On a desperate night near Luopo (落魄) Hill, a broken cultivator named Chen Ping'an (陈平安) refuses to let go of a sword embryo called Little Fengdu (酆都). The embryo, a gift from the Old Scholar via Wen Sheng (文圣), despises its owner. It wants to flee to Cao Jun (曹峻), a powerful eighth- or ninth-level sword cultivator. Chen Ping'an's Longevity Bridge is shattered—worthless in the embryo's eyes. But he clings on, not out of greed, but because this blade is his. That is his truth, unshakable. Meanwhile, the Pat-on-the-Shoulder Emperor stops Chen Nuanshu (陈暖树) from interfering, claiming it would ruin everything. What follows is a fiery tug-of-war that pushes Chen Ping'an to the edge of death—and into the unexpected door of Martial Arts Level Three.
Not Harm, but Help
The Pat-on-the-Shoulder Emperor sees it clearly. When Chen Nuanshu, a water-snake and fire-python hybrid, wants to jump in and save Chen Ping'an, the emperor blocks her path. He knows that Little Fengdu's sword energy could easily tear her apart. Both he and Chen Nuanshu fear sword cultivators above all else—the moment he hears Cao Jun's level, he nearly freezes in terror and longs to flee back to Luopo Hill. Blocking her is not cruelty; it is protection.
If Chen Nuanshu had intervened, she would have been badly wounded or worse. The emperor understands that her involvement would turn Chen Ping'an's desperate struggle into a disaster. And he is right. The young man's good fortune—his chance to touch the third martial threshold—depends on facing the embryo alone. No one else can suffer that heat, that relentless pull. The emperor's decision, though harsh, clears the path for a miracle.
Later, when Chen Ping'an collapses into a coma, it becomes clear that the emperor never intended to harm him. On the contrary, he respects the young man's grit. He could have stolen Chen Ping'an's snake-gallstone (a valuable object), but he does not. Taking advantage of a helpless person is beneath him. In his own snake-hearted way, he follows the code of Jianghu honor.
Fire Forges a Breakthrough
Chen Ping'an barely holds on. The sword embryo releases searing heat, blazes across the night, and tries every trick to break free. Yet his fingers do not loosen. He is only at Martial Arts Level Two, but his will is forged from something deeper. The embryo could kill him easily—it knows that—but it cannot. The blade comes from the Mountain God of Sui (穗), passed through Wen Sheng's hands. Slaying its owner is a line it will not cross.
The violent struggle does something unexpected. Little Fengdu's wild collisions slam against the barriers inside Chen Ping'an's body. A human cultivator has eighteen energy chambers. He is stuck at the sixth chamber, and the gap between the sixth and the seventh is supposed to be a massive cliff. But after that night of fire and pain, that cliff begins to crack. He feels the bottleneck loosening—something that would have taken three to five years of quiet meditation.
Wei Po (魏檗) later confirms it: the embryo's reckless charge did Chen Ping'an a favor. His coma was deep, but when he wakes, he has touched the threshold of Martial Arts Level Three. The very obstacle that should have crushed him became his hammer. The sixth and seventh chambers are no longer unreachable. He earned this breakthrough not through peace, but through a war with a blade that despised him.
Honor Among Snakes
Let us return to the Pat-on-the-Shoulder Emperor. He is a water-snake spirit, not a hero. He admits that he covets Chen Ping'an's snake-gallstone. But he draws a line: he will never strike when someone is down. In the brutal world of Sword of Coming (剑来), where everyone claws for power, this small restraint is remarkable. He watches the entire fight without lifting a finger to steal or sabotage.
When Chen Ping'an finally collapses, the emperor does not approach. He does not whisper lies or twist the situation. Instead, he respects the outcome. The young man kept what was his, and the emperor's own code—shaped by years of cunning survival—tells him to walk away. He knows that taking the gallstone now would brand him a coward, not a victor. And in his world, reputation matters.
So the emperor leaves Chen Ping'an to wake up alone, bruised but elevated. He has not harmed the boy; he has, in his strange way, guarded him. The sword embryo stays too—not out of love, but because Chen Ping'an refused to release it. And that refusal, that stubborn truth, is what opens the door to Level Three. Sometimes a snake's honor is the only shield a broken man needs.
