Hu Boling and his wife Gu Hanxiang are on their way to a meeting at Hengshan (北嶽) to determine the leader of the Greenwood (綠林). On the way they come upon a scene of murder in the forest. A boy of five or six years is lying next to his murdered parents. Gu Hanxiang wants to take the boy with them, but Hu Boling thinks that it will be too much trouble to look after him when he will likely have to fight at the meeting, so they leave the boy behind in the woods.

Hu Boling is retired from the jianghu. He was once a ruthless killer and leader of the Greenwood, but when he met Gu Hanxiang he decided to change his ways and turn good, so he up and left with his wife and went to live in a secluded place. He had fought with a Shaolin monk, Tianming Dashi, and fought him to a standstill, at a time when Hu Boling had only been in the jianghu for three years. This is how he made his reputation among the rivers and lakes. Now he wants to become the leader of the Greenwood again so that he can reform them toward the path of righteousness.

The two continue on and are suddenly met by five men on horseback. They are outcast disciples from Wudang and Shaolin and had been Hu Boling's followers back in the day. They had been kicked out of their sects and went to the Greenwood and followed Hu Boling. But now they are the only ones left, as new people have entered the Greenwood and have been killing the old followers to establish their own dominance. This is led by one man, who wears a black mask, and no one knows what weapon he uses. Hu Boling is ready to have it out with the five men, but Gu Hanxiang restrains him with her words. Though Hu Boling is fierce, he is always tender and caring toward Gu Hanxiang, and she in turn is submissive to him, gentle and docile.

Instead he tells the five to leave and they do, but as the five are riding away Gu Hanxiang asks Hu Boling why he didn't give them the option to turn to the good side. The five hear this and return, prostrating themselves at Hu Boling's feet and pledging their loyalty to him (they had been traveling around for years looking for Hu Boling so that the latter could help them overcome the masked man). They also pledge to live the path of righteousness.

Hu Boling accepts the five men and they set off for Hengshan, but not before Gu Hanxiang turns back to rescue the boy, who has been wounded. Hu Boling agrees they can keep and raise the child, as Gu Hanxiang has no children of her own, and he goes to bury the parents. As he lifts the mother, a silver ball falls to the ground. Without letting his wife know, Hu Boling pockets the silver ball and they all continue to the mountain.

They stop at a cave and rest. Suddenly the masked man appears with his cohorts and the five do battle with them. Hu Boling steps in and fends off the masked man, who recognizes Hu Boling's superior martial arts, so he admits defeat and he and his followers leave.

Hu Boling returns with the others to the cave and Hu Boling uses his internal energy to help save the boy, who is badly wounded. Later he admits to his wife how serious the boy's wound was. Hu Boling uses up his energy in the process, and would need a month to recover, but he has to go to the meeting in a few days so there is no time. He thought to himself before saving the child if he should help the boy or not, knowing it would put him at a disadvantage at the meeting should he have to fight because he would not be at full strength, but he saves the boy anyway for his wife.

They go up the mountain to the meeting place, but no one is there yet, so Hu Boling and Gu Hanxiang sit at the best table in the center and wait, along with the five followers.

The masked man, Zhong Yihao, shows up. Hu Boling is angry that Zhang Yihao keeps eyeing his wife, Gu Hanxiang, but he doesn't say anything about it. The others arrive, principal characters being Ba Tianyi, Huo Yuanjia, Wang Dakang, The Four Freaks of Jiangnan, the Fortune Teller, and Song Tianduo.

The banquet is being served, but Hu Boling notices the white-clad servers are carrying weapons, so he suspects an ambush or some trickery. He clues Zhong Yihao in on it, and Zhong Yihao exposes a waiter, revealing a belt of poison-tempered throwing daggers. Huo Yuanjia had planned on an ambush, or so it seems, and Zhong Yihao takes advantage of this suspicion to suggest that all the food might be poisoned. Some arguing occurs, and then Hu Boling diffuses the situation by suggesting they get on with the competition.

Zhong Yihao has some words with Huo Yuanjia, but Hu Boling keeps them from fighting by asking for them to tell everyone the rules for the election. Before they duke it out, everyone has to pass three challenges.

The first challenge is you have to show off your lightness skills by jumping onto a bamboo pole with a blade of grass laying crosswise on the top. The blade of grass cannot break, and you have to keep your balance on it.

The second challenge is in two parts and each person can choose only one part to perform if he wishes. The first part is taking a cup of water and “shooting” the water into another cup without any left over and without spilling any. The second part is smashing a stone egg.

The third challenge is showing off one of your skills. Each person can choose what he wants to display.

They all take their turns and of course the main characters all pass. Then they start fighting. Originally, Huo Yuanjia planned to have Hu Boling fight others before fighting himself so that he would not be at full energy when he fought Huo Yuanjia, but it doesn't work out that way. Zhong Yihao instigates a fight with Huo Yuanjia, but Ba Tianyi steps in to fight instead. Zhong Yihao is injured in the shoulder, but Ba Tianyi is hit in the chest, spits blood, and falls to the ground. Zhong Yihao is declared the winner of that match, but he then is called on to fight Song Tianduo, but the Fortune Teller jumps in to fight for him.

Both suffer wounds in the battle and have to rest, but the Fortune Teller is in trouble as Huo Yuanjia jumps in to do battle. The latter is angry that his helpers have used up their fighting power fighting lesser people and will not be able to help him with Hu Boling. But Hu Boling rescues the Fortune Teller, prompting Huo Yuanjia to call him out saying he broke the rules. Hu Boling and Huo Yuanjia are about to fight when the Four Freaks of Jiangnan step in and take on Hu Boling all at once, which was Hu Boling's idea; he wants to spend as little energy as possible getting rid of them. He knocks them back but then Wang Dakang jumps in. Hu Boling admires Wang's strength and wants to convert him to his side, so he gives Wang Dakang an out and the latter admits defeat. The chapter ends with Hu Boling and Huo Yuanjia about to square off to decide the leader of the Greenwood.

Hu Boling and Huo Yuanjia begin their fight. They start off barehanded, but neither can best the other, so they switch to their weapons. Huo Yuanjia uses a snake-headed soft whip, while Hu Boling uses his long sword and an iron cane. Hu Boling has the advantage, yet still neither can triumph over the other, so they have to think of what to do to decide the winner. Huo Yuanjia suggests they battle using neigong, so the two sit down facing each other and press their palms into the opponent's palms, and they fight that way. Whoever is first to fall over or say they quit loses.

They go like this for a while, then it looks like Hu Boling is tiring out because he had used up so much energy before saving the child. He totters, but then Gu Hanxiang comes out and pulls out a nine-inch dagger and tells Hu Boling if he dies she will immediately follow him and be his wife in the afterlife. Hu Boling can stand losing and dying himself, but to implicate his beautiful wife in all this is too much, so he knows if he dies his wife will die too, and this gives him a surge of energy which he uses to knock back Huo Yuanjia several feet, winning the competition.

Huo Yuanjia and his cohorts immediately leave Cold Jade Cliff, the competition grounds, which Hu Boling thinks is strange. As the new leader of the Greenwood, Hu Boling decides to move their meeting area to Myriad Moon Gorge, which is still in the Hengshan area. They all make their way down, and as they are descending the mountain, an explosion is heard coming from the competition grounds. Turns out Huo Yuanjia had planted explosives there in order to get rid of the other competitors, explaining why he and his men got out of there so quickly. Hu Boling and his men continue on.

They arrive at Myriad Moon Gorge and are met by two youths who take them to see the master of the gorge, who lives there. It's an old friend of Hu Boling's, Wan Xiaoguang. Wan Xiaoguang throws a welcoming feast for everyone, and then takes Hu Boling and Gu Hanxiang over to a side table and talks with them. He explains how tough it will be for Hu Boling to be the leader of the Greenwood, and he goes into the background of the Greenwood's rise and that the Wulin has taken notice of that.

Tianming Dashi, the Shaolin monk who Hu Boling fought with so long ago, shows up, and he sees Gu Hanxiang for the first time. He stares at her for a long time to the point that Hu Boling thinks it is strange, and then Tianming Dashi says that Gu Hanxiang has something about her face between her eyes (physiognomy) that lets him know that in the future she will wreak havoc in the wulin. But because of Gu Hanxiang's gentle nature, Hu Boling, even though he respects Tianming Dashi, says that he just can't believe that premonition. But Tianming Dashi seems convinced, as he even picks up a cup of wine and downs it, saying he has not broken this rule in thirty years or more.

Tianming Dashi then says he would like to take Gu Hanxiang as a student and teach her some martial arts. She accepts and Hu Boling agrees, but everyone thinks it is strange that he would offer because he is a respected member of Shaolin, part of the Wulin, and she is the wife of the leader of the Greenwood, plus she is a woman, and women are not allowed to join Shaolin. Wan Xiaoguang enquires about this, but instead of answering, Tianming Dashi says he is leaving and abruptly gets up and leaves.

Gu Hanxiang sees Tianming Dashi off, and then Hu Boling gets up and tells the crowd of his followers that he has four prohibitions to give the group, rules to dictate the Greenwood. Because he wants to reform the reputation of the Greenwood and bring it back to the side of good, he gives out these rules: 1) No raping the innocent or defiling women. No licentious behavior. 2) Don't kill the innocent or tyrannize good people. 3) Don't break promises, maintain good faith. 4) Follow orders in order to maintain unity.

For a bunch of rough-and-tumble outlaws, these rules go against their very way of life, so it is met with some resistance, yet no one dares defy Hu Boling at that moment. They return to their banquet and Wan Xiaoguang tells Hu Boling it will be tough to get people to follow these rules. But Hu Boling has a plan. He asks Wan Xiaoguang to take him to Lost Way Valley, a place fifty li away where there are a lot of different paths so that it is very easy to get lost in there and never be able to get out.

Huo Yuanjia and Ba Tianyi show up and pledge their support for Hu Boling, which Hu Boling finds strange.

Hu Boling leads them there in an attempt to force them to agree to his rules. Whoever defies him can easily be dealt with there, and he also hopes to make Lost Way Valley the new headquarters of the Greenwood, as it is a secluded place that few people come to. When they get there the people are restless to follow his rules, but then Gu Hanxiang gets up in front of them and tells everyone how they rescued the child who had been seriously wounded and whose parents had been brutally murdered. Her beauty, along with the sad story, but mostly her beauty, is enough to turn everyone around and they agree to follow Hu Boling. Hu Boling is startled to see how much power and influence Gu Hanxiang has over them just because of her beauty, and he thinks back to Tianming Dashi's prediction and wonders if it is true, will it be a blessing or a curse. He also wonders if he is jealous of her or afraid of her, of the influence she has over the people, to be able to persuade them all so easily.

The chapter ends with Hu Boling giving his thanks to the people and he thinks to himself again about his past crimes and his hope to change his ways for the better.

After leading Hu Boling and company to Lost Way Valley, Wan Xiaoguang is on his way back home when he runs into the White Sun Daoist. White Sun is a brash, arrogant, and short-tempered disciple of Wudang. Though in his forties, this is the first time he has been allowed off the mountain because of his rash attitude. But he has been sent down now to check on the Greenwood election meeting and he and Wan Xiaoguang begin talking.

White Sun accuses Wan Xiaoguang, in a roundabout way, of being in cahoots with Hu Boling. The suggestion that he is involved with the Greenwood hurts Wan Xiaoguang's pride, and the two do battle. White Sun is eager to prove to himself his skill since he has never tested himself in the jianghu up to this point.

The two fight and Wan Xiaoguang gets the better of him, and White Sun says he will be back within three months to Myriad Moon Gorge to settle things, and then he leaves.

Wan Xiaoguang goes home and his daughter, Wan Yingxia, sees that he has sustained a wound on his arm from a sword (White Sun's doing. White Sun himself was injured with one of Wan Xiaoguang's shuttles, a concealed throwing weapon he specializes in, along with his whip). She vows to get revenge on White Sun, but her father rebukes her and reminds her of her inexperience. His student, Wen Tiansheng, is also there.

Wan Yingxia's talk of revenge angers Wan Xiaoguang, because he is scared of the situation which is increasingly spiraling out of control, and he is afraid for his daughter's future. He slaps her in the face, and she runs off crying. Wen Tiansheng is sent to comfort her.

Three months pass and sure enough, White Sun returns. A servant tells White Sun that Wan Xiaoguang will meet him to do battle in three days, so White Sun leaves, pledging to return in three days. He orders Wudang disciples to guard all the exits to the gorge so that Wan Xiaoguang can’t escape.

Wan Xiaoguang decides to flee with Wan Yingxia and Wen Tiansheng, but the latter two want to stay and fight. They are told to pack their things, but Wen Tiansheng won't do it, so Wan Xiaoguang hits him in anger/anxiety. Eventually the three are packed up and they set off.

Some Wudang disciples stop them at the exit, so they have no choice but to go back home. But Wan Xiaoguang suddenly takes off again, and Wan Yingxia and Wen Tiansheng go after him.

Wan Yingxia and Wen Tiansheng can't find Wan Xiaoguang, but they run into more Wudang followers, and a fight ensues. Wan Yingxia uses her Swallowtail Shuttles to wound a disciple and win a bet so that the Wudang disciples have to take her to see the Purple Sun Daoist on Mt. Wudang.

Wan Xiaoguang shows up and the three attempt to break their way out of the gorge. Wan Xiaoguang, in his desperation and rage at the situation, kills six Wudang disciples, resorting to an Evil Palm technique he learned from an old master who specializes in that kind of martial arts after having saved the master's life.

Purple Sun arrives and discovers that White Sun acted without permission, but he also discovers that six of his men have been killed. He says a life must be repaid with a life, and then he goes on to ask Wan Xiaoguang how he killed the six disciples. Wan Xiaoguang explains how he learned the Evil Palm technique and Purple Sun implies Wan Xiaoguang was present at a big event fourteen years ago when a lot of Wulin members were killed. He asks Wan Xiaoguang to show him the technique, but Wan Xiaoguang refuses.

Eventually he acquiesces, and the two fight. Purple Sun ends up using the technique back against Wan Xiaoguang, injuring Wan's arm.

Wan Xiaoguang knows he will die, so he gathers his daughter and student and tells them not to get involved in this matter after he is gone. He tells them not to take revenge. Purple Sun knows he overreacted and promises to let the daughter and student leave the gorge and not to harm them, as per Wan Xiaoguang's request. With that, Wan Xiaoguang creates a distraction and blocks his own pressure point, killing himself.

Hu Boling arrives with Zhong Yihao and learns what happened. He and Purple Sun talk and Hu Boling scolds the Daoist for not handling the situation in the proper manner befitting a high-ranking member of the Wulin. Zhong Yihao says a life should repaid with a life. Purple Sun is indignant, and the two seem like they might be going to fight, but Hu Boling diffuses the situation after seeing Wan Yingxia, knowing revenge right then is not the best way. He tells Purple Sun and the others to go back to Wudang and he will meet them there to settle things in the future.

When the Wudang people are gone, Hu Boling and Wan Yingxia take Wan Xiaoguang's body and bury him alongside his wife in their tomb while Wen Tiansheng goes on ahead to Lost Way Valley to inform everyone they will be staying with Hu Boling.

Hu Boling and Wan Yingxia then set off together for Lost Way Valley, where Wan Yingxia and Wen Tiansheng will be staying for a while.

Hu Boling blames himself for Wan Xiaoguang's death, because if he had not led his men to Myriad Moon Gorge, Wan Xiaoguang would have never gotten involved with this matter.

Some time passes. One night, Tianming Dashi arrives late at night, which Hu Boling finds strange, because he would never come so late unless something was up. Turns out that's right. Tianming tells them that a statue, a white jade Buddha, has been stolen from Shaolin Monastery. It was a gift from the emperor, and its theft really shames the temple, makes them look bad. Moreover, the thief left some writing on the wall, which said the thief did it in order to show those who puff themselves up as righteous, causing further indignation for the Shaolin monks.

At another time, the Jiangbei Five Dragons come back from their travels, where they have been sent around to gather information among the rivers and lakes. Hu Boling is informed that the Seven Star Escort Agency has had a convoy robbed. Money was stolen that was supposed to be sent to relieve those suffering from natural disasters.

Others arrive and tell Hu Boling that a painting was stolen as well from a different location. All these incidents are proving that Hu Boling is having a tough time keeping his Greenwood men under control, and what's more, Hu Boling is being blamed for some of the crimes, because someone was seen using the same sword/cane weapon combo that Hu Boling uses.

Hu Boling decides to check things out. He picks Yu Yile (the fortune teller) and the Three Heroes of Laoshan (Wang Dakang and company) to go with him. They decide to check out the escort agency business first. Hu Boling is determined to get to the bottom of things.

They arrive and on that night the local jail is broken into and set on fire. Hu Boling and Yu Yile go out to see what's going on, and they see the culprit on the roof, but he/she gets away.

The next day they go to see Peng Jing, the leader of the Seven Star Escort Agency. They are invited inside, and a woman in white accosts Hu Boling and accuses him of killing her husband and her brother. They argue some, and in the end Hu Boling says that he will return in three months. If he has not gotten to the bottom of things by then, he will accept whatever punishment they deem appropriate.

He goes back to the inn and receives a letter from the woman wanting to meet him and an old abandoned temple. Yu Yile warns him to be careful and wants to go with them, but Hu Boling refuses and says if he has not returned in four hours, then they can come look for him.

Hu Boling goes to the temple and meets the woman. Two coffins are there with her husband and brother in them. The woman asks to use Hu Boling's sword to test the wounds on the bodies to see if they match up. The husband's body look too newly dead to have been dead for twenty some days, but the sword matches the wounds. Hu Boling says anyone could have a sword of similar size.

He is invited to look in the second coffin housing her brother. But when the lid is opened poison water and other poison weapons shoot out, but Hu Boling was on his guard from the beginning and is not hit. The lights all go out in the temple and he is in pitch-black darkness. There is a lot of howling like a wolf and odd sounds, but eventually some girls arrive with green lanterns and a thin, pale man comes out. This is Hidden Hand Monster. They talk some and then they fight, but Hu Boling fights with one of Hidden Hand's girls. He fights Hidden Hand to a draw, and they talk some more. Hidden Hand wanted to become leader of the Greenwood so that he could go up against the Wulin sects, but Hu Boling got there first. But he is delighted when he learns that Hu Boling had the same idea in mind, and Hidden Hand says Hu Boling can have the leadership. He says he would like to join up with Hu Boling.

Girls come out each carrying a bowl of liquid, one black, the other blood red. Hidden Hand says the first bowl when drunk will make Hu Boling never go against Hidden Hand. Hu Boling must drink the two bowls in order to become Hidden Hand's disciple, which is the condition Hidden Hand has set for the two working together. In exchange, Hidden Hand will teach Hu Boling some martial arts.

But Hu Boling does not want to drink the liquids, so he says that he doesn't believe the drink will have any effect on him, that it won't change his nature. He makes a bet with Hidden Hand that he will drink the liquid, but if it does not affect him, then Hidden Hand must leave the jianghu and become aloof to jianghu affairs. Hidden Hand become doubtful and anxious, worried that Hu Boling really has some way to overcome the liquid.

Hidden Hand has one of his girls go search Hu Boling for an antidote, which makes Hu Boling mad. He and the girl fight. The girl uses a Turtledove-head hammer attached to a red rope, and Hu Boling asks her about the weapon because few people use that weapon, only Gu Hanxiang that he knows of.

Wang Dakang and Yu Yile show up to help out and Wang Dakang fights with Hidden Hand. Wang Dakang's hand is injured in the process and swells up. Hu Boling and Hidden Hand make a deal to fight. If Hidden Hand wins then Hu Boling must drink the bowls. If Hu Boling wins, then Hidden Hand must give Wang Dakang the antidote to cure his hand.

The two fight and Hu Boling gets the better of it. Hidden Hand has his girls give Wang Dakang the antidote and then Hidden Hand staggers away with his minions, seemingly barely able to walk.

Now they all try to recover from their wounds. Hu Boling has been injured by Hidden Hand's Ill Wind Palm, so he goes and sits down to regulate his breath. He and Wang Dakang take the pill antidote to help them recover from the Ill Wind Palm.

The girl in white is severely injured as well. It turns out her name is Lan'er, and she is Hidden Hand's student. He injured her in the last chapter when she tried to stop him. She has also taken the effects of the Ill Wind Palm. Hu Boling sends the two other Three Heroes of Laoshan to give her energy, and they manage to revive her, but she says her injury is too bad to be cured, and by noon of the next day she will die. They all spend the night in the abandoned temple to recover.

The next day they decide to set out. Hu Boling has the Three Heroes of Laoshan escort Lan'er back to Lost Way Valley to protect her from Hidden Hand's revenge should he try to go after her. Hu Boling and Yu Yile are to go to Shaolin temple.

Lan'er doesn't think she can make it because only certain skills from Shaolin can save her from the poison. But Hu Boling thinks a similar technique will work, so he tries it on her. It does work. Lan'er then tells them more about Hidden Hand, and she mentions there are others scheming something up to shake the jianghu, and she mentions Feng Qiu, who was Hu Boling's senior in the past.

They all set out, and the story follows Hu Boling and Yu Yile to Shaolin. They meet Fang Zhang, the abbot of the monastery, and Hu Boling tells him that Hidden Hand and Feng Qiu and others may be planning something. But The abbot seems not to believe Hu Boling, especially after learning that Feng Qiu is Hu Boling's senior.

Hu Boling and Yu Yile leave, the latter angry at being snubbed, but Hu Boling knows there's nothing they can do about it.

The story then shifts to Lost Way Valley where the Three Heroes of Laoshan are taking Lan'er back. They meet two Wudang disciples along the way and a fight ensues. Wang Dakang ends up injuring the elder disciple, and both are captured and taken back to Lost Way Valley.

The three new arrivals are taken to see Gu Hanxiang, as Zhong Yihao and Huo Yuanjia are the temporary leaders, but they are always arguing with each other, so the three are taken to Gu Hanxiang instead to see what should be done with Lan'er and the prisoners.

Gu Hanxiang doesn't really know what to do as she is not used to positions of authority, but she orders Lan'er to stay with her in her quarters. Zhong Yihao thinks this is unwise since they don't really know Lan'er so it's too dangerous, but Gu Hanxiang insists. As for the captured Wudang disciples, she orders to let them go, and she personally unties them.

Everyone is shocked, but Gu Hanxiang says Hu Boling is merciful and would do the same if he were here.

That night the alarm gongs sound and it is reported that several people have been injured by intruders. Everyone is sent out to check it out. Throughout this chapter Huo Yuanjia and Zhong Yihao have been going at it, several times almost getting into a fight. Zhong Yihao is very deferential and submissive toward Gu Hanxiang, while it looks like Huo Yuanjia might be planning to betray her. He storms out of the room after Gu Hanxiang insists on letting the disciples go (Huo Yuanjia thinks they should be killed to prevent some future problem).

Suddenly someone comes in the door: it is Qian Bing, one of the Jiangbei Five Dragons. He is spitting up blood and he collapses. He says he has critical internal injuries. Zhong Yihao uses some acupoint techniques to give him a last surge of energy to tell them who injured him, but Huo Yuanjia suddenly bursts in the room and he and Zhong Yihao argue again, and when they get back to Qian Bing, Qian Bing is already dead, not having said who had hurt him.

More arguing ensues until Hu Boling suddenly comes in. He orders everyone to gather in the main hall for a meeting. There he shows everyone Qian Bing's body and asks them if they can tell what kind of martial arts killed him. Zhong Yihao and Huo Yuanjia have differing opinions on what kind of skill killed Qian Bing.

Hu Boling can sense Huo Yuanjia's wavering allegiance, so he says that he will give up his leadership seat if Huo Yuanjia can beat an unnamed student. If he cannot, then Huo Yuanjia must follow orders and not go against them.

This unnamed student arrives, who turns out to be Zhang Jing'an. He is about thirty or so, and he is bringing a gift for Hu Boling. It's a red lacquer box, and inside are pearls and a letter. The letter is from Feng Qiu and it says he will be coming to visit Hu Boling on the seventh day of the seventh month.

Hu Boling asks Zhang Jing'an if he was the one who killed Qian Bing, and Zhang Jing'an admits it was he. Hu Boling asks how he could do such a thing, and Zhang replies that when fighting one must not show mercy lest he himself be killed.

Hu Boling says he can't let him off or how will he manage affairs with his men in the future. He orders Huo Yuanjia to arrest Zhang Jing'an.

Because Zhang Jing'an killed Qian Bing and others, he must be punished. Hu Boling will not let him off just because they both have a connection to Feng Qiu, so it looks like the two will fight. But Huo Yuanjia steps in and fights Zhang Jing'an instead, but he cannot defeat Zhang Jing'an. Huo Yuanjia steps aside and Hu Boling continues the fight. Although Zhang Jing'an is very skilled, he is no match for Hu Boling, and Hu Boling seriously injures him in the fight using his Heavenly Star Finger skill.

Zhang Jing'an is then taken to the stone prison to wait for Feng Qiu to arrive.

Hu Boling and Gu Hanxiang go with Miao Sulan (Lan’er) to see the boy they saved before the big Greenwood election meeting. The boy has been living in a cave by himself, eating nothing but special medicine pills to make him strong and practicing the martial arts Hu Boling taught him.

Hu Boling leaves them there to attend to other business after suggesting that Gu Hanxiang would have to live on if something were to happen to him, which makes her upset.

Yu Yile arrives and tells Hu Boling that Shaolin and Wudang members are gathering nearby, but he doesn't know the purpose. Though it seems clear they have come to deal with Hu Boling and the Greenwood.

Hu Boling goes to see Zhang Jing'an in their jail and he helps cure Zhang Jing'an's injury, then goes to escort Zhang Jing'an back to Feng Qiu, who he wants to meet as soon as possible.

They go back and on the way Tianwang Dashi shows up and there is a fight. One of the people come to receive Zhang Jing'an and Hu Boling fights Tianwang and both are injured in the process, but Tianwang gets away.

They go to see Feng Qiu in the grass behind a big rock.

Hu Boling is introduced to Feng Qiu as well as three others, Shui Han, Wu Dou, and Cheng Quan, friends of Feng Qiu. They are planning to round up the wulin masters in one go and get rid of Shaolin and Wudang for good, and they need Hu Boling's help to do it. Hu Boling also meets a ten-year-old or so boy named Mai Xiaoming. After learning of the plan to lure the Wulin masters into Descending Goose Valley, Hu Boling says he wants to go back to Lost Way Valley to get ready and discuss things with his men. Mai Xiaoming is sent with him for protection.

On the way they meet a Wudang Daoist, and Mai Xiaoming immediately goes to fight him, quickly stabbing him and cutting him up into pieces before the Wudang guy can hardly react. They continue on and meet two Shaolin monks, and Mai Xiaoming fights them too. Mai Xiaoming doesn't talk much, but he giggles a lot, before and after he says anything.

He cuts off one monk's head and stabs the other one, killing them both. They get back to Lost Way Valley and then the Shaolin and Wudang people show up, believing that Hu Boling had invited them to meet there (because Feng Qiu had forged letters setting it up). Hu Boling plays along and leads them to Descending Goose Valley.

When they get there Mai Xiaoming immediately fights two Shaolin monks who are trying to get up a cliff where Hu Boling, Feng Qiu, and company are in order to check things out. Mai Xiaoming blocks the way and fights them, cutting off the head of one and chopping off the arm of the other. He allows the one-armed one to get away.

Suddenly others in silver show up, led by Fan Tongshan, and his son, Fan Yukun. He is also an old retired guy who has just come back to the jianghu. He recognizes Feng Qiu and the others and points them out to Purple Sun and Tianchan, the respective seniors of Wudang and Shaolin.

Feng Qiu, Hu Boling, and Mai Xiaoming go down the cliff to meet the others.

This chapter is the big fight, and it is quite hectic. It starts by Feng Qiu inviting them all up the cliff, where there is big flat land (suitable for fighting), very reminiscent of the Greenwood election meeting at the beginning of the novel. They sit down for a banquet, served by women in green clothing, and Feng Qiu begins explaining why they are meeting here.

Of course the real reason is never discussed as both sides take a lot of time talking about the state of the situation between the Wulin and the Greenwood. Tianchan Dashi comments that even though the Greenwood is not all bad, yet it still doesn't uphold righteousness most of the time, and what's worse, sometimes people claim to be good as a ruse to do more evil, this being a sly dig at Hu Boling, since everyone thinks Hu Boling invited them there to the meeting, and since they don't believe that he has really gone good (kind of hinting that it is not possible to go from evil to good).

Hu Boling had been trying to warn the Shaolin and Wudang people about the trap the whole time they were heading to the place, but he couldn't find a good opportunity with Mai Xiaoming sticking on him like that. He says publicly though, several times, that the situation is dangerous, hoping the Wulin people will take the hint, but it is not clear if they get it, though everyone does seem suspicious.

Suddenly smoke is spotted some distance away, and Feng Qiu immediately sends people to check it out, though the Wulin people don't seem too interested in this. But while they are distracted, Feng Qiu sends his serving girls after the Wulin people. The girls use a trick by which they breathe poisonous gas onto the guests, and also use a special technique to use poisonous fire on them.

Because of this, both Purple Sun and Tianchan Dashi are injured, as well as several others, and a fight breaks out full force.

There is a lot of back and forth, with most people getting injured to some degree, but in the process Tianchan Dashi and Hu Boling fight and Hu Boling's ribs are broken, but he keeps going, nonetheless. Tianchan and Purple Sun know they are at death's door, so they use all their strength to fight. Hu Boling takes Tianchan hostage in order to prevent any of the Shaolin people attacking, but actually Hu Boling has no intention of harming Tianchan, he actually wants to save him.

Hu Boling has been caught between both sides and never wanted this fight to happen, but there is no way for him to manage the situation at this point. Eventually, Yu Yile, Zhong Yihao, and the others show up to provide aid.

Fan Tongshan is severely injured, and Mai Xiaoming gets pretty torn up as well, also Fan Yukun.

There is green fire (the poisonous fire) raging everywhere, and Feng Qiu and company set a ring of it to allow them time to escape off the cliff. Hu Boling catches on to what they are doing, and spots some gunpowder set to go off, which would blow up everyone on the cliff, effectively killing Shaolin and Wudang's senior members.

Hu Boling sets down Tianchan Dashi and charges through the fire to get to the explosives. The Wulin people see Hu Boling charging and think he is coming to attack, so Fan Yukun stabs him in the back, and Purple Sun stabs him in the chest.

Hu Boling was already weak from the fight with Tianchan, so he has no energy to explain himself, leading to getting stabbed, but with his last breath he yells “Gunpowder, gunpowder”, and spits up blood. The blood lands on the explosives and puts them out, foiling Feng Qiu's plan.

Purple Sun and the others see the explosives and know what Hu Boling was trying to do. Hu Boling feels very sad about the misunderstanding.

Feng Qiu sees the fight cannot be won now, so he and his fellows leave. By this time Zhong Yihao, Yu Yile, and the others arrive, Gu Hanxiang in the lead.

Gu Hanxiang sees Hu Boling laying there dead and throws herself on him, crying uncontrollably.

Everyone is sad by the scene, and they talk about who is responsible for it (the Wulin people have used this time to make their escape as well. Tianchan and Purple Sun do not die because they had time during the fight to regulate their breathing and control their neigong).

Zhong Yihao says it was not one from Shaolin, but was instead one from Wudang that killed Hu Boling, because of the sword wounds. Shaolin monks never use swords.

Gu Hanxiang is hysterical at this point and faints while they are talking. But when she comes to she seems wilder, and she picks up Hu Boling's body and runs away.

Miao Sulan and Wan Yingxia are sent after her.

It should be noted that Huo Yuanjia never did betray Hu Boling, and he was right there with Zhong Yihao and Yu Yile at the end. Though he does want to go after them immediately because he knows they are weak from the fight, Zhong Yihao and Yu Yile ignore him, and eventually they all head back to Lost Way Valley.

On the way back they are blocked by one of Shaolin's renowned formations, but Gu Hanxiang walks ahead, carrying Hu Boling's body, oblivious to the line. The Shaolin formation is ordered to let her and the others through, ordered by Tianchan Dashi.

Then they come to the Wudang formation, yet Gu Hanxiang walks through them as well. No one dares stop her; her beauty and sadness mixed together makes people not able to resist her, and she walks on, slowly, exuding a very sorrowful and cold air.

The others are not so fortunate and have to fight it out until Purple Sun orders them to let the others through as well. He is alive, but seriously injured by the earlier poison attack. Tianchan Dashi was given the antidote in the previous chapter by Hu Boling, who got the antidote from Feng Qiu, but Purple Sun has not had the antidote yet. Mai Xiaoming says he will give them the antidote but all the Wudang people have to drop their weapons. They do, and Mai Xiaoming leaves a small white pellet on a rock and leaves with the others.

The Wudang people don't know if the white pill is the antidote or poison, but eventually someone has the nerve to pick up the pill and go over and give it to Purple Sun. It looks like it doesn't work when Purple Sun is administered the pill, and the Wudang disciple who gave it to him kills himself to pay for his crime of giving the master a poison pill. Right after, Purple Sun wakes up; it was the antidote after all.

Zhong Yihao, Yu Yile, and the others are going back to Lost Way Valley. Gu Hanxiang suddenly says she is going to bury her husband. Zhong Yihao says they should wait until a proper coffin can be made, but Gu Hanxiang says then how can she see her husband in the future? So she goes to bury Hu Boling, with Wan Yingxia, Miao Sulan, Zhong Yihao, Yu Yile, and Mai Xiaoming tagging along behind her.

She is heading to the top of a mountain. She gets partially up and lays down to rest on a rock. Everyone is surprised that she is able to carry Hu Boling so long and still climb the mountain; she never had that much strength before, and no one knows where she got the strength to do it.

In the night they all fall asleep, but a booming sound wakes Zhong Yihao. He finds Gu Hanxiang missing. Turns out she pushed a rock off as she was climbing. She has continued her assent. She gets to the top and starts digging at the ice. Her hands are bleeding, prompting Zhong Yihao to show himself, as he stealthily followed her up there.

Gu Hanxiang says she is building an icehouse to house Hu Boling so she can come see him whenever she wants. Zhong Yihao offers to help while she rests.

He notices her not moving and discovers that she is freezing to death. While leaning over her, he gets the urge to kiss her, so he does. He feels ashamed afterward, but he carries her and takes her to a small area lower down where it is warmer.

She wakes up and Zhong Yihao tells her how beautiful she is. Gu Hanxiang had never thought about how beautiful she was, and that it could be used to influence people. Now she wonders what other uses her beauty can have. She vows revenge and says she saw who killed Hu Boling.

Zhong Yihao says if he can be with her forever he will follow her, and she lets him hold her hand, only to be cold toward him later when he asks if he is being too forward.

She asks him why he wears the mask and he says because he doesn't want other people to see his real face. Gu Hanxiang thinks he must be disfigured or something. He also says the other reason he doesn't take it off is because later on when he stops wearing the mask, no one will know who he is.

Zhong Yihao takes his mask off and shows Gu Hanxiang his face. Turns out there is nothing wrong with his face and he is actually handsome.

Gu Hanxiang again vows to avenge her husband, but then she realizes her martial arts is not good enough for her to do it. She asks if anyone in the Greenwood is strong enough to do it, but no one has good enough martial arts to avenge Hu Boling. Gu Hanxiang is upset, but Zhong Yihao still says he will help her, and he says there are other ways to handle the situation aside from using martial arts.

The chapter ends with Gu Hanxiang vowing again to get revenge, saying she will use her whole energy and will not give up until she gets revenge, even if she has to die trying.

Gu Hanxiang changes in this chapter. In the last chapter she was grieving her husband. In this chapter she buries him and then begins to change into a ruthless person who will stop at nothing to achieve her goal of avenging her husband.

She asks Zhong Yihao why he is helping her, asking if it is because she is pretty. Zhong Yihao cannot lie to her and admits that is the reason, it is also the reason he helped Hu Boling, so that he could see Gu Hanxiang more often. Although he could get girls whenever he wanted them, he never really paid them much attention, but he is smitten with Gu Hanxiang.

Gu Hanxiang begins to realize just how beautiful she is, as she never thought about it before, and she wonders what other uses her beauty can have. She realizes she can control people with her beauty, as she is able to control Zhong Yihao.  She orders him to bury Hu Boling and fill the grave with ice, then they descend the mountain. Zhong Yihao asks if she wants him to carry her, and she says yes. So he does.

At first Gu Hanxiang is uncomfortable with the power she has over others, and she is uncomfortable using her beauty to control people because Hu Boling has just died, and she is already flirting with Zhong Yihao in order to test out her power. But she says since her heart is already in the netherworld with Hu Boling, her body is now just a tool to be used to her own ends, so in that way she consoles herself to her actions and devotes herself wholeheartedly to avenging her husband.

Because she knows that her martial arts ability is not good enough to avenge her husband, she decides to use her beauty to get someone to get revenge on her behalf. She decides that she will marry whoever can get revenge for her.

On the way down the mountain, Zhong Yihao kisses Gu Hanxiang on the mouth, and she slaps him in the face. She is not yet comfortable using her beauty to get what she wants, and when Zhong Yihao asks her to slap him again she tells him to let her go.

They are alone in the dark, and Zhong Yihao embraces her, when Wang Yingxia, Miao Sulan, and Yu Yile show up and see them. Also Mai Xiaoming is there. Mai Xiaoming and Zhong Yihao fight, and it looks to be a fight to the death.

The others watching want Gu Hanxiang to stop them, but Gu Hanxiang wants to see who will win. She wants to know who has the better martial arts. But they fight to a draw and she tells them to stop and they all go on to Lost Way Valley.

Miao Sulan and the others notice that Gu Hanxiang has changed a lot, and Gu Hanxiang is also now more resolute than she had been before when she was managing things at Lost Way Valley. She orders everyone to gather in the main hall while she goes to her room to rest. She orders Mai Xiaoming to guard the door and not let anyone in. Anyone who doesn't listen to Mai Xiaoming is to be beheaded.

Miao Sulan and Wang Yingxia come in and Gu Hanxiang tells them her plan to use her beauty to get revenge. She has since changed her plans: instead of marrying the person who can get revenge for her, she wants to use her beauty to get many people to help her. Miao Sulan advises that this is not enough, that Gu Hanxiang will have to improve her martial arts as well if she wants to succeed.

She also learns that Wang Yingxia and Miao Sulan both liked Hu Boling.

She asks Miao Sulan and Wang Yingxia to look after her adopted son and raise him, because she will not be able to do it herself because she will be seeking revenge.

They go to the meeting, but not before she sees a dozen or so heads lined up, all of them Huo Yuanjia's men, killed by Mai Xiaoming for trying to charge in to see Gu Hanxiang.

At the meeting Huo Yuanjia doesn't like it that Gu Hanxiang is sitting in Hu Boling's chair because she is not the leader of the Greenwood. Zhong Yihao and Huo Yuanjia are about to fight about it when Gu Hanxiang declares that Huo Yuanjia will be the next leader of the Greenwood. Everyone is stunned, but they are more surprised when she says that the entire Lost Way Valley will be handed over to Huo Yuanjia to control. She herself will be leaving the valley to roam around looking for people to help her avenge Hu Boling.

Wang Dakang and the two other Three Heroes of Laoshan say they were loyal only to Hu Boling and have decided to go back home. Some others leave as well. Mai Xiaoming asks if they are really leaving, and Gu Hanxiang says what good would it do to stay, and then Mai Xiaoming suggests they burn the whole place down.

Gu Hanxiang and the others leave Lost Way Valley. The surviving Jiangbei Five Dragons go with her. Jiang Hong is tasked with taking them to their new dwelling place because there are too many people traveling with Gu Hanxiang. She doesn't want that many people going with her, so she wants them to wait at this new place until she needs their help.

Jiang Hong also gives Gu Hanxiang a letter from Hu Boling, which was to be given to Gu Hanxiang after his death, indicating he knew something like this might happen.

On their way out of Lost Way Valley, Zhong Yihao and Yu Yile guard the party's “retreat” in case Huo Yuanjia sends his men out. He does send men out and Huo Yuanjia and Zhong Yihao decide to have a fight to the death. But Gu Hanxiang tells them to stop fighting and Huo Yuanjia says he only sent men out because her people surrounded his compound. Then Gu Hanxiang and her party leave.

On the way to the new place, Mai Xiaoming accidentally mentions a place called Myriad Flower Palace. Gu Hanxiang probes him for more information, and Mai Xiaoming says it is a place where if you go there, you won't come out alive. He says the master of the palace has no legs and so cannot leave, but his martial arts is much stronger than anyone else's in the jianghu. He also says there are birds there that eat people. He seems afraid even to talk about the place, but Gu Hanxiang tells him if he doesn't take her there someday, she will go by herself.

When they stop to rest, Yu Yile says that he will be leaving the group. But Gu Hanxiang turns on her charm and even Yu Yile is powerless to resist. He agrees to stay with the group, but he says he will only listen to her orders; he does not want to be tasked with important matters. Gu Hanxiang seems dubious about this, but the scene shows how much power she has, even over the one who up to this point has been more resistant to her power, Yu Yile.

They get to the new place, which is a utopia-like place behind a waterfall, and Jiang Hong gives Gu Hanxiang the letter. She and Miao Sulan read it together since Gu Hanxiang feels that she was also close to Hu Boling.

The letter tells Gu Hanxiang to stay in this place, named Tian Xiang Valley, for three to five years, raise the boy up and teach him well, before leaving the valley. He also says for Gu Hanxiang not to get revenge for him.

But Gu Hanxiang knew he would say that in the last part of the letter, so she refuses to read it so that she will not have to disobey his order. Instead Miao Sulan reads it and confirms that Gu Hanxiang was right, Hu Boling does not want her to get revenge. Gu Hanxiang of course will do that anyway.

For a week Gu Hanxiang spends as much time with her adopted son as she can because she knows she will not be there to take care of him soon. After seven days she gathers everyone for a moon-viewing party and there pulls out a dagger and says she needs everyone's help avenging Hu Boling. She says that unless everyone agrees to help her, she will kill herself. Everyone agrees to help her.

Then she, the Five Dragons and Yu Yile, Mai Xiaoming, and Zhong Yihao go to Chang'an, the western capital. They are looking for a man who leads the Greenwood people in that area. While they are dining, Zhong Yihao spots someone and they all take off after him.

Zhong Yihao and Mai Xiaoming are hot on his trail, and Zhong Yihao sees the person go into a certain inn.

Zhong Yihao returns to the inn and finds Gu Hanxiang's room empty. Yu Yile is actually hiding in the room, but Gu Hanxiang is nowhere to be found. Zhong Yihao says he is going to go to the Greenwood base to check things out there, along with Mai Xiaoming, and Yu Yile waits in Gu Hanxiang's room in case she comes back. Yu Yile becomes tired and lays down on the bed and goes to sleep.

Sometime later, Yu Yile wakes up and finds Gu Hanxiang sleeping next to him. She wakes up and he asks her where she was, but she doesn't answer him. She tells him to get her some tea, and even though he is curious to find out where she went, he obeys her, not able to resist her. Even though he has resisted her the most so far, he is finding it difficult. But the cup and tea pot are broken so he can't get her tea.

Eventually everyone comes back and in strides an old man who says he has business with Gu Hanxiang. This was the guy spying on them the day before. There is a fight and Mai Xiaoming is injured, though he says it's no big deal because he is able to cure himself of any injury. Zhong Yihao and Yu Yile also fight the old man, but they are not his match. In the midst of the fight, suddenly another comes in, moving so fast they can't identify him. This mystery figure fights with the old man until Gu Hanxiang gets them to stop fighting.

The two who were fighting explain that they are fighting over Gu Hanxiang, but they don't give any more details about that. But they agree to continue the fight at a later date, and both leave.

Mai Xiaoming says he knows why they are fighting over Gu Hanxiang. He says they are from Myriad Flower Palace; he can tell by their martial arts, and he knows the master there has a painting on his wall of a beautiful girl. Any of his students who brings him a woman as beautiful as the one in the painting, he will teach them his best martial arts skill, so the two are fighting for the ability to take Gu Hanxiang back to the master, as he will only teach one of them.

Mai Xiaoming is scared of the palace and the master, and he tells the group that he was a student there as well, but he left without permission. He fears being caught by the master; even though the master can't leave the palace, he still has other ways to get Mai Xiaoming.

Gu Hanxiang explains that the group may have been drugged the night before, but that she has arranged with another man to get the antidote just in case.

That day the man comes to give her two bottles of pills, and Gu Hanxiang tries to give him a pearl necklace as compensation, but he says that is not good enough. What he wants is Gu Hanxiang. She agrees to be with him for a couple days for the pills, so he gives her the two bottles. But she says rights now is not convenient, so she asks him to come back two days from now and then she will be with him. The man tells her if she is lying he will deal with her, and she says that is okay because she has a lot of enemies already, ones more powerful than he is.

The man is about to leave when someone tells him to halt.

The man fights with Zhong Yihao and Mai Xiaoming, but eventually they stop fighting. The man tells them they need him to save themselves because they have all been poisoned, and even though they have the antidote, they don't know how to use it, so it will do them no good. Only he can tell them that.

Zhong Yihao has him go ahead and leave anyway. The next day they all head out of the inn. They stop to rest in the forest and Gu Hanxiang and Miao Sulan go out to the road to lure the men in while the rest wait in ambush in the forest.

The men come to deliver the antidote and instructions, and Gu Hanxiang leads them in. Only one guy goes with her, and he refuses to enter the forest, saying he will wait outside. Gu Hanxiang and Miao Sulan rest in the cart and wait for the guy to get impatient.

Gu Hanxiang is worried about this whole thing because she is still new to tricking people, but Miao Sulan tells her not to worry, she will teach Gu Hanxiang some tricks and how to use some drugs she made up. She teaches her while they wait for the guy.

Eventually the guy gets impatient and goes to the cart, but Gu Hanxiang tells him to leave because there is an ambush waiting. She sets a time to meet him at the market that evening.

He is waiting and Mai Xiaoming and the others pass by and they drop a card giving him a different meeting time. He goes to the location and Miao Sulan leads him in to see Gu Hanxiang. Gu Hanxiang uses her looks and body to seduce him. He gives her a bottle of pills, but she says she doesn't believe it is really the antidote. The man, named Ma'er Biandan tells her he will cut off his ear to prove it. He is about ready to do it when she stops him, saying she believes him. They have sex. Later he prepares to leave, but Gu Hanxiang still says she doesn't believe he is really willing to cut his ear off for her. So he does it to prove it to her, which frightens her because she is not used to that kind of thing. Then he leaves, saying he hopes to see her again.

Miao Sulan is excited about the ear. She says that can be Gu Hanxiang's thing, to get people to give her their sense organs or limbs and they can store them in a box; this will be the way to spread her fame (beauty fame). Miao Sulan believes this is necessary before Gu Hanxiang goes to Myriad Flower Palace, which she has said she wants to do.

She also tells Gu Hanxiang that she needs to use her body on Zhong Yihao, otherwise he will be angry if he finds out about her schemes, that he really likes her so she should give him a bit of hope to ensure he doesn't turn against her. Gu Hanxiang reminds herself that she had pledged to use a hundred, even a thousand bodies to accomplish her goal of getting revenge, that she would stop at nothing, and this reminder steels her nerves. Miao Sulan says that if Gu Hanxiang is not willing to seduce Zhong Yihao, she might as well kill him now and get rid of a future problem. Gu Hanxiang says she wants some time to think about it.

Gu Hanxiang gives everyone the antidote just in case they were poisoned, but she doesn't give any to Mai Xiaoming because she wants to see if the group were really poisoned or not. Mai Xiaoming discovers that only he wasn't given the pill, so he asks Gu Hanxiang why and she tells him. He asks her what she will do if he dies and she says she will die with him, and then she pulls out her own pill, saying this is my pill isn't it, indicating she also did not take the antidote.

Ma'er Biandan and his men come back to fight, but eventually the fighting stops. Gu Hanxiang ends up recruiting the local bandit chief they were trying to meet as well as four other heroes along the way. As they travel around looking for talent, Gu Hanxiang uses her skills to get them.

Half a year passes, and they are crossing the river into Jiangnan. Gu Hanxiang now wears a red veil to enhance her mystique, and she also has changed her name to Red Flower Princess. Her name has already spread.

Men reporting to the Twin Heroes of Jiangnan come to pick them up and take them to their base, Hanging Poplar Village, to meet the Twin Heroes.

They get to outside the village and they are told they cannot take the cart inside but must proceed on foot. They argue, and eventually a bamboo chair is brought out for Gu Hanxiang to sit in as she is escorted to the guest room inside the village.

Gu Hanxiang and the others are invited to a banquet and they meet the Twin Heroes, Huangfu Tianzhang and Tan Jiucheng. They tell Gu Hanxiang that they have invited her there to tell her that after the banquet her and her party must leave Jiangnan, because word of her has spread and they don't want her and her group causing trouble in their territory. Gu Hanxiang says she needs some time to decide, so they are allowed to stay in the guest building until noon the next day, at which time they must tell the Twin Heroes whether they will stay or leave. If they do not agree to go then there will be trouble.

The next morning Zhong Yihao spots some movement outside and Tan Jiucheng comes in to see what they decided, but Gu Hanxiang tells him it is still before noon, so she has not decided yet. Tan Jiucheng leaves and Zhong Yihao sees him go across Crossing Fairy Bridge, so he decides to check it out. But there are two men guarding the other side of the bridge with crossbows.

Zhong Yihao forces them to shoot at him by advancing, but he deflects all the crossbow bolts. He is told to come back and so he does, but not before seeing flashes of the men with spears and sabres waiting in ambush on the opposite side of the bridge, should anyone cross it.

At noon, Huangfu Tianzhang comes personally to the guest building to find out Gu Hanxiang's decision, but there is a fight and Huangfu Tianzhang faces off with Mai Xiaoming and Zhong Yihao, while the others block the entrance. It is a stalemate because all Huangfu Tianzhang has to do is call out and his men will surround the building. Gu Hanxiang defuses the situation by coming up to him and ordering him to hand over his short sword to her, which he does. She then tells her men to get out of the way and let Huangfu Tianzhang pass.

She follows after him and crosses the bridge. Zhong Yihao is mad at Gu Hanxiang's ways, not able to accept that she is not the same person as she was before, using dirty tactics (her beauty/body) to get what she wants. He plans to leave the group, but Miao Sulan convinces him to stay. He and Mai Xiaoming cross the bridge, braving more crossbow bolts, to go protect Gu Hanxiang. The two are allowed to go to her to protect her, but Gu Hanxiang makes them wait outside the boat where she and Huangfu Tianzhang are talking.

Tan Jiucheng arrives and scolds Huangfu Tianzhang for breaking the group's rules by allowing Gu Hanxiang to still be here, since it is already afternoon. Tan Jiucheng gets angry and says he is leaving the village, and he turns to go. But Huangfu Tianzhang calls them all back, as if he is ready to relent, but in the end he stands firm and tells Gu Hanxiang she must be out of Jiangnan by nightfall. Gu Hanxiang tells him that whether she leaves or stays is her business and he should not worry about it, and she says the people with her are all martial arts experts. Huangfu Tianzhang reiterates his warning and then leaves the boat.

Gu Hanxiang and the others go to leave the boat when the child servants attack them. There is a fight and Gu Hanxiang falls into the water, and Mai Xiaoming goes to save her.

Suddenly a big bird shows up, and Mai Xiaoming is afraid and hides in the boat. Zhong Yihao slices the bird's leg and it flies away. Mai Xiaoming says the bird is from Myriad Flower Palace.

Gu Hanxiang and the group are making their way back to the guest building, but there are a lot of booby traps along the way, and several times the party has to knock down crossbow bolts.

Suddenly the bird comes back, this time with four people riding on its back. One is a boy dressed in black, one has only one arm, one is missing a leg, and the last one has an extra arm growing out of his back. They all get into a fight and eventually the three weirdos are killed, with only the boy in black left, who has taken Gu Hanxiang hostage. He calls for the bird again and gets on it and flies off with Gu Hanxiang. Zhong Yihao manages to slice off a couple of the bird's claws as it escapes.

The party make their way to the bridge where Wan Yingxia sees Mai Xiaoming cowering underneath it. She calls him a coward and he gets mad, saying he is not afraid of death, but then he trails off, not willing to say what it is he is afraid of. Huangfu Tianzhang shows up again with his men, expecting to fight the group because they have not yet left Hanging Poplar Village, but he is informed that Gu Hanxiang has been abducted.

Wan Yingxia says that Mai Xiaoming knows where she has been taken, Myriad Flower Palace, and Mai Xiaoming says he won't go there and goes to leave, but Miao Sulan coaxes him back. He tells them where the palace is located, and just then Tan Jiucheng shows up, having heard that someone had broken into the village. His returning touches Huangfu Tianzhang and the two make up. They decide to help the party go save Gu Hanxiang because her being abducted from their village makes them lose face, so they must help get her back.

Tan Jiucheng uses the two tallies he and Huangfu Tianzhang have and order men to prepare horses and food at relays along the way so that the party can get to Myriad Flower Palace as soon as possible. They are set to leave the next day.

They make their way to Tiantai Mountain, where the Myriad Flower Palace is. Mai Xiaoming is scared and does not want to lead them into the mountain, but he is the only one who knows the way, and eventually he is persuaded to go. They pass a lot of strange and terrible things, and they have a fight with a bear that has been drugged so that it is more ferocious than normal. They have to fight as a group in order to kill the bear.

They get just before the palace and there are seven men guarding it, all holding poison-tipped spears. But their legs are chained together, so Zhong Yihao and Mai Xiaoming work together to kill the third one. When he falls down the others are affected as well, and then the rest of the party joins in and soon the men are killed. Then they proceed to Myriad Flower Palace.

A one-eyed freak comes out in his metal wheelchair. Huangfu Tianzhang talks to him, but they argue, and the freak waves his fan/whisk at him and knocks him down. Then others come up and he throws an “iron gallbladder” (metal balls?) at them and kills them.

Then two of Huangfu Tianzhang's men come to fight and they are both killed quickly by the one-eyed freak. Then two of the Five Dragons of Jiangbei come to fight and both get their right legs cut off when the freak throws some swords at them.

The rest of the group is about to fight at once when Gu Hanxiang opens a nearby window and tells them all to stop.

She comes out and tells the freak these people have come because of her, and then the freak takes her on his wheelchair inside the palace.

The one-eyed freak takes her to a special bedroom that no one else has been in before. He tells her the reason he has brought her here is because he wants her to live with him forever. She reminds him of a woman in a painting because they both look exactly alike. He has missed the woman from the painting for more than ten years and can't get over her, so he has been sending his men to look for someone that looks like the woman in the painting, and Gu Hanxiang is a perfect match.

Gu Hanxiang agrees to marry him and stay with him, but she has some conditions first. She wants a proper wedding ceremony, he cannot kill anyone else in the palace, and he must invite heroes from all around to attend the ceremony, and he must let her group go. He also must teach her some martial arts, because she will stay with him for a year, then she has to go out and leave the palace to do something important. After that, she will come back and stay with the one-eyed freak until the end of their days.

The one-eyed freak readily agrees to everything, and he says he will teach her his best martial arts so that no one will be able to bully her.

The freak says she is tired and offers to take her back to his room. She agrees, and when they get there he tells her not to tell anyone else about what they talked about today, and not to tell anyone about the painting.

The one-eyed freak is true to his word and he lets the others in the group go. They are now all staying there as guests. Gu Hanxiang keeps her word as well, agreeing to the wedding. Everything is being prepared except for inviting heroes from all over. Yu Yile suggests that if she does that then everyone will know who the Red Flower Princess is, implying they will have time to prepare for her. Gu Hanxiang is not willing to risk her plan to avenge her husband, so she abandons the idea of inviting the guests. She also decides to have the wedding as soon as possible.

The one-eyed freak tells Gu Hanxiang his story. He once roamed the jianghu and was given two books by a dying master, who told him not to study from the second book. So he masters the first book, then gets greedy and decides to study the first book. He has already reached the point where weapons cannot penetrate him, but he is too greedy. He practices a skill that makes him able to completely control the flow of his blood and the meridian paths, but he doesn't do it well and causes his blood flow to get stuck. The only way he can save himself is to create a wound to let the blood flow out. His malpractices cause the physical deformity he now suffers from. He had originally gone to Myriad Flower Palace, which he built, to study the second book there.

They get married, and then the one-eyed freak teaches her martial arts. She has to undergo some painful trials, involving heat, and then cold, and then she has to take a grass medicine which puts her in a semi-dream state, and then he teaches her his best martial arts skills, one of them being a move that lets her move lightning quick, a better skill than even Wudang's quickness skill.

They both have to recover after the training, and the one-eyed freak goes off somewhere to recuperate on his own. While Gu Hanxiang is lying in bed resting, the mute servant comes in and tries to stab her with a poison-tipped dagger. She fends him off and is curious who he is and why he wants to kill her. She takes off his mask and sees there is nothing wrong with his face, and she finds his tongue has been cut out.

He communicated by writing with incense ashes. His name is Bao Jiufeng, and he tells Gu Hanxiang that he is the one-eyed freak's senior fellow disciple. The two used to roam the jianghu but the freak came to the palace and then captured and controlled Bao Jiufeng using a drug that makes him die within six months if he does not take the antidote. So he cannot leave the place. The freak's name is revealed to be Tong Gongchang.

Bao Jiufeng tells Gu Hanxiang the only way she can be safe in the future is to kill Tong Gongchang, and he gives her his dagger.

When Tong Gongchang comes back from his rest, he wants to sleep with Gu Hanxiang. He is overcome with lust for her and does not notice that she has the dagger. Earlier she discovered his weakness, the spot on his arm to press to make his blood flow stop up like before when he injured himself.

Gu Hanxiang is nervous because she has never personally killed anyone before, but she thinks about Hu Boling and why she's doing all this, and that gives her strength. She presses the pressure point on Tong Gongchang's arm and stabs him in the side with the dagger, killing him.

The scene jumps to Gu Hanxiang on a mountain peak in a snowstorm. She has come to see Hu Boling. She tells him she is going to avenge him, and then Zhong Yihao interrupts her. She is cold toward him, then tells Hu Boling that she wanted to see him, but she does not want to disturb his spirit, so she leaves the mountain.

Everyone is gathered in a cave and then they go to Lost Way Valley. Huo Yuanjia and the Two Freaks of Lingnan are waiting there. Gu Hanxiang asks them if she said she wanted the Greenwood leadership, what would they say about it.

Then she tells the three that they can all fight her at once, and if they defeat her, she won't go after their positions. They all laugh at her, but she charges forward toward Huo Yuanjia and the fight is on.

Gu Hanxiang easily handles Huo Yuanjia and the Two Freaks of Lingnan. Huo Yuanjia knows he can't win, so he stops the fight, praises Gu Hanxiang's skill, and hands over Lost Way Valley and the Greenwood leadership position to her. Gu Hanxiang and the others move back in to Lost Way Valley.

Gu Hanxiang talks with Miao Sulan about Hidden Hand. She wants to get her hands on the Follow the Heart drug that makes whoever drinks it follow you. She leaves Miao Sulan there to watch her son, Ling'er.

She goes to see Ling'er, who is practicing martial arts. She tells him she has to go away and do something, and then she teaches him the second half of the martial arts she has been teaching him.

Then a strange figure appears, and she chases him outside. It's an old man dressed in grey. She fights him briefly and quickly discovers she is no match for him. The old man reminds her of the silver ball she got from Hu Boling, which he calls Ask the Heart. He wants it back because he says it belongs to him, and he says he has been following her this whole time, from Heavenly Fragrance Valley to Myriad Flower Palace. Gu Hanxiang says he has to wait until she has completed her revenge. The old man is mad, but he leaves anyway.

Gu Hanxiang and her party go to see Hidden Hand at Black Wind Gorge in Liangshan in Lu. They fight their way in and then they meet Hidden Hand. Gu Hanxiang tells him she wants the drug, and everyone starts fighting, even though it seemed that he was willing to give it to her before. They fight and fight until Gu Hanxiang's side kills several of Hidden Hand's men.

Hidden Hand praises Gu Hanxiang's martial arts, but she says she is just a walking corpse living to fulfill a purpose, so there is no need to talk of her ability. Hidden Hand asks if she thinks her and her people are enough to make it out of the valley alive. Mai Xiaoming then challenges Hidden Hand to a one-on-one fight to the death.

There is more fighting, and then it comes down to Gu Hanxiang and Hidden Hand. Earlier in the previous chapter she drank some tea, and this was actually poisoned. Hidden Hand tells her this, but Gu Hanxiang is not bothered. She breathes out the fumes, then explains that she held it inside and did not let the poison penetrate her body. Hidden hand is impressed, so he gives her two bottles of pills and lets her leave.

The first bottle is the drug she wants to control others, the second bottle has a pill to cure her in case there is still some of that poison from the tea inside her.

They all leave, and Gu Hanxiang goes by herself to the top of a mountain to recuperate her energy. Then they all go back to Black Wind Gorge.

A big fight happens, and they fall into traps. The result is Huo Yuanjia and the Two Freaks of Lingnan are captured by Hidden Hand, Zhong Yihao is injured, and Mai Xiaoming is poisoned, leaving Gu Hanxiang to fight on her own. Suddenly the old man who wants that metal ball shows up, holding Hidden Hand, who he has captured. He tells Gu Hanxiang that the pills Hidden Hand gave her are fake, and he has the real ones. He will give them over if she gives him the metal ball. Gu Hanxiang asks him why he would do a fair trade since his martial arts is so much stronger than hers. This makes him mad and he attacks her. Gu Hanxiang is stuck in a desperate situation, but she has no choice but to fight, so she strikes at him with the sword she picked up from Mai Xiaoming.

Gu Hanxiang and the nameless old man fight some more, then Zhang Jing’an strolls in and gets in the fight. Gu Hanxiang stabs him in the stomach, and he goes down, but he is not killed. They fight until Hidden Hand gets up and runs away; the old man had dropped him before so he could fight Gu Hanxiang.

After he runs away the old man goes after him because he needs to get Hidden Hand back so Gu Hanxiang can use him, then she will give over the metal ball. She tells the old man to leave behind the real intoxication drug that will let her control people, and the old man gives it to her, then leaves to go catch Hidden Hand.

Gu Hanxiang puts things in order, waking up her fallen helpers, getting the servants there to give Mai Xiaoming an antidote for the poison he was infected with. Gu Hanxiang has a servant prepare wine to make the intoxication drug drink, and she presses Zhang Jing'an's pressure point after waking him up to freeze him so that he can't move. Gu Hanxiang then forces him to drink the drug, which knocks him out. Then they all leave for Lost Way Valley because Zhang Jing'an had told her earlier that Feng Qiu was already there waiting for her.

On the way they stop in town and Gu Hanxiang sees some people at a distance. She has one of the Lingnan Freaks check it out while the rest go to the inn to eat.

The Freak comes back and tells Gu Hanxiang it is Green and White Sun Daoists, so Gu Hanxiang and the rest go and chase them down. Outside the city they find them, and they fight.

Gu Hanxiang makes it clear she must kill them to avenge her husband. Green Sun says Wudang and Shaolin have set a rule that no one is allowed to flight any of Hu Boling's family, but Gu Hanxiang doesn't care about that. She says she wants to kill everyone in the eldest generation of Wudang and Shaolin. She does not see any distinction between “light” and “dark” paths, good and evil; she sees them all as enemies.

Shi Yin and Fan Yukun are also there. Shi Yin also wants to kill the Wulin people for revenge for his father. Shi Yin is one of the Black Demons, and he tells the story of the incident several years ago when fourteen wulin people were killed. He was there personally, and Gu Hanxiang asks him if Wan Xiaoguang was there, but Shi Yin says he has never met Wan Xiaoguang, and actually wants to thank him for saving his father so long ago. But Gu Hanxiang tells him he is dead, so Shi Yin tells her the other two people who were with him on that day were Long Xingfeng and Zhu Wuchen, two disciples of the White Demons.

The fight resumes, and Gu Hanxiang is about to kill White Sun when Fan Yukun blurts out that it was himself who killed Hu Boling, and then White Sun grabs him, and they all flee. Gu Hanxiang's people give chase and slaughter all the henchmen the people had brought with them. Fan Yukun is surrounded and his arms are broken. White Sun sees this and goes to save him, getting away from Mai Xiaoming to jump in and try to save Fan Yukun...

They fight, and in the end White Sun and Fan Yukun are seriously injured. Mai Xiaoming touches a certain pressure point on each of them which makes it so they will die within 100 days unless someone opens the pressure point, and no one else knows how to do that.

Gu Hanxiang decides to take the two back to Lost Way Valley, and she wants to get there quick because Feng Qiu is waiting on her.

On the way they meet Tianjue Dashi, a Shaolin monk and one of the three greats. He offers to exchange a broken dagger for Fan Yukun, but Gu Hanxiang refuses because he will not tell her what the dagger has to do with her quest for revenge. Then Tianjue Dashi leaves.

The nameless old man shows up and there is another fight. He is surrounded and almost killed when Gu Hanxiang stops the fight. She wants to find a way to use him to help her complete her revenge.

Some people from Emei and Kunlun show up wanting to save Fan Yukun and kill Shi Yin. Mai Xiaoming fights one of the Kunlun guys, but Gu Hanxiang thinks it is taking too long since she wants to get back to Lost Way Valley, so she decides to fight a nun from Emei. During these fights, Hidden Hand sneaks into the carts carrying White Sun and Fan Yukun.

Gu Hanxiang and the nun fight.

In the end, Hidden Hand escapes out of the back of the cart, and Tianjue Dashi comes back and gives Gu Hanxiang the dagger in exchange for Fan Yukun; she releases the pressure point on him so he won't die. The nameless man comes back as well but leaves again. Everyone fights until Tianjue Dashi says they should stop, and then everyone disperses. Gu Hanxiang and company go back to Lost Way Valley.

They have a banquet with Feng Qiu, but before the banquet Gu Hanxiang ingests an antidote and tells her servant to prepare some poison wine.

At the banquet they get to talking about the metal ball, and Feng Qiu tells them about the Heavenly Pool Old Freak, who used to have the metal ball, and about Sanmiao Shusheng, who made the ball, and who used to be a peerless martial artist, but has gone into hiding and usually only comes out every ten years, though it has been twenty to thirty years since his last appearance. The metal ball is impervious to any sword or sabre; none can break it.

Zhong Yihao and Feng Qiu get into a fight, and then Feng Qiu realizes he has been tricked, as the wine he drank with Gu Hanxiang was poisoned, so he tries to escape. But eventually the poison begins to work, and he is captured after falling to the ground with a splitting headache. He was made complacent to the dangers of a trap by Gu Hanxiang's charm and good looks.

Later, she presses Feng Qiu's pressure points to freeze him, and has the intoxication drug prepared. She asks him more about the metal ball, and he tells her about the Cold Rhino Knife which people want to find, because that is apparently the way to get into the ball. Gu Hanxiang wonders who has the other half of the knife, which is broken and which she has half of. She also figures out that the nameless old man is Heavenly Pool Old Freak, named Pang Shichong.

She makes Feng Qiu drink the drug, and then she goes off to Fan Yukun's place. While casing the place, she sees Poison Fire Cheng Quan and Hidden Hand there. Hidden Hand is warning Cheng Quan to be on his guard because Gu Hanxiang is even prettier and vicious and dangerous than the rumors say.

Gold Sun is there, and he starts fighting Poison Fire Cheng Quan. A lot of fights occur, and it's really long and drawn out. It ends up with Tianjue Dashi giving Gu Hanxiang the Cold Rhino knife, and everyone is shocked that he would give it to her, but he says Tianming already knew that the one who could obtain Sanmiao's treasure must be a good-hearted person.

A lot of them end up ganging up on Pang Shichong who almost is killed, but then he gets away and flees. But he has injured Cheng Quan. When Pang Shichong runs away, Gu Hanxiang, Chen Quan, and Hidden Hand run off to the southeast to go find the treasure.

Pang Shichong goes after them and catches up to them and there is some more fighting. Cheng Quan falls down and spits blood; looks like he's dead but it is not clear. Hidden Hand makes Gu Hanxiang angry with a comment and she tells him to leave, and he does in order to avoid raising her wrath more because her temperament has become quite fierce. So that leaves only Pang Shichong and Gu Hanxiang.

They start to talk, and he says he wants to come with her, that he will give her the treasure, he just wants to see Sanmiao (or the treasure?) because he has been searching for him (it?) half his life. Gu Hanxiang takes out a red pill and breaks it in half. She swallows one half and asks Pang Shichong to swallow the other one. He is suspicious of her. She says it is a poison made by Tong Gongchang and that if you take it you can't get blood on your body. She says after they find the treasure she will give him the antidote (even though earlier she said there was no antidote). He swallows it after she asks him if he is a friend or a foe; she made him swallow it as a prerequisite for coming along with her.

She takes out the metal ball and the knife and she uses the knife to cut open the metal ball. Inside is a yellowing piece of silk. She unrolls it and sees a painting of a rock. She and Pang Shichong both recognize it as a rock at Myriad Flower Palace, so they decide to go back there.

Pang Shichong rips up the silk and they go to Myriad Flower Palace. The big weird bird comes down and she tells it to report to Bao Jiufeng that she is here. They go on toward the palace, Gu Hanxiang feeling a sense of being back home.

Gu Hanxiang, Feng Qiu, and Pang Shichong find the rock from the painting. There is a small cave opening in the rock, and when they look inside they can see an illustration of a man. Pang Shichong makes a bet with Gu Hanxiang: she must sit in the cave hole for ten days and try to find the door; if she cannot, he will drink the intoxication drug himself.

They want to bust up the rock to maybe find a hidden door. Wu Du, Shui Han, Cheng Quan (who was not dead after all), and Hidden Hand all show up. There is some intermittent fighting between them. Cheng Quan uses his exploding balls to blast a hole in the rock. It reveals a dark-colored slab of rock which appears to be a door, but they need to break through it.

Gu Hanxiang takes out some pills and asks everyone to take one. She says it will increase their strength, and then they can bust open the door. But everyone is suspicious of being tricked, so no one is willing to take it. Finally Pang Shichong takes one; he is going to die anyway unless Gu Hanxiang gives him the antidote for the poison he took earlier. Gu Hanxiang takes three herself, then gives the other three to Feng Qiu.

It has been reported that Wudang, Shaolin, Kunlun, and Emei are all gathering at the foot of the mountain with the intention of catching Gu Hanxiang. Gu Hanxiang suggests they all go down and fight it out with them first, because if they use their energy now to bust open the door, they won't have any left to fight them with. Everyone knows this makes some sense, yet they are wary of going along with her plan because they know she is crafty.

Eventually, Cheng Quan uses his exploding balls to bust open the door. It works, and Gu Hanxiang goes inside, but the rocks start to collapse, and everyone starts fighting, and in the end she is trapped inside when the rocks fall and seal off the opening. Feng Qiu beings digging her out, and some servants, along with Bao Jiufeng, come along to help remove the rocks as well. The Twin Heroes of Jiangnan and the other Greenwood boss show up also, just before the door is blasted open.

The other disciples of Feng Qiu show up, and they see Feng Qiu in his state, and they are unhappy. The rocks get removed from the cave opening and they see that Gu Hanxiang is not there, but they find that the cave leads further in.

Before that, Wu Du kills the Greenwood boss and seventeen or eighteen of his men, all because he saw the boss crying over the supposed death of Gu Hanxiang.

Everyone is eager to get to the treasure, so they all rush in. When they get in there, there is a hole, and several of them jump down, including Tianming Dashi, and when they are down there, one of Feng Qiu's students, Fan Tianlang, is killed with a single strike from Pang Shichong.

They come to a room with writing on it, but they cannot open the door. The reason is because Gu Hanxiang has already gone in there, and when she closed the door, some stone locks were set in place, so they can't open it. But they start trying to open it by banging on it, supposedly with an axe.

Gu Hanxiang wanders around in the room and sees the last will and testament, so to speak, of Sanmiao. It says that whoever studies the secret arts must be of a good heart and must not carry any shame with them. Gu Hanxiang is worried that she won't meet the requirements.

She finds two rooms, one marked Cleansing Heart Room, the other War and Literary Room. She goes in the latter. She sees a lot of books, but none that have anything to do with martial arts. She finds another big door and goes in, and inside is Sanmiao Shusheng.

He is young-looking even though he is 160 years old. He asks her about herself, and she breaks down and tells him her whole story. Afterward, he tells her to go in the other room and eat some special bamboo and drink from the spring water, and then he will teach her martial arts. Gu Hanxiang is elated.

Before he teaches her, starting with neigong, then palm strikes, he tells her that after he teaches her she can only kill four people for the rest of her life. No matter how much enmity gets built up, she cannot kill anyone else. She agrees, and he starts teaching her martial arts.

She is surprised to find that Sanmiao is aging rapidly because he got off of his black seat. She brings him food and water, which seems to touch him, but it won't help reverse the aging. After all, he is already old. The banging on the stone door is getting louder as those outside have almost already burst through. In total it will be about twenty days before this whole scene is through.

Sanmiao teaches her nine palm strikes, and before the neigong training he gave her a special pill that will help her learn faster. She just has time to learn all the strikes when Sanmiao's condition gets worse, and he dies. Before he dies, he gives her a jade box and tells her not to let it fall into evil hands, and he reminds her of her promise to only kill four people.

They try to break open the door to the chamber Gu Hanxiang is in, but she doesn't want them to break through because she is worried they will steal Sanmiao's precious books and other objects, so she has Tianming and the others help her lift the door up so she can get through.

She does, and she is told that Gan Lin, one of Feng Qiu's disciples, has taken Ling'er. She climbs up out of the cave, along with everyone else, and she takes Cheng Quan's explosive balls and other hidden weapons and throws them down the hole, exploding them and collapsing the entrance to the cave.

They make their way to an area where all the Wulin and Greenwood people are lined up, waiting. Basically everyone is there. She sees Gan Lin with Ling'er, and in order to calm the situation, she releases Feng Qiu and Zhang Jing'an from the intoxication drug. Pang Shichong comes and gets Ling'er away from Gan Lin. It turns out that Pan Shichong is Ling'er's grandfather.

Then the two sides talk about what should happen. Gu Hanxiang asks Tianchan Dashi if the Wulin and Greenwood can co-exist, and in a roundabout way, Tianchan says that they can't. Gu Hanxiang says all the people who pretend to be good should die, meaning the Wulin people. Purple Sun says he does not consider himself to be in that group, but Huo Yuanjia says that if he really feels Hu Boling was a hero, then he should cut his own throat in apology to Gu Hanxiang. Wan Yingxia also asks him why he killed her father. Purple Sun basically says it was all a misunderstanding.

The Greenwood people begin chanting that they want to avenge Hu Boling. Eventually Gu Hanxiang lets some of her people start fighting. She sends each one after Purple Sun, but someone else keeps stepping in to fight for him, until Purple Sun is finally forced to fight.

A big melee ensues, and both sides suffer heavy casualties. The Lost Way Valley group comes away with only injuries, but Shui Han, Wu Du, and the heads of Kunlun and Emei are all killed, as well as countless subordinates from both sides. Gu Hanxiang injures Tianming in order to get to Purple Sun, as Tianming put himself in the way trying to stop this big calamity from happening, but Gu Hanxiang is too powerful to be stopped. One strike from her does heavy or fatal damage. In the end, she kills Purple Sun with a strike to his vitals, sending him flying toward Wan Yingxia, who cuts him in half. Gu Hanxiang also kills White Sun, and she goes to attack Gold Sun, but Tianming attacks her from behind. She doesn't realize who is attacking her from behind until it is too late, and she hits Tianming, killing him. But in the time she was distracted, Tianchan strikes her with a staff, sending her down, and as she is going down, Gold Sun stabs her in the chest with his sword. Gold Sun is immediately jumped by the Lost Way group and cut into three pieces.

As she is laying there, bleeding heavily, Gu Hanxiang tells Pang Shichong she wants him to bury her body, that no one else is to touch her. He tells her not to worry. Hidden Hand tells Gu Hanxiang that from this day on, he is going to go live in seclusion again, and he will no longer bother anyone from Lost Way Valley or Myriad Flower Palace.

Gu Hanxiang asks Pang Shichong how many people she killed. He says Purple Sun, White Sun, and Tianming Dashi. She says that they mistakenly killed Hu Boling, and she mistakenly killed him (Tianming). She says that since Fan Yukun is not there, she will have to count herself as the fourth. Then she pushes the sword in her chest in deeper, forcefully, killing herself.

She is described as a heavenly fragrant whirlwind, which came quickly and left just as quickly, leaving behind only memories and her heavenly scent (memories). One of the Shaolin disciples, who has been incanting some Buddhist words for a while now, as if he is sending the dead off to the netherworld, in the middle of his chanting begins to cry.

THE END