Chapter Summaries

Young Master Shen crowned Arunana Queen, killed Su Mo, captured and castrated Su Jianting, then led the Qiang army toward Baiye Prefecture City. As Zhang Chong faced the fifteenth day of the siege with fewer than two thousand defenders, Shen’s force raced to relieve him while Su Nan prepared to use Zhang Chong’s captured son and grandson against him.

• After Arunana killed Arutai, Young Master Shen crowned her Queen, and nearly ten thousand Qiang warriors pledged their allegiance to her.
• Su Mo accused Young Master Shen of plotting against the Su Family, then jumped to her death; Su Jianting was captured after Big Fool exhausted and overpowered him, and Young Master Shen castrated him.
• Grandmaster Ban Ruo stayed among Great Tribulation Palace’s ancient reliefs after Young Master Shen’s group descended the mountain, while the Wu army landed near Raging Tide City and began besieging Jin MuLan’s castle.
• At Baiye Prefecture City, Zhang Chong’s exhausted defenders continued to hold out, while Su Nan dismissed Zheng Tuo’s advance as a show and ordered Zhang Chong’s captured son and grandson brought to the front to force him to kill himself.
• As the fifteenth day of the siege began, Zhang Chong struggled to hold the city with fewer than two thousand defenders, while Young Master Shen and Arunana rode with a force of more than ten thousand toward Baiye Prefecture City.

Wu Qi refused to withdraw or negotiate despite Bian Xiao’s devastating raid, while Ning Yuanxian faced the imminent fall of Baiye Prefecture City and blamed Zheng Tuo for abandoning Zhang Chong. As the Su allied army launched its final assault, Shen Lang and Queen Arunana arrived with Qiang cavalry and routed the rebels.

• Wu Qi ordered his army to keep advancing toward the main camp, refused to negotiate with Ning Yuanxian, and resolved to wait for Yue’s crisis in Tianxi Province to worsen.
• Ning Yuanxian ordered Ning Qi to block Su Nan at Lang Prefecture and posthumously honored Zhang Chong and Zhang Xun, believing their family was doomed.
• Despite a severe fever, Zhang Chong returned to Baiye Prefecture City’s walls, where Su Jianyan threatened to execute Zhang Xun and young Zhang Yun unless Zhang Chong killed himself.
• Zhang Chong tried to take his own life, but Ning Jie’s hidden weapon deflected his sword; Su Quan then ordered the Su allied army to storm the city.
• Shen Lang and Queen Arunana revealed themselves among Shubutai’s Qiang cavalry and led the charge into the Su army’s rear, causing the allied forces to collapse in a massacre.

Shen Lang led Arunana’s cavalry to crush Su Quan’s army outside Baiye Prefecture City, saving Zhang Chong and capturing Su Jianyan before Su Niao helped secure the child’s release. With the Su Family’s main force destroyed and Zheng Tuo finally attacking Xueliang City, Shen Lang prepared to march on Far Suppressing Marquis Manor.

• After descending the mountains with ten thousand troops, Shen Lang and Arunana charged the Su allied army and routed it, while Baiye Prefecture City’s defenders joined the attack.
• Su Jianyan escaped with Zhang Yun as a hostage, but Su Niao poisoned him with Rainstorm Pear Blossom, rescued the child, and returned with him to Shen Lang’s forces.
• Surrounded by Shen Lang, Su Quan killed himself, and Shen Lang ordered the surrendered Su Family soldiers shot; Zhang Chong’s wounds were treated, and he remained under care with his family.
• After learning Baiye Prefecture City had won, Zheng Tuo launched a full assault on Xueliang City; Su Zhan broke out with eight thousand soldiers and fled toward Far Suppressing Marquis Manor with five thousand survivors.
• Shen Lang had Su Jianyan executed by tearing him apart with five horses and vowed to destroy the Su Family at Far Suppressing Marquis Manor.

Shen Lang and Zhang Chong rejected Liang Yongnian and Zheng Tuo’s attempt to seize command, so the two men marched on Far Suppressing Marquis Manor to secure their own survival. The chapter ended with Su Nan learning that the Qiang Kingdom had changed rulers, his main army had been destroyed, and Su Quan had died; he coughed blood and collapsed.

• Shen Lang told Zhang Chong that he planned to take down the Crown Prince and Third Prince, and Zhang Chong decided to seek a post in Yan Province rather than become Shen Lang’s enemy.
• Liang Yongnian and Zheng Tuo arrived at Baiye Prefecture City, claimed command of the allied army, and ordered Shen Lang to lead the vanguard; Shen Lang refused, and Zhang Chong backed him.
• Liang Yongnian and Zheng Tuo dismissed Shen Lang and Zhang Chong, then set out with their troops to attack Far Suppressing Marquis Manor and seize control of it.
• Su Nan learned that Arunana had taken power in the Qiang Kingdom and that Shen Lang had led the Qiang cavalry to destroy the Su allied army at Baiye Prefecture.
• Su Yong reported that Su Quan had taken his own life and the Su army had lost the battle; Su Nan coughed blood and collapsed.

Su Nan abandoned Far Suppressing Marquis Manor and led the Su Family’s remaining troops toward the Western Regions, but Young Master Shen realized the plan and rode after them. Meanwhile, Wu Mu’s army entered Raging Tide City through gates Jin Shiying had opened, only for Jin Shiying to reveal that he intended to help defeat the Wu Army.

• Su Nan learned that the Su Family had only five thousand troops left and decided to abandon its castle and flee to the Western Regions rather than be trapped and starved.
• Su Nan ordered his relatives to prepare a secret withdrawal, left the castle’s wells and food poisoned with smallpox, and slipped away to join the troops.
• Zhang Chong prompted Young Master Shen to realize Su Nan would flee; Young Master Shen led ten thousand cavalry in pursuit.
• After eight days of relentless assaults, Wu Mu’s army paused to rest, Jin MuLan handed command to Jin Shiying, and Wu Mu waited with six thousand rested elite soldiers.
• Jin Shiying opened Raging Tide City’s gates, allowing Wu Mu’s troops to flood inside, then declared that he would help Young Master Shen defeat the Wu Army.

Wu Mu’s army was lured into Raging Tide City, where Jin MuLan used an explosive wheat-flour trap to cripple and capture its soldiers. Meanwhile, Shen Lang learned Su Nan had escaped ahead of him and planned to intercept him at the Qiang King Palace.

• Shen Lang had prepared Jin Shiying to resist Wu You’s honey trap, and Jin Shiying refused to betray the Jin Family despite Wu You’s genuine feelings and pregnancy.
• Jin Shiying opened Raging Tide City’s gates for Wu Mu’s soldiers, but the apparent betrayal was a ruse to draw the Wu Army into the castle.
• Wu Lian led ten thousand soldiers into the training ground, where Jin MuLan’s forces ignited airborne wheat flour and devastated the Wu Army with an explosion.
• Jin MuLan led her warriors out of the underground shelter, killed three thousand incapacitated soldiers, and captured the remaining Wu troops.
• Wu Mu realized the Wu Army had fallen into a trap, while Wu You fainted after recognizing Jin Shiying had deceived her.
• Shen Lang learned Su Nan had fled forty-eight hours earlier and ordered his cavalry south to ambush him at the Qiang King Palace.

Wu Mu abandoned the siege of Raging Tide City and retreated to Wu Kingdom after Chou Hao withdrew, the Jin Family returned his wounded prisoners, and most of his provisions were destroyed. Meanwhile, Su Nan led his clan toward the Western Regions but turned back to plunder the Qiang King Palace’s gold, walking into the trap Young Master Shen had anticipated.

• Jin Shiying revealed that the Wu Army’s ten thousand-man force had been crushed, with seven thousand survivors held prisoner, while Jin Zhuo appeared alive atop the walls.
• Chou Hao refused Wu Mu’s offers to remain at Raging Tide City and withdrew his five thousand troops to Tianfeng Island.
• Wu Mu learned that the Jin Family had returned seven thousand severely wounded prisoners and burned seventy percent of his provisions, so he ordered his twelve thousand troops to retreat to Wu Kingdom.
• Su Nan’s scouts reported no pursuers, but his soldiers’ morale fell as they realized the clan was fleeing to the Western Regions.
• Su Nan initially refused to detour for the Qiang King Palace’s gold, but his soldiers demanded it and he ordered the army south to seize the treasure before continuing west.

Young Master Shen’s men poisoned the gold at the Qiang King Palace, and Su Nan’s army fell ill after stopping to strip it. Su Nan tried to escape by splitting his forces and heading north, but Young Master Shen anticipated the maneuver and surrounded him and the Su Family’s direct descendants.

• Wu Lie’s people coated the Qiang King Palace’s gold with corpse-pit water mixed with arsenic, then left before Su Nan arrived.
• Zheng Tuo and Liang Yongnian found Far Suppressing Marquis Manor abandoned, occupied it, and celebrated what they believed was the destruction of Su Nan’s main force.
• Su Nan’s troops occupied the Qiang King Palace and spent several days cutting and melting its gold into bricks, while soldiers began suffering severe diarrhea and illness.
• Su Nan ordered his army to abandon the remaining gold and flee west, but Qiang Kingdom cavalry approached from the south as half his troops fell sick.
• Su Nan sent Su Yong west in his robes to draw pursuit, then disguised himself and fled north with several hundred followers and some gold.
• Young Master Shen’s troops surrounded Su Nan and the Su Family’s direct descendants, and Young Master Shen ordered his warriors to attack with arrows and crossbows.

Su Nan accepted defeat, killed his family and himself, and the remaining Su troops were annihilated as Young Master Shen secured victory in the western campaign. The chapter ended with Li En bringing Yue King Ning Yuanxian news that Young Master Shen had defeated the Qiang King and helped Zhang Chong crush the Su rebels.

• Su Nan admitted that greed had brought down the Su Family, then lost his duel with Sword King Li Qianqiu and fatally wounded himself.
• Su Nan killed Su Jianchang, Su Zhan, Three-Eyed Fiend, his wife, and the remaining members of the Su Family before taking his own life; the surviving warriors also committed suicide.
• Su Yong led several thousand Su troops into an ambush in the valley, where they were annihilated.
• Young Master Shen left the recovered gold in Arunana's care and departed for Yue Kingdom, encountering Grandmaster Ban Ruo at the border.
• Zheng Tuo and Liang Yongnian settled into Far Suppressing Marquis Manor and allowed their troops to abuse its women.
• Li En reported to Ning Yuanxian that Young Master Shen had eliminated the Qiang King, installed Queen Arunana, and helped Zhang Chong win a sweeping victory over Su Nan's forces.

Ning Yuanxian celebrated Young Master Shen’s victory over Su Nan while Wu Qi reeled from defeats at Raging Tide City and Baiye Prefecture. Zheng Tuo and Liang Yongnian framed Young Master Shen for massacres across Baiye Prefecture, and the chapter ended with Young Master Shen ordering his Qiang cavalry to slaughter the forces and civilians confronting him.

• Ning Yuanxian read that Young Master Shen and Zhang Chong had nearly destroyed Su Nan’s army, celebrated, and fell asleep from exhaustion.
• Wu Qi learned that the Wu Kingdom had lost Raging Tide City and that Su Nan’s army had suffered a crushing defeat, then regained his resolve with Wu Zhi’s encouragement.
• Zheng Tuo and Liang Yongnian fabricated a victory report claiming they had captured Far Suppressing Marquis Manor Castle and plotted to blame Young Master Shen for atrocities.
• Zheng Tuo and Liang Yongnian had troops disguised as Qiang cavalry raid Baiye Prefecture and spread accusations that Young Master Shen had ordered the killings and plunder.
• Liang Yongnian confronted Young Master Shen with troops and angry civilians, accused him of slaughtering innocents, and demanded that he surrender the Qiang cavalry.
• Young Master Shen rejected Liang Yongnian’s accusations and ordered his two thousand Qiang cavalry to wipe out the forces and civilians surrounding them.

Young Master Shen crushed Liang Yongnian’s force, exposed the slaughter of Baiye Prefecture civilians as Zheng Tuo’s plot, and killed Liang Yongnian before marching on the Far Suppressing Marquis Manor. As false reports turned the capital against him, Ning Yuanxian received demands to execute Young Master Shen and flew into a rage.

• Young Master Shen’s Qiang cavalry routed Liang Yongnian’s troops, and his men captured Liang Yongnian and more than a hundred armed former looters.
• Young Master Shen killed the captured looters and a xiucai scholar, intimidated the gathered civilians, and forced Liang Yongnian to confess that Zheng Tuo’s cavalry had impersonated Qiang soldiers and massacred civilians for military credit.
• Young Master Shen dragged Liang Yongnian to death, ordered Liang Yongnian’s family killed, and set out with his army to attack the Far Suppressing Marquis Manor.
• Zheng Tuo celebrated the reports crediting him with suppressing the Su Clan rebellion, then learned that Young Master Shen was advancing on his fortress with two thousand cavalry.
• The Crown Prince allowed praise for Zheng Tuo and accusations against Young Master Shen to spread, while censors petitioned Ning Yuanxian to execute Young Master Shen.
• Ning Yuanxian, overwhelmed by reports from Tianxi Province and the northern frontier, ordered Old Dog to beat the protesting censors to death.

After the Su Clan’s destruction, Ning Yuanxian learned that Shen Lang had attacked Zheng Tuo’s stronghold with two thousand Qiang Kingdom cavalry and feared the assault would get him killed. He sent urgent decrees naming Zheng Tuo Far Suppressing Earl and ordering Shen Lang to return, leaving the fate of the attack unresolved.

• Four young censors demanded Shen Lang’s execution, and Li Zhun’s warriors beat them to death on Ning Yuanxian’s order.
• Ning Yuanxian arranged to claim that Liang Yongnian had been killed by royal order and summoned Shen Lang back, while discussing Zheng Tuo’s forces in Tianxi Province.
• Ning Yuanxian received Eldest Princess Ning Jie’s report that Shen Lang had used Qiang Kingdom gold as bait and exterminated Su Nan and the entire Su Clan.
• A second report revealed that Shen Lang had led two thousand Qiang Kingdom cavalry to attack Zheng Tuo at Far Suppressing Marquis Manor.
• Ning Yuanxian rushed decrees to Zheng Tuo and Shen Lang, granting Zheng Tuo the title of Far Suppressing Earl and commanding Shen Lang to return immediately.

Zheng Tuo chose to kill Shen Lang and fought him for days at the narrow road to Far Suppressing Marquis Manor, while secretly preparing catapults to break through. The Monarch’s decree invested Zheng Tuo as Earl of Far Suppression and ordered Shen Lang back to the capital, but Shen Lang refused to leave—and Zheng Tuo’s plans were upended when smallpox erupted across his army.

• Zheng Tuo decided that killing Shen Lang would help him seize the Su Clan’s territory and ordered his army to attack.
• For three days, Shen Lang’s two thousand troops held the narrow road against Zheng Tuo’s twenty thousand, inflicting heavy casualties while suffering few.
• Zheng Tuo began dismantling Giant Catapults so he could bombard Shen Lang’s army and force it into open ground.
• Eldest Princess Ning Bu Ying delivered the Monarch’s decree investing Zheng Tuo as Earl of Far Suppression and ordering Shen Lang to the capital; Zheng Tuo agreed to let Shen Lang go but kept his army in place.
• Shen Lang refused to return to the capital and vowed to destroy Zheng Tuo, believing Su Nan had left a hidden trap at the manor.
• After learning that thirteen Giant Catapults would soon be ready, Zheng Tuo was told that smallpox had spread through nearly every camp in his army.

Zheng Tuo’s army collapsed as Smallpox spread through Far Suppressing Marquis Manor, while Shen Lang’s forces trapped and harried them. As Zheng Tuo fled with Zheng Long, Zheng Long poisoned him and surrendered to Eldest Princess Ning Jie and Shen Lang.

• Zheng Tuo learned that Smallpox had spread through his army and ordered his troops to prepare to attack Shen Lang before the outbreak worsened.
• Shen Lang’s troops repeatedly withdrew as Zheng Tuo’s catapults advanced, then used shouted warnings about Smallpox to provoke panic in the Zheng army.
• Shen Lang’s cavalry lured Zheng Tuo’s exhausted cavalry through a night-long pursuit, then attacked them at dawn and drove them back toward the castle.
• Smallpox devastated Zheng Tuo’s troops inside Far Suppressing Marquis Manor, and Shen Lang’s promise of divine medicine spurred soldiers to escape and fight among themselves.
• Zheng Tuo and Zheng Long disguised themselves and fled the castle, but Eldest Princess Ning Jie intercepted them after Zheng Long poisoned his father.
• Zheng Long told Shen Lang he was willing to redeem his crimes, and Shen Lang praised him as Zheng Tuo collapsed in grief.

Shen Lang crushed Zheng Tuo’s rebellion, contained the Smallpox epidemic in Baiye Prefecture, and let Zhang Chong receive the credit while accepting public hatred. As Shen Lang returned to the capital, the Chu Kingdom withdrew and the Wu King personally crossed the border to negotiate with Ning Yuanxian.

• Zheng Long betrayed Zheng Tuo for a post in the Blackwater Directorate, and Shen Lang spared him; Shen Lang then castrated Zheng Tuo, who begged to live and was taken to the capital in chains.
• Smallpox spread through Baiye Prefecture, and Shen Lang gave Zhang Chong his prevention and treatment plans and cowpox-inoculation cattle, then sealed the prefecture to stop the epidemic.
• Ning Yuanxian ordered Zhang Chong made a viscount, demanded Shen Lang return to the capital, and learned that the Chu Kingdom had withdrawn.
• The Chu King sent envoys to negotiate a ceasefire and demand compensation, while the Wu King decided to meet Ning Yuanxian in person and crossed into Yue Kingdom territory.
• Shen Lang returned the Qiang cavalry to Queen Arunana, said farewell to Arunana and Zhang Chong, and headed back to the capital with fewer than two hundred men.

Ning Yuanxian welcomed Wu Qi and secured an alliance between Yue and Wu, while Shen Lang received competing overtures from Xue Pan and Zhuo Zhaoyan. Zhuo Zhaoyan arrived at Shen Lang’s post station with the Crown Prince’s apology, leaving Shen Lang to face another attempt at reconciliation.

• Ning Yuanxian received Wu Qi as an equal and proposed an alliance instead of reparations, and the two kings signed the Wu-Yue Alliance Pact before announcing it publicly.
• Xue Pan visited Shen Lang with his sister Xue Meng, proposed that she marry Jin MuCong, and invited Shen Lang to meet Third Prince Ning Qi.
• Xue Pan told Shen Lang that Kutou Huan was Zhuo Yichen, a Crown Prince's man who had tried to assassinate Jin Zhuo on the Crown Prince's orders.
• Shen Lang traveled onward and found that local officials now welcomed him with conspicuous deference.
• Zhuo Zhaoyan met Shen Lang in his room and offered the Crown Prince's apology, asking him to accept the Crown Prince's goodwill.

Young Master Shen refused Third Prince Ning Qi’s attempt to ally against the Crown Prince, making them enemies. When he returned to the capital, officials used a smallpox quarantine order to publicly humiliate and disarm his party, but Young Master Shen rejected the order and Big Fool killed Lieutenant General Wang Dong.

• Young Master Shen rebuffed Zhuo Zhaoyan’s flirtation and accused her of arranging Kutou Huan’s attempt to assassinate his father-in-law.
• Third Prince Ning Qi visited Young Master Shen in Lang Prefecture and offered to join forces against the Crown Prince, but Young Master Shen refused because he would not abandon his revenge against the Xue Family.
• Ning Qi declared that Young Master Shen would become his enemy if he moved against the Xue Family, and the two drank together before parting as enemies.
• Young Master Shen returned to the capital and found no welcome; Lieutenant General Wang Dong instead ordered his party to surrender their weapons and enter quarantine under a decree issued in the name of public safety.
• Wang Dong rallied the crowd and threatened to kill Young Master Shen’s party for resisting, but Young Master Shen ordered Big Fool to attack, and Big Fool killed Wang Dong with his black iron staff.

Shen Lang returned to the capital, killed Lieutenant General Wang Dong when soldiers tried to stop him, and learned that Ning Zheng had been imprisoned after taking the blame for Bing'er killing five officials who tried to seize two little girls. With Shen Lang and Ning Zheng both under attack from the Crown Prince's faction, Monarch Ning Yuanxian learned of the crisis and set out for the capital with ten thousand troops.

• Shen Lang killed Wang Dong and forced his way through Xuanwu Gate with his warriors, leaving the city garrison dead and the citizens crying that he had rebelled.
• At Ning Zheng's residence, Lady Zhuo and the old eunuch told Shen Lang that Ning Zheng had been imprisoned, and Bing'er confessed that she had killed five Great Court of Revision men who threatened her and tried to take two girls away.
• Shen Lang learned that Ning Zheng had taken responsibility for Bing'er's killings and that the girls had been sent to Great Kindness Courtyard.
• Xu Siming arrived with two thousand soldiers and ordered Shen Lang to surrender, but Shen Lang refused and had Big Fool guard the residence as the troops surrounded it.
• Monarch Ning Yuanxian received a secret memorial about Ning Zheng's arrest and Shen Lang's actions, then ordered the Wu King sent home and announced that he would return to the capital.
• The next day, Ning Yuanxian ceremonially sent off the Wu King and marched toward the capital with ten thousand troops.

Young Master Shen returned to the capital amid the siege of Ning Zheng’s residence, while the court and princes awaited Ning Yuanxian’s judgment. When the monarch offered Shen marriage to Ning Yan as a reward, Shen refused and instead asked him to grant Ning Zheng the title of Duke.

• Young Master Shen resolved to make Ning Zheng a prince with a title, a faction, and achievements before challenging the Crown Prince and Third Prince.
• Jin MuCong waited at the Imperial Clan’s Court to seek Ning Yu’s help for Ning Zheng, but Ning Yu told him that only Young Master Shen’s words might count.
• Ning Yi ordered Zhuo Zhaoyan to draw out Kutou Huan and have him captured and executed for disobeying twice.
• Ning Yuanxian returned to the capital and summoned Young Master Shen after Zhang Zhao reported Shen’s killings and the siege of Ning Zheng’s residence.
• Ning Yuanxian offered to free Shen from the Jin Family and marry him to Ning Yan, but Shen refused and asked the monarch to grant Ning Zheng the title of Duke.

Young Master Shen told Ning Yuanxian that he intended to bring down the Crown Prince and Third Prince and make Ning Zheng heir, arguing that the Jin Family needed to protect itself from future rulers. Ning Yuanxian refused to help or release Ning Zheng, and Young Master Shen left the palace to tell Ning Zheng that their bid for the succession had begun.

• Young Master Shen rejected Ning Yuanxian’s proposed rewards and explained that he owed Ning Zheng for helping the Shen family and taking the blame for the officials’ deaths.
• Young Master Shen revealed that he planned to destroy the Xue Family and bring down the Crown Prince and Third Prince, then raise Ning Zheng to the position of Crown Prince.
• Ning Yuanxian warned that he would not protect Young Master Shen once he joined the succession struggle, would offer no help, and would keep Ning Zheng imprisoned.
• After Young Master Shen left, Ning Yuanxian compared his plan to Kuafu chasing the sun and wondered whether he was a sovereign like the sun.
• Young Master Shen visited Jin MuCong and then Ning Zheng in the Court of the Imperial Clan Prison.
• Young Master Shen told Ning Zheng that they would defeat the Crown Prince and Third Prince and make him Crown Prince, officially beginning the succession struggle.