Chapter Summaries

Wang Xuan’s coercive home visit to Li Chengzuo’s household prompted the Duke of Dingguo to explain that he was investing in the students’ futures. Wang Xuan then rewarded the Guan Ning Army with land and troops, clearing the way to begin reforms by targeting the vassal princes.

• Wang Xuan punished Li Kaixian for skipping class, brought five thousand soldiers to his home, and warned Li Chengzuo that future visits might come with more notice.
• Li Chengzuo consulted the Duke of Dingguo, who argued that Wang Xuan’s attention to the students signaled their importance to Ming’s future.
• Wang Xuan ordered the Guan Ning Army commanders back to the capital, where they met him at the students’ training ground.
• Wang Xuan praised the Guan Ning Army’s past service and granted Li Rubai and the other commanders noble titles and northern fiefs, along with two hundred thousand troops and their families.
• After securing the Guan Ning Army’s loyalty, Wang Xuan turned to internal reforms and decided to cut down the vassal princes.

Wang Xuan ordered Zhu Youxiao to strip the vassal princes of their power and led the emperor and more than three hundred sons of powerful families out of the capital. After three days of punishing horseback training, the group reached a city to rest, while Wang Xuan considered the young men promising future leaders for Great Ming.

• Wang Xuan overruled Zhu Youxiao’s doubts and ordered the court to prepare to strip the vassal princes of their power.
• Wang Xuan announced the plan to the officials, then left the capital with Zhu Youxiao, five thousand cavalrymen, and more than three hundred young noblemen.
• Wei Zhongxian faced the alarmed officials and told them that Wang Xuan had taken the emperor and their sons on the expedition.
• Wang Xuan drove the group through three days of horseback travel, and the young men endured the training despite their pain.
• Wang Xuan announced a three-day rest near a city and reflected on why he believed the spoiled young men could become Great Ming’s future backbone.

Wang Xuan led Zhu Youxiao and more than three hundred young nobles into Luoyang and stormed Prince Fu’s residence to abolish the vassal prince. After Wang Xuan urged him to act, Zhu Youxiao killed Prince Fu himself, then vomited in shock.

• Wang Xuan seized Luoyang, rebuked the prefect for disregarding the separation of civil and military authority, and ordered the group to Prince Fu’s residence.
• Wang Xuan and the riders charged into the estate, where the arrogant Zhu Changxun ordered his guards to kill them.
• The three Xu brothers and the others overwhelmed Prince Fu’s household, while Wang Xuan told Zhu Youxiao that he could decide how to deal with his uncle.
• Wang Xuan suggested accusing Prince Fu of plotting rebellion and provoked Zhu Youxiao to draw his saber.
• Zhu Youxiao repeatedly stabbed Prince Fu, killed him, and vomited after seeing the bloodied body.

Wang Xuan led Zhu Youxiao on a campaign to confiscate the estates of six Ming princes, then returned to the capital as the empire grew more stable and expanded its industries and infrastructure. The chapter ended with Wang Xuan ordering farmland in Shaanxi, Gansu, and along the Yellow River returned to forests, threatening anyone who resisted.

• After Prince Fu rebelled, Zhu Youxiao killed him, and Wang Xuan reprimanded Luoyang's prefect before confiscating Prince Fu's wealth and land.
• Wang Xuan's forces reached Jining, where Prince Lu was arrested, convicted, and publicly beheaded while his family was demoted to commoners.
• Wang Xuan had Zhu Youxiao tour Jining and its surroundings, then led the group on a three-month journey through the territories of six princes.
• After the group returned to the capital, Wang Xuan sent two hundred thousand trained soldiers to the borders, and the Jurchen and Tatars withdrew or were weakened.
• Wang Xuan oversaw the expansion of factories and infrastructure, funded largely by confiscated princely wealth, and ordered farmland in Shaanxi, Gansu, and along the Yellow River returned to forests.

After three years of teaching and reform, Wang Xuan explained to Zhu Youxiao and his students how he had built support for his policies. He told the tearful students their studies were over, then assigned them a final test: permanently resolving the threat from the steppe peoples.

• Wang Xuan explained that reforms succeeded when they spread benefits, began with manageable changes, and had military power behind them.
• Wang Xuan announced that his students had completed their studies, leaving them saddened at the thought of parting from him.
• Wang Xuan reassured the students that they would not be separated forever and revealed that he had one final assignment for them.
• Wang Xuan named resolving the steppe threat once and for all as the students' graduation test, and they eagerly accepted the challenge.

Wang Xuan led Zhu Youxiao and more than three hundred noble-family heirs on a ten-thousand-man expedition to destroy Ligdan Khan and develop the grasslands. After crossing the Great Wall, Zhu Youxiao planned the campaign and ordered the army to surround a small tribe under cover of night.

• Wang Xuan explained that the expedition would begin by killing Ligdan Khan, then develop the grasslands with roads, industry, and improved livestock raising.
• Zhu Youxiao volunteered to lead the expedition, and Wang Xuan agreed to take him and the other young men along as a test of their abilities.
• The emperor and the ten-thousand-man cavalry force left the capital, causing alarm among court officials and the families of the noble heirs.
• After crossing the Great Wall, Zhu Youxiao studied the map, chose a route toward Ligdan Khan's main camp, and adjusted plans to obtain provisions along the way.
• Zhu Youxiao ordered the army to split into four units and silently surround a small tribe to prevent news of their passage from spreading.

Zhu Youxiao and Wang Xuan’s army raided several Tatar tribes, using surprise and a stampede of captured horses to avoid a prolonged fight. After discussing a plan meant to keep the tribes from warning Ligdan Khan, they rode through the night and reached the mountains near his Golden Tent.

• Zhu Youxiao’s army annihilated a small tribe, buried the dead, gathered supplies, and rested before moving on.
• After destroying five small tribes, Zhu Youxiao and Wang Xuan planned how to attack a medium-sized tribe without losing time or alerting Ligdan Khan.
• Zhu Youxiao ordered a night charge through the medium-sized tribe’s camp, and the army swept away defenders while capturing more than ten thousand horses.
• The medium-sized tribe’s chieftain let the attackers flee rather than risk pursuing them in the dark, leaving the tribe too focused on its own safety to warn Ligdan Khan.
• Wang Xuan praised Zhu Youxiao’s plan and judgment as the army rode through the night toward the Golden Tent, reaching its destination’s vicinity at dawn.

Wang Xuan’s army attacked the Tatars’ Golden Tent with giant white-phosphorus rockets, triggering fires and a massive livestock stampede. After retreating until the animals had scattered, the soldiers charged the ruined camp to attack Ligdan Khan’s forces.

• Wang Xuan reassured Zhu Youxiao before the army resumed its advance toward the Golden Tent.
• Zhu Youxiao ordered the soldiers to fire more than a thousand giant skyrockets at the approaching Tatar unit and the camp.
• The rockets ignited tents and scattered white phosphorus, while terrified livestock stampeded through the Golden Tent and threw the camp into chaos.
• Wang Xuan ordered his army to retreat from the stampede and wait for the animals to disperse.
• After about half an hour, Zhu Youxiao led the army in a charge against the devastated Golden Tent.

Wang Xuan cut through Ligdan Khan’s Golden Wolf guards and killed the khan, turning the battlefield in the Great Ming’s favor. His forces called for surrender as the surviving Tatars began to submit or flee.

• Xu Yunzhen killed a Tatar warrior while Wang Xuan spotted Ligdan Khan leading a thousand armored riders away from the fighting.
• Wang Xuan charged into the Golden Wolf unit, killing dozens of guards as Ligdan Khan fled and tried to disguise himself by removing his armor and cutting off his beard.
• Wang Xuan caught up with Ligdan Khan, beheaded him, and subdued the khan’s Wuzhui Horse.
• Wang Xuan raised Ligdan Khan’s head and called on the Tatars to surrender, prompting many to kneel while others fled.
• Zhu Youxiao and the Great Ming soldiers celebrated the victory by shouting, “Magnificent, Huaxia! Magnificent, Great Ming!”

Wang Xuan and Zhu Youxiao returned from the grasslands with captives and vast herds, while news of their victory reached Beijing. The court learned that they had defeated the Tatars and killed Ligdan Khan, leaving Li Shantang triumphant and the officials who had questioned Wang Xuan fearful.

• Wang Xuan explained to Zhu Youxiao that they were returning through Zhangjiakou to display their spoils and inspect the region for future roads and cities.
• The Zhangjiakou garrison completed its defenses before recognizing Wang Xuan's credentials, then celebrated as the captives and herds entered the pass.
• Merchants worried that the defeat of the grassland tribes would disrupt their trade, while Zhangjiakou sent a six-hundred-li victory report to Beijing.
• In the Hall of Supreme Harmony, several officials questioned Li Shantang about Wang Xuan and Zhu Youxiao's long silence, hinting that the Emperor's absence threatened the realm.
• A messenger announced that Wang Xuan and Zhu Youxiao had destroyed the Tatars' Golden Tent, beheaded Ligdan Khan, and captured thirty thousand prisoners.
• Li Shantang celebrated the victory, while the officials who had tested the waters grew fearful and joined the cries of praise.

Wang Xuan and Zhu Youxiao returned to the capital after their victory over the Tatars and were welcomed by a vast crowd. At court, Wang Xuan confronted officials who had criticized the expedition and ordered guards to seize three of them for interrogation.

• Hundreds of thousands of people welcomed Wang Xuan and Zhu Youxiao outside the capital, while officials escorted them back to the palace with the army’s meritorious officers.
• In the Hall of Supreme Harmony, officials took turns praising Wang Xuan until he told them to stop flattering him and speak practically.
• Wang Xuan claimed that Wei Zhongxian had reported the officials’ past doubts about the expedition, and Wei Zhongxian confirmed it under pressure.
• Three officials who had criticized the expedition knelt and pleaded that they had only been concerned for Wang Xuan and the realm.
• Wang Xuan accused the three officials of contradicting themselves and ordered the guards to seize them and determine whether their claims were true.

Wang Xuan intimidated the court before rewarding the families whose sons had joined the campaign against the Tatars. He granted them inheritable earldoms and territories on Java and Borneo, then hinted that any inhabitants there could be treated as Han settlers who had drifted to the islands.

• Wang Xuan reminded the officials that anyone he considered a threat could be executed, then warned that anyone obstructing his plans risked having their entire family wiped out.
• Wang Xuan dismissed the destruction of the Tatars as a modest achievement and granted the expedition’s participants inheritable earldoms.
• Wang Xuan ordered the families to divide Java and Borneo among themselves and promised them technical support from the Institute of Botany and Zoology.
• Duke of Dingguo questioned whether people already lived on the islands, and Wang Xuan ominously challenged him to provide proof.
• Duke of Dingguo understood Wang Xuan’s hint and praised him as a living sage, leaving the other officials stunned by his blatant flattery.

Wang Xuan reluctantly accepted the court’s honors, then spent decades expanding and transforming the Ming Dynasty until it dominated the world. At Mount Tai, he attempted to leave for another world, but the system found no nearby destination.

• Qi Shijiao and the Duke of Dingguo persuaded Wang Xuan to accept statues in the Confucian and Martial Temples, and he asked that his deeds not be added to textbooks.
• Wang Xuan’s statues spread across the realm as the Ming built roads and settlements across the grasslands, pacified Mongolia and Tibet, and grew its population beyond two hundred million.
• The Great Ming Scientific Research Institute advanced steam-engine technology, and Wang Xuan led campaigns and mass immigration westward and across the oceans.
• Over the following decades, the Ming expanded into Central Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, Australia, and America, while its population surpassed eight hundred million and Chinese people spread throughout the world.
• Fifty years later, Wang Xuan sat at the Fengshan altar on Mount Tai and called on the system to take him to a new world.
• The system finally responded that it had detected no new world nearby.

After spending sixty years in the Ming Dynasty, Wang Xuan accepted the system’s offer to burn his vast providence and enter a higher-level world. He endured a disorienting transition and met a flamboyantly dressed man who claimed to have accompanied him all along.

• The system urged Wang Xuan to use his accumulated providence to break through the world’s restrictions, and he agreed after requesting an impressive departure.
• Golden light, providence petals, and dancing fairies surrounded Wang Xuan as he rose from Mount Tai and vanished before Zhu Youxiao and the ministers.
• In the system space, Wang Xuan agreed to burn providence and was swept through darkness and a chaotic multicolored space into a new world.
• Wang Xuan recovered in a mountain forest, then found himself in a gray, empty expanse and heard a man call out to him.
• The man claimed he had accompanied Wang Xuan for years, and Wang Xuan angrily rejected him as a pervert.

Wang Xuan learned that the man posing as his system intended to devour him and seize his body, then tried to escape after his imagined transformations failed. The chapter ended with the enormous mouth catching and swallowing Wang Xuan whole.

• The system man revealed that he had drawn Wang Xuan into his Sea of Consciousness and explained that dying there would kill him in reality.
• The system man admitted that he had used the destiny energy Wang Xuan gathered to restore his soul and prepare for Body Seizure.
• The system man transformed into a giant fanged mouth and charged at Wang Xuan, whose attempts to summon creatures or transform himself failed.
• Wang Xuan fled through the sealed space while the system man chased him and mocked his resistance.
• The system man caught Wang Xuan and swallowed him whole.

After Big Mouth devoured Wang Xuan, Wang Xuan experienced the system man’s memories and realized the system had needed his consent to use his fortune. The memories then revealed Zhu Gou’s mortal life, and Zhu Gou emerged shaken but still himself after nearly being overwhelmed by Wang Xuan’s experiences.

• Big Mouth devoured Wang Xuan, who was forced to witness the system man’s memories without being able to interfere.
• Wang Xuan realized that his fortune belonged to him and that the system man had needed his consent to use it, including to repair his soul and prepare for the transmigration.
• Wang Xuan learned that the system man had integrated water- and earth-element laws into his body, giving him an exceptionally powerful physique.
• The memories shifted to Zhu Gou’s childhood, when demonic wind destroyed his village and Mystic Moon Sword Sect disciples rescued him and took him in after discovering his spirit root.
• Zhu Gou nearly lost himself while devouring Wang Xuan’s decades of memories, but seeing his own past helped him recover his identity.

Wang Xuan and Zhu Gou fought over whose memories and will would consume the other during Zhu Gou’s attempt at Body Seizure. Zhu Gou survived the extraordinary memories but was overwhelmed by Wang Xuan’s ordinary childhood knowledge and media, leaving him severely weakened and close to collapse.

• Wang Xuan awakened inside Zhu Gou’s Sea of Consciousness and discovered that he was devouring Zhu Gou’s memories faster than Zhu Gou expected.
• Wang Xuan taunted Zhu Gou about his name, his parents, and his unrequited love, provoking Zhu Gou into losing his temper before he resumed the memory fusion.
• Zhu Gou devoured Wang Xuan’s memories of cultivation and the years on He Ri Island, but Wang Xuan’s black mist remained unchanged as Zhu Gou’s green mist faded.
• Zhu Gou plunged into Wang Xuan’s ordinary memories and was overwhelmed by fragments of games, lessons, novels, films, and other information, forcing him to break away from the fusion.
• Wang Xuan awoke and saw that Zhu Gou was badly weakened, while Zhu Gou cursed the vast contents of Wang Xuan’s mind and struggled to hold on.

Wang Xuan repeatedly weakened Zhu Gou while trying to force him into cooperation, but Zhu Gou detonated his remaining mental energy and knocked Wang Xuan unconscious. Wang Xuan later woke up to find Doggy looming over him.

• Wang Xuan chased Zhu Gou through the Sea of Consciousness and taunted him until Zhu Gou threatened to self-destruct.
• Zhu Gou offered to become Wang Xuan's Artifact Spirit again, explaining how he had been ambushed, lost his body, and ended up on Earth.
• Wang Xuan repeatedly devoured Zhu Gou despite his pleas, demanding that he call Wang Xuan Dad and then Master.
• Zhu Gou realized Wang Xuan intended to consume him and exploded his remaining mental energy, knocking Wang Xuan unconscious.
• Doggy watched over the unconscious Wang Xuan, then Wang Xuan woke and punched at the dog's looming face.

Wang Xuan regained consciousness in Guo Bei County after absorbing Zhu Gou’s soul energy, met Doggy, and learned the Dog Demon had saved him from wolves. A Daoist attacked them with Fire Talismans, forcing Doggy to flee with Wang Xuan, while the pursuer suspected Wang Xuan was possessed by a Fierce Ghost and accelerated after them.

• Wang Xuan accidentally punched Doggy, then recognized it as a talking Dog Demon and learned it was in Guo Bei County.
• Doggy said it had killed two wolves to protect Wang Xuan, who began bleeding as his soul energy overwhelmed him.
• A Daoist attacked Wang Xuan and Doggy with a Fire Talisman, and Doggy shielded Wang Xuan from the blast.
• Wang Xuan urged Doggy to flee, so Doggy carried him through the woods while the Daoist pursued with Divine Speed Talismans.
• The Daoist suspected Wang Xuan’s soul was separated from his body and pursued them more eagerly, hoping to capture a Fierce Ghost.

Wang Xuan ambushed the Taoist, but the cultivator survived his attacks with multiple protective treasures and retaliated with an Ice Needles talisman. The chapter left Wang Xuan leaping above the attack while still trapped close to the Taoist.

• Wang Xuan told Doggy to lure the pursuing Taoist close, then pretended to lie motionless in a clearing.
• The Taoist tried to capture Wang Xuan with a jade bottle, so Wang Xuan dodged its azure light and kicked him.
• The Taoist’s protective talismans blocked Wang Xuan’s follow-up attacks, and the Taoist hurled Fire Talismans at him.
• Wang Xuan dodged the fire, summoned the Green Dragon Crescent Blade, and shattered the Taoist’s Vajra Talisman with repeated strikes.
• The Taoist’s jade pendant formed a protective cloud that stopped Wang Xuan’s blade, and the Taoist attacked with a sheet of Ice Needles.
• Wang Xuan leapt over the Ice Needles, though their chill numbed his feet.