Recaps

Min Zimo told Gu Jinzhi, Zeng Yi, and Li Wei that the Sky-Gazing Mirror seemed to have changed, giving them unexpectedly high cultivation and exposing him to a village-wide blood sacrifice. He ended by revealing that a blood-red bead had entered his body and was rapidly raising his cultivation toward the Fourth Order.

• Min Zimo described waking as a low-ranking Jing Army soldier despite possessing Third Order cultivation, and suspected the Sky-Gazing Mirror had changed.
• Min Zimo reasoned that Li Wei's Fourth Order cultivation and the group's other unusual strengths suggested the mirror's power system had been altered.
• Min Zimo explained that he delayed reaching Jade Capital after killing a gentry lord who had planned a Wicked Sacrifice of two children.
• Min Zimo said he woke after sleeping in the village to find everyone gone, then discovered their white skeletons in the ancestral hall.
• Min Zimo revealed that a blood-red bead from a blood pattern flew into his body, raising his cultivation to the peak of the Third Order and potentially to the Fourth within ten days.

Min Zimo reported a mysterious village massacre and his impending breakthrough, prompting Gu Jinzhi to enlist him to command the Central Plains campaign. Li Wei disappeared from the pavilion after Min Zimo mentioned that Su Mo might know how to make guns and cannons.

• Min Zimo described the slaughtered village near Mount Bajing, and Li Wei resolved to investigate it after returning from Fengjing.
• Gu Jinzhi ordered Zeng Yi to contact his grandfather outside the Sky-Gazing Mirror, while Zeng Yi claimed the Zeng Family could send messages out.
• Gu Jinzhi told Min Zimo that Su Mo was gravely ill in a Tong County clinic and could not safely be moved to Yu Capital.
• Min Zimo confirmed he was nearing the Fourth Order and promised to quell the Central Plains rebellion within a year if given troops.
• Gu Jinzhi appointed Min Zimo Imperial Envoy and commander of military affairs in four provinces, and Li Wei vanished from the pavilion after Min Zimo mentioned Su Mo's knowledge of guns and cannons.

Gu Jinzhi explained why he had sent Min Zimo away from Yujing, while Li Wei flew to Tong County to find the gravely ill Su Mo. She treated him and ordered that he be taken to the capital once he recovered, but Su Mo lost consciousness again before hearing her full instructions.

• Gu Jinzhi told Zeng Yi that transferring Min Zimo would remove a possible threat from Yujing and that mentioning Great-Grandpa Zeng might force Min Zimo to act rashly.
• Li Wei flew to Tong County, landed out of sight, and used her mental power to locate Su Mo at a clinic surrounded by Imperial Guards.
• The guards recognized Li Wei as Heavenly Mother Madam and knelt as she entered the clinic and went to Su Mo's sickroom.
• Li Wei asked Su Mo whether he knew how to make guns and cannons, then infused him with a healing current that made him vomit black blood and eased his pain.
• Li Wei ordered that Su Mo be escorted to the capital after he recovered, but he lost consciousness before hearing the rest.

Li Wei approved Min Zimo’s appointment to lead the campaign against the bandits in the four provinces, while Gu Jinzhi arranged support for him and delayed Li Wei’s departure until Min left the capital. After seeing Min off, Li Wei flew northeast toward Fengjing City to deal with the barbarians.

• Li Wei approved the decree appointing Min Zimo Minister of War and General Commander of the Four Provinces' Campaign Against the Bandits.
• Gu Jinzhi arranged for Xu Yuncheng to serve as Governor of the Four Provinces and Grain Superintendent, and planned for Min Zimo to travel with Fu Man and Warrior Camp soldiers.
• Three days later, Gu Jinzhi and the officials saw Min Zimo off from Guang'an Gate with an imperial procession and three hundred elite cavalrymen.
• Min Zimo set out with the procession, intending to break through to the fourth rank and then rush ahead alone to lift the siege of Fengzhou.
• Li Wei said she would leave to deal with the barbarians, then flew northeast from the city wall toward Fengjing City.

Wuerhan gathered his army on the Hun River Plain to launch a southern expedition against Great Jing, but Li Wei suddenly appeared and killed him. Fan Jizhou begged Li Wei for mercy on behalf of Wuzhen, leaving the assembled nobles realizing the terrifying rumors about her might be true.

• Wuerhan addressed nearly a hundred thousand allied troops and raised his saber to rally them against Great Jing.
• Li Wei descended onto the platform, beheaded Wuerhan, and kicked his corpse down the steps.
• Li Wei froze and shattered more than two hundred White Armored Soldiers with a single strike of Sword Qi, also killing Wuzhen officials and Manggu princes nearby.
• Fan Jizhou rushed forward, knelt before Li Wei, and begged for mercy in the Great Jing Official Language.
• The Wuzhen and Manggu nobles recognized Li Wei as the Heavenly Mother Madam and stared at her in despair.

Li Wei forced the barbarian nobles to choose between surrendering and keeping their queues, then slaughtered the Snow Python Banner soldiers who resisted. As the survivors cut off their queues and submitted, a purple-black mist left Duoduo’s body and entered Li Wei, granting her Abyss Essence.

• Li Wei rejected Fan Jizhou’s plea for surrender on ordinary terms and declared that the barbarians had to choose between keeping their heads or their hair.
• Duoduo refused to cut his queue and rallied Snow Python Banner soldiers to attack Li Wei, who severed the rebels and destroyed thousands of soldiers with Sword Qi.
• Nartai cut off his queue and knelt before Li Wei, prompting the other nobles to do the same.
• Purple-black mist emerged from Duoduo’s corpse, entered Li Wei, and gave her ten Abyss Essence.

Li Wei absorbed Purple-Black Mist from possessed Wuzhen soldiers and a mass death in the army, then ordered Fan Jizhou and Nartai to investigate before returning to Yujing. Meanwhile, a being possessing Min Zimo realized its plans were unraveling and abandoned his body as a Buddha Face made of mist.

• Li Wei killed Wuzhen nobles and absorbed Purple-Black Mist, gaining Abyss Essence and feeling her spirit soul grow stronger.
• Thousands of soldiers in the Wuzhen army withered into skeletons as Purple-Black Mist poured from them, and Li Wei absorbed much of it while destroying anything in her path.
• Li Wei ordered Fan Jizhou and Nartai to investigate the mist and report to Yujing, then flew back to the city.
• Min Zimo’s cultivation fell, and a possessing being took control of his body while sensing trouble with its plans and its lost power in Wuzhen.
• The being abandoned Min Zimo and emerged as a Buddha Face of Purple-Black Mist, leaving him unconscious in the carriage.

After absorbing the Purple-Black Mist, Li Wei regained her mental clarity and told Gu Jinzhi and Zeng Yi what had happened. They suspected the Great Dream Cult had planted a high-ranking member in the Sky-Gazing Mirror, and Li Wei proposed striking first.

• Li Wei flew back to Yujing City, worried about the Purple-Black Mist but embarrassed by her recent reckless behavior.
• In the Imperial Study, Li Wei recounted her experience, and Gu Jinzhi recognized the mist as resembling phenomena he had seen on dead cultists.
• Li Wei and Zeng Yi realized the Great Dream Cult might be involved, and Gu Jinzhi suspected the cult had used Min Zimo to send a powerful member into the Sky-Gazing Mirror.
• Zeng Yi said they could leave the Mirror only by dying, waiting for time to expire, or being pulled out by his family, but Li Wei and Gu Jinzhi rejected risking death.
• Li Wei proposed that they stop hiding their strength and strike first against the intruder.

Li Wei returned to the Imperial Study with unconscious Min Zimo, but the entity she pursued had escaped; she and Gu Jinzhi planned to investigate the Great Dream Cult. The Great Dream Split-Spirit hid inside an old shrine painting, only to find the villagers replacing it with a portrait of Li Wei.

• Li Wei reassured Gu Jinzhi and Zeng Yi, then left to track the entity connected to Min Zimo.
• Gu Jinzhi told Li Wei to assess the entity's strength and warned her to stay safe before she set out.
• Li Wei returned over an hour later with unconscious Min Zimo and said she had found no sign of the entity.
• Li Wei said she would question Min Zimo, await the investigation into Wu Zhen, and focus on the Great Dream Cult.
• The Great Dream Split-Spirit hid in a shrine painting in Kaoshan Village, but a husband and wife arrived to replace it with a new portrait of Li Wei.

After Min Zimo woke, Gu Jinzhi deduced that the purple-black mist and its followers were tied to a bodhisattva’s Wish power, which Li Wei set out to weaken in Wuzhen. Meanwhile, Zeng Jianguo and Zeng Aijia watched the Sky-Gazing Mirror return to normal as the remaining mist dissipated.

• Min Zimo told Gu Jinzhi, Li Wei, and Zeng Yi that the purple-black mist was linked to an evil god’s faith and could not leave Wuzhen.
• Min Zimo recalled that his cultivation had fallen when Jiang Xue disrupted events in Wuzhen Kingdom, and Gu Jinzhi sent Jiang Xue to search for the village he had described.
• Jiang Xue searched villages near Mount Bajing and Floating Cloud Pass but found only abandoned ruins, leading Gu Jinzhi to conclude that Min Zimo’s village and Wicked Sacrifice had been a dream.
• Gu Jinzhi explained that the bodhisattva’s Wish power had strengthened Min Zimo and that disrupting her believers would weaken her, so Jiang Xue flew off to Wuzhen to hunt them.
• Min Zimo asked what Order Jiang Xue was, while Zeng Jianguo and Zeng Aijia observed the Sky-Gazing Mirror’s purple-black mist nearly disappear.

Li Wei led Wuzhen Kingdom’s Great Cleanup, recovering her soul while helping Great Jing strengthen its military and advance the New Policies. The capital celebrated a bumper harvest, but nobles who mocked the reforms were swiftly arrested and their clans destroyed.

• Li Wei and Wuzhen’s nobles hunted down more than twenty thousand Great Dream Cult followers, restoring her soul and gaining 39,243 Abyss Essence.
• Min Zimo traveled south to Central Plains to assume his post, while Su Mo joined the Ministry of Works and developed a Flintlock Gun.
• Li Wei tested Su Mo’s new gun and demanded a water-cooled heavy machine gun, but Gu Jinzhi steered the discussion toward practical cannons and future technology.
• Gu Jinzhi advanced the New Policies, recalled the Floating Cloud Iron Cavalry for reorganization, and Zeng Yi led their firearm modernization.
• The Capital Region enjoyed a bumper harvest, and nobles who mocked the reforms as blood-soaked were seized, their homes searched, and their clans exterminated.

In a wild shrine, Buddha Face summoned the Blood Ancestor and bargained for its help in raising its strength. The Blood Ancestor agreed to prepare a basic Blood Array that could make Buddha Face a sixth-tier existence, and Buddha Face ordered it to remain ready for its summons.

• Buddha Face emerged from the Mountain Lord statue and used its remaining power to transform a blood bead into a more potent form.
• The Blood Ancestor mocked Buddha Face, then demanded a reward before agreeing to help.
• Buddha Face offered the Blood Ancestor thirty-three Mirror Worlds after attaining the Dao, and the Blood Ancestor accepted.
• The Blood Ancestor explained that it needed seventh-tier authority to establish a Blood Array, while the realm's limit was only the peak of the sixth tier.
• Buddha Face accepted a basic Blood Array and ordered the Blood Ancestor to wait for its summons and break through the realm's restrictions.

Min Zimo refused to flee Fengzhou City and prepared to hold it until the Empress arrived, while Peng Lianhu planned to storm the city and learned that an immortal promised him eternal life in exchange for sacrificing a million people.

• Xu Yuncheng and Fu Man urged Min Zimo to escape through the remaining gap in the rebel encirclement, but Min Zimo refused and ordered them to hold the city for the Empress.
• Min Zimo recalled how he had earned the defenders' respect by fighting beside them and declared that they would wipe out the bandits in one fell swoop.
• Peng Lianhu assigned Zhang Meng, Ma Biao, Liu Tao, and the other rebel leaders to attack Fengzhou's gates the following morning, promising them three days of plunder.
• Peng Lianhu asked the voice of an immortal whether it could make him immortal, and the voice promised to help him ascend if he built an Ascension Altar and sacrificed a million people.

Li Wei watched Yujing's people celebrate her return and began to accept that their gratitude reflected the good she had done. As the people acclaimed her as “Long live Madam,” she answered their cheers, while Lu Zhenyan wept and declared that the Great Harmony World would be achieved.

• Gu Jinzhi told Li Wei that the people's celebration reflected the light she had brought into their lives, and she let him hold her hand.
• Li Wei teased Gu Jinzhi about the meaning of “Zitong” and made him blush by joking about being held.
• After the fireworks ended, the people of Yujing shouted “Long live Madam,” and Li Wei withdrew her hand and raised both arms to answer, “You too long live!”
• The ministers and nobles on Chengtian Gate reacted to Li Wei's voice, while Lu Zhenyan wept, then laughed and proclaimed that the Great Harmony World would be achieved.

Min Zimo investigated a strange platform being built outside Fengzhou City while Peng Lianhu prepared to activate the Blood Array hidden beneath it. In Yujing, Li Wei was suddenly enveloped by a white lotus as the stars shifted and springlike growth spread throughout the city.

• Min Zimo saw an earthen platform rising beyond Fengzhou City and ordered Commander Zhou to watch it after Xu Yuncheng warned him not to investigate alone.
• Peng Lianhu questioned whether the crude Ascension Platform could work, and the Blood Ancestor explained that it concealed the Blood Array beneath its surface.
• Li Wei told Gu Jinzhi she was leaving for Fengzhou to pacify the bandits and find the Bodhisattva.
• The night sky blazed and the stars shifted before a white lotus formed around Li Wei, preventing Gu Jinzhi from reaching her.
• A fragrant light spread from the lotus, and flowers bloomed and green shoots appeared across Yujing.

Li Wei relived a childhood memory of defending Li Cheng before the story returned to Gu Jinzhi and Zeng Yi as the lotus’s power transformed the capital. The chapter ended with an urgent report that sixty thousand bandits had surrounded Fengzhou and a request for Madam to lead a campaign against them.

• Li Wei rushed to defend Li Cheng from bullies at the orphanage, was beaten, and told Li Cheng he treated him well because he was his underling.
• The lotus’s vital breath pushed Gu Jinzhi and Zeng Yi to the peak of the Third Order, leaving them worried about the unprecedented breakthrough.
• Gu Jinzhi told the court that the Empress’s cultivation caused the celestial signs and ordered officials not to spread panic.
• Reports revealed that spring and flowers had returned across the area around Yujing City, drawing crowds of worshippers and halting the city’s daily routines.
• Zeng Yi reported that the troops remained loyal, while he and Gu Jinzhi questioned the scale of the celestial upheaval.
• Wei Xun delivered an urgent report that sixty thousand roving bandits had surrounded Fengzhou and requested Madam’s aid.

Li Wei tried to feed and reassure Li Cheng, who asked to be sent to an orphanage and wondered why Li Wei treated him so well. Meanwhile, Gu Jinzhi left the capital with the Floating Cloud Iron Cavalry to aid Fengzhou, entrusting Jiang Xue’s protection to Zeng Yi.

• Li Wei shared rice with Li Cheng at a fast-food restaurant, despite having little food for himself.
• Li Cheng asked Li Wei to take him to an orphanage, but Li Wei refused and promised to care for him.
• Li Cheng worried that Li Wei had spent his savings on his medical treatment, and Li Wei boasted that he would marry Jiang something-or-other Xue and take Li Cheng to America for treatment.
• Su Mo reported to Gu Jinzhi that the army had too few firearms and cannons to make a decisive difference.
• Gu Jinzhi explained that the rebels’ alliance might involve the Great Dream Bodhisattva and said he would not abandon Min Zimo or Jiang Xue.
• Zeng Yi promised to protect Jiang Xue, and Gu Jinzhi rode south with more than thirteen thousand Floating Cloud Iron Cavalry as the capital’s people saw him off.

Li Wei struggled to understand her grief after completing her mother's household registration, while Min Zimo fought through the eighth day of the siege and feared Fengzhou would soon fall. The chapter left Min Zimo hoping Miss Jiang would arrive before the bandits attacked again.

• Li Wei signed the paperwork for her mother's household registration and kept the clipped corner of her mother's identity card as a memento.
• Li Wei broke down in tears, but Li Cheng's question about why she was sad made her wonder whether she should grieve her mother's death.
• Min Zimo repelled two of Peng Lianhu's third-tier generals, killing one and wounding the other, then continued defending the wall.
• The bandits withdrew at dusk, leaving Fengzhou's defenders exhausted and surrounded by the dead and wounded.
• Fu Man asked Min Zimo whether his letter had reached Madam, but Min Zimo remained silent and studied the growing earthen platform outside the city.
• Min Zimo recovered his strength and hoped Miss Jiang would arrive before Fengzhou fell in another assault.

Li Wei struggled through a nightmare of overlapping voices while Min Zimo ordered Fengzhou’s defenders to abandon the burning outer city and retreat into the inner city. Gu Jinzhi led the Floating Cloud Iron Cavalry to Fengzhou, where they charged the besieging bandits at dawn.

• Li Wei endured a dark nightmare filled with voices and fragmented memories before stumbling through a wicker gate into the night.
• Min Zimo ordered the defenders to abandon Fengzhou’s outer city, burn its supplies and homes, and fortify the inner city.
• Gu Jinzhi led the Floating Cloud Iron Cavalry south of Fengzhou, where they armored up and waited for dawn to attack.
• Scouts reported that Fengzhou’s inner city still resisted but remained surrounded by bandits, and Mao Dayou urged Gu Jinzhi to destroy the enemy camps and supplies.
• At sunrise, Gu Jinzhi rallied the cavalry and led their charge down the hill toward the bandits surrounding Fengzhou.

Min Zimo and the defenders of Xuan City received a dramatic morale boost when Great Jing reinforcements sounded their horns and appeared on the horizon. In a separate vision, Li Wei realized that she was simply herself before the courtyard dissolved into white light.

• Min Zimo killed an enemy general who had severed Fu Man’s arm, but more rebels climbed the wall during the delay.
• Yang Chengdong pulled Xu Yuncheng away from the fighting, and they briefly reflected on their past failure to unite.
• Great Jing cavalry arrived from the southeast, and the surviving defenders cheered as their fighting spirit returned.
• Li Wei awoke in a courtyard beside Li Cheng, and the siblings teased and played together on the swings.
• When Li Cheng repeatedly asked why she was there again, Li Wei questioned who she was and concluded that she was simply herself.
• The courtyard and everything in it faded and shattered as white light engulfed Li Wei.

Peng Lianhu sacrificed Jiao Ping and his guards to complete his transformation into a colossal six-armed female figure on a blood lotus. Gu Jinzhi recognized the Great Dream Bodhisattva and ordered a retreat, but the army was trapped beneath her overwhelming pressure.

• Peng Lianhu killed Jiao Ping and absorbed the blood of his personal guards as he claimed to have become immortal.
• A blood cocoon formed around Peng Lianhu and burst, revealing a giant six-armed figure rising on a blood-red lotus platform.
• Gu Jinzhi and Mao Dayou led the Floating Cloud Iron Cavalry through the bandit army's eastern formation.
• Gu Jinzhi saw the giant and realized the cavalry's bloody charge had helped usher the Great Dream Bodhisattva into the world.
• Gu Jinzhi ordered the army to retreat, but the Bodhisattva's pressure brought down the horses and immobilized the soldiers.

A radiant lotus blossomed over Jianji Hall, rejuvenating the people of Yujing and revealing a woman who Zeng Yi urged to save Gu Jinzhi and Min Zimo. In Fengzhou, the Great Dream Bodhisattva attacked the two captives, but a blinding light stopped His strike and made Him cry out, “Martial... Immortal???”

• The lotus above Jianji Hall began to bloom, and Zeng Yi felt a strange itch as he watched.
• Lu Zhenyan, Wen Boyuan, Shi Weizhen, and Xia Heng regained their youth as the lotus’s light spread across Yujing and healed people throughout the city.
• The lotus fully opened and revealed a woman, whom Zeng Yi begged to hurry to Fengzhou and save Gu Jinzhi.
• The Great Dream Bodhisattva rose over Fengzhou, killed nearly one hundred thousand of Peng Lianhu’s soldiers, and summoned Gu Jinzhi and Min Zimo before Him.
• The Great Dream Bodhisattva threatened to kill Gu Jinzhi and Min Zimo and swung His blade at them.
• A dazzling white light dispelled the blood-red clouds and halted the Great Dream Bodhisattva’s strike, prompting Him to recognize a Martial Immortal.

Li Wei destroyed Dàmèng and healed the Jing Army, then spent three years helping Great Jing prosper with Gu Jinzhi. As the pair departed the Sky-Gazing Mirror, replacement versions of them remained on the throne, and Li Wei realized she was destined to keep contending with the scholars and gentry for ages.

• Li Wei’s white light annihilated Dàmèng and his blood lotus, freed Gu Jinzhi and Min Zimo, and restored the wounded Jing Army as the battlefield hailed her as Heavenly Mother Madam.
• Li Wei wondered why Dàmèng had yielded only a modest amount of Abyss Essence after she returned to Jianji Hall in Yujing City.
• Three years later, Lu Zhenyan reported Great Jing’s advances in railways, schools, industry, and revenue before asking whether Li Wei and Gu Jinzhi would return to the Heavenly Palace.
• Gu Jinzhi confirmed their departure, named Prince Ding as successor, and urged Lu Zhenyan to support the new ruler and continue the New Policies.
• When time froze, Li Wei and Gu Jinzhi left their bodies and flew away, but new versions of them appeared on the throne as the world resumed.
• The new Li Wei told Lu Zhenyan that she would have to contend with the scholars and gentry for ten thousand or even eighty thousand years.

After three years in the Sky-Gazing Mirror, Min Zimo, Su Mo, and Zeng Yi each faced the test’s offer to ask one question before leaving. Their questions about Jiang Xue and Shen Yaochi received answers that left them with very different reactions.

• Min Zimo waited in his courtyard to leave the Sky-Gazing Mirror, then asked whether he could repay Jiang Xue for her kindness and was told no repayment was necessary.
• Su Mo stopped work on his unfinished water-cooled heavy machine gun and asked whether Jiang Xue and Gu Jinzhi could grow old together; the answer was no, and he celebrated.
• Zeng Yi, who had taken up fortune-telling after leaving palace service, asked whether he could win Shen Yaochi over and was told that he could in dreams.

Li Wei returned to the Jiang family home two days before her wedding to Gu Jinzhi, weighing her new system progress and saving her points for the Western Frontier. She reunited with Jiang Yunshu and Tang Zhou, learned Jiang Yao was abroad and Jiang Han was away, and was told the Gu family had sent wedding items for her to try.

• Li Wei left Gu Jinzhi at the Jiang family gate, teased him with a small wave, and watched him wave back as her car drove away.
• Li Wei checked her system panel, saw her Abyss Essence had risen to 63,488, and decided to save her Experience Points until her enlistment and arrival at the front line.
• Li Wei returned to Jiang Family Manor, greeted Jiang Yunshu and Tang Zhou as her parents, and asked the steward to arrange a guest room for Gu Yan.
• Jiang Yunshu told Li Wei that Jiang Yao had gone to Britain to study, while Tang Zhou said Jiang Han was staying in his school dormitory and had to return to carry Li Wei to the wedding car.
• The steward reported that the Gu family had sent wedding ceremony items, including Madam Gu’s Phoenix Crown and Robe, for Li Wei to try on.