Chapter Summaries

Zhou Yi humiliated Ji Yue, then used evidence from Lu Wei to expose the Pacification Office’s scheme to seize more than a million mu of land, prompting Emperor Zhengtong to order a joint trial. At the Heavenly Prison, Zhou Yi visited the tortured Ji Yue and arranged a promotion for his brother Zhou Xiong.

• Zhou Yi seized Ji Yue with the Dragon Grasping Skill, forced him to order the arrest of the Jiangning Thousand-Household Officer, and gave him three days to deliver the officer’s head.
• After the Pacification Office exposed corruption within the Surveillance Bureau, Zhou Yi punished implicated subordinates and six foster sons, while Ji Yue used their deaths to restore his reputation.
• Emperor Zhengtong praised the Surveillance Bureau’s work on the land survey, then received Zhou Yi’s testimonies implicating the Pacification Office in provoking protests and seizing commoners’ land.
• Zhou Yi revealed that Lu Wei had supplied the testimonies and that they had been verified; Emperor Zhengtong ordered a joint trial and the execution of everyone implicated.
• At the Heavenly Prison, Zhou Yi taunted the tortured Ji Yue and told Zhou Xiong to take a manager’s title at the Surveillance Bureau and change into red robes.

Zhou Yi investigated corruption in the Surveillance Bureau and prepared to travel north after learning that the northern frontier had fallen into disorder. At home, he adopted Zhou Ping'an, a survivor of the destroyed Tang Family, and asked him how the family had been wiped out.

• Zhou Yi named the child his father had taken in Zhou Ping'an and killed Ji Yue with a hidden attack.
• After the emperor ordered Zhou Yi to investigate northern refugees, Zhou Yi discovered that a northern power had bribed his agents and killed the traitor who accepted silver from King Who Pacifies the North.
• Zhou Yi ordered the Surveillance Bureau to gather its men and prepare to go north in three days.
• At the Zhou Residence, Zhou Yi recognized that Zhou Ping'an had noble origins and learned that he was Tang Yun, a survivor of the Xuanfu Tang Family.
• Zhou Ping'an formally became Zhou Yi's adopted son, and Zhou Yi asked him how the Tang Family had been destroyed.

After revealing how the King Who Pacifies the North abducted and massacred people, Zhou Ping'an sought Zhou Yi’s help in taking revenge, but Zhou Yi chose to stay out of the north and keep the news from the court for now. An assassin poisoned Zhou Yi, and after he survived and learned the attacker acted alone, he ordered the Sky Sword Sect punished.

• Zhou Ping'an told Zhou Yi that the King Who Pacifies the North forced people north, and that the Tang family was massacred after refusing to help recruit settlers.
• Zhou Yi warned the Zhou family to keep the revelation secret, promised Zhou Ping'an no direct revenge assistance, and advised him to contact surviving Tang family members.
• A masked assassin entered Zhou Yi’s room and attacked him with poisoned needles and blades, but Zhou Yi stopped him and captured him before collapsing from the poison.
• Zhou Yi told Zhou Ping'an he would use the poisoning as an excuse to avoid going north and would delay reporting the frontier crisis to the court.
• Imperial Physician Liu identified the poison as Manjusaka Poison, while Zhou Yi and Eunuch Yuan waited for the Surveillance Bureau’s investigation.
• Lin Fu reported that the assassin was a Sky Sword Sect disciple acting on his own, and Zhou Yi ordered the sect executed.

After feigning serious injuries, Zhou Yi ordered the Surveillance Bureau to target the Sky Sword Sect while Emperor Zhengtong uncovered his deception and urged him to act. Zhou Yi devised a plan to brand the sect as demonic and set out with a force of palace and Bureau masters to destroy it.

• Eunuch Yuan reported Zhou Yi's supposed injuries to Emperor Zhengtong, who sent him imperial medicine and authorized him to act according to circumstances.
• Emperor Zhengtong learned from Eunuch Wei that Zhou Yi had faked his injuries, discussed the northern frontier and the danger of Zhou Yi's ambition, then ordered him to deal with martial sects and reclaim their lands.
• After more than a month of recovery, Zhou Yi reviewed the Sky Sword Sect's records and ordered its occupation of Kunshan framed as treason.
• Assistant Director Wen proposed portraying the Sky Sword Sect as a demonic sect by assigning nearby criminals to it, and Zhou Yi approved the plan.
• Zhou Yi gathered the Eighteen Foster Sons and other masters, mounted Ebony Cloud Treading Snow, and led the expedition against the Sky Sword Sect.

Zhou Yi arrived in Jiajing Prefecture, pressured its officials into supplying five thousand soldiers, and led them to surround the Sky Sword Sect. As the attack began, he explained his plan to enforce taxes on sect land and helped Prefect Zeng devise a way to expose concealed farmland, leaving the campaign against the sect underway.

• Zhou Yi entered Jiajing Prefecture with the Black Riders and offered Assistant Director Wen a chance to establish a family line through an adopted son.
• Prefect Zeng welcomed Zhou Yi, and Zhou Yi confronted the officials over their ties to the Mao Family before ordering Prefect Zeng to gather five thousand fighting men.
• Prefect Zeng assembled the soldiers, and Zhou Yi led them to Sky Sword Mountain to surround the Sky Sword Sect.
• Youji Xie took command and sent the five formations charging toward the sect as Zhou Yi watched.
• Zhou Yi told Prefect Zeng he was enforcing taxes on sect land and revealed that rival sects could report tax resisters in exchange for equivalent tax exemptions.
• Zhou Yi advised Prefect Zeng to reward reports of concealed farmland with ownership of the land, and Prefect Zeng planned to submit the proposal to Emperor Zhengtong.

The Sky Sword Sect fought Youji Xie’s imperial army and was exterminated after Eunuch Wen killed its master. Sword God Nameless confronted Zhou Yi over the fabricated assassination plot, then revealed that his sword art required him to wipe out his own nine clans as his power surged.

• The Sky Sword Sect charged the imperial soldiers, but Youji Xie’s archers and circular formations inflicted heavy casualties.
• Eunuch Wen killed the Sky Sword Sect master with his Demonic Silver Hand, and the soldiers killed or captured the remaining disciples.
• Zhou Yi praised Youji Xie’s command before Nameless arrived and accused Zhou Yi of engineering Xiao Yun’s assassination attempt to justify exterminating the Sky Sword Sect.
• Nameless identified himself as the Sword God and killed several Eastern Depot agents with his sword, but Zhou Yi ordered Youji Xie’s soldiers to surround him.
• Nameless struck Zhou Yi’s protective qi barrier and revealed that the Annihilation Sword Art required him to personally wipe out all nine clans to reach great mastery.

Zhou Yi defeated Nameless by exhausting him with the Eastern Depot agents and military formations, then claimed credit for his death and obtained the Emotionless Sword Art. As Zhou Yi studied the manual, he discovered how the art’s original pursuit of Innate qi had evolved into the brutal practice of severing all emotion.

• Nameless's Emotionless Sword Art shattered Zhou Yi's first barrier, but Zhou Yi blocked the attack with Ninefold True Aegis and struck back in his golden giant form.
• Nameless tried to escape using the Sky Sword Art, while Youji Xie and the Eastern Depot agents surrounded him and wore down his true qi.
• Nameless unleashed hundreds of streams of Sword Qi, killing more than a hundred agents, before Zhou Guan cut off his head and Zhou Yi rewarded him with a path to promotion.
• Zhou Yi told Zhou Guan that becoming a Supervisory Eunuch required purification, and Zhou Guan agreed to enter the purification chamber.
• Assistant Director Wen found a brocade manual on Nameless's corpse, and Zhou Yi recognized it as the Annihilation Sword Art.
• Zhou Yi read how Pure Serenity discovered innate qi near the end of his life and how later practitioners transformed the Emotionless Sword Art into a method of annihilating emotion.

Zhou Yi consolidated his power after destroying the Sky Sword Sect, then used threats and military preparations to pressure martial sects across the realm. The chapter ended with him leading a vast force toward King Kong Temple for a Dharma debate that could turn into an attack.

• Zhou Yi learned that Nameless's sword art required alternating between emotional attachment and killing one's loved ones, confiscated the Sky Sword Sect, and ordered Nameless's head sent throughout the realm.
• Zhou Yi rewarded Youji Xie and his soldiers, then expanded the army beyond its authorized ten thousand troops while Xie trained them into an elite force.
• Zhou Yi announced an impending attack on Azure Firmament Temple, but changed the target to the Primal Origin Sect after Azure Firmament Temple sealed its gates.
• Zhou Yi arranged a Dharma debate with Abbot Fang Zheng of King Kong Temple and warned that he would burn the temple if the monks refused to cooperate.
• Zhou Yi marched toward King Kong Temple with five hundred Eastern Depot agents, ten thousand elite soldiers, and twenty thousand auxiliary troops.

Zhou Yi negotiated with King Kong Temple and the Buddhist and Daoist sects, then used their support to enforce taxes on martial sects while Emperor Zhengtong prepared new policies. The emperor ordered Zhou Yi back to the capital as he moved to address troubles within the palace, trusting that Zhou Yi would not side with the empress.

• Fang Zheng welcomed Zhou Yi’s army to King Kong Temple, where Zhou Yi negotiated tax exemptions for Buddhist and Daoist farmland in exchange for their support of the court’s new policies.
• Zhou Yi learned from Fang Zheng that the Three Yang Sect was a branch of the White Lotus Sect and suspected that a White Lotus remnant was behind the threat in the inner palace.
• Zhou Yi and the Buddhist and Daoist sects reached an agreement, and Vice Minister Zeng submitted a memorial to limit their tax-exempt farmland.
• The Surveillance Bureau destroyed twelve tax-defying martial sects, and Emperor Zhengtong praised Zhou Yi’s work before ordering him to return to the capital.
• Eunuch Wei warned Emperor Zhengtong about Zhou Yi’s growing influence, but the emperor explained that he trusted Zhou Yi and would address palace affairs without fearing his involvement.

Zhou Yi returned to the capital, tightened his control of the Eastern Depot, and won promotion to Chief Superintendent of the Eunuch Bureau. He also ordered investigations into Feng Ze and the King Who Pacifies the West’s connections, while beginning a purge of the Empress’s associates.

• Zhou Yi returned to the capital, where his foster sons and Eastern Depot officials welcomed him and reported that impeachments against the bureau had increased.
• Zhou Yi ordered Xiao Yinzi to kill guards who blocked his procession, then suspected that the drunken Feng Ze was concealing his martial ability and ordered Xiao Zhongzi to investigate the prince’s manor’s ties to the Eastern Depot and watch Feng Ze closely.
• Zhou Yi arranged Governor Zhu’s downfall, ordering planted evidence, an assassination, and surveillance of the Grand Canal Gang while offering rewards to the sect that killed Zhu.
• Emperor Zhengtong promoted Zhou Yi to Chief Superintendent of the Eunuch Bureau after Zhou reported the destruction of seventy-two martial world sects and the confiscation of their wealth.
• After meeting Linglong, Zhou Yi ordered Xiao Yinzi to investigate her family and doubled the Jiangning Su Family’s palace cloth procurement quantity and prices.

Zhou Yi investigated the Jiangning Su Family’s connection to the eldest prince and concluded that its mysterious live-in son-in-law was signaling a willingness to cooperate. As court turmoil grew and the Su Family supplied cheap ice to the palace, Zhou Yi arranged a favor for the man’s brother-in-law, then visited the dying Old Lu to ask whether his own rise to power meant decline was approaching.

• Zhou Yi ordered Xiao Yinzi to investigate the Su Family’s live-in son-in-law after learning he had helped the family obtain tribute-cloth quotas through the eldest prince.
• Feng Ze returned to the King Who Pacifies the West’s residence in a drunken disguise, then admitted that he still intended to pursue great deeds despite the danger to his family.
• Court officials began impeaching one another, and the Su Family won the palace’s ice-tribute contract at a price far below cost.
• After hearing how the live-in son-in-law had used the eldest prince’s calling card only when the Su Family faced bankruptcy, Zhou Yi inferred that he knew about the Eastern Depot’s surveillance and wanted to signal cooperation.
• Zhou Yi ordered Xiao Yinzi to help the man’s brother-in-law pass the spring examinations and obtain a capital post, then visited Old Lu in the Cold Palace.
• Zhou Yi asked Old Lu whether his extraordinary rise as Chief Superintendent and head of the Eastern Depot meant that he was beginning to decline.

Zhou Yi worried that his rise to Chief Superintendent had left him with no way to escape the Emperor’s future purge, while Old Lu secretly urged him toward rebellion in exchange for a soul-refining art. The Emperor then moved against Minister Lin, and Zhou Yi prepared the Eastern Depot to arrest him.

• Zhou Yi asked Old Lu for advice about his fate, and Old Lu warned that his power would eventually bring a reckoning with the Emperor.
• Old Lu secretly met a Three Yang Sect monk, accepted the complete Three Yang Soul-Refining Art, and agreed to try refining himself into a vengeful ghost.
• Zhou Yi investigated Old Lu’s cryptic remark about Chinese prickly ash, but Bao Jixiang confirmed that the ingredient was not part of his seafood congee recipe.
• Xiao Yinzi reported that the Emperor had removed Minister Lin from office and ordered an investigation into the Ministry of Appointments’ sale of offices.
• Three days later, Eunuch Yuan delivered an order for Zhou Yi to arrest Lin Zhengben, and Zhou Yi prepared to use the Eastern Depot’s methods to obtain a confession.

Zhou Yi investigated Lin Zhengben’s alleged corruption, learned Emperor Zhengtong planned to tax the gentry, and weighed his loyalties after meeting the Empress. He returned to the Cold Palace and found Old Lu brutally murdered.

• Zhou Yi planted three million taels of silver and fabricated evidence in the Lin Residence, then arrested Lin Zhengben and his lineage.
• Lin Zhengben told Zhou Yi that Emperor Zhengtong planned to abolish scholars’ tax exemptions and require the gentry to pay grain taxes and perform labor.
• Zhou Yi questioned palace eunuchs about the Emperor’s intentions, rewarded Xiao Pingzi for reporting the Emperor’s dream, and considered the reforms an opportunity.
• Linglong summoned Zhou Yi to the Palace of Earthly Tranquility, where the Empress threatened him and reminded him of Consort Cui’s miscarriage.
• Zhou Yi recognized the Sichuan pepper fragrance as a warning that the Empress had manipulated what he had heard about Old Lu, then found Old Lu’s mutilated corpse in the Cold Palace.

Zhou Yi buried Old Lu with great honors, then received Emperor Zhengtong’s order to guard the palace and learned that the emperor had secretly left the capital while the Capital Garrison came under the Feng Family’s command. He rejected the King Who Pacifies the West’s invitation to exploit the looming palace crisis, but weighed whether to report the prince’s rebellious designs to preserve the balance of power.

• Zhou Yi arranged an elaborate funeral for Old Lu at Enji Temple and promoted Little Cui, renaming him Little Lu and assigning him to the Hall of Mental Cultivation.
• Eunuch Wei paid respects at Old Lu’s grave and conveyed Emperor Zhengtong’s decree for Zhou Yi to guard the palace precincts.
• Zhou Yi suspected that Emperor Zhengtong had left the palace to avoid the coming coup and chose not to question the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs.
• Xiao Zhongzi brought in Wu Ning, who admitted serving the King Who Pacifies the West and revealed that the emperor was absent and the Capital Garrison was under the Feng Family’s command.
• Zhou Yi rejected Wu Ning’s suggestion to blame the Empress and seize power, but considered whether to report the King Who Pacifies the West’s intentions to the emperor.

King Who Pacifies the West and Feng Ze negotiated with Benxin, an envoy of King Who Pacifies the North, and prepared to join forces with the Empress against Emperor Zhengtong. As Zhou Yi tightened palace security and Zhou Ping'an uncovered signs of a plot against the tax reforms, they realized the Feng Family would rebel whether Zhou Yi joined them or not.

• Feng Ze persuaded King Who Pacifies the West to risk rebellion and brought Benxin to negotiate King Who Pacifies the North's support in exchange for authority over the three northern frontier prefectures.
• King Who Pacifies the West and Benxin bargained over the terms, and Benxin left with the West King's authorization to report back to King Who Pacifies the North.
• Zhou Yi deployed eunuchs across the palace to watch the Empress, while Emperor Zhengtong withdrew from court and the government descended into factional disorder.
• The Empress sealed the Palace of Earthly Tranquility against deliveries, and Zhou Yi rejected a direct assault, insisting she could only be killed suddenly or executed for treason.
• Zhou Ping'an told Zhou Yi that a Wang family son had heard a promise to stop the tax reforms and that farmland prices had risen by over thirty percent.
• Zhou Yi connected the signs to the Feng Family's earlier approach, and Zhou Ping'an concluded that the Feng Family would rebel regardless of Zhou Yi's decision.

Zhou Yi tried to seize control of the palace amid the rebellion, but the Empress and two Innate Grandmasters confronted him. He escaped through a hidden tunnel and returned to the dormitory where he had once lived, where he confronted a young eunuch who resembled him.

• Zhou Ping'an urged Zhou Yi to prepare for defeat by sending the Zhou Lineage out of the capital and locating Emperor Zhengtong, and Zhou Yi gave him a jade pendant to arrange their escape to Jiangnan.
• Zhou Yi killed Xiao Zongzi for embezzling the Northern Frontier spies' salaries, then ordered eunuchs to surround the Palace of Earthly Tranquility after the Empress rejected his overture.
• Zhou Yi set fire to the palace and fought the Empress, but Azure Yang and Benxin arrived and joined the battle against him.
• Zhou Yi feigned an attack on the Empress, then fled through the Directorate of Imperial Supplies and escaped via a hidden tunnel that Qingyang found blocked.
• Zhou Yi reached Bing Third Dorm and told a young eunuch who resembled him that he needed to borrow something from him.

Zhou Yi assumed Li Dasha’s identity as Xiao Shanzi while the court blamed him for Emperor Zhengtong’s death and enthroned Zhao Chen as the mentally afflicted Emperor Longqing under the Empress Dowager’s regency. In Jiangning, Zhao Mu recruited Tang Mingyuan’s help with the hand cannon and warned him that the Eastern Depot was moving against the Su family.

• Zhou Yi killed a young eunuch, destroyed the body, and disguised himself as Xiao Shanzi to evade his enemies.
• Xiao Wenzi’s search party found nothing in Zhou Yi’s room, and Xiao Wenzi told him that the Eastern Depot Director was no longer in office.
• Minister Lu read Emperor Zhengtong’s testament naming Zhao Chen as heir, and the officials accepted the succession despite their doubts.
• The court proclaimed that Zhao Chen had ascended the throne as Emperor Longqing and that the Empress Dowager would govern as regent.
• Tang Mingyuan demonstrated his hand cannon to Zhao Mu, who learned about its potential and asked him to help develop it.
• Zhao Mu told Tang Mingyuan that Eunuch Xu was arresting Zhou Yi’s associates and that Eunuch Wu had been ordered to raid and confiscate the Su family.

Tang Mingyuan urged Zhao Mu to investigate Emperor Zhengtong’s death, rally opposition to the Empress Dowager, and win Director Zhou’s support through a frost-sugar recipe. Meanwhile, rumors declaring that whoever gained Director Zhou could gain the realm spread as Zhou Yi secretly listened to palace eunuchs and remembered who spoke against him.

• Tang Mingyuan proposed that a trusted attendant with great martial strength had assassinated Emperor Zhengtong and urged Zhao Mu to watch Eunuch Wei, Eunuch Hai, and Eunuch Yuan for clues.
• Tang Mingyuan persuaded Zhao Mu that the court’s unstable rule and public resentment over repealed tax reforms offered a chance to restore the dynasty, but they needed Director Zhou’s help to overcome the palace defenses.
• Tang Mingyuan gave Zhao Mu a frost-sugar recipe to lure Director Zhou into contact, and Eunuch Xu sent it to Wang Er through Vice Minister Liu.
• Zhao Mu praised Director Zhou and defended the eunuchs, moving Eunuch Xu and the others to pledge their lives to him.
• Tang Mingyuan suggested Emperor Longqing might have feigned his childhood brain ailment, and Zhao Mu recalled that the prince had begged the Empress Dowager for food, leaving him startled.
• After Emperor Longqing’s ascension, rumors spread that his claim was illegitimate and that whoever gained Director Zhou could gain the realm; Zhou Yi listened to palace eunuchs discussing him and vowed to remember their words.

Zhou Yi recruited Xiao Anzi as a pawn and taught him how to survive in the palace, while quietly assessing Xiao Wuzi and the court’s shifting factions. After Zhou Yi told Xiao Anzi about Vice Minister Qi’s insult to the King Who Pacifies the West, Xiao Anzi reported it to Superintendent Zhong and was rewarded with a transfer to the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs, leaving Zhou Yi behind.

• Zhou Yi befriended Xiao Anzi, learned that a corrupt magistrate and Lord Wang had ruined his family, and decided to use his talent to weaken Eunuch Yi’s influence.
• Zhou Yi noticed Xiao Wuzi’s habits suggested he was literate and from a more privileged background than he claimed, but chose not to test him.
• Zhou Yi listened to officials complain about the Empress Dowager funding the northern frontier army and memorized their political allegiances.
• Zhou Yi told Xiao Anzi that Vice Minister Qi had cursed the King Who Pacifies the West and claimed he planned to report the insult to Superintendent Zhong for a reward.
• Xiao Anzi reported Vice Minister Qi to Superintendent Zhong himself and was transferred to the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs to serve His Majesty’s paper and brush.
• Zhou Yi hid his disappointment, bowed to Xiao Anzi, and accepted his new position.

After Xiao Anzi rose in status, Zhou Yi kept his identity and intentions hidden while reflecting on his fall from power and sensing a mysterious chill in the palace. A report about cheap sugar made Zhou Yi realize that a trading house had discovered a new method of making sugar, and he tasted the frost sugar bestowed by the Empress Dowager.

• Zhou Yi decided to exploit Xiao Zhongzi's enemies to provoke conflict between the Empress Dowager's faction and King Who Pacifies the West's faction.
• Xiao Anzi entered Commander Zhong's service as his twenty-eighth foster son and began ignoring Zhou Yi and Xiao Wuzi.
• On New Year's Eve, Xiao Wuzi questioned Zhou Yi about Xiao Anzi's rise, and Zhou Yi advised him that those in favor were often flattered.
• Zhou Yi sensed another mysterious chill wind and suspected its source was important enough to take precedence over becoming emperor.
• Xiao Dingzi told Zhou Yi that a southern trading house had found a cheap sugar-making method and won the right to supply tribute sugar.
• Zhou Yi tasted the frost sugar and delighted in its sweetness.