ghost Mistress of Ceremonies, killing Chen Bohuan so he would remain buried with her in the red coffin. Disgusted by the Chen family's murderous deceit, Chu Wanning flings back Landlord Chen's hiring gold and violently whips him with Tianwen, injuring his own shoulder when shielding Mo Ran during the clash. Upon returning to Sisheng Peak, Chu Wanning willingly reports his own misconduct to the Discipline Court, accepting two hundred disciplinary strikes and three days of kneeling in Yanluo Hall for striking a mortal client. Mo Ran observes Chu Wanning silently enduring the punishment through the night, leaving him confused as he confronts contradictions between Chu Wanning's strict integrity and his own past memories of a cruel master.Chu Wanning leads Xue Meng, Shi Mei, and Mo Ran to Dawning Peak in the upper cultivation realm so the three disciples can obtain holy weapons from the frozen depths of Jincheng Lake. Upon arriving, the disciples encounter the massive dragon Wangyue and a figure presenting himself as Gouchen the Exalted, the primordial god of weaponry who forged the world's first sword. Gouchen the Exalted leads the party into an underwater pavilion, where Mo Ran opens the artifact box Ever-Yearning with Chu Wanning's aid, revealing a divine willow vine that binds to Mo Ran's wood-elemental spiritual core and receives the name Jiangui. Chu Wanning immediately detects that Gouchen the Exalted is an imposter, deducing that the entity is a corpse controlled by a white chess piece through the forbidden Zhenlong Chess Formation. The spirit of the ancient Heart-Pluck Willow reveals through ancient Cangjie script that a ruthless intruder recently slaughtered the inhabitants of Jincheng Lake and placed the entire domain under the Zhenlong Chess Formation. The fake Gouchen brought Mo Ran to the lake to sacrifice his youthful wood-elemental spiritual power to replenish the withering Heart-Pluck Willow. A sudden collapse of the arsenal traps the disciples as an automated defensive trial left by the true Gouchen the Exalted activates, binding Mo Ran to a cross beneath a copper blood hourglass that drains his blood to measure the trial's time limit. Concurrently, the trial subjects the remaining cultivators to the Heart-Pluck Willow's dream illusion of their deepest desires, threatening Mo Ran with fatal blood loss unless someone breaks the spell. Chu Wanning endures the mental trial, shakes off the illusion, and persistently throws his wounded body against a battering curtain of concentrated spiritual water, refusing to trade his disciple's life for his own safety.At Jincheng Lake, Chu Wanning breaks free from the dream trial and scales the copper hourglass, finding Mo Ran impaled on Gouchen the Exalted's sword to sustain the withering Heart-Pluck Willow. Chu Wanning endures catastrophic physical trauma to shatter the mechanism and rescue Mo Ran, who remains unconscious and mistakenly believes Shi Mei was the savior who suffered for him. Above the frozen waters, the false Gouchen is exposed as a corpse controlled by a white chess piece from the Zhenlong Chess Formation. The turquoise-black dragon Wangyue, branded with Gouchen's primordial seal, confirms that a mysterious intruder arrived weeks prior, slaughtered the lake's creatures, and used the Heart-Pluck Willow to practice the forbidden techniques of Rebirth and Zhenlong Chess. As the puppet corpse disintegrates and the white chess piece falls into the lake, Wangyue entrusts Mo Ran with his inverted scale before perishing. Xue Meng discovers the weapon he obtained was merely a mortal fake, suffering a devastating blow to his martial pride. Upon returning to Sisheng Peak, Chu Wanning conceals his grievous injuries and searches ancient records for ways to secure a substitute weapon for Xue Meng, while Mo Ran remains troubled by discrepancies between his past lifetime and current events. Concurrently, Chu Wanning begins experiencing recurring erotic dreams featuring an adult Mo Ran referring to himself as Taxian-jun, leaving Chu Wanning deeply rattled and determined to keep emotional distance. When Mo Ran notices Chu Wanning's exhaustion in the snow and attempts to attend to him, Chu Wanning fiercely rebuffs his solicitous advances to preserve his dignity. Mo Ran interprets Chu Wanning's harsh rejection as continued personal hostility, remaining completely ignorant that Chu Wanning's cold detachment conceals genuine self-sacrifice and deep private anguish.The residual spiritual poison and necrotic backlash from the Heart-Pluck Willow abruptly cause Chu Wanning's physical body to regress into that of a small child. Unable to reveal his compromised state without jeopardizing his authority and Sisheng Peak's security, Chu Wanning assumes the alias of Xia Sini, claiming to be an orphaned relative and junior disciple under the Xuanji Elder. Xue Meng, Shi Mei, and Mo Ran encounter Xia Sini, whom Xue Meng coddles and teases while Mo Ran treats him with unexpected tenderness, feeding him pastries and promising to protect him like a younger brother. During this interval, envoys from the feathered tribe arrive at Sisheng Peak to announce that the cosmic boundary separating the mortal world from the ghost realm is rapidly fracturing, mirroring a catastrophic breach that devastated the realm decades earlier. To cultivate elite spiritual energy capable of bracing the dimensional barrier, the feathered tribe invites prospective cultivators to an intensive retreat at Peach Blossom Springs within Mount Jiuhua. Chu Wanning uses a temporary restoration spell to briefly resume his adult form before sending his three disciples ahead, only to sneak after them as Xia Sini so he can oversee their safety without their knowledge. Traveling by ferry across the Yangtze River and arriving at the Port of Yangzhou, Mo Ran finds himself continually preoccupied with Xia Sini rather than pursuing Shi Mei, increasingly disquieted by the child's uncanny resemblance to Chu Wanning's habits, stubborn dignity, and reserved temperament. When Xia Sini catches a cold during their travel, Mo Ran attentively prepares warm food and broth for him, creating a tender camaraderie that steadily erodes Mo Ran's long-standing animosity toward his master.At Peach Blossom Springs, the master Eighteen oversees the visiting cultivators and initiates an assessment through an ancient spiritual illusion that transports Mo Ran and Xia Sini into Lin'an City two centuries in the past. Inside the simulated past, the city suffers an unprecedented Heavenly Rift, and the governor's eldest son, Chu Xun, organizes a desperate evacuation toward Putuo while protecting defenseless civilians from rampaging spirits. Mo Ran watches Chu Xun sacrifice his own life to secure safe passage for the refugees, while the adopted youth Xiaoman betrays the city to revive his master, causing the destruction of Lin'an. Witnessing Chu Xun's selfless death shakes Mo Ran to his core, forcing him to confront the moral reality of heroism and recognizing that Chu Xun shares Chu Wanning's bloodline, appearance, and unyielding principles. Upon exiting the trial, Mo Ran finds himself framed for the murder of feathered tribe members after victims are discovered slain by a willow whip identical to Jiangui. The feathered tribe detains Mo Ran and Xia Sini in Campsis Pavilion under suspicion of demonic cultivation. When tensions escalate, Chu Wanning dispels his child disguise and arrives in his true adult form, deploying Tianwen and tracing the murders to white and black Zhenlong chess pieces planted inside the feathered tribe. Chu Wanning discovers that the ancient demi-immortals of Peach Blossom Springs have already been slaughtered and replaced by puppet corpses by the same shadow cultivator who invaded Jincheng Lake, prompting Xue Zhengyong to sever all alliances with the tribe and evacuate his disciples back to Sisheng Peak.Chu Wanning and Mo Ran travel to Rainbell Isle, the tortoise-backed stronghold of the medicinal Guyueye Sect, to attend an illicit black-market auction hosted by Xuanyuan Pavilion in search of holy weapons. At the auction, Mo Ran is stunned to witness the sale of Song Qiutong, the Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feast whom he had taken as his empress in his past life, and watches Ye Wangxi and Nangong Si intercede. When the auctioneers unveil the legendary divine sword Bugui, Mo Ran discreetly releases a tendril of spiritual energy to test its authenticity, triggering a catastrophic flare-up of the Heart-Pluck Willow's dormant curse within Chu Wanning, who collapses into unconsciousness. Mo Ran carries Chu Wanning to the Fragrance Inn, purchasing rare Tapir Fragrance Dew to soothe his master's agonizing delirium. While nursing the helpless elder, Mo Ran is seized by overwhelming lust and possessiveness, forcibly kissing Chu Wanning and spiraling into frantic suspicion when Chu Wanning mutters the same dying words he spoke in their previous life. To verify whether Chu Wanning has also been reborn, Mo Ran interrogates him and summons the miniaturized dragon Wangyue to detect nearby spells, learning that an affection curse has been cast in the area. In the corridor outside their room, Mo Ran encounters a mysterious figure cloaked in gold-patterned black silk, who mocks Mo Ran's confusion, warns him that his love and hatred have been magnified, and commands him to sacrifice his life to protect Shi Mei before disappearing into the shadows. This confrontation confirms that an external orchestrator is actively manipulating Mo Ran's reincarnated destiny.Li Wuxin, the leader of Bitan Manor, arrives at Sisheng Peak's Loyalty Hall alongside his disciples to accuse Chu Wanning of slaughtering five hundred households in Butterfly Town through demonic cultivation. As evidence, Li Wuxin presents the Sigil of the Returning Billows and an identical replica of Chu Wanning's holy willow vine Tianwen, claiming the town's dead were sacrificed to an evil ghost-deity. Chu Wanning dismantles the accusations by revealing that he personally invented the Sigil of the Returning Billows, and he identifies the duplicate weapon as the work of the mysterious shadow cultivator who previously attacked Jincheng Lake and Peach Blossom Springs. The confrontation is interrupted by a bloodied messenger disciple reporting that the protective barrier around Butterfly Town has completely shattered, resulting in the death of thirty Bitan Manor cultivators who were overwhelmed by an army of walking corpses animated by the forbidden Zhenlong Chess Formation. Chu Wanning and Mo Ran depart immediately for Butterfly Town ahead of Xue Zhengyong's reinforcements. Upon arrival, they witness an enormous chessboard of crimson spiritual light in the sky holding over a thousand suspended corpses, all of whose hearts were excised prior to death through the forbidden Sand Amassed into a Tower technique. Chu Wanning projects his living soul and unleashes Tianwen's wide-scale technique Ten Thousand Coffins, causing massive golden weeping willows to erupt from the ground and trap the raging corpses inside tree trunks. Chu Wanning subdues the resurrected spirit of Luo Xianxian and interrogates her, but as she regains her senses, the chessboard flashes scarlet and the firmament tears open, triggering the apocalyptic Heavenly Rift to the Infinite Hells three full years earlier than in Mo Ran's past life.Demonic beasts and torrents of underworld lava erupt from the gaping rift in the firmament, plunging Butterfly Town into catastrophic destruction. Mo Ran recognizes the battlefield as the exact calamity in which Shi Mei died during his first life, and he races frantically through the chaos to locate and protect Shi Mei from the encroaching monsters. Mei Hanxue of Kunlun Taxue Palace arrives to take over defense of the outer perimeter, enabling Chu Wanning to fly directly into the center of the breach to seal the gate. Chu Wanning summons his third and most devastating holy weapon, the divine guqin Jiuge, overdrawing his spiritual core to sound sweeping musical chords that shatter the fiendish hordes and cleanse the sky. To ensure his disciples survive the infernal onslaught, Chu Wanning secretly establishes a twinned barrier that redirects all incoming lethal damage from Mo Ran into his own physical form. Chu Wanning successfully repairs the tear to the Infinite Hells, but the immense expenditure of spiritual energy coupled with catastrophic physical wounds destroys his vitality. Refusing to leave Mo Ran behind in the ruins, a dying Chu Wanning lifts the unconscious youth onto his back and drags himself up the three thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine stone steps leading to Sisheng Peak's main gate, his fingers chafed to the bone and drenched in blood. Mo Ran awakens on Sisheng Peak only to discover Chu Wanning's lifeless body laid out in Frostsky Hall.

The realization that Chu Wanning sacrificed himself to save his disciples shatters Mo Ran's long-cherished hatred, replacing his former resentment with overwhelming guilt, grief, and the agonizing recognition of his master's unconditional devotion.On the seventh night following Chu Wanning's demise, Master Huaizui of Wubei Temple arrives at Sisheng Peak, revealing that he was Chu Wanning's original teacher and possesses the secret knowledge of Rebirth, one of the three forbidden techniques. Huaizui distributes embroidered soul-calling lanterns to Xue Meng, Shi Mei, and Mo Ran, explaining that while Chu Wanning's cognizance soul lingers in his mortal flesh, his human soul returns to the living realm tonight, while his earth soul remains trapped in the underworld. Huaizui warns that whoever finds the human soul must descend alone into the ghost realm to retrieve the earth soul, facing total soul obliteration if their conviction falters. While Shi Mei hesitates at the life-threatening conditions, Xue Meng and Mo Ran pledge their lives without reservation. Guided by his lit lantern, Mo Ran searches Sisheng Peak and finds Chu Wanning's human soul in Mengpo Hall quietly shaping wontons, leading to the crushing revelation that the warm wontons Mo Ran cherished in his youth were cooked by Chu Wanning rather than Shi Mei. At dawn, Chu Wanning's human soul enters the lantern, and Huaizui places Mo Ran on an enchanted bamboo raft that sails down the Yellow Springs past Naihe Bridge into Nanke Town within the ghost realm. Masked by Huaizui's ward against the dead, Mo Ran seeks Chu Wanning's earth soul and encounters Chu Xun, his ancestor from the ancient Lin'an crisis, inside Tailwind Hall. Chu Xun uses a tracking compass that points in two opposite directions, uncovering the impossible truth that Chu Wanning possesses two earth souls. Mo Ran heads to the Ailing Souls Sanitarium, where he retrieves Chu Wanning's first, severely fragmented earth soul and absorbs it into the lantern.Pursuing the second compass reading into northeast Nanke Town, Mo Ran infiltrates the opulent fortress of the Fourth Ghost King, where preparations are underway for a forced ghost marriage. Mo Ran discovers Chu Wanning's second earth soul imprisoned in elaborate scarlet bridal robes as the designated consort of the underworld monarch. Mo Ran also encounters the deceased prostitute Rong Jiu, who reveals that Chang Da lured him to Butterfly Town and murdered him to harvest his heart for the Sand Amassed into a Tower array. Mo Ran breaches the ceremonial hall and seizes Chu Wanning, boldly declaring to the Fourth Ghost King that Chu Wanning is already his lawful husband through the formal vows, wine-crossing, and entwined hair locks exchanged during their previous Butterfly Town ghost wedding. The Fourth Ghost King permits them to test their claim against the palace's soul-shattering boundary, which Mo Ran and Chu Wanning safely cross hand in hand because the prior marital pact was genuine. Rong Jiu exposes Mo Ran as a living infiltrator, summoning ghost soldiers and forcing the pair to flee through the labyrinthine palace. In a secluded corner, Mo Ran embraces Chu Wanning's second earth soul, gently dismantling his master's awkward defenses by openly acknowledging Chu Wanning's hidden affection and goodness toward him. Across the cosmic boundary, Master Huaizui strikes a sacred wooden bell and chants the soul-calling sutra, drawing the second earth soul into the glowing lantern where it fuses with the others. With Chu Wanning's human soul and two earth souls securely assembled, Huaizui pulls Mo Ran back to Sisheng Peak on the raft, preparing to transfer the gathered souls into Chu Wanning's body at Red Lotus Pavilion for a prolonged restorative seclusion.Following Chu Wanning's physical demise while sealing the Heavenly Rift at Butterfly Town, Master Huaizui and Xue Zhengyong seal his body inside Red Lotus Pavilion beneath an impenetrable spiritual barrier for five years of deep seclusion to reconstitute his shattered souls and regenerate his depleted spiritual core. Mo Ran resolves to atone for the atrocities of his past lifetime as Taxian-jun and departs Sisheng Peak alone, embarking on an arduous five-year pilgrimage across the mortal cultivation realm. Walking a solitary path of redemption, Mo Ran refuses all monetary payment while repairing spatial fissures left by the celestial breach, slaying demonic entities, and providing unconditional manual assistance to impoverished commoners, thereby earning widespread veneration under the prestigious title Mo-zongshi. Meanwhile, Xue Meng secures victory at the Spiritual Mountain Competition, bringing martial renown to Sisheng Peak and unsettling the aristocratic factions of the upper cultivation world. During his solitary travels, Mo Ran unexpectedly crosses paths with Nangong Si, the scion of Rufeng Sect, alongside Song Qiutong, the Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feast whom Mo Ran had wed as his empress in his former life. Recognizing that Song Qiutong has been taken in by Rufeng Sect following her rescue at Xuanyuan Pavilion, Mo Ran experiences profound disorientation upon realizing that the historical timeline of his second life is actively drifting away from his past memories. Throughout these years of exile and grueling labor, Mo Ran privately endures agonizing guilt and longing for his sleeping master, filling letters and journal entries with remorse while holding fast to his vow to honor Chu Wanning's noble teachings upon his eventual return to the living world.Master Huaizui concludes his five-year vigil and departs Sisheng Peak, leaving Chu Wanning to awaken in Red Lotus Pavilion with his tripartite souls fully merged into his resurrected flesh. Xue Zhengyong sends Xue Meng to purchase historical annals in Wuchang Town so the disoriented master can review world affairs, where Chu Wanning sits up in astonishment upon reading extensive passages chronicling Mo Ran's selfless exploits across the realm. Gazing out the window, Chu Wanning witnesses a river of spiritual fireworks illuminating the night sky, bearing Mo Ran's distant message of welcome. Mo Ran races back to Sisheng Peak to greet his teacher, leading to an immediate comedic and intimate mishap at the mountain hot springs, where Chu Wanning finishes bathing and accidentally puts on Mo Ran's newly altered, oversized black robes before realizing Mo Ran stands naked before him in the water. Seeing how tall, powerful, and earnest Mo Ran has become over five years of grueling separation, Chu Wanning struggles to maintain his stern dignity. Mo Ran falls to one knee, looking directly into Chu Wanning's eyes and swearing a solemn vow to hold an umbrella over him for the rest of his days. At a welcome feast in Mengpo Hall, Shi Mei attempts to probe Mo Ran's adult affections by deliberately grazing Mo Ran's leg beneath the table, but Mo Ran pulls away. During the dinner, Shi Mei formally confesses that the comforting bowl of chili-oil wontons Mo Ran cherished in his youth had been cooked and prepared by Chu Wanning, completely dismantling Mo Ran's long-held assumption that Shi Mei had been his original savior and exposing the profound, unacknowledged sacrifices Chu Wanning had quietly made on his behalf.Xue Zhengyong dispatches Chu Wanning and Mo Ran to Yuliang Village to assist elderly farmers with their seasonal grain harvest, creating an opportunity for the pair to cultivate quiet camaraderie away from sect politics. While Mo Ran toils bare-chested in the fields, his muscular physique and upright demeanor attract the romantic interest of a beautiful local maiden named Ling-er. When Ling-er approaches Mo Ran under the moonlight to confess her romantic feelings, the confrontation forces a seismic internal reversal within Mo Ran. Viewing Ling-er's clear desire, Mo Ran abruptly recognizes that his two lifetimes of obsessive longing for Shi Mei were merely misidentified childhood gratitude, while his genuine, all-consuming romantic love and carnal desire have belonged entirely to Chu Wanning all along. Overcome by this revelation, Mo Ran musters the courage to confess to Chu Wanning that he likes him, though both men harbor profound misunderstandings regarding the nature of the statement. Chu Wanning assumes Mo Ran speaks only of filial respect and disciple devotion, while Mo Ran deliberately masks the depth of his romantic and physical lust to avoid repulsing his lofty teacher. Shortly after their return, Xue Meng presents an official wedding invitation from Rufeng Sect, announcing that scion Nangong Si is marrying Song Qiutong. The betrothal shocks Mo Ran, as Nangong Si had died unmarried in the previous life while Song Qiutong had become Taxian-jun's empress, demonstrating that the future has diverged completely from his prior memory. Xue Zhengyong orders custom formal robes and mobilizes the Sisheng Peak leaders to attend the grand wedding in Linyi.En route to Linyi, the Sisheng Peak party stops in Dai City near Dawning Peak, lodging at a crowded hot springs inn where Mo Ran and Chu Wanning navigate suffocating physical proximity, swapped sleeping rooms, and accidental bed-sharing that tests their mutual restraint. After encountering head disciple Mei Hanxue of Kunlun Taxue Palace in the city, the party travels to Rufeng Sect, the wealthiest and most dominant sect in the upper realm comprising seventy-two connected city estates. Upon their arrival, Rufeng Sect Leader Nangong Liu greets the visitors with excessive flattery and attempts to present Chu Wanning with twenty rare soul-nourishing pills on behalf of the cultivation world. Remembering past grievances, Chu Wanning publicly snubs Nangong Liu, refusing the medicine and icily declaring that he came solely out of personal regard for Nangong Si, who had once been his student. Meanwhile, malicious rumors sweep through the gathered cultivation sects, alleging that the bride, Song Qiutong, engaged in a clandestine adulterous affair with Nangong Si's adoptive martial sibling, Ye Wangxi, who had originally purchased and liberated her at Xuanyuan Pavilion. Sensing a coordinated smear campaign designed to destroy Rufeng Sect's prestige, Mo Ran recognizes the familiar signs of external manipulation by the shadow conspirator who attacked Jincheng Lake and Butterfly Town. Resolving to protect both Nangong Si and the integrity of the occasion from sinister intrigue, Mo Ran departs from Sisheng Peak's assigned courtyard to locate Ye Wangxi, seeking to uncover the truth behind the explosive allegations before the formal wedding banquet degenerates into catastrophe.During the welcome feast preceding the wedding of Nangong Si and Song Qiutong at Rufeng Sect, an anonymous rumor alleging an adulterous affair between Song Qiutong and Ye Wangxi spreads rapidly among the gathered cultivation sects. The tension peaks when a mysterious man dressed in black intrudes upon Poetry Hall, openly challenging the honor of the hosts before all invited dignitaries. Nangong Liu attempts to minimize the scandal to preserve Rufeng Sect's prestige, confining Nangong Si behind an unbreakable filial blood oath barrier to suppress his angry protests. The intruder systematically dismantles the accusation of adultery by unveiling a hidden truth about Ye Wangxi, revealing that Ye Wangxi is biologically female. Nangong Liu is forced to acknowledge that Rufeng Sect compelled Ye Wangxi to disguise her sex for a decade, forcing her to consume painful masculine altering medicine so she could serve as commander of the shadow city. As this scandal erupts, distress signals flare from the surrounding hunting grounds at Ganquan Lake. Chu Wanning and Mo Ran rush to the scene alongside Nangong Liu and the sect leaders, discovering that the twenty one young guest cultivators chosen to hunt spiritual deer, including Xue Meng, have been compromised. Each youth has been implanted with a black Zhenlong chess piece, turning them into soulless martial puppets deployed to defend five elemental ritual arrays. Chu Wanning intervenes using the willow vine Tianwen and the sacred guqin Jiuge to neutralize the puppets without inflicting lethal harm, while Mo Ran deploys Jiangui to pull the captive youths to safety, preventing a slaughter of the prominent heirs of the upper cultivation realm and confronting the sinister conspirator responsible.At Ganquan Lake, Nangong Liu attempts to claim control over the situation, only for Rufeng Sect's Shuanglin Elder, Xu Shuanglin, to execute a sudden betrayal by piercing Nangong Liu through the chest with a spiritual claw. Xu Shuanglin forces Nangong Liu to ingest a lingchi fruit, an agonizing torment that suspends him between life and death. Ripping away his disguised face, Xu Shuanglin exposes his true identity as Nangong Xu, Nangong Liu's younger brother who was stripped of his birthright, framed, and driven into exile decades earlier despite his superior cultivation talent. Nangong Xu discloses that their former teacher Luo Fenghua, the only outsider to rule Rufeng Sect, had been murdered by Nangong Liu during a past coup, prompting Luo Fenghua to place a horrific rotting curse on the sect leader's ring. Nangong Liu survived only by consuming Luo Fenghua's flesh, drinking his blood, and sacrificing his own wife Rong Yan's spiritual core to obtain a holy weapon at Jincheng Lake. Nangong Xu reveals that he engineered every major disaster across the realm, from Jincheng Lake and Peach Blossom Springs to the massacre at Butterfly Town, solely to amass holy weapons and spiritual power to tear open the Infinite Hells and resurrect Luo Fenghua's spiritual core. Nangong Xu projects massive illusory scrolls into the night sky, broadcasting the hidden crimes and hypocrisies of Rufeng Sect and the upper realm sects before all onlookers. Nangong Si breaks free and attacks his uncle using the sacred bow Mantuo, but Nangong Xu uses the half dead Nangong Liu as a human shield before completing the ritual array. The catastrophic tear unleashes infernal lava and an apocalyptic beast, incinerating Rufeng Sect's seventy two cities and destroying the prestigious stronghold.Following the annihilation of Rufeng Sect, Mo Ran and Chu Wanning work tirelessly to rescue fleeing commoners from the spreading inferno across Linyi, helping relocate desperate refugees toward safe territories under Sisheng Peak's protection. Taking shelter together in a modest rural cottage, Mo Ran sorts through Chu Wanning's travel belongings and discovers an embroidered brocade pouch tucked deep inside his robes. Opening the pouch, Mo Ran finds the two intertwined locks of hair preserved from their staged ghost wedding in Butterfly Town five years earlier, proving indisputably that Chu Wanning has carried this intimate token of their union throughout both of Mo Ran's lifetimes. The discovery shatters Mo Ran's remaining doubts, making him realize that Chu Wanning's apparent severity masked a profound, enduring, and secret romantic love for him that existed long before Mo Ran ever recognized his own feelings. When Chu Wanning returns to the room and notices the disturbed pouch, he is consumed by panic and mortification, terrified that his hidden affection has been exposed and will repulse his disciple. Rather than fleeing or pretending ignorance, Mo Ran tends gently to Chu Wanning, styling his hair, purchasing flowers, and staying close by his side through sleepless nights. Mo Ran directly confronts his master, gently speaking the personal name Wanning and refusing to let Chu Wanning retreat behind his customary cold barrier. Overcome by emotion, Chu Wanning cannot deny his feelings as his face and ears flush crimson. Mo Ran intertwines their fingers, sealing a mutual romantic devotion that fundamentally alters their relationship as they prepare to face the looming conflicts of the cultivation world. Holding hands on their return flight toward Sisheng Peak, they step forward together as equals united in devotion, ready to confront the spreading chaos engineered by Xu Shuanglin and the hidden masters of the forbidden techniques.

Following their mutual confession in the rural cottage outside burned Linyi, Chu Wanning reflects on his early memories of Mo Ran persistently sweeping the mountain path to earn discipleship beneath the flowering tree of Sisheng Peak. Upon returning to the sect gates, the two sneak into the bamboo forest behind the Platform of Sin and Virtue, where their urgent and frantic kiss is nearly discovered by Xue Meng, whom Mo Ran quickly misleads with a fabricated excuse about chasing an escaped sweet rice cake spirit. In the wider political sphere, the leaders of the ten great sects convene at Spiritual Mountain to manage the catastrophic fallout of Rufeng Sect's destruction, officially electing the wealthy and aloof Guyueye leader Jiang Xi to direct the joint investigation into the fugitive Xu Shuanglin. During the assembly, Guyueye's mysterious prodigy physician Hua Binan, known as Hanlin the Sage, presents Chu Wanning with a rare brocade box containing Tapir Fragrance Dew, establishing an enigmatic interest in the Sisheng Peak elder. Soon afterward, unnatural torrential rainfall inundates Sichuan, and Mo Ran intercepts Chu Wanning as he descends from Red Lotus Pavilion toward Wuchang Town in search of food. Seizing the opportunity, Mo Ran brings Chu Wanning to a local inn under the pretense of escaping the storm, where their long-repressed romantic desires culminate in full physical consummation. Chu Wanning yields to the passionate encounter while recognizing fragments of the sensual dreams that have haunted him, while Mo Ran experiences deep internal turmoil, fighting the ruthless sexual violence of his past life as Taxian-jun to treat his master with genuine tenderness and devotion.The persistent downpours plague Sichuan with aquatic monsters, forcing Sisheng Peak elders to divide their martial forces across surrounding cities for relentless exorcisms. Chaos strikes Sisheng Peak directly when two legendary Demon Gourds of Debauchery, brothers grown from the same vine that escaped from the fallen Golden Drum Tower of Rufeng Sect, invade Loyalty Hall. While the younger wine gourd forces disciples to drink alcohol, the older lust gourd demands absolute purity of heart, trapping cultivators inside an illusory wedding chamber where they must lift the veil of a spouse constructed from their subconscious desires. Xue Meng enters the lust gourd only to be expelled in complete humiliation because the entity manifested an image of Xue Meng himself in bridal makeup to mock his vanity. Chu Wanning outdrinks the wine gourd until it collapses into a dormant jade gourd, then enters the lust gourd to neutralize the remaining demon. Inside the illusion, the lust gourd manifests the pale, cruel form of Taxian-jun from Chu Wanning's repressed dreams, subjecting him to simulated carnal violence. Enraged, Chu Wanning shatters the illusion and corners the gourd spirit, which recognizes Chu Wanning's divine nature, prostrates in terror, and submits into a small pink gourd. Chu Wanning emerges dressed in scarlet bridal robes, fueling scandalous gossip across Sisheng Peak regarding whom the Yuheng Elder wed. Immediately following this incident, Nangong Si and Ye Wangxi arrive at Sisheng Peak covered in demon blood, seeking temporary refuge and revealing that Xu Shuanglin has been utilizing parasitic gu insects rather than human spiritual energy to evade the cultivation world's tracking spells.Nangong Si resolves to observe a ten-day fast at Sisheng Peak before traveling to Rufeng Sect's ancestral burial grounds on Mount Jiao to retrieve hidden family relics and restore honor. As Nangong Si and Ye Wangxi depart, Huang Xiaoyue and a hostile contingent of Jiangdong Hall cultivators ambush them at the foot of Sisheng Peak, demanding vengeance for sect scandals and seeking Rufeng Sect's rumored ancestral wealth. Mo Ran intervenes with his willow vine Jiangui to shield them until Xue Zhengyong arrives with an urgent messenger from Kunlun Taxue Palace, who reports that spiritual butterflies detected Xu Shuanglin's blood scent at Mount Huang, one of the realm's four ancient evil mountains. The righteous sects mobilize to Mount Huang, whose defensive barrier was formed from the slain spirit of an evil phoenix and responds exclusively to the blood of its vanquisher, the Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feast ancestor Song Xingyi. At the mountain base, Li Wuxin of Bitan Manor suffers a fatal qi deviation from the barrier's illusions and dies, inciting Bitan Manor disciples to spit on Chu Wanning and accuse Sisheng Peak of harboring criminals. The cultivators breach the mountain only to discover the charred corpse of Song Qiutong discarded beneath a bush, her blood having been completely harvested while alive to unseal the phoenix barrier. When Mo Ran examines the body, a giant demonic serpent bursts from Song Qiutong's mouth, proving to Mo Ran that Xu Shuanglin was not acting alone and that an unseen second mastermind executed the murder to manipulate the sects into a deadly ambush.The assembled sects find themselves besieged inside Mount Huang by a massive subterranean army of reanimated corpses controlled by the Zhenlong Chess Formation. Nangong Si, refusing to allow Sisheng Peak to be blamed for Rufeng Sect's legacy, pins himself to the earth with a painful confinement curse to guarantee he will face formal trial at Tianyin Pavilion, though Ye Wangxi and Mei Hanxue stand guard to defend him from Jiangdong Hall's wrath. Mo Ran analyzes the tactical layout of the attack, deducing that the sea of corpses on Mount Huang is merely an elaborate distraction engineered by the shadow conspirator to occupy the major sects while the true catastrophic ritual is prepared at Mount Jiao. Recognizing that the hidden enemy possesses mastery over the Zhenlong Chess Formation and knows about temporal rebirth, Mo Ran is seized by overwhelming terror that his past atrocities as the tyrant Taxian-jun will be exposed to Chu Wanning and the cultivation world. Seeking temporary shelter at Taobao Estate before the allied march to Mount Jiao, Mo Ran visits Chu Wanning's private quarters, where their passionate emotional and physical intimacy resumes. Overcome by vulnerability and dread, Mo Ran resolves to confess the full truth of his rebirth and former life to Chu Wanning. Before he can speak, Xue Meng frantically knocks on the door seeking comfort after witnessing the horrors and hypocrisy of the cultivation sects, forcing a panicked Chu Wanning to hide a bare Mo Ran under the bed.Nangong Si leads the allied cultivation sects through the Panlong Range to Mount Jiao, observing a strict ten-day fast and proceeding on foot to appease the spirit of the demon dragon Wangli. Upon reaching the entrance to Rufeng Sect's ancestral heroes' tomb, Nangong Si uses his blood and recites the ancestral oath to unlock the guardian stone lions, allowing the cultivators to cross the threshold. As they climb the slopes of the graveyard, they discover the jade coffins disturbed and are ambushed by thousands of deceased Rufeng Sect disciples and servants reanimated by the Zhenlong Chess Formation. Nangong Si uses the dragon sinew vines of Mount Jiao to fling all outside cultivators beyond the boundary so he can suppress the corpses alone. Before he can seal them beneath the earth, Rufeng Sect's founding leader, Nangong Changying, descends the steps as a Zhenlong chess piece manipulated by Xu Shuanglin, compelling the mountain vines to turn against Nangong Si. Recognizing that Changying is unstoppable, Chu Wanning analyzes his movements and alerts Nangong Si that Changying's left-arm meridians were intentionally severed before his death, revealing that the legendary ancestor anticipated the future desecration of his corpse and proactively crippled his own martial prowess. When Changying's sword pierces Nangong Si's shoulder, Nangong Si shatters his own spiritual core to offer fresh power to the dragon blood oath, wrestling temporary control of the vines back to pin the corpses. This sacrifice shocks Changying into recovering brief awareness. Obeying his ancestor's desperate command, Nangong Si takes Changying's holy bow Chuanyun and fires an arrow imbued with Changying's lingering spiritual power directly into his chest, incinerating the founder's remains to ash to free him from servitude and returning the corpses to the earth.Jiang Xi treats Nangong Si's physical wounds while concealing his destroyed spiritual core from Ye Wangxi at Nangong Si's request, allowing the group to ascend the nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine steps to the mountaintop temple. Inside, they discover a bizarre diorama dividing Zhenlong chess pawns between simulated heaven and hell, including Nangong Liu reduced to a childlike state. Xu Shuanglin channels power through stolen holy weapons to sever the five elemental bonds between the demon dragon Wangli and the Nangong bloodline, releasing demonic serpent swarms and dragontail beetles while an army of corpses attacks the temple doors. Mo Ran, Xue Meng, and Chu Wanning fight back-to-back to hold the entryway until the heavy doors close. In the inner chamber, the reanimated pawn of Rong Yan reveals to Nangong Si that only a fresh blood sacrifice from a Nangong descendant can renew the failing pact with Wangli before Xu Shuanglin severs all five bonds. Unable to bring himself to murder his incapacitated father, Nangong Si tosses his embroidered quiver containing the wounded faewolf Naobaijin to safety and leaps directly into the Dragonsoul Pool, dissolving his physical body to restore the blood oath, exterminate the demonic beasts, and terminate Xu Shuanglin's control over Mount Jiao. The cultivators advance to the Soul-Summoning Platform to corner Xu Shuanglin, whose body is rotting from the forbidden technique's backlash. Mo Ran interrogates Xu Shuanglin, exposing his motives regarding his love for his former master Luo Fenghua, his hatred of Nangong Liu, and his intentional grooming of Ye Wangxi to replicate Luo Fenghua's demeanor. Refusing to reveal his secret co-conspirator, Xu Shuanglin crushes Luo Fenghua's extracted spiritual core to dust, ensuring that neither master nor disciple will ever meet again.Hua Binan suddenly turns against the cultivation alliance, backed by Jiangdong Hall disciples whom he controls using parasitic tunneler insects. When Chu Wanning attempts to seal the dark rift tearing open above the platform, Hua Binan seizes Shi Mei as a hostage and demands Chu Wanning abandon the barrier. Shi Mei seizes Hua Binan's poisoned thorn and gouges out his own eyes, shocking Chu Wanning into breaking his concentration and suffering severe spiritual backlash from the opening vortex. Hua Binan abducts the blinded Shi Mei into the subterranean tunnels, sealing the stone doors of Mount Jiao behind him while a massive wave of advanced Zhenlong chess pawns manifests to wipe out the trapped cultivators. Mo Ran slashes his own hand and uses his blood to trigger the mechanism, enabling the alliance to evacuate safely before turning back to face the true enemy alone. Within the ruined Dragonsoul Pool chamber, Mo Ran discovers Chu Wanning pinned by Taxian-jun, the tyrannical emperor from the previous lifetime whose body was resurrected and brought across the Space-Time Gate of Life and Death. Mo-zongshi engages Taxian-jun in a brutal duel, matching Jiangui against Bugui blow for blow as Taxian-jun taunts him about their shared past and their claims over Chu Wanning. The battle causes severe spiritual resonance, triggering agonizing headaches in Chu Wanning as memories of his prior life begin to stir. Master Huaizui suddenly manifests on the battlefield, using a sound transmission spell to instruct Mo Ran to meet him immediately at Dragonblood Mountain before vanishing. A shrill whistle sounds from the sky, compelling Taxian-jun to withdraw his forces and leap back through the Space-Time Gate, leaving a devastated Mo Ran alone with the knowledge that his past tyrant self has entered this reality.Mo Ran travels to Dragonblood Mountain near Wubei Temple and finds Chu Wanning standing over the body of Master Huaizui, who has passed away while being consumed by an oath-bug. Huaizui leaves behind an enchanted censer and a memory scroll detailing the hidden origins of Chu Wanning. The scroll reveals that Chu Wanning is not a biological human born of mortal parents, but an artificial body carved by Huaizui from a piece of the Flame Emperor Shennong's sacred tree and brought to life with a drop of blood to serve as a vessel for the reincarnated soul of Chu Xun. When the adolescent Chu Wanning insisted on entering the mortal world to alleviate human suffering rather than meditating in seclusion to achieve immortality, Huaizui imprisoned him on Dragonblood Mountain for one hundred and sixty-four days and attempted to extract his spiritual core, prompting Chu Wanning to cut open his own chest to prove his sincerity before severing their relationship. The memory scroll further reveals that the Chu Wanning of the first lifetime mastered the Space-Time Gate of Life and Death and traveled to this world years earlier, entrusting the enchanted censer to Huaizui with instructions to bring Mo Ran and this timeline's Chu Wanning together when disaster struck. As the censer burns, Chu Wanning absorbs its spiritual smoke and recovers the complete memories of his previous lifetime, including his captivity as Consort Chu, Taxian-jun's descent into madness, and the sacrifices that spanned two worlds. Mo Ran is left in despair as Chu Wanning confronts the realization that the beloved disciple before him is the same person who subjected him to years of torment in their previous life.In the cave on Dragonblood Mountain, Mo Ran and Chu Wanning awaken from the spiritual trance of the memory scroll as the enchanted censer burns out. Shi Mei arrives and drops his gentle facade, revealing that he is Hua Binan, the mastermind behind the realm wide disasters. Shi Mei kisses Chu Wanning on the cheek to taunt Mo Ran, disclosing that in their previous lifetime Chu Wanning cleaved half of his own earth soul to excise the Flower of Eightfold Sorrows from Mo Ran, rendering Mo Ran permanently immune to future control while leaving Mo Ran temporarily drained of spiritual energy. Shi Mei commands Mo Ran to return to Sisheng Peak to confess his past crimes as Emperor Taxian-jun. Extensive recollections of the first timeline reveal that Chu Wanning, while held captive as Consort Chu in Wushan Palace, discovered ancient demon texts in the sect library and deduced the truth of the Flower of Eightfold Sorrows. This demonic curse, planted into Mo Ran's heart, consumed all kindness, love, and joyous memories while magnifying dormant grievances and hatred ten thousand times, leaving devotion solely toward the caster. Recognizing that Mo Ran was a manipulated pawn rather than an innate monster, Chu Wanning mastered the forbidden Space-Time Gate of Life and Death, traveled back across time to the year Mo Ran was first infected, split his earth soul to place half into the young Mo Ran to suppress the flower, and entrusted the soul stitching censer to Master Huaizui. Chu Wanning also left half of his earth soul inside his younger self to preserve the timeline, intending for the reunited souls to awaken the truth when the crisis escalated. Shi Mei leaves Mo Ran in agonizing grief on Dragonblood Mountain before vanishing into the woods, knowing that Chu Wanning's recovered memories of the previous life will force a devastating reckoning between master and disciple.Mo Ran travels alone to Sisheng Peak to confess his crimes and expose Hua Binan, entering Loyalty Hall where the allied sect leaders and disciples have assembled. The proceedings are taken over by Pavilion Master Mu Yanli of Tianyin Pavilion, who accuses Mo Ran of horrific crimes committed before he joined Sisheng Peak. Mu Yanli brings forward past records, forcing Mo Ran to reveal his true identity. Mo Ran confesses that he is not Xue Zhengyong's biological nephew, but the illegitimate son of Rufeng Sect's ninth city lord Nangong Yan and the songstress Duan Yihan.

Mo Ran recounts how his mother starved to death in Linyi after Nangong Yan's legitimate wife beat and expelled her, forcing Mo Ran to bury his mother with bare hands before traveling to Xiangtan. At the House of Drunken Jade, Mo Ran was starved and abused by Madam Mo and her son Mo Nian, who was Xue Zhengyong's true nephew. When Mo Nian and his friends raped a local tofu-seller's daughter to death in a mill, they framed Mo Ran by covering him in the victim's blood, resulting in Mo Ran being beaten and jailed by corrupt officials. After escaping prison, an enraged Mo Ran returned to the House of Drunken Jade, tortured the occupants, and set the building on fire, incinerating Madam Mo, Mo Nian, and their patrons. When Sisheng Peak's investigator arrived at the ashes, he mistakenly identified the surviving Mo Ran as Mo Nian, bringing him to the sect. Although Jiang Xi questions Tianyin Pavilion's selective justice and Xue Zhengyong struggles with the revelations, Mu Yanli formally declares Mo Ran guilty of murder, arson, identity theft, and demonic cultivation.As the trial concludes, Hua Binan launches an army of Zhenlong chess pawns against Sisheng Peak, exploiting the confusion to annihilate the defenseless cultivators. Recognizing that Hua Binan orchestrated the siege to force his compliance, Mo Ran chooses self-sacrifice over surrender to protect his adoptive family. With his spiritual energy exhausted, Mo Ran intentionally detonates his own spiritual core, unleashing a massive conflagration of holy fire that incinerates the entire Zhenlong chess horde, saving Xue Zhengyong, Madam Wang, Xue Meng, and the gathered sects at the cost of destroying his own cultivation. Meanwhile, Hua Binan retreats to Mount Jiao, where he clashes with his younger self, the blind Shi Mei, who has begun to feel guilt over sacrificing innocent lives. Hua Binan reveals that Tianyin Pavilion is secretly his instrument, planning to extract the fragments of Mo Ran's shattered spiritual core to transplant them into the revived corpse of Emperor Taxian-jun, thereby creating an obedient weapon of supreme power. At Qingtan Palace, Shi Mei attempts to violate the feverish, captive Chu Wanning, but Taxian-jun intervenes with violent jealousy, using the candle dragon to bind Shi Mei and asserting absolute ownership over Chu Wanning. Taxian-jun receives a messenger bird from Tianyin Pavilion confirming that Mo Ran will be executed and his core excised, while Taxian-jun retreats into Wushan Palace with Chu Wanning, trapped between fractured memories of his tyrannical past and undeniable longing for his master. As Taxian-jun holds Chu Wanning in his arms, the conflicting souls and memories of two lifetimes battle within him, setting the stage for Tianyin Pavilion's public execution of Mo Ran.At Tianyin Pavilion, Pavilion Master Mu Yanli oversees the public trial of Mo Ran, utilizing the divine golden Scales of Justice to pronounce his condemnation for past atrocities, identity theft, and demonic cultivation. Despite Xue Meng's desperate protests and the solitary presence of Ye Wangxi in the stands, the scales dictate that Mo Ran's spiritual core be carved out as retribution. Mo Ran is forced to kneel in public humiliation on the Platform of Repentance for three days before guards escort him to the sentencing platform, where healers preserve his consciousness while executioners repeatedly slice open his chest to excise the shards of his shattered core onto a silver tray. Chu Wanning discovers the execution and races to the pavilion aboard the Dragon of the Candle, breaching the protective barrier in a frenzy of divine spiritual power. Refusing to let Mo Ran perish, Chu Wanning cuts down eleven elite Tianyin Pavilion cultivators and wounds over a hundred guards with Tianwen, seizing the mutilated Mo Ran and escaping into the wilderness. They are intercepted by the resurrected Emperor Taxian-jun, who wields Bugui and Jiangui in a bout of possessive jealousy against Chu Wanning. Chu Wanning evades the tyrant and retreats to an abandoned cottage on Nanping Mountain, where he expends his own spiritual reserves in a desperate vigil to keep Mo Ran alive. Mo Ran regains consciousness just long enough to express gratitude and love to Chu Wanning, finding peace in the realization that his teacher never abandoned him, before his physical body succumbs to the trauma of core extraction. To prevent Mo Ran's corpse from decaying, Chu Wanning channels a continuous current of divine wood spiritual energy into his lover's flesh, vowing to sustain the preservation barrier until his own death.The allied sects of the cultivation realm converge on Sisheng Peak, inflamed by rumors that Chu Wanning murdered Tianyin Pavilion disciples to free a demonic criminal. In Loyalty Hall, cultivators and bribed commoners present fabricated testimonies accusing Sisheng Peak of chronic corruption, brutality, and complicity with Mo Ran. Pushed beyond endurance by the slander, Xue Meng draws Longcheng and decapitates a lying witness, inciting immediate all-out armed conflict across the hall. Sect Leader Xue Zhengyong fights fiercely to defend his disciples, but he is overwhelmed and slain in the melee. Facing the imminent slaughter of her people, Madam Wang steps forward to enact a final defense. She shatters her silver bracelet to awaken her dormant, unstable spiritual core and ignites Phoenix's Inferno, an ancient self-sacrificial technique from Guyueye that engulfs the halls, peaks, and pavilions in unquenchable holy flames for three days. The allied cultivators flee the mountain in panic, leaving only Guyueye's leader Jiang Xi behind. In her dying moments, Madam Wang calls Jiang Xi forward and dismantles a decades-old deception. She confesses that Xue Zhengyong never abducted or raped her; rather, Xue Zhengyong concocted the villainous tale to provide her with honorable protection after Jiang Xi abandoned her pregnant with his child, revealing that Jiang Xi is Xue Meng's biological father while Xue Zhengyong was the selfless father who raised him. Eavesdropping from the doorway, Xue Meng hears the truth of his parentage before his mother perishes beside Xue Zhengyong's corpse. Simultaneously, Tianyin Pavilion forces attempt to slaughter the fleeing Sichuan commoners, but Ye Wangxi arrives with Nangong Si's bow and the enlarged faewolf Naobaijin, holding the line to ensure the commoners reach safety.Mu Yanli delivers the silver tray containing the shards of Mo Ran's extracted spiritual core to Hua Binan, who transplants the fragments into the preserved corpse of Emperor Taxian-jun. Powered by Mo-zongshi's spiritual essence, Taxian-jun regains his former boundless cultivation and obeys Hua Binan's commands as the ultimate weapon of conquest. Dispatched to Mount Kunlun, Taxian-jun stands above Heavenly Lake and activates the Space-Time Gate of Life and Death, unleashing immense dark power that violently entwines the two parallel worlds. The temporal convergence fractures the firmament, sending apocalyptic deluges, infernal beasts, and thousands of Zhenlong chess pawns across the mortal realm while desperate refugees flee the collapsing land. Taxian-jun captures Chu Wanning and carries him captive to Wushan Palace, the past lifetime's dark incarnation of Loyalty Hall. Having lost both his parents and his sect, Xue Meng confronts Taxian-jun at Sisheng Peak, only for the resurrected tyrant to mercilessly crush Xue Meng's spirit by revealing that Chu Wanning has been his lover and sexual partner across both lifetimes, deliberately shattering Xue Meng's idealized reverence for his teacher. Leaving Xue Meng devastated and weeping in the pelting rain, Taxian-jun leads Chu Wanning across Naihe Bridge into the back mountains of Sisheng Peak. At the edge of the blazing cliffside, Taxian-jun displays the grotesque culmination of their labors: the Martyr's Path, an enormous bridge constructed from thousands of slaughtered human corpses designed to connect the mortal realm to the demon gate, laying bare Hua Binan's grand conspiracy to wield all three forbidden techniques and return the Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feasts to their ancestral home.Held captive inside Wushan Palace, Chu Wanning is escorted by Emperor Taxian-jun to the rear cliffs of Sisheng Peak to witness the Martyr's Path, an enormous bridge built from thousands of human corpses linking the mortal world to the demon realm. Taxian-jun reveals that the three forbidden techniques originated from Gouchen the Exalted, who belonged to the Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feast clan before siding with the god Fuxi, resulting in his people being exiled to the human world where cultivators hunted, bred, and cannibalized them. The current Demon Lord agreed to grant the clan entry into the demon realm only if they proved their allegiance by mastering Gouchen's forbidden arts, defying the gods, and constructing the corpse bridge. Shi Mei produces the Yestertide Mirror to show Chu Wanning his hidden past, revealing that his mother Hua Gui fled Guyueye and sought refuge with the former master of Tianyin Pavilion. When that master suffered spiritual failure, he went insane and devoured Hua Gui's flesh to replenish his spiritual energy, an atrocity witnessed by the young Shi Mei. Pavilion Master Mu Yanli is Shi Mei's half sister who discovered the truth of her father's crime and allied with Shi Mei to facilitate their people's return. Shi Mei discloses that Taxian-jun's resurrected corpse holds Mo Ran's lingering cognizance soul, which remains anchored to his profound romantic devotion to Chu Wanning. When Shi Mei demands thirty additional human lives to finalize the bridge, Chu Wanning refuses to permit further atrocities and unleashes his spiritual power to destroy Taxian-jun's physical form. Shi Mei ingests a pill made of Taxian-jun's blood to execute Divine Borrowing, battling Chu Wanning before fleeing toward the back mountains as an allied army of cultivators ascends Sisheng Peak.Upon reaching the boundary before the Martyr's Path, Chu Wanning discovers that Taxian-jun has reassembled under the influence of a command talisman cast by Shi Mei. At that moment, a rift opens as the older Xue Meng and the Mei brothers from the first timeline arrive through the Space-Time Gate of Life and Death. The older Xue Meng joins forces with the younger Xue Meng and the Mei twins to duel the possessed Taxian-jun before the Heaven-Piercing Tower, buying time for Chu Wanning to intercept Shi Mei. Chu Wanning flies on the back of the candle dragon to the end of the corpse bridge, where Mu Yanli steps forward to shield Shi Mei and the surviving Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feasts, whom she had disguised as Tianyin Pavilion disciples. Mu Yanli intentionally shatters her divine spiritual core to wield overwhelming celestial power against Chu Wanning. Chu Wanning summons the sacred guqin Jiuge to establish a massive barrier, repelling her strike. Exhausted and facing impending death from the loss of her spiritual core, Mu Yanli chooses self-sacrifice and throws her physical body onto the bridge, giving the life of a descendant of the gods to fulfill the final requirements of the blood pact. A colossal voice resonates from behind the door as the sacrifice is accepted, and the colossal gates to the demon realm grind open. The demonic energy flowing into the mortal realm restores the dormant cores of the assembled Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feasts, giving them immense strength as they prepare to cross the threshold into their ancestral homeland.As the Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feasts approach the open gate, the ancient demonic gatekeeper demands a bloodline inspection. The examination reveals that while the other clan members possess demonic purity, Shi Mei carries the celestial blood of Tianyin Pavilion through his divine father. The gatekeeper denounces him as a traitor contaminated by the gods, commanding that the gates shut permanently and manifesting a monstrous skeletal demon armed with a massive hatchet to slaughter the refugees. Refusing to allow his lifetime of sacrifice to fail at the final threshold, Shi Mei channels his newly restored demonic power to battle the demonic skeleton. As the corpse bridge begins to disintegrate and the colossal stone doors swing shut, Shi Mei orders his people to sprint into the demon realm while he hurls his own physical body between the closing stone leaves. Bracing his shoulders, hands, and legs against the crushing weight of the doors, Shi Mei endures catastrophic bone fractures and internal hemorrhaging, screaming for his people to run past him. He maintains his desperate hold until the last Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feast reaches safety, at which point the colossal doors slam completely shut, crushing Shi Mei's skull and severing his limbs. The demon gate vanishes as the Martyr's Path collapses into the void, leaving behind a cataclysmic rift where heavenly retribution descends upon the human world in the form of celestial deluges, spatial collapse, and dimensional fractures that threaten to obliterate both entangled realities.Chu Wanning ascends into the sky and expends his life energy playing Jiuge to suppress the expanding rift, while Taxian-jun breaks free from mental subjugation following Shi Mei's death. Recognizing the imminent annihilation of both timelines, Taxian-jun deploys the massive Xuanwu barrier to hold back the apocalyptic floodwaters, commanding all surviving cultivators to evacuate through the shrinking Space-Time Gate back to their original world. Chu Wanning steps through the gate to preserve the second reality, while Taxian-jun collapses under the crushing weight of the celestial waters. Within the demon realm, Mo Ran's consciousness awakens in an amethyst palace before the Demon Lord. The Demon Lord reveals that Mo Ran is a rare, special phenotype Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feast descended from royal demon blood who possesses an intact human appearance, identical to the ancient hero Song Xingyi. Because of this unique physiology, Mo Ran absorbed the wash of demonic qi released when the gate opened, allowing his shattered spiritual core and physical body to regenerate. The Demon Lord facilitates the fusion of Mo Ran's fractured souls, uniting the compassionate Mo-zongshi of the second life and the ferocious Emperor Taxian-jun of the first life into a single revived vessel. Mo Ran regains life and crosses the boundary back to the mortal world, reuniting with Chu Wanning beneath a flowering tree in Sichuan.One month after the catastrophe, the cultivation realm works to restore order and rebuild destroyed cities. Sisheng Peak is reconstructed under the sole leadership of Sect Leader Xue Meng, who matures into a dignified commander while maintaining the legacy of his fallen parents. The younger Shi Mei, having gouged out his own eyes and rejected the cruel methods of his older self, chooses to wander the jianghu as a blind, anonymous physician, dedicating the rest of his life to healing commoners without accepting payment as penance for the devastation caused by his counterpart. Having fulfilled their duties to the realm, Chu Wanning and Mo Ran depart the politics of the cultivation sects, choosing a life of quiet seclusion in a modest cottage on Nanping Mountain. In this peaceful retreat, Mo Ran's dual nature manifests harmoniously, shifting between the gentle, repentant disposition of Mo-zongshi who attends devotedly to Chu Wanning and the imperious, possessive temperament of Taxian-jun who demands his master's physical intimacy. United across two lifetimes of tragedy, misunderstandings, and cosmic separation, master and disciple live together in mutual devotion, finally free from manipulation, forbidden curses, and the judgments of the cultivation world.Taxian-jun brings the captive Chu Wanning to the rear cliffs of Sisheng Peak to witness the Martyr's Path, a colossal bridge constructed from thousands of human corpses linking the human world to the demon realm. Taxian-jun explains that the three forbidden techniques originated from Gouchen the Exalted, who once belonged to the Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feast clan before allying with the god Fuxi, resulting in the banishment of his people to the mortal realm.

The current Demon Lord agreed to permit the return of the Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feasts only if they defied the gods, mastered the forbidden techniques, and built the corpse bridge. Inside Wushan Palace, Shi Mei confronts Chu Wanning and details how the cultivation realm reduced the Butterfly-Boned clan to livestock, describing how Guyueye bred and slaughtered clan members to manufacture ascension medicines. Using the Yestertide Mirror, Shi Mei displays the memories of his father, the former master of Tianyin Pavilion, revealing that Pavilion Master Mu Yanli is Shi Mei's half-sister who was raised by Shi Mei's mother, Hua Gui. The mirror reveals that when Shi Mei's father suffered spiritual collapse, he butchered and cannibalized Hua Gui alive to replenish his cultivation, driving the young Shi Mei to flee Tianyin Pavilion in terror. Shi Mei explains that he assumed the alias Hua Binan to master Guyueye's medicine, eventually reuniting with Mu Yanli, who allied with him to facilitate their clan's survival. Mu Yanli enters to report that only thirty more human lives are required to finish the bridge. Chu Wanning rejects Shi Mei's moral justifications, affirming that Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feasts are human beings whose suffering cannot excuse the slaughter of innocent mortals.Shi Mei demands thirty additional human lives to finalize the Martyr's Path, attempting to bargain by offering the return of Mo Ran's lingering cognizance soul, which remains trapped inside the body of Taxian-jun. Chu Wanning refuses to permit further atrocities and summons divine spiritual energy to execute the Decimate Retract technique, crushing the reanimated corpse of Taxian-jun to dust. Driven into a frenzy by the destruction of his primary martial weapon, Shi Mei consumes a pill containing Taxian-jun's blood to initiate the Divine Borrowing technique, temporarily gaining Mo Ran's physical combat power to attack Chu Wanning with Bugui. Chu Wanning pierces Shi Mei's shoulder with the sacred sword Huaisha, causing the borrowed strength to expire and forcing a bleeding Shi Mei to flee toward the back mountains. At the edge of the chasm before the Martyr's Path, Shi Mei hurls a control talisman into the chest of the reconstituted Taxian-jun, placing the resurrected emperor back under puppet subjugation. Shi Mei commands Taxian-jun to advance toward the front hall to slaughter the allied cultivators, but Chu Wanning steps forward to intercept him in a brutal duel. At that moment, the older Xue Meng and the Mei twins arrive from the first timeline through the Space-Time Gate of Life and Death, engaging the possessed Taxian-jun to allow Chu Wanning to pursue Shi Mei. Holding Bugui aloft, Taxian-jun battles the cultivators before the Heaven-Piercing Tower as Chu Wanning races toward the demon boundary on the back of the candle dragon.Chu Wanning arrives at the far end of the Martyr's Path to confront Shi Mei before the gates of the demon realm. When Chu Wanning lashes out with the holy willow vine Tianwen, Pavilion Master Mu Yanli leaps forward with her sword to defend Shi Mei, declaring that the cultivation realm has subjected the Butterfly-Boned clan to systemic cannibalism for centuries. Mu Yanli reveals that the hundreds of personal disciples she brought from Tianyin Pavilion are actually disguised Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feasts whom she gathered to escort home. To overcome Chu Wanning, Mu Yanli intentionally shatters her divine spiritual core, unleashing overwhelming celestial energy derived from her godly heritage to batter Chu Wanning's defenses. Chu Wanning withdraws Huaisha and summons the sacred guqin Jiuge, erecting an expansive defensive barrier that repels her desperate assault. Depleted of spiritual energy and facing inevitable death from her broken core, Mu Yanli casts aside her sword and leaps onto the bridge, offering her divine life as the final sacrifice required to bridge the gap between realms. Accepting the blood of a divine descendant in place of the remaining twenty-nine human lives, the Demon Lord waives the remaining steps, causing the Martyr's Path to link with the demon gate as the colossal stone doors grind open. Chu Wanning watches the massive doors separate while the assembled Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feasts prepare to step across the threshold into their ancestral homeland.As the demon gate opens, the outpouring of demonic energy restores the dormant power of the assembled Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feasts, invigorating Shi Mei with unprecedented physical strength. An ancient demon guardian steps forward to inspect the bloodlines of the entering refugees, declaring that the maternal line of Gouchen the Exalted must be scrutinized for foreign contamination. Deploying a beast-headed scepter, the guardian analyzes Shi Mei and discovers that he carries the celestial bloodline of the gods through his divine father. Denouncing Shi Mei as a tainted traitor, the guardian transforms into a monstrous skeleton wielding a massive hatchet, ordering the demon gates to close and the bridge to crumble. Shi Mei refuses to abandon his clan, channeling his restored demonic power to battle the skeleton and destroying it with a thorny vine imbued with dark qi. As the Martyr's Path disintegrates into the abyss and the colossal stone doors swing shut, Shi Mei leaps into the narrowing gap, ordering his people to sprint into the demon realm. Bracing his hands, shoulders, and legs against the closing portals, Shi Mei endures catastrophic bone fractures as the immense pressure bears down upon his body. Shi Mei maintains his hold until the final clan member crosses the boundary, whereupon the colossal stone doors slam shut, crushing his skull and severing his limbs as the demon gate vanishes into the void. The wailing Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feasts find safety within the demon realm as the remaining structure of the corpse bridge plunges into the lightless abyss.The destruction of the bridge and the opening of the dimensional rift trigger heavenly retribution, causing catastrophic floodwaters to pour from the sky and submerge Sisheng Peak. Taxian-jun breaks free from mental control following Shi Mei's death, deploying the massive Xuanwu barrier to shield the surviving cultivators from the apocalyptic deluge. Chu Wanning embraces Taxian-jun before the barrier collapses, validating both the tyrant and the reformer as the same man before stepping through the closing Space-Time Gate to preserve the mortal realm. Meanwhile, Mo Ran awakens inside an amethyst palace within the demon realm before the Demon Lord. The Demon Lord reveals that Mo Ran is a rare Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feast possessing the ancient royal phenotype of the Jade-Hearted Lord Song Xingyi, which allowed him to absorb demonic qi to regenerate his shattered spiritual core and physical form. The Demon Lord facilitates the fusion of Mo Ran's fractured souls, uniting the repentant Mo-zongshi and the fierce Taxian-jun into a single resurrected body. In the aftermath, Xue Meng assumes leadership to reconstruct Sisheng Peak, while the younger Shi Mei, blinded by his own hand, wanders the jianghu as an anonymous physician to atone for the atrocities of his older self. Mo Ran reunites with Chu Wanning, and the pair withdraw from cultivation politics to live together in peaceful seclusion on Nanping Mountain. Settling into their mountain cottage, master and disciple live in mutual devotion, finally free from the curses, misunderstandings, and judgments of the cultivation world.Sect Leader Xue Meng enters the cultivation world's matchmaking market using the newly invented Matching Scroll created by Master Ma of Taobao Estate, registering under the pseudonym Wang Xiaoxue-xianjun while utilizing an illusory brocade pouch to conceal his identity. His initial match, an affluent candidate operating under the moniker Dayflower, agrees to meet at Sunrise Pavilion in Yangzhou, where Xue Meng attempts to demonstrate martial prestige and wealth. Upon removing their disguises, Dayflower is exposed as Guyueye Sect Leader Jiang Xi, who entered the matchmaking system under cover to investigate a commercial competitor. The two engage in a furious, humiliating quarrel over their respective identities, resulting in Xue Meng tearing up Dayflower's card and vowing to find an authentic female companion. Xue Meng selects his next candidate, Miss Treated, whose profile describes severe emotional neglect and a wounded heart. Meeting in Wuchang Town, Miss Treated demands that Xue Meng assist in inciting jealousy in her estranged partner, ordering the establishment's most expensive dishes and forcing Xue Meng to roleplay her partner's shizun across from her. When Xue Meng inquires about the partner's identity, Miss Treated reveals grievances regarding a neglected embroidered brocade pouch and an encroaching romantic rival. The interaction violently escalates into an all-out physical brawl inside the inn when Miss Treated discards the illusion, revealing herself to be Emperor Taxian-jun, who has taken control of Mo Ran's physical body. Taxian-jun brawls with Xue Meng over familial and romantic boundaries before carrying the bruised, intoxicated Xue Meng back to Sisheng Peak, while secretly nursing bitter jealousy over Chu Wanning's perceived indifference toward an embroidered pouch containing indecent lyrics.Following a string of disastrous encounters with eccentric cultivators, Xue Meng is courted by Miss S, a member of Taobao Estate's SMILE Squad who visits Sisheng Peak and flatters his physique, intelligence, and leadership. When Mei Hänxue of Kunlun Taxue Palace arrives at Sisheng Peak to deliver snow lotuses and discuss business, he unmasks Miss S as his younger twin brother, Mei Hanxue, who disguised himself in women's clothing to play a practical joke on Xue Meng. Enraged by the deception, Xue Meng physically assaults Mei Hanxue until Sisheng Peak's fat orange cat Veggiebun intervenes to shield the cultivator. Xue Meng travels to Taobao Estate alongside the Mei twins, discovering the headquarters besieged by commoners because the Matching Scroll spirit has gained rogue sentience, insulting clients and transforming failed captors through magical curses. Estate Master Ma Yun is reduced to a buzzing bee, while Jiang Xi arrives in luxurious kingfisher robes to apprehend the spirit, only to be cursed and transformed into an exotic bird. Taobao Estate recruits Chu Wanning to disguise himself as a woman to ensnare the spirit, but Chu Wanning fails the test and is transformed into a hissing white cat that scratches Mo Ran and flees. Mei Hanxue establishes a wager with Xue Meng, masters the encounter, and captures the scroll spirit, restoring Ma Yun, Jiang Xi, and Chu Wanning to their human forms while Taxian-jun intercepts and steals the five hundred erotica volumes awarded to Xue Meng's account. This chaos is complemented by a collective investigation across the cultivation communication network when Xue Meng loses a rare box of foreign liquor-infused chocolates, prompting panic until Huohuang Pavilion spiritual interpreters reveal that Veggiebun consumed the sweets, drastically boosting the cat's intellectual capacity.On Nanping Mountain, Chu Wanning approaches his second birthday in peaceful seclusion alongside Mo Ran, completely oblivious to the date due to decades of emotional neglect beginning during his youth at Wubei Temple, where Master Huaizui ceased acknowledging the occasion after Chu Wanning neared adulthood. Both souls sharing Mo Ran's physical body independently conspire to stage a celebration, with Mo-zongshi securing an enchanted miniature paradise known as the Dreams Come True box from Gao the Glutinous, a talking osmanthus rice-cake spirit. When Taxian-jun assumes bodily control the following morning, he resolves to outdo his gentler counterpart, utilizing his exclusive spatial teleportation technique to infiltrate Guyueye and Kunlun Taxue Palace. Taxian-jun abducts Jiang Xi, Xue Meng, and Mei Hanxue into the enchanted box to meet specific rare requirements, binding them in chains to construct an extravagant festival ground. Midnight arrives, shifting bodily control back to Mo-zongshi, who awakens horrified by the trail of abductions and brings Chu Wanning into the box to present his hand-built garden. A furious Jiang Xi threatens martial retribution for his kidnapping and destruction of estate property, but Mo Ran bows before the Guyueye leader, publicly disclosing Chu Wanning's birthday and offering lifelong financial compensation if Jiang Xi spares his master distress. The revelation silences the assembled sect leaders, prompting Jiang Xi to waive the ninety-million-gold-leaf debt to avoid embarrassing Xue Meng and Chu Wanning. The captives join Chu Wanning and Mo Ran for a birthday banquet featuring Mo Ran's cooking and Taxian-jun's pear-blossom rouge cured goose, culminating in spiritual fireworks over the Jiangnan waterways that reaffirm master and disciple's permanent, tranquil devotion across two intertwined lifetimes.

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Volume 5

Volume 6

Volume 7

Volume 8

Volume 9

Volume 10

Volume 11

Thousand Autumns: Qian Qiu

The story so far...
(Volumes 1–5)

Shen Qiao, the sect leader of the foremost Daoist sect on Xuandu Mountain and disciple of the late grandmaster Qi Fengge, enters a duel atop Banbu Peak against Kunye, the Wise King of the Left and disciple of the Göktürk grandmaster Hulugu. Secretly poisoned beforehand with the debilitating toxin Joyful Reunion, Shen Qiao suffers a catastrophic defeat, loses his sight and martial arts foundations, and plummets off the precipice. Yan Wushi, leader of the demonic Huanyue Sect who has recently emerged from a decade of secluded cultivation following his loss to Cui Youwang, finds the dying Shen Qiao with the sect leader sword Shanhe Tongbei. Rather than trading him for political leverage, Yan Wushi administers a Pill of Great Revival to keep him alive as a test of human nature, seeking to observe whether Shen Qiao's benevolence will crack under betrayal and despair. Shen Qiao awakens blind, frail, and amnesiac, allowing Yan Wushi's junior disciple Yu Shengyan to falsely claim that Shen Qiao belongs to Huanyue Sect. Yu Shengyan brings Shen Qiao to Northern Qi to assassinate Yan Zhiwen, a court official who secretly serves as an informant for the rival demonic Hehuan Sect led by Yuan Xiuxiu. During their journey, Shen Qiao meets Han Eying, the daughter of Palace Attendant Han Feng. When ordered to execute Yan Zhiwen and slaughter his household, Shen Qiao defies the demonic command, warns Yan Zhiwen of the plot, and facilitates the family's escape. In response to this defiance, Yu Shengyan reveals Shen Qiao's real identity as the fallen sect leader of Xuandu Mountain whose defeat by Kunye went unavenged by his own sect. Refusing to embrace slaughter, Shen Qiao departs on his own as a penniless wanderer to seek the truth at Xuandu Mountain.In Funing County, Shen Qiao shelters in an abandoned temple and encounters Chen Gong, an impoverished, illiterate youth who scavenges and steals to survive. Shen Qiao shares food, demonstrates character divination, and uses bamboo cane strikes to protect Chen Gong from local ruffians. Desiring wealth and status, Chen Gong accompanies the ailing Shen Qiao south toward Mount Xuandu with the intent of joining the Liuhe Guild. The pair stops at Chuyun Temple, where Liuhe Guild escorts led by Deputy Leader Yun Fuyi arrive carrying cargo that conceals the Volume of Deluded Thought from Tao Hongjing's legendary martial arts manual, the Zhuyang Strategy. Rival factions descend upon the temple to seize the scroll, including Northern Qi court experts Murong Qin, Murong Xun, and Tuoba Liangzhe, alongside Bai Rong of Hehuan Sect and Buddhist Master Xueting. Yan Wushi arrives, easily overpowers the competitors, and forces Shen Qiao to publicly read and recite the text of the scroll aloud before crushing the silk manual into dust. Chen Gong uses his photographic memory to retain the entire recitation, while Shen Qiao's shattered internal channels begin self-repairing because he had previously internalized the Volume of Lost Soul on Xuandu Mountain. Realizing that greedy martial factions will hunt anyone who heard the text, Shen Qiao separates from Chen Gong in Huai Province to prevent the youth from being targeted. Chen Gong immediately encounters Mu Tipo, the corrupt Prince of Chengyang Commandery, and sells out Shen Qiao's location to avoid servitude. Mu Tipo attempts to abduct Shen Qiao as a male concubine, forcing Shen Qiao to fight off retainers until his body collapses from internal hemorrhage. Yan Wushi appears, drives away Mu Tipo's men, and mocks Shen Qiao for maintaining moral purity despite Chen Gong's betrayal.Taking custody of the injured Daoist, Yan Wushi attempts to corrupt Shen Qiao by urging him to renounce Daoism, study the demonic Fenglin Scriptures, and cultivate the Zhuyang Strategy to take vengeance on his enemies, but Shen Qiao refuses to compromise his moral core. Shen Qiao guides Yan Wushi up a hidden cliffside array to Xuandu Mountain to uncover the circumstances surrounding his fall. Infiltrating Yuxu Pavilion, Shen Qiao confronts his trusted junior martial brother Yu Ai, who reveals that he intentionally plotted with Kunye and administered the Joyful Reunion poison to Shen Qiao before the Banbu Peak duel. Yu Ai justifies the betrayal by claiming that Shen Qiao's isolationist leadership weakened the sect, necessitating an alliance with the Göktürks to expand Xuandu Mountain's influence into secular politics. When Shen Qiao rejects this foreign alliance and demands his departure, Yu Ai tries to forcefully imprison him, inflicting a wound on Shen Qiao during the pursuit. Yan Wushi intervenes, mocks Yu Ai's betrayal of Qi Fengge's legacy, and uses Shen Qiao as a shield against Yu Ai's sword before carrying Shen Qiao down the mountain. Below the mountain, Yan Wushi ambushes Shen Qiao with the Spring Waters Finger Technique to test his limits, compelling Shen Qiao to manifest true sword intent despite his severe physical deficits. Yan Wushi then brings Shen Qiao to Northern Zhou, where Yan Wushi acts as Junior Preceptor of the Crown Prince under Emperor Yuwen Yong. In Ying Province, Yan Wushi deliberately parades Shen Qiao with intimate gestures to humiliate him and generate rumors that the former sect leader is his kept favorite. Shen Qiao spars with Linchuan Academy disciple Xie Xiang in front of Zhan Ziqian, holding his ground, and later survives an assassination attempt by Hehuan Sect leader Yuan Xiuxiu when Yan Wushi steps in to repel her.Arriving in the Northern Zhou capital of Chang'an, Shen Qiao rests at the Junior Preceptor residence under the watchful eye of Yan Wushi's eldest disciple, Bian Yanmei. Yan Wushi passes an invitation to the sixtieth birthday banquet of Madam Qin, mother of Duke Su Wei and Chunyang Monastery disciple Su Qiao, sending Shen Qiao to attend as his personal representative. At the banquet, Shen Qiao is seated beside the high-ranking official Puliuru Jian and observes prominent figures of the secular and martial worlds, including Li Qingyu of Chunyang Monastery, Liuhe Guild leader Dou Yanshan, and painter Zhan Ziqian. The celebration turns into a major confrontation when Duan Wenyang, the senior disciple of Hulugu, enters under the pretext of delivering gifts from Göktürk Empress Ashina. Duan Wenyang shatters the peaceful proceedings by revealing that Madam Qin is actually Aisaule, a former disciple of Hulugu who stole his sacred golden lotus ring keepsake thirty years earlier and fled beyond the Great Wall to conceal her identity in the Central Plains. Madam Qin openly confesses to her past identity and yields the ring, but Duan Wenyang continues to challenge the gathering, provoking armed resistance from Su Qiao, Li Qingyu, and the assembled guests. Amid the escalating turmoil, Duan Wenyang turns his focus toward Shen Qiao, publicly identifying him as the former sect leader of Xuandu Mountain in front of the entire assembly of aristocrats and jianghu experts. This decisive identification strips away Shen Qiao's anonymity, thrusting him back into the center of the geopolitical conflict between the northern dynasties and the Göktürk Khaganate.Duan Wenyang disrupts Madam Qin's birthday banquet in Chang'an under the pretext of bearing congratulations from Empress Ashina, only to demand the return of a stolen Göktürk sacred golden lotus ring and the surrender of Yuan Xiong's family to the Khaganate. When Su Qiao refuses, the confrontation escalates into armed combat against the hosts and guests. Li Qingyu of Chunyang Monastery steps forward to defend the Su family, demonstrating formidable sword intent to match Duan Wenyang, but Duan Wenyang exploits a tactical opening to seize Duke Su Wei as a hostage. Shen Qiao intervenes using a mundane bamboo cane, manifesting pure sword intent to dismantle Duan Wenyang's offensive, liberate Su Wei, and compel the Göktürk expert to withdraw from the residence. Following the battle, Bai Rong intercepts Shen Qiao in the streets to coerce him into reciting the Zhuyang Strategy's Volume of Deluded Thought, but Shen Qiao retaliates with the Spring Waters Finger Technique to repulse her. Back at the Junior Preceptor residence, Yan Wushi returns Shen Qiao's restored sect leader sword Shanhe Tongbei and escorts him to a private imperial audience with Emperor Yuwen Yong. The emperor tests Shen Qiao's loyalties and offers to patronize Xuandu Mountain's establishment within Northern Zhou, but Shen Qiao declines to function as an imperial puppet while acknowledging the ruler's pragmatic anti-religious policies. Emperor Yuwen Yong commissions an envoy mission led by Prince Yuwen Qing to Southern Chen to ratify a military alliance against Northern Qi, assigning Yan Wushi and Shen Qiao as escorts. When Hehuan Sect elders and Xiao Se ambush the convoy at an inn, Shen Qiao repels Xiao Se to protect Yuwen Qing, while Yan Wushi routes the remaining assailants before subjecting Shen Qiao to unwanted public physical advances to mock his moral rectitude.Upon arriving in the Southern Chen capital of Jiankang, Shen Qiao encounters Linchuan Academy Master Ruyan Kehui, who offers the resources of imperial physicians and sanctuary within his Confucian academy. Shen Qiao declines the invitation to avoid becoming entangled in southern court rivalries and factional strife. Ruyan Kehui and Yan Wushi subsequently engage in a colossal martial duel along the riverbanks, culminating in an ostensible draw that leaves both grandmasters outwardly intact, though Yan Wushi suffers hidden internal destabilization from a flaw in his demonic core. Exploiting Yan Wushi's vulnerable state during his subsequent seclusion, Liuhe Guild leader Dou Yanshan and Hehuan Sect martial artists, including Bai Rong and Li Yue, track Yan Wushi to a remote mountain cave to execute him. Shen Qiao intervenes to defend the immobilized Yan Wushi, wielding his bamboo cane to fend off multiple attackers despite his own impaired eyesight and lingering physical frailties. After Yan Wushi recovers sufficiently to drive away their enemies, Shen Qiao clarifies that his defensive actions serve strictly to repay his moral debt for Yan Wushi's past revival of him at Banbu Peak, concluding their shared obligations. Shen Qiao separates from Yan Wushi to travel north to Northern Qi's capital of Yecheng in search of Xuandu Mountain disciples. Yan Wushi pursues Shen Qiao to Yecheng, claiming that Hehuan Sect leader Yuan Xiuxiu requested assistance to assassinate her rival elder Sang Jingxing. While lodging at the impoverished Bailong Monastery with Abbot Zhu Lengquan and his disciples Chuyi and Shiwu, Shen Qiao receives lavish gifts from Chen Gong, who has risen to high office under Gao Wei, but Shen Qiao rejects the overtures.Yan Wushi coaxes Shen Qiao to the outskirts of Yecheng under the guise of an evening stroll, where Hehuan Sect elder Sang Jingxing emerges to corner them. In a calculated betrayal designed to shatter Shen Qiao's moral conviction, Yan Wushi hands Shen Qiao over to Sang Jingxing in exchange for the return of his former sword Taihua, explicitly stating that he keeps no friends and views Shen Qiao as a broken pawn unworthy of standing as an equal opponent. Sang Jingxing gloats over capturing Qi Fengge's successor, intending to humiliate him publicly and drain his vitality through parasitic cultivation. Refusing degradation, Shen Qiao intentionally detonates his own meridians and releases a devastating burst of sword intent, severely maiming Sang Jingxing and forcing the elder to flee. Shen Qiao escapes into the wilderness and collapses inside a mountain cave, where Shiwu discovers him and brings him back to Bailong Monastery. The total destruction of Shen Qiao's martial foundations purges the Joyful Reunion poison from his body, enabling the internal qi of the Zhuyang Strategy to rebuild his meridians from scratch. Soon after, Hehuan Sect elders Yan Shou and Baoyun, accompanied by Xiao Se and Bai Rong, storm Bailong Monastery to capture Shen Qiao, murdering Chuyi and mortally wounding the abbot during their interrogation. Before dying, Abbot Zhu Lengquan reveals his secret identity as a former disciple of Mount Tai's Bixia Sect and entrusts Shiwu and a sect token to Shen Qiao, who flees southward with the young disciple through an underground tunnel while Bai Rong deliberately misdirects her companions.Shen Qiao escorts Shiwu south to Mount Tai to fulfill his dying promise to Abbot Zhu Lengquan and seek sanctuary with Bixia Sect, only to discover the mountain littered with corpses and torn by armed insurrection. Guided by returning disciple Fan Yuanbai, Shen Qiao learns that Bixia Sect Elder Lu Feng has allied with Ruan Hailou of Goguryeo's Dongzhou Sect and Göktürk envoy Pu Anmi to launch a bloody coup against Acting Sect Leader Yue Kunchi while Sect Leader Zhao Chiying remains in secluded cultivation. Shen Qiao enters the fray to shield Yue Kunchi, engaging Pu Anmi and Ruan Hailou until Zhao Chiying forcibly terminates her secluded meditation to overpower the conspirators. Ruan Hailou, realizing his decades of bitter vengeance stemmed from personal misunderstandings with his deceased master Hui Leshan, commits suicide by leaping from the cliff, while Pu Anmi is taken into custody. Aware that Zhao Chiying incurred severe internal injuries from interrupting her breakthrough and cannot defend the mountain, Shen Qiao volunteers to represent Bixia Sect in a duel against Hulugu's disciple Kunye, who arrives atop Mount Tai to exploit the sect's devastation. Reaching the advanced martial echelon of sword heart and channeling the regenerative energy of the Zhuyang Strategy, Shen Qiao defeats Kunye in a fierce duel. When Kunye feigns surrender and unleashes a treacherous surprise strike, Shen Qiao kills him, learning through Kunye's final disclosures that five top martial grandmasters, including Buddhist Master Xueting, Liuhe Guild leader Dou Yanshan, and Xuandu Mountain's Acting Sect Leader Yu Ai, have allied with the Göktürks to execute a fatal ambush against Yan Wushi at the Coiled Dragon Assembly in Tuyuhun.In Tuyuhun near Fuqi, five martial grandmasters execute a coordinated ambush against Yan Wushi at Yinyang Pavilion to permanently alter the political and martial balance of power. Buddhist Master Xueting seeks the restoration of Buddhism in Northern Zhou, Duan Wenyang advances the Göktürk Khaganate's expansion, Yu Ai secures foreign backing for Xuandu Mountain, Dou Yanshan avenges the destruction of the Liuhe Guild's scroll, and Fajing Sect leader Guang Lingsan plays the zither to target the lingering crack in Yan Wushi's demonic core. Surrounded and overwhelmed, Yan Wushi shatters Yu Ai's sword Junzi Buqi, wounds Duan Wenyang, and inflicts severe injuries on his assailants before taking devastating blows from Xueting and Dou Yanshan that crack his skull and rupture his internal organs. Believing Yan Wushi dead, Xueting, Yu Ai, and Duan Wenyang withdraw to treat their injuries, leaving Dou Yanshan and Guang Lingsan to sever the head and confirm the kill. Shen Qiao arrives at the pavilion and draws Shanhe Tongbei, putting his newly restored martial arts on the line to drive Dou Yanshan and Guang Lingsan away so that Yan Wushi can receive a dignified burial. Transporting the body to a secluded village beside Zhaling Lake, Shen Qiao discovers a faint, imperceptible pulse still lingering within Yan Wushi's chest. Sheltering him in a local homestead, Shen Qiao tends to the incapacitated grandmaster, whose severe cranial trauma and chaotic internal qi cause his psyche to fracture into multiple distinct personas, including the innocent youth Xie Ling, the gentle A-Yan, an uncontrollable violent persona, and his original arrogant self.Chen Gong, now invested as the Duke of Pengcheng through Emperor Gao Wei's imperial favor in Northern Qi, tracks Shen Qiao to Tuyuhun accompanied by court experts Murong Qin and Murong Xun. Aware that Shen Qiao seeks remedies for Yan Wushi's shattered skull, Chen Gong proposes a joint expedition into the Taklamakan Desert to uncover the subterranean ruins of the lost ancient city of Ruoqiang.

Chen Gong offers the promise of jade cistanche, a rare subterranean plant possessing miraculous regenerative properties for bones and meridians, while concealing his true objective of locating carnelian deposits needed to break open the hollow hilt of the ancient sword Tai'e. Navigating violent sandstorms and perilous chasms, the expedition plunges into the buried city, where they battle swarms of carnivorous giant spiders and venomous underground apes. Chen Gong locates the carnelian deposits and uses their extreme hardness to crack open the hilt of Tai'e, extracting the hidden fifth volume of the Zhuyang Strategy containing the lost techniques of the demonic discipline. When Chen Gong suffers a lethal scratch from the poisoned claws of the apes, Yan Wushi exploits his desperation, withholding the neutralizing fruit until Chen Gong surrenders the silk scroll and the harvested jade cistanche. With Yan Wushi identifying the hidden exit paths through the underground labyrinth, the surviving party members escape back to the surface. Shen Qiao uses the harvested jade cistanche to treat Yan Wushi's head injury, while Yan Wushi memorizes the demonic volume and burns the silk to prevent any rival factions from ever claiming it.To evade enemy networks in Tuyuhun, Shen Qiao disguises the tall Yan Wushi in women's clothing and cosmetics, traveling eastward toward Wei Province while managing the erratic transitions between the affectionate Xie Ling and the original demonic patriarch. Lodging at a Huanyue Sect safehouse overseen by Wu Mi and the youth A-Qing, Yan Wushi cultivates the demonic volume of the Zhuyang Strategy to mend the flaw in his demonic core. This internal cultivation progressively suppresses and absorbs the subordinate personas, causing the gentle Xie Ling to vanish permanently, which leaves Shen Qiao mourning the loss of the only persona who offered him unconditional trust, gentleness, and genuine warmth. Tipped off by Chen Gong in Chang'an, Buddhist Master Xueting arrives at the residence with disciples Liansheng and Lianmie to execute Yan Wushi before his full recovery. Shen Qiao brandishes Shanhe Tongbei to clash directly against Xueting while Yan Wushi holds off the two disciples, allowing the pair to break through the encirclement and flee into the crags of Guojian Mountain. As they make their way toward Hanzhong to rendezvous with the Prince of Qi Yuwen Xian, Hehuan Sect elders Yan Shou and Baoyun, accompanied by Xiao Se and Bai Rong, intercept them to capture Yan Wushi for his sect authority and secret manuals. Yan Wushi strikes a secret pact with Guang Lingsan to lure away Hehuan Sect elder Sang Jingxing, compelling Shen Qiao to separate from him in the wilderness to confront the remaining pursuers and hold off the hostile vanguard alone.In Chang'an, Emperor Yuwen Yong dies of illness, enabling his debauched and violent heir Yuwen Yun to seize the imperial throne. Yuwen Yun immediately aligns his regime with the Hehuan Sect and Buddhist factions, executing a comprehensive purge of Huanyue Sect that forces senior disciple Bian Yanmei into hiding. Yuwen Yun falsely accuses the Prince of Qi Yuwen Xian of treason, executing him along with his entire household to eliminate potential claimants to the imperial throne. Yuwen Xian's young son Yuwen Song manages to escape alongside Dou Yan under the protection of Duke Su Wei, fleeing frantically toward the city gates while pursued by imperial forces and hostile martial experts. Chen Gong, Murong Qin, Murong Xun, Tuoba Liangzhe, Yan Shou, and Baoyun trap the fugitives outside the southern gate, intending to execute the children and secure absolute favor under the new emperor. Shen Qiao arrives at the battlefield, having attained a complete breakthrough in sword intent and internal regeneration through the three foundational doctrines of the Zhuyang Strategy. Engaging the enemy alliance single-handedly before the towering city walls, Shen Qiao manifests blinding sword radiance that completely overwhelms his opponents, slicing through Yan Shou and executing Baoyun in direct retribution for their past slaughter at Bailong Monastery. Chen Gong flees the battlefield in terror as the allied line collapses. Shen Qiao secures the surviving children, safely returning Dou Yan to her father Dou Yi and taking the orphaned Yuwen Song as his personal disciple, departing the capital on horseback to seek long-term sanctuary at Mount Tai.Shen Qiao departs Chang'an with the orphaned Yuwen Song, having secured the boy following the purge of the Prince of Qi's household. Traveling through Runan toward Mount Tai to seek refuge with Bixia Sect, Shen Qiao attends a banquet at the residence of scholar Huang Xidao to indulge Yuwen Song's appreciation for music. There, Shen Qiao spots Fajing Sect leader Guang Lingsan conversing amiably with Yan Wushi, who has completely recovered his health and martial prowess after repairing the flaw in his demonic core. That night at an inn, Yan Wushi ambushes Shen Qiao on the roof, immobilizes him with the Spring Waters Finger Technique, and carries him off to reveal that their temporary alliance with Guang Lingsan served to counter Sang Jingxing. Yan Wushi then follows Shen Qiao and Yuwen Song to Mount Tai, where Bixia Sect Leader Zhao Chiying, Yue Kunchi, and Fan Yuanbai warmly welcome them. On the mountain, Shen Qiao formally accepts Yuwen Song as his personal disciple, guides Shiwu in the Azure Waves sword technique, and steadily rebuilds his internal cultivation toward complete recovery. Yan Wushi lingers at the sect, alternating between mocking philosophical exchanges and domestic overtures, including cooking fish ball soup for Shen Qiao. Their peaceful retreat is interrupted when Li Qingyu arrives from Qingcheng Mountain bearing an invitation from the reclusive Liuli Palace, which has advanced the decennial Sword Trial Conference to evaluate the world's martial rankings at Chunyang Monastery. While Yue Kunchi remains behind on Mount Tai with Shiwu and Yuwen Song, Zhao Chiying and Shen Qiao accompany Li Qingyu, Fan Yuanbai, and Zhou Yexue to Qingcheng Mountain.En route to Qingcheng Mountain, rumors of Yan Wushi's survival and Shen Qiao's resurgence command fear and respect across the jianghu, silencing hostile martial artists at local inns. Upon arriving at Chunyang Monastery, Abbot Yi Pichen welcomes the party, though representatives of Kuaji Commandery's Wang family treat Bixia Sect with open condescension due to their weakened state. Linchuan Academy disciple Zhan Ziqian warns Shen Qiao that severe bloodshed will engulf the gathering due to factional rivalries between the Confucian, Daoist, Buddhist, and demonic sects, urging Shen Qiao to retreat south to safety, but Shen Qiao insists on remaining to defend the Daoist orthodoxy and assist Bixia Sect. When the Sword Trial Conference commences under the arbitration of Liuli Palace successor Yuan Zixiao, Shen Qiao unexpectedly reunites with his junior martial sister Gu Hengbo, who reveals that she fled Xuandu Mountain after discovering Yu Ai's suspicious usurpation, his secret poisoning plot, and his covert alliance with foreign powers. The tournament descends into chaos when Hehuan Sect elders, led by Sect Leader Yuan Xiuxiu, Sang Jingxing, and Xiao Se, breach the perimeter to assert their dominance over the assembly. Xiao Se challenges Li Qingyu and suffers defeat against his superior sword technique, prompting Yuan Xiuxiu to press Li Qingyu to the brink of a precipice with her overwhelming palm arts. Sang Jingxing steps forward to challenge Abbot Yi Pichen for supremacy over the martial rankings, while Yuan Xiuxiu attempts to divide the defenders by engaging Shen Qiao in a duel that she intentionally leads down the mountain slopes, offering flirtatious propositions to stall his intervention.Shen Qiao perceives Yuan Xiuxiu's diversionary tactics, repulses her offensive, and uses his transcendent qinggong to rush back up Qingcheng Mountain, only to discover that the legendary Göktürk grandmaster Hulugu has reappeared alive after twenty years of death seclusion beyond the Great Wall. Hulugu severely wounds Abbot Yi Pichen with a single palm strike and declares his intention to execute Shen Qiao in direct retribution for the death of his disciple Kunye. Shen Qiao confronts Hulugu directly before the assembled crowd, releasing the full force of Shanhe Tongbei with the boundless sword intent cultivated through the Zhuyang Strategy. Although Shen Qiao manages to break through Hulugu's defense to score an injury upon the Göktürk grandmaster, Hulugu overpowers him with colossal internal energy, inflicting catastrophic internal hemorrhage that leaves Shen Qiao collapsed and facing imminent execution. Before Hulugu can deliver the fatal strike, Yan Wushi suddenly materializes on the battlefield, interposes himself with theatrical mockery, and seizes the incapacitated Shen Qiao before using his peerless qinggong to vanish into the distance, leaving the assembled grandmasters and spectators completely stunned. Yan Wushi brings Shen Qiao to an inn to tend to his injuries, revealing that he avoided fighting Hulugu directly because his victory was not yet absolute. At the inn, a secret message arrives from Bian Yanmei in Chang'an, relaying an urgent plea from Duke of Sui Puliuru Jian, whose eldest daughter, Empress Tianyuan, and two young sons have been taken hostage inside the imperial palace by the paranoid and tyrannical Emperor Yuwen Yun.Shen Qiao resolves to accompany Yan Wushi to Chang'an to repay Puliuru Jian for his past assistance during the rescue of Yuwen Song. Throughout the journey westward, Yan Wushi relentlessly pursues Shen Qiao, employing calculated deceptions, intimate overtures, and staged internal injuries by pretending to vomit blood to test Shen Qiao's boundaries and lower his emotional defenses, prompting a mortified Shen Qiao to adopt a policy of resolute silence. Upon reaching the capital, they meet secretly with Puliuru Jian, Senior Official Zheng Yi, and Bian Yanmei at the Duke of Sui's residence. Puliuru Jian explains that Emperor Yuwen Yun, supported by Buddhist Master Xueting and elite imperial guards, has placed Empress Tianyuan under house arrest and detained Puliuru Jian's two young sons in the inner palace to prevent an uprising after expelling Lady Dugu. While Yan Wushi cynically points out that Puliuru Jian still possesses three other sons and should not allow hostages to paralyze his political ambitions, Puliuru Jian appeals to parental devotion and righteousness, refusing to sacrifice his flesh and blood. Recognizing Shen Qiao's incorruptible integrity, Puliuru Jian presents him with the fifth volume of the Zhuyang Strategy, which had been retrieved from the inner palace of Northern Zhou, granting Shen Qiao the final theoretical component required to achieve supreme martial perfection. In exchange, Shen Qiao and Bian Yanmei agree to infiltrate the imperial palace disguised as female servants delivering gifts on behalf of Lady Dugu to rescue the captive children, creating the operational diversion required for Puliuru Jian and Huanyue Sect to execute a decisive palace coup against the tyrannical regime.Shen Qiao and Bian Yanmei infiltrate the Northern Zhou imperial palace disguised as palace maids to rescue Empress Tianyuan and the two young sons of Duke of Sui Puliuru Jian, facilitating a planned coup against the erratic Emperor Yuwen Yun. Yan Wushi departs to intercept Buddhist Master Xueting at Qingliang Temple, while Sang Jingxing and Yuan Xiuxiu remain absent from the capital, leaving Hehuan Sect disorganized. After Shen Qiao and Bian Yanmei locate the empress, Emperor Yuwen Yun arrives unexpectedly with imperial guards and Xueting's disciples Liansheng and Lianmie, but Shen Qiao exploits the chaos to capture Yuwen Yun as a hostage. Meanwhile, Duke of Zhao Chen Gong capitalizes on the turmoil by seizing Puliuru Jian's second son, Puliuru Ying, using the ancient sword Tai'e to threaten his life in exchange for the inner palace's volume of the Zhuyang Strategy and Shen Qiao's oral recitation of the Xuandu Mountain volume. Shen Qiao surrenders the scroll and recites the text, but the young hostage Puliuru Ying exploits Chen Gong's momentary distraction to stab him with a concealed hairpin, mortally wounding him. Bian Yanmei defeats and arrests Chen Gong's ally Murong Qin. Puliuru Jian uses the captured Yuwen Yun to suppress resistance and seize state authority. Puliuru Jian briefly maintains the child emperor Yuwen Chan before Yuwen Yun dies of illness, whereupon Yuwen Chan abdicates the throne to Puliuru Jian, who establishes the Sui Dynasty under the Kaihuang reign, restores his Han surname Yang Jian, and appoints Shen Qiao as Perfected Master of Profundity and Discerning Subtleties while granting state privileges to Huanyue Sect.Yuan Ying arrives in Chang'an to report that Xuandu Mountain has fallen into severe internal turmoil following Yu Ai's mysterious disappearance, with Senior Martial Brother Tan Yuanchun and Elder Liu Yue fiercely competing for the sect leader position. Accompanied by Bian Yanmei, Shen Qiao travels to Xuandu Mountain, where Hehuan Sect elders Sang Jingxing and Xiao Se, backed by Göktürk forces under Duan Wenyang, launch a violent assault on Sanqing Hall to subjugate the sect during its leadership vacuum. Shen Qiao draws Shanhe Tongbei and joins Elder Kong Zheng to repel the invaders, confronting Sang Jingxing directly. Channeling his fully restored cultivation and flawless sword intent derived from multiple volumes of the Zhuyang Strategy, Shen Qiao completely overpowers Sang Jingxing in a decisive duel, forcing the demonic elder into defeat. Yu Ai suddenly appears bearing fatal wounds, revealing that he had recognized the predatory nature of his foreign allies, refused to deliver Xuandu Mountain to them, and was stabbed during their betrayal. Yu Ai dies in Shen Qiao's arms, seeking forgiveness and using his life to expiate his past treason. Shen Qiao uncovers that Tan Yuanchun secretly conspired with Duan Wenyang and Hehuan Sect to secure the sect leadership. Rather than executing his eldest martial brother, Shen Qiao destroys Tan Yuanchun's martial arts and sentences him to perpetual exile guarding Qi Fengge's tomb on Qunling Peak. The remaining elders unanimously petition Shen Qiao to resume the mantle of Sect Leader of Xuandu's Violet Palace, while Sang Jingxing is subsequently killed by his disciple Bai Rong, who takes control of Hehuan Sect.Yan Wushi issues a formal challenge to Hulugu, the supreme martial grandmaster of the Göktürks, to fight a decisive duel atop Banbu Peak to determine the world's foremost martial artist and settle the twenty-year rivalry between the Central Plains and the northern steppe. Prior to the match, Yan Wushi travels to Tiantai Sect to exchange the captured Buddhist Master Xueting for the final volume of the Zhuyang Strategy, which he delivers to Shen Qiao to ensure the complete perfection of Shen Qiao's martial cultivation. Shen Qiao reunites with Yan Wushi at a Huanyue Sect villa near Banbu Peak and offers to duel Hulugu in his stead to fulfill his late master Qi Fengge's legacy, but Yan Wushi rejects the proposal. Yan Wushi takes Shen Qiao to a local town, wagers heavily on his own victory, and treats Shen Qiao to food and wine before secretly drugging his drink and striking his sleep acupoints to prevent him from intervening in the perilous clash. On the appointed day, prominent martial artists and grandmasters, including Ruyan Kehui, Yi Pichen, and Duan Wenyang, assemble on Yinghui Peak across the river chasm to spectate. Hulugu combines decades of weapon techniques into overwhelming barehanded palm strikes, pressing Yan Wushi to his defensive limits. Reading the patterns of the mountain gales and identifying a minute structural flaw in Hulugu's offensive, Yan Wushi absorbs a devastating palm strike while thrusting a single finger strike infused with his lifelong cultivation directly into Hulugu's heart. Hulugu concedes defeat and dies on the summit, while Yan Wushi collapses unconscious from catastrophic trauma.

Awakening from his drug-induced slumber, Shen Qiao reaches Yinghui Peak just as Hulugu falls and Yan Wushi collapses. Refusing to lose Yan Wushi a second time, Shen Qiao uses his transcendent qinggong to glide across the bottomless chasm between Yinghui Peak and Banbu Peak, stunning the assembled spectators. Finding Yan Wushi devoid of breath, Shen Qiao administers revival medicine, pours boundless internal qi into his chest, and tearfully promises to grant whatever Yan Wushi desires if he survives. Yan Wushi opens his eyes and holds Shen Qiao to his vow, allowing Shen Qiao to carry him down the mountain to safety while rumors spread throughout the jianghu that both combatants perished in the duel. After Yan Wushi's recovery at the villa, Shen Qiao returns to Chang'an to oversee the construction of Xuandu Monastery, entrusting its long-term management to his capable junior martial sister Gu Hengbo. Shen Qiao later travels south to the Chen Dynasty capital of Jiankang, where he discovers Yan Wushi openly disguised as a Daoist guest of honor in the imperial palace of Emperor Chen Shubao. After resolving interactions with Empress Dowager Liu Jingyan and navigating regional court tensions, Shen Qiao and Yan Wushi openly acknowledge their profound romantic bond and formally unite as lifelong Daoist cultivation partners. In subsequent years, they continue to navigate the imperial politics of the Sui Dynasty under Yang Jian, counter Göktürk conspiracies involving Prince of Jin Yang Guang and monk Yuxiu, and maintain the independence and prestige of Xuandu Mountain across the Central Plains.

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Volume 5

Remnants of Filth: Yuwu

The story so far...
(Volumes 1-7)

General Mo Xi, the commander of Chonghua's Northern Frontier Army, returns to the capital while harboring bitter resentment toward his former comrade Gu Mang. Gu Mang, once the celebrated Beast of the Altar who rose from slavery under the Murong Clan to become a high-ranking military commander, defected to the enemy Liao Kingdom, slaughtered Chonghua cultivators, and stabbed Mo Xi during the naval clash at Dongting Lake. Unbeknownst to the empire, the two men had shared an intense romantic relationship in their youth despite the rigid caste divide between Mo Xi's pure-blooded nobility and Gu Mang's slave status. Two years prior to Mo Xi's return, the Liao Kingdom returned Gu Mang to Chonghua as a prisoner of war preceding peace negotiations, and the emperor granted full custody of the disgraced traitor to his former master, Murong Lian. Murong Lian banished Gu Mang to Luomei Pavilion, an establishment where enemy captives are subjected to prostitution and abuse. Mo Xi visits the brothel in secret and discovers Gu Mang living in squalor, physically scarred and emotionally detached, behaving like a docile animal while failing to collect any earnings from abusive visitors. When an arrogant nobleman named Zhou-gongzi interrupts them, Mo Xi conceals his identity, drives Zhou-gongzi away, and forces an intimate sexual encounter upon Gu Mang, tormented by Gu Mang's complete lack of emotional recognition. Following this encounter, Mo Xi discovers from medical assessments conducted by Shennong Terrace that Gu Mang's spiritual core is broken and two of his corporeal souls governing mind and memory were extracted by Liao black magic, rendering him amnesiac and incapable of normal human cognition.Murong Lian organizes a banquet at Wangshu Manor for imperial military officials and scions of the nobility, including Mo Xi and Yue Chenqing, while indulging in the Liao narcotic ephemera. Seeking to provoke Mo Xi and debase his former servant, Murong Lian has Gu Mang brought from Luomei Pavilion to be degraded before the assembled guests. The drunken nobles kick Gu Mang, taunt him into eating scraps off the floor, and attempt to force him to drink wine tainted with their spit. Mo Xi loses his composure, slams his cup down, and intervenes to halt the abuse, prompting Murong Lian to openly mock Mo Xi's protective instincts. Under the influence of ephemera, Murong Lian suspects an illicit past connection between the two men and tests Gu Mang by holding a blade to his face, commanding Gu Mang to sever Mo Xi's arm to earn his own freedom. Gu Mang steadfastly refuses to attack Mo Xi. When an enraged Murong Lian lashes Gu Mang with a spiritual whip, an ancient protective lotus sword array explodes from Gu Mang's body to repel the strike. As the summoned swords of light strike Mo Xi, they transform into weightless feathers, exposing a soul-linked ward that the two men had mutually inscribed on one another during their youth. Later that night, Mo Xi breaks into the woodshed of Luomei Pavilion to inspect the mark on Gu Mang's skin. The intrusion triggers the sword array a second time, dissolving into feathers again and confirming that Gu Mang's body instinctively shields Mo Xi even though his damaged mind cannot comprehend why they share identical sigils.Chaos erupts across the capital when Gu Mang unexpectedly shatters the containment barriers of Luomei Pavilion and rampages through the snowy streets with bestial fury. Gu Mang exhibits lethal wolfish qi, easily overpowers Murong Lian, and spontaneously summons Yongye, the demonic dagger bestowed upon him by the Liao Kingdom, executing high-level attacks without reciting an incantation despite his shattered core. Mo Xi rushes to the scene, establishes an earthen barrier to protect Murong Lian, and engages Gu Mang in fierce combat. Although Gu Mang drives the demonic blade into Mo Xi's chest, Mo Xi overcomes the assault, neutralizes the dark energy, and captures Gu Mang using his holy weapon whip, Shuairan. Before Mo Xi or Murong Lian can take further decisive action, imperial guards arrive under direct orders from the emperor to escort Gu Mang to the palace alive. During an emergency assembly of the imperial court, senior ministers demand Gu Mang's execution, but the emperor explicitly overrules them, deciding that Gu Mang's body and internal Liao black magic modifications are invaluable military assets that must be preserved and studied by imperial healers. Murong Lian and Mo Xi engage in a bitter political clash over who should hold custody of the prisoner. Seeking to leverage their rivalry, the emperor announces that legal custody of Gu Mang will be awarded to whichever general solves the catastrophic slaughter that occurred that very night at the Mansion of Beauties pleasure house. In that massacre, Elder Yu of Chengtian Terrace along with dozens of patrons and courtesans were found slaughtered with their eyes gouged out and hearts carved out, while five women were abducted and an imprisoned Liao cook escaped from Luomei Pavilion amidst the chaos.Suspecting that Gu Mang facilitated the cook's escape and orchestrated the brothel murders, Murong Lian tortures Gu Mang inside the prison's Chamber of Ice using the Draught of Confession and the Soul-Recording Spell, inflicting excruciating neural trauma as the interrogation magic clashes with defensive Liao spells. Mo Xi discovers Gu Mang bleeding and catatonic from the interrogation, while elsewhere in the city, young officer Yue Chenqing is wounded by a masked assailant wielding the legendary Water-Parting Sword who abducts a woman marked with an eye mole. Word arrives that Gu Mang has escaped his cell, prompting Mo Xi to track spiritual signatures to the base of Warrior Soul Mountain, where he discovers slaughtered sentries whose eyes and hearts were harvested. An unseen phantom traps Mo Xi within the Dream of Longing, an illusion realm that manifests suppressed desires by reconstructing their former secret tryst room in Wangshu Manor. Mo Xi pierces the illusion, confronts the real Gu Mang whom the enemy has drugged and compelled into combat, and subdues him. Reinforced by Murong Lian and Yue Chenqing, who binds the paralyzed Gu Mang to a mechanical bamboo warrior, the group ventures into underground limestone caverns filled with reanimated female corpses. When the undead hoard swarms them, Gu Mang awakens and involuntarily siphons all the malevolent qi directly into his own body, collapsing the corpses into harmless remains. Within the inner sanctum, they confront the culprit, Li Qingqian, revealing that the famed righteous swordsman had perished long ago and transformed into a demonic sword spirit obsessed with murdering lookalikes of his dead beloved, Hong Shao. Yue Chenqing senses that Li Qingqian's physical core vessel is the Hong Shao Sword, which Murong Lian had unwittingly carried inside his qiankun pouch among confiscated weapons from Luomei Pavilion. Murong Lian realizes the spirit temporarily possessed Gu Mang at Luomei Pavilion's Qingquan Pool to engineer the breakout. As Mo Xi battles Li Qingqian to protect the unconscious Gu Mang and Yue Chenqing botches the cleansing incantation, master artificer Murong Chuyi enters the cavern.Murong Chuyi enters the cavern and observes that Li Qingqian transformed into a sword demon whose spirit cannot dissipate until his core obsession is resolved. Murong Chuyi brings Mo Xi, Murong Lian, Yue Chenqing, and Gu Mang back to his secluded courtyard within Yue Manor to examine the sword spirit's origins through a reflective memory pool. The vision reveals that Li Qingqian and his lover Hong Shao were wandering cultivators until Hong Shao contracted demonic miasma, forcing Li Qingqian to seek medicine from the Liao Kingdom guoshi. The cruel guoshi murdered Hong Shao as a human sacrifice and forged Li Qingqian into the Hong Shao Sword, driven by a deranged obsession with a woman whom Hong Shao resembled. Deducing that the sword demon will hunt this woman, Yue Chenqing identifies her as Su Yurou, formerly celebrated as the most beautiful maiden in Chonghua and currently married to Medicine Master Jiang Fuli. Li Qingqian sets Chonghua's eastern marketplace ablaze with demonic fire to force Jiang Manor to surrender Su Yurou, prompting Mo Xi to intervene and battle the crazed sword demon. Madam Jiang arrives at the scene, addresses Li Qingqian, and unveils her face to reveal that half of her features are horrifically disfigured, explaining that she was never the guoshi's willing beloved and shattering the sword demon's obsession, which causes Li Qingqian to dissolve into foul blood. With the crisis resolved, the emperor seeks a custodian for Gu Mang, but both Jiang Manor and Murong Chuyi decline to take him. Consequently, the emperor decrees that legal custody of Gu Mang is awarded to Mo Xi, who escorts Gu Mang from Yue Manor while Murong Lian delivers a bitter warning.Upon arriving at Xihe Manor, Gu Mang exhibits ingrained conditioning from his prolonged abuse at Luomei Pavilion, assuming that food must be earned through physical beatings or sexual submission. Mo Xi firmly rejects this mistreatment, ordering Housekeeper Li Wei to teach Gu Mang household chores so he can earn his keep through labor. Under imperial decree, Mo Xi is compelled to fasten a slave collar around Gu Mang's neck, an act of state subjugation that inflicts immense personal distress on Mo Xi, who had once celebrated the removal of Gu Mang's previous collar after his military triumphs during the reign of the previous emperor. To register the collar officially, Mo Xi escorts Gu Mang to Cixin Artificing Forge to see Qingxu Elder Jiang Yexue. Because of his impaired cognitive state, Gu Mang mistakes the iron collar for an ornamental necklace and sincerely thanks Mo Xi, requesting that Mo Xi's name be engraved upon the back of the pendant as his master. Mo Xi rejects having his name carved, deeply agitated by the painful reminder of Gu Mang's subjugation and treason. During this visit, Gu Mang forcefully drags Yue Chenqing into the forge to ensure that Jiang Yexue receives pine oil needed for Murong Chuyi's crafting. Walking back to Xihe Manor, Gu Mang innocently refers to Mo Xi as his companion, but Mo Xi coldly rebukes him, declaring that an unpardonable traitor wearing a slave collar can never be his companion and that their enmity is permanent. Despite this hostility, Mo Xi seeks medical intervention from Medicine Master Jiang Fuli to diagnose Gu Mang's condition. At Jiang Manor, Mo Xi pays seventy thousand golden cowries for a specialized regimen. Jiang Fuli conducts a thorough examination and issues a critical warning: Gu Mang's physical meridians and pulse are stabilizing, meaning that fragmented memories will begin surfacing within five days to a month, coinciding with the upcoming imperial memorial expedition to the Soul-Calling Abyss. Mo Xi resolves to bring Gu Mang along on this expedition to closely monitor any recovered secrets.Tensions escalate at Xihe Manor before departure when Gu Mang enters the bath courtyard and discovers ceremonial attire laid out for the ancestral rites. Unaware of the sacred taboos governing Chonghua nobility, Gu Mang dresses in the ceremonial robes and ties the blue and gold merit ribbon across his forehead. This specific ribbon is a sacred family heirloom that belonged to Mo Xi's deceased father, Fuling-jun, who perished fighting the Liao Kingdom. When Mo Xi discovers Gu Mang wearing his father's emblem, he is consumed by explosive fury and demands that Gu Mang remove it. Gu Mang refuses, driven by an inexplicable, deeply buried instinct that he should be allowed to wear the honors of a warrior, and sinks his teeth into Mo Xi's hand when Mo Xi reaches for it. Mo Xi drags Gu Mang into the hot spring water, tears the ribbon away, and strikes Gu Mang across the face while castigating him for his filth and audacity. The physical confrontation leaves Gu Mang bleeding and deeply demoralized by the reminder of his lowborn status. The imperial procession proceeds to the Soul-Calling Abyss for the winter memorial sacrifice, where the emperor and nobles release lanterns to summon the departed spirits of martyred heroes. Confronted by the overwhelming soul-calling song and the mourning for fallen soldiers, Gu Mang collapses into a severe fever. In this delirious state, Jiang Fuli's prediction comes to pass as Gu Mang's subconscious dredges up a repressed memory of Mo Xi's twentieth coming-of-age celebration, when Gu Mang gifted Mo Xi an erotic book depicting men, initiating the passionate sexual relationship of their youth.Upon recovering from his fever at Xihe Manor, Gu Mang attempts to give Mo Xi a flower cake and asks after his former comrade, Lu Zhanxing. Mo Xi erupts into bitter fury, disclosing that Lu Zhanxing was publicly decapitated in the eastern market after executing a peace envoy from Rouli during the battle of Phoenix Cry Mountain, an act of rash disobedience that caused seventy thousand soldiers to be slaughtered and permanently crushed Gu Mang's campaign to secure equality for slave cultivators. At the imperial New Year banquet, Jiang Yexue corners Gu Mang and reveals the core trauma behind Mo Xi's hatred of traitors, explaining that when Mo Xi was seven years old, his father Fuling-jun was betrayed, murdered, and mutilated by his own trusted second-in-command who defected to the Liao Kingdom. Shattered by the realization that his own defection reproduced the exact crime that destroyed Mo Xi's childhood, Gu Mang attempts to make amends during the feast when drunken nobles insult Mo Xi's deceased father. Gu Mang steps between them, proclaiming himself Mo Xi's servant, and offers to drink the wine on Mo Xi's behalf. Enraged nobles whose relatives perished in Gu Mang's campaigns beat Gu Mang and shatter crockery across his body until Murong Lian hurls his pipe to smash an incoming wine jug and halts the assault. Princess Mengze escorts the heavily intoxicated Mo Xi home while cold-shouldering Gu Mang. Following the banquet, Mo Xi escorts Gu Mang to Warrior Soul Mountain to burn paper money at Fuling-jun's tomb. Standing before the grave, Gu Mang, having absorbed the full weight of Jiang Yexue's revelation, offers a sincere and sorrowful apology to Mo Xi for the irremediable harm he inflicted upon his family.Gu Mang attempts to atone for his past crimes before the tomb of Mo Xi's father on Warrior Soul Mountain, prompting Murong Lian to intervene with hostile accusations that a brief prayer cannot satisfy the thousands of martyrs Gu Mang betrayed. Murong Lian presents an ultimatum demanding that Gu Mang kowtow before every single hero's gravestone on the entire mountain and chant that the traitor Gu Mang deserves to die ten thousand deaths. Gu Mang accepts the terms without hesitation to demonstrate the sincerity of his remorse, kneeling and bowing across more than nine thousand graves over three days and nights without food or rest. During the grueling ordeal, cold rain and exhaustion cause Gu Mang to collapse at the tomb of Murong Xuan, where malicious spectators beat and kick his unconscious body before he revives to finish the remaining stones up to Fuling-jun's monument. Mo Xi watches over Gu Mang from the shadows, overwhelmed by anguish at seeing the broken general humiliate himself, and brings him food once the penance concludes. Believing he has earned a small chance to rebuild his life, Gu Mang begins learning foundational spells and Chonghua history from Mo Xi at Xihe Manor. While studying imperial historical texts, Gu Mang encounters a portrait of the legendary Wise Gentleman, Chen Tang, recognizing his likeness. Mo Xi explains that Chen Tang sacrificed his spiritual core and life to defeat his own treasonous slave disciple, Hua Po'an, an event that directly mirrors Chonghua's pervasive fear of Gu Mang's Wangba Army. Hearing this history triggers fragmented memories in Gu Mang, who recalls kneeling in the imperial palace and fruitlessly begging the emperor to grant tombstones and honor to his slaughtered commoner soldiers.

Gu Mang encounters master artificer Murong Chuyi suffering an acute health crisis at Peach Blossom Lake and administers medicine obtained from Jiang Fuli, promising to conceal Murong Chuyi's chronic affliction. Shortly afterward, Yue Chenqing disappears in the demonic Dream Butterfly Islands after secretly venturing there to locate the legendary Xueling Pill, hoping the miraculous medicine can heal Murong Chuyi's failing body. The emperor authorizes an expedition to rescue Yue Chenqing, sending Mo Xi, Gu Mang, Jiang Yexue, and Murong Chuyi aboard flying spiritual ships to Bat Island. Upon arriving at the central seven-story demon tower constructed from human bones, the party encounters a foul-mouthed ancient mythical beast called a shangao, who guards the tower on behalf of Bat Queen Wuyan. The shangao agrees to disclose Yue Chenqing's location on the condition that it receives payment by consuming the painful memories of the cultivators. Jiang Yexue offers his agonizing memories, learning that Yue Chenqing is bound by bloodsucking vines in the highest room of the tower guarded by demonic bats. When the cultivators prepare to ascend without asking further questions, the ravenous shangao becomes enraged, demanding more sorrowful memories to feast upon, and forces Murong Chuyi and Mo Xi to surrender their painful recollections. The shangao senses the vast, unprecedented trauma hidden inside Gu Mang and attempts to devour him entirely, activating an ancient godly artifact, a fractured remnant of the Time Mirror created by the deity Fuxi. As an awakened swarm of vampire bats surrounds Murong Chuyi and the Time Mirror opens an inescapable spatial vortex to drag Gu Mang into his past, Mo Xi binds himself to Gu Mang with his holy weapon Shuairan, and both men are sucked into the swirling temporal abyss.Mo Xi awakens inside an exact historical recreation manifested by the Time Mirror, realizing he has been transported eight years into the past, immediately following the catastrophic defeat of the Wangba Army at Phoenix Cry Mountain and three days prior to the execution of Lu Zhanxing. Mo Xi confronts the previous emperor in the throne room, pleading for the seventy thousand slaughtered soldiers to receive named gravestones and formal recognition, but the emperor cold-heartedly refuses to grant aristocratic honors to lowborn slaves. Searching the capital, Mo Xi finds Gu Mang inside a brothel called the Boudoir of Lingering Fragrance playing the soul-calling song on his suona, seemingly resigned and cynical as he claims that his fallen brothers were merely expendable ants. Tracking Gu Mang's covert movements through the night, Mo Xi observes Gu Mang meeting with an unidentified masked figure clad in black, who leads Gu Mang to the forbidden restricted area on Warrior Soul Mountain. Gu Mang accepts this mysterious stranger's summons without resistance, entering the restricted perimeter where imperial secrets are concealed. Mo Xi subsequently visits Lu Zhanxing in the imperial prison to demand an explanation for his fatal defiance. Lu Zhanxing reveals that he executed the Rouli envoy deliberately to shield Gu Mang from an even more devastating destruction at the hands of the imperial court, asserting that his rebellion saved Gu Mang from immediate death. In the eastern market, Mo Xi witnesses Lu Zhanxing's public decapitation, after which Murong Lian delivers an imperial decree ordering Gu Mang to carry his executed brother's severed head to Rouli as an act of state submission. As Gu Mang departs bearing the gruesome burden on his back, Jiang Yexue completes a release incantation from outside the artifact, fracturing the illusion and pulling Mo Xi and Gu Mang back to the present reality on Bat Island.Upon reemerging into the physical world on Bat Island, Gu Mang exhibits a stunning cognitive reversal, having regained his former memories, acute intellect, and formidable martial prowess through the Time Mirror's spiritual shock. Gu Mang effortlessly slaughters a surrounding horde of rat beasts, leaving Jiang Yexue and Mo Xi in profound disbelief. Meanwhile, Murong Chuyi succeeds in retrieving Yue Chenqing from the upper chambers, but discovers that Yue Chenqing has been infected by an insidious gu worm that destroys the victim's identity and rebuilds their physical appearance, voice, and mind into an exact duplicate of a person chosen by the poisoner. To formulate a countermeasure, Gu Mang infiltrates Bat Queen Wuyan's compound, recovers the Xueling Pill, and rescues Rongrong, an enslaved young girl of the feathered tribe whose blood is used to refine Wuyan's youth-restoring elixirs. Gu Mang discovers that Wuyan was once saved by Chen Tang centuries ago on an immortal drifting island and fell in love with him, but when Chen Tang refused to abandon his Daoist cultivation to marry her, Wuyan's unrequited affection soured into pathological hatred, driving her to abduct foreign men and transform them into replicas of Chen Tang to torment. Rongrong utilizes her innate fire magic to neutralize the gu worm in Yue Chenqing's skull, stabilizing his condition. Despite successfully resolving the crisis and ensuring Yue Chenqing's safety, Gu Mang decisively rebuffs Mo Xi's emotional overtures. Refusing to acknowledge their youthful love or disclose why he colluded with the black-garbed man, Gu Mang coldly informs Mo Xi that he has long since moved past their shared history, asserting that just as Mo Xi chose loyalty to Chonghua, Gu Mang chose defection, leaving Mo Xi shattered by Gu Mang's unyielding emotional barrier.Mo Xi and Gu Mang infiltrate the human bone pavilion of Bat Queen Wuyan on Bat Island to locate a vulnerability in the island's protective barrier and discover why Yue Chenqing was poisoned with gu. Disguised as bat demons, they observe Wuyan torturing an incompetent subordinate and soaking in a boiling blood bath to sustain her youth. Wuyan singles out Mo Xi to be transformed into her consort, prompting Gu Mang to intervene by feigning utter contempt for Mo Xi so the queen will not exploit their connection. Fleeing deeper into the encampment, they conceal themselves inside a primitive thatched hut while the bat demons outside engage in collective mating rites. Gu Mang accesses Wuyan's extracted thoughts with a memory recording spell, unearthing the origin of her obsession: centuries ago, the legendary Wise Gentleman Chen Tang rescued an injured Wuyan on an immortal drifting island, treating her with kindness before departing to honor his ascetic cultivation vows, which eventually twisted Wuyan's unrequited love into psychopathic madness that compelled her to infect trespassing foreign men with gu worms to duplicate and torture Chen Tang. Meanwhile, the ambient aphrodisiac musk and sexual demonic qi generated by the mating demons outside trigger the volatile faewolf demon blood within Gu Mang's modified body. Overcome by debilitating physical heat and intense involuntary arousal, Gu Mang collapses into delirium. Recognizing the danger of the demonic frenzy, Mo Xi binds Gu Mang's eyes with his black headband and engages in sexual intercourse to purge the aphrodisiac, after which both men resolve to treat the encounter as an unspoken aberration.Returning to the cavern at daybreak, Mo Xi and Gu Mang discover that Rongrong has successfully extracted the gu worm from Yue Chenqing using Jiang Yexue's blood, fully restoring the young heir. A severe conflict immediately erupts when Murong Chuyi coldly berates Yue Chenqing for recklessly venturing onto the demonic islands, declaring that Yue Chenqing's life was bought at the cost of his mother Murong Huang's death and should not be squandered for useless medicine. When Yue Chenqing tearfully challenges his uncle's cruelty, questioning whether Murong Chuyi ever regarded him as family or only saw him as a matricidal burden, Murong Chuyi coughs blood from internal distress and walks out into the wilderness alone. Gu Mang dissuades Mo Xi from following so Murong Chuyi can preserve his dignity. Leveraging the barrier breach Gu Mang mapped from Wuyan's mind, the party escapes Bat Island aboard their flying walnut ships, returning Rongrong safely to Mount Jiuhua before flying back to Chonghua's capital. Gu Mang determines to resume his act of docile idiocy to protect both himself and Mo Xi from court scrutiny. However, political retribution swiftly strikes Xihe Manor upon their return. Zhou He, the cruel grand elder of Sishu Terrace who is fanatically obsessed with dark arts, arrives with imperial guards to seize Gu Mang for state black magic experimentation. Murong Lian attempts to intervene and claim the prisoner for himself, but Zhou He brandishes an official imperial decree written on imperial mermaid silk that grants Sishu Terrace priority custody. Zhou He arrests Gu Mang and drags him away to the torture chambers.Desperate to uncover the truth behind Gu Mang's actions eight years earlier, Mo Xi takes shattered imperial history recording jade scrolls to the cultivation academy, where Jiang Yexue repairs them on an artificing table. Despite Jiang Yexue's warning that activating the broken artifact will drain his blood and life force, Mo Xi channels his own spiritual power into the jade to enter the historical memory. Within the vision, Mo Xi witnesses the secret meeting that took place on the Golden Terrace between the current emperor and Gu Mang immediately after the slaughter at Phoenix Cry Mountain. The vision reveals that Lu Zhanxing's fatal execution of the Rouli peace envoy had been secretly orchestrated by the emperor himself, who used an incomplete Zhenlong chess piece technique supplied by Jiang Yexue to puppet Lu Zhanxing and create an irredeemable political crisis. With Lu Zhanxing condemned to die to appease foreign nations and the nobility, the emperor manipulated Gu Mang into undertaking an impossible clandestine assignment. The emperor promised Gu Mang that if he accepted eternal infamy, staged a false defection to the Liao Kingdom, gathered forbidden black magic intelligence, and uncovered a way to dismantle the noble caste system to liberate Chonghua's slaves, the throne would posthumously exonerate Lu Zhanxing, grant glorious tombstones to the seventy thousand fallen commoner soldiers, and restore Gu Mang as a hero. Bound by his devotion to his fallen comrades and his desire for a just world, Gu Mang swore a blood oath of absolute loyalty to the emperor, willingly choosing to walk into the demonic abyss as an undercover spy.Mo Xi awakens from the vision spitting blood and in horrific physical agony, only to learn from Jiang Yexue that Zhou He has taken Gu Mang. Consumed by fury and grief over Gu Mang's silent sacrifice, Mo Xi storms Sishu Terrace and breaches the underground Asura Room. Inside, Zhou He and his cultivators have bound Gu Mang in spirit chains and driven magical needles into his skull, conducting brutal procedures that shatter the fragile lucidity and restored memories Gu Mang had recently regained. Brandishing his holy weapon scepter Tuntian, Mo Xi terrifies the cultivators, cuts through the defensive barriers, and carries the bleeding, catatonic Gu Mang out of the facility in defiance of imperial law. When Zhou He reports the mutinous raid, the emperor sends imperial envoys to Xihe Manor, but Housekeeper Li Wei stalls them at the gates. Refusing to yield, Mo Xi enters the imperial palace to confront the emperor directly on the Golden Terrace. Mo Xi denounces the monarch's ruthless betrayal, exposing how the emperor reneged on his royal promises to clear Gu Mang and Lu Zhanxing, abandoned Gu Mang to public degradation, and relegated his most faithful general to vivisection. The emperor defends his cruelty by claiming the Liao Kingdom returned Gu Mang solely because the demonic corruption within him was uncontrollable, arguing that Sishu Terrace's lethal experiments were the only practical means to analyze and contain the black magic before it destroyed Chonghua. Following this confrontation, Mo Xi is placed under nominal house arrest while Medicine Master Jiang Fuli tends to Gu Mang's critical injuries in total seclusion for three days.Gu Mang recovers at Xihe Manor under the medical care of Jiang Fuli following Mo Xi's armed raid on Sishu Terrace. Now fully aware that Gu Mang acted as an imperial spy rather than a willing traitor, Mo Xi abandons his animosity, establishing an intimate romantic reconciliation with Gu Mang while agreeing to keep the espionage secret from the court to preserve Chonghua's political stability. Gu Mang struggles with rapid memory decay, recording personal truths in a private booklet to retain them before they slip away. Wearing the sapphire thumb ring previously gifted by Murong Lian to anchor his soul, Gu Mang visits Wangshu Manor to investigate its origins and confront his former master. Murong Lian interrogates Gu Mang about his recovering memories, specifically referencing a deceased elder named Auntie Ni and probing Gu Mang's knowledge of the past, but Gu Mang feigns ignorance. Gu Mang deduces that Murong Lian's notorious addiction to the Liao narcotic ephemera is a deliberate facade adopted for self-preservation to avoid being perceived as an ambitious threat to the throne. Prior to the Dragon Boat Festival, the emperor issues a clandestine invitation requesting Gu Mang's presence at Warrior Soul Mountain to offer sacrifice, but Gu Mang declines the summons to avoid serving as an instrument in court theatricality. Instead, Gu Mang and Mo Xi attend a private holiday gathering hosted by Jiang Yexue at his northern courtyard alongside Yue Chenqing and Lan-er. While participating in the domestic meal, Gu Mang inspects the ancestral memorial tablet dedicated to Jiang Yexue's deceased wife and discovers a thick layer of undisturbed dust, exposing that Jiang Yexue does not actually revere or tend to the memorial. Shortly after departing, Mo Xi and Gu Mang share a masked embrace in an alleyway, where a passing scout mistakes the disguised Gu Mang for Princess Mengze.The military truce shatters when the Liao Kingdom launches an aggressive offensive, overrunning Shituo Gate after court nobles refuse Princess Mengze's desperate requests for reinforcements. The emperor reprimands the hesitant aristocracy and orders full military mobilization against the Liao forces, who have deployed the Demonblood Beast Jingchen under the command of the Liao Kingdom guoshi. The enemy seizes the frontier stronghold of Da'ze City, slaughtering the civilian populace and hanging the local governor's family in the provincial manor. Mo Xi leads the Northern Frontier Army to counter the invasion, and Gu Mang accompanies him to the front disguised as a personal guard concealed behind a silver mask. In the military camp outside Da'ze City, Mo Xi and Gu Mang share a bed and resume their physical intimacy, reaffirming their shared devotion amidst the looming conflict. Ridiculous rumors stemming from the Dragon Boat Festival sighting circulate through the ranks, leading an elder noble to confront Mo Xi with accusations of compromising Princess Mengze's honor, which Mo Xi flatly rejects. Meanwhile, Murong Lian arrives at the encampment with his retinue to participate in the defense. Sensing that a fragmented wisp of the Demonblood Beast's soul is secured inside the governor's residence in Da'ze City alongside the Nine-Eyed Qin, Gu Mang launches an unauthorized solo infiltration of the captured city at night. Navigating the rooftops, Gu Mang breaks into the inner sanctum, seizes the brocade pouch containing the soul remnant from the Liao guoshi, and unseals his faewolf bloodline to battle enemy cultivators, fighting his way past the guoshi to escape across the perimeter.

Murong Lian intercepts the fleeing Gu Mang outside Da'ze City, takes custody of the recovered soul-box, and draws the pursuing Liao cavalry away by trading caustic insults with the enemy commander Qi-niang. Murong Lian successfully delivers the brocade pouch containing the Demonblood Beast's soul wisp to Mo Xi, enabling Chonghua's army to launch a decisive counterstrike that liberates Da'ze City. Following the victory, Murong Lian summons Gu Mang to a secluded riverbank to demand answers regarding the thumb ring, Auntie Ni, and the lost truths of their shared upbringing. Before Gu Mang can provide a complete accounting, a strike force of masked assassins ambushes them from the trees, firing targeted spiritual arrows that deliberately spare Gu Mang while riddling Murong Lian with more than ten lethal wounds. As Murong Lian collapses bleeding onto the river gravel, Gu Mang attempts to staunch the flow and is pulled into Murong Lian's dying consciousness. Through this shared mental vision, Gu Mang experiences Murong Lian's childhood memories, discovering that Murong Lian suffered chronic emotional abuse from his mother, Madam Zhao. The vision exposes that Auntie Lin, the disfigured servant who raised Gu Mang in Wangshu Manor, was actually Miss Chu of Lin'an, who had been the true love of Murong Lian's father, Murong Xuan. Madam Zhao and the Zhao Clan had schemed to displace Miss Chu, leading to Murong Xuan's fatal grief on the battlefield. This revelation establishes that Gu Mang is the biological son of Murong Xuan and Miss Chu, making Gu Mang and Murong Lian half-brothers linked by paternal bloodline and shattering Gu Mang's understanding of his identity as a mere lowborn slave.Gu Mang returns to consciousness beside the critically injured Murong Lian on the riverbank, reeling from the sudden burden of his true lineage and the ancestral sins connecting their families. Imperial healers transport Murong Lian to the medical facilities to fight for his life, while Gu Mang is placed under guard in a secure treatment room. The profound psychological shock of learning his fraternal kinship with Murong Lian, combined with his guilt over the deaths of his seventy thousand soldiers and the permanent erasure of his memories, causes Gu Mang's mental state to deteriorate rapidly. An unidentified assassin clad in black garments infiltrates the medical chamber wielding a bloodstained scimitar to confront the vulnerable general. Gu Mang falls into complete delirium as the invasive black magic sigils and dormant faewolf demon blood within his modified physiology erupt violently out of control. When the emperor and Mo Xi arrive at the scene, they find imperial guards paralyzed with terror outside the compound as a massive vortex of malevolent demonic qi surges into the heavens, coalescing into the spectral form of an enormous blue-eyed wolf. Inside the shredded chamber, Gu Mang stands on the threshold of irreversible demonic transformation, weeping over the lives destroyed by his clandestine assignment and wailing about the blood oaths that bound him, leaving Mo Xi and the monarch staring in horror as Chonghua's most decorated spy descends into absolute madness on the knife's edge of destruction.Seeking a cure for Gu Mang's deteriorating mind and volatile black magic mutations following the battle at Da'ze City, Mo Xi escorts him to the fiefdom of Lin'an to locate a legendary soul summoning grandmaster. While navigating the city, Mo Xi overhears Murong Chuyi privately interrogating a local merchant regarding a family surnamed Chu that resided by the docks over thirty years prior. The merchant discloses that the Chu family patriarch was brutally murdered and his two daughters were abducted by a predatory capital nobleman, later identified as Yue Juntian. The elder daughter, Chu Lian, was repeatedly violated by Yue Juntian, became pregnant, and inhaled fatal poisonous miasma while fleeing, ultimately abandoning her newborn infant at a mountain temple before going completely insane. Murong Huang discovered that abandoned infant and named him Murong Chuyi, while the younger sister escaped to Wangshu Manor as the disfigured servant Auntie Lin, giving birth to Gu Mang following her romance with the late Wangshu-jun, Murong Xuan. Because the Chu bloodline carries an inherited lotus petal birthmark on the shoulder, Mo Xi realizes that Murong Chuyi and Gu Mang are biological maternal cousins. Mo Xi intercepts Murong Chuyi at Chu Lian's overgrown grave, prevents him from immediately executing a vigilante strike against Yue Juntian, and reveals that Gu Mang is his surviving blood cousin who deeply longs for family. Deeply shaken by the realization that he possesses living kin, Murong Chuyi agrees to stay his hand against Yue Juntian until after the Yue Clan's ancestral blood sacrifice inside Huntian Cave, promising to meet Gu Mang the following morning.When Mo Xi arrives at Huntian Cave the next day, he finds the perimeter littered with slaughtered Yue Clan guards and discovers young Lan-er weeping in terror. Inside the cavern, Yue Juntian and Yue Yongcheng lie decapitated, while Murong Chuyi appears to be on an uncontrollable killing spree against Jiang Yexue and Yue Chenqing. Mo Xi intervenes, engaging Murong Chuyi in a ferocious battle between their holy weapons Tuntian and Zhaoxue, while Yue Chenqing performs a forbidden blood ritual upon the ghost command platform to summon ancestral ghost soldiers to counter Murong Chuyi's bamboo warriors. A summoned ghost soldier drives a blade through Murong Chuyi's back, terminating the duel, but Mo Xi is abruptly paralyzed by the venomous black qi of rigor mortis herb. In a sudden reversal, Jiang Yexue stands up from his wheelchair, revealing that he is the true architect behind the slaughter. Harbouring deep hatred for the Yue Clan due to his status as the son of a concubine, Yue Juntian's abuse, and his own crippled legs, Jiang Yexue had mastered forbidden black magic, transformed Lan-er into an unthinking puppet to siphon her spiritual core for mobility, and used a demonic seed planted within Murong Chuyi's heart to force him into committing the murders. Jiang Yexue further confesses that he served as Emperor Murong Chen's clandestine co-conspirator for years, having devised the Zhenlong chess piece that puppeted Lu Zhanxing into executing the foreign envoy and having intentionally repaired the historical jade scrolls to drive Mo Xi and Gu Mang further into despair.Yue Chenqing feigns helplessness before executing a surprise counterattack, using his authority over Murong Chuyi's bamboo warriors to combat Jiang Yexue. When Jiang Yexue overpowers the constructs and attempts to seize total command of the blood pool's vengeful spirits, a mortally wounded Murong Chuyi regains consciousness. As a son of Miss Chu and Yue Juntian born to a concubine, Murong Chuyi holds equal ancestral rights to the Yue Clan's blood pool and invokes the spirits to rebel against Jiang Yexue. Realizing that Jiang Yexue will perpetually manipulate his body through black magic seeds, Murong Chuyi makes a decisive choice and plunges into the boiling blood pool, sacrificing his life and soul to permanently break Jiang Yexue's control. Murong Chuyi's purified spirit briefly reemerges from the depths to bid a tender farewell to Yue Chenqing, validating him as his beloved nephew and urging him to lead the Yue Clan with honor. Murong Chuyi then uses his remaining spiritual essence to purge the paralyzing poison from Mo Xi's heart, extracting a solemn promise that Mo Xi will never inform Gu Mang of their cousinhood so that Gu Mang will be spared the grief of mourning a brother he never got to meet. Back in Lin'an, Gu Mang waits dressed in new robes for the cousin who will never arrive. Mo Xi and Yue Chenqing escort the slaughtered Yue Clan's coffins back to the imperial capital, where Yue Chenqing assumes leadership of the clan and discovers Murong Chuyi's private workshop, which is filled with benevolent artificing blueprints and protective talismans created for vulnerable commoners.At an imperial banquet convened in the capital, Emperor Murong Chen moves to consolidate autocratic dominion by activating a controlling puppet pill secretly implanted within Mo Xi's spiritual core years earlier. Gu Mang rushes forward to shield Mo Xi from harm, while Murong Lian and Princess Murong Mengze arrive to initiate a forced abdication against the tyrannical monarch. Before the assembled nobility, Murong Lian and Mengze expose the full extent of Murong Chen's state crimes, detailing how the emperor manipulated Lu Zhanxing through Jiang Yexue's dark chess pieces, forced Gu Mang to accept eternal infamy as an undercover operative in the Liao Kingdom, and used Gu Mang's loyalty to advance forbidden black magic research. Murong Lian reveals that upon Gu Mang's return to Chonghua, Murong Chen ordered Murong Lian to administer memory erasing medicine to strip Gu Mang of his sanity and prevent his treason from being exposed. Murong Lian explains that Gu Mang anticipated this treachery and forged the soul box containing the Demonblood Beast using his own spiritual soul, rendering it impossible to unlock without a secret key that Gu Mang entrusted to Murong Lian for safekeeping. Cornered and unmasked, Murong Chen triggers the divine flame Feihuang and unleashes the chimera beast Jingchen upon the palace, prompting a chaotic civil battle. Amidst the pandemonium, Zhou He slaughters an imperial elder using his dagger Lieying to eliminate witnesses to his own complicity, while Mo Xi, Murong Lian, and the imperial loyalists combat Murong Chen, shattering his demonic constructs and stripping him of imperial power.Following the collapse of the soul box, Gu Mang's missing mortal souls reintegrate, restoring his complete memories, martial brilliance, and strategic intellect. Reconciled with his brother, Murong Lian presents Gu Mang with their father Murong Xuan's embroidered blue and gold merit ribbon, officially acknowledging Gu Mang as his equal and removing every remaining slave collar from his neck. The respite proves brief as the Liao Kingdom launches an immediate invasion under the command of their masked guoshi, who initiates a colossal demonic resurrection ritual outside the capital. The guoshi herds hundreds of thousands of captured Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feast human sacrifices into a demonic furnace to reforge the primordial Demonblood Beast. Gu Mang, Mo Xi, Murong Lian, and Yue Chenqing lead Chonghua's military forces and mechanical bamboo legions in a desperate counteroffensive. To avert Chonghua's immediate annihilation, Gu Mang willingly reenacts the ancient sacrifice of Chen Tang, hurling his physical body and spiritual essence directly into the core of the Demonblood Beast to shatter its physical form from within. The beast collapses, but its death unleashes an apocalyptic deluge of corrupt demonic blood that begins dissolving the capital's perimeter. The Liao guoshi removes his mask to expose his true identity as Hua Po'an, the immortal demonic disciple of Chen Tang, delivering an ultimatum that Chonghua must surrender within ten days before the blood sea drowns the empire. In the devastating aftermath, Medicine Master Jiang Fuli presents a grieving Mo Xi with an ancient divine Reversal Stone, offering him the opportunity to traverse temporal boundaries to confront their entangled destinies.Jiang Fuli reveals his true origins and the history of Hua Po'an to Mo Xi. Centuries earlier, Hua Po'an was a rebellious slave student under Preceptor Chen Tang who perverted Chen Tang's righteous techniques into forbidden black magic, engineered the Demonblood Beast Jingchen, and led a catastrophic insurrection against Chonghua. Chen Tang perished using his spiritual core and soul to seal the beast. Refusing to accept his master's death, Hua Po'an reconstructed Chen Tang's deceased cousin into an artificial simulacrum infused with Chen Tang's memories, residual soul fragments, and martial techniques, naming this creation Chen Tang. To rescue the tormented vessel from Hua Po'an's possessive control, Su Yurou stole the divine Reversal Stone from the Liao royal palace and embedded it within the vessel's left eye, sealing away his memories and dark curses so he could live peacefully as Medicine Master Jiang Fuli at the cost of disfiguring half her own face. Now possessing full awareness after intentionally gouging out his own left eye, Jiang Fuli presents the Reversal Stone to Mo Xi, asserting that the sacred tree divined that only Mo Xi can activate it to travel into the past, destroy the Demonblood Beast's power source, and halt the expanding sea of demonic blood threatening to dissolve Chonghua. Jiang Fuli leaves to confront Hua Po'an directly, while Mo Xi activates the stone and travels three years into the past to the banks of the Fushui River. Infiltrating the imperial encampment where Gu Mang is held captive inside a prison barrier, Mo Xi intends to locate and shatter the soul box containing the Demonblood Beast before it can ever be delivered to the emperor.Gu Mang confronts Mo Xi with the devastating truth that the Reversal Stone cannot change past events or alter destiny. Gu Mang explains that when he previously merged souls with the Demonblood Beast, he experienced prophetic visions of his own demise and saw Mo Xi arriving from the future with the stone. The divine artifact does not grant mortals the power to rewrite history without severe consequence, but instead acts as an instrument of predetermined fate that ensures critical events occur as intended. Jiang Fuli sent Mo Xi back because only Mo Xi possessed Gu Mang's absolute trust, which was required to fulfill an agonizing necessity. Gu Mang forged the soul box to seal the Demonblood Beast using his own spiritual soul, but without an external key, Emperor Murong Chen would eventually unlock its terrifying power prematurely and plunge the Nine Provinces into ruin. Gu Mang willingly submits to having a portion of his soul excised, and Mo Xi, weeping through profound anguish, extracts Gu Mang's soul to forge the irreplaceable key that Murong Lian will later safeguard. Before the temporal rift expires, Mo Xi places the Reversal Stone alongside an inscribed cowrie shell inside the embroidered brocade pouch that Gu Mang will fiercely protect during his subsequent degradation in Luomei Pavilion. Gu Mang urges Mo Xi not to lose faith in their shared dream of justice for commoners and slaves, affirming that their bond remains unbroken even in the face of death. As Murong Lian approaches the tent outside, the two hours elapse, and Mo Xi is pulled from the past, realizing that his journey did not avert any prior tragedy but completed the exact sequence of suffering ordained by fate.

Mo Xi awakens within the liminal void of the Reversal Stone before the spiritual manifestation of the deity who created it. Inspecting Mo Xi's reflection upon the tranquil spiritual water, the god reveals that Mo Xi's holy scepter, Tuntian, is not an ordinary weapon summoned through cultivation, but the living soul of the Spiritblessed Beast. Decades earlier, Mo Xi's father, Mo Qingchi, participated in the previous emperor's clandestine experiments to create a divine entity capable of neutralizing the Demonblood Beast, but secretly sealed the completed Spiritblessed Beast inside Mo Xi to prevent imperial corruption and abuse. The god also exposes the manipulative nature of Princess Murong Mengze, who previously removed a fatal controlling poison from Mo Xi's core solely to bind his political loyalty and exploit his martial prestige while maneuvering for the throne. The deity presents Mo Xi with two definitive paths for utilizing the Spiritblessed Beast's unsealed power. Mo Xi can execute vengeance against Murong Mengze, erect an impenetrable barrier around Chonghua's capital using Tuntian, and ascend the imperial throne to rule safely while the demonic blood sea consumes the rest of the Nine Provinces; or he can willingly sacrifice his physical existence by diving into the blood sea to destroy the core of the Demonblood Beast, saving the mortal realm while having his own soul permanently extinguished and excluded from the cycle of reincarnation. Mo Xi decisively rejects autocratic tyranny and self-preservation, choosing to embrace complete self-sacrifice to honor Gu Mang's legacy and protect innocent lives across the mortal realm, accepting that he will never see another rebirth.Mo Xi returns to the present battlefield where Jiang Fuli is engaged in fierce mortal combat against Hua Po'an. Jiang Fuli publicly renounces Hua Po'an, declaring that Chen Tang never had a student by that name, which shatters Hua Po'an's psychological composure and exposes his deep-seated dread of his master's eternal condemnation. Hua Po'an unleashes demonic attacks using his nine-eyed qin, yet he leaves the mysterious ninth eye permanently sealed, unable to bring himself to expose its hidden secret. Seizing an opening created by Hua Po'an's emotional collapse, Jiang Fuli drives his sword deep into Hua Po'an's flesh. Simultaneously, Mo Xi invokes the full authority of the Spiritblessed Beast through Tuntian and plunges into the boiling depths of the demonic blood sea surrounding Chonghua. Locating the pulsating, immortal heart of the Demonblood Beast submerged within the crimson abyss, Mo Xi channels his vital spiritual energy and crushes the organ. The destruction of the heart dissolves the malevolent blood sea into pure, clear water that cleanses and nourishes the surrounding earth, instantly stripping Hua Po'an of his immortal source of demonic power. Stripped of demonic invulnerability, Hua Po'an falls under Jiang Fuli's blade, his corrupted physical form dispersing into ash and dust. Deep beneath the surface of the purified lake, his spiritual reserves entirely spent and water filling his lungs, Mo Xi succumbs to physical death with a peaceful smile, content that he shared the identical destiny of ultimate sacrifice with his beloved Gu Mang.Mo Xi awakens upon the subterranean soul river of the Yellow Springs, where he reunites with Gu Mang among the singing spirits of their fallen comrades from Phoenix Cry Mountain. Believing that their journey has reached its final conclusion and that Mo Xi's soul is doomed to permanent dispersion, both men prepare to part. However, the god of the Reversal Stone manifests along the Yellow Springs Road, holding the stone as it radiates brilliant white divine radiance. The deity reveals that while the stone cannot be forced by selfish ambition, it yields true power to those who pass its ultimate trial through unreserved self-sacrifice. Because Mo Xi and Gu Mang chose death to redeem the mortal realm rather than hoard power, the Reversal Stone activates its divine authority, reversing their physical destruction, healing their scarred bodies, purging all demonic alterations from Gu Mang's bloodline, and restoring both men to physical life in the human world. In the geopolitical aftermath, Chonghua absorbs the defeated Liao Kingdom as a vassal territory, permanently outlawing and sealing the practice of forbidden black magic. Murong Mengze ascends to supreme political authority over Chonghua, receiving a final written message on Shuairan wherein Mo Xi exposes his full awareness of her past machinations without seeking retribution. Jiang Fuli departs Chonghua alongside Su Yurou to pursue his own desires as an independent healer. Having abandoned their military ranks and noble privileges, Mo Xi and Gu Mang establish a quiet domestic life together, wearing the inert Reversal Stone as an ordinary pendant that commemorates their triumph over fate.

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Volume 5

Volume 6

Volume 7

Stars of Chaos: Sha Po Lang

The story so far...
(Volumes 1–5)

In the northern border settlement of Yanhui Town, Chang Geng lived under the care of his mother Xiu-niang and her husband Company Commander Xu, while forming a close bond with his invalid godfather Shen Shiliu and Shen Shiliu's brother Shen-xiansheng. When an imperial giant kite arrived carrying tribute, Xiu-niang confronted Chang Geng and revealed her true identity as Huge'er, a priestess of the Eighteen Tianlang Tribes. She disclosed that she was not his mother, that Company Commander Xu had been betrayed and slain, and that she had afflicted Chang Geng with the Wu'ergu curse, an incurable poison designed to fill him with delusions and uncontrollable bloodlust, after which she committed suicide. Northern barbarian forces led by Crown Prince Jialai Yinghuo simultaneously emerged from the hijacked giant kite in heavy armor to slaughter the garrison and seize Chang Geng. As Chang Geng fought to protect his companions Ge Pangxiao and Cao Niangzi, Shen-xiansheng intervened in heavy armor, revealing himself as General Shen Yi of the Black Iron Battalion. Shen Yi disclosed to Chang Geng that he was actually Li Min, the Fourth Prince of Great Liang, born to the reigning Yuanhe Emperor and the barbarian Noble Consort. When Jialai Yinghuo trapped Chang Geng in an alleyway, Shen Shiliu arrived and revealed his true identity as the Marquis of Anding, Gu Yun, the supreme commander of the Black Iron Battalion who merely concealed his real identity behind feigned infirmity. Gu Yun deployed his Black Hawk and Black Carapace divisions, annihilating the barbarian strike force, capturing Jialai Yinghuo alive, and securing Yanhui Town. Although Gu Yun appeared vigorous during combat, he suffered genuine, permanent deafness and blindness caused by childhood poison, relying on medicine and an iron monocle to function. Chang Geng experienced acute betrayal at having lived inside an elaborate deception, yet he also witnessed Gu Yun's hidden physical suffering and chose to accept his godfather's true identity.An imperial golden token arrived ordering Gu Yun to bring Chang Geng back to the capital because the Yuanhe Emperor had fallen critically ill. Recognizing that imperial succession was precarious, Gu Yun marched half of the Black Iron Battalion directly to the capital gates, positioning his troops to deter the Second Prince, Prince Wei, who was attempting an armed coup to seize command of the Imperial Guard. Upon entering the palace, Gu Yun held a tense audience with the dying Yuanhe Emperor, who expressed lifelong paranoia over the Gu family's martial authority and the division of political and military power created by Emperor Wu. Following the death of the Yuanhe Emperor, the Crown Prince Li Feng ascended the throne as the Longan Emperor, while Chang Geng was formally acknowledged as Prince Yanbei, Li Min. To protect Chang Geng from imperial scrutiny and predatory courtiers, Gu Yun secluded the boy, Ge Pangxiao, and Cao Niangzi inside the austere Marquis of Anding Estate. Gu Yun arranged rigorous academic instruction and martial training for Chang Geng under former general Zhong Chan, though Chang Geng struggled silently against nocturnal bouts of the Wu'ergu curse while developing an intense emotional attachment to Gu Yun. At the year's end, the Longan Emperor established the Longan era and declared a nationwide general pardon, which released the imprisoned Crown Prince Jialai Yinghuo back to the northern steppes in exchange for an increased annual tribute of violet gold, disregarding Gu Yun's persistent strategic objections. Gu Yun recognized that foreign powers sought to exploit Great Liang's exhaustion, noting that the Western pope had proposed opening trade routes through the Silk Road under bilateral military escort to probe the nation's defenses.During the New Year festivities, Gu Yun brought Chang Geng, Ge Pangxiao, and Cao Niangzi aboard a red-headed kite near Kite's Flight Pavilion, which served as the operational anchor of the capital's aerial exclusion field. Foreign performers staged a show with a caged tiger, tossing gold leaves into the crowd to provoke a violent stampede, after which the tiger broke loose and mauled its handler. Gu Yun intervened decisively, shooting the beast dead from midair and pinning the hat of the foreign instigator to a pillar with an iron arrow, which unmasked an intentional Western plot to test the populace's psychological reliance on the Black Iron Battalion. Soon afterward, Gu Yun received orders to escort Jialai Yinghuo beyond the northern pass and advance west to suppress desert raiders threatening the Silk Road trade hub of Loulan. Gu Yun departed the capital abruptly without bidding Chang Geng farewell, leaving Chang Geng feeling like an abandoned pawn within the imperial family. Rather than languish passively in the capital, Chang Geng frequented the Temple of National Protection, where he met Abbot Liao Chi and his junior, the mute monk Liao Ran. Liao Ran demonstrated advanced mechanical proficiency that fascinated Ge Pangxiao, while subtly guiding Chang Geng toward a broader worldview. Refusing to remain a helpless ward, Chang Geng fled the Marquis Estate alongside Liao Ran, Ge Pangxiao, and Cao Niangzi, embarking on an unauthorized journey to Jiangnan. Upon learning of their flight while concluding his desert campaign in the Western Regions, Gu Yun abandoned his military detachment and rode south toward Jiangnan at breakneck speed to intercept them.Gu Yun tracked the fugitives to Yingtian Prefecture in Jiangnan, arriving at the estate of Regional Judiciary Commissioner Yao Zhen. Chang Geng deduced that Liao Ran had intentionally manipulated their movements to draw the Marquis of Anding south to uncover a regional conspiracy. At the docks, they discovered immense stockpiles of condensed fragrance used to mask illicit violet gold smuggling conducted by Dongying vessels. Liao Ran revealed to Gu Yun thirty-six iron seals representing the secretive Linyuan Pavilion, an ancient civilian and martial network that resurfaced during periods of national danger to protect the realm. Disguised as fragrance merchants, Gu Yun, Chang Geng, and their companions boarded a Dongying ship, where Chang Geng parried an assassination attempt by a Dongying ninja targeting Gu Yun. The ship brought them to an uncharted East Sea archipelago where naval commander Huang Qiao had massed sea dragon warships, colluding with Dongying wokou pirates to stage a naval rebellion backed by Prince Wei. Cao Niangzi freed captured imperial mechanics while Liao Ran blackened stolen armor with squid ink to simulate the Black Carapace Division. At Huang Qiao's banquet, Gu Yun exposed his identity, signaling a coordinated assault by concealed Black Hawks while Linyuan Pavilion physician Chen Qingxu played her pipa to incite panic among the rebels. Chang Geng decisively disarmed and captured Huang Qiao before Yao Zhen arrived with the Jiangnan Navy to crush the uprising. Gu Yun arranged with Yao Zhen to conceal the intervention of the Black Iron Battalion and the Linyuan Pavilion in official memorials to avoid alarming the court, yet a secret dispatch detailing their involvement reached the Longan Emperor, igniting imperial suspicion against Gu Yun. After uncovering a stolen treasure map from the Western Regions and ordering the execution of the captive raiders to prevent leaks, Gu Yun confronted Chang Geng regarding his future, prompting Chang Geng to depart the capital to wander the jianghu on his own path.Four years after departing the capital, Chang Geng roamed the realm alongside members of the Linyuan Pavilion while the Longan Emperor Li Feng instituted the Marching Orders Decree, stripping regional generals of independent troop mobilization to centralize imperial authority. Minister Sun Jiao and the imperial court dispatched an inspection mission south under the pretense of offering condolences, scheming to exploit the martial authority of the Marquis of Anding, Gu Yun, to expose Commander in Chief Fu Zhicheng for colluding with mountain bandits and force the Southern Border Army into submission. Gu Yun traveled south and reunited with Chang Geng in Shu, recognizing that socioeconomic displacement caused by steam farming puppets had driven dispossessed commoners into banditry, while regional military funding had shrunk. When an armed confrontation occurred at the Apricot Grove bandit stronghold, conspirator Kuai Lantu attempted to coerce Fu Zhicheng into rebellion, but Gu Yun anticipated the scheme and goaded Fu Zhicheng into executing Kuai Lantu before concealed Black Hawks swooped down to secure the lair. Chang Geng presented a detailed geographic map of the southern hierarchy, revealing that the Daoist bandit chief Jing Xu operated as Fu Zhicheng's secret supplier of black-market violet gold, which exposed a foreign hand manipulating the southwestern fuel trade. Gu Yun took command of the Southern Border Army, had their armor painted with ink to mimic the Black Iron Battalion, and executed a diversionary strike that trapped Jing Xu's forces during an underground raid on the Southwest Supply Depot. The hidden instigator, a Far Western operative named Mister Ja, poisoned his staff, erased his trail, and escaped to the South Sea, marking the southern border on his map alongside previous marks on the northern frontier and East Sea. Gu Yun preserved Fu Zhicheng to prevent regional collapse, prompting Li Feng to grant Chang Geng the formal title of Prince Yanbei and promote Shen Yi to commander in chief of the Southwest Army.Following their return to the capital, Gu Yun navigated rising political friction with Li Feng, whose suspicion of the military deepened even as domestic coffers remained depleted despite agricultural automation. Li Feng summoned Gu Yun to reveal that desert raiders had attacked the western frontier and that an undercover envoy had located an unmined vein of violet gold within the allied kingdom of Loulan, commanding Gu Yun to seize the resource covertly. Gu Yun openly refused to betray Loulan, citing the small nation's steadfast loyalty during prior rebellions, which alienated the emperor further. Meanwhile, Chang Geng utilized the intelligence network of the Linyuan Pavilion to investigate the string of domestic disturbances, noting that the East Sea piracy and southwestern banditry shared coordinated foreign origins. Along the Silk Road, the small nation of Qiuci deployed advanced sand tiger war chariots supplied by foreign backers to wipe out a Loulan peace delegation, instigating widespread hostilities that paralyzed western commerce. In the capital, the son of the late imperial eunuch Wu He delivered a public suicide confession exposing that the assassination attempt in the northwest that poisoned young Gu Yun and crippled the Black Iron Battalion had been commissioned by the late Yuanhe Emperor using imperial suicide squads disguised as northern barbarians. Chang Geng rushed to Gu Yun and discovered his godfather had known of the late emperor's treason all along, a realization that aggravated Chang Geng's Wu'ergu curse into violent despair. Incensed by the revelation of imperial treachery, Commander Tan Hongfei led the Northern Camp in an armed mutiny, prompting the court to seal the nine gates of the capital and detain Gu Yun inside the imperial dungeons to prevent military insurrection.With Gu Yun imprisoned and Great Liang's defense commands divided by the Marching Orders Decree, foreign adversaries initiated a simultaneous four-front invasion. Beyond the northern iron wall, Wolf King Jialai Yinghuo shattered the five-year truce by mobilizing tens of thousands of barbarian warriors equipped with Western heavy armor and newly developed aerial hawks, capturing seven frontier cities overnight and forcing the Black Iron Battalion under He Ronghui to retreat to Jiayu Pass. In the southwest, foreign marauders coordinated with local outlaws to detonate the Southwest Supply Depot. Simultaneously, along the East Sea, Mister Ja and the Western Pope discarded their merchant disguise and raised the battle flag of the Holy See over an armada of one hundred thousand soldiers and Dongying wokou pirates. The Western fleet routed the inexperienced Jiangnan Navy and killed its commander, Zhao Youfang, clearing a direct maritime corridor toward the heart of the empire. As news of the catastrophe struck the imperial court, Li Feng collapsed in terror upon his throne, whereupon Chang Geng intervened with icy composure, presenting a strategic assessment of the collapsing fronts. Chang Geng demanded that Li Feng immediately release Gu Yun, restore the Black Iron Tiger Tally, and grant supreme operational authority to the Marquis of Anding to organize national defense. Li Feng complied, releasing Gu Yun from the imperial dungeons to assume command of the remaining garrison units, while Chang Geng took control of emergency administration, evacuating civilian populations from the advancing enemy's path and marshaling metropolitan resources for the coming siege.Gu Yun assembled the scattered remnants of the Northern Camp, the Imperial Guard under Han Qi, and his veteran officers to establish an exterior defensive cordon around the capital. At Dagu Harbor, naval commander Lian Wei mounted a desperate stand against the advancing Western dragon warships, personally hoisting fifty-kilogram firebrand arrows onto a parhelion bow to ignite enemy vessels and shred the papal battle flag before falling in combat as cannon fire pulverized the defenses. While Master Zhang Fenghan of the Lingshu Institute helped fortify the city defenses and deployed aerial kites laden with violet gold, Chang Geng coordinated frontline logistics and civilian evacuations. Operating west of Dongan City, Gu Yun deployed the Black Iron Battalion in a series of coordinated nighttime ambushes against the Western advance guard, using terrain and deceptive skirmishes to inflict severe casualties on the foreign infantry. Mister Ja and the Pope, astonished to encounter Gu Yun's elite forces rather than a defenseless countryside, found their vanguard stalled and were forced to pause their advance to request reinforcements from their fleet at Dagu Harbor. Despite Gu Yun's tactical successes in delaying the enemy and maintaining military cohesion, the overwhelming numbers of the Western armada and their technological superiority enabled the foreign invaders to push past exterior strongholds. The Western army advanced to the capital city walls and initiated a devastating siege, severing outside communication and leaving the imperial court fighting for the survival of the dynasty.

As Western forces escalated their assault against the capital walls with aerial hawks and long-range cannon fire, the imperial defenses deteriorated to the point of collapse. Inside the city, Abbot Liao Chi of the Temple of National Protection betrayed the court by forcing the Longan Emperor Li Feng onto a red-headed kite, flying the imperial banner to manufacture the appearance of an imperial retreat and invite regicide. Liao Ran confronted his elder disciple brother before Chang Geng arrived on a Black Hawk piloted by Commander Tan Hongfei, shooting Liao Chi dead with a crossbow bolt to break the abduction. Li Feng offered Chang Geng the Shangfang Sword to take the throne, but Chang Geng refused to become the sovereign of a fallen realm and ordered Tan Hongfei to guard the emperor atop the kite as a living banner of command. With standard firebrand munitions exhausted, Chang Geng commanded the garrison to fire ownerless windslashers from parhelion bows and coordinated with Master Zhang Fenghan of the Lingshu Institute to launch the remaining red-headed kites packed with violet gold directly into the incoming swarm of Western hawks. The resulting midair detonation decimated the enemy vanguard while the concussive blast wounded Chang Geng atop the ramparts. Gu Yun led the heavy-armor infantry in brutal frontline ground combat until relief forces arrived at the final hour, led by Commander in Chief Shen Yi of the Southwest Army and veteran General Zhong Chan, who had assembled remnants of the routed Jiangnan Navy with Yao Zhen. Although the allied reinforcements broke the siege and forced the Western army to withdraw toward the East Sea, the Western Pope reorganized his armada ten days later to invade the undefended south, capturing Lin'an and seizing full control of the fertile territories south of the Yangtze River.Following the withdrawal from the capital, Li Feng reinstated General Zhong Chan to fortify the northern bank of the Yangtze River alongside Yao Zhen, while Gu Yun and Shen Yi marched west to stabilize the northwest frontier. Chang Geng remained in the capital to overhaul imperial administration, assuming de facto control over the Six Ministries through the leadership of the Grand Council. Confronting a completely depleted national treasury and the loss of southern tax revenues, Chang Geng devised and championed the issuance of war beacon tickets, establishing government bonds backed by future state collateral to borrow operational capital directly from wealthy merchants and commoners. Simultaneously, Chang Geng moved to consolidate control over the clandestine Linyuan Pavilion network to marshal civilian resources and security. After Abbot Liao Ran, Master Zhang Fenghan, and the merchant Du Wanquan cast their votes to entrust the organization to him, Chang Geng covertly intercepted and replaced the wooden bird message of traveling physician Chen Qingxu to secure unanimous support, successfully obtaining the five-piece Linyuan tablet. With Du Wanquan rallying prominent merchant guilds to purchase the initial batch of bonds within three days, hard currency flowed into the imperial coffers, enabling the state to finance military mobilization and refugee relief. Chang Geng then traversed the Jiangbei region with troops borrowed from Zhong Chan to purge corrupt grain merchants and local officials who hoarded provisions, enforcing the circulation of war beacon tickets and opening public granaries to feed displaced populations.At the northwestern frontier, Gu Yun reunited with the garrison at Jiayu Pass and launched a decisive winter counteroffensive against the sixteen-nation coalition led by Qiuci. On New Year's Eve, Gu Yun split the Black Iron Battalion into three strike forces and dropped copied letters from the sky that exposed secret, deceitful surrender overtures made by several Western Regions rulers, instantly fracturing the enemy alliance. The Black Hawks captured the king of Qiuci, recovering twenty-seven frontier passes along the Silk Road and taking thousands of Western foreign soldiers prisoner. During a proposed prisoner exchange, a booby-trapped captive exploded, inflicting severe concussive trauma on Gu Yun and destroying a Black Carapace soldier who shielded him. Despite suffering internal hemorrhaging, aggravated blindness, and deafness, Gu Yun concealed the incident from the imperial court, transferred temporary tactical command to Shen Yi, and ordered the immediate execution of the captive king of Qiuci alongside a total rout of the remaining rebel forces. When initial peace talks stalled, Gu Yun personally led a night raid of three hundred heavy-armor suits against the Western Regions' encampment, threatening total annihilation unless the coalition surrendered. Terrified by his ruthlessness, the allied nations signed the Treaty of Loulan, agreeing to disarm and surrender massive tributes of violet gold that resolved Great Liang's chronic military fuel crisis. Throughout these tribulations, Chang Geng and Gu Yun exchanged intimate correspondence, solidifying an emotional and romantic devotion that helped Chang Geng withstand the torment of his Wu'ergu curse.The influx of western violet gold and the revenue from the second batch of war beacon tickets temporarily revived Great Liang, but sparked intense political hostility in the capital. A conservative aristocratic faction headed by Minister of Revenue Fang Qin rallied the nobility against Chang Geng's structural reforms, seeking to dismantle the Grand Council and targeting the emerging merchant class by restricting civilian access to violet gold. To undermine Fang Qin's maneuverings and investigate a burgeoning humanitarian catastrophe in Jiangbei, where Governor Yang Ronggui and the Lü clan had suppressed reports of mass refugee starvation and pestilence, Chang Geng coordinated with Chief Justice Jiang Chong to secure imperial authorization for an on-site inspection. Gu Yun obtained permission to accompany Chang Geng south under the objective of assessing frontline military readiness and investigating Yang Ronggui's malfeasance. Arriving at the Jiangbei Garrison, Gu Yun joined General Zhong Chan and Yao Zhen to conduct reconnaissance operations along the Yangtze River, utilizing naval vessels to confront the Western fleet and expose internal fractures between the Western Pope and an emissary from the Holy Empire. Realizing that the Western occupier was weakened by internal political divisions and could not sustain prolonged conflict, Gu Yun and Chang Geng formulated a long-term strategic encirclement: maintaining nominal peace overtures to delay full-scale hostilities while reorganizing the Jiangbei Navy and using the Grand Council to purge regional corruption. Chang Geng then slipped into Jiangbei alongside imperial censor Xu Ling to expose Yang Ronggui's illicit atrocities, initiating the final phase of their provincial investigation.In Yangzhou, Chang Geng deployed Cao Chunhua in disguise as Prince Yan with a decoy assistant while he and Right Assistant Supervisory Commissioner Xu Ling conducted an undercover investigation into Governor Yang Ronggui. Chang Geng located the Shahai Gang and Innkeeper Sun, discovering that Yang Ronggui had burned sick refugees alive to conceal an epidemic, imprisoned survivors in mountain camps, and embezzled disaster relief funds. Before Chang Geng could coordinate an arrest, Yang Ronggui staged an armed entrapment against the decoy envoys, presenting a forged imperial dragon robe and falsely claiming the Longan Emperor Li Feng had been assassinated by Dongying agents to coerce Prince Yan into leading an open rebellion. Yang Ronggui escorted the disguised entourage north toward the capital to force an imperial abdication. Concurrently in the capital, Assistant Minister of Revenue Lü Chang organized a coup to assassinate Li Feng during the imperial sacrifice at the newly constructed Altar of Prosperity, employing Imperial Guard Captain Liu Chongshan and disguised assassins under the pretext of placing Noble Consort Lü's son on the throne. Minister of Revenue Fang Qin secretly leaked the conspiracy to the Northern Camp to purge the rival Lü clan while framing Prince Yan for high treason. When Liu Chongshan attacked Li Feng on the altar steps, Southwest Army Commander Shen Yi and Grand Council minister Jiang Chong defended the emperor until Gu Yun arrived in hawk armor, having raced north from Jiangbei after uncovering Yang Ronggui's empty fortifications. The Northern Camp entered the capital, crushed the mutineers, and arrested both Liu Chongshan and Yang Ronggui. When Li Feng confronted the captured conspirators, Yang Ronggui exposed Fang Qin's role in orchestrating the yellow robes scheme, but the plot collapsed into chaos when the captured Prince Yan was revealed to be Cao Chunhua, exposing that the true prince had vanished into the southern hinterlands.In Jiangbei, Chang Geng and Xu Ling infiltrated the Shahai Gang alongside Abbot Liao Ran, seeking to secure witness testimony regarding Yang Ronggui's massacres. Internal factional strife erupted when a hostile bandit chieftain known as the Heaven King discovered Liao Ran communicating with regional authorities and accused the party of treachery. Chang Geng revealed his royal identity and submitted to the underworld code of three strikes and six holes, stabbing his own thigh with a carving knife to prove his sincerity. This decisive act halted the insurrection, fractured the bandit alliance, and allowed acting governor Yao Zhen and the Jiangbei Garrison under General Zhong Chan to pacify the region without military bloodshed. Yao Zhen liberated the imprisoned refugees, while Chang Geng enforced the circulation of war beacon tickets under penalty of criminal flogging to purchase emergency grain from hoarding merchants. After drafting comprehensive legislation for canal development and factory employment that transformed displaced refugees into an industrial workforce, Chang Geng returned to the capital as the Grand Council dismantled the disgraced Lü faction. Political hostility escalated when a northern barbarian diplomatic mission arrived to deliver a hostage prince. During the imperial palace banquet, the Wolf King's bodyguard Chikuyou used sacred grassland incantations and a poisoned silver cup to trigger Chang Geng's Wu'ergu curse. Imperial Uncle Wang Guo simultaneously produced an imperial physician to claim that Princess Xiu was pregnant before leaving the palace, accusing Chang Geng of false royal lineage. Gu Yun entered the court to refute the slander, citing Huge'er's cruelty and the late emperor's personal verification of the jade token. Chang Geng pierced his own arm to conquer the curse's hallucinations, maintained his composure, and subsequently submitted his resignation to neutralize noble paranoia.Deducing that the northern border provocation served as a coordinated diversion orchestrated by the Far Western Pope to draw imperial forces away from the south, Gu Yun dispatched the Black Iron Battalion north while feigning readiness for peace talks in Jiangnan. Strategic balance collapsed on the Dragon Head-Raising Festival when General Zhong Chan suffered a fatal fall from his horse, depriving the southern theater of its veteran commander. The Far Western navy under the joint command of the Pope and the holy emissary immediately launched a massive nighttime naval assault across the Yangtze River against the Jiangbei Garrison. Gu Yun hastened south while coughing blood due to his collapsing health and failing senses, while Chang Geng took direct tactical command of the Jiangbei Navy from horseback on the shore. Chang Geng deployed sea dragon warships, cuttlefish submersibles, and Black Hawks to encircle the Western fleet. The holy emissary defied the Pope's formation orders and withdrew his damaged ships, creating an operational breach that allowed Chang Geng's artillery to detonate the enemy's agile tiger shark vessels and drive the Western armada into retreat. Simultaneously on the northern front, Shen Yi and He Ronghui resisted Wolf King Jialai Yinghuo, who employed desperate scorched-earth tactics by detonating violet gold transport wagons against the imperial battle lines. Chen Qingxu and Cao Chunhua infiltrated the Tianlang Grand Capital, witnessing an internal coup where Lady Hongxia attempted to assassinate the bedridden Jialai Yinghuo in his steam-powered wheelchair. Jialai Yinghuo unleashed pre-positioned archers to annihilate the rebel chiefs and set the royal yurt ablaze. Before the inferno consumed the settlement and killed the Wolf King, Shen Yi and Chen Qingxu breached the burning structure and recovered the shamanic soul figure, securing the essential artifact required to unravel the Wu'ergu curse.Following the conflagration at the Tianlang Grand Capital, General Shen Yi and physician Chen Qingxu brought the shamanic soul idol back to the northern encampment, where Chen Qingxu dissected its treated skin and wooden core to analyze the forbidden secrets of the Wu'ergu curse. Wolf King Jialai Yinghuo perished, leading his successor to formally surrender on behalf of the eighteen tribes, which allowed Great Liang to absorb the northern grasslands as the newly created Shuobei Province. Marshal Gu Yun inspected the maiden test run of the steam locomotive constructed by Master Zhang Fenghan and Ge Chen of the Lingshu Institute, recognizing its capacity to link the empire's economic arteries. In Jiangbei, Chang Geng concluded General Zhong Chan's funeral rites before answering urgent imperial summonses to return to the capital, where he confronted a bitter aristocratic backlash spearheaded by Minister of Revenue Fang Qin. As the redemption deadline for the initial war beacon tickets neared, Chang Geng outmaneuvered noble opposition by establishing the Longan Bank to issue paper silver substitutes, securing state credit without relying on aristocratic loans. Across the Yangtze River, political rebellion in the Holy Empire ousted the ruling royal house, prompting the Western Pope and Mister Ja to preemptively execute the insubordinate holy emissary and consolidate singular control over the expeditionary fleet. Exploiting fresh shipments of violet gold from overseas, the Pope launched a surprise naval assault against the Liangjiang Garrison. Gu Yun met the assault by navigating cuttlefish submersibles beneath the surface of the river, scoring direct underwater detonations against the Western sea monster flagship and forcing the shattered enemy armada to retreat into the waters of the Dongying archipelago.

Chen Qingxu verified from the shamanic texts inside the soul idol that the Wu'ergu poison could be systematically purged, subjecting Chang Geng to rigorous acupuncture and bitter herbal concoctions that forced him to confront and conquer the terrifying hallucinations rooted in his childhood torment. Concurrently, Gu Yun enacted a broad counteroffensive by dispatching undercover operatives to ignite insurrections across Western-occupied colonies in the South Sea, while mobilizing hidden naval squadrons along the southwestern border to sever the enemy maritime supply lines. In the capital, Fang Qin recognized that imperial audits into land corruption and the imminent activation of the railway would permanently disempower the nobility. In response, Fang Qin conspired with mutinous elements to launch an armed coup during the imperial sacrifices to heaven, deploying false palace sentries to murder the Longan Emperor Li Feng, slaughter Prince Yan, assassinate the young crown prince Li Zheng, and install the eldest prince as a puppet sovereign. When assassins struck the imperial procession, Chang Geng shielded the crown prince from harm, while Fang Qin dragged Li Feng into secluded captivity to coerce his signature on a forged edict condemning Prince Yan for high treason. An undercover rebel falsely announced that both Prince Yan and the crown prince were slain, shattering Li Feng's spirit and causing the emperor to vomit blood. Chang Geng suddenly breached the perimeter alongside loyal sentries and automated iron puppets, exposing Fang Qin's treachery. Attempting to flee, Li Feng collapsed when his crippled leg gave out, whereupon Fang Qin instinctively lunged forward and impaled the emperor through the back with his sword. Before dying, Li Feng recognized Chang Geng's unyielding authority, passing the imperial throne to Prince Yan to safeguard the surviving imperial heirs and ensure the preservation of the realm.Ascending as the de facto sovereign, Prince Yan swiftly executed the conspirators, uprooted the corrupt noble lineages, and issued emergency decrees through the Grand Council to stabilize the capital before hastening south on hawk armor to the Liangjiang theater, where the Western navy had mounted a desperate counteroffensive. News of Li Feng's demise and Prince Yan's accession reached the front lines, uniting the Black Iron Tiger Tallies and consolidating the supreme loyalty of all military branches beneath the new emperor. In the commander's tent, Chang Geng experienced a profound cathartic collapse, weeping in Gu Yun's embrace to purge more than a decade of suppressed grief and fear before the two leaders directed the final military engagement. General Shen Yi executed a decisive naval encirclement while aerial swarms of Black Hawks obliterated the remaining Western dragon warships, driving the battered enemy flagship into coastal waters where the opportunistic Dongying shogunate abandoned the Western cause. With the official opening of the steam railway, imperial supply lines transported massive reserves of heavy armor and violet gold straight to the southern front, enabling ground troops to sweep across Jiangnan and liberate the southern territories within two months. The Western army formally surrendered, delivering the captive Pope into Great Liang custody, while the Holy Empire dispatched envoys to pay massive cash indemnities to secure their remaining prisoners. Amid the restoration of peace, Chen Qingxu identified a lost formula within the barbarian records and discovered that the genuine antidote to Gu Yun's childhood poisoning had remained concealed within the primary spacer bead of his wooden prayer bracelet for eleven years, granting the general a slow path toward physical recovery while Emperor Li Min steered the nation into an era of technological advancement, centralized governance, and lasting prosperity.

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Volume 5

Guardian: Zhen Hun

The story so far...
(Volumes 1–3)

Zhao Yunlan, the Director of the Special Investigations Department and Guardian of the Soul-Guarding Order, investigates a gruesome supernatural murder at Dragon City University alongside new human recruit Guo Changcheng and the talking cat Daqing. At the crime scene, Zhao Yunlan meets university professor Shen Wei, a man toward whom Daqing feels an instinctive, deferential comfort. Zhao Yunlan deduces that the killing was committed not by ordinary vengeful ghosts but by an insatiable Hunger Ghost that escaped during a massive jailbreak in the Netherworld. Foreign language student Li Qian is identified as an eyewitness linked to an ancient heirloom sundial, which Special Investigations Department officer Zhu Hong identifies as the Reincarnation Dial, one of the Four Hallowed Artifacts of the Netherworld. Li Qian previously used the artifact's life-lending power to exchange half of her own remaining lifespan to resurrect her deceased grandmother, an act that distorted her destiny and drew malevolent spirits to her location. When the escaped Hunger Ghost invades the hospital to consume Li Qian, Shen Wei, Guo Changcheng, and Daqing engage the monster in combat until Li Qian's grandmother's ghost throws herself into the creature to shield Li Qian, destroying the grandmother's soul. Zhao Yunlan and Buddhist officer Lin Jing arrive to incapacitate the Hunger Ghost, trapping it inside an enchanted glass bottle. The dreaded Soul-Executing Emissary from the Netherworld visits the Special Investigations Department office at 4 Bright Avenue to claim the Hunger Ghost, warning Zhao Yunlan that the Reincarnation Dial's resurgence threatens the balance of reincarnation and the primordial Great Seal. Li Qian reveals the location of the sundial under interrogation, but when Zhao Yunlan investigates her apartment building, he finds a rooftop covered in slaughtered youchu beasts; the Reincarnation Dial has already been stolen by an unknown hostile faction, and the Soul-Executing Emissary departs through a spatial void in visible alarm.A seismic tremor originating from the supernatural underground signals that another primordial relic has surfaced in the mortal world, prompting Netherworld reapers to present Zhao Yunlan with a copy of the Book of Life and Death along with a warrant for youchu monsters born from Chaos. Meanwhile, Zhao Yunlan pursues a courtship with Shen Wei, who maintains a mild-mannered academic facade despite secretly demonstrating terrifying physical strength, unnatural resilience, and intense emotional attachment toward Zhao Yunlan. The Special Investigations Department faces a crisis when human resources officer Wang Zheng, an earthbound ghost who died centuries earlier, suddenly vanishes and flees toward the northwestern mountains. Zhao Yunlan, accompanied by his staff, tracks Wang Zheng to an isolated mountain pass, where they encounter Shen Wei leading a student research excursion. Trapped by a heavy blizzard in a mountain cabin, the group comes under siege by an army of animated, biting human skulls animated by the Luobula Curse, an ancient forbidden soul-binding art belonging to the extinct Hanga tribe. Confronted by Zhao Yunlan, Wang Zheng reveals her true historical identity as Gelan, the daughter of the Hanga tribe chieftain. Centuries ago, the Hanga tribe relied upon the Mountain-River Awl, the second Hallowed Artifact of the Netherworld, to slaughter and imprison generations of rebellious slaves and tribesmen inside its stone pillar to serve the rulers in death. Gelan had secretly loved a rebel slave leader named Sangzan and aided his survival, but their uprising resulted in the catastrophic massacre of Sangzan's followers, driving Sangzan to sacrifice his own life and bind the entire tribe into the Mountain-River Awl, while Gelan's corpse was preserved to spare her from the pillar's eternal torment.Zhao Yunlan enters the sacred Hanga cavern to stop Wang Zheng from sacrificing herself, where he confronts the colossal Mountain-River Awl. The Soul-Executing Emissary arrives to stabilize Zhao Yunlan's fractured souls, revealing that Zhao Yunlan was born with a ghost-touched shoulder lacking the True Flame of Samadhi on his left shoulder. Zhao Yunlan correctly deduces that the Mountain-River Awl's binding matrix fears dynamic natural elements, using a modified cigarette igniting into True Flames of Samadhi to incinerate the accumulated layers of mortal souls, allowing Wang Zheng to summon Sangzan's ghost into the Soul-Guarding Order. A hostile adversary known as the Ghost-Faced Figure ambushes the cavern wielding an executioner's axe and commanding youchu beasts, claiming an ancient acquaintance with Zhao Yunlan spanning thousands of years. The Soul-Executing Emissary defends Zhao Yunlan with lethal fury, yet deliberately pulls his blade back to prevent carving through the adversary's mask. After Zhao Yunlan extracts the true octagonal core of the Mountain-River Awl and hands it to the Emissary, the Emissary teleports him back to safety, where Shen Wei conveniently walks in carrying firewood. Back in Dragon City, Shen Wei suddenly collapses during a gathering without a pulse or heartbeat. Zhao Yunlan consults the Book of Life and Death, which identifies Shen Wei as a soulless entity born from an unspeakable abyss, and uses talismans to resuscitate him before directly exposing the truth: gentle professor Shen Wei is the feared Soul-Executing Emissary. Shen Wei drops his disguise, disclosing that the Ghost-Faced Figure seeks the Four Hallowed Artifacts to shatter the Great Seal and return existence to primordial Chaos. Zhao Yunlan realizes the masked enemy possesses Shen Wei's exact face beneath his disguise, while Daqing reveals that Zhao Yunlan is the single continuous Guardian across history, whom Daqing sought across five centuries after his master vanished.Zhao Yunlan and the Special Investigations Department investigate a series of mysterious hospital attacks orchestrated by Wang Xiangyang, a resentful spirit who has murdered multiple victims without generating typical karmic traces. Guo Changcheng and Chu Shuzhi participate in the inquiry, during which Chu Shuzhi discovers that Guo Changcheng possesses an extraordinarily thick white merit mark behind his ear despite his apparent ineptitude. When the investigation leads to a violent confrontation at the hospital, Zhao Yunlan takes drastic action by invoking the Ghost Army Summons using blood and iron, calling upon spectral forces that shatter the windows and overwhelm the adversary. Shen Wei intervenes to halt the assault and reacts with intense fury and anguish, dragging Zhao Yunlan aside to rebuke him for using forbidden sorcery that draws upon the lightless abyss of the Great Disrespect beneath the Great Seal and invites divine retribution. Interrogation of Wang Xiangyang reveals that an unknown entity traded him an enchanted amulet capable of wiping clean his karmic sins in exchange for harvested mortal souls, confirming that the third Hallowed Artifact, the Merit Brush, is active. A sudden dispatch informs Shen Wei that youchu beasts are breaching the subterranean boundaries of the Great Seal due to the resonance of the Ghost Army Summons, compelling Shen Wei to depart immediately for the Netherworld depths. Zhao Yunlan pursues the investigation alone to an overgrown mountain slope, where a crow spirit lures him into an ambush with a counterfeit brush before the Ghost-Faced Figure strikes Zhao Yunlan unconscious. Rather than killing him, the Ghost-Faced Figure delivers Zhao Yunlan to Shen Wei with an ominous warning that the Netherworld is plotting to awaken the deity hidden within the Guardian.Zhao Yunlan regains consciousness with physical blindness, an injury that simultaneously activates his innate Heavenly Eye and grants him the supernatural ability to see red merits and black sins written across all living souls. Looking upon Shen Wei through this divine perception, Zhao Yunlan sees brilliant streams of crimson merits continuously wiped away and drowned beneath an endless sea of dark, turbulent filth, revealing the agonizing toll of Shen Wei's true existence. Seeking answers, Zhao Yunlan enlists the illiterate librarian Sangzan to secretly pull historical records regarding Kunlun Mountain, the Three Sovereigns, the collapse of Buzhou Mountain, and the ancient goddess Nuwa, uncovering hints that humanity was created from mud tainted by the three worms of greed, wrath, and delusion. Meanwhile, Corpse King Chu Shuzhi reaches the end of his three hundred year sentence within the Soul-Guarding Order, but the Netherworld bureaucracy indefinitely postpones the removal of his merit shackles, provoking Chu Shuzhi to retrieve a forbidden bone flute to attempt a lethal escape. The Magistrate of the Netherworld arrives at 4 Bright Avenue to plead for Zhao Yunlan's assistance, disclosing that the Ghost-Faced Figure, also known as the Chaos King of the Gui, seeks to assemble the corporeal souls of humanity at the peak of Kunlun Mountain to force the manifestation of the Merit Brush. Realizing that the Netherworld cannot access the sacred mountain without the Soul-Guarding Order, Zhao Yunlan exploits the Magistrate's desperation by demanding the immediate removal of Chu Shuzhi's merit shackles, the return of his confiscated dark artifacts, and the exoneration of numerous wrongfully condemned spirits before agreeing to guide the expedition, deliberately ignoring Shen Wei's written warning to refuse the underworld's summons.At the snowy border of Kunlun Mountain, Zhao Yunlan activates the ancient stone hexagram formation with the wooden Soul-Guarding Order, unlocking the pass and leading the assembled group to the sacred summit where the Great Divine Tree stands. The spiritual resonance of the primordial sanctuary triggers an involuntary physical transformation in Daqing, who shifts from a fat black cat into his long-haired human youth form as forgotten memories begin to resurface. The Ghost-Faced Figure manifests as a sky-spanning horror wielding the Soul-Tempering Cauldron, commanding a horde of youchu to overwhelm the party while Shen Wei brandishes the Soul-Executing Blade in defense. Stepping forward, Zhao Yunlan brazenly bluffs the enemy and the terrified Magistrate by invoking the supreme divine persona of Kunlun-jun, accurately deducing that the Merit Brush was originally carved from the Ancient Merit Tree by the Three Sovereigns to govern mortal morality before shattering across humanity. When the Soul-Tempering Cauldron shatters, the fully formed Merit Brush shoots directly into the trunk of the Great Divine Tree, prompting Zhao Yunlan to plunge inside the bark to retrieve it. Inside the void of the tree, Zhao Yunlan encounters the living memories of his primordial self, discovering that he is the reincarnation of Kunlun-jun, the Mountain God of the Great Wild, who bestowed his soul fire upon the abyss, ripped out his own divine tendon to grant godhood to the young King of the Gui, Shen Wei, and burned his body and heart's blood to forge the Soul-Guarding Lamp. Zhao Yunlan secures the Merit Brush and returns to the mortal realm, presenting the artifact to Shen Wei while demanding accountability for Shen Wei's deceptive schemes to isolate him and secretly sustain his mortal lifespan with his own heart's blood.Zhao Yunlan discovers that his father's body is intermittently possessed by a stone mortar left behind by the ancient sovereign Shennong, tasked with enforcing an ancient golden contract. When Zhao Yunlan confronts Shen Wei over his declining vitality, Shen Wei confesses that because he is an inauspicious King of the Gui born from the Place of Great Disrespect, his proximity drains Zhao Yunlan's life force, compelling Shen Wei to secretly feed him the pure blood from the tip of his own heart to sustain him. After receiving a sacred water dragon pearl from the Snake tribe containing Nüwa's scale, Zhao Yunlan investigates an ominous text titled Record of Ancient Secrets and visits a general store in Ghost City, learning that he himself originally purchased the book eleven years earlier during the Renwu year. Escaping a ghoul riot with Shen Wei's assistance, Zhao Yunlan dives into the Wangchuan River to reach the Great Seal tablet, where the relic reveals suppressed memories before the hostile Ghost-Faced Figure confronts him and reveals that he and Shen Wei are twin Chaos Kings of the Gui. The power of Nüwa's scale temporarily casts Zhao Yunlan eleven years into the past, where he observes Shen Wei fiercely confronting Shennong's mortar over the deteriorating Great Houtu Seal and purchases the book to fulfill the causal time loop. Upon reuniting, Shen Wei reveals the unedited truth: ancient sovereign Shennong attempted to establish the Reincarnation Cycle to eliminate death, but when the Water God Gonggong toppled Buzhou Mountain, Kunlun-jun's soul fire fell into the Place of Great Disrespect, giving birth to the soul-less twin Kings of the Gui. When the collapsing world forced Kunlun-jun to seal the Four Pillars by transforming his own body and heart's blood into the Soul-Guarding Lamp, he ripped out his own divine spine tendon and bestowed it upon the young Shen Wei to grant him divinity. To prevent Kunlun-jun from permanently dissipating, Shen Wei secretly confined his primordial spirit and traded an eternal vow with Shennong to guard the Great Seal and never meet Kunlun-jun's reincarnations, in exchange for washing Kunlun-jun's spirit clean and permitting him to enter the mortal Reincarnation Cycle.Ghost-Faced Figure launches a coordinated offensive using stolen souls and youchu beasts at a mountain resort, forcing Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei to intervene. Although Zhao Yunlan recognizes that the breach is an artificial Ghost Army Summons rather than a genuine collapse of the Great Seal, Shen Wei intentionally allows himself to be impaled by an icicle and captured by Ghost Face to execute his own counter-stratagem. Ghost Face chains Shen Wei to the Ancient Merit Tree in the Netherworld depths, attempting to consume him to acquire his divine status and completely shatter the seal, while Buddhist officer Lin Jing uses scripture recitations to trigger the Great Sealing Rock's protective white radiance. Meanwhile, Zhao Yunlan travels to the Netherworld to reach the Reincarnation Cycle to restore Kunlun-jun's primordial power, but the Ten Yanluo Kings block him, escorting him instead to the pool housing the colossal Soul-Guarding Lamp. The Qin'guang King reveals that the Soul-Guarding Lamp has remained unlit due to the lack of its original wick, demanding that Zhao Yunlan sacrifice his mortal life so that they may harvest his heart's blood to reignite the artifact. As Zhu Hong, the Snake tribe elders, and various immortal sects storm the hall to denounce the Netherworld's deceit, Ghost Face ambushes the assembly with hordes of gui. Shen Wei breaks free and enters the chamber, exposing that he has secretly held three of the Four Hallowed Artifacts all along: he orchestrated the Mountain-River Awl's appearance to mark Ghost Face, manipulated Ghost Face into linking the Reincarnation Dial and Merit Brush via the Soul-Tempering Cauldron, and marked the immortals so that they would unite against the underworld. When Ghost Face realizes his schemes have failed, he detonates his own corporeal form, triggering a cataclysmic explosion that shatters the Great Seal, collapses the Yanluo Courts, and inundates the Huangquan Road.

Shen Wei guides the survivors up the pagoda tree to Antiques Street, where he establishes a massive Bagua formation to reconstruct the Four Pillars and seal the world with the Four Hallowed Artifacts. Refusing to drain Zhao Yunlan's life, Shen Wei pricks a single drop of blood from Zhao Yunlan's finger and adds a spark of stored soul fire to generate a temporary wick inside the Soul-Guarding Lamp. The staff of the Special Investigations Department and their supernatural allies take their stations beneath the artifacts, successfully stabilizing and dispatching the Reincarnation Dial, the Mountain-River Awl, and the Merit Brush to anchor three of the Four Pillars. To seal the final pillar at the center, Shen Wei severs Zhao Yunlan's connection to the Soul-Guarding Lamp, pulls him into a kiss to erase all of Zhao Yunlan's memories of their relationship, and casts himself into the flames of the Soul-Guarding Lamp to fulfill his ancient vow of dying with the Great Seal. Simultaneously, Zhu Hong dives into the Wangchuan River to plant a branch of the Great Divine Tree given to her by Shen Wei; having sprouted a third bud signifying the King of the Gui's acquisition of three ethereal souls, the branch erupts into a colossal divine tree that seals the subterranean abyss. Shen Wei's deliberate breach of his vow to never part from Zhao Yunlan shatters the seal on Kunlun-jun's spirit, awakening the Mountain God in Zhao Yunlan's body. In the Mortal Realm, Guo Changcheng instinctively recites the Soul-Guarding Order's creed to liberate trapped souls, projecting an immense accumulation of pure merits into the Soul-Guarding Lamp and proving that Guo Changcheng is the true reincarnation of the lamp's wick. Sustained by this boundless merit, the Soul-Guarding Lamp returns Shen Wei, who emerges with three ethereal souls, seven corporeal souls, and true godhood, permanently completing Shennong's Reincarnation Cycle and enabling Shen Wei and Kunlun-jun to live together in the Mortal Realm.

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Case File Compendium: Bing An Ben

The Story so far...
(Volumes 1–9)

He Yu is a nineteen year old university student secretly diagnosed as Case 4 of psychological Ebola, a rare congenital neurological and endocrine disorder characterized by destructive violent flare-ups, while Xie Qingcheng is a thirty-two year old former physician and current medical professor who previously supervised He Yu for seven years. He Yu enters Huzhou University to pursue Xie Qingcheng's younger sister, lecturer Xie Xue. When Xie Xue volunteers to accompany the mentally ill homeless man Zhuang Zhiqiang to Cheng Kang Psychiatric Hospital, she is trapped and taken hostage by Jiang Lanpei, a long-term patient who has murdered hospital director Liang Jicheng. Arriving at the facility with He Yu, Xie Qingcheng trades himself to take his sister's place, allowing Jiang Lanpei to press a scalpel against his neck and herd everyone to the rooftop. On the roof, Jiang Lanpei reveals that Liang Jicheng and his late brother Liang Zhongkang had sexually assaulted, tortured, and forcibly drugged her and other female patients over twenty years in an underground chamber. Jiang Lanpei detonates pre-set gasoline lines to incinerate the facility and hurls herself into the flames. During the conflagration, He Yu and Xie Qingcheng charge back inside to retrieve keys and unlock trapped patients. When an escaping patient hysterically flees toward the fire, He Yu slices open his own palm with a blade, deploying his psychological Ebola comorbid ability of blood toxin to force the mentally ill patients into total mechanical obedience. He Yu directs the survivors to safety and sternly warns Xie Qingcheng to never expose his blood toxin secret to anyone.Following the disaster at the hospital, rookie police officer Chen Yan, known as Chen Man, arrives at the precinct where Xie Qingcheng and He Yu are questioned. Chen Man is the younger brother of Chen Lisheng, a deceased police officer who died in the line of duty while investigating the suspicious car crash that killed Xie Qingcheng's police officer parents nineteen years earlier. In the criminal underworld, the syndicate leader Duan-laoban observes reports regarding the coordinated evacuation of the psychiatric patients with suspicion. Seeking an isolated opportunity to confess his romantic feelings to Xie Xue, He Yu arranges for an outdoor recreation club member to sever ferry transit to Neverland Island on the campus lake. His plan fails when Xie Qingcheng wears Xie Xue's nine-tailed fox mascot costume in her place to cover her campus festival responsibilities, leaving the two men marooned together in a cave during a heavy rainstorm. Inside the cave, they examine a communal visitor notebook called the Utopia Guestbook and discover a newly written entry declaring that WZL will be murdered soon, signed in red ink with Jiang Lanpei's name. Recognizing that the deceased Jiang Lanpei could not have authored the note, they deduce that an unknown party is orchestrating retaliatory murders connected to Cheng Kang Psychiatric Hospital under her identity. Upon returning to campus, He Yu discovers a time capsule confession letter from Xie Xue addressed to drama student Wei Dongheng, shattering He Yu's illusions about his unrequited affection. Xie Qingcheng delivers the ominous notebook to the police department, but he abruptly collapses on the station stairs from a severe allergic reaction to mango after unknowingly consuming a drink provided by He Yu. Chen Man rushes Xie Qingcheng to the emergency room for treatment, where He Yu secretly observes them together while obtaining medication.He Yu delivers home-cooked food to Xie Qingcheng's faculty dormitory to atone for causing the allergic reaction, but their deep-seated psychological tensions prevent genuine reconciliation. Simultaneously, an undercover female assassin acting on syndicate orders infiltrates an abandoned villa, murders Liang Jicheng's surviving wife and son, and steals Jiang Lanpei's original records from a hidden safe, fabricating suicide notes to mislead investigators. Xie Xue asks Xie Qingcheng to travel to Hangshi to deliver clothing and regional pastries to He Yu, who has accepted a small acting role in a campus romance production to distract his mind from his emotional breakdown. In his hotel room, He Yu suffers an acute psychological Ebola flare-up exacerbated by heartbreak, indiscriminately ingesting prescription pills and consuming heavy amounts of alcohol. Xie Qingcheng enters room 8062 to return He Yu's room card, discovers the self-destructive intoxication, and physically intervenes. In a delirious state of fever and intoxication, He Yu pins Xie Qingcheng down and forcibly kisses him, biting his mouth until blood flows. The following morning, Xie Qingcheng confronts He Yu with detached severity, dismissing the assault as drunken confusion over a failed heterosexual romance, while He Yu conceals his humiliation and inner turmoil. Upon returning to Huzhou, Xie Qingcheng accompanies Chen Man to the cemetery to burn paper money for Chen Lisheng, where hostile hospital staff confront Xie Qingcheng over the past murder of Dr. Qin Ciyan, who was stabbed to death four years earlier by patient relative Yi Beihai. Xie Qingcheng, He Yu, and Chen Man ultimately convene at a diner to share a meal, while the assassinations of Liang Jicheng's family and the foreboding WZL death threat remain unsolved.Huzhou University and Huzhou Medical School collaborate on a centennial commemorative film project, drawing Xie Qingcheng and He Yu into close proximity as He Yu uses hacking to agitate his former doctor while Xie Qingcheng forces He Yu into undesirable acting roles. During an intimate backstage rehearsal in the auditorium, their escalating personal conflict is interrupted when a high-tech cyberattack seizes the campus broadcasting tower and locks every student smartphone onto an unclosable livestream. The broadcast initiates the Drop the Hanky Game of Death, displaying the initials W, Z, and L alongside sinister nursery rhyme audio and computerized dolls. The broadcast soon confirms the murder of the first target, university administrator Wang Jiankang, who is discovered strangled to death in a campus hotel room wearing red high heels in an execution mimicking Jiang Lanpei's killing of Liang Jicheng. The lethal game immediately transitions to the second target, leading Zhang Yong, the director of the Office for International Academic Exchanges, to flee in terror. Zhang Yong had participated alongside Wang Jiankang in drugging female students and trafficking them to Cheng Kang Psychiatric Hospital for biological experimentation and sexual exploitation. Despite attempting to hide in an unlisted office without electronic devices, Zhang Yong is ambushed outside and crushed to death by an unmanned refrigerated truck that spontaneously bursts into flames. Watching the broadcast footage of the burning vehicle, Xie Qingcheng recognizes that this automated vehicular homicide perfectly matches the unresolved crash that murdered his police officer parents, Xie Ping and Zhou Muying, nineteen years earlier. Convinced that the syndicate responsible for his parents' deaths has resurfaced, Xie Qingcheng immediately contacts Criminal Investigation Captain Zheng Jingfeng to demand the confidential suspect list for the remaining target.When Captain Zheng Jingfeng refuses to breach departmental confidentiality regarding the informant who left the WZL warning in the Utopia Guestbook, Xie Qingcheng appeals to officer Chen Man, who similarly declines due to his rank and procedural rules. He Yu intervenes by utilizing his advanced hacking capabilities to intercept internal police communications, revealing that authorities believe the letter L designates university infirmary assistant Lu Yuzhu. Analyzing the tactical layout, He Yu deduces that the syndicate did not hijack the broadcast tower merely to display executions, but rather to stabilize localized wireless signals for an operation targeting the nearby Bowen Archives Building. Recognizing that L stands for both Lu Yuzhu and the library archives containing decades of physical evidence detailing the syndicate's crimes, Xie Qingcheng and He Yu infiltrate the building ahead of law enforcement. He Yu accesses the bomb network through a cloned application and halts a five-minute countdown on remote detonators. Confronting them, Lu Yuzhu reveals herself as the domestic ringleader answering to syndicate head Duan-laoban, detailing how her suicide bombing was orchestrated to destroy all paper records and frame an overseas manufacturer for both the Cheng Kang atrocities and the historic murders of Xie Qingcheng's parents. When Lu Yuzhu realizes He Yu is actively disrupting the organization's detonator controls, she draws a handgun and shoots him in the shoulder. Enduring severe blood loss, He Yu enters the final commands to disable the primary blast sequence before his phone falls from his hands. Xie Qingcheng carries the injured He Yu down the steps to safety as Captain Zheng Jingfeng's tactical unit arrives, evacuating the perimeter before the remaining structural charges destroy the facility.As He Yu receives medical treatment for his gunshot wounds inside a police vehicle, the syndicate hackers execute a psychological counterstrike by broadcasting an old medical symposium video across the campus tower and the internet. The footage shows Xie Qingcheng speaking with frigid detachment following the murder of his mentor Qin Ciyan by patient relative Yi Beihai, asserting that doctors should never prioritize mentally ill patients over their own lives and dismissing notions of social equality as comforting medical platitudes. He Yu is utterly shattered by the revelation, having trusted Xie Qingcheng throughout his youth solely because he believed the doctor genuinely saw him as an equal human being rather than an abnormal monster. Disillusioned by what he views as calculated deception, He Yu turns away from Xie Qingcheng, rejects medical supervision, and plunges into profound psychosis. Concurrently, public fury over the leaked footage forces Huzhou Medical School to suspend Xie Qingcheng amid widespread professional condemnation. Seeking to obliterate his pain, He Yu speeds to the lavish Skynight Club, spending lavishly on alcohol and private hosts. Alerted to the situation by Zheng Jingfeng, Xie Qingcheng enters the venue to retrieve his former patient, only to be confronted by He Yu in a private suite. Believing Xie Qingcheng to be entirely heartless, He Yu forces him to drink Plum Fragrance 59, a potent aphrodisiac liquor. When Xie Qingcheng attempts to resist, He Yu restrains him using an unbreakable robber's knot and subjects him to a prolonged, retaliatory sexual assault, venting his madness before abandoning Xie Qingcheng battered and unconscious on the suite sofa.Awakening alone in the locked suite, Xie Qingcheng endures severe physical trauma and humiliation before placing a phone call to He Yu, confronting him over his absolute lack of decency. He Yu returns to Skynight Club to settle the substantial bill, encountering Xie Qingcheng in the lobby restroom. During their bitter confrontation, He Yu notices the poetic epitaph tattooed across Xie Qingcheng's wrist, recalling a junior high memory when he had attempted to copy the phrase and suffered a severe allergic reaction, though his lingering rage overrides any sentimental softening. Xie Qingcheng manages to reach his faculty dormitory before completely collapsing from exhaustion, fever, and bodily inflammation. Arriving to check on him, Chen Man discovers Xie Qingcheng unconscious and transports him to Huzhou First Hospital for emergency treatment. Having followed them out of unresolved fixation, He Yu monitors the hospital lobby from the shadows, watching Chen Man handle registrations and medications. When Chen Man inadvertently drops Xie Qingcheng's official laboratory blood test report onto the floor, He Yu retrieves the document from the tiles. Approached by Chen Man, who fails to recognize him beneath his low-pulled cap, He Yu refuses to return the paper, lying that it contains his girlfriend's confidential pregnancy test results. After Chen Man apologizes and departs, He Yu studies the test results, confirming that Xie Qingcheng suffers from severe inflammation without lethal injury. Pocketing the report as proof of their encounter, He Yu slips away into the night, leaving Xie Qingcheng under Chen Man's care while their relationship remains fractured by trauma, violation, and unaddressed conspiracy.After the physical violation at the Skynight Club, Xie Qingcheng attempts to maintain professional composure at Huzhou Medical School while concealing rope burns and bodily trauma, but mounting public outrage over the leaked Qin Ciyan symposium footage intensifies, prompting aggressive student petitions and online campaigns demanding his termination. Officer Chen Man consistently looks after Xie Qingcheng, helping him home and bringing food, which triggers acute possessive jealousy in He Yu. Struggling with violent impulses, homophobia, and compulsive fixation, He Yu tracks Xie Qingcheng to a bar and traps him against the counter, accusing him of hypocrisy and deceit regarding the true nature and early termination of his past employment contract under He Jiwei. He Yu demands that Xie Qingcheng submit to an additional three years under his personal supervision just as before, but Xie Qingcheng refuses to yield to coercion. Noticing He Yu's deteriorating mental stability and medication abuse, his mother Lü Zhishu recruits a handsome physician named Anthony to administer hypnotherapy treatments. To keep her son occupied and remove him from local distractions, Lü Zhishu arranges an internship for He Yu on the high-budget film production The Trial. Directed and produced by entertainment executive Huang Zhilong alongside screenwriter Hu Yi, the extravagant production serves as a major commercial project backed by influential domestic elites. When He Yu arrives at the production's hotel, he is infuriated to discover that Xie Qingcheng and Chen Man have both joined the cast and crew as technical consultants for medical and law enforcement sequences. Screenwriter Hu Yi recognizes both He Yu and Chen Man, revealing that all three had crossed paths during their privileged childhoods at a high-status gathering in Yanzhou.Tensions escalate on the set of The Trial as He Yu shadows the directors while closely monitoring Xie Qingcheng, whose cold detachment and protective camaraderie with Chen Man agitate He Yu's symptoms of psychological Ebola. During on-location shooting at a police academy where Chen Man supervises hundreds of background performers, Xie Qingcheng puts on a cadet uniform to stand in the formation as a favor to Chen Man before his assignment concludes. While wandering across another film set where a bloody shootout is being filmed, He Yu notices an elderly female extra dressed in a floral quilted jacket whose face appears strikingly familiar. Interrogating the woman, He Yu breaks through her evasions and discovers that Xie Qingcheng had secretly hired her years earlier to act out a fabricated confrontation outside his consultation room, intentionally manipulating medical proceedings to construct a callous facade and sever He Yu's emotional dependence on him. Reeling from the realization that Xie Qingcheng's past rejection was an orchestrated deception hiding deeper motives, He Yu storms over to the police academy drill grounds and physically confronts Xie Qingcheng, violently pinning him against a classroom lectern to demand the full truth behind his hidden past. Xie Qingcheng resists disclosing his secrets, demanding that He Yu cease meddling in his private affairs. Later that evening, a female production manager and an assistant writer enlist Xie Qingcheng to inspect the high-tech laboratory set at the film studio because sudden schedule changes require technical corrections for surgical instruments and sterile props, prompting He Yu to follow them in his vehicle to maintain surveillance over his former physician.

Upon entering the cavernous soundstage designed as an underground biological research facility, Xie Qingcheng and He Yu discover that the production staff members have completely vanished, while the heavy electronic blast doors unexpectedly drop shut and lock them inside. Investigating the darkened laboratory chambers, the two men discover the waterlogged corpse of screenwriter Hu Yi floating inside an oversized glass specimen tank among realistic silicone props, confirming an assassination carried out against a prominent figure with elite military lineage. An unknown operative wearing a baseball cap and raincoat had murdered Hu Yi, concealed the two unconscious female crew members inside a massive equipment trunk to transport them away, destroyed the municipal water mains to induce a catastrophic flood to erase all forensic evidence, and deployed signal jammers to block outside communication. Water rapidly inundates the sealed studio, submerging the floor and rising toward the ceiling, leaving He Yu and Xie Qingcheng trapped without exit routes or cellular service. As the waterline rises inexorably to the rafters, threatening total asphyxiation and drowning, both men realize that survival is statistically improbable. Stripped of superficial defenses and facing imminent mortality, Xie Qingcheng finally drops his rigid emotional barriers and reclines beside He Yu in the rising currents, watching jellyfish recordings on his phone to provide solace. In the dark water, Xie Qingcheng begins to unburden himself, preparing to disclose his deepest vulnerabilities, the harrowing truth of his own chronic medical affliction, and the hidden sacrifices that defined his life.As water rises to the ceiling inside the sealed studio of The Trial, Xie Qingcheng reveals his hidden past to He Yu. Nineteen years earlier, following the vehicular assassination of his police officer parents Xie Ping and Zhou Muying, thirteen year old Xie Qingcheng investigated a Yanzhou nightclub and survived an intentional vehicular hit and run. Neurosurgeon Qin Ciyan broke clinical regulations to save him by administering RN-13, an unapproved American cell regenerative drug. Xie Qingcheng survived three months of immersion in a medical tank, becoming Patient Zero of psychological Ebola. To protect him from criminal syndicates, Qin Ciyan created the legend of the First Emperor as a computer simulation and attributed the medical data to this fictitious program. Xie Qingcheng abandoned law enforcement, studied medicine under Qin Ciyan, and conducted biological research to conquer his disorder. After Case 3 slaughtered his own father during a psychotic episode, Xie Qingcheng took a newly developed American suppressant to stabilize his condition and later agreed to supervise He Yu as Case 4. Four years prior, Qin Ciyan was murdered with thirteen stab wounds by patient relative Yi Beihai, a man Xie Qingcheng had originally redirected to Qin Ciyan. Crushed by guilt, Xie Qingcheng staged a callous confrontation with a paid actress to sever He Yu's emotional attachment and quit Huzhou First Hospital to finish Qin Ciyan's medical manuscripts. In the flooded studio, He Yu locates a small ledge that can only support one person. He Yu forces Xie Qingcheng onto the platform, declares his hatred so Xie Qingcheng will not remember him like Qin Ciyan, and sinks into the water to drown. Xie Qingcheng dives back into the water to hold him until Lü Zhishu and the film crew cut through the doors to rescue them.Awakening in the hospital, Xie Qingcheng attempts to reinstate cold boundaries, asserting that confessions made in the face of death are void, but He Yu rejects this distance now that he knows Xie Qingcheng's past rejection was driven by self sacrificing guilt rather than malice. He Yu deletes the compromising Skynight Club photographs from his phone, renounces coercion, and visits Xie Qingcheng's faculty residence over New Year, confronting Xie Qingcheng's ex-wife Li Ruoqiu when she arrives seeking advice about her marital distress. Xie Qingcheng reveals to He Yu that Xie Xue has tested positive for an altered variant of RN-13 after experiencing severe nosebleeds and delirium. Recognizing these symptoms from his own past, Xie Qingcheng deduces that Liang Jicheng secretly administered the compound to Xie Xue at Cheng Kang Psychiatric Hospital. Because Liang Jicheng, his family, and his senior associates were all assassinated or killed in the hospital inferno, the local forensic trail is severed, leaving no direct witnesses alive. He Yu insists that their shared affliction makes them kin, pledging his technical skills to help Xie Qingcheng locate the source of the modified drug and develop an antidote before Xie Xue suffers irreversible neurological degradation. Their investigation leads them to the terminally ill homeless man Zhuang Zhiqiang, who discloses before his death that his vanished daughter Zhao Xue had been recruited by university administrator Wang Jiankang, the first victim executed in the broadcasting tower killings. Realizing that Qingli County is the common birthplace of Zhuang Zhiqiang, Lu Yuzhu, and Qin Ciyan's murderer Yi Beihai, Xie Qingcheng and He Yu travel there together to investigate the sinister nexus connecting these historical atrocities.Arriving in Qingli County, Xie Qingcheng and He Yu inspect Humanity High School, an institution where rural girls were promised performing arts training in Huzhou before disappearing without a trace. They learn that all institutional records were obliterated years earlier in a suspicious archival fire that mirrors the destruction of the Bowen Archives Building. That night at their rented farmhouse, He Yu spots a woman outside their window who closely resembles the deceased syndicate operative Lu Yuzhu. The following day, their pursuit of this figure leads them to Awen Hair Salon, operated by Lu Yuzhu's estranged daughter Yi Awen and her father Yi Qiang, who had abandoned Lu Yuzhu for a mistress after her wrongful imprisonment. Inside the salon attic, they discover the decaying corpse of Yi Qiang, whom Yi Awen murdered in retaliation for years of domestic abuse and exploitation. Panicking when confronted, Yi Awen brandishes a stolen firearm and fires at them, severely wounding Xie Qingcheng in his left arm. He Yu physically overpowers and disarms Yi Awen, suffering a dislocated hand while preventing her from executing further violence. Local law enforcement officers arrive on the scene to take Yi Awen into custody for her father's murder, closing the domestic tragedy of Lu Yuzhu's shattered family. Synthesizing recovered files and regional testimonies, Xie Qingcheng and He Yu deduce that entertainment magnate Huang Zhilong and his deceased wife Jin Xiuhe ran a systematic pipeline from Qingli County to traffic impoverished girls into Huzhou for illegal biological experiments and sexual abuse at Cheng Kang Psychiatric Hospital, directly connecting the current RN-13 threat to Zhilong Entertainment.Following the violent confrontation at the salon in Qingli County, Xie Qingcheng is hospitalized with a concussion, internal injuries, and a gunshot wound to his arm, while He Yu remains watchful at his bedside. Concurrently in Huzhou, actress Yang, the second female lead of the feature film The Trial and an artist managed by Huang Zhilong under Zhilong Culture and Media, is found dead in her bathtub at Wanhe Residences under suspicious circumstances. When Xie Qingcheng and He Yu return to Huzhou, Xie Qingcheng checks on Xie Xue at Meiyu Private Hospital, where she undergoes intensive blood filtration therapies to suppress the early neurological symptoms of RN-13 poisoning. After reviewing online exposés regarding Zhilong Entertainment's historical practice of drugging performers into total obedience and disappearing them into overseas jurisdictions, He Yu suffers an acute psychological breakdown. He Yu flees to the Skynight Club, running up a substantial bar tab until Xie Qingcheng arrives, settles the account, and brings him home to recover. While tending to He Yu, Xie Qingcheng discovers his own lost hospital laboratory blood report, across the back of which He Yu has repeatedly and obsessively inscribed apologies. Xie Qingcheng confronts He Yu with direct emotional clarity, reaffirming their mutual bond as survivors of psychological Ebola and agreeing to combine their efforts to uncover the truth behind the forbidden pharmaceutical conspiracy. He Yu uses his hacking capabilities to penetrate sealed administrative databases, discovering that Huang Zhilong had served as a directing professor at the predecessor institution of Huzhou University in the 1990s alongside the executed administrator Wang Jiankang. This discovery confirms that Huang Zhilong systematically operated a decades-long human trafficking pipeline that lured impoverished rural female students from Qingli County into Huzhou under the deceptive pretense of performing arts training.Chen Man receives an anonymous parcel containing an aged videotape in which the missing student Zhao Xue exposes an underground facility beneath Zhilong Entertainment where abducted women were administered an experimental obedience potion and harvested for organs. Xie Qingcheng and He Yu analyze the recording alongside Chen Man, recognizing that the chemical described matches the compound administered to Xie Xue. They alert Captain Zheng Jingfeng that syndicate operatives will attempt to destroy or steal the damaged video camera recovered from the deceased actress's bathtub before its internal footage can be restored. Zheng Jingfeng coordinates with veteran forensic specialist Luo, who catches his corrupt apprentice Daming in the act of sabotaging the camera workstation. Digital reconstruction of the recording reveals that the actress suffered from dissociative identity disorder and committed suicide due to severe psychological agony caused by the obedience potion. While public fury erupts across social media demanding an investigation into the entertainment mogul, Xie Qingcheng recognizes that police procedures will limit authorities to a twenty-four hour interrogation without granting a warrant to search the company premises, providing Huang Zhilong sufficient time to purge the facility and flee using his New Zealand residency. Xie Qingcheng resolves to infiltrate the headquarters of Zhilong Entertainment alone to retrieve physical evidence, but He Yu intercepts him outside his residence and insists on joining the operation. Inside the subterranean facility, they navigate abandoned surgical theaters, incinerated archives, and bloodstained holding cells until they locate the execution chamber shown in Zhao Xue's tape. There, they discover Chen Man tied to a central stone pillar, having been abducted and injected with the modified RN-13 variant to serve as a hostage against his grandfather, Political Commissar Wang.Xie Qingcheng and He Yu subdue two armed guards, record their spoken confessions, and attempt to untie Chen Man, but Chen Man urges them to prioritize securing the biochemical evidence before the facility is locked down. Campus morality advisor Jiang Liping enters the chamber, revealing herself as the deep-cover police informant who had inscribed the original WZL murder warning in the Utopia Guestbook on Neverland Island, having used the initials JLP to designate her own name rather than Jiang Lanpei. Jiang Liping reveals that she was originally a student of Jin Xiuhe who witnessed Huang Zhilong murder his wife after Jin Xiuhe discovered his human trafficking operations. Rather than burying Jin Xiuhe, Huang Zhilong and his criminal partners drugged her into total psychosis and committed her to Cheng Kang Psychiatric Hospital under the fabricated identity of Jiang Lanpei, a fact Jiang Liping discovered only after spending years undercover as Huang Zhilong's trusted mistress. To avenge Jin Xiuhe, Jiang Liping orchestrated the broadcasting tower killings under the persona of Jiang Lanpei's vengeful ghost to execute the corrupt conspirators. Jiang Liping provides Xie Qingcheng and He Yu with photographic records of Huang Zhilong's illegal operations and discloses that Huang Zhilong has altered his travel itinerary to board an imminent flight from Huzhou International Airport. He Yu uses his portable device to wipe Zhilong Entertainment's central databases to paralyze their logistical communications, then departs on a high-speed train to Hangshi to deliver digital evidence directly to provincial Police Chief Hu Ting, while Xie Qingcheng transports the obedience potion samples to Meiyu Private Hospital so medical researchers can formulate a targeted antidote for Xie Xue.At Huzhou International Airport, tactical police units intercept Huang Zhilong near the departure gates. Refusing to surrender, Huang Zhilong draws a concealed firearm, seizes a civilian hostage, and opens fire before being fatally shot down by police marksmen on the terminal concourse. Law enforcement takes custody of Jiang Liping and retrieves a reinforced electronic safe containing Huang Zhilong's extensive extortion files against corporate leaders, state officials, and overseas syndicate operatives. While riding inside an armored police transport en route to headquarters, Jiang Liping realizes that the earlier murder of screenwriter Hu Yi was not ordered by Huang Zhilong, but was instead executed by the overarching syndicate to corner Huang Zhilong into destruction. Before Jiang Liping can convince the officers to alter their travel route, pre-planted explosives detonate beneath the municipal highway, killing Jiang Liping and twelve police officers while permanently destroying the safe and all physical records. On an island near Australia, syndicate leader Duan Wen moves chess pieces at his private desk, having successfully eradicated the domestic operational link and ordering his foreign subordinates to retreat from the mainland. Despite the complete destruction of the physical evidence and the loss of their primary witness, the obedience potion samples delivered by Xie Qingcheng allow the medical researchers at Meiyu Private Hospital to successfully synthesize a cure, stabilizing both Xie Xue and Chen Man. Concealing his own progressive multi-organ failure and terminal medical condition from He Yu, Xie Qingcheng silently recommits himself to pursuing justice against Duan Wen's global criminal network.Xie Qingcheng agrees to accompany He Yu to an opera on his twentieth birthday, intending to use the occasion to bring an orderly end to their disordered relationship. An urgent demand from Commissar Wang disrupts the plan, requiring Xie Qingcheng to remain at Meiyu Private Hospital to coordinate drug analyses on the antidote administered to Chen Man and Xie Xue. Detained alongside Chen Man, Xie Qingcheng arrives hours late at the theater to find He Yu drenched in the rain, suffering a severe flare-up of his condition and bleeding from self-inflicted wounds on his wrists. He Yu forcibly drags Xie Qingcheng to the parking lot and pushes him into the back of his Rolls-Royce Cullinan. Overcome by He Yu's sobbing and desperate cries that he cannot live without him, Xie Qingcheng yields to exhaustion and pulls the younger man down, reciprocating his kiss and engaging in an unrestrained physical encounter inside the vehicle. In the subsequent days, Xie Qingcheng confronts the rapid deterioration of his own health, which has been broken by cellular damage from RN-13 and years of human experimentation. Concluding that he has only a few years left to live and that his inevitable death will utterly destroy He Yu's fragile psyche, Xie Qingcheng determines that he must cut all ties before their attachment deepens further. He adamantly refuses He Yu's requests to return as his personal doctor, shuts down his emotional appeals, and systematically distances himself from the distraught youth. He Yu attempts to breach this barrier through persistent visits and confrontations, but Xie Qingcheng remains unyielding, refusing to allow their illicit affair to dictate his remaining time or drag He Yu into further dependency.

Lü Zhishu discovers evidence of sexual encounters inside He Yu's car, including discarded condoms, which prompts her to conduct a covert investigation into her son's activities. Her surveillance uncovers hotel records, changing room encounters, and high-resolution video footage of the tryst inside the vehicle, proving that He Yu's partner is not an unknown woman but Xie Qingcheng. Horrified and enraged, Lü Zhishu contacts Duan Wen using a secure phone line to report the liaison, only for Duan Wen to reveal that he has known about He Yu's obsession for months. Meanwhile, Xie Qingcheng discovers that his sister Xie Xue has secretly entered a romantic relationship with Wei Dongheng, a student from a powerful military and political clan. When Xie Qingcheng learns that Xie Xue is already pregnant, the shock and fury cause him to collapse and faint. A tense summit with the Wei family patriarch ensues, during which Xie Qingcheng furiously defends his sister while negotiating terms. The families agree to expedite a formal wedding banquet in Hangshi immediately following Wei Dongheng's graduation. In the midst of these domestic upheavals, He Yu arrives drunk at Xie Qingcheng's dormitory, where Chen Man is visiting. Provoked by Chen Man's presence, He Yu aggressively reveals that he has slept with Xie Qingcheng, detailing their physical intimacy to torment his rival. An enraged Chen Man loses his composure and attacks He Yu in a violent fistfight. Xie Qingcheng forcibly stops the altercation, throws both young men out, and refuses to allow either of them to compromise his boundaries.At the secluded vacation villa in Hangshi where the Wei family conducts traditional weddings, Xie Qingcheng sits inside the Daylily Pavilion awaiting the custom of a private consultation with the groom prior to the ceremony. Seeking to destroy Xie Qingcheng and disgrace the Wei family simultaneously, Lü Zhishu arranges for the room's incense to be replaced with a potent aphrodisiac drug, intending for the groom to be caught violating his brother-in-law. Her plot goes awry when Wei Dongheng drinks water laced with sedatives in his personal quarters and falls unconscious before arriving. Succumbing to the heat and hallucinogens of the incense, Xie Qingcheng is discovered by He Yu, who enters the pavilion and takes the groom's place in a feverish sexual encounter. Expecting to expose a catastrophe involving Wei Dongheng, Lü Zhishu leads the Wei elders, prominent guests, and Chen Man to the courtyard, only to pull open the door and reveal He Yu intertwined with Xie Qingcheng. Although the wedding proceeding is salvaged once Wei Dongheng awakens, the scandalous discovery leaves the witnesses reeling. In the aftermath, Chen Man visits Xie Qingcheng's room in a state of emotional collapse, expressing horror that Xie Qingcheng accepted a relationship with a younger man. Overwhelmed by his suppressed decade-long love, Chen Man forcibly pins Xie Qingcheng to the bed and attempts to assault him with a kiss. He Yu breaches the room and violently strikes Chen Man with a shattered lamp fragment. A physically battered and exhausted Xie Qingcheng intervenes, stops He Yu from killing Chen Man, and expels both men from his presence.Following the wedding, Xie Qingcheng notices a peculiar gold bone cross earring engraved with the letters R.I.P. hanging from Xie Xue's ear, which her mother-in-law presented as a traditional Wei bridal gift. Xie Qingcheng recognizes this item as the exact design of the earring retrieved from the Yanzhou private room where his parents met a covert contact immediately before their assassination nineteen years earlier. Investigating past records of Wei women who married into prominent families two decades prior, Xie Qingcheng uncovers that the earring belonged to Wei Rong, who had married Meng Sheng in that exact villa. Records show that Wei Rong supposedly perished in an exploding vehicular collision only one week after Xie Ping and Zhou Muying were killed in an identical manner, while Meng Sheng remarried mere months later without causing any rift with the Wei family. Concurrently, Chen Man arrives at Moyu Alley to deliver a final apology for his conduct at the villa, revealing that he has accepted a long-term police reassignment to Guangshi to escape his sheltered existence and earn genuine maturity. When Chen Man presses him on why he rejected him while accepting He Yu, Xie Qingcheng openly admits that the shared history between himself and He Yu is singular, declaring that no one else can replace He Yu in his life. Chen Man departs for his assignment, and while Xie Qingcheng absorbs the newly aligned evidence pointing toward Wei Rong, paramedics at the He family estate quietly pronounce He Jiwei dead from suicide, covering his body with a white sheet as the volume closes.He Jiwei commits suicide by drinking herbicide, causing lethal pulmonary fibrosis that kills him after days of hospitalization. Before his death, He Jiwei notarizes an authentic will leaving all personal assets exclusively to He Yu, completely disinheriting his second son He Li. He Yu assumes control of the He Group as its new executive while He Li refuses to attend the funeral. Seeking the identity of the person tied to the gold bone cross earring engraved with the letters R.I.P., Xie Qingcheng searches through old hard copy archives at Huzhou Medical University. He locates the graduation records of Wei Rong, an exceptionally talented surgery postgraduate who was a pupil of Qin Ciyan and married Meng Sheng before supposedly perishing in a car crash one week after Xie Ping and Zhou Muying died. He Yu, shattered by the realization that his father never truly loved him and was burdened by horrific secrets, seeks comfort from Xie Qingcheng, leading to an intense physical encounter between the two men. Meanwhile, Zheng Jingfeng recovers a leather-bound notebook left by Jiang Liping in one of Huang Zhilong's private villas. The decrypted entries identify the domestic conspirators of Duan Wen, exposing He Pharmaceuticals as the syndicate's primary biochemical partner responsible for manufacturing forbidden substances, including obedience potion, for human experimentation. He Yu discovers that Lü Zhishu has been running this illicit production line. Lü Zhishu breaks down, claiming she only sought to develop a cure for RN-13 to treat both of them, and states that a final shipment will leave Guangshi the following week. He Yu resolves to travel to Guangshi to board the cargo vessel himself.Project Dreambreaker launches a coordinated law enforcement raid targeting the criminal network of the He Group. In Guangshi, Chen Man conducts an unannounced inspection of the He Pharmaceuticals warehouse and discovers obedience potion concealed inside bottles labeled as children's cough syrup destined for overseas export. Wei-erge arrives at the corporate headquarters to interrogate Lü Zhishu, presenting an official confession from a Golden Triangle drug trafficker linking her to the potent aphrodisiac used at Wei Dongheng's wedding, alongside restored video footage from the venue. Xie Qingcheng goes to police headquarters to meet Commissar Wang and Director Hu, agreeing to help contact He Yu under the strict condition that officers refrain from using violence unless He Yu uses weapons or harms police personnel. Director Hu intercepts Xie Qingcheng's mobile phone and transmits a message to He Yu, claiming Xie Qingcheng is in police custody and warning that a corrupt officer inside the department may execute witnesses. He Yu calls the phone to confirm Xie Qingcheng's safety, allowing Guangshi police to trace He Yu's coordinates in international waters. Believing Xie Qingcheng betrayed him to the authorities, He Yu oversees the rendezvous with a ship sent from Mandela Island. Coast Guard cutters and police vessels intercept the exchange, initiating a violent naval firefight. As officers attempt to board the vessels, a light aircraft from the Mandela ship conducts a suicide bombing run, detonating the cargo bay in a massive explosion that kills over forty people. Chen Man is severely wounded in the blast, while forensics recover a severed foot whose DNA matches He Yu, leading the authorities to officially pronounce He Yu dead.Wei-erge delivers an envelope containing He Yu's final letter, found in the He family estate, to Xie Qingcheng. Addressed to the police, the document details the full conspiracy behind the murders of Xie Ping, Zhou Muying, Vivian, and Chen Lisheng. He Yu exposes Lü Zhishu as Wei Rong, who was recruited as a student by an Australian criminal syndicate. Wei Rong had sabotaged laboratory equipment to induce Vivian to miscarry her child by He Jiwei. When Vivian survived and approached police officers Xie Ping and Zhou Muying to investigate, Wei Rong coordinated with Duan Wen's syndicate to assassinate the two officers using an exploding truck. The syndicate then staged Wei Rong's death in a violent car crash, performed radical plastic surgery to give her Vivian's face, murdered the real Vivian, and installed Wei Rong as the false Lü Zhishu. She raised Vivian's son He Yu with cold detachment while bearing He Li with He Jiwei. Chen Lisheng was murdered when his investigation threatened her cover. He Jiwei eventually pieced together the truth, fell into profound despair, and drank herbicide. He Yu's letter reveals that he boarded the cargo ship to avenge his mother and Xie Qingcheng's parents, deliberately planting a covert tracking device among the transferred goods to transmit the coordinates of Mandela Island to law enforcement. Stricken with guilt over his role in facilitating the police ambush, Xie Qingcheng experiences severe optic nerve damage, resulting in permanent blindness in his left eye. Wei Rong is sentenced to death, the high-ranking police official protecting the syndicate is detained, and Xie Qingcheng relocates to New York for medical treatment and research.Three years later, Xie Qingcheng returns to Huzhou to continue his medical research, spend time with his young niece Yaya, and live in quiet retirement. Chen Man, now an experienced investigator on the Dreambreakers task force, informs him that the Mandela Syndicate has placed a powerful figure codenamed Diavolo in charge of their operations. Diavolo is revealed to be He Yu, who survived the naval explosion, received a prosthetic steel-boned foot, and returned to China as a legitimate corporate executive while secretly serving Duan Wen. Convinced that Xie Qingcheng chose Chen Man over him, He Yu treats Xie Qingcheng with malice and cold detachment. He Yu introduces his personal physician Anthony, whom Xie Qingcheng identifies as his estranged cousin Xie Lishen, who stole thirty thousand yuan from Xie Qingcheng's family after his parents died. Duan Wen's syndicate floods the market with dangerous experimental drugs, including modified obedience potions seeded into cosmetic clinics and cancer therapies. During a formal medical evaluation conference at Meiyu Hospital to select an antidote, He Yu covertly doses Xie Qingcheng with a potent controlling substance that triggers intense physiological and aphrodisiac torment. Despite the agonizing chemical effects, Xie Qingcheng takes the floor and methodically exposes six critical scientific discrepancies in Anthony's research, thoroughly discrediting He Yu's presentation. Following the confrontation, Xie Qingcheng collapses from the drug's effects. He Yu abducts him, transporting him to his private villa to keep him under house arrest, and confiscates his communication devices to prevent his escape.While held at the villa of He Yu following the medical conference, Xie Qingcheng covertly searches the computer files, discovering that He Yu is the deep cover police informant operating under the codename Diavolo. Xie Qingcheng copies vital syndicate data onto a metallic USB drive. Anthony visits the villa during the absence of He Yu and attempts to psychologically torment Xie Qingcheng by claiming that he and He Yu are sexual partners who regularly view the confiscated video of Xie Qingcheng. Chen Man breaches the estate with an official search warrant, arresting Anthony and discovering the head injury of Xie Qingcheng. He Yu arrives and acts the part of a callous master, dismissing Xie Qingcheng as an expendable bed partner to allow Chen Man to escort him away. Once the officers depart, He Yu activates his blood toxin to force Anthony to confess every detail of his conversation with Xie Qingcheng, thereafter brutally punishing Anthony for his deceit and expelling him from the residence. Xie Qingcheng delivers the copied intelligence drive directly to the Project Dreambreaker police commander, demanding official confirmation of the covert role of He Yu and securing authorization to protect him from exposure. Project Dreambreaker launches a vanguard assault of three thousand soldiers on Mandela Island, but within three days, the entire frontline force is neutralized in less than three seconds when a newly developed flash freeze frost laser weapon strikes them at fifty six percent map penetration. Refusing to allow the trapped officers to perish, Xie Qingcheng volunteers for an infiltration mission, administering an injection of RN-13 alongside Case Number 2 blood serum to temporarily restore his physical strength and heighten his senses. Accompanied by Zheng Jingfeng, Xie Qingcheng swims onto Mandela Island disguised in thermal diving suits.Navigating through the terrain of Mandela Island, Xie Qingcheng calculates the operational mechanics of the frost laser, realizing the syndicate must reactivate the device to thaw the ground and transport the frozen soldiers into the fortress. Using his heightened computational ability, Xie Qingcheng locates the installation near the island labyrinth and initiates a data upload through the Fengbo communication system to police headquarters. Senior syndicate scientist Zoya intercepts them with mechanized combatants and cybernetic berserkers, two of which Xie Qingcheng recognizes as carrying the neural imprints and consciousnesses of his deceased parents, Xie Ping and Zhou Muying. He Yu arrives on a mechanical winged warhorse in Mandela military attire and severs the data link, defeating the police officers and taking Xie Qingcheng into custody to prevent Zoya from executing him, while Zheng Jingfeng is seized and condemned to the dungeon. Bringing Xie Qingcheng to his private quarters inside the central stone fortress, He Yu acts violently under surveillance cameras to convince the syndicate of his cruelty, chaining Xie Qingcheng to an office chair and administering an anesthetic. Once shielded beneath the bedcovers away from recording devices, He Yu cares for Xie Qingcheng, who suffers a severe physical and psychological breakdown from the combined toll of his illness and the serum. After Xie Qingcheng recovers, he looks outside and observes that the futuristic landscape has vanished, replaced by an exact replica of Huzhou University Neverland. He Yu explains that the advanced robots, floating fortress elements, and futuristic technology perceived by ordinary people are artificial sensory illusions generated by an island wide virtual reality and electromagnetic system known as the Mandela effect. Because both He Yu and Xie Qingcheng suffer from psychological Ebola, their abnormal brain chemistry renders them immune to the cognitive interference.

He Yu discloses the hidden structure of the Mandela Syndicate, revealing that the true supreme leader is not Duan Wen, but a ninety year old serial killer named Duan Cuizhen, formerly known in police records as Huizhen. To evade death from cancer and radiation poisoning, Duan Cuizhen underwent illegal brain transplantation procedures and currently occupies the physical body of a nine year old boy dressed in tailored suits and women high heels. He Yu explains that the syndicate preserves the corpse of his biological mother Vivian in an underground liquid nitrogen vault, which Duan Wen utilized as leverage to persuade He Yu to join their biological metaverse initiative. Beneath the blankets, He Yu and Xie Qingcheng resolve their long standing personal mistrust. He Yu confesses that he never engaged in sexual relations with Anthony, while Xie Qingcheng affirms his complete trust in the integrity of He Yu, promising that he will protect him from harm. He Yu constructs an undetectable modified Fengbo communication bracelet for Xie Qingcheng, enabling secure transmission with police command. The Dreambreaker commander notifies them that Operation Headwind, a decisive second naval assault, is scheduled to commence at six o'clock the following evening. To facilitate the incoming strike, He Yu ventures to the subterranean prison facility intending to extract Zheng Jingfeng, but the warden refuses the transfer due to strict confinement protocols. He Yu alters his plan and uses his public animosity toward Chen Man as a pretext to requisition him for private experimentation. In the elevator, He Yu reveals his identity as the undercover informant to a stunned Chen Man and brings him to his upper level laboratory, integrating him into the covert defense sabotage plan prior to the arrival of the main force.He Yu, Xie Qingcheng, and Chen Man infiltrate the Mandela Island forest to execute their operation to destroy the Frost Laser defense system. He Yu uses a trained dormouse equipped with a miniature bell speaker to broadcast a customized trojan audio code that paralyzes twelve elite criminal berserkers guarding the facility perimeter. Inside the central control room, Russian scientist Zoya unleashes modified human clones bearing the identical physical faces of Xie Ping, Zhou Muying, and Qin Ciyan. Xie Qingcheng is forced into a physical struggle against the clone of his respected mentor Qin Ciyan while He Yu triggers a secondary computer program that frees the twelve berserkers from Zoya's control chips. Number One, who contains the biological brain of Ava's deceased father, turns on Zoya with a flamethrower. Zoya dies from a gunshot wound as her daughter's projected hologram vanishes into thin air, and the team inputs the master destruction codes to render the Frost Laser permanently nonfunctional. Stepping outside into the rising smoke, they discover all radio communications jammed across the island. An armored jeep driven by police officer Li Yun arrives, offering to transport them to headquarters.He Yu attempts to force Chen Man and Xie Qingcheng into the vehicle using his blood toxin power, but Xie Qingcheng breaks free through sheer mental willpower and refuses to leave He Yu behind. Xie Qingcheng recognizes a distinct red birthmark on Li Yun's wrist, identifying him as a former disciple of his father who was officially reported dead twenty years prior. Li Yun reveals he is a brainless modified human cyborg immune to blood toxin commands and uses obedience incense to render both He Yu and Xie Qingcheng unconscious. They are delivered to the Mandela Building, where Doctor Anthony attaches a mechanical pacemaker module to He Yu's heart that overcharges his body cells to amplify his blood toxin radius across half a mile. Xie Qingcheng awakens inside a subterranean cell and uses a concealed communication device to contact police headquarters. The commander reveals that syndicate founder Duan Cuizhen merged her brainwaves with the central power plant, making her living brain the master switch that will detonate the entire island within ten minutes of her death.Xie Qingcheng confronts executive Duan Wen and exposes his real identity as Chen Lisheng, Xie Ping's former student who faked his death two decades ago. Chen Lisheng reveals that the original Li Yun was an undercover police officer who slit his own carotid artery in captivity to protect his moral principles after discovering Chen Lisheng was the mole. In the laboratory, Anthony subjects He Yu to maximum electric chair brainwashing, wiping his conscious memory and turning him into an unthinking bioweapon controlling hundreds of test subjects simultaneously. Blinded after Anthony gouges out his eyes in a fit of jealous rage, Xie Qingcheng bluffs that he possesses First Emperor power and agrees to enter a brain transplant chamber for Duan Cuizhen if He Yu is returned to safety. Inside the subterranean lab, Xie Qingcheng uses blood toxin he absorbed from He Yu during prior intimacy to issue a First Emperor voice command that forces everyone present in the room to kneel.Xie Qingcheng stabs Duan Cuizhen's boy body with a scalpel, but she transfers her brainwaves into the thawed body of He Yu's mother Vivian using a converter device. Veteran officer Zheng Jingfeng and two thousand rescued captives breach the basement, initiating a full battle against syndicate guards. Duan Cuizhen commands the brainwashed He Yu to attack Xie Qingcheng directly. Xie Qingcheng lowers his gun and refuses to shoot, causing He Yu's blade to pause, but the chest module forces He Yu to stab Xie Qingcheng through the stomach. Before collapsing from massive blood loss, Xie Qingcheng uses his remaining strength to disarm the module's self destruct mechanism and free He Yu from syndicate control. Witnessing Xie Qingcheng collapse, He Yu breaks through his brainwashing completely as his true memories return. Anthony injects Duan Cuizhen with lethal doses of RN 13, killing her permanently and initiating the island's ten minute core thermal explosion sequence.Zheng Jingfeng and He Yu evacuate the dying Xie Qingcheng on a rescue flight as Mandela Island sinks into a massive sea whirlpool. Xie Qingcheng succumbs to organ failure and blood loss two weeks later in the hospital while He Yu is held under medical observation in a high security psychiatric ward. Zheng Jingfeng delivers a final letter written by Xie Qingcheng before the mission, in which Xie Qingcheng confesses his long standing love for He Yu and reveals that his organ failure was already terminal. Spurred by Xie Qingcheng's final wish, He Yu chooses to live, taking custody of medical notes from the hospital director to treat secondary psychological Ebola victims across the country. Decades later, He Yu works as a film producer to release a declassified television drama revealing the full truth about Xie Qingcheng's sacrifice, while Xie Qingcheng rests under a nameless grave marked with Keats's epitaph alongside his parents and mentor.

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Volume 5

Volume 6

Volume 7

Volume 8

Volume 9

Volume 10

The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish: Canji Baojun De Zhangxin Yu Chong

The story so far...
(Volumes 1–4)

Li Yu awakens as an ordinary carp in the imperial palace kitchen slated for soup, escapes Noble Consort Qiu's white cat Piaoxue, and is rescued by the mute fifth prince Mu Tianchi, Prince Jing. The Moe Pet System binds to Li Yu, requiring him to reform the future tyrant and complete missions under penalty of immediate death, promising eventual human restoration. Prince Jing adopts the carp, keeps him in a porcelain vessel, and feeds him pellets by hand, completing initial interaction tasks that reward inventory space. When the emperor summons Prince Jing to Qianqing Palace over Noble Consort Qiu's accusation that Prince Jing assaulted Piaoxue, Prince Jing carries Li Yu along. Noble Consort Qiu and her son Second Prince Mu Tianzhao exploit Prince Jing's inability to speak to incite the emperor's anger, prompting Li Yu to feign death by floating belly up in his water bowl. Fearing punishment if a royal pet dies in her presence, Qiu attempts to hide the fish inside her sleeve using an embroidered handkerchief. Li Yu leaps out and slaps Qiu repeatedly across the face with his tail, dislodging her luminous pearl for a system side quest. Prince Jing secretly returns the fish to the bowl before onlookers realize what happened, discrediting Qiu when she claims a flying carp attacked her. Wang Xi presents Qiu's fish scale marked handkerchief alongside cat scratch bruises on Prince Jing's leg to prove Piaoxue attacked first, causing the emperor to execute Qiu's bribed servants and place her under strict scrutiny. Prince Jing moves Li Yu into his private bedchamber inside a large crystal tank, granting the carp secluded quarters and personal protection while Li Yu secures inventory space and a temporary transformation elixir.Prince Jing hosts a banquet celebrating his departure from the palace to his independent manor, drawing rival imperial princes. Li Yu places a plush fish decoy inside the crystal tank and consumes his transformation elixir to walk as a human youth, but Mu Tianzhao enters the bedchamber and discovers the motionless plush fish. Believing the favored pet has died under suspicious circumstances, Mu Tianzhao panics as Prince Jing returns and presses a sword directly against his throat. Meanwhile, Li Yu dresses in Prince Jing's spare clothing, is confronted by Wang Xi as a suspected fish thief, and flees into an empty chamber where his transformation time expires, leaving behind discarded royal garments alongside the returned fish. Prince Jing lowers his sword, releases Mu Tianzhao, and recovers the carp, while Third Prince Mu Tianming attempts to gift Prince Jing the delicate male concubine Chu Yanyu. Prince Jing rejects Chu Yanyu with cold indifference, completely severing the original novel's romance and prompting the emperor to rebuke Mu Tianzhao by granting imperial favor exclusively to Mu Tianming. Li Yu subsequently unlocks a daily human transformation skill through a jade scale and receives a mission requiring intimate contact with Prince Jing. When Prince Jing's cousin Ye Qinghuan visits alongside his dog Xiongfeng, Li Yu leaps onto Prince Jing's palm to defend his master's prestige, prompting Prince Jing to officially bestow the name Xiaoyu upon the fish. Recognizing from novel knowledge that Mu Tianzhao plots to destroy the Duke of Cheng'en by assassinating the visiting Princess of Jinjue, Li Yu secretly copies characters to compose an anonymous warning letter that he leaves for Ye Qinghuan.Prince Jing places Xiaoyu in a portable crystal bottle to carry him everywhere, escorting him to the imperial banquet honoring the Jinjue diplomatic envoy. The Princess of Jinjue becomes captivated by Prince Jing feeding Xiaoyu and ignores Mu Tianzhao, whose humiliation deepens when Mu Tianming loudly exposes Mu Tianzhao's attempt to order carp soup, driving the emperor to arrange the princess's marriage with Ye Qinghuan instead. During the banquet night at the palace, Mu Tianzhao's assassin infiltrates Jingtai Hall, where Xiongfeng bites the intruder's hand and Xiaoyu overturns the poisoned fish food, enabling Wang Xi to identify lethal arsenic with a silver needle. Simultaneously, Mu Tianzhao's plot collapses when the corpse discovered in Yanyu Pavilion is revealed to be a deceased prison convict rather than the princess, thoroughly unmasking his treasonous conspiracy to the emperor. As Prince Jing returns, the fleeing conspirator throws chemical lime powder into his eyes, threatening him with permanent blindness. Li Yu leaps from the tank, assumes human form, and cleanses the powder using oil, preserving Prince Jing's sight. Discovering discarded silver scales and noting the youth's sudden disappearances, Prince Jing deduces that the human youth is his carp spirit Xiaoyu. The emperor strips Mu Tianzhao of all titles, demoting him to Marquis of An under permanent house arrest, and demotes Noble Consort Qiu to ordinary concubine while elevating the Duke of Cheng'en. Imperial Physician Xu treats Xiaoyu for scale shedding, while Prince Jing privately commissions craftsmen to construct a massive dedicated aquatic residence to accommodate his spirit pet's growth.Li Yu regenerates strengthened golden and black scales, which the emperor views as an auspicious celestial sign. To satisfy his intimate contact mission, Li Yu transforms into a human, consumes green plums steeped in wine, and becomes intoxicated, culminating in him biting Prince Jing's throat at the Adam's apple before collapsing back into fish form, after which Prince Jing tenderly tucks him into his bed of rocks. Although Prince Jing observes the bite mark and orders tailored clothing for his secret lover, Li Yu mistakenly believes his human identity remains completely concealed. When Concubine Qiu orchestrates a suspicious fire at Zhongcui Palace and fakes an arm burn to manipulate the emperor into allowing Mu Tianzhao back into imperial favor, Prince Jing brings Xiaoyu along to the palace inquiry inside the crystal bottle. Concubine Qiu attempts to exploit the emperor's sympathy to restore her son's standing, but Consort Qian questions the authenticity of Qiu's injuries. Seizing an opportunity while Prince Jing changes his robe in an adjoining chamber, Li Yu decides to transform into his human form to directly intervene and expose Qiu's fraud, only to push open the door and encounter Prince Jing standing guard outside. Prince Jing writes down questions demanding his name, his age, and his reason for being inside the palace. Cornered by his master, the youth confesses that his name is Li Yu and that he is eighteen years old, though he insists that he does not know how he arrived, leaving his human persona directly exposed to Prince Jing.Prince Jing learns the carp spirit's human name is Li Yu and charges the youth with watching over his pet fish during palace affairs. When Concubine Qiu attempts to exploit an alleged palace fire injury to regain imperial favor, Wang Xi claims Prince Jing's carp is sneezing, drawing attention to a pungent odor on Qiu's person. Consort Qian and Mu Tianming demand an imperial physician examine the suspicious scent, dismantling Qiu's fraudulent claim before the emperor. Prince Jing carries Xiaoyu inside a crystal bottle to the Marquis of An's residence, scaling the roof to dangle a lifelike fish plush into Mu Tianzhao's bedchamber. Believing the poisoned fish has returned from the dead to exact vengeance, Mu Tianzhao flees in terror, after which Wang Xi follows Prince Jing's orders to force the panicked marquis into drunkenness and push him into the courtyard pond. Prince Jing constructs an extensive aquatic pond inside his manor for Xiaoyu, where the fish swims at night to Prince Jing's bed and uses his hardened tail to support his body, prompting Prince Jing to awaken and kiss him. Coveting the auspicious creature to bolster his campaign for crown prince, Third Prince Mu Tianming offers ten thousand taels of gold and one hundred thousand taels of silver to purchase the carp. Prince Jing rejects the offer and expels him from the manor, prompting Mu Tianming to send covert thieves armed with nets into the estate. The intruders are apprehended when they discover the fish does not sleep in the outdoor pond, failing to realize Xiaoyu resides directly in Prince Jing's bedchamber.Mu Tianming brings fraudulent monks to the imperial palace to accuse Prince Jing's carp of being an evil demonic omen, prompting the emperor to summon Prince Jing and his pet to court. During the interrogation, Li Yu smashes through the crystal bottle with enhanced tail strength and leaps onto the lead monk's shoulder, striking him across the face to knock off his headwear and expose his deceit. Prince Jing injures his hand on the shattered glass while shielding the carp, and the emperor punishes Mu Tianming for manufacturing false accusations. In an illusion quest to unlock the koi evolution, Li Yu enters a spiritual memory where he saves a drowning toddler Prince Jing from a deep palace pool and demonstrates how to stroke a fish's scales. Zen Master Liao Kong examines the carp in the emperor's presence, revealing that this extraordinary creature saved Prince Jing during childhood and transmigrated specifically for his sake. Li Yu claims his system reward to transform into a silver and gold koi the length of Prince Jing's forearm, prompting Prince Jing to procure larger porcelain lotus bowls to accommodate his growth. Seeking to fulfill a system indulgence mission, Li Yu prepares diluted plum wine and smashed cucumbers, but Prince Jing pretends to be intoxicated to pull human Li Yu beneath the quilt and kiss him passionately. Panicking at the sudden advance, Li Yu bites Prince Jing's finger, transforms back into a fish, and retreats into his ornamental rock cave on a furious hunger strike. Prince Jing coaxes him with delicacies until Li Yu relents, allowing him to claim an updated silver and gold plush decoy.Chu Yanyu infiltrates Prince Jing's bedchamber to displace Li Yu as the favored attendant, dissolving an aphrodisiac powder into a travel tea bowl that he mistakes for Prince Jing's personal teacup. Recognizing the lethal danger, Li Yu deposits his plush decoy on the tank bed and assumes human form, rushing out from behind the cabinet to shout a warning that stops Prince Jing from consuming the tainted brew. Prince Jing restrains Chu Yanyu, having anticipated the trap to draw Li Yu out, and has Wang Xi confine the disgraced concubine to dark isolation. Suffering a severe fever after diving into the chilly outdoor pool, Li Yu collapses as a human, leading Prince Jing to summon Imperial Physician Xu to prescribe restorative draughts. Prince Jing nurses Li Yu with identical tenderness, administering medicine and wrapping both his human form and fish body in matching green silk blankets edged in gold. Observing these identical gestures, Li Yu deduces that Prince Jing has already uncovered his dual identity as the carp spirit. Once recovered, Li Yu accompanies Prince Jing to the market in human guise, where Prince Jing purchases him tailored robes and a carved fish hairpin before treating him to barbecue. Through a system memory playback, Li Yu discovers Prince Jing shielded him from past violent retaliations, deepening his affection and leading him to accept Prince Jing as his romantic partner. Prince Jing carries the fish in a crystal bottle to his official duties at the Ministry of Works, petting Xiaoyu openly before Vice Minister Zheng Jing.Sixth Prince Mu Tianxiao attempts to inspect the prized carp to probe into Prince Jing's private affairs, but Wang Xi firmly rebuffs his intrusion, after which Prince Jing crafts a golden fish pendant with green silk cords to present to Li Yu as a token of affection. During an imperial excursion outside the capital, Mu Tianxiao schemes to insert a trained operative into the emperor's personal entourage under the guise of a massage servant, but Li Yu feigns critical illness inside his crystal vessel to monopolize the imperial physicians, completely derailing the sixth prince's political maneuver. At the imperial Longevity celebration held at Taye Pool, Mu Tianxiao hurls feed into the water to scatter an orchestrated school of carp swimming in the formation of auspicious longevity characters. Li Yu intervenes by surfacing in his golden and silver koi form while carrying a fresh lotus blossom in his mouth, presenting the tribute directly to the emperor to secure celestial honors and humiliate Mu Tianxiao. When the emperor commands Prince Jing to lead an expedition to suppress bandit forces stationed along the western border, Li Yu fabricates a sudden pregnancy claim to ensure he is not left behind in the capital. Confessing that the claim was merely a desperate jest because a male human cannot bear children, Li Yu reaffirms his devotion to remain united with his husband through thick and thin. Prince Jing pardons the fabrication, embraces his consort with profound tenderness, and arranges for Li Yu to accompany him inside the private carriage as they depart together for the western frontier.While traveling toward the western border to Luofeng Village, Prince Jing and Li Yu face an ambush by a hidden assassin. Prince Jing shields Li Yu from an incoming arrow, but Li Yu's human transformation timer expires, causing him to turn directly into a carp in Prince Jing's arms before the wounded assassin. Prince Jing promptly shuts the door, knocks out the assassin to protect Li Yu's secret, and gently returns the fish to water. After uncovering that local Squire Wu is a clandestine agent aiding the regional bandits, Prince Jing publicly executes him by hanging, formally declaring war against the bandit stronghold. To counter the bandit retaliatory offensive, Li Yu outlines modern tactical concepts of tunnel warfare and concealed pit traps. Prince Jing incorporates these strategies into his military deployment, successfully ambushing and annihilating the invading bandit forces within Luofeng Village. Following this victory, Li Yu and Prince Jing celebrate by donning matching garments and drinking wedding wine, culminating in the physical consummation of their romantic relationship. The system evaluates this milestone as completing the intimate lover requirement, immediately triggering the next main quest line that mandates Li Yu give birth to the protagonist's offspring. Because the system designates his fish body as the default vehicle, Li Yu experiences a four week gestation in carp form, resulting in him laying four thumb sized, luminous white eggs on his silver stone bed. Prince Jing discovers the clutch of eggs, accepts them without hesitation as their biological children, and takes over the physical incubation by keeping his hands submerged in the water for days to warm them. The eggs hatch into four male baby fish named Kai, Xin, Wei, and Heng, whom Li Yu nicknames Dabao, Erbao, Sanbao, and Sibao, initiating a system team mode for child rearing.

Prince Jing presents Li Yu with a formal marriage contract, determined to legitimize their relationship and protect their offspring from imperial scrutiny. When a devastating locust plague threatens the western border counties, Li Yu devises a large scale biological countermeasure by deploying domestic ducks and chickens to consume the swarms. Prince Jing establishes a dedicated duck breeding facility, mobilizes an army of thousands of birds across the affected districts, and successfully eradicates the infestation, earning widespread public praise and imperial commendation. Seeking imperial permission to marry a male consort, Prince Jing maneuvers around the emperor's prerequisite for heirs by falsely claiming that Li Yu possesses a unique constitution capable of bearing children, while having Li Yu wear a belly pillow to simulate a human pregnancy before visiting officials. As the nine month maturation requirement concludes, Dabao suddenly transforms into a healthy, vocal human infant bearing an uncanny resemblance to Prince Jing's childhood appearance. When Erbao, Sanbao, and Sibao hesitate to follow because they fear losing their aquatic freedom, Li Yu transforms back into a fish to coax each child individually with promises of delicious treats and parental affection until all three successfully complete their transformations. The imperial physician sent by the capital verifies that the four healthy boys are Prince Jing's biological children and that none have inherited his muteness, prompting the overjoyed emperor to formally ratify the union and grant Li Yu the title of Prince Jing's Consort. Concurrently in the capital, Sixth Prince Mu Tianxiao betrays Third Prince Mu Tianming, seizing his political network and leaving Mu Tianming demoted to the Marquis of Ping.Prince Jing and Li Yu celebrate their grand wedding in Luofeng Village with the villagers, but their marital night is cut short when Li Yu must begin a three day system tribulation that forces him into hybrid merman and manmer states under Prince Jing's strict protection. Taking advantage of the wedding festivities, the bandit remnants launch a surprise raid on the settlement, unaware that Prince Jing intentionally fabricated lax security as a trap to draw them into subterranean choke points. During the chaos, Li Yu hears a child crying and leaves his secluded quarters in manmer form, only to walk into a bandit ambush where smoke bombs allow the enemy tactician to kidnap him in a bundle. Confined near a riverbank, Li Yu discovers that his evolving transformation abilities allow him to revert into a tiny fish, enabling him to slip out of his bindings, ambush a guard with a tail strike, and hide in the aquatic vegetation. Prince Jing tracks the perpetrators, slaughters the abductors in a fury, and retrieves Li Yu from the water. Upon reviewing the captured bandit tactician's physical traits, Li Yu notices an animal bite scar on the man's hand matching the wound inflicted by Ye Qinghuan's dog Xiongfeng during the capital fish poisoning attempt. Prince Jing and Li Yu deduce that this tactician was dispatched directly by Mu Tianxiao, proving that the sixth prince has been covertly coordinating with the border bandits all along. After Prince Jing completes the protection requirements, the system rewards Li Yu with permanent access to an omniscient spiritual monitor showing his children's safety.The emperor summons Prince Jing's family back to the capital when the children reach six months of age, initiating the final main system quest to share the empire with the tyrant. Upon arrival, Prince Jing presents Dabao, Erbao, and Sanbao at Qianqing Palace, where the emperor is captivated by their robust health and intellect, while coldly dismissing Mu Tianxiao's attempt to use his pregnant wife Liang Suyun to curry favor. To prevent imperial servants and Wang Xi from discovering that the pet fish and the children are absent whenever they appear in human form, Prince Jing procures lookalike koi fish to serve as permanent public decoys in the crystal vessels. Meanwhile, Mu Tianxiao plots to strip Prince Jing of royal standing by challenging the children's parentage, dispatching an operative into Prince Jing Manor to extract blood from Dabao and steal an identification bracelet. Prince Jing and Li Yu anticipate the intrusion, allowing the spy to collect blood while quietly noting his identity to turn the conspiracy back against the sixth prince. During the annual imperial autumn hunting expedition, Prince Jing participates directly and surpasses Mu Tianxiao's hunting score, humiliating the sixth prince in front of the imperial court. Behind the scenes, Mu Tianxiao conspires with Imperial Physician Pan and recruits Chu Yanyu, setting a trap involving a rigged blood verification ritual and an alleged scandal involving Concubine Lu to execute a decisive strike against Prince Jing during the hunt. At the hunting encampment, Prince Jing and Li Yu maintain careful surveillance over their sons while bracing for the impending confrontation that will determine their family's survival.During the imperial autumn hunting expedition, Sixth Prince Mu Tianxiao coordinates with Imperial Physician Pan to frame Concubine Lu and cast doubt on the legitimacy of Prince Jing's four sons. Mu Tianxiao arranges for an operative to introduce an intruder into Concubine Lu's tent and attempts to conduct a rigged blood verification ritual using samples taken from Dabao to strip Prince Jing of his royal standing. Anticipating the plot, Prince Jing and Li Yu switch the specimen bottles with prearranged markings and alert the emperor, who secretly listens in on Mu Tianxiao orchestrating the conspiracy. When the emperor confronts the conspirators, Dabao denounces Mu Tianxiao, and the guards move to arrest the sixth prince. Driven to desperation, Mu Tianxiao signals a hidden assassin to kill the emperor, but Prince Jing intervenes and disarms the attacker while the guards subdue Mu Tianxiao. The immediate threat ends, but Prince Jing suddenly collapses and vomits blood from surging internal qi. An imperial physician discovers that Prince Jing has suffered from chronic childhood poisoning caused by xuewuzi, an exotic toxin from the snowy mountains of Loulan that also caused his lifelong muteness. Li Yu retrieves an ancient medicinal prescription rewarded by the system and presents it to the imperial physicians, enabling them to formulate an antidote that completely expels the residual poison from Prince Jing's body. Upon purging the toxin, Prince Jing regains his voice, speaks to his family for the first time, and enters into a pinkie promise with his sons and Li Yu to conceal his recovered speech until their adversaries are eradicated.Consort Zhang reveals her true identity as Princess Langya of Loulan, unmasking herself as the mastermind who poisoned Empress Xiaohui, the fourth prince, and infant Prince Jing through their wet nurses with xuewuzi and female ginseng, while substituting a child of Loulan royal blood as the sixth prince to seize the throne of Great Chu. Exploiting her network of infiltrators, Princess Langya poisons the imperial guards, executes the captured Mu Tianxiao when he proves politically useless, and occupies Qianqing Palace, taking the emperor, the imperial concubines, and Prince Jing hostage while demanding the emperor's formal abdication. When the sixth prince attempts to torment the carp, Li Yu leaps from the vessel and slaps Mu Tianxiao across both cheeks with his tail, allowing Prince Jing to draw a hidden boot dagger and subdue Mu Tianxiao while the eighth prince shelters the fish tank. Because Princess Langya executes Mu Tianxiao and retains control over the palace, Prince Jing feigns surrender to protect Li Yu and secretly fastens the imperial tiger talisman to the carp's belly. Li Yu enters the palace drainage pool, stores the military talisman safely inside his system inventory, and swims through subterranean waterways into outer canals to deliver the command token to Ye Qinghuan and the Duke of Cheng'en. Mobilizing the House of Cheng'en troops, Ye Qinghuan and Li Yu assault the capital to suppress the insurrection while Prince Jing breaks free inside Qianqing Palace to safeguard the emperor. The rebellion collapses completely, resulting in the annihilation of Princess Langya's faction, after which the grateful emperor officially awards the carp the imperial title of Number One Fish in the World.With the rebellion crushed and his speech restored, Mu Tianchi is designated as crown prince, prompting rival palace concubine Chu Yanyu, now styled Noble Lady Chu, to orchestrate a scheme to destroy the new crown prince consort. Chu Yanyu deduces from court gossip, previous fish slappings, and servant testimony that Crown Prince Consort Li Yu and the prized carp are the same supernatural entity. Procuring black dog blood to force supernatural spirits into their beast forms, Chu Yanyu coats Piaoxue's leg bandage in the blood to expose Li Yu, but Prince Jing intercepts the cat and detects the trap. Chu Yanyu then brings a Daoist priest directly to Qianqing Palace before the emperor, accusing Li Yu of being a fish yao who shares a single existence with the crown prince's carp. Unbeknownst to Chu Yanyu, Li Yu disguises himself as a veiled wet nurse holding his children in the throne room while placing an identical koi decoy inside the crystal bottle. When Chu Yanyu and the priest fail to provoke any transformation using incantations, wooden swords, and black dog blood, the veiled wet nurse removes his disguise, revealing Li Yu standing in the same chamber alongside the swimming carp decoy. Furthermore, Prince Jing produces Chu Yanyu's sole servant witness, who has completely lost her sanity, discrediting the entire accusation as absurd slander. The emperor sentences Chu Yanyu to two hundred strokes of the disciplinary board, strips him of all imperial titles, and banishes him to the cold palace, permanently extinguishing Chu Yanyu's ambitions and securing Li Yu's public standing as the unchallenged Crown Prince Consort.Following the defeat of all palace rivals, Li Yu conceives a daughter named Xuebao while undertaking the final system quest requiring him to share the country with the tyrant. Viewing a system memory in the system interface, Li Yu discovers that Mu Tianchi secretly drafted an imperial decree granting him the title of empress regent with political authority equal to a prince regent, thereby satisfying the quest conditions. Li Yu completes the main quest line, gaining permanent human existence without time restrictions, unrestricted fish and merman transformations, and doubled inventory capacity. Although the system offers a permanent portal to return to modern society, Li Yu rejects it to remain with his family, instead activating a temporary visitation perk to transport himself and Mu Tianchi to his modern apartment for two days. In the modern supermarket, Mu Tianchi manifests as a large black fish, slaps an insolent customer who attempts to flirt with Li Yu, and learns the truth that Li Yu was originally a transmigrated human rather than an immortal carp spirit. Through a system side quest requiring three kisses from Li Yu, Mu Tianchi returns to human form and earns the permanent ability to transform into a fish for two hours daily, allowing the couple to swim together. Upon returning to the imperial capital, the emperor personally oversees their grand wedding ceremony before formally abdicating the throne a year later to enjoy his grandchildren. Mu Tianchi ascends the throne as the new emperor and officially appoints Li Yu as empress regent with prince regent authority, fulfilling the prophecy of sharing the realm as devoted husbands throughout their lives.

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Ballad of Sword and Wine: Qiang Jin Jiu

The story so far...
(Volumes 1–8)

Following the annihilation of thirty thousand soldiers in the Chashi Sinkhole and the self-immolation of Shen Wei, the Prince of Jianxing, his surviving eighth son of common birth, Shen Zechuan, is brought to Qudu in chains. Ji Lei subjects Shen Zechuan to brutal interrogation in the Imperial Prison, where the youth refuses to confess that his father colluded with the Twelve Tribes of Biansha. After surviving an attempt by his jailers to suffocate him with an earth filled sack, Shen Zechuan is brought before the Xiande Emperor, who condemns him to be flogged to death at Duancheng Gate. Hua Xiangyi intervenes under instructions from Empress Dowager Hua, halting the execution so the imperial court can preserve Shen Zechuan as a future political tool. As Shen Zechuan is returned to prison, Xiao Chiye, the second son of the Prince of Libei, Xiao Fangxu, intercepts him and delivers a crushing kick directly to his chest, intending to kill the traitor's son and eliminate the Empress Dowager's potential pawn. Shen Zechuan survives the blow through the foundational Ji style martial techniques taught to him in Duanzhou by his shifu, Ji Gang, who secretly reunites with him in prison alongside a sympathetic guard, Ge Qingqing. The Xiande Emperor commutes the death sentence to life imprisonment in the Temple of Guilt, while Xiao Chiye is detained in Qudu as a hostage to curb Libei's military power, assigned to command the demoralized Imperial Army while projecting the persona of a reckless hedonist. Inside the Temple of Guilt, Shen Zechuan encounters the former grand mentor to the deceased crown prince of Yongyi, Qi Huilian, who sheds his feigned lunacy to train Shen Zechuan in statecraft and manipulation, while Ji Gang continues his martial training. When a drunken Xiao Chiye visits the temple to test his condition, their mutual hatred erupts into violence; Shen Zechuan bites Xiao Chiye's hand and steals his bone thumb ring, formally establishing their mutual enmity.Five years later, the childless Xiande Emperor's failing health intensifies factional maneuvering around the succession. After the murder of the palace eunuch Xiaofuzi, Shen Zechuan and his allies manipulate the investigation to shield the emperor's brother, Prince Chu, Li Jianheng, securing Shen Zechuan's release from the Temple of Guilt and an appointment to the Elephant Training Office of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Xiao Chiye recognizes Shen Zechuan's hidden hand behind court unrest and monitors him closely, while Shen Zechuan enters an alliance with Xi Hongxuan, the ambitious younger brother of Eight Great Battalions Military Commissioner Xi Gu'an. At the Autumn Hunt at the Nanlin Hunting Grounds, the brewing factional war culminates in open rebellion when Grand Secretary Hua Siqian, cornered by financial audits, coerces Xi Gu'an to defect by threatening his family held hostage by the Empress Dowager. Hua Siqian orders Ji Lei to mobilize the Embroidered Uniform Guard and Chuancheng Garrison troops to execute Li Jianheng, while the eunuch Fengquan gives Shen Zechuan an imperial pearl with orders from the Empress Dowager to assassinate the prince. Shen Zechuan defies the Empress Dowager's directive; instead of killing the prince, he intercepts Xiao Chiye and assists him against their pursuers, fighting alongside him against Qiao Tianya using Ji style techniques and his concealed blades. Xiao Chiye directs Chen Yang and the Imperial Army to secure Li Jianheng, turning the tide of the engagement and crushing the coup. Xue Xiuzhuo escorts the dying Xiande Emperor from the hunting grounds, where the emperor commands Li Jianheng to assume the throne and strip the regional military powers of their forces before expiring.Li Jianheng ascends the throne as the Tianchen Emperor, initiating a sweeping purge of the Hua faction by the Three Judicial Offices. Hua Siqian commits suicide in prison by biting off his tongue to protect the Empress Dowager without leaving testimony against her. Shen Zechuan orchestrates the complete downfall of Xi Gu'an by directing Xi Hongxuan to report that his elder brother embezzled two million taels from the Eight Great Battalions to maintain an unauthorized private army, resulting in Xi Gu'an's decapitation and allowing Xi Hongxuan to claim leadership of the Xi Clan. Xiao Chiye recovers his bone thumb ring and deduces from their combat exchanges that Shen Zechuan is Ji Gang's disciple, confirming that they share a common martial heritage through Zuo Qianqiu and Ji Gang. Ji Lei is incarcerated in the Imperial Prison, where Shen Zechuan covertly gains access to his cell to execute a calculated interrogation. Shen Zechuan psychologically breaks his former tormentor by presenting the Empress Dowager's pearl, convincing Ji Lei that his patrons have abandoned him to death. Under extreme duress, Ji Lei confesses that he and Shen Wei conspired twenty years earlier to frame the Eastern Palace Crown Prince for treason, that Shen Wei personally killed the prince, and that Ji Lei participated to cover his own standing after the death of Ji Wufan. Shen Zechuan skins and brutally executes Ji Lei, leaving the confession for Xue Xiuzhuo and the Three Judicial Offices to finalize the death sentences of the remaining Embroidered Uniform Guard commanders.Immediately following the slaughter of Ji Lei, Xiao Chiye intercepts Shen Zechuan in the street, detecting the fresh scent of blood on his garments and compelling him to spend the night under surveillance in his quarters. To assess Shen Zechuan's physical capabilities and verify his martial style, Xiao Chiye brings him to the drill grounds at Mount Feng to spar, engaging in an intense fistfight in the freezing rain that confirms Shen Zechuan's mastery of Ji style boxing. Xiao Chiye subsequently brings Shen Zechuan to his private mountain cottage, sharing the secluded vantage point overlooking the military grounds. Meanwhile, the Tianchen Emperor grants Xiao Chiye authority to audit the Eight Great Battalions, bringing the Imperial Army into constant proximity with the Embroidered Uniform Guard where Shen Zechuan is assigned. Tantai Hu, harboring deep hatred for the Shen Clan due to the loss of his family in the Zhongbo massacre, publicly attacks Shen Zechuan with twin blades at the Imperial Army compound. Shen Zechuan disarms his assailant, deflecting a blade that nearly strikes Vice Minister of War Yang Zongzhi. Xiao Chiye strips Tantai Hu of his command token for violating military discipline, utilizing the infraction to enforce rigid obedience across the newly elevated Imperial Army while shielding Shen Zechuan. Trapped together within the treacherous politics of Qudu, the hostility between Shen Zechuan and Xiao Chiye shifts irreversibly into consuming physical desire and tactical interdependence, culminating in an intimate embrace where their mutual predatory instincts transform into an inescapable romantic and political alliance.Xiao Chiye and Shen Zechuan establish an unspoken truce following their clandestine intimacy, recognizing that survival in Qudu requires mutual tactical exploitation against the Eight Great Clans. Shen Zechuan visits Plum Blossom Manor, where their respective martial masters, Ji Gang and Zuo Qianqiu, meet over wine and regional cartographs to reconcile their shared past, during which Ji Gang disavows any desire for Shen Zechuan to seek vengeance for Shen Wei. Grand Mentor Qi Huilian reveals that Empress Dowager Hua intentionally prevented Hua Xiangyi from receiving an imperial princess title so she could retain sole authority over her marriage. This strategy surfaces when rumors confirm Hua Xiangyi is betrothed to the aging Grand Marshal Qi Shiyu of Qidong as his second lawful wife. Xiao Jiming and Xiao Chiye deduce that the Empress Dowager is using the embezzled silver of the Hua Clan as Hua Xiangyi's dowry to fund Qidong's destitute military, intending to tether Qidong to the palace while neutralizing Grand Marshal Qi Zhuyin with the future threat of a lawful male heir. Shen Zechuan is elevated to fifth rank judge of the Embroidered Uniform Guard with an emperor's entourage token, alarming Han Cheng. Soon after, the noble clans retaliate through Imperial Censor Fu Linye, who launches an audit against Xiao Chiye and the Imperial Army over a four thousand tael discrepancy in Quancheng silk previously brokered by Xue Xiuzhuo and Wang Xian, alleging bribery through courtesan Xiangyun at Xiangyun Villa. Shen Zechuan coordinates behind the scenes with Xi Hongxuan and directs Fu Linye to close the investigation by scapegoating minor clerks. Xiao Chiye feigns a debilitating illness in the heavy winter snow, prompting a guilt ridden Li Jianheng to visit the Prince of Libei's manor and personally restore his imperial favor, completely defusing the noble clans' legal trap.Spring brings torrential downpours that inundate Qudu, triggering a catastrophic disaster when the pleasure house Ouhua Pavilion collapses along Donglong Street. Li Jianheng, who had secretly snuck out of the palace disguised as a eunuch to carouse with Xi Hongxuan, is trapped beneath the debris alongside his companion. The collapse completely submerges the surrounding low lying quarters because Minister of Works Pan Xiangjie systematically neglected to dredge the public drainage ditches after Minister of Revenue Wei Huaigu withheld maintenance funds. Xiao Chiye and the Imperial Army mobilize to rescue the survivors, lifting the wreckage to pull out Li Jianheng and a severely injured Xi Hongxuan, whose back and legs are permanently crushed against buried copper vats. Immediately following the cave in, a devastating biological crisis erupts when Li Jianheng and Xi Hongxuan exhibit virulent rashes and searing fevers, identified as the Dancheng pox, an infectious epidemic previously documented in remote burial grounds. The contagion spreads across Qudu's waterlogged districts, infecting flood victims, Ministry of Revenue officials, Imperial Army commanders like Tantai Hu, and Shen Zechuan himself. Xiao Chiye takes unilateral command, evacuating the healthy populace and converting the dilapidated Temple of Guilt into a heavily guarded quarantine infirmary to brew and distribute herbal decoctions. Grand Mentor Qi Huilian and Ji Gang assist in identifying the malady and preparing medicine before Qiao Tianya evacuates them to an unflooded residence on Shenwu Street. While Han Jin withdraws the Eight Great Battalions to avoid contagion, Xiao Chiye spends his days wading through sewage alongside Chen Yang and the remaining laborers to clear the clogged ditches across the four main streets. At night, Xiao Chiye returns to the Temple of Guilt to personally nurse the delirious Shen Zechuan, holding him upright through relentless bouts of vomiting, chills, and fever to keep him anchored to life.As the epidemic abates through aggressive quarantine measures, Qiao Tianya and Xiao Chiye review imperial medical records and deduce that the Dancheng pox could not have emerged spontaneously from rainwater and sewage. They realize the outbreak was a deliberate biological assassination plot aimed at exterminating Li Jianheng during his illicit outing, utilizing the compromised drainage system as cover. Upon regaining consciousness, Shen Zechuan discovers that Xi Hongxuan has abducted Grand Mentor Qi Huilian from his safehouse, holding the former imperial tutor hostage. Driven by paranoid suspicion that Shen Zechuan orchestrated the Ouhua Pavilion disaster to eliminate him, the crippled Xi Hongxuan confronts Shen Zechuan with armed mercenaries, demanding four million taels of silver and threatening to execute Qi Huilian. Shen Zechuan employs icy psychological manipulation to convince Xi Hongxuan that they must remain allies against Xue Xiuzhuo and Wei Huaigu, successfully stalling the crisis while internally resolving to execute Xi Hongxuan for the offense. In the imperial court, the Three Judicial Offices conduct an inquest into the flood; Pan Xiangjie is flogged and removed from the Ministry of Works, while the Pan Clan is forced to fund extensive public relief to avert total destruction. Recognizing Xiao Chiye's heroic role in quelling the plague and clearing the capital, Li Jianheng confers upon him the noble title of Marquis of Dingdu. Simultaneously, the emperor elevates Shen Zechuan across multiple ranks to third rank vice commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, concurrently granting him authority as northern judge in charge of the Imperial Prison. This appointment strips Han Cheng of sole authority over the secret service and grants Shen Zechuan unhindered access to imperial penal resources, while Wei Huaigu and the Wei Clan aggressively distance themselves from the disgraced Pan Clan to preserve their control over the Ministry of Revenue.To commemorate the resolution of the municipal disaster, Chief Censor Cen Yu convenes a celebratory feast attended by prominent civil ministers and military officers, including Minister of Justice Kong Qiu, Investigating Censor Yu Xiaozai, and Embroidered Uniform Guard Commander Han Cheng. At the banquet, Xiao Chiye deliberately breaches court decorum by challenging Shen Zechuan to drink a nuptial exchange of wine with crossed arms before the assembled ministers, framing the public provocation as an audacious settlement of their bitter past grudges. Shen Zechuan unabashedly accepts the challenge, executing the intimate ritual in full view of the court, thereby concealing their clandestine alliance beneath the appearance of sharp, contentious gamesmanship. Later that same night, Xiao Chiye mounts his military steed Snowcrest and sweeps Shen Zechuan into the saddle, galloping through the torrential rain to his secluded mountain residence on Mount Feng. In the private cottage overlooking the Imperial Army drill grounds, the residual animosity and predatory tension that previously defined their interactions dissolve completely into absolute physical intimacy, mutual devotion, and unbreakable political solidarity. Shen Zechuan takes formal possession of the Ji family heirloom blade, Avalanche, while assuming direct supervisory authority over the Imperial Prison, transforming himself into a lethal judicial instrument positioned to interrogate enemies of the throne. Concurrently, Xiao Chiye solidifies his supreme command over the capital garrisons as the newly created Marquis of Dingdu, having secured the begrudging trust of reformist ministers like Hai Liangyi and Cen Yu. Together, they recognize that the true architect manipulating court disasters is an unseen adversary operating through hidden bureaucratic networks, cementing their partnership to dismantle the noble clans and defend their survival as the factional war within the Great Zhou empire escalates.

Shen Zechuan uses his newly acquired authority as third rank vice commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and northern judge of the Imperial Prison to eliminate Xi Hongxuan. During their interrogation in the cells, Xi Hongxuan attempts to bargain with the secret location of Grand Mentor Qi Huilian, whom he abducted during the municipal flood. Shen Zechuan arranges for Xi Hongxuan to be released to the Xi Clan manor under the pretense of debt collection, where Xi Hongxuan springs an ambush of hired mercenaries to execute Shen Zechuan. Shen Zechuan slaughters the assassins with Avalanche and executes Xi Hongxuan, subsequently taking over the vast commercial network of the Xi Clan through steward Xi Dan. Although Shen Zechuan secures sixty-eight keys and claims four million taels of silver, his searches reveal that several major silver vaults have already been cleared out by an unknown conspirator. Simultaneously, Xiao Chiye interrogates Xue Xiuyi regarding the Quancheng silk fraud, unraveling the hidden operations of Xue Xiuzhuo. Shen Zechuan synthesizes these clues and deduces that Xue Xiuzhuo engineered both the collapse of Ouhua Pavilion and the drowning of the pregnant Imperial Concubine Wei, having secretly secured a legitimate imperial heir from the Li bloodline to displace Li Jianheng. Determined to rescue his mentors, Shen Zechuan leads the Embroidered Uniform Guard to storm the Xue residence without a judicial warrant, only to find that Xue Xiuzhuo has already relocated Qi Huilian and Ji Gang to an undisclosed broker house. Xue Xiuzhuo attempts to persuade the imprisoned Qi Huilian to become Imperial Preceptor to his chosen candidate, but the veteran scholar rejects the offer, leaving the court on the brink of an explosive factional war.The northern frontier collapses into chaos when the Libei Armored Cavalry receives shipments of rotted, moldy grain from the capital, paralyzing military logistics. Exploiting this systemic vulnerability, the Twelve Tribes of Biansha under the command of Hassen launch a massive onslaught against Libei's fortifications. Xiao Jiming is critically injured during the heavy fighting after falling from his warhorse, leaving the Libei defense in grave peril. Prince Xiao Fangxu dons his heavy armor to take direct command on the front lines, while Xiao Chiye is trapped in Qudu as a hostage of the court, unable to assist his family. In response to the crisis, veteran general Zuo Qianqiu comes out of seclusion to organize emergency supply convoys and lead frontline reinforcements to Libei. Concurrently, Chief Censor Cen Yu and Minister of Justice Kong Qiu initiate an audit into the Ministry of Revenue, culminating in the imprisonment of Minister Wei Huaigu. The Imperial Prison tortures the Juexi official Yang Cheng, who confesses that the Wei Clan systematically resold fresh state grain to Zhongbo while diverting ruined rations to Libei. However, Shen Zechuan and Xiao Chiye realize Wei Huaigu was blackmailed into taking the blame by an unseen adversary who intercepted Yang Cheng's relay report. In the Bianjun Commandery, General Lu Guangbai finds his troops starving and abandoned by Qudu's corrupt bureaucracy. Refusing to sacrifice his soldiers to court intrigue or submit to an unjust summons, Lu Guangbai defects from the Great Zhou military, deserting his post to lead his remaining troops across the desert to fight the Biansha invaders on his own terms.Court intrigue turns into open regicide when Imperial Concubine Mu Ru fatally stabs the Tianchen Emperor, Li Jianheng, in his imperial bedchamber and takes her own life. Xiao Chiye arrives at Mingli Hall only to discover Li Jianheng dying in a pool of blood. Exploiting the sovereign's demise, Chief Commander Han Cheng mobilizes the Eight Great Battalions to seal the palace gates, declaring martial law and fabricating accusations that Xiao Chiye and Shen Zechuan assassinated the emperor to usurp the throne. Recognizing the trap, Xiao Chiye draws his executioner blade Wolfsfang and cuts down the palace guards, uniting with Shen Zechuan and twenty thousand men of the Imperial Army to force an exit through the streets of Qudu. As the fighting reaches the city gates, Han Cheng halts their retreat by dragging out Grand Mentor Qi Huilian in iron shackles. Han Cheng attempts to coerce Shen Zechuan into surrendering by threatening the mentor's life. Rather than allowing himself to become a leash that enslaves his disciple, Qi Huilian denounces the corrupt noble clans, mocks the terminal decline of the Great Zhou empire, and instructs Shen Zechuan to overthrow the rotten world to create a realm of his own. Qi Huilian violently smashes his head against the stone pavement, dying a martyr in the pouring rain. Traumatized and enraged, Shen Zechuan and Xiao Chiye rally their soldiers, shatter the city gates, and escape into the rainy night, leaving behind a ruined capital where Empress Dowager Hua reclaims administrative control and Grand Secretary Hai Liangyi vomits blood in despair.Pursued by the Eight Great Battalions under Han Jin, Xiao Chiye and Shen Zechuan lead the Imperial Army northeast toward the border of Zhongbo. The imperial scholar Gao Zhongxiong advises Han Jin to launch a reckless offensive against the retreating forces, allowing Xiao Chiye and Tantai Hu to execute a devastating tactical ambush that completely decimates the pursuing vanguard and results in the capture of Han Jin alive. Shen Zechuan dispatches a sack containing the severed heads of the defeated soldiers back to Qudu in the hands of the sole surviving imperial guardsman, formally declaring an irreconcilable rebellion against the imperial court. Rather than accompanying Xiao Chiye to Libei as a dependent survivor, Shen Zechuan resolves to carve out his own territorial dominion across the six prefectures of Zhongbo, choosing the prefecture of Cizhou as his initial base of operations. The fugitives arrive at Cizhou, where Prefect Zhou Gui and his chief advisor Kong Ling find themselves politically isolated between Qudu, Libei, and surrounding bandit coalitions. Shen Zechuan and Xiao Chiye enter into high stakes negotiations with Zhou Gui, offering the captive Han Jin as political leverage and the seasoned soldiers of the Imperial Army as territorial defense in exchange for granary provisions and military right of way through the region. Zhou Gui and Kong Ling formally agree to the pact, realizing that an alliance with Xiao Chiye and Shen Zechuan represents Cizhou's only chance to break free from the predatory exploitation of the capital noble clans. Meanwhile, the news of Han Jin's capture and the defection of the Imperial Army causes widespread panic across Qudu, effectively paralyzing Han Cheng's military options in the eastern territories.The fragile stability in Cizhou is immediately tested when bandit warlord Lei Changming of Mount Luo mobilizes over forty thousand men to besiege the city, aiming to plunder its granaries, seize Han Jin, and trade him to Qudu in exchange for noble titles. Shen Zechuan enters Lei Changming's forward encampment under the pretense of delivering two million taels of silver, deliberately enduring crude insults regarding his deceased birth mother Bai Cha to assess the bandits' true military cohesion and map their troop dispositions. Xiao Chiye and Tantai Hu coordinate a surprise flanking assault that shatters Lei Changming's undisciplined horde, exposing that the force consisted of newly pressed recruits rather than seasoned fighters. Lei Changming's ambitious nephew, Lei Jingzhe, attempts to capitalize on the confusion by leading his elite riders to seize Cizhou's gates, but Zhou Gui seals the city walls in time to repel the assault, forcing Lei Jingzhe to flee into the southern wilderness. Concurrently, Qiao Tianya and Fei Sheng track down and liberate Ji Gang, escorting him to Cizhou to reunite him safely with Shen Zechuan. With Cizhou firmly fortified, the bandit coalition fractured, and the logistical conduit to Libei secured, Xiao Chiye prepares an expedition into Mount Luo to exterminate the remnants of Lei Changming's forces and secure the Northeast Provisions Trail. Under the summer stars, Xiao Chiye carries Shen Zechuan through the streets of Cizhou, solidifying their romantic bond and mutual commitment to overturn the empire and conquer their own future together.Xiao Chiye pursues the fleeing Mount Luo bandit chieftain Lei Jingzhe and his young companion Li Xiong into the dense woods outside Cizhou. Cornered in the darkness, Lei Jingzhe relinquishes his broadsword and attempts to negotiate, offering to bring the remaining Mount Luo bandit forces under Xiao Chiye's command in exchange for his life. Xiao Chiye slashes Lei Jingzhe across the chest with Wolfsfang, inflicting a severe wound, but deliberately halts the killing blow to orchestrate a wider psychological trap. Xiao Chiye instructs his subordinates to circulate rumors throughout the countryside that Lei Jingzhe was captured and subsequently released as an informant for the Imperial Army. Xiao Chiye intentionally permits Lei Jingzhe, Ding Niu, and Liu'er to escape back toward Dunzhou, accurately calculating that the lingering suspicion of betrayal will cause the Mount Luo bandit coalition to turn against Lei Jingzhe and violently fracture into warring, mutually destructive factions. Returning to Cizhou under torchlight, Xiao Chiye delivers the remaining bandit prisoners into local custody and secures the formal cooperation of Prefect Zhou Gui and chief advisor Kong Ling. During their private discussions, Xiao Chiye issues an unmistakable warning to Kong Ling, making it clear that Cizhou must safeguard Shen Zechuan at all costs, as any harm brought to him will provoke Xiao Chiye to return and breach Cizhou's city gates within a single day. With Cizhou's defensive perimeter firmly stabilized and its municipal granaries placed under the Imperial Army's protection at the Beiyuan Training Grounds, Xiao Chiye prepares his forces for the long march back to Libei.In the imperial capital of Qudu, the sudden death of the Tianchen Emperor leaves the throne without an immediate heir, enabling Empress Dowager Hua to reassert personal dominance over state affairs while the noble clans and the Grand Secretariat descend into fierce factional warfare. Xue Xiuzhuo accelerates his covert plans to overthrow the old aristocratic order, having secretly hidden away Ling Ting, the daughter born to Princess Consort Qin and the Guangcheng Emperor, within his manor. Xue Xiuzhuo educates the girl in rigorous statecraft and imperial protocol, erasing her previous identity to prepare her to assume the throne under the legitimate dynastic name of Li Jianting. Grand Secretary Hai Liangyi recognizes that the Empress Dowager's manipulation of the succession and the noble clans' relentless obstruction of fiscal audits will cause the total collapse of the Great Zhou empire. During a high-stakes court assembly, after passionately denouncing the imperial court's systemic corruption and the noble clans' refusal to yield, Hai Liangyi charges headfirst into a palace column, dying instantly in a horrifying splash of blood as a final, uncompromising act of remonstration. The Grand Secretary's martyrdom shocks the civil administration, igniting fierce student protests and destabilizing the noble clans' standing. Investigating Censor Yu Xiaozai flees Qudu amidst the chaos, traveling directly to Cizhou to deliver a crucial missive from Chief Censor Cen Yu to Shen Zechuan and Xiao Chiye, solidifying a clandestine alignment between the regional insurgents and the surviving reformists in the capital, while leaving the court fundamentally divided over the future sovereign of the realm.Xiao Chiye departs Cizhou and leads the Imperial Army northeast toward Libei, taking the captive former commissioner Han Jin along as an indispensable political bargaining chip against the capital authorities. Along the northern frontier, the Twelve Tribes of Biansha escalate their military offensive under the command of Huhelu, the formidable adopted son of the Great Esuhuri Amur hailing from the Changjiu tribe. Utilizing superior desert horses and trained saker falcons for aerial reconnaissance, Huhelu executes a lightning assault across the regional border, bypassing forward defensive pickets to lay siege to Third Sand Camp and threatening Border Camp's vital supply depots. Xiao Chiye rushes his mounted forces to relieve Third Sand Camp, only to discover that defensive adjustments previously instituted by his injured elder brother Xiao Jiming had thoroughly sealed all underground drainage and latrine ditches, thereby eliminating Xiao Chiye's favored infiltration route into the compound. Adapting swiftly to the difficult tactical terrain, Xiao Chiye draws on his intimate knowledge of Huhelu's combat maneuvers from their engagement nine years earlier in the eastern mountain range to launch an aggressive counteroffensive. Xiao Chiye coordinates the Imperial Army's ferocious close-quarters combat capabilities with the resident garrison forces, successfully repelling the Biansha horsemen from the fortifications and securing Third Sand Camp's strategic integrity. This decisive military victory re-establishes Libei's southeastern defensive perimeter, allowing Xiao Chiye to assume command over frontline logistical supply routes while maintaining constant vigilance against Amur's expanding tribal coalition.Operating from Cizhou, Shen Zechuan moves to consolidate control over Zhongbo by turning his focus toward the neighboring prefecture of Chazhou, seeking to establish a secure economic network for food distribution and silver transit. Chazhou's nominal administration is led by Prefect Luo Mu, who lives in perpetual subjugation to the ruthless local bandit chief Cai Yu and the predatory merchant operations of the Hezhou Yan Clan, directed by the wealthy youth Yan Heru. Shen Zechuan exploits the longstanding personal bond between his chief advisor Kong Ling and Luo Mu to drive an irreparable wedge between the prefect and Cai Yu over the illicit sale of high-priced grain. Shen Zechuan orchestrates the covert distribution of grain porridge to the starving masses huddled outside Chazhou's city walls, intentionally inciting widespread fury over the bandits' hoarding of vital food supplies. The desperate refugees and townsfolk erupt into an open riot against Cai Yu's forces, storming the bandit compounds and overwhelming the garrison with sheer numbers. Luo Mu seizes the opportunity to repudiate the bandit alliance, executing Cai Yu and yielding administrative dominance of Chazhou to Shen Zechuan. Shen Zechuan opens the granaries, normalizes market prices across the prefecture, and publicly reveals his identity as the eighth son of Shen Wei, transforming himself from a reviled fugitive into an undeniable regional power who commands widespread popular loyalty throughout the devastated territory.

Following the immense political upheaval triggered by Hai Liangyi's death in Qudu, Xue Xiuzhuo systematically moves to eliminate any remaining intellectual and administrative threats by poisoning Hai Liangyi's sole recognized disciple, the renowned scholar and prodigy Yao Wenyu. The virulent poison permanently cripples Yao Wenyu's legs and completely shatters his fragile physical constitution, forcing the brilliant scholar to abandon the imperial capital in utter destitution, traveling toward Zhongbo disguised as an impoverished beggar riding a donkey. Near the border between Chazhou and Cizhou, Ding Tao and Fei Sheng intercept a group of aggressive local ruffians attempting to beat and rob a helpless vagrant, discovering upon closer inspection that the crippled traveler is in fact Yao Wenyu. Recognizing Yao Wenyu's incomparable strategic intellect and their mutual adherence to the rigorous political philosophies once championed by Grand Mentor Qi Huilian, Shen Zechuan rescues the fallen scholar and personally escorts him back to his estate in Cizhou. Yao Wenyu accepts Shen Zechuan's solemn invitation to become his chief strategist, finding a renewed sense of purpose in dismantling the corrupt hegemony of the Eight Great Clans and actively countering Xue Xiuzhuo's calculated imperial maneuvers from the provinces. With Yao Wenyu managing civilian governance, comprehensive census registries, and crucial interstate grain logistics, Shen Zechuan solidifies an unyielding political and intellectual vanguard in Cizhou, steadily preparing his regional alliance to challenge both the imperial throne in Qudu and the foreign invaders encroaching from the northern frontier.Following Yao Wenyu's arrival in Cizhou, Shen Zechuan provides sanctuary to the crippled and poisoned scholar, appointing him as his chief strategist to reconstruct civil administration and interstate commerce. In Qudu, Grand Secretary Hai Liangyi's martyrdom fails to halt aristocratic maneuvers; the Grand Secretariat and Empress Dowager Hua expedite Third Lady Hua Xiangyi's marriage to Grand Marshal Qi Shiyu of Qidong to secure the southern garrisons for the court, though Hua Xiangyi secretly resolves to preserve Qi Zhuyin's autonomous authority over Qidong. On the northern frontier, the Twelve Tribes of Biansha escalate their offensive under the brilliant general Hassen of the Hanma tribe, whose tactical speed repeatedly frustrates the Libei Armored Cavalry. Xiao Chiye takes the offensive with the Imperial Army near Tudalung Banner, but Hassen anticipates his movements and executes a devastating flanking encirclement. Xiao Chiye suffers a humiliating tactical defeat, losing half of the relief detachment led by Zhao Hui before managing to break free. Prince Xiao Fangxu severely reprimands Xiao Chiye for his reckless arrogance, stripping him of frontline command and demoting him to oversee military logistics and provisions. During their heated confrontation, Xiao Chiye refuses to conceal his personal allegiance and openly declares his romantic partnership with Shen Zechuan, provoking Xiao Fangxu's fury before the veteran warlord tacitly acknowledges his son's independent resolve. Lu Yizhi, the heir consort of Libei, travels south to Cizhou to assess Shen Zechuan, presenting him with Xiao family heirlooms and an elite warhorse, formally welcoming him into the Xiao family as Xiao Chiye's recognized spouse while establishing military cooperation between Libei and Zhongbo.In Cizhou, Shen Zechuan consolidates civil authority by recruiting the disgraced Imperial College scholar Gao Zhongxiong, directing him to draft public declarations that systematically dismantle the slanders surrounding the Shen name and elevate Shen Zechuan as a righteous protector of Zhongbo. When distorted rumors reach Libei claiming that an assassin severed Shen Zechuan's arm, Xiao Chiye panics and gallops south through the night across the border. Discovering Shen Zechuan entirely uninjured, Xiao Chiye embraces him in the river trade market, exchanging promises of absolute fidelity and gifting him the white warhorse Frostfall. While inspecting the logistics conduit near the Libei border, Shen Zechuan spots deep wheel ruts carrying heavy military armaments southward toward Dunzhou. Shen Zechuan intercepts a Biansha transport convoy guided by the treacherous Scorpion Jida, who attempts to smuggle siege weaponry into the region. Shen Zechuan executes Jida by thrusting a broken paintbrush through his throat, but the extreme kinetic strain permanently cripples the tendons in the index and middle fingers of his right hand, rendering him incapable of lifting Avalanche. Ding Tao witnesses the gore in horror, prompting Shen Zechuan to recognize the growing rift between his lethal reality and his retainers' innocence. Learning that bandit chieftain Lei Jingzhe and merchant heir Yan Heru are orchestrating contraband arms deals in Dunzhou, Shen Zechuan conceals his permanent physical impairment from his companions, disguises himself as a traveling merchant alongside Fei Sheng and a dozen Embroidered Uniform Guards, and infiltrates Dunzhou to seize the city. This covert maneuver positions Shen Zechuan inside the hostile urban stronghold just as regional factions convene to carve up territorial power.Inside Dunzhou, the decadent entertainment complex Fuxian Peak becomes the battleground for commercial and military dominance over Zhongbo. Having financed defecting Scorpions to counter the bandit forces, Yan Heru forces Lei Jingzhe into an arena duel against the rogue Scorpion warrior Haerigu, turning the life and death struggle into a spectator gambling spectacle for gathered merchants. Shen Zechuan watches from the mezzanine, coldly stalling Fei Sheng from drawing blades while evaluating both factions' combat strength. The calculated spectacle collapses into catastrophe when Lei Jingzhe, having anticipated Yan Heru's duplicity, unleashes four hundred hidden Biansha horsemen supported by an armored, fortified head cart to batter down Dunzhou's defenses and breach Fuxian Peak. Lei Jingzhe seeks to exterminate Haerigu, execute Yan Heru for cutting his finances, and capture Shen Zechuan to avenge his uncle Lei Changming. As siege weapons shatter the structural foundations of Fuxian Peak and flames consume the complex, Shen Zechuan faces imminent death amidst the collapse. Xiao Chiye, having marched the Imperial Army and Cizhou reinforcements along an exhausting night detour around Fanzhou, breaches the perimeter just in time. Scaling the double eaved roof, Xiao Chiye makes a desperate leap to catch Shen Zechuan in midair as the pavilion crumbles, taking the violent impact onto his own back. Xiao Chiye rallies the Imperial Army alongside Tantai Hu, unleashing a relentless assault that routs the Biansha horsemen, shatters the bandit coalition, and forces a heavily wounded Lei Jingzhe to flee into the southern wilderness, leaving Dunzhou firmly under their command. This dramatic military intervention permanently reverses the regional balance of power in Zhongbo, granting Shen Zechuan unassailable territorial control over three contiguous prefectures.Following the pacification of Dunzhou, Shen Zechuan stations Tantai Hu as the garrison commander, establishing an indispensable bulwark that shields Cizhou while cutting off the bandit networks of southern Zhongbo. Shen Zechuan imprisons Yan Heru alongside the prominent regional merchants in a courtyard without food, water, or latrines, using calculated psychological and physical deprivation to break their resistance. Shen Zechuan forces the terrified merchants to submit to standardized pricing, registration, and tax obligations, stripping Yan Heru of his commercial leverage and subordinating Hezhou's silver networks to Zhongbo's wartime governance. Interrogating the captured Scorpion Haerigu, Shen Zechuan compels him to disclose the hidden history behind Gedal and the fall of Zhongbo. Haerigu confesses that Gedal was originally a settlement founded on the east bank of the Chashi River named by Shen Zechuan's mother Bai Cha, whose beauty had captivated both Shen Wei and the great Biansha leader Amur. Haerigu reveals that Shen Wei had operated as an initiated Scorpion, caught in an agonizing double game between the aristocratic patrons in Qudu and Amur's expanding desert empire. Fearing execution by the noble clans, Shen Wei facilitated Biansha's border infiltration until Amur betrayed him, leading directly to the slaughter of thirty thousand soldiers in the Chashi Sinkhole. Confronting the true nature of his father's treason, Shen Zechuan discards the psychological burden of Shen Wei's shame, finding absolute solace and emotional grounding in Xiao Chiye's unyielding devotion as they deepen their intimacy and unite their political destinies. By establishing an unbreakable consensus on both the administrative and military fronts, the two leaders effectively weave their independent ambitions into an indivisible campaign to reshape the entire empire.Xiao Chiye journeys north to the Hongyan Mountains to oversee frontline supply trails in the dead of winter, facing an unforgiving campaign against Biansha's primary strike force. Hassen conducts a calculated campaign of psychological harassment, repeatedly feigning weaknesses in the northern snowfields to bait the Libei commanders into extending their lines. Believing he has pinpointed an opening to intercept Hassen east of Tudalung Banner and reclaim total control over the northern theater, Prince Xiao Fangxu mobilizes the elite third squad of First Sand Camp, advancing into a blinding blizzard without awaiting support battalions. In Border Camp, Xiao Chiye supervises the digging out of snow blocked supply corridors alongside Wu Ziyu when he suddenly synthesizes Hassen's operational patterns across the preceding months. Xiao Chiye realizes with horror that Hassen never intended to raid supply depots or storm Second Sand Camp; every diversion was calculated bait engineered to draw out Xiao Fangxu into an isolated kill zone. Xiao Chiye races to organize an emergency relief force, but his realization comes too late. Jiang Sheng and Gu Jin stagger back to camp battered and bleeding, confirming that Hassen deployed camouflaged Scorpions disguised in Libei cavalry armor to outflank and completely massacre the third squad in the blizzard. Xiao Fangxu is killed in the ambush, his severed head taken by Hassen as a trophy of war, shattering the legendary iron wall of Libei and plunging the northern defense into existential catastrophe. This catastrophic reversal abruptly leaves Xiao Chiye to shoulder the unmitigated burden of Libei's military survival while facing an adversary who has proven capable of tearing through the empire's greatest defenses.Xiao Chiye relentlessly tracks Hassen and his unit of Scorpions through a blinding blizzard to an abandoned relay station east of the Hongyan Mountains. Entering the shelter in absolute darkness, Xiao Chiye engages Hassen and his guards in vicious close-quarters combat, using the body of a fallen Scorpion as a shield, stabbing Ulihan through the eye with a pike dagger, and smashing him against the wall. Although Xiao Chiye's injured right arm hampers his dexterity and Hassen stabs him in the left shoulder, Xiao Chiye's unyielding ferocity forces Hassen to retreat, discarding the sack containing Xiao Fangxu's severed head onto the snow with a promise of mutual vengeance. Xiao Chiye recovers his father's remains and returns to Libei, where Xiao Fangxu is buried with solemn rites, plunging the Libei Armored Cavalry into a crisis of confidence after suffering their first fatal leadership loss in thirty years. The commanding generals discover that the Scorpions wield specialized iron hammers that inflict concussions and internal hemorrhaging through heavy helmets, neutralizing Libei's armored advantage. Qi Zhuyin rides north from Qidong to inspect the frontline, staging an audacious tactical demonstration at First Sand Camp by raining burning kerosene onto Biansha shield bearers and rapidly alternating between heavy armor and light cavalry to shatter the unarmored Scorpions. Veteran general Lu Guangbai arrives to disclose that Amur is unifying the twelve tribes, establishing farming colonies east of Gedal, and preparing a protracted invasion of Great Zhou. In strategic consultations, Xiao Jiming adamantly refuses Qi Zhuyin's entreaty to make peace with Qudu, declaring that Libei will never surrender Xiao Chiye, Lu Yizhi, or Xiao Xun to the imperial court. Shen Zechuan and Yao Wenyu arrive from Cizhou, concluding a tripartite pact between Libei, Qidong, and Zhongbo, wherein Shen Zechuan undertakes the logistical burden of provisioning the armies and pledges to form an elite light cavalry in Duanzhou, while Qi Zhuyin agrees to pin down the southern tribes.Shen Zechuan returns south to expand his territorial dominance across Zhongbo by targeting Fanzhou and Dengzhou. In Fanzhou, the rogue warlord King Yi hoards grain while ruthlessly suppressing the local populace and forbidding commoners from fleeing the territory. Yin Chang leads eight thousand troops from the Cizhou Garrison into Fanzhou, using calculated feints to probe the perimeter while internal rebellion erupts within King Yi's ranks. King Yi's trusted subordinate Huo Lingyun, having secretly acquired firearms, assassinates King Yi by shooting him through the head, seizes command of the remaining garrison, and surrenders Fanzhou to Shen Zechuan and Xiao Chiye. During his formal interrogation, Huo Lingyun reveals that Scorpions approached King Yi in the twelfth month with gifts of muskets, attempting to incite an invasion of Chazhou to sever Qidong's supply routes to Libei. This critical revelation exposes the existence of White Scorpions embedded within the highest administrative offices of Qudu. Synthesizing these testimonies with past irregularities, Shen Zechuan deciphers Amur's logistical network, discovering that contraband weapons and grain bypassed Dunzhou entirely, traveling instead through Fanzhou and Dengzhou via corrupt officials such as Peng Fangmiao and commercial fronts managed by Cuiqing directly to Gedal. Shen Zechuan absorbs Huo Lingyun and his musket squad into his military apparatus, while Xiao Chiye utilizes the Beiyuan Training Grounds in Cizhou to train alongside Haerigu and his defected Scorpions. Through relentless sparring, Xiao Chiye devises a comprehensive tactical countermeasure to the iron hammers, ordering Libei craftsmen to forge long single-edged sabers and training his cavalry in dense war chariot formations inspired by Lu Guangbai's infantry and Yin Chang's assault tactics.

Xiao Chiye leads five thousand Imperial Army soldiers and Libei Armored Cavalry units eastward to liberate Duanzhou, which has been transformed into a fortified Biansha stronghold under the Black Scorpion leader Achi. Approaching the city across the frozen Chashi River, Xiao Chiye feigns vulnerability by retreating after an initial skirmish, baiting Achi into launching a reckless pursuit over the ice. When Achi's flanking columns close in to envelop the retreating vanguard, Xiao Chiye unleashes thirty concealed muskets, detonating volleys of gunfire that blow the Scorpion squad commanders from their saddles and trigger mass panic among the Biansha mounts. Xiao Chiye immediately deploys the restructured Libei Armored Cavalry in their interlocking war chariot formation, drawing their new long sabers to sever enemy ranks before the Scorpions can close the distance with their iron hammers. Haerigu fights on Libei's side, deflecting a blow aimed at a cavalryman and crushing an opposing Scorpion with his hammer. Xiao Chiye drives Achi's battered forces back toward the Chashi Sinkhole, where thirty thousand Zhongbo soldiers were slaughtered seven years prior. Shen Zechuan arrives at the battlefield leading Tantai Hu, Fei Sheng, and the newly established Embroidered Uniform Cavalry, sealing the perimeter and trapping the remaining invaders against the ravine. Xiao Chiye personally engages Achi, shattering his defenses and decapitating the Scorpion commander. Duanzhou falls to Shen Zechuan, establishing his complete administrative control over all six prefectures of Zhongbo. Xiao Chiye captures Bayim and releases him into the wilderness carrying Achi's severed head back to Hassen, explicitly turning the enemy's psychological terror against them and re-establishing Libei's martial dominance.In Qidong, Qi Zhuyin takes decisive action to support the northern offensive by defying the Ministry of War and the Grand Secretariat, which had repeatedly denied her requests for provisions. Staging a pretext by claiming that the Qingshu tribe attacked her night patrol, Qi Zhuyin mobilizes the Qidong Garrison Troops to launch a devastating preemptive strike that wipes out General Sumong and vacates the Qingshu tribal territory, securing the southern frontier. In the imperial capital of Qudu, the political struggle between the inner court and the outer ministries intensifies as Grand Secretary Kong Qiu, Cen Yu, and Court of Judicial Review Vice Minister Xue Xiuzhuo investigate corrupt land acquisitions in Dancheng through Liang Cuishan, placing the Pan Clan and the noble clans under severe legal pressure. Empress Dowager Hua, alarmed by the rising administrative authority and public acclaim surrounding the heir apparent Li Jianting, attempts to reassert her grip on the military. The Empress Dowager summons Qi Zhuyin and Hua Xiangyi to Qudu under imperial decree and attempts to coerce Qi Zhuyin into marrying Fei Shi, the son of Helian Marquis Fei Kun, with the explicit goal of diluting Qi Zhuyin's sole command over Qidong. Qi Zhuyin firmly rejects the match, while Xue Xiuzhuo intervenes to pledge funding for Qidong's military expenses from civil reserves, solidifying a working pact with the marshal. In Duanzhou, Shen Zechuan and Yao Wenyu analyze the capital crisis, recognizing that the Empress Dowager's refusal to confer a noble title upon Qi Zhuyin exposes her deepest vulnerability, leaving Li Jianting and the Grand Secretariat positioned to secure Qidong's enduring fealty by formally elevating Qi Zhuyin to princely rank.In Qudu, the political struggle over the land and granaries of the eight cities escalates when Liang Cuishan returns from Juexi to deliver revised account books to Kong Qiu, Cen Yu, and Xue Xiuzhuo. Liang Cuishan reveals that the Helian Marquis attempted to bribe him with gold through the Juexi grain levies intendant to halt scrutiny into the Fei Clan's illicit private checkpoints and illegal border tariffs in Chuancheng. Xue Xiuzhuo uses this evidence to intensify the joint judicial interrogation of Pan Lin regarding Dancheng's falsified field registries, exposing decades of systemic land theft and grain embezzlement by the noble clans. To prevent the complete exposure of her faction, Empress Dowager Hua schemes to use the empty granaries of the eight cities as leverage, attempting to coerce Qi Zhuyin into marrying the young marquis Fei Shi to dilute her military command while demanding that Xue Xiuzhuo abandon the Dancheng investigation in exchange for military provisions. Pan Xiangjie is detained and attempts to blackmail the court by withholding his ledgers, prompting the Empress Dowager to dispatch Han Cheng and the Eight Great Battalions to storm the prison, execute Pan Xiangjie, eliminate the investigating officials, and destroy the documentary evidence under the pretext of purging Zhongbo spies. Han Cheng breaches the compound and assaults Liang Cuishan, but Qi Wei drops from the roof to shield Pan Xiangjie, and Qi Zhuyin intervenes with Banisher drawn, forcing the capital troops to withdraw. Despite surviving the raid, both Pan Xiangjie and Pan Lin die shortly afterward, depriving the noble clans of their key witnesses while leaving the Grand Secretariat and Xue Xiuzhuo in possession of the incriminating records.Following the bloodshed at the prison, Grand Secretary Kong Qiu and Left Censor in Chief Cen Yu coordinate with the heir apparent, Li Jianting, to strip Han Cheng of military authority. During the official Hanshi Festival palace banquet, Li Jianting executes a calculated political reversal against the noble clans in full view of the assembled court. Cen Yu publicly impeaches the Helian Marquis and exposes the illegal tariffs of Chuancheng, while Qi Zhuyin subtly isolates Han Cheng at the banquet table. Li Jianting orders the immediate arrest and execution of Han Cheng, permanently crushing his corrupt hegemony over the capital forces. Empress Dowager Hua is stripped of her administrative authority, deprived of her military leverage, and placed under strict confinement within the inner palace harems, relying solely on Hua Xiangyi's marriage ties to maintain her personal safety. Li Jianting reclaims direct sovereign control over the Eight Great Battalions, transferring trusted commanders into key posts. To secure the permanent allegiance of Qidong and permanently counter balance regional powers, Li Jianting defies traditional gender conventions and overrules ministerial hesitation by issuing an imperial decree that bestows upon Qi Zhuyin the hereditary title of Prince of Donglie. This unprecedented conferment provides Qi Zhuyin with legitimate princely rank, cementing her military dominance over the five commanderies and securing Qidong as a defensive bulwark for the central throne. Concurrently, Li Jianting directs the Ministry of Revenue and Liang Cuishan to conduct a comprehensive audit of the remaining grain stores across the eight cities, decisively ending decades of noble clan obstruction.On the northern frontier, Xiao Chiye and Lu Guangbai deduce that Hassen's continuous assaults against Libei's border camps are an elaborate diversion designed to exhaust the Libei Armored Cavalry. Facing severe food shortages due to Shen Zechuan's control over regional supply routes, Hassen plans a surprise offensive to plunder the abundant granaries of Duanzhou. Xiao Chiye devises a counter strategy, instructing Lu Guangbai and Zuo Qianqiu to feign defensive exhaustion on the northern front while he quietly marches south to the Bianjun Commandery to coordinate with Qi Zhuyin and intercept Biansha reinforcement routes. Hassen launches a massive assault on Duanzhou, surrounding the city with elite Biansha cavalry and Scorpions. Shen Zechuan, Qiao Tianya, Fei Sheng, Huo Lingyun, and the Embroidered Uniform Cavalry conduct an unyielding defense of the fortifications, enduring relentless bombardment and rotating sorties across the outer trenches despite Shen Zechuan suffering from severe physical strain and tendon injuries in his sword hand. Just as the city defenses reach their breaking point, Xiao Chiye arrives with the reformed Libei Armored Cavalry, deploying dense war chariot formations and drawing newly forged single edged long sabers that completely neutralize the Scorpions' iron hammers. The combined forces of the garrison troops, the Embroidered Uniform Cavalry, and the armored cavalry execute a three pronged encirclement that traps the invaders east of Duanzhou. Xiao Chiye corners Hassen in the shallows of the Chashi River, engages him in brutal single combat, and slashes him to death with Wolfsfang, avenging Xiao Fangxu's murder and annihilating Biansha's northern strike force.In the aftermath of the victory at Duanzhou, Hassen's demise shatters the military cohesion of the Twelve Tribes of Biansha, depriving the Great Hero Amur of his lawful son and foremost field commander. While Shen Zechuan recovers from his injuries, Gu Jin arrives with the grim revelation that Master Yideng has died, jeopardizing medical hopes for treating Shen Zechuan's chronic illness and Yao Wenyu's debilitating poisoning. In Juexi, a severe drought strikes Yongcheng, threatening widespread famine. The Helian Marquis liquidates family estates to purchase relief grain in an attempt to earn imperial leniency for his crimes, but Shen Zechuan manipulates commercial grain networks and pricing to counter court influence. Recognizing the shifting dynamics, Li Jianting rewards both the Helian Marquis and Provincial Administration Commissioner Jiang Qingshan, utilizing grain distribution to pacify Xue Xiuzhuo while establishing administrative leverage over the military. With the crisis in Duanzhou resolved and the Biansha invaders driven beyond the Chashi River, Xiao Jiming, Xiao Chiye, and Lu Guangbai agree that the moment has arrived to take the offensive against Amur. Xiao Chiye resolves to lead a massive military expedition eastward into the desert to eliminate the remaining tribal forces and eradicate Amur's hegemony permanently. However, Qi Zhuyin firmly declines to commit Qidong's troops to an offensive campaign beyond the empire's borders, prioritizing the preservation of her garrison resources and the welfare of her commoners. Shen Zechuan commits the full economic and logistical machinery of Zhongbo to sustain Xiao Chiye's desert campaign, solidifying their mutual determination to redraw the boundaries of the empire.In Qudu, following the death of Empress Dowager Hua and the formal ascension of the Shengyin Emperor Li Jianting, Minister of War Chen Zhen recommends his hidden brother in law Shao Chengbi to lead the newly reorganized capital troops as military commissioner. Shao Chengbi, the former Vice Minister of War from the reign of Yongyi who had concealed his identity for years as a bun seller near the Temple of Guilt after blinding one eye and poisoning his own vocal cords, receives command of twenty thousand soldiers equipped with muskets from the Chunquan Battalion. Shao Chengbi marches to Dancheng to suppress the Zhongbo rebellion, drawing out the garrison forces of Shen Zechuan and the Imperial Army commanded by Tantai Hu and Qiao Tianya. During the battle, Qiao Tianya recognizes Shao Chengbi as his former martial arts mentor who raised him from childhood. Rather than executing a lethal assault, Shao Chengbi deliberately leads his men into an encirclement and allows his forces to be subdued, sustaining fatal wounds in combat against Qiao Tianya. Before dying in his disciple's arms, Shao Chengbi reveals that his actions are an act of penance for his past failure during the fall of the Eastern Palace. Shen Zechuan and Qiao Tianya inspect the firearms retrieved from the battlefield and discover that all one hundred and fifty muskets are non functional fakes bearing serial numbers identical to the real firearms Huo Lingyun had previously captured from King Yi in Fanzhou. Shen Zechuan synthesizes these clues and deduces that Shao Chengbi chose to march to his death to signal that the imperial armory had been secretly looted by Scorpions operating in the capital, while simultaneously providing Shen Zechuan with uncontested legal and moral justification to march his army directly upon the gates of Qudu.The investigation into the counterfeit muskets and inner palace records unravels the covert identity of the eunuch Fengquan. Fengquan is revealed to be Shao Fengquan, the biological son of Shao Chengbi, who was captured during the purge of the crown prince's faction and sent into the desert, where Amur forced him to become a Scorpion before returning him to the empire. Concurrently, Grand Mentor Qi Huilian had deployed Fengquan into the palace as a sleeper agent, unaware that Amur also claimed his allegiance. To disguise his true age of thirty six, Fengquan ingested debilitating drugs to stunt his physical maturation, maintaining the youthful countenance of a teenage boy to evade suspicion under Xue Xiuzhuo, Pan Rugui, and Li Jianting. In Mingli Hall, Qiao Tianya infiltrates the palace through the underground public drainage ditches and confronts Fengquan amid the shadows. Fengquan exposes the historical betrayal that doomed Zhongbo, revealing that Qiao Tianya's father, Qiao Kanghai, forged the treasonous documents that incriminated the Eastern Palace, and Shao Chengbi subsequently gave the military cartographs of Zhongbo to Shen Wei to secure mercy for the Qiao Clan. Shen Wei then delivered these maps to Amur, directly facilitating the massacre of thirty thousand soldiers in the Chashi Sinkhole. Driven by bitter resentment toward both Qi Huilian and Shao Chengbi for reducing him to an expendable instrument, Fengquan confesses that he engineered the Dancheng pox outbreak, switched the relay report that caused the fall of Wei Huaigu, and facilitated the murder of Li Jianheng. Qiao Tianya kills the covert Scorpion assassin guarding the hall, while Fengquan topples the lamps to set Mingli Hall ablaze, abandoning his role in court intrigue as the imperial palace burns.Xue Xiuzhuo fortifies Qudu to resist Shen Zechuan's advance, mobilizing fifty thousand irregular troops under Chazhou Prefect Luo Mu, stockpiling grain reserves at Mount Feng, and dispatching urgent appeals for Juexi's civil commissioner Jiang Qingshan to deploy southern reinforcements. However, Hua Xiangyi intervenes from within the Qi household to neutralize Jiang Qingshan's political maneuverability, while Grand Marshal Qi Zhuyin refuses to march the Qidong Garrison Troops against Zhongbo, leaving Qudu militarily isolated. Left Censor in Chief Cen Yu attempts to negotiate a peaceful resolution with Yao Wenyu at a roadside pavilion, but an unauthorized arrow fired from the defending lines shatters the truce, prompting Tantai Hu and the Imperial Army to charge and obliterate Luo Mu's defensive perimeter. Tantai Hu examines the corpses of the fallen defenders and discovers scorpion tattoos, proving that Amur's agents had completely infiltrated Luo Mu's military force. Shen Zechuan deploys heavy siege catapults to shatter the eastern city gates, crushing the stone monument bearing the capital's name. Recognizing that defeat is absolute and hoping to preserve the administrative infrastructure of the thirteen cities of Juexi from devastation, Xue Xiuzhuo ascends the battlements, casts away his official authority token, and formally surrenders the capital to Shen Zechuan, taking sole responsibility for the deaths of Qi Huilian and Yao Wenyu. Inside the burning palace, Li Jianting refuses to flee to Juexi as a displaced figurehead; she beats an imperial drum, recites classical poetry, and perishes inside Mingli Hall, choosing death alongside her collapsing dynasty over surrender. Shen Zechuan secures Qudu, rounds up one hundred and forty seven embedded Scorpions throughout the administrative bureaus, and assumes absolute executive control over the central government.

Simultaneously in the vast northern desert beyond the Chashi River, Xiao Chiye leads the Libei Armored Cavalry and Lu Guangbai's infantry on an eastward expedition to eradicate Amur and the Twelve Tribes of Biansha. Xiao Chiye coerces Bayir, the chieftain of the Mengluo tribe at Three Rivers, into opening logistical access through the desert poplars, steadily driving toward Amur's golden yurt. Near Lake Chiti, Amur prepares a final defensive stand with the remnants of the Hanma tribe and Youxiong warriors assembled by Dorlan. When Bayir withholds his promised reinforcements and Amur attempts an ambush with heavy ballistas, Xiao Chiye leaps from Snowcrest and engages the enemy lines on foot. Xiao Chiye confronts Amur in brutal close combat amid burning yurts, trading blows with Wolfsfang against Amur's chipped scimitar. Amur taunts Xiao Chiye with memories of Xiao Fangxu's death in the snow, provoking Xiao Chiye to unleash ferocious strikes that crack Amur's scimitar and shatter his heavy armor. Amur shouts that future eagles of the desert will eventually return to conquer the Hongyan Mountains, but Xiao Chiye rejects his warning, declaring that the wolves of Libei will forever defend the border before cleaving through Amur's armguard and executing him on the blood soaked sands. The death of Amur permanently destroys the military unity of the Twelve Tribes, avenges the slaughter of Xiao Fangxu and the Libei cavalry, and establishes unchallenged peace across the northern and eastern frontiers, allowing Xiao Chiye and Lu Guangbai to lead their victorious armies home.Following the occupation of Qudu, Yao Wenyu succumbs to the incurable poison that paralyzed his body, having completed exhaustive administrative codices for the future governance of the empire and handing them to Shen Zechuan before expiring. Heartbroken by Yao Wenyu's demise, Qiao Tianya discards his sword and quietly departs the capital to spend his remaining days as an unattached wanderer. In the quiet of the imperial palace, Shen Zechuan and Xiao Chiye review regional accounts and genealogical records to finally resolve the mystery behind Shen Wei's self immolation in Dunzhou. They realize that Shen Wei retreated and burned himself alive because Amur had executed his eldest lawful son Shen Zhouji by dragging him to death along the public road, permanently shattering Shen Wei's intended defection and leaving him trapped between treason and execution. Shen Zechuan ascends the imperial throne as sovereign of the realm, constructing the Cloud Pavilion on the former site of Jade Dragon Terrace to honor the civil ministers and military generals who shaped the era, placing portraits of Qi Huilian, Hai Liangyi, Yao Wenyu, Xiao Fangxu, and Yin Chang among the revered figures. Xiao Chiye is invested as the Prince of Qianjun, commanding the imperial armies while standing beside the throne as the emperor's lifelong protector. In Libei, the two celebrate their formal imperial marriage, where Ji Gang places the adulthood crown upon Shen Zechuan, Zuo Qianqiu crowns Xiao Chiye, and Shen Zechuan rides Frostfall through the falling rain to join Xiao Chiye, cementing their romantic devotion and political hegemony over a unified and rebuilt empire.

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Volume 5

Volume 6

Volume 7

Volume 8

Peerless: Wushuang

The story so far...
(Volumes 1–5)

The murder of the Khotanese prince and envoy Yuchi Jinwu outside Liugong City leaves his diplomatic convoy slaughtered, while his concubine Qin Miaoyu disappears alongside the tribute roster and the priceless Jade of Heaven Lake. Feng Xiao, Deputy Chief of the Jiejian Bureau, arrives under imperial decree to receive the delegation and immediately investigates the frozen crime scene. Suspicion centers on Zixia Monastery, where an ailing, non martial Daoist abbot named Cui Buqu has suspiciously elevated the neglected shrine during the exact window Linlang Pavilion announced its annual auction. Upon discovering a jade token from Liuli Palace of Fangzhang Isle under Cui Buqu's pillow, Feng Xiao drugs him with incense of helplessness and detains him as an unwilling participant in the investigation. Concurrently, Linlang Pavilion hosts its prestigious auction under the patronage of high clans and Princess Leping. Outside the venue, head broker Wen Liang kills an assailant named Ying Wuqiu in self defense, followed immediately by an anonymous sneak attack using a poisoned needle that Feng Xiao intercepts. This incident is a deliberate diversion engineered by Cui Buqu, who secretly coordinates with his subordinates Qiao Xian and Zhangsun Bodhi through coded messages at an espionage teahouse to tie Feng Xiao's investigation to Wen Liang while his own agents pursue the scent of cold plum blossom fragrance tied to Yuchi Jinwu. During the final auction, an item suspected to be the Jade of Heaven Lake is presented and sold to Feng Xiao for five thousand silver taels and ten golden pearls. Cui Buqu seizes the public setting to strike Feng Xiao across the face, denouncing him as a predatory cut sleeve who abandoned his sister and now torments him, thereby sabotaging Feng Xiao's reputation, asserting his own independence, and forcing Feng Xiao to endure widespread public ridicule.At Qiushan Manor, multiple martial factions infiltrate the compound at night to seize the newly purchased jade: the Goguryean sword master Go Nyeong, the Gokturk expert Fo'er, the Hehuan Sect disciple Bing Xian, an assassin from the Thirteen Floors of Yunhai, and the white clad monk Yuxiu, an advisor serving Prince of Jin Yang Guang. During the chaotic brawl, the stone crumbles to fine dust in Go Nyeong's grasp, exposing it as an outright counterfeit. Fo'er ignores the treasure and attacks Feng Xiao directly with intent to kill on orders from Ishbara Khagan. Amid the melee, Go Nyeong captures Pei Jingzhe under the assumption that Cui Buqu is Feng Xiao's formidable partner, while Yuxiu seizes Cui Buqu to claim the artifact for the Prince of Jin. Feng Xiao wields an ancient zither with lethal sound wave techniques to repel Fo'er and pursues Yuxiu, while Pei Jingzhe escapes Go Nyeong. Analyzing the powder, Feng Xiao and Cui Buqu deduce that Yuchi Jinwu carried two stones, an authentic jade and a duplicate, and that the conspirators split the haul and auctioned the fake to smoke out the real treasure. Meanwhile, Qiao Xian and Zhangsun Bodhi represent the Zuoyue Bureau, an imperial agency answering to Empress Dugu that wields authority equal to the Six Ministries, and use the plum fragrance lead to corner Qin Miaoyu, who slips away after they slay a Thirteen Floors assassin hunting her. Go Nyeong and Fo'er form an alliance and forge a ransom demand using Pei Jingzhe's lost badge to bait Feng Xiao into Huyang Forest with two assassins from the Thirteen Floors of Yunhai. Feng Xiao drags Cui Buqu along, but the combined assault knocks Feng Xiao over a cliff edge. Cui Buqu forces Feng Xiao to repeatedly address him as father before extending a hand to haul him up. Trapped together in a blizzard swept cave, Cui Buqu reveals his leadership within the Zuoyue Bureau, and the two adversaries forge a temporary pact to counteract the conspirators and protect an impending envoy from Apa Khagan.A separate crisis erupts at Lu Manor when Lu Youniang, the only daughter of wealthy merchant Lu Ti, is discovered drowned on the same night as the perimeter chase. Her betrothed cousin Su Xing claims she took her own life after Lu Ti attempted to arrange a marriage with the Wang family of Taiyuan. Enlisted by Pei Jingzhe to break the impasse, Cui Buqu inspects the estate, discovers Su Xing hiding in disguise among the servants, and demands to inspect the corpse in the coffin. By dissecting contradictions in Su Xing's testimony, Cui Buqu exposes that Lu Youniang was murdered, prompting Su Xing to seize Lu Ti at blade point. Su Xing reveals his true identity as Yin Zairong, a deep cover operative of the Goguryean Buyeo Sect who usurped the identity of the deceased real Su Xing six years prior under orders from a mysterious superior named Yi xiansheng. Yin Zairong confesses that he killed Lu Youniang because she inadvertently read a book documenting his involvement in the Khotanese convoy massacre. Trading Lu Ti's life and intelligence regarding Qin Miaoyu's hideouts for an escape guarantee, Yin Zairong takes Feng Xiao's deputy chief seal, but Feng Xiao ambushes him on the rooftop, disables his martial arts, and recovers the insignia. Using Yin Zairong's intelligence, Feng Xiao corners Qin Miaoyu, an operative trained in seduction and martial arts who had taken the genuine Jade of Heaven Lake to purify her meridians and liberate herself from her masters. With the authentic jade secured, Cui Buqu meets with Jinlian, the secret envoy dispatched by Apa Khagan to forge an alliance with Sui against Ishbara Khagan. Fo'er attacks the pavilion to assassinate Jinlian and demolish diplomatic relations, collapsing the building with his palm strikes. Feng Xiao intervenes to neutralize Fo'er and digs Cui Buqu out from the rubble, allowing Cui Buqu to verify the alliance document with total recall. Having resolved the theft and murder, Cui Buqu compels Feng Xiao to accompany him on the dangerous diplomatic trek to Suyab to ratify the treaty with Apa Khagan, ensuring both rival bureaus embark toward Qiemo together.Traveling westward under imperial mandate to negotiate with Apa Khagan in Suyab, Cui Buqu and Feng Xiao escort the lesser khatun Jinlian into the desert oasis of Qiemo. To avoid tipping off hostile factions, the party travels under false merchant identities, with Cui Buqu posing as Shang Jing, the ailing nephew of the king of Kucha, and Feng Xiao adopting a female disguise as his outspoken wife, supported by Zuoyue Bureau operative Qiao Xian and Jiejian Bureau assistant Pei Jingzhe. Qiemo operates outside imperial control as a volatile lawless hub dominated by two rival warlords: the former highwayman Duan Qihu and the local magnate Xing Mao, a descendant of the Shanshan kings, while the court appointed magistrate Gao Yi acts as a frightened puppet. Upon arrival, an arson fire at Rongxing Pawnshop kills Xing Mao's trusted broker Li Fei alongside an affiliate named Cheng Cheng. When Gao Yi detains Cui Buqu's traveling party on suspicion, Cui Buqu exposes that both victims were murdered prior to the fire, using his forensic deduction to establish diplomatic immunity and force Gao Yi into an uneasy alignment. Soon after, Xing Mao hosts a grand birthday banquet for his mother, inviting Duan Qihu to a superficial truce. During the feast, Cui Buqu observes suspicious communications between Xing Mao's third steward and an outside operative, intervening just as a serving maid attacks Duan Qihu with poisoned wine and a hidden dagger. Feng Xiao disarms the assassin, but the chaos deepens when the third steward is discovered hanging in the woodshed. Cui Buqu examines the corpse to demonstrate that the steward was strangled before being strung up and branded with bloody vengeance messages, proving an external instigator engineered the banquet ambush to trigger open warfare between Duan Qihu and Xing Mao.Exploiting the rising panic, Cui Buqu persuades Gao Yi to act as a legitimate authority and stage ghost apparitions that pressure Duan Qihu into confronting his past atrocities. Cornered at his fortified estate, Duan Qihu faces an assault led by Yan Xuexing, a righteous swordsman from Linchuan Academy seeking retribution for the slaughter of his family and the violation and murder of his sister twenty years earlier, aided by Hehuan Sect disciple Bing Xian. As Yan Xuexing massacres Duan Qihu's guards, Duan Qihu barters for his life by revealing his secret rank as Shi'er-xiansheng, the twelfth director within the Thirteen Floors of Yunhai, and identifies two fellow directors: Shiyi-xiansheng, a white clad monk named Yuheng, and Shisan-xiansheng, the former Northern Qi beauty Feng Xiaolian who faked her death. Xing Mao suddenly breaches the manor accompanied by Yuheng and mercenary experts, attempting to exterminate Duan Qihu and seize unilateral control of Qiemo. Cui Buqu directs the defense by audibly analyzing the vulnerabilities of each mercenary, including Nameless Sword Wang Hong, Cloudcatcher Pei Yuan, and Moonwater Guanyin Bai Bi, enabling Feng Xiao to neutralize their techniques with internal energy and zither strings. When Yuheng captures Cui Buqu, Feng Xiao breaks the formation using illusory arts, allowing Cui Buqu to escape into an underground passage. There, Cui Buqu discovers Duan Qihu's hidden torture chamber and encounters Xiao Lü, known as Songxue-xiansheng, a Southern Chen official and calligraphic sword master who has infiltrated the compound to liberate his captive relative Mei-niang. Outside the tunnels, Yan Xuexing mutilates Duan Qihu into a limbless torso, leaving him to perish before Cui Buqu can extract further intelligence, though Cui Buqu recovers a bloodstained coded letter from the corpse. Joining forces, Feng Xiao, Cui Buqu, and Gao Yi dismantle both the Xing and Duan syndicates, purge Yuheng's conspiracy, and officially absorb Qiemo into direct Sui imperial administration.Deciphering the coded verses retrieved from Duan Qihu, Cui Buqu determines that the Thirteen Floors of Yunhai have scheduled an assembly on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month in Donghai Commandery involving Jinhuan Guild helmsman Ning Shewo and Yandang Mountain Estate heir Lin Yong. In exchange for Feng Xiao's continued military cooperation, Cui Buqu promises to help him secure the treasured antique zither Yuyin from the prestigious Cui clan of Boling upon their return to the Central Plains. Resuming their diplomatic mission toward Suyab, Cui Buqu, Feng Xiao, Qiao Xian, and Jinlian arrive at the Western Khaganate royal encampment to formalize an alliance with Apa Khagan. They face immediate hostility from the khagan's second son Prince Ade and Ishbara Khagan's emissary Fo'er, who seek to disrupt the negotiations. To cultivate an alternative political channel, Cui Buqu notices that the first son Prince Yixun is a cut sleeve and stages a provocative intimate scene with Feng Xiao in their yurt to win Yixun's trust. The diplomatic crisis escalates when the venerated Black Moon Shaman is found murdered and incinerated. Fo'er and Ade orchestrate a plot to frame Feng Xiao, who had been lured into an array at the shaman's residence and injured by an unknown grandmaster. Feng Xiao slips into Prince Ade's personal yurt, cuts his own flesh to disguise the scent of blood, and stages an embarrassing incident with Ade's concubine to baffle the investigators. During the Eight Tribes Conference tournament, Feng Xiao and Cui Buqu neutralize Ade's provocations in an equestrian archery contest, though Namudo subsequently overpowers Qiao Xian in hand to hand combat. In the decisive duel, Fo'er attempts to execute Feng Xiao with his extending vajra and lethal palm strikes, believing Feng Xiao is incapacitated. Feng Xiao reveals he feigned the full severity of his injury, overcomes Fo'er's offensive, and kills him by driving a blade through his back. Following Fo'er's death, Prince Ade is assassinated in his quarters by an unseen operative. When Apa Khagan summons his guards to execute the Sui envoys for the prince's death, Cui Buqu halts the slaughter by demanding a single day to expose the true mastermind.Cui Buqu offers himself as a hostage to Apa Khagan to secure a single day for the investigation into Prince Ade's murder, allowing Feng Xiao to move freely outside. Cui Buqu transmits a coded warning to Qiao Xian instructing Feng Xiao to run and avoid vengeance against Apa Khagan, which Feng Xiao correctly deciphers as an urgent instruction to investigate the khagan himself. When Apa Khagan visits the captive Cui Buqu, Cui Buqu systematically dismantles his disguise by noting that the khagan failed to display his notorious lechery toward Qiao Xian and utilized a Kuchean concubine's heavy perfume to mask the scent of blood from his prior duel with Feng Xiao. The imposter reveals himself as the monk Yuxiu, an operative who orchestrated the conflict between Ishbara Khagan and the Sui dynasty out of secret devotion to Princess Qianjin of Northern Zhou, seeking vengeance against Sui for overthrowing the Yuwen imperial clan. Yuxiu attempts to slowly strangle Cui Buqu, but Feng Xiao slaughters the perimeter guards and breaches the yurt, engaging Yuxiu in midair combat until Yuxiu flees, exposing to the assembly that the genuine Apa Khagan was murdered. With the conspiracy dismantled, Prince Yixun ascends as the new khagan with the backing of Jinlian and the greater khatun, formalizing the treaty after Cui Buqu recites the entire alliance document from memory to prove his total recall, before the envoys escort Yixun back toward the Central Plains. Prior to their departure, Cui Buqu reminds Feng Xiao of his promise to retrieve the treasured antique zither Yuyin from the Cui clan of Boling, while Feng Xiao remains alert to the reality that Apa Khagan was slain and replaced in secret.Upon returning to the capital, Cui Buqu is created a Marquis and Chief of the Zuoyue Bureau, while Feng Xiao serves as Deputy Chief of the Jiejian Bureau and leader of the demonic Fajing Sect. At Princess Leping's grand banquet, Cui Buqu exposes an assassination and rebellion scheme involving buried lamp oil and her personal retainer Ren Yue, whose physical resemblance to the late Emperor Xuan enabled him to gain her trust, while Feng Xiao suspects Princess Leping is linked to the Thirteen Floors of Yunhai. Decoding verses that point toward a Qixi Festival gathering in Donghai Commandery involving Jinhuan Guild leader Ning Shewo and Yandang Mountain Estate heir Lin Yong, Cui Buqu and Feng Xiao travel toward Boling Commandery. In Boling, Cui Buqu confronts his estranged lineage within the prestigious Cui clan, revealing that his mother Yu Mo was married to Cui Hui, but was drunkenly violated by third brother Cui Lin after Cui Hui's death. Yu Mo kept the child under the guise of an adoption, and fourth brother Cui Pei convinced patriarch Cui Yong to spare the infant by recording him as a lowly servant, leading Cui Buqu to publicly repudiate all clan ties. During the annual literary festival, Feng Xiao deliberately recites an atrocious poem to claim the antique prize zither Yuyin, while Cui Buqu arrests eldest son Cui Xu for treasonous collusion with Southern Chen's Linchuan Academy and harboring imperial assassin Yue Gu. Cui Yong prostrates himself before Feng Xiao to plead for Cui Xu's life, surrendering Yuyin, from which Feng Xiao strips the strings to employ as deadly weapons. Newly appointed commandery governor Yuan Sansi, formerly Yu Mo's fellow disciple Yuan Sheng, reveals his royal descent from the Northern Wei imperial Yuan clan and provides Cui Buqu with a concealed bookmark pointing to a hidden dynastic treasure at Mount Tiannan in Heng Province.

Entering the underground cavern complex at Mount Tiannan, Cui Buqu guides his guards through the lethal Ursa Major subarray based on the Gathering of Seven Stars endgame before encountering Yuan Sansi, who mimics a sword flourish to reveal he was the assassin who ambushed Cui Buqu from beneath the carriage in the capital. Yuan Sansi unmasks himself as Si-xiansheng, the fourth director of the Thirteen Floors of Yunhai, and is joined by Cui Buqu's former master Fan Yun, who reveals himself as San-xiansheng, the third director. Fan Yun details the syndicate's hierarchy, noting that Buyeo Sect leader Go Un held fifth rank as Wu-xiansheng, and offers Cui Buqu the genuine Jade of Heaven Lake to repair his crippled meridians if he defects, an offer Cui Buqu adamantly rejects. Feng Xiao arrives in the cavern posing as a defector who has accepted the position of deputy leader in exchange for the second volume of the Refining Jade technique to cure his martial sister and the sarira of former demonic grandmaster Cui Youwang, openly abusing and mocking Cui Buqu to convince Fan Yun and Yuan Sansi of his genuine betrayal. Cui Buqu perceives that Feng Xiao is acting and remains composed while Feng Xiao threatens him with a drawn blade. That night, Shisan-xiansheng, the bewitching concubine Feng Xiaolian who faked her death, slips into Feng Xiao's chambers to seduce him, counting off the few men unaffected by her charm as the pavilion leader, Fan Yun, Yuxiu, and Feng Xiao. When Feng Xiao probes her for intelligence regarding the elusive pavilion leader and Feng Xiaolian deduces that his romantic compliance and defection are elaborate falsehoods, Feng Xiao acts instantly, slitting her throat with a taut zither string unstrung from Yuyin.Recovering from his chest wound in the Mount Tiannan caverns, Cui Buqu learns that Feng Xiao feigned his betrayal after seventh director Lin Yong approached him with an invitation into the Thirteen Floors of Yunhai, tempting him with the sarira of former demonic grandmaster Cui Youwang and the lost Refining Jade technique. Feng Xiao uses the annual Qixi Festival gathering to slaughter thirteenth director Feng Xiaolian with a zither string, throwing the secret assembly into turmoil. Fourth director Yuan Sansi accuses Feng Xiao of treachery, but Feng Xiao and Cui Buqu navigate the subterranean passages together and successfully escape the Ursa Major Twin Jade Array. At the mountain cliff, Cui Buqu and Feng Xiao are intercepted by Fan Yun, who reveals that the supreme pavilion leader of the Thirteen Floors of Yunhai is actually Xiao Lü, the calligrapher and swordsman from Southern Chen known as Songxue xiansheng who previously feigned mediocre martial arts in Qiemo. Fan Yun further confesses his clandestine devotion to the deceased Emperor Xuan of Chen and his desire to preserve the southern dynasty. Feng Xiao engages Fan Yun in a ferocious duel, while Cui Buqu systematically shatters his former teacher's composure by mocking his futile attempts to prop up the foolish southern emperor Chen Shubao, comparing his doomed enterprise to Zhuge Liang dying at Wuzhang Plains. Distracted and shaken, Fan Yun suffers three devastating palm strikes from Feng Xiao and flees down the precipice. Ming Yue arrives with eagle riders from the Jiejian Bureau and takes Lin Yong into custody. Under interrogation with incense of helplessness, Lin Yong confesses the financial logistics of the syndicate in the north and reveals that Xiao Lü was accompanied during previous assemblies by a veiled woman named Huan niang.Returning to Daxing City, Cui Buqu recuperates under medical care while Feng Xiao refines his internal cultivation using Cui Youwang's sarira. A humanitarian disaster unfolds in Guangqian Commandery, where catastrophic river flooding and widespread famine prompt the court to dispatch Imperial Censor Rong Qing to oversee disaster relief. Cui Buqu accompanies Rong Qing disguised as an unassuming administrative clerk, guarded by Zuoyue Bureau operatives Guan Shanhai and Qiao Xian. Feng Xiao arrives in Guangqian Commandery independently under the alias of Li Shisi, posing as a wealthy and dissolute merchant. During an official banquet hosted by local authorities, County Magistrate Huang Lüe gifts Rong Qing several explicit art scrolls, while Feng Xiao covertly slips Cui Buqu a coded message pointing to Qixia Villa. Cui Buqu easily identifies Li Shisi as Feng Xiao through subtle mannerisms and proceeds to Qixia Villa, where he encounters a complex array trap orchestrated by Xiao Lü, only for Feng Xiao to arrive in time to extract him from danger. When Huang Lüe is discovered murdered, Cui Buqu analyzes the explicit scrolls and exposes them as disguised account ledgers recording massive quantities of relief grain illegally embezzled and hidden across the commandery. Cui Buqu deduces that County Lieutenant Wu Yi and Assistant Magistrate Li Yan are orchestrating the corruption under Commandery Governor Yang Yun, the nephew of Emperor Yang Jian. Yang Yun has forged an alliance with Xiao Lü to amass financial reserves and supply depots for the Thirteen Floors of Yunhai, using grain hoarding to manipulate regional markets while leaving displaced commoners to starve. To secure absolute proof, Cui Buqu identifies Fengyun Tavern and Zhao's Teahouse as active depots, while recognizing that Xiao Lü has anticipated their moves and prepared an ambush.Recognizing that Xiao Lü has turned Fengyun Tavern into a fatal killing ground to eliminate him, Feng Xiao ventures directly into the tavern while Cui Buqu stays behind to dismantle Yang Yun's local power structure. Inside Fengyun Tavern, Yuan Sansi and eleven formidable martial artists ambush Feng Xiao, but Feng Xiao anticipates the trap and deploys body doubles, with Ming Yue and Qin Miaoyu disguised in identical garments to confound their vision and divide their strikes. Feng Xiao wields zither strings infused with lethal internal energy, shattering the tavern interior and slaughtering the eleven martial experts, while a severely wounded Yuan Sansi narrowly flees. On the Long Alley of Peach Blossoms outside, Leng Du leads Jinhuan Guild reinforcements to intercept them, but Feng Xiao, Ming Yue, and Qin Miaoyu overpower and slaughter the guild fighters. Xiao Lü emerges in person, demonstrating immense internal cultivation after absorbing the essence of the Jade of Heaven Lake, and engages Feng Xiao in a duel that levels the street. Ming Yue launches a surprise attack against Xiao Lü and is struck down with critical injuries, but Xiao Lü also sustains damage from Feng Xiao's strikes. Cui Buqu arrives on horseback with Guan Shanhai and halts the battle by delivering a psychological reversal: he reveals that he earlier coordinated with Fan Yun to locate and obliterate Lingbo Villa, Xiao Lü's primary intelligence and logistical sanctuary in the south. Stunned by the collapse of his southern network and physically taxed by the clash, Xiao Lü retreats into the night. Meanwhile, Cui Buqu outmaneuvers Yang Yun and Wu Yi at the government compound, signaling Pei Jingzhe to disarm and capture Wu Yi. With Wu Yi subdued and Yang Yun paralyzed by the exposure of his treason, the immediate military threat against the imperial envoys collapses.Following the clash on the Long Alley of Peach Blossoms, the combined toll of his physical wounds and the dormant malice within Cui Youwang's two sarira triggers a violent qi deviation inside Feng Xiao during his secluded recovery. Descending into a feverish delirium where he cannot distinguish friend from foe, Feng Xiao turns ferocious, injuring a maidservant and nearly throttling Pei Jingzhe to death while Ming Yue and Qin Miaoyu struggle in vain to restrain him. Cui Buqu arrives on the scene, and the sound of his voice penetrates Feng Xiao's frenzy just enough to make his grip loosen, permitting Ming Yue to seal his acupoints. Hearing Ming Yue state that only ice fungus can save Feng Xiao from fatal collapse, Cui Buqu makes the decisive choice to sacrifice his personal emergency medicine. Knowing that sending riders to the capital would take too long and disregarding the lethal risk to his own chronically weakened body, Cui Buqu pulls out his porcelain vial and forces his last three life preserving ice fungus pills down Feng Xiao's throat. Bolstered by the cooling medicine, Feng Xiao battles the residual mental imprint of demonic grandmaster Cui Youwang within his spiritual realm, rejecting the specter's arrogance, subduing the chaotic qi, and assimilating the sarira to achieve a higher tier of martial cultivation. Awakening with his meridians purified, Feng Xiao discovers his martial strength elevated to unprecedented heights. Meanwhile, an ailing but resolute Cui Buqu gathers the corrupt gentry, grain merchants, and clan patriarchs of Guangqian Commandery in the governor's guest hall, ordering the disgraced Governor Yang Yun escorted inside to initiate a ruthless public confrontation to seize the hidden grain and feed the starving flood victims.Events following the flood relief in Guangqian Commandery force Cui Buqu to suffer severe physical flare ups after surrendering his emergency ice fungus pills to Feng Xiao. The Hehuan Sect disciple Bing Xian intercepts their traveling party to report an unknown grandmaster at the Songshan tournament and the overnight massacre of over fifty members of the Lin family at Yandang Mountain Estate in Luoyang. In transit through the forest, an illusion array fueled by hallucinogenic fog, mutated trees, and poisonous incense ambushes their carriages. Yuan Sansi, Ning Shewo, and a black clad gu master assault the convoy while deceased Lin family members are deployed as mindless animated corpses. Pei Jingzhe is struck by a burrowing parasitic gu worm that moves toward his heart. Cui Buqu uses a dagger to slice open Pei Jingzhe's chest while Qin Miaoyu applies neutralizing spices to seize the worm, which Feng Xiao instantly pulverizes. The death of the mother gu causes the black clad controller to rapidly wither into an octogenarian corpse, breaking the array and forcing Yuan Sansi to flee while inflicting violent internal backlash on the Gokturk seventh prince Kuhezhen. In Daxing City, serial poisonings target high officials through medicated cough tonics while Emperor Yang Jian lends court painter Lin Shouheng to Feng Xiao. During the Lantern Festival banquet at the residence of the Prince of Qin, Yang Jun, Xiao Lu infiltrates the estate to coordinate a coup alongside Kuhezhen and Tu'an Qinghe, the peerless successor of the late Gokturk grandmaster Hulugu. Feng Xiao duels Tu'an Qinghe in the streets, during which Tu'an Qinghe implants a gu near Feng Xiao's heart. Feigning madness to draw out the conspirators, Feng Xiao is detained in the imperial prison, where he reveals to Cui Buqu that he successfully expelled the parasite before it breached his meridians.The conspiracy peaks during the imperial Buddhist prayer ceremony at Daxingshan Temple under the omen of a solar eclipse. Xiao Lu, Kuhezhen, and Yuwen Yihuan execute an armed uprising to assassinate Emperor Yang Jian and replace him with a trained body double. The real emperor and his double are cast into an ancient subterranean labyrinth beneath the temple foundations. Feng Xiao engages Xiao Lu and Tu'an Qinghe simultaneously, seizing the fake emperor and hurling him into the chasm to force Xiao Lu to dive after his crucial political pawn. In the underground passages, Cui Buqu navigates the dark corridors and confronts Xiao Lu, whose imposter is immediately crushed and strangled by ancient red thread wire traps and venomous snakes modified by Kuhezhen. Triggering the chamber mechanism drops Cui Buqu and Xiao Lu into a deeper, collapsed tier where Xiao Lu is poisoned by contact with coated subterranean stone walls. This external toxin combines lethally with the congenital poison in Xiao Lu's withered right arm and internal injuries sustained from his previous battle with Feng Xiao. Cui Buqu provides Xiao Lu his remaining ice fungus pills to retard the necrosis, and the two adversaries deduce that Kuhezhen betrayed the alliance to bury all factions alive. Meanwhile, on the surface, Tu'an Qinghe refuses to allow Yuwen Yihuan to ambush Feng Xiao from behind during their duel. When Feng Xiao strikes Yuwen Yihuan down with critical injuries, she implants a gu worm directly into her forehead and leaps into the abyss, prompting Feng Xiao and Tu'an Qinghe to plunge into the labyrinth in pursuit.Deep within the subterranean ruins, Xiao Lu realizes the combined toxins have penetrated his bone marrow and rendered his martial arts beyond recovery. Acknowledging the total collapse of his lifelong ambition to overthrow the Southern Chen dynasty and challenge the Sui empire, Xiao Lu forces a final gamble upon Cui Buqu by sealing Cui Buqu's acupoints and forcibly transferring his entire lifetime of internal cultivation, alongside the absorbed essence of the Jade of Heaven Lake, directly into Cui Buqu's frail body before collapsing into death. Yuwen Yihuan reaches the platform and discovers Xiao Lu's withered corpse. Consumed by grief and vengeance, she extracts her mother gu and inserts the parasite into Cui Buqu's chest, preparing to cut out his heart. Feng Xiao arrives, executes Yuwen Yihuan by decapitation, and uses torch fire to incinerate the extracted gu. Tu'an Qinghe catches up to Feng Xiao, and the two grandmasters fight an exhausting, evenly matched battle across the crumbling cavern ledges until both suffer heavy lacerations and recognize that further combat will result in mutual destruction. Tu'an Qinghe agrees to a truce and withdraws to transport his fallen sovereign's remains back to the steppes, while above ground, Empress Dugu, Emperor Yang Jian, and Zuoyue Bureau forces led by Zhangsun Bodhi and Qin Miaoyu disperse the lingering toxins with calamus and mugwort to stabilize the capital. Zhangsun Bodhi descends into the well to discover Feng Xiao carrying an unconscious Cui Buqu out of the depths, confirming that both bureau chiefs survived the catastrophic confrontation.The volatile mixture of Xiao Lu's congenital poison, the transferred essence of the Jade of Heaven Lake, and the invasive gu venom clashes violently within Cui Buqu, effectively fighting poison with poison to clear his blocked meridians and permanently stave off fatal respiratory collapse. Though Cui Buqu remains chronically frail and subject to recurring pain, his life is secured, and he awakens under Feng Xiao's care to resume leadership of the Zuoyue Bureau alongside the Jiejian Bureau under direct imperial commendation from Emperor Yang Jian and Empress Dugu. In the aftermath, remnants of the Thirteen Floors of Yunhai attempt to regroup through foreign and martial alliances to resurrect their conspiracy. Princess Bogyeong of Silla, an affiliate of the fallen Buyeo Sect who practices parasitic dual cultivation from stolen Hehuan Sect manuals, poisons Feng Xiao with paralytic weiqi stones in an attempt to collect him as a living puppet, but Cui Buqu coordinates with Jiejian Bureau agents and uses a physical body double to entrap her and extract intelligence on overseas conspirators. Simultaneously, former Fajing Sect elder Miao Wenxin ambushes Pei Jingzhe on the road to extort the sect leader's seal, but Cui Buqu anticipates the assault, masquerades as an escort, and leads Miao Wenxin directly into a trap where Feng Xiao intercepts and neutralizes the rogue faction. Through these decisive actions, Cui Buqu and Feng Xiao dismantle the remaining subversive syndicates across the northern borders, resolve the remaining regional insurgencies threatening Great Sui, and solidify their political and personal alliance at the summit of the imperial intelligence bureaus.

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Volume 5

You’ve Got Mail: The Perils of Pigeon Post - Fei Ge Jiao You Xu Jin Shen

The story so far...
(Volumes 1–5)

Wu Xingzi, an impoverished and plain magistrate adviser in remote Qingcheng County, resolves to end his life on his fortieth birthday due to profound isolation, lack of property, and the social impossibility of finding a male partner. Before committing suicide, he visits the local tofu seller Ansheng to confess his long-held affection, only to discover that Ansheng is already happily partnered with Constable Zhang, Wu Xingzi's longtime courthouse colleague. Ansheng reveals the existence of the Peng Society for Gentlemen, a clandestine nationwide association for homosexual men that facilitates anonymous correspondences via messenger pigeons using a monthly registry known as The Pengornisseur. Hoping to secure a companion, Wu Xingzi hires the cart driver Old Liu, travels to the society's Goose City branch hidden behind an antique shop, and meets the manager Rancui to pay his membership fee and submit five letters to regional scholars. Rather than polite literary responses, Wu Xingzi receives explicit anatomical drawings of male genitalia, an unexpected custom that shocks him initially but ultimately revives his desire to live, prompting him to abandon his suicide plans and spend his meager savings amassing dozens of phallus portraits. Captivated by a colossal phallus sent from Bastion City that he designates the Lanling Prince of pengornises, Wu Xingzi breaks his rule against repeat correspondence, paints a detailed picture of his own anatomy, and mails it in return. The owner of this phallus is General Guan Shanjin of the Southern Garrison, an arrogant noble commander who joined the society seeking a physical substitute for his unattainable former teacher, Mr. Lu. Intrigued by Wu Xingzi's boldness, Guan Shanjin travels to Goose City, ambushes Wu Xingzi in the society's parlor, reveals Wu Xingzi's drawing, and forces a passionate sexual encounter.Believing their encounter to be an unrepeatable stroke of luck, Wu Xingzi flees while Guan Shanjin is asleep, pays Rancui his next subscription installment, and returns to his mundane routine in Qingcheng County. Humiliated and outraged at being abandoned like an ordinary bedwarmer, Guan Shanjin smashes his furniture, punishes his negligent sentries, and rides to Qingcheng County to confront Wu Xingzi in his home. Presenting a wooden box containing an artificial phallus known as Mr. D, Guan Shanjin asserts that Wu Xingzi treated him like an unaffordable courtesan and declares he will occupy the adviser's residence until the debt is cleared. Guan Shanjin establishes absolute domestic and sexual control over Wu Xingzi, preparing meals, sharing his bed, and shadowing him to the magistrate's office, where the local magistrate Li Jian immediately bows in subservience upon recognizing Guan Shanjin's elite standing. Guan Shanjin maintains this arrangement because Wu Xingzi's occasional bashful expressions mirror those of Lu Zezhi, whereas Wu Xingzi accepts the arrangement as a fleeting physical benefit while secretly pining to retrieve the latest volume of The Pengornisseur. When vice general Man Yue reports by letter that Lu Zezhi is courting the wealthy Yue merchant family in Horse-Face City through an intermediary named Hua Shu, an agitated Guan Shanjin abruptly carries Wu Xingzi by horseback to Goose City. At the elite restaurant House of Taotie, Guan Shanjin's childhood friend and restaurateur Su Yang openly mocks Wu Xingzi's unremarkable looks, provoking Guan Shanjin to draw his Chenyuan Sword against Su Yang's throat to enforce respect for his companion.At his private mansion in Goose City, Guan Shanjin tests Wu Xingzi by asking if he would relocate to Horse-Face City, but Wu Xingzi cheerfully proposes an amicable separation and offers to communicate via official carrier pigeons to save postage costs, outraging the possessive general. While Guan Shanjin conducts military business, Wu Xingzi slips away to the Peng Society, where Rancui waives all future subscription fees as recompense for Guan Shanjin's harassment and urges him to find a genuine partner. Later at the Restaurant of Songs, Guan Shanjin plies Wu Xingzi with potent Kongsang liquor until the adviser collapses into a weeping drunken confession, mistaking Guan Shanjin for his past love Zaizong-xiong. Wu Xingzi reveals that twenty years earlier, he gave his entire savings and borrowed fifteen silver taels to fund Zaizong-xiong's imperial examination journey, receiving only an embroidered pine sachet and promises of a shared future before being completely abandoned. Recognizing Zaizong-xiong as Yan Wenxin, the powerful Minister of Revenue and a dangerous court rival who married into nobility, Guan Shanjin experiences a profound surge of jealousy and protective fury. Before Guan Shanjin can resolve the situation, bodyguard Hei-er arrives with an urgent message from Man Yue reporting that Lu Zezhi suffered serious injuries after falling from a horse. Stricken with anxiety for his former teacher, Guan Shanjin gallops ahead toward Horse-Face City on his steed Zhuxing, commanding Hei-er and Fang He to transport the unconscious Wu Xingzi in a carriage behind him. Awakening en route, Wu Xingzi realizes he has been taken toward the border garrison without his consent, grieving over the vulnerable state of his phallus collection left behind without fresh insect-repellent sachets.Upon arriving in Horse-Face City seventeen days later, Wu Xingzi is installed in Shuanghe Manor within the general's estate under the care of twin maidservants Mint and Osmanthus, while Vice General Man Yue provides him fertile soil to farm. Lu Zezhi's attendant Hua Shu immediately visits Wu Xingzi to assert his master's dominance, delivering a condescending message meant to establish Wu Xingzi as an insignificant temporary distraction while Guan Shanjin tends exclusively to the convalescing Lu Zezhi. When Guan Shanjin finally appears in the garden supporting Lu Zezhi in his arms, Wu Xingzi observes Lu Zezhi's immortal-like refinement and concludes he has no hope of competing against the general's true love. Guan Shanjin notices that Wu Xingzi's white scholar garments give him an appearance resembling Lu Zezhi, yet he is infuriated that Wu Xingzi remains completely indifferent, refuses to express jealousy, and firmly insists on departing for Qingcheng County before the New Year to sweep his ancestors' graves and protect his collection from insects. Following an intense, domineering sexual encounter in the secluded courtyard study, Guan Shanjin demands to know why Wu Xingzi constantly seeks an exit, only to realize that his own deep pampering has failed to breach Wu Xingzi's emotional defenses. In a decisive reversal, Guan Shanjin yields to Wu Xingzi's stubborn resolve and declares that he will personally ride with him back to Qingcheng County so Wu Xingzi will not spend the holiday alone. Even when a messenger interrupts with news that Lu Zezhi is retching bile from his medication, Guan Shanjin attends to his teacher but remains resolute, packing travel supplies, requesting festive provisions from Su Yang, and preparing to mount Zhuxing alongside Wu Xingzi for the journey back to Qingcheng County.Guan Shanjin escorts Wu Xingzi on his warhorse Zhuxing back to Qingcheng County to observe the New Year and perform ancestor offerings. Local gossips led by Auntie Li spread rumors that Wu Xingzi is merely an unsightly, discarded substitute for the general's scholarly beloved, provoking Guan Shanjin to assert ownership by kissing Wu Xingzi openly in the street. During New Year festivities, an intoxicated Wu Xingzi refers to Guan Shanjin as a phallus spirit come to life and reveals his secret rattan chest containing dozens of explicit drawings received through the pigeon post. Overwhelmed by violent jealousy, Guan Shanjin tears several of Wu Xingzi's top ten prized illustrations into shreds while tossing coins on the table, reducing the heartbroken adviser to hysterical weeping. Stricken with remorse, Guan Shanjin gathers the torn papers and rides with Wu Xingzi to the Peng Society branch in Goose City. Guan Shanjin bullies manager Rancui, demands the newest edition of The Pengornisseur, and personally pens replacement requests to the original artists under his own name to restore Wu Xingzi's collection. In return, Guan Shanjin compels Wu Xingzi to travel back with him to Horse-Face City and forbid the acquisition of further portraits. Rancui, enraged by Guan Shanjin's repeated harassment of society members, sends an insulting dispatch to his chief in the capital and relocates his post to Horse-Face City to shield Wu Xingzi from further exploitation. Amidst the festive lanterns of Goose City, Guan Shanjin panics upon discovering that Wu Xingzi has secured a genuine place in his heart, whereas Wu Xingzi remains convinced that Guan Shanjin will inevitably return to Lu Zezhi.In Horse-Face City, the affluent third daughter of the Yue family, Yue Mingzhu, advances her courtship of Lu Zezhi following an encounter at Mingjing Temple, securing an official betrothal. Vice General Man Yue retrieves Lu Zezhi to the general's estate under the pretext of premarital taboos, prompting Yue Mingzhu and her elder brother Yue Chonghua to confront military leadership. Seizing upon Yue Mingzhu's insolence, Guan Shanjin decisively expels Lu Zezhi from the estate into the Yue family's care and permanently seals the Wang Shu Residence, purging the household staff who violated regulations. When Guan Shanjin departs to oversee external garrison duties, Wu Xingzi visits the Horse-Face City Peng Society accompanied by bodyguard Hei-er and maidservants Mint and Osmanthus, receiving the comprehensive Great Xia nationwide edition from Rancui. Yue Mingzhu ambushes Wu Xingzi at a local restaurant, presenting a red lacquer box while heaping venomous scorn upon him, branding him an illiterate backwater clerk who deployed vulgar bedroom manipulation to sabotage Guan Shanjin's bond with his teacher. Upon Guan Shanjin's return to Shuanghe Manor, he gifts Wu Xingzi an antique qin and performs music under the moonlight. When Wu Xingzi innocently questions whether the general suffers from eye disease for viewing him as Lu Zezhi's substitute, Guan Shanjin reacts with indignant fury, throwing him onto the bed to reassert physical possession. In the aftermath, Guan Shanjin suppresses his tender impulses to keep Wu Xingzi insulated from dangerous court intrigue.To advance his covert political offensive against capital rivals and lull the Yue family into a false sense of security, Guan Shanjin abruptly brings Lu Zezhi back into the Wang Shu Residence. Misinterpreting this maneuver as Guan Shanjin rekindling his true love, Wu Xingzi quietly concludes that his time as a stand-in has concluded. Lu Zezhi summons Wu Xingzi for private tea, gloating over his restored position and patronizingly asserting that Guan Shanjin only sought artificial reflections of his former master. Refusing to engage in rivalry, Wu Xingzi humbly offers sincere blessings for their union, leaving Lu Zezhi unnerved by his total lack of spite. Meanwhile, Vice General Man Yue and the agent Han Xiao subtly reinforce Wu Xingzi's resolve to depart in order to insulate him from the impending factional fallout. Recognizing that his growing emotional vulnerability threatens his guarded peace of mind, Wu Xingzi agrees to Rancui and Hei-er's secret plan to flee to the capital on the wedding day. On the eve of the ceremony, Guan Shanjin visits Shuanghe Manor, lulls Wu Xingzi to sleep by reciting the Qingcheng County Records from memory, and pledges to escort him to the imperial capital and return for Qingming tomb-sweeping. Convinced that Guan Shanjin's domestic promises cannot belong to a temporary bedwarmer, Wu Xingzi rises at daybreak, leaves behind one hundred and twenty silver taels alongside a farewell message, and slips out of Horse-Face City inside a simple carriage driven by Hei-er.The lavish wedding between Lu Zezhi and Yue Mingzhu proceeds through Horse-Face City until the formal rites in the banquet hall are disrupted by Governor Fang and Guan Shanjin. Man Yue hurls a packet of confiscated letters across the floor, exposing that the eldest son Yue Chonghua has systematically smuggled restricted salt, saltpeter, and mercury to Nanman. When confronted with evidence of treason, Lu Zezhi immediately repudiates the Yue clan to safeguard his own standing, endorsing Guan Shanjin's investigation. Devastated by his shameless betrayal, Yue Mingzhu casts aside her phoenix coronet, delivers three vicious slaps to Lu Zezhi's face, publicly dissolves the engagement, and kneels beside her ruined father Yue Dade and brother. Governor Fang takes the Yue men into custody, breaking their commercial monopoly and severing the treasonous trade conduit tied to court officials. Guan Shanjin dismissively abandons Lu Zezhi to Man Yue's custody and gallops on Zhuxing to Shuanghe Manor, expecting a joyous reunion. Entering the silent bedroom, Guan Shanjin discovers the pile of silver taels, the abandoned antique qin, and Wu Xingzi's farewell letter announcing his departure. Overcome by psychological devastation and wild internal energy deviation, Guan Shanjin collapses while vomiting four successive mouthfuls of blood. Man Yue administers emergency acupoint therapy and summons military physicians to save Guan Shanjin's life, realizing that the general's intricate political maneuvering has driven his true love into hiding.Fleeing Horse-Face City, Wu Xingzi travels toward the imperial capital accompanied by bodyguard Hei-er and maidservants Mint and Osmanthus, rendezvousing in the scenic town of Lishui with Peng Society manager Rancui. Unbeknownst to Wu Xingzi, Guan Shanjin suffered severe internal energy deviation upon discovering the abandonment, coughing up copious mouthfuls of blood and launching a frantic solo horseback pursuit through Qingcheng County and Goose City before collapsing from physical exhaustion to recuperate under the supervision of Lu Zezhi and Man Yue. Driven by filial obligation to sweep his ancestral graves for the Qingming Festival, Wu Xingzi undertakes a covert detour back to Qingcheng County, discovering that Guan Shanjin has already concluded his search and vacated the area. Reconnecting with tofu vendor Ansheng and Constable Zhang, Wu Xingzi confirms his decision to permanently resign from his courthouse adviser post in order to pursue a broader range of artistic correspondences in the capital. Man Yue intercepts Wu Xingzi in Qingcheng County under the pretext of an official inspection to evaluate the adviser's lingering sentiments toward Guan Shanjin, yet Wu Xingzi steadfastly insists that their intimate cohabitation was entirely casual and announces his firm resolution to attend the grand Peng Society gathering. Rancui subsequently informs Wu Xingzi that Guan Shanjin vomited blood during his violent physical breakdown, inciting profound distress and secret guilt within the older man. Upon arriving in the imperial capital, Wu Xingzi takes up residence at Rancui's secondary estate and attends the exclusive biannual Peng Society assembly held at Lianxiang Residence. There, an unassuming merchant named Ping Yifan captivates Wu Xingzi through an enchanting musical performance on the flute. In truth, Ping Yifan is an elaborate physical disguise assumed by Guan Shanjin using a lifelike mask and fabricated background, designed to monitor Wu Xingzi, sabotage prospective suitors, and investigate treasonous capital conspiracies.

Assuming the humble merchant persona of Ping Yifan, Guan Shanjin courts Wu Xingzi through an excursion up the thousand stone steps of Chongxu Temple, lavishing him with delicate meals, personal care, and intimate abdominal massages while privately seething with jealousy over Wu Xingzi's genuine attraction to his manufactured identity. During this outing, an unexpected delivery of rare pastries arrives from Minister of Personnel Yan Wenxin, unnerving Wu Xingzi with memories of the former scholar who took his monetary savings and deserted him twenty years earlier. Ping Yifan exploits the opportunity to secure an invitation to an exclusive musical gathering hosted by Bai Shaochang, a gifted musician belonging to the Peng Society whose secret entanglement with an influential patron threatens his household standing. At Bai Shaochang's private recital, Wu Xingzi is stunned when a body double hired to impersonate Guan Shanjin enters alongside Lu Zezhi, placing Guan Shanjin, Lu Zezhi, Yan Wenxin, and Ping Yifan within the very same chamber. While the decoy general maintains the appearance of an affectionate reconciliation with Lu Zezhi to deceive watching eyes, Yan Wenxin observes the guests with calculating vigilance, and Ping Yifan covertly trembles with possessive rage as Wu Xingzi repeatedly directs longing glances toward both figures. Ping Yifan deliberately diverts Wu Xingzi's attention through overt hand holding and intimate fondling, yet his familiar sandalwood and citrus fragrance, callous hands, and habitual nose pinching provoke Wu Xingzi to deduce that Ping Yifan and Guan Shanjin are one and the same. Seeking clarification from Rancui, Wu Xingzi learns that a legitimate merchant named Ping Yifan genuinely exists in the society records, though Rancui secretly assists Guan Shanjin's charade solely to savor the arrogant general's comedic romantic blunders.Determined to settle his mounting suspicions, Wu Xingzi surreptitiously administers a potent truth serum supplied by Rancui during a private appointment at Ping Yifan's storefront in the southern district. The potion contains strong aphrodisiac properties that overwhelm Guan Shanjin's formidable martial arts defenses, forcing the disguised general into a raw and unfiltered admission. Guan Shanjin confesses that he adopted the identity of Ping Yifan out of sheer desperation to stop Wu Xingzi from falling for other Peng Society members, while keeping Lu Zezhi at his estate merely as an expendable shield to draw political hostility away from Wu Xingzi. Furthermore, Guan Shanjin declares that his former fixation on Lu Zezhi has completely evaporated, affirming that Wu Xingzi is the only partner he desires before the two succumb to the drug's sensual effects and consummate their mutual passion in the private quarters. The following morning, the wife of the Protector General arrives in a veiled hat to confront Wu Xingzi regarding his intentions toward her son. When Wu Xingzi earnestly admits that he treasures both Guan Shanjin's physical anatomy and his true underlying character, the matriarch grants her wholehearted approval of the match and welcomes him into the household. Shortly afterward, Yan Wenxin invites Wu Xingzi to Tianxiang Restaurant in an effort to probe Ping Yifan's connections and sow division between the lovers. Wu Xingzi sees directly through Yan Wenxin's veiled manipulation, refusing to harbor lingering bitterness or disclose sensitive information, and instead delivers a graceful formal bow congratulating Yan Wenxin on his imperial examination honors, decisively severing their historical relationship on his own terms.Following the encounter with Yan Wenxin, Guan Shanjin removes his physical disguise and reveals the grand scheme that he and the reigning monarch have secretly prepared, warning Wu Xingzi that Guan Shanjin will soon be arrested on fabricated accusations of treason and illicit communication with Nanman to force Yan Wenxin's treacherous cabal into the open. Despite Wu Xingzi's deep terror regarding the brutality of imperial dungeons, Guan Shanjin willingly yields to imprisonment, after which Yan Wenxin's allies in the Ministry of War and the Court of Judicial Review initiate an aggressive smear campaign and subject the general to severe interrogation under dark conditions. Left in agonized suspense, Wu Xingzi injures his fingertips obsessively playing the qin until Vice General Man Yue sneaks into Rancui's compound to provide a critical update on the operation. Man Yue explains that Bai Shaochang had previously become deeply indebted to Yan Wenxin following a fatal noble scandal, allowing the corrupt minister to coerce the musician into planting forged letters and contraband within the Protector General's study. Because Bai Shaochang remains paralyzed by fear and refuses to provide the oral confession necessary to formally implicate Yan Wenxin, Guan Shanjin faces the imminent danger of assassination or permanent execution while detained in the imperial prison. Confronted with the reality that Guan Shanjin sacrificed his own safety to bait the court conspirators, Wu Xingzi permanently discards his passive lifestyle, firmly joining forces with Man Yue to interrogate Bai Shaochang, break the musician's silence, and dismantle Yan Wenxin's network to rescue his beloved general.Wu Xingzi accompanies Vice General Man Yue into the Protector General's estate, where Bai Shaochang is held in secret detention following the planting of treasonous documents in Guan Shanjin's study. Recognizing that Bai Shaochang remains fiercely loyal to Yan Wenxin because of romantic manipulation, Wu Xingzi summons the merchant Xia Dagen from Qingcheng County, who previously crafted embroidered sachets for Yan Wenxin twenty years earlier. Xia Dagen verifies that Yan Wenxin commissioned multiple identical keepsake sachets under false pretenses. Armed with this physical proof and his own preserved sachet, Wu Xingzi gently confronts Bai Shaochang in his quarters, presenting the matching embroidery and revealing how Yan Wenxin deployed the exact same romantic declarations and promises of lifelong devotion to deceive Wu Xingzi during their youth. Shattered by the undeniable realization that his cherished romance was merely an opportunistic reuse of an old seduction technique, Bai Shaochang breaks down in tears and provides a complete written confession with his signature and thumbprint, admitting that Yan Wenxin ordered him to fabricate and plant the forged Nanman correspondence inside Guan Shanjin's private chambers. With the testimony secured, Wu Xingzi persuades Man Yue to disguise him as a servant and smuggle him into the imperial prison to see Guan Shanjin. Despite enduring harsh interrogations and being chained by the neck in a dimly lit cell, Guan Shanjin embraces Wu Xingzi in the straw, receiving the news of Bai Shaochang's confession and reaffirming his unwavering devotion to Wu Xingzi before Man Yue escorts the adviser safely back to the estate.Following Bai Shaochang's confession, the emperor summons Yan Wenxin to the palace for tea and delicate probing, forcing the cunning Minister of Personnel to recognize that the imperial court has uncovered evidence exonerating Guan Shanjin. Attempting to sever any direct connection between himself and the Nanman conspiracy, Yan Wenxin returns home intending to sacrifice his loyal adopted son Yan Huaixiu as a scapegoat. Imperial guards led by the vice commander raid Yan Wenxin's residence, tearing through his personal library and arresting Yan Huaixiu on charges of treason. Guan Shanjin is formally cleared of all charges and released from prison, while Yan Huaixiu is sentenced to death by dismemberment. Seeking to avoid immediate scrutiny, Yan Wenxin tenders his resignation, but the emperor rejects it and places him under a month of house arrest while Guan Shanjin and the Protector General feign severe illness to boycott court sessions and lull Yan Wenxin into complacency. Believing he has survived the purge at the cost of an expendable subordinate, Yan Wenxin visits Yan Huaixiu on a rainy night in prison, coldly severing their familial bond while Huaixiu desperately weeps and pleads for forgiveness. Meanwhile, Bai Shaochang sends an invitation requesting Yan Wenxin to attend a private qin performance in the snow. Arriving alone, Yan Wenxin embraces Bai Shaochang and repeats the fabricated story about his mother's embroidered sachet representing his sole personal treasure, only for Bai Shaochang to produce the identical second sachet. Guan Shanjin, Wu Xingzi, and imperial soldiers step out from the shadows, where Wu Xingzi formally bows and congratulates Yan Wenxin on his imperial examination success from twenty years ago, shattering the minister's composure as the imperial forces take him into custody.Yan Wenxin's arrest precipitates the collapse of his political faction across Great Xia as the emperor reveals indisputable proof of his personal correspondence with the Nanman royal family. Stripped of his official post, Yan Wenxin is abandoned by his wife, who secures a legal divorce and flees to a Buddhist monastery with their daughter, while his two biological sons are stripped of noble status and condemned to the northwestern frontier as military slaves. Yan Huaixiu is executed for treason, whereas Yan Wenxin is spared formal execution by a thousand cuts through a clandestine agreement orchestrated by the emperor and Man Yue, who abduct him from his cell and hand him over to the Shatunu Khan of the northwest to serve as a captive concubine in a foreign harem. At the Protector General's estate, Lu Zezhi remains convinced that Guan Shanjin will discard Wu Xingzi once the political crisis concludes. When Guan Shanjin arrives at the residence supporting Wu Xingzi in silver fox furs, Lu Zezhi is overwhelmed with bitter rage and violently slaps Wu Xingzi across the face. Guan Shanjin reacts with murderous fury, seizing Lu Zezhi by the throat, slamming him into the ground, and permanently expelling him from the household to live off rural farmland in his distant hometown under the supervision of Man Yue. On New Year's Eve, Guan Shanjin presents Wu Xingzi with a red lacquer box inlaid with gold thread containing three hundred and sixty explicit phallus illustrations selected from every province in the empire, promising that they will remain united through every coming year.As their domestic life stabilizes in the capital, Peng Society manager Rancui notices that Wu Xingzi has neglected to secure a formal matrimonial title, warning him that predatory aristocrats and rival political factions could easily manipulate Guan Shanjin's succession if Wu Xingzi lacks legal recognition. Although customary social conventions dictate that an elder male partner must initiate the betrothal rituals with proper gifts, Wu Xingzi hesitates due to his modest personal finances, possessing only fifty silver taels accumulated over two decades alongside his prized ancestral gravesite in Qingcheng County. Encouraged by Rancui's pragmatic advice, Wu Xingzi overcomes his lifelong bashfulness, places his small purse of silver into Guan Shanjin's hands, and earnestly offers his savings and gravesite as a betrothal proposal for the two of them to remain united in life and death. Deeply moved by the proposal, Guan Shanjin accepts without hesitation, while the Duchess of Huguo bestows an additional fifty taels to establish an auspicious total of one hundred taels for the marital household. Rather than conducting an understated private ritual or utilizing a traditional feminine bridal carriage, Guan Shanjin and Wu Xingzi organize a magnificent public wedding ceremony, dressing in exquisite matching ceremonial attire and riding side by side on noble warhorses across the bustling avenues of the imperial capital before an astonished populace. Reaffirming their vows, the two men complete the ancient matrimonial rites at the Protector General's estate and enter their union as permanent equals, cementing Wu Xingzi's complete transformation from an impoverished, suicidal county clerk into the recognized, beloved spouse of the empire's greatest military commander.

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Volume 6

Legend of Exorcism: Tianbao Fuyao Lu

The story so far...
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Volume 8

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The story so far...
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Title

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Joyful Reunion

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Astrolabe Rebirth

The story so far...
(Volume 1)

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My Husband and I Sleep in a Coffin

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Copper Coins: Tong Qian Kan Shi

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There's Something Wrong with the Chief: Du Zhu You Bing

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Thrice Married to a Salted Fish

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Three Hundred Years of Longing: Bu Jian Shang Xian San Bai Nian

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Mistakenly Saving the Villain

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After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine

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Silent Reading: Mo Du

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The Wife Comes First: Qi Wei Shang

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The White Cat’s Divine Scratching Post

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The Villain's White Halo

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Twin Jades of Jiangdong

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(Volumes 1–2)

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Volume 1