Chapter Summaries

Sun Wukong brought the astronauts to East Continent City, where they met the earlier White Star People and learned how they had entered the Journey to the West world. He left them there to continue the scripture pilgrimage with Tang Seng and his disciples.

• Sun Wukong agreed to let the astronauts travel west with the group and told them that their compatriots had once built East Continent City.
• The group reached East Continent City and found the earlier Eastern Continent People and White Star People still living there.
• The astronauts met the White Star People, including Belang, and learned that the earlier group had entered through the Spiritual Domain and could return home by sleeping.
• Wenren Sheng understood that the earlier White Star People had entered as consciousness, while the astronauts had arrived through spacetime travel.
• Sun Wukong told the astronauts to stay in East Continent City while he and the others continued their journey for scriptures.

The astronauts split between staying in East Continent City to cultivate and continuing the journey with Tang Seng, while Belang and He Shan joined the pilgrimage. The Three-Legged Giant Bird sent them into a police-station mystery, where Belang identified the rabbit as the thief, though the missing file’s fate remained unresolved.

• The astronauts debated returning home, but most stayed in East Continent City to cultivate while Belang and He Shan continued with Tang Seng and his disciples.
• The Three-Legged Giant Bird swept Tang Seng, his disciples, Belang, and He Shan into a police station, where the Leopard Police Chief asked them to identify who stole a classified file.
• Belang questioned a rabbit, an old hen, and a Black Dog, then used the Black Dog’s account of hearing the hen lay an egg to investigate the suspects.
• Pig Eight Precepts tried to speak and lost an ear, while Tang Seng lost a nostril, revealing that speaking in the case could make them lose body parts.
• Belang concluded that the rabbit stole the hen’s egg and hid the classified file inside it, and the rabbit collapsed before insisting that the hen had staged the theft.

Wenren Sheng discovered how the Big Bear Constellation used Sun Wukong’s discontent to shatter and threaten the Journey to the West World, then restored the world and gained insight into its essence. He returned to the Eastern Continent World and entered the Three Kingdoms World, where he found a drought-stricken countryside and heard farmers preparing to flee toward the Way of Peace.

• Leopard Police Chief exposed the rabbit’s theft of the confidential document hidden inside the hen’s egg, and the group returned from the case.
• Sun Wukong and his companions continued through the Journey to the West cycle until the Three-Legged Giant Bird provoked Sun Wukong into striking the world itself and shattering it.
• Wenren Sheng gathered the fragments and restored the Journey to the West World, earning 10,000 Mystery Points after glimpsing its essence.
• Back in the Eastern Continent World, Wenren Sheng told Old Liu that people could return, then agreed with Little Illusion to visit the Three Kingdoms World.
• Wenren Sheng entered the Three Kingdoms World as a young farmer and saw that drought had withered the crops; two nearby farmers decided to leave for the Way of Peace in search of food.

Wenren Sheng sought a way to survive the drought and famine by joining Zhang Fei, and he persuaded his father and Second Brother to leave home with him. After fighting off refugees on the road, he reached Zhang Fei’s manor and impressed Zhang Fei with his knowledge and words.

• Wenren Sheng calculated that the drought made his family’s land insufficient to survive and proposed seeking refuge with Zhang Fei in Zhuo County.
• Zhao’s father agreed to let Wenren Sheng go, and Second Brother decided to accompany him.
• Wenren Sheng and Second Brother prepared wooden armor and weapons, then set out after three days.
• Wenren Sheng wounded several refugees who tried to rob them, earning a reputation as Zhao Lao San, a fighter who could face ten men.
• At Zhang Fei’s manor, Wenren Sheng told the gatekeeper that Zhang Fei harbored great ambitions and invoked Grand General He Jin’s butcher background to secure an audience.
• Zhang Fei met Wenren Sheng and Second Brother, and Wenren Sheng’s words convinced him they were more than ordinary farmers.

Wenren Sheng and Zhao Er gained Zhang Fei’s trust by discussing the coming unrest, and Wenren Sheng secured shelter for his household and the Zhao family at Zhang Family Manor. After advising Zhang Fei on his estate, Wenren Sheng persuaded him to recruit and train a small force, leaving the chapter with the troops beginning preparations under Wenren Sheng’s methods.

• Wenren Sheng explained how drought, famine, land annexation, and court infighting would soon bring chaos, and Zhang Fei welcomed him and Zhao Er to his manor.
• Zhang Fei offered Wenren Sheng and Zhao Er lodging, food, clothing, and maids, and Wenren Sheng later brought his household and the Zhao family to live at Zhang Family Manor.
• Wenren Sheng inspected Zhang Fei’s fields, pig farm, and brewing site, then offered practical advice to improve production and increase the family’s wealth.
• Wenren Sheng proposed that Zhang Fei recruit fifty men as a first unit, and Zhang Fei agreed to begin raising troops and buying horses.
• Wenren Sheng began training the village braves with well-planned supplies, varied weapons, formations, and methods based on Qi Jiguang’s military writing.

Wenren Sheng trained Zhang Fei’s household troops into armored infantry supported by a wagon camp, then resolved tensions over who commanded them by becoming Zhang Fei’s teacher. He expanded his force to ten units and prepared to build a faction in Zhuo Commandery as the Yellow Turban Rebellion approached.

• Wenren Sheng trained fifty men to fight as armored heavy infantry using wagons and throwing spears, while Zhang Fei and other family members helped manage the unit.
• The butler warned Zhang Fei that the soldiers obeyed Wenren Sheng rather than the manor, but Zhang Fei dismissed the concern and rebuked him.
• Wenren Sheng offered to leave with the unit, prompting Zhang Fei to kneel and formally take Zhao Shan as his teacher.
• Wenren Sheng made the butler manager of a distillery and used the teacher-disciple bond to establish authority within the manor.
• Wenren Sheng recruited nine more units, assigned five to Zhang Fei, and retained command of all ten while concealing them as local militia and manor guards.
• Wenren Sheng planned to raise five hundred troops and secure Zhuo Commandery before the Yellow Turban Rebellion began.

As the Yellow Turban Rebellion erupted, Wenren Sheng urged his students and Zhang Fei to organize local volunteers and build a force capable of protecting the people. Zhang Fei met Liu Bei, who joined Wenren Sheng’s army, and the volunteers reached Ji City, where Zou Jing appointed Wenren Sheng an official Captain without breaking up his troops.

• Zhang Fei rushed to Wenren Sheng after the rebellion began, and Wenren Sheng discussed why the students should enlist and build strength rather than hide or remain passive.
• Wenren Sheng ordered preparations to answer the recruitment call, and Zhang Fei went to Zhuo County to enlist, where he met Liu Bei and invited him to the manor.
• Wenren Sheng welcomed Liu Bei, appointed him deputy unit commander of the eighth unit, and showed him the manor’s disciplined force of more than five hundred soldiers.
• Wenren Sheng left three units to guard Zhang Family Manor and led the rest of the volunteers to Ji City.
• Zou Jing inspected the troops, appointed Wenren Sheng an official Captain, and issued military orders without taking over his force.

Wenren Sheng helped Zou Jing organize and train an army, then advised him to defeat Cheng Yuanzhi’s Yellow Turban force while sparing and resettling its starving followers. As the battle began, Wenren Sheng’s troops formed a fortified chariot formation to meet the advancing enemy.

• Wenren Sheng stopped Zhang Fei from killing grain officers after the army received rotten, moldy provisions, and he trained the troops in signals and basic combat drills.
• Zou Jing appointed Zhao Shan as a Military Sima after relying on his help with military affairs and supplies.
• When Zou Jing learned Cheng Yuanzhi was invading You Province with fifty thousand troops, Wenren Sheng urged him to defeat the Yellow Turbans and resettle captured followers in mountain valleys.
• Zou Jing assembled eight thousand soldiers and five thousand provision carriers, then ordered his forces to encircle Cheng Yuanzhi’s army and offer food to those who surrendered.
• Wenren Sheng led Zhang Fei, Liu Bei, and Guan Yu forward with a thousand men and ordered the chariots into a hexagonal formation as Cheng Yuanzhi’s forces charged.

Wenren Sheng’s wagon bastions broke the Yellow Turban horde’s attack and triggered a rout despite the enemy’s vast numerical advantage. Zhang Fei pursued Cheng Yuanzhi, captured him alive, and used the defeated leader to persuade the fleeing bandits to surrender.

• Wenren Sheng’s wagon formation repelled the bandits’ charges and blocked their weapons, while the defenders killed many of the attackers’ bravest fighters.
• As the wagon line advanced and the militia moved around them, the Yellow Turbans lost morale and fled; Cheng Yuanzhi retreated with his trusted followers and armored soldiers.
• Wenren Sheng warned Zhang Fei to protect himself, watch the terrain, follow scouts, and capture Cheng Yuanzhi alive, but Zhang Fei charged ahead eagerly.
• Zhang Fei’s roar scattered the fleeing bandits and terrified Cheng Yuanzhi’s guards, allowing him and his Knights to catch up with the retreating leader.
• Zhang Fei knocked Cheng Yuanzhi from his horse, had him bound, and rode across the battlefield as Cheng Yuanzhi urged the bandits to surrender.

After the victory at Ji City, Wenren Sheng refused Liu Yan’s offer of office and instead took charge of resettling forty thousand Yellow Turban prisoners in the mountains. He established ten farming settlements in Taihang Mountain, organized their defenses and supplies, and planned to expand his influence while waiting for the harvest.

• At Liu Yan’s victory banquet, Wenren Sheng refused the post of Special Carriage Attendant and volunteered to escort the prisoners to reclaim land in the mountains.
• Liu Yan appointed Wenren Sheng You Province Agricultural Colonel and supplied grain, tools, and plow oxen; Wenren Sheng organized the prisoners into eighty camps and secured more provisions.
• Wenren Sheng led the camps to Dai Commandery, gathered additional grain along the way, and settled the forty thousand people in ten valleys of Taihang Mountain.
• Wenren Sheng distributed tools and seed, established farming settlements, and trained the settlers to defend themselves, though more than two thousand people died during the journey and resettlement.
• Wenren Sheng continued teaching and drilling troops across the valleys, built a central base for weapons and grain, and traded farming methods for more supplies while awaiting the autumn harvest.

In Dai Commandery, Wenren Sheng consolidated support among his followers by declaring a strategy of building strong defenses and stockpiling grain while avoiding an open claim to power. Liu Bei and his companions remained wary of Wenren Sheng’s ambitions, and Wenren ordered them watched but not punished for now.

• Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Jian Yong discussed Wenren Sheng’s military preparations and suspected that he intended to establish an independent domain, while Liu Bei stayed to learn from him.
• A wine attendant overheard the conversation and warned the Troop Pacification Officer, who sent Wenren Sheng a report through a secret channel.
• Wenren Sheng consulted his students, then declared that he would build high walls, store abundant grain, and claim the throne slowly, winning his confidants’ submission.
• Wang De proposed charging Liu Bei’s group with the Crime of Slowing the Army, but another student argued that their private remarks had not yet caused harm.
• Wenren Sheng ordered Liu Bei and his companions kept under strict surveillance without charges, since they had not spread their claims or violated an established regulation.

Ten months after entering the Taihang Mountains, Wenren Sheng reviewed the new mountain settlements’ harvest, population, military, workshops, trade, and administration. Their growing organization had secured food and armed strength, and Wenren Sheng left them prepared to expand as the Han Dynasty continued toward collapse.

• Wenren Sheng addressed the mountain stronghold, warning that the Yellow Turbans’ defeat would not restore stability and that a greater crisis awaited the Han Dynasty.
• An agricultural student reported that the settlements had grown to more than 123,000 people, reclaimed 800,000 mu, and harvested about one million shi of grain.
• Zhang Fei reported that his forces had trained 9,200 elite soldiers, suppressed bandits, cleared more than two hundred bands, and seized valuables worth fifty million coins.
• The handicraft students reported expanding workshops that produced steel, iron, armor, weapons, and other goods using windmills and waterwheels.
• The commercial students reported establishing five trading firms and nine routes, while the miscellaneous trades students described their work in transport, communications, and uncovering corruption.

Liu Bei left Wenren Sheng after ten months of studying his methods and took provisions and capable followers to serve as Magistrate of Pingyuan County. As Wenren Sheng expanded his influence in Taihang Mountain, the Qinghe Cui Clan debated whether his policies threatened their power and livelihood.

• Liu Bei completed ten months of study with Wenren Sheng, then left for Pingyuan County with three hundred followers, wine, and grain.
• Wenren Sheng bought prefectural posts near Taihang Mountain, appointed his students to office, and continued gathering refugees and developing the mountain stronghold.
• Lu Zhi warned a friend that Wenren Sheng was a hidden threat whose power could become impossible to stop.
• Wenren Sheng improved transport through the mountain valleys by slowly building wooden railways while preserving the forests and soil.
• The Qinghe Cui Clan discussed Wenren Sheng's growing power, and the family head warned that his teachings could draw tenants away and undermine the clan's foundations.

Cui Cheng sought the Xun family's advice on how to counter Wenren Sheng, whose Taihang Mountain power was growing rapidly. The Xun strategists judged that he would be difficult to defeat and debated whether rival leaders could adopt his methods, leaving Cui Cheng aware of how far the Cui family lagged behind them.

• The Cui Family Head rejected Cui Cheng's ideas of assassinating Mount Taihang Person or inviting Gongsun Zan to attack, then sent Cui Cheng to consult the Yingchuan Xun Family.
• Xun Yu and Xun Chen assessed Wenren Sheng's growing strength and argued that the Xun family should learn from him, while Cui Cheng insisted that he threatened the great clans.
• Xun Chen explained that the court and local forces were too distracted or weak to stop Wenren Sheng, and he dismissed Sun Jian as an inadequate opponent in the northern mountains.
• Xun You proposed that Wenren Sheng's youth and shallow reputation would make him vulnerable when he left the mountains, allowing rivals to learn his methods and turn against him.
• Xun Chen challenged Xun You, arguing that great-clan leaders could not fully adopt Wenren Sheng's methods, and Xun You named Cao Cao as a potential leader who might try.

Xun You and the other Xuns concluded that the Yuan family had lost its chance to control Ji Province and that Cao Cao might oppose Mount Taihang Person by building power in Yi Province. The four men then visited the mountain fortress, where its registration and grain systems revealed how Mount Taihang Person governed and controlled the population.

• Xun You explained that Mount Taihang Person’s troops and influence across the provinces gave him the advantage, while Cao Cao’s courage and wealth might make him a rival.
• Xun You proposed that Cao Cao establish himself in Yi Province and gain military and civilian authority for its governor, and the group agreed that Liu Yan could submit the proposal.
• Xun Chen chose to join Mount Taihang Person, and Xun You and the others decided to go with him; half a month later, the four arrived at the Wild-Rank Wind-Character Mountain Fortress.
• At the fortress, Xun Yu argued with a registrar who miswrote his name, and the group received identity Bamboo Books and learned how the household registration system tracked residents.
• The four learned that Grain Ledgers limited grain purchases and hoarding, while Mount Taihang Person collected and resold grain at a fixed price through an Ever-Normal Granary and encouraged secret reports to restrain powerful clans.

Wenren Sheng taught Xun Yu, Xun You, and the other students that people should choose worthy rulers and replace unworthy ones, challenging the traditional hierarchy. After the lesson, Hua Xin embraced the idea, while Xun Yu feared it would bring disorder and struggled to defend the old system.

• Wenren Sheng argued that rulers and people were equal and that the people could replace an unworthy ruler, prompting Xun Yu to defend ministers’ duty to guide rather than depose the emperor.
• Wenren Sheng compared rulers to children who could be corrected and argued that land annexation and popular suffering—not the loss of hierarchy—caused chaos.
• Wenren Sheng proposed choosing rulers by worthiness and relocating surplus population to lands beyond the realm, leaving the students stunned by his vision.
• After the lesson, Xun You praised Wenren Sheng’s system, while Guan Ning urged Xun Yu to abandon teachings that failed to save the people.
• Hua Xin declared that the people should decide who was worthy and accused Xun Yu of wanting to control them, then left the lodgings.
• Xun You argued that a ruler chosen by the people would have to serve them, leaving Xun Yu unable to answer as he considered the corruption of the current court.

Xun Yu learned from Wenren Sheng that material conditions and accessible weapons could help restrain hereditary rule, though no certain solution existed. Meanwhile, Cui Cheng joined Cao Cao and used what he had learned to help him seize control of Yi Province and begin building regional power.

• Xun Yu concluded that Xun You supported Mount Taihang Person because his system offered talented people a chance to rule, and he questioned how it could prevent hereditary succession.
• Wenren Sheng explained that Qi had defeated Bo Yi because Da Yu’s position gave him access to scarce bronze weapons, and Guan Ning argued that widely available weapons could help restrain hereditary rule.
• Xun Yu and the other students accepted that material conditions mattered, though Wenren Sheng admitted that no guaranteed answer existed.
• Cui Cheng left Wenren Sheng’s school after a month and went to serve Cao Cao, urging him to pursue regional power.
• Cao Cao and Cui Cheng arranged for Cao Cao to obtain the office of Provincial Inspector of Yi Province and persuade Liu Yan to support turning the office into that of Provincial Governor.
• Cao Cao’s clan arrived in Yi Province, and he sent a clan member to stir up trouble in Hanzhong and obstruct the roads.

Cui Cheng advised Cao Cao on commerce and craftsmen, but Cao Cao’s policies drove many craftsmen toward Taihang Mountain and sharpened their conflict with Wenren Sheng. As Cui Cheng urged an attack on Wenren Sheng, scholars debated his teachings, and Kong Rong openly defended equality between parents and children.

• Cao Cao rejected suppressing merchants after Cui Cheng explained how trade could connect the rich’s surplus grain with the poor’s labor, and he allowed merchants to serve as officials under the law.
• Cao Cao ordered weapons and armor makers to be executed after three cases of inferior work, prompting craftsmen to lose motivation and flee toward Taihang Mountain.
• Cao Cao learned that merchants were spreading accounts of Taihang Mountain as a prosperous, equal refuge and ordered escapees’ families detained to stop further departures.
• Cui Cheng urged Cao Cao to denounce Wenren Sheng’s teachings as rebellion and rally the realm against him after hearing that Taihang Mountain forces had established forts in Ji Province.
• Cui Cheng stirred a debate among scholars, and Kong Rong argued that parents and children should be equal and rejected ritual teachings that demanded children submit to their parents.

Kong Rong explained that his rejection of extreme filial piety was meant to correct distortions of Confucius’s teachings, while Xun You recognized his principles and considered how a ruler should be restrained. Later, Wenren Sheng taught empirical medicine and double-blind testing as students discussed powerful clans’ attacks on his lectures.

• Kong Rong defended the view that parents and children were equal individuals and rejected demands for unconditional obedience in the name of filial piety.
• Xun You met Kong Rong and Mi Heng, understood Kong Rong’s position, and heard him explain that he opposed later generations’ distortion of Confucius’s teachings.
• Kong Rong argued that the Han emperor should be replaced by a worthy member of the Liu Family, while Xun You reflected on the dangers of rulers holding power too long.
• Wenren Sheng lectured on the human body, medicine, and the need to test treatments through comparison, experimentation, and double-blind trials.
• Xun Chen asked how Wenren Sheng would respond to attacks from powerful clans and famous scholars, and Wenren Sheng said those critics still used his practical teachings.

Xun You proposed letting rival lords and clans weaken one another while Wenren Sheng built strength in Taihang Mountain by treating people equally and attracting talent. The strategists then assessed the realm’s potential rulers, concluding that Cao Cao was the strongest future rival as the chapter ended.

• Xun You urged Wenren Sheng to develop Taihang Mountain, win the common people’s support, and absorb talent from rival territories while their lords fought.
• Xun Yu recognized Xun You’s ambition and reflected that Wenren Sheng sought to change people’s ideas rather than rely on military force alone.
• Wenren Sheng asked the students to identify the realm’s heroes, and Guo Jia argued that Cao Cao would become the foremost lord.
• Guo Jia dismissed Yuan Shao’s prospects because Wenren Sheng had taken Ji Province, and he explained why Liu Biao, Liu Yan, and Liu Yu were unlikely to become major threats.
• Guo Jia predicted that Gongsun Zan’s soldiers would turn against him and said Sun Jian lacked the governing ability and flexibility to hold Jiangdong.
• Guo Jia praised Cao Cao for adopting Wenren Sheng’s policies, accepting advice, and recruiting talented people regardless of family background.