Chapter Summaries

Li Wei’s relief and public-works efforts drew eager support, while she crushed a student protest and faced a bizarre proposal to elevate the Emperor and herself to Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother. The chapter ended with Gu Jinzhi burning an English project proposal.

• The court opened relief shelters and clinics, then recruited able-bodied refugees and farmers for public works, prompting crowds to sign up while praising Li Wei.
• Thousands of students gathered at Chengtian Gate to demand the execution of the Demon Empress, and Li Wei agreed to let the soldiers put down the protest.
• Soldiers beat the students, many of whom were killed or injured, and the survivors were taken to the Imperial Prison as the Imperial Guards began arrests and confiscations.
• The Yansheng Duke proposed renaming the Emperor the Heavenly Father and Li Wei the Heavenly Mother, and leading scholars submitted memorials supporting the idea.
• Gu Jinzhi burned the English project proposal in the Imperial Study.

Li Wei and Gu Jinzhi waited for the Duke of Li State and his Capital Army while discussing the worsening rebellion in the Central Plains and Li Wei’s coming campaign. Their planning was interrupted when a eunuch arrived with another newly completed painting for Li Wei to review.

• Li Wei and Gu Jinzhi learned that a disastrous defeat at Tong County had broken Xu Yuncheng’s encirclement, leaving Fengzhou under threat as government troops defected to the rebels.
• Li Wei and Gu Jinzhi decided to recall the Duke of Li State and the Capital Army so Li Wei could leave Yujing to suppress the rebellion.
• Gu Jinzhi told Li Wei that Su Mo had been found gravely ill in Tong County, but Li Wei refused to visit him; he also said Min Zimo remained missing.
• Gu Jinzhi urged Li Wei to defeat the rebels quickly and return to Yujing without training troops, while Zeng Yi defended her freedom to do as she pleased.
• A little eunuch arrived with a newly completed painting and asked Li Wei whether she wanted to review it.

Li Wei approved a new portrait for printing while Gu Jinzhi struggled to discuss state affairs with her. After Duke Li arrived in the capital, he reported that the capital army had fewer than ten thousand soldiers fit to fight, leaving the city dangerously vulnerable if the barbarians invaded while Li Wei traveled south.

• Li Wei approved a painting of herself riding a warhorse and ordered it printed for the public.
• Gu Jinzhi considered Li Wei's portrait campaigns, slogans, and military training distractions from implementing national policies.
• Duke Li arrived at Guang'an Gate, and Li Wei used her power to bring him onto the city wall as he dismounted.
• Gu Jinzhi asked Duke Li about the capital army, and Duke Li reported that fewer than ten thousand soldiers could fight.
• Gu Jinzhi recognized that the capital's available forces might maintain order but could not defend against a barbarian invasion during Li Wei's southern journey.

Li Wei and Gu Jinzhi decided to deal with the northeastern barbarians before pacifying the Central Plains, while Gu Jinzhi outlined reforms to Great Jing’s currency system. The chapter left Li Wei focused on military affairs and willing to let Gu Jinzhi handle governance.

• Li Wei explained that suppressing the bandits would take months and leave Yujing City vulnerable to a barbarian invasion, then proposed attacking the barbarians’ capital first.
• Gu Jinzhi agreed that Li Wei could strike Fengjing City to deter the barbarians, and Li Wei teased him about overcomplicating the task of disciplining an army.
• Li Wei walked the battlements with Gu Jinzhi, Zeng Yi, and the Duke of Li State, and considered training the Capital Army with instructors from the palace.
• Gu Jinzhi argued that Great Jing’s poverty and weakness were the roots of its crises, then proposed a silver reserve, improved anti-counterfeiting measures, and new currency.
• The Duke of Li State warned that distrust of the old currency could cause a run on new currency, but Gu Jinzhi promised to manage the risks and Li Wei approved his governance plans.

As Yujing City stabilized, Min Zimo arrived at the palace as a powerful martial artist, prompting Gu Jinzhi and Li Wei to question why his condition differed so sharply from the others'. Gu Jinzhi arranged a cover story and summoned Min Zimo for an audience.

• The Capital Camp completed its takeover of the outer-city defenses, and Li Wei planned to travel to Fengjing.
• Chu Hong reported that Min Zimo had arrived at Chengtian Gate, vigorous and seemingly a Third-order Martial Artist.
• Gu Jinzhi noted that Su Mo, Zeng Yi, and he had entered the Mirror World in weakened conditions, unlike Min Zimo.
• Li Wei compared Min Zimo's and Su Mo's nearly equal values and wondered whether Min Zimo was the unexplained change.
• Zeng Yi recalled that his grandfather had said Min Zimo was destined for great fortune, perhaps through exceptional Heaven's Favor.
• Gu Jinzhi told Zeng Yi to claim he could contact the outside world and reminded Li Wei to conceal her strength before summoning Min Zimo.

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.