Chapter Summaries

After the Ming army captured the city, Otomo Tensho committed seppuku with Tachibana Risa as his second. Cao Wenzhao stopped Risa from killing herself and, after Yu Leyou’s advice, claimed her as his warrior and took her away.

• Wang Xuan’s troops overran the city wall, and Otomo Tensho was captured after losing his nerve.
• Otomo Tensho committed seppuku, and Tachibana Risa cut most of his head off as his second.
• Cao Wenzhao stopped Tachibana Risa from stabbing herself and learned she planned to die rather than become a ronin.
• Yu Leyou told Cao Wenzhao to accept Tachibana Risa’s surrender and make her his warrior.
• Cao Wenzhao declared himself Tachibana Risa’s new Daimyo and led her away.

Yu Leyou misunderstood Cao Wenzhao changing Tachibana Risa into oversized armor, then learned that Cao had fallen for her. Meanwhile, the army subdued several Japanese provinces, and an arrogant stranger confronted the guards at Duke of Wei's Estate in Nanjing.

• Yu Leyou eavesdropped on Cao Wenzhao and Tachibana Risa, mistaking their conversation about a helmet and armor for something intimate.
• Cao Wenzhao explained that he had only been changing Tachibana Risa's clothes, then admitted his interest in her and defended his past bachelorhood to Yu Leyou.
• Qi Xinghui and Di Haokuo pacified Buzen and Higo, while Cao Wenzhao spared female samurai when he could.
• An arrogant man arrived at Duke of Wei's Estate and provoked its guards, who hesitated to draw their sabers against him.
• A steward came out to investigate and silently assessed the calm stranger.

A messenger from Wang Xuan told Xu Hongji that Japan’s Kyushu Island had been conquered and was to be placed under the Duke of Wei’s control. Xu Hongji agreed to prepare a migration and travel there, but the messenger ended by raising another matter.

• A visitor from the south asked to meet Duke of Wei without giving his name, and Xu Hongji recognized that he was likely one of Wang Xuan’s people.
• Xu Hongji overruled Xu Wenjue’s order to beat the visitor and invited him to the study, where Xu Wenjue realized the visitor had withheld his name to protect the estate.
• The messenger told Xu Hongji that Wang Xuan had pacified Japan and wanted him to take possession of it, shocking Xu Hongji and Xu Wenjue.
• The messenger explained that Xu Hongji should move people, supplies, and officials, establish an army, survey resources, and build infrastructure.
• Xu Hongji asked the messenger to guide his people and agreed to travel to Japan with him, but the messenger said he had one more matter to mention.

A man representing Wang Xuan chastised Duke of Wei’s household and explained the southern reforms, prompting Duke of Wei to decide that Xu Wenjue would work for Wang Xuan. After the fleet returned from Japan with Kyushu subdued and a large haul of silver, Wang Xuan began shipping Japanese men to the Ming, leaving a disguised fat merchant packed into a foul-smelling hold.

• A visitor told Duke of Wei that his guards had insulted him and described southern laws that ended hereditary servitude and allowed commoners to own crossbows.
• Xu Wenjue objected to the reforms, so Duke of Wei ordered him to accompany him to Japan and then work under Wang Xuan under a new name.
• Duke of Wei’s fleet sailed to Kyushu, where the Ming forces completed their conquest while Wang Xuan’s other fleets traded with Japanese daimyos and returned with millions of taels in silver.
• Wang Xuan ordered Japanese men to be loaded onto ships for the Ming, and soldiers forced a disguised fat merchant to leave behind his hidden banknotes.
• The fat merchant boarded a ship crowded with men and vomited from the stench in the cargo hold.

The chapter followed the mass transport of Japanese captives to Fuzhou, where they were quarantined and forcibly castrated under Wang Xuan’s orders. Bi Yongshou recalled how Wang Xuan had assigned him to sell the removed organs as a supposed medicinal product, and the story left off as Wang Xuan’s blunt advertising slogans stunned him.

• The Fatty secured a latrine-emptying job aboard the crowded ship because it offered fresh air and an extra bowl of rice.
• The fleet delivered nearly three hundred thousand people to Fuzhou, where they were bathed, stripped, quarantined, and fed during recovery.
• After half a month, more than a thousand craftsmen began castrating the surviving men, while Bi Yongshou oversaw their arrangements.
• Bi Yongshou remembered Wang Xuan ordering him to sell the removed organs as a medicinal product called Beneficial Kidney Treasure.
• Wang Xuan recited explicit advertising slogans for the product, leaving Bi Yongshou staring at him in shock.

Bi Yongshou organized the castration of Japanese captives in Fujian and planned to sell the removed body parts as the costly supplement Beneficial Kidney Treasure, while sparing a wealthy Ming merchant for one million taels. Meanwhile, Xu Hongji arrived in Kagoshima and asked Wang Xuan where the captured Japanese were being taken.

• Wang Xuan ordered Bi Yongshou to arrange the captives’ settlement and secretly sell their removed testicles as Beneficial Kidney Treasure, setting the price at eight hundred eighty-eight taels each.
• Bi Yongshou began processing the captives in batches, while the fat man was taken for surgery and pleaded that he was a wealthy merchant from Nanzhili.
• After the fat man offered one million taels, Bi Yongshou stopped the soldiers from castrating him and arranged for him to stay in Fujian until his family sent the money.
• Xu Hongji arrived in Kagoshima, where Wang Xuan welcomed him, and Xu Hongji asked about the captured Japanese being transported there.

Wang Xuan agreed to secure the Xu Family’s rule over Kyushu Island in exchange for ten million taels of silver or millions of people, and promised to obtain official recognition within three years. He then sent forces to expand into southern Annam and Luzon Island, where an exploration team spotted something unknown.

• Wang Xuan explained that the captured Wa-Nu men would be castrated and put to work, while their removed organs could be sold as medicinal cuisine, alarming Xu Hongji and Xu Wenjue.
• After worrying that the Xu Family could not defend Kyushu Island once Wang Xuan left, Xu Hongji hired his protection, transport, equipment, construction, and training services for ten million taels of silver.
• Wang Xuan promised to secure official recognition for the Xu Family’s rule within three years, and Xu Hongji accepted the deal after Wang demonstrated his resolve by cutting a table in two.
• Wang Xuan sent Yu Leyou and Qi Xinghui with fifteen thousand troops each to eliminate the Zheng Family in southern Annam, while planning further expansion across Southeast Asia.
• Wang Xuan dispatched Qi Xuefeng with ten thousand soldiers, researchers, and special operations troops to explore and develop Luzon Island.
• A lookout on an exploration team in northern Luzon Island spotted something and called out.

Wang Xuan expanded his power overseas while Great Ming enjoyed a fragile period of stability under Emperor Taichang. He ended the chapter auctioning Shikoku Island to powerful families in exchange for a million people, despite the beggars’ resistance to being recruited.

• A foreign ship attacked the expedition team, but the Special Operations Team captured its Spanish crew with help from the researchers, and Wang Xuan ordered the prisoners hanged after questioning them.
• Thirty thousand troops sailed out to eliminate rival powers in Southeast Asia and map the region, while a separate fleet headed toward the Strait of Malacca.
• Over the following year, Emperor Wanli died and Zhu Changluo became Emperor Taichang; Wang Xuan’s trade and political influence also helped ease tensions across Great Ming and its borders.
• Wang Xuan brought all five million people overseas and began arranging land deals with Great Ming families, including a secret auction for Shikoku Island.
• The auction opened at one million people, with bidders rapidly raising the offer as Wang Xuan required them to deliver the people within a year.

After Emperor Taichang died from taking a supposed immortal elixir, Wang Xuan decided to march on the capital under the pretext of disciplining corrupt officials. He ordered troops mobilized and framed the campaign as an effort to investigate unauthorized absences and other bureaucratic misconduct.

• Wang Xuan ordered another fifty thousand soldiers recruited after Sun Chuanting reported that only sixty thousand troops were idle.
• Ye Huo reported that Emperor Taichang had died after taking a tribute Red Pill, and Wang Xuan joked about the emperor’s illness and treatment.
• Ye Huo recounted how Fang Congzhe and Han Huoguang eventually brought Li Kezhuo’s supposed immortal elixir into the palace after repeated demands from Emperor Taichang.
• Wang Xuan ordered fifty thousand troops to march on the capital and announced that they would purge the emperor’s entourage.
• Wang Xuan dictated a declaration blaming Li Kezhuo’s unauthorized absence and unlicensed medical practice, along with the Great Ming’s lax system, for Emperor Taichang’s death.

Wang Xuan sailed north with fifty thousand troops while News Weekly published his bizarre proclamation about Emperor Taichang’s death. In the capital, Fang Congzhe and the other powerful clan leaders recognized the threat to their families and agreed to resist first, then surrender and move overseas if necessary.

• Wang Xuan quietly boarded ships with fifty thousand troops and headed north after publishing his proclamation in News Weekly.
• Readers across Fuzhou and the south reacted with disbelief to the proclamation, which blamed Emperor Taichang’s death on practicing medicine without a license and skipping work.
• Fang Congzhe and the other Grand Secretariat officials realized Wang Xuan had raised an army and was sailing directly toward the capital.
• The officials discussed how Wang Xuan’s reforms would weaken their political power and threaten their families’ fortunes.
• The clan leaders decided to fight Wang Xuan first and, if defeated, surrender and relocate their families overseas.

Nurhaci and Hong Taiji negotiated with a Great Ming envoy over weapons, armor, and aid against Wang Xuan, uncovering a scheme for the envoy to profit from the deal. Meanwhile, Fang Congzhe and the cabinet sent envoys to the Jurchen people, the Tatars, and Goryeo to seek allies against Wang Xuan.

• Nurhaci questioned whether the Great Ming envoy truly represented the court and balked at sending troops into the pass without adequate benefits.
• The envoy offered weapons, armor, grain, and cloth, then bargained over the price while Manggultai accused Great Ming of lacking sincerity.
• Nurhaci ordered Hong Taiji to negotiate, and Hong Taiji arranged a deal that let the envoy secretly pocket extra money.
• After the envoy left, Hong Taiji explained the scheme to Nurhaci and the other Jurchen leaders.
• Fang Congzhe and the cabinet dispatched envoys to Nurhaci, Ligdan Khan, and Goryeo to seek support against Wang Xuan.

Wang Xuan’s forces landed at Tianjin Guard and advanced on the Capital City while Great Ming’s court assembled a vast coalition to destroy them. The chapter ended with Hong Chengchou’s heavy crossbowmen approaching the city walls and Wei Shengjin hesitating over whether to order his troops to fire.

• King Li Yuanfang pledged Goryeo’s full support to Great Ming against Wang Xuan and refused the envoy’s offer of weapons.
• Great Ming’s court mobilized the Capital Garrisons and frontier troops, while Yang Sichang kept the Guan Ning Army in reserve to attack Wang Xuan from both sides.
• Wang Xuan’s fleet arrived at Tianjin Guard, and Wei Shengjin tore up the order to stop him, deciding to let his army pass.
• Wang Xuan ordered an assault on Tianjin Guard, and Hong Chengchou led ten thousand troops toward the walls.
• Hong Chengchou’s heavy crossbowmen formed ranks within range of the battlements, leaving Wei Shengjin unsure whether his archers should fire.

Hong Chengchou’s army attacked Tianjin Guard, first wiping out its defenders with volleys of arrows and then demolishing the city wall with an enormous gunpowder blast. The city fell, its officials were captured, and Wang Xuan’s forces imposed military rule.

• Hong Chengchou announced that he had come to purge the court, then refused to persuade Wei Shengjin and Zhou Holu to surrender.
• A volley of arrows killed Zhou Holu and the defenders around him, while Wei Shengjin survived by using Zhou’s body as a shield and fled.
• Hong Chengchou’s forces planted more than ten thousand pounds of gunpowder by the city gate and detonated it, collapsing the wall and devastating both the defenders and the attackers.
• Wang Xuan warned Sun Chuanting that they should never use more than three thousand pounds of gunpowder at once.
• After Tianjin Guard fell, the army disarmed the defenders and imposed military administration; Wei Shengjin and his family were captured, and the city’s government was wiped out.

Wang Xuan waited at Tianjin Guard for the Three Borders armies to assemble, intending to defeat them with his well-equipped forces and prove that military strength mattered more than reputation or schemes. As Yuan Yingtai’s officers quietly sent word to Wang Xuan’s side, Yang He reluctantly marched toward the capital, confident his troops could crush him.

• Wang Xuan told Sun Chuanting, Hong Chengchou, Sun Chengzong, and the others that he would wait for the relief armies before attacking, and said that force—not moral arguments or reputation—decided the realm’s justice.
• Wang Xuan relied on his army’s fifty thousand crossbows, though their rapid use of costly ammunition could bankrupt the Ming treasury.
• Yuan Yingtai ordered the Guan Ning Army to stand ready to cut off Wang Xuan’s retreat, while Zu Dashou, Wu Xiang, He Shixian, and Chen Ce decided to send Wang’s side a warning.
• Yang He, pressed by the court’s orders, reluctantly ordered the Three Borders army to advance toward the capital and vowed to defeat Wang Xuan if they met.

Yang He’s army reached the capital as Wang Xuan brought fifty thousand troops from Tianjin, while Dongfang Bubai and the martial sects prepared to confront him. Dongfang Bubai rejected a covert assassination and planned to challenge Wang Xuan openly as the chapter revealed that Shaomu Temple’s Fang Zheng had secretly engineered her rise and that the court had summoned her to ensure Wang Xuan’s death.

• Yang He brought his thirty thousand troops to the capital after ravaging settlements along the way, while Wang Xuan’s fifty thousand troops traveled by grain ships from Tianjin to Tongzhou.
• Dongfang Bubai learned from Yang Lianting that her allies wanted her to disguise herself and kill Wang Xuan during the fighting, but she chose to challenge him openly instead.
• Fang Zheng told Chongxu that he would oppose both Wang Xuan and Dongfang Bubai, while Chongxu recognized that Fang Zheng was lying about her intentions.
• The chapter revealed that Fang Zheng had arranged for Dongfang Bubai to obtain the Guihua Manual in an attempt to provoke conflict within the Demon Cult.
• The great clans and the court had sent Dongfang Bubai to the capital to make sure Wang Xuan was killed.

Zuo Lengchan rallied martial-world leaders against Wang Xuan by accusing him of atrocities and claiming ten million people had been taken overseas. Linghu Chong believed the charges and called for Wang Xuan’s destruction, while Zuo Lengchan urged the gathering to plan a joint campaign.

• Fang Zheng and Chongxu parted after discussing their shared aim of killing Wang Xuan, though Fang Zheng preferred to act from behind the scenes.
• Zuo Lengchan reflected on how Linghu Chong’s reckless actions had repeatedly caused trouble for him and resolved to kill Linghu Chong during the trip to the capital.
• Zuo Lengchan told the assembled martial artists that Wang Xuan had committed horrific atrocities and sought to overthrow the Ming court.
• Zuo Lengchan swore elaborate oaths to convince the gathering that his accusations about Wang Xuan’s experiments were true.
• Leaders from Mount Tai, Mount Heng, and Huashan confirmed that people had disappeared from their regions, and Zuo Lengchan claimed they had been sent overseas.
• Linghu Chong demanded Wang Xuan’s death, and Zuo Lengchan asked the gathering to pool its strength to defeat him.

Wang Xuan landed his army at Tongzhou and launched a rapid march against Yang He's unprepared border troops. As the army gathered for battle, Dongfang Bubai and the martial leaders reacted to the news, with Chongxu and Fang Zheng rushing to see what would happen.

• Linghu Chong proposed infiltrating the Ming army and ambushing Wang Xuan, and Zuo Lengchan approved the plan.
• Wang Xuan's fifty thousand soldiers landed at Tongzhou Wharf and began marching toward Yang He's camp without resting.
• Yang He received reports that Wang Xuan's army was rapidly approaching, then ordered his disorganized troops to form up.
• Dongfang Bubai ended her cultivation with Yang Lianting and put on her red robe after hearing that Wang Xuan had attacked.
• Chongxu told Fang Zheng that Wang Xuan had surprised Yang He's army, and Fang Zheng hurried out with him to witness the battle.

Chongxu and Fang Zheng fled after being recognized, while Linghu Chong led the assembled martial artists toward Yang He's threatened camp. Wang Xuan launched a surprise attack with his fifty-thousand-man army, and Yang He's poorly trained troops faced the advancing force in terror.

• Chongxu escaped into an alley after a passerby identified his Cloud Ascending Steps, and Fang Zheng slipped into the crowd after someone recognized him as Shaolin's abbot.
• Tang Ying'e warned Zuo Lengchan and the assembled heroes that Wang Xuan had marched on Yang He's camp, and Linghu Chong led them out to respond.
• Wang Xuan assigned Hong Chengchou, Di Haokuo, and Cao Wenzhao to attack the enemy's three camps and placed Sun Chuanting in command of the reserve.
• Wang Xuan's forty thousand assault troops advanced in disciplined formation, overwhelming Yang He's unprepared soldiers with fear.

Wang Xuan’s well-equipped army routed Yang He’s three-hundred-thousand-strong force with disciplined crossbow volleys and a pursuit fueled by rewards for enemy heads. As the survivors surrendered, the martial artists watching from Capital City’s walls realized that individuals could not control a battle on this scale.

• Yang He’s front ranks panicked at Wang Xuan’s advancing steel-armored army, while Wang Xuan’s soldiers eagerly approached the enemy for the promised reward of one hundred taels per head.
• Yang He’s commanders beat the drums to force their army forward, and Wang Xuan’s troops halted in formation before firing armor-piercing crossbow bolts that devastated the charge.
• Wang Xuan ordered pursuit, and his soldiers chased down fleeing enemies while competing to collect heads for the reward.
• Wang Xuan’s soldiers stopped killing when the surrender signal sounded, but they cursed and provoked the kneeling prisoners; one soldier tricked a prisoner into standing and killed him, claiming he had tried to escape.
• Dongfang Bubai, Master Fang Zheng, and Linghu Chong’s group watched from Capital City’s wall and felt helpless before the enormous battle.

Dongfang Bubai headed for Wang Xuan’s position to kill him, while Fang Zheng and Chongxu watched Yang He’s army collapse under Wang Xuan’s crossbow barrage. Fang Zheng dragged Chongxu after Dongfang Bubai, and Linghu Chong set off to join them, leaving the three martial artists converging on Wang Xuan’s formation.

• Dongfang Bubai told Yang Lianting she would kill Wang Xuan and then leave the mortal world with him before flying toward Wang Xuan’s forces.
• Fang Zheng watched Yang He’s army charge and mistook his scripture recitation for the cause of its increased courage.
• Wang Xuan’s crossbow barrage shattered Yang He’s army without suffering any casualties, leaving Fang Zheng furious and desperate for the assassination to succeed.
• Fang Zheng seized Chongxu and leaped from the city wall to pursue Dongfang Bubai, despite Chongxu’s protests.
• Linghu Chong saw Fang Zheng and Chongxu heading toward Wang Xuan’s formation and decided to join them, while the pair sensed that trouble was approaching.