Chapter Summaries

Young Master Shen persuaded Ning Zheng to begin pursuing the succession, while Ning Yuanxian privately reconsidered his own rule but still rejected Ning Zheng as heir. The chapter ended with Consort Bian suffering a miscarriage and a massive hemorrhage, leaving Li Zhun urging the Monarch to summon Young Master Shen to save her.

• Young Master Shen argued that Ning Zheng was suited to rule and convinced him to begin seizing the succession, promising to find a way to free him from prison.
• Ning Yuanxian read the records of their conversation, grew furious at Young Master Shen's criticism, then privately acknowledged that much of it was true while continuing to favor the Crown Prince.
• Ning Yuanxian punished Feng Chen with thirty strokes and ordered him sent to the Laundry Directorate after the eunuch admitted he had coughed to warn Young Master Shen and Ning Zheng.
• Consort Bian suffered a miscarriage and began hemorrhaging as Ning Yuanxian called desperately for help.
• The imperial physicians said they could not save Consort Bian, and Li Zhun urged Ning Yuanxian to summon Young Master Shen for his medical skills.

Young Master Shen stopped Consort Bian’s hemorrhage and searched for a compatible blood donor after discovering her blood type was extraordinarily rare. Ning Zheng’s blood matched hers, and the transfusion saved her life.

• Ning Yuanxian summoned Young Master Shen and Ning Jie when Consort Bian miscarried and began hemorrhaging.
• Young Master Shen and Ning Jie used Silver Needles to seal most of the bleeding, then Young Master Shen determined that Consort Bian urgently needed a blood transfusion.
• Young Master Shen tested blood from Ning Yuanxian, Ning Jie, Consort Bian’s relatives, the princes, and Big Fool, but each sample caused agglutination.
• Ning Yuanxian ordered Li Zhun to bring Ning Zheng from the Court of the Imperial Clan Prison, and Ning Zheng’s blood showed no rejection reaction with Consort Bian’s.
• Young Master Shen transfused Ning Zheng’s blood into Consort Bian, and her breathing, heartbeat, and color improved as the imperial physician declared her saved.

Young Master Shen saved Consort Bian from a fatal miscarriage, but rumors accused him of causing her crisis to secure favor for Ning Zheng. After Bian Nian was arrested for spreading the accusations, Consort Bian asked Ning Zheng to become her adopted son, leaving him stunned.

• Young Master Shen stabilized Consort Bian, and Ning Yuanxian ordered Ning Zheng back to prison despite Ning Zheng's blood donation.
• Young Master Shen returned home to comfort Yu Cece and Yu Keke, while rumors spread that he had engineered Consort Bian's crisis to help Ning Zheng.
• Bian Nian accused Young Master Shen of tampering with the transfusion and causing the miscarriage, then stormed into the palace to demand his arrest.
• Ning Yuanxian had the Blackwater Directorate arrest Bian Nian to investigate who had incited the rumors, and Consort Bian asked to handle what came next.
• Consort Bian brought Ning Zheng out of prison and asked him to accept her as his adopted son.

Ning Zheng refused Consort Bian’s offer to become his mother because he had decided to contend for the heirship and did not want to drag the Bian Family into politics. After the monarch ennobled him as Marquis Changping, Shen Lang failed to recruit anyone for his manor, while Zhuo Zhaoyan poisoned Kutou Huan with a cup of wine.

• Ning Zheng told Consort Bian he intended to contend for the heirship and declined to acknowledge her as his mother so the Bian Family would not be drawn into the succession struggle.
• Ning Yuanxian ordered Ning Zheng’s case for killing Great Court of Revision officials to be tried; after the officials’ abuse and threat to Bing’er’s unborn child were exposed, Ning Zheng received thirty lashes.
• Ning Yuanxian enfeoffed Ning Zheng as Marquis Changping, granted him the burned Far Suppressing Marquis Manor, and allowed him to recruit a thousand private troops.
• Shen Lang resigned as Zhenyuan City Lord and became chief historian of Ning Zheng’s manor, but his public recruitment campaign attracted ridicule and no staff for a month.
• A stranger approached Shen Lang’s recruitment stall and demanded the future position of Prime Minister as his price for joining.
• Zhuo Zhaoyan met Kutou Huan on the Crown Prince’s orders and gave him poisoned grape wine, which he drank.

Shen Lang recruited Madman Lan and ten beggars as officials in Ning Zheng’s manor, insisting they were extraordinary talents and staking his place in the capital on their success in the coming examinations. Ning Yuanxian threatened to have them killed, while elsewhere Zhuo Zhaoyan poisoned Kutou Huan and stabbed him before he fell into a river.

• Shen Lang hired Madman Lan as Changping Marquis Manor’s seventh-rank Chief Registrar after testing his arithmetic, then paid him to find more recruits.
• Madman Lan brought ten beggars to Shen Lang, who appointed them Hundred Commanders; Ning Zheng accepted them after Shen Lang said they were rare talents awaiting a commander.
• Xiao Bing and Xian Nu ordered the eleven recruits bathed, shaved, and scrubbed before they could enter the manor.
• Ning Yuanxian summoned Shen Lang, threatened to slaughter the recruits, and ordered him back to Xuanwu City; Shen Lang pledged that Madman Lan would rank among the top three in the provincial examination and that the ten beggars would pass the Martial Examination.
• Kutou Huan apologized to Zhuo Zhaoyan and offered to avenge her, but she revealed that she had poisoned him and disavowed their relationship.
• Kutou Huan let Zhuo Zhaoyan stab him in the chest, and she kicked him into the river.

Shen Lang secured Imperial Academy and Martial Imperial Student status for Madman Lan and his ten companions, wagering that they would pass the Grace Examination and win Prince Ning Zheng two thousand soldiers. After discovering their extraordinary talents and promising to awaken their bloodlines, Shen Lang left Kutou Huan’s fate uncertain as Li Qianqiu recovered his apparently dead body from the river.

• Ning Yuanxian accepted Shen Lang’s Military Pledge, granted Lan Ling and the ten beggars examination status, and promised Ning Zheng two thousand soldiers if they succeeded.
• At Changping Marquis Manor, Madman Lan tried to flee but revealed a photographic memory and exceptional arithmetic ability when Shen Lang tested him.
• Shen Lang persuaded Madman Lan to prepare for the civil examination and demonstrated that Big Fool could strike a candle with an arrow from two hundred paces without training.
• Shen Lang told Madman Lan that his companions possessed exceptional bloodlines and promised to find a way to awaken them before the examinations.
• Zhuo Zhaoyan watched Kutou Huan’s body drift down the Nu River and left believing him dead.
• Li Qianqiu found Kutou Huan’s apparently lifeless body twenty li downstream and rushed toward the capital with it.

As Shen Lang prepared eleven beggars for the Civil and Martial Examinations, he used his Golden Bloodline Gu Worms in a final experiment on the apparently dead Kutou Huan. The chapter ended when Kutou Huan’s heart began beating after the injection.

• Yue King Ning Yuanxian continued negotiating with Chu while strengthening Yue Kingdom’s ties with Qiang Kingdom, and Shen Lang refused to join the negotiating team.
• Scholars and martial artists besieged Ning Zheng’s Changping Marquis Manor, demanding that the eleven beggars withdraw from the examinations, but Shen Lang ordered his female warriors to defend the gates.
• Shen Lang continued his bloodline experiments while Madman Lan studied for the examinations and teased Jin MuCong about his interest in Xian Nu.
• Sword King Li Qianqiu brought Kutou Huan’s apparently lifeless body to Shen Lang, who found that Kutou Huan’s bloodline had preserved faint energy in his body.
• Shen Lang injected Kutou Huan with Golden Bloodline Gu Worms, and Kutou Huan’s heart began beating minutes later.

Shen Lang revived Kutou Huan, who awoke healed and free of his devotion to the Zhuo Family after reliving his past. He pledged lifelong loyalty to Ning Zheng and agreed to help him claim the throne.

• Shen Lang discussed Floating Pagoda Mountain's gu worm with Sword King Li Qianqiu, who believed it had come from the ancient world.
• Shen Lang explained to Xian Nu why Ning Yan remained confined, and Consort Bian worried that Lan Ling and Ning Zheng's ten recruits were unprepared for the examinations.
• Kutou Huan relived his memories, recognized how Zhuo Zhaoyan had manipulated him, and woke with his face and body healed.
• Kutou Huan saw the ten beggars' lazy training and approached Shen Lang, who invited him to join Ning Zheng's household as a Thousand Household Officer.
• After Shen Lang asked him to help Ning Zheng ascend the throne, Kutou Huan knelt and pledged never to betray him unless Ning Zheng betrayed him first.

Shen Lang placed Kutou Huan in command of ten disabled beggars and backed his plan to awaken their powerful bloodlines, hoping to prepare them for the coming Grace Examination. At the chapter’s end, Shen Lang injected them with golden bloodline gu worms, and their bodies began violently transforming as their bonds snapped.

• Kutou Huan joined Ning Zheng’s cause and summoned his two hundred followers, while Shen Lang appointed him Thousand Commander over ten beggars.
• Kutou Huan recognized the beggars’ powerful, unawakened bloodlines and demanded two days to instill discipline before activating them; he whipped the men and nearly hanged one, whom Shen Lang and Kutou Huan revived with CPR.
• Ning Zheng’s Heavenly Dao Society supplied twenty-five fine horses, and after five days of brutal training, Kutou Huan led Shen Lang, Wu Lie, one hundred female warriors, and the ten beggars out of the capital.
• The Monarch saw the beggars tied to horses as they left the city and grew furious, while censors renewed their attacks on Shen Lang.
• At a secluded island manor, Shen Lang injected each beggar with golden bloodline gu worms, and they vomited blood, screamed in pain, and began straightening as their ropes snapped.

Shen Lang awakened the bloodlines of ten beggars, restoring their bodies and setting them on an intense course of training for the Martial Examination, while Madman Lan prepared to take the Grace Examination. The chapter ended with Shen Lang returning to the capital with Madman Lan, confident that the brothers would astonish the nation and fulfill his wager.

• After two days and nights of agony, the ten beggars awoke with healthy, straightened bodies, and Kutou Huan declared them Hundred Commander officers under Prince Ning Zheng.
• Shen Lang named the ten brothers Lan Yi through Lan Shi and charged Kutou Huan with preparing them for the Martial Examination in twenty-eight days.
• The Lan brothers rapidly mastered weightlifting, archery, and horseback riding, while Madman Lan memorized Shen Lang’s essays and poems and produced work Ning Zheng judged worthy of a top-three finish.
• Kutou Huan pushed the Lan brothers through punishing drills and planned to take them to the capital shortly before the Martial Examination.
• Shen Lang departed for the capital with Madman Lan to take the Grace Examination, boasting that the eleven brothers would earn places on the golden list and that he would collect on his wager.

Zhang Chong arrived in the capital, refused the post of Central Governor of Tianxi Province to avoid becoming Shen Lang’s enemy, and went to Ning Zheng’s residence. Shen Lang returned and confronted a mass boycott threat over the eleven beggars taking the Grace Examination; the Monarch crushed the protest and ordered the examination to proceed.

• Crown Prince Ning Yi welcomed Zhang Chong, and Zhang Chong told Monarch Ning Yuanxian that Baiye Prefecture had been cleaned up and urged him to send 150,000 reinforcements to Nan'ou Kingdom.
• Ning Yuanxian offered Zhang Chong the post of Central Governor of Tianxi Province, but Zhang Chong declined because he did not wish to become enemies with Young Master Shen.
• Zhang Chong avoided his besieged home and went to Ning Zheng’s Changping Marquis Manor, where he praised Madman Lan’s policy essay as strong enough to pass the Grace Examination.
• Shen Lang entered the capital, accepted a public wager that the eleven beggars would pass, and redirected the scholars and martial artists besieging Ning Zheng’s residence toward the Ministry of Rites and the Privy Council.
• More than ten thousand scholars and martial artists demanded that the eleven beggars be barred from the examination, and officials carried their blood petitions to Ning Yuanxian.
• Ning Yuanxian ordered the Grace Examination to proceed, threatened to strip boycotters of their titles and examination rights, and sent the Imperial Guard to break up the protests.

Zhang Chong refused the Crown Prince’s offer to become Central Governor of Tianxi Province because he did not want to oppose Shen Lang, leaving Zhu Rong disappointed and Zhang Chong exposed to the Crown Prince’s retaliation. Madman Lan endured the candidates’ abuse, swiftly completed the first day of the Grace Examination, and wrote a policy essay he believed would secure him a place among the top three.

• Zhang Chong told Zhu Rong that he refused the post because Shen Lang had saved his life and he did not want to become Shen Lang’s enemy, and Zhu Rong left after warning him to take care.
• Ning Zheng saw Madman Lan off to the examination, where Xian Nu and twenty women drove away candidates who approached the carriage to attack him.
• Madman Lan finished the Classical Text Completion and Illuminated Mathematics papers in under an hour, then slept and waited out the rest of the first day.
• The second day’s policy essay asked candidates to write on the Feudal Enfeoffment System, and Madman Lan recognized that the prompt suited the essay he had memorized.
• Madman Lan adapted the essay’s arguments to Ning Yuanxian’s policies and finished more than two thousand characters in about an hour, confident that he had secured a top-three result.

Madman Lan completed the Grace Examination by memorizing Shen Lang’s prepared answers, then slept through most of all three days while other examinees condemned him. After the papers were collected, he returned to Ning Residence confident he had taken first place, and Shen Lang agreed as the marking began.

• Madman Lan wrote the policy essay on the feudal enfeoffment system from memory, then slept through the rest of the second day.
• On the third day, Madman Lan answered the autumn geese and great roc prompt with poems and a fu he had memorized from Shen Lang.
• Examiners sealed and collected the papers, and the exhausted examinees left the hall while blaming Madman Lan and Shen Lang for embarrassing the Monarch.
• Madman Lan returned to Ning Residence and told Shen Lang, Ning Zheng, and Wu Lie that he expected to place first.
• Shen Lang recognized all three examination prompts and declared that Madman Lan had first place secured as the papers went to be marked.

The examiners found Zhu Hongping’s exceptional examination paper and unanimously judged him the certain first place, while the Monarch grew furious over Madman Lan’s apparent failure and ordered his paper checked. Near the end of the night, an examiner discovered an even more extraordinary paper and declared that its candidate had surpassed Zhu Hongping.

• The examiners found Zhu Hongping’s paper, praised his record-breaking answers and outstanding essays, and marked him unanimously for first place.
• The Monarch learned that Madman Lan had slept through the examination and ordered his paper retrieved and the candidate killed if it was blank.
• Ning Yuanxian ordered Li Zhun to press Chu Kingdom for a settlement and discussed appointing Zhang Zixu as Central Governor of Tianxi Province.
• Little Eunuch Li arrived at the Examination Hall to ask whether the examiners had found a blank paper, then waited as grading continued.
• The first deputy examiner found a paper with every Classical Text and Practical Mathematics answer correct, along with a policy essay, poem, and fu he considered superior to Zhu Hongping’s.
• The first deputy examiner declared that the candidate whose paper he had found deserved first place, even threatening to go to the royal palace if anyone ranked him second.

The examiners discovered that Madman Lan had earned perfect scores and written extraordinary essays and poems, so Ning Yuanxian chose him for first place after learning Shen Lang had prepared the works. The chapter left the Martial Examination about to begin, while Shen Lang’s ten beggars had returned unable to ride horses and the Monarch still hoped they might surprise everyone.

• The examiners compared Madman Lan’s examination paper with Zhu Hongping’s, then sent both to Ning Yuanxian to decide their ranking.
• Ning Yuanxian recognized Zhu Hongping’s strong work but was captivated by Madman Lan’s paper and summoned Madman Lan to the palace.
• Madman Lan admitted that Shen Lang had written the essay and poems in advance, and demonstrated his photographic memory by reciting five thousand characters.
• Madman Lan wrote new works on topics Ning Yuanxian set, convincing the Monarch that his own talent could withstand scrutiny.
• Ning Yuanxian ordered the examiners to rank Madman Lan first and keep the decision secret until the list was posted.
• The ten beggars returned from training still unable to ride horses, but Ning Yuanxian continued to hope Shen Lang could produce a miracle in the Martial Examination.

Ning Zheng escorted the ten Lan brothers to the Martial Examination, where their identities were verified despite their dramatically changed appearances. Lan San and Lan Wu excelled throughout the four days, and the examination ended with only fifty of three thousand candidates passing; the results had yet to be posted.

• Ning Zheng brought the ten Lan brothers to Tianyue Hunting Ground, where examiners confirmed their identities by checking their fingerprints.
• Lan San and Lan Wu impressed the examiners in the weightlifting and foot archery tests, while most candidates were eliminated.
• Lan San and Lan Wu dominated mounted archery, though they worried that Kutou Huan would punish them for failing to kill every rabbit.
• Lan San and Lan Wu completed the final saber test on horseback without being struck, and the examiners marked both as outstanding.
• The four-day Martial Examination ended with fifty candidates passing out of three thousand, and everyone awaited the results.

The Grace Examination results revealed that Lan Ling had taken first place in the civil trial and all ten Lan Clan brothers had passed the martial trial, astonishing the examiners and the capital. Shen Lang’s wager had been won, leaving the crowd facing the penalty they had promised.

• The martial examiners discovered that all ten Lan Clan brothers had passed, with five in the top ten and all in the top twenty, and sent the results to the Monarch for approval.
• The civil examiners unsealed the top-ranked paper and learned that Lan Ling, known as Madman Lan, had taken first place ahead of Zhu Hongping.
• Monarch Ning Yuanxian ordered the civil and martial rankings posted together, declaring that fair results should be announced despite the uproar they might cause.
• Shen Lang arrived at the examination compound as the crowd prepared to collect on its wager, and he reminded them they had promised to eat ten jin of shit if his people passed.
• The posted lists showed Lan Ling as civil-trial Jieyuan and the ten Lan Clan brothers among the martial passers, proving Shen Lang had won.
• Shen Lang displayed the signed betting agreement and demanded that the crowd honor its promise.

After the examination results sparked riots and accusations of fraud, Prime Minister Zhu Hongzhu publicly backed the examination and the Monarch ordered the unrest suppressed. Shen Lang then used his list of wager-breaking thugs to have hundreds captured and forced into a cesspit, where fewer than five hundred emerged alive.

• The hooligans and failed candidates accused Shen Lang of cheating, smashed the examination compound, and tried to attack him before his Female Warriors drove them back.
• Thousands of candidates gathered at the Sacred Temple and the Central Governor's residence to protest, while Zhu Hongzhu learned that Shen Lang had written Madman Lan's examination essays and poems.
• Zhu Hongping accepted that his own work had been inferior, and Zhu Hongzhu warned him against provoking Shen Lang.
• At court, Zhu Hongzhu denounced the instigators and supported the examination results; Ning Yuanxian ordered Ning Qi, Ning Zheng, and Li En to deal with the unrest.
• Ning Qi's forces beheaded the courtesans singing at the Sacred Temple, while Ning Zheng and Shen Lang's forces arrested more than a thousand troublemaking thugs.
• Shen Lang made the captured thugs remain in a manure cesspit for a quarter of an hour, and fewer than five hundred crawled out alive.

Shen Lang’s victory over the Sacred Temple protesters was followed by Zhang Chong’s appointment as Yanzhou Deputy Governor, which politically separated him from Ning Zheng’s faction. Shen Lang secured the Monarch’s promise of two thousand troops and proposed training a new army for a border hunt, but their argument stopped when Princess Ning Han returned to the palace.

• Shen Lang left five hundred surviving hooligans and thugs after his assault on them, while the authorities executed the protest ringleaders and issued punishments that ended the Sacred Temple disturbance.
• Zhu Hongzhu rejected accusations against Zhang Chong, recommended him as Yanzhou Deputy Governor, and warned him to remain neutral and distance himself politically from Shen Lang.
• Zhang Chong accepted the post and left for Yan Province, while the Monarch appointed Lan Ling, Ku Yichen, and the Ten Lan Brothers to Ning Zheng’s newly established Changping Marquis Manor.
• Zhuo Zhaoyan explained that Madman Lan and the Ten Lan Brothers were protected Special Bloodline Bearers, and the Crown Prince ordered an arrest of Kutou Huan after learning he was alive and serving Ning Zheng.
• The Monarch agreed to give Ning Zheng two thousand troops, but Shen Lang insisted on recruiting and training a new army and proposed a border hunt against Chu Kingdom; the Monarch angrily chased him around the palace.
• Little Eunuch Li announced that Princess Ning Han had returned, and the Monarch hurried to welcome her, bringing Shen Lang along.

Princess Ning Han returned to the capital and agreed to help Monarch Ning Yuanxian with a political matter, while Shen Lang planned to build a new army from people with Zero Bloodlines using Golden Bloodline Gu Worms. The chapter ended with Ning Han visiting Shen Lang and saying she had returned specifically to find him.

• Shen Lang met Princess Ning Han, whose bloodline was remarkably close to Big Fool's, and Ning Yuanxian reunited with his daughter after years apart.
• Ning Han told Ning Yuanxian that Ying WuMing was both the Crown Prince of the Great Qian Kingdom and half the Young Master of Floating Pagoda Mountain, then agreed to handle the effort to end Ning Yan's marriage.
• Shen Lang proposed borrowing Beiyuan Hunting Ground, recruiting two thousand Zero Bloodline soldiers, and transforming them into an elite army for a coming battle against Chu Kingdom.
• Shen Lang's experiments showed that Golden Bloodline Gu Worms could transform Zero Bloodline Bearers, while people with other bloodlines died from the treatment.
• Kutou Huan punished the recently examined warriors for their poor performance, and Shen Lang learned that Chou Yao'er might have given birth.
• Ning Han visited Shen Lang and told him she had returned to the capital specifically to find him.