Recaps

Shen Tang negotiated with Xu Xie for wine distribution while steering him toward supplying Fugu with farming goods and investing in Heyin. Xu Xie returned to Wu Xian, where his account of Shen Tang’s growing power sparked a clash with Qin Li over the deal.

• Shen Tang let Xu Xie set the wine profits and asked him to arrange seedlings, farming tools, and draft cattle for Fugu.
• Shen Tang explained to Gu Chi that she hoped to make Wu Xian wary of Xu Xie’s profits and draw Xu Xie into investing in Heyin.
• Xu Xie left Fugu with two hundred jars of wine and a deposit, while Zhao Feng urged him to deliver a letter to his family.
• Xu Xie reported Heyin’s progress and Zhao Da Yi’s circumstances to Wu Xian, who praised Shen Tang and asked after his younger brother.
• Qin Li warned that Shen Tang would become a threat and criticized Xu Xie for sharing the brewing business; Xu Xie defended the deal by invoking Wu Xian’s supposed closeness with Shen Tang.
• Wu Xian separated the angry men and reminded Xu Xie that he and Qin Li were both among the people dearest to him.

Wu Xian sought Consort Mi’s advice and went to apologize to Qin Li after their dispute over Xu Xie. Qin Li accepted the apology but remained wary of Shen Tang, while Xu Xie celebrated with the wine he had brought back.

• Wu Xian told Consort Mi that Qin Li was angry, and she urged him to apologize in person.
• Consort Mi reflected on how much Wu Xian valued Qin Li and how precarious her own favor was.
• Wu Xian braved the snow to visit Qin Li and apologized for taking Xu Xie’s side during their dispute.
• Qin Li warned Wu Xian that Xu Xie’s pursuit of advantage was dangerous, but agreed to avoid confronting him directly.
• Qin Li cautioned Wu Xian to stay alert around Shen Youli, while Wu Xian offered him wine from Xu Xie’s gift.
• Xu Xie held a party while Qin Li remained burdened with worries.

Xu Xie hosted Tianhai's influential families and sold them on Shen Tang's spirit wine by demonstrating its benefits and auctioning a limited supply. The first ten jars sold for 460 taels, and Wu Xian heard the news the following evening.

• Xu Xie deflected an awkward remark about his dancers and steered the banquet conversation toward Heyin and the wine.
• Xu Xie served the spirit wine, and the guests felt it warm their Dantians and quicken their literary or martial energy.
• Xu Xie claimed he had only 150 jars and described a plan to sell the wine in batches to the highest bidders.
• The guests considered the wine's limited supply and benefits, while Xu Xie carefully encouraged demand without raising the price too far.
• The first ten jars sold for 460 taels, and Wu Xian learned the final price while relaxing with his principal wife.

Wu Xian taxed Shen Tang’s wine sales heavily while offering her farm supplies and a warning to keep the recipe quiet. Shen Tang accepted the deal and immediately proposed legal ways to dodge the liquor tax.

• Wu Xian told his principal wife that the wine taxes would benefit Tianhai, then left her after she mentioned an invitation from her younger brother’s wife.
• Wu Xian approved Xu Xie’s purchase of seedlings, farm tools, and draft cattle with the wine revenue, and sent him back to Heyin with warnings and offers of help.
• Shen Tang examined Xu Xie’s accounts and learned that taxes and other expenses had reduced the proceeds to about 2,300 taels.
• Shen Tang agreed to keep doing business exclusively with Tianhai, while inwardly deciding she would keep fleecing Wu Xian.
• Shen Tang suggested selling malt and rice with wine as a free gift, then proposed bundled purchases and a lottery to evade the liquor tax.

Shen Tang uncovered Wu Xian and Xu Xie's attempt to pass off poor-quality farming supplies, then prepared to lead Heyin's Spring Ploughing Sacrifice. The ceremony began with Shen Tang improvising a prayer after Su Shang ruined her prepared text.

• Shen Tang persuaded Xu Xie to use creative but legal tax strategies and warned him that merchants' wealth was safer in her hands.
• Shen Tang learned that Wu Xian and Xu Xie had supplied old tools and oxen at an inflated price, and vowed to drive a wedge between them.
• Chu Yao and Gu Chi explained the Spring Ploughing Sacrifice, and Shen Tang agreed to lead it and ordered improvements to the wooden plows.
• Xu Xie departed for Tianhai with fifty jars of spirit liquor after Shen Tang reminded him to legally avoid taxes.
• Su Shang urinated on Shen Tang's prepared prayer, so Shen Tang improvised at the altar and prayed for a bountiful harvest and good fortune for Heyin.

During the Spring Ploughing Sacrifice, Shen Tang accidentally triggered a Word Spirit that drained her and four Literary Scholars, producing only a brief, faint rain. After the ceremony, she divided the sacrificial livestock and unknowingly paid her officials their accumulated Literary and Martial Fortune, leaving Gongshu Wu overwhelmed by the sudden surge.

• Shen Tang's words during the sacrifice activated an uncontrolled Word Spirit, and Chu Yao, Qi Shan, Gu Chi, and Kang Shi helped supply the Literary Qi it consumed.
• Lin Feng heard passages from the Qi Min Yao Shu, memorized them clearly, and sensed that the seeds in the fields could help her form a Literary Heart.
• The Word Spirit brought a brief rain across Heyin, while Shen Tang and the four scholars were left nearly drained; Shen Tang realized she had accidentally summoned it.
• Shen Tang completed the Spring Ploughing Sacrifice by plowing and sowing a full acre, then Lin Feng explained that she was nearing a breakthrough in her Literary Heart.
• Shen Tang distributed the two sacrificial pigs according to her officials' performance, and the recipients also received accumulated Literary or Martial Fortune.
• Gongshu Wu suffered an intense surge of martial energy and a heavy nosebleed, while Shen Tang worried Zhao Feng might have noticed her power.

Shen Tang and her advisers uncovered changes to Heyin’s farmland after the Spring Ploughing Sacrifice and discussed Lin Feng and Bai Su’s progress toward forming their respective strengths. Xu Xie returned with a liquor ledger showing an unexpectedly large sale, leaving Shen Tang wondering how fifty jars had become two hundred.

• Kang Shi learned that Shen Tang possessed a National Seal and was a woman, while Gongshu Wu admitted he had not known her gender either.
• Gu Chi found that farmland across Heyin had grown more fertile, and he and Chu Yao suspected the change was linked to Shen Tang’s Word Spirit at the Spring Ploughing Sacrifice.
• Chu Yao agreed to quietly spread the saying that timely snow promised a good harvest, and Shen Tang approved the plan.
• Shen Tang learned that Lin Feng might need to experience a full cycle of seasons before forming her Literary Heart, while Bai Su was nearing the formation of her Martial Gall.
• Xu Xie presented Shen Tang with a ledger showing two hundred jars of liquor sold to Shang Nan and Yiru, despite the expected batch of fifty jars.

Shen Tang learned that Wu Xian had been selling diluted spirit wine in Shang Nan and Yiru, then devised her own scheme to compete in those markets. Twenty days later, Bai Su broke through and formed her Martial Spirit.

• Xu Xie explained that Wu Xian had smuggled spirit wine into Shang Nan and Yiru after diluting it, and that the wine had been diluted again by secondhand dealers.
• Shen Tang asked Kang Shi about Wu Xian’s scheme, then decided to smuggle her own relabeled, watered-down wine into the two regions under Xu Xie’s name.
• Shen Tang tested how much wine to mix with water, making Gongshu Wu drink the mixtures, and her goods began flooding the markets of Shang Nan and Yiru.
• After twenty days, Gongshu Wu found Bai Su absorbed in sword practice and realized she had trained for four shichen.
• Bai Su noticed her heightened strength and senses, and Gongshu Wu congratulated her on becoming a Low-Tier Gongshi and forming her Martial Spirit.

Bai Su learned that she had become a Low-Tier Gongshi and immediately challenged Gongshu Wu to gauge the gap between them, only to be defeated in one move. She returned with Gu Chi, reaffirmed her determination to reach the peak of martial arts, and revealed that she knew how to smith.

• Gongshu Wu told Bai Su she was a Low-Tier Gongshi, and she asked to challenge him.
• Gongshu Wu subdued Bai Su with one move, broke both her swords, and told her to report to camp for roll call.
• Gu Chi found Bai Su and teased her about seeing how high the mountain of martial arts rose; Bai Su criticized his apparent eavesdropping and resolved to keep her distance.
• Bai Su declared that she would reach the peak of martial arts regardless of how long it took, and Gu Chi wished her success.
• Gu Chi noticed a busy smithy and asked whether Bai Su wanted her swords reforged; she said she could do it herself because she had studied smithing.
• Bai Su explained that her teacher's family had once been a renowned smithing clan before its fortunes collapsed after the Calamity Star descended.

Gu Chi persuaded Zhao Feng to accept Bai Su’s newly formed Martial Spirit and keep her ability secret, while Shen Tang welcomed her as a future leader and planned an elite women’s unit. Bai Su chose to dress as a man for safety, and Shen Tang began looking for a courtesy name to engrave on her Martial Spirit Tiger Tally.

• Gu Chi explained Bai Su’s Martial Spirit as a rare result of her aptitude and perseverance, then convinced Zhao Feng that the ability should be kept quiet rather than treated as heresy.
• Zhao Feng assured Bai Su he would not hold her achievement against her and became curious about whether her experience could help his sword-loving daughter.
• Shen Tang proposed celebrating Bai Su and said she would eventually let her build an elite women’s unit, though Bai Su should first continue learning from Zhao Feng.
• Bai Su asked Shen Tang’s permission to dress as a man until their faction was strong enough to withstand prejudice, and Shen Tang agreed.
• Shen Tang learned Bai Su had no courtesy name and explained that her Martial Spirit Tiger Tally needed one to avoid bearing an embarrassing childhood nickname.

Shen Tang granted Bai Su the courtesy name Shaoxuan, and Lili condensed his Martial Spirit while keeping his real name secret. After breaking up a feud between Chu Yao and Qi Shan over their cat and dog, Shen Tang turned to the growing refugee crisis and learned King Zhi was seeking aid from Ten Crows and the Northern Desert.

• Shen Tang gave Bai Su the courtesy name Shaoxuan, which Bai Su accepted because it had been her teacher's former name.
• Lili condensed his Martial Spirit and refused Shen Tang's offer to choose a name, saying his wife had already chosen one for him.
• Su Shang and Chu Yao's puppy fought over territory, and Chu Yao and Qi Shan escalated the dispute into a sword duel before Shen Tang ordered the cat and dog to write self-reflections.
• Xu Xie told Wu Xian about the cat-and-dog feud, then discussed the serious refugee situation with him.
• Shen Tang learned that more than 1,300 refugees had arrived in Heyin and that King Zhi was seeking military aid from Ten Crows and the Northern Desert.

Shen Tang and her advisers learned that the Ten Crows and the Northern Desert might exploit the Northwest’s wars to enter the region, while Zheng Qiao accepted the Ten Crows’ offer of troops and grew suspicious of Yan An. Zheng Qiao’s spies uncovered Shen Tang’s growing influence in Heyin, leaving him with new information about her.

• Gu Chi warned Shen Tang and Kang Shi that the Ten Crows and the Northern Desert had secretly colluded and might use the Zheng brothers’ conflict to bring their armies into the Northwest.
• A Ten Crows envoy offered Zheng Qiao one hundred thousand troops as a betrothal gift, and Zheng Qiao kept Yan An behind to question his unexpected silence.
• Zheng Qiao pressured Yan An to bring his wife and young daughter to the palace, and Yan An’s wife agreed to take their daughter there as a guest.
• Zheng Qiao secretly reviewed reports describing Shen Tang’s liquor sales, her close ties with Wu Xian, and her tight control of Fugu.

Zheng Qiao manipulated the Ten Crows envoy into promising troops and sending a prince as a hostage, while Shen Tang’s summer routine in Heyin was interrupted by news of a deadly epidemic in Shang Nan. The chapter ended as A Zi and several people in Fugu fell ill, raising the possibility that the epidemic had reached Shen Tang’s territory.

• Zheng Qiao agreed to the Ten Crows envoy’s request, named a minister’s daughter a Princess, and demanded a hundred thousand elite troops as betrothal gifts along with the arriving prince as a temporary hostage.
• As summer arrived, Shen Tang noticed she was growing taller and ate the meat-heavy meals Lin Feng brought her while asking about Su Shang’s kittens.
• Xu Xie told Shen Tang that a deadly epidemic had broken out in Shang Nan, apparently brought by refugees, and that its victims died within seven days.
• Lin Feng reported that A Zi had vomited blood and fainted, while Old Mister Wan and several others had also fallen ill.
• Shen Tang and Xu Xie both suspected that the epidemic had reached Fugu.

Shen Tang discovered that the refugees in Fugu were suffering from a deadly epidemic linked to an earlier outbreak in Heyin. She sealed off parts of the city, organized quarantine measures, and prepared to protect people with masks as the disease threatened to spread.

• Shen Tang ordered Xu Xie to remain in Fugu and sent word to seal the city after Yu Zi and the others collapsed coughing up blood.
• Elder Physician Dong told Shen Tang that the outbreak matched an earlier Heyin epidemic, which had killed every patient and most of the physicians who treated them.
• Shen Tang divided Fugu into isolated districts, restricted movement, and separated the sick, their contacts, and other residents.
• Elder Physician Dong warned Shen Tang not to enter the patients' room, but she insisted on staying to oversee the response.
• Shen Tang ordered Lin Feng to gather kudzu linen so they could make masks, and Elder Physician Dong endorsed them as protection against disease-bearing air.

Shen Tang organized Fugu City’s response to a sudden plague while trying to identify its source and protect the city’s people. She received a large shipment of medicinal herbs, but the outbreak’s cause remained unknown as she assigned Gu Chi to investigate possible sabotage and Chu Yao to search nearby villages for sick people.

• Elder Physician Dong noted Shen Tang’s idea to use masks, while Lin Feng fetched kudzu linen and Zhao Feng arrived to organize isolation zones and guard the treatment center.
• Shen Tang ordered the commoners to be told that a poisoner had attacked her and the officials, hoping to prevent panic while the city’s isolation measures were put in place.
• Shen Tang examined the unconscious patients and questioned them about what they had eaten, drunk, or encountered, but no one could identify a common source.
• Shen Tang had masks, protective clothing, and gloves made, and ordered that drinking water be boiled and food kept clean.
• Xu Xie offered more than a dozen cartloads of medicinal herbs, and Shen Tang accepted them as a temporary supply for the treatment center.
• Shen Tang assigned Gu Chi to watch for disloyal activity and Chu Yao to search nearby villages for sick people and isolate their communities.

Shen Tang and her allies struggled to treat a growing epidemic in Fugu while searching for its source, but medicine failed to improve the patients and no culprit was found. Gu Chi went to investigate an outbreak from years earlier as Shen Tang organized containment measures and pest control.

• Shen Tang turned the administrative office into a hospital, separated patients by severity, and arranged protective equipment and literary-energy support for the caregivers.
• Elder Physician Dong adjusted his prescriptions as patients worsened, while Shen Tang, Qi Shan, and Kang Shi used literary energy to keep them from deteriorating further.
• Gu Chi reported that he had found no culprit or suspicious visitors, so Shen Tang agreed to have him investigate the two villages affected by a similar outbreak years earlier.
• Shen Tang assigned Lili to escort Gu Chi and left Bai Su to watch the observation area while she organized the remaining staff and children.
• Tu Rong and Captain Yang followed Shen Tang’s orders to kill rats and insects and burn contaminated materials and carcasses.

Gu Chi and Lü Jue investigated the abandoned Zhou villages and uncovered who had caused the plague in Fugu City. The two captured conspirators were exposed as fugitives who had poisoned the water supply, and Gu Chi began questioning them.

• Gu Chi and Lü Jue searched Lower Zhou Village and found no signs of anything unusual.
• Two disheveled men emerged from hiding after Gu Chi and Lü Jue left, and one berated the other for not attacking Gu Chi.
• Gu Chi confronted the men about causing the plague, then he and Lü Jue caught them as they tried to flee.
• Lü Jue restrained the captives while Gu Chi used a Word Spirit to extract their secrets.
• The men confessed that they had fed plague-tainted remains to rats and thrown them into a well connected to the administrative office's water supply.

Gu Chi discovered that Gu Worms had caused the outbreak in Upper Zhou Village and Lower Zhou Village, while Shen Tang tried to draw them out with her blood. The crisis remained unresolved when Xu Xie reported that the same plague had appeared in Tianhai.

• Lü Jue tortured the captured Literary Scholars, and Gu Chi ordered him to take them back so the lord could decide their fate.
• Gu Chi examined the mass grave and found Gu Worms on the corpses, then ordered the remains and nearby bird carcasses burned.
• Gu Chi returned to Fugu City and explained that Gu Worms had caused the outbreak; Elder Physician Dong said they needed to draw them out within two days.
• Shen Tang cut her palm and gave blood for the physicians to test as bait for the Gu Worms.
• Shen Tang ordered the contaminated wells cleared and sealed, then Xu Xie arrived and reported that the same plague had appeared in Tianhai.

Shen Tang and Elder Physician Dong discovered that the outbreak involved both Gu Worms and a genuine epidemic, then shared treatment records with Tianhai and Shang Nan. Heyin contained its cases, but Shang Nan’s sealed village continued to suffer deaths as residents tried to flee.

• Xu Xie told Shen Tang that cases had appeared across Tianhai, and she revealed that Gu Worms were responsible for part of the outbreak.
• Elder Physician Dong reported that Gu Worms had been drawn from some patients, while others had a genuine epidemic that his prescription was beginning to treat.
• Shen Tang asked Xu Xie to copy the prescription and case records for Tianhai, and she had Gu Chi prepare another copy for Shang Nan.
• Gu Chi removed rotten rats, sealed and guarded the contaminated well, and arranged notices ordering Fugu residents to kill rats and drink boiled water.
• Elder Physician Dong tested how the Gu Worms reacted to different people’s blood, and Heyin’s cases declined until no new epidemic patients appeared by the fourth day.
• Tianhai and Shang Nan received the treatment records, but Shang Nan’s sealed village continued to lose people as residents tried to escape.

As the epidemic overwhelmed Shang Nan, Gu Ren received Shen Tang’s prevention guide and treatment records from Heyin. He ordered drastic containment measures, leaving the response underway as reports showed Tianhai had already brought its outbreak under control.

• Soldiers guarding the epidemic zone killed a fugitive who tried to escape, then stopped a rider until Chao Lian recognized him as Gu Ren’s Ninth Brother.
• Ninth Brother brought Gu Ren a letter and epidemic records from Shen Tang, who had contained a similar outbreak in Heyin and identified the disease as an epidemic combined with a Gu Worm.
• Gu Ren learned that the records included treatment methods and detailed prevention measures, and he ordered the bodies burned, patients isolated, rats exterminated, and only boiled water used.
• Gu Ren assigned Chao Lian and his other sworn brothers to make protective supplies, remove and burn buried corpses, and clean the epidemic zone.
• Wu Xian reviewed reports that Shang Nan faced a severe outbreak while Tianhai had contained its disease, and told Minister Qin they owed Shen Tang’s side a great favor.

Wu Xian accepted Shen Tang’s help against the plague as proof of her sincerity and moved to strengthen their alliance, while Gu Ren suppressed unrest after the epidemic measures damaged his reputation. Once the plague zone reopened, Gu Ren and Wu Xian suspected Zhang He of causing the outbreaks, but Shen Tang went to confront him directly.

• Wu Xian admitted he had judged Shen Tang by his own standards and ordered a generous gift sent to her after the plague disappeared, intending to deepen their families’ alliance.
• Gu Ren’s third father-in-law scolded him for digging up and burning bodies, but Gu Ren defended the measures and decided his lenient reputation had encouraged people to challenge his authority.
• Gu Ren traced the leak of news from the quarantined epidemic zone to someone violating disease-prevention orders, then acted forcefully to secure his position.
• After twenty days, Gu Ren reopened the epidemic zone, where the population had fallen by nearly sixty percent, and continued to wonder where the plague Gu Worms had come from.
• Gu Ren and his sixth younger brother considered Zhang He the main suspect but agreed not to accuse him without evidence; Wu Xian likewise held off on acting against him.
• Shen Tang went to Zhang He’s doorstep to demand an explanation.

Shen Tang traveled to Yiru with Gu Chi and Yu Zi to investigate rumors of another illness and Zhang He's possible involvement. At a roadside teahouse, Gu Chi suddenly spotted something that startled him.

• Shen Tang rode toward Yiru with Gu Chi, Yu Zi, and guards, singing until the summer heat forced them to rest.
• Gu Chi explained why Yu Zi had joined the trip and said they would learn the truth about Zhang He when they met him.
• Shen Tang discussed reports of another illness in Yiru and hoped to discover whether Zhang He was involved.
• Shen Tang and her disguised companions reached a busy teahouse at Yiru's border, where she proposed recruiting Martial Gall Warriors to build roads.
• Gu Chi suddenly spotted something at the teahouse and nearly choked, prompting Shen Tang to follow his gaze.

Shen Tang encountered Gongxi Chou on the road to Yiru, discovered he was also seeking Zhang He, and traveled with him. At their inn, Gongxi Chou revealed that the ragged young man he had rescued had come looking for Shen Tang.

• Shen Tang and Gu Chi spotted Gongxi Chou at a teahouse, where he asked about Heyin and recognized something familiar in Shen Tang.
• Gongxi Chou and Shen Tang discovered each other’s identities and agreed to travel together toward Yiru.
• Shen Tang told Gongxi Chou that she was investigating Gu Worm epidemics, while Gongxi Chou said he was going to see Zhang He and doubted Zhang He had caused the outbreaks deliberately.
• Gongxi Chou and Shen Tang discussed their reasons for visiting Zhang He, and Gongxi Chou agreed to spar with her after she said she had grown stronger.
• At an inn, Gongxi Chou told Shen Tang that a young man he had rescued had asked about Fugu in Heyin and followed him because he promised to take the man to her.

Shen Tang learned that Xianyu Jian had sought her because his dying sister believed Shen Tang had saved her son, only for Shen Tang to reveal the child had already died. Xianyu Jian joined Shen Tang, and she and Gongxi Chou then visited Zhang Yongqing, who stared at her in apparent recognition.

• Gongxi Chou explained that Xianyu Jian had been asking for Shen Tang, and Shen Tang called him over to learn why.
• Xianyu Jian asked about the nephew Shen Tang had supposedly bought for forty coins, and Shen Tang remembered burying the dead child after his mother offered him.
• Shen Tang told Xianyu Jian the truth about his nephew, and he grieved while explaining how his family had died amid famine and hardship.
• Shen Tang invited Xianyu Jian to join her, and he accepted, introducing himself as Xianyu Jian and placing himself at her disposal.
• Shen Tang and Gongxi Chou arranged to visit Zhang Yongqing, who received them and stared fixedly at Shen Tang.

Shen Tang and Gongxi Chou confronted Zhang He, whose memories linked Shen Tang’s appearance to a supposedly dead person and the Gongxi Clan’s lost Sacred Object. Zhang He revealed that the body had been stolen from its grave, leaving Gongxi Chou furious and Shen Tang wondering how the story could involve her.

• Zhang He explained that Shen Tang’s crystalline Literary Heart Sigil and similar bearing reminded him of a young person he had seen dead in a coffin.
• Gongxi Chou recognized Zhang He as a former Imperial Physician and demanded the Gongxi Clan’s Sacred Object, but Zhang He denied possessing it.
• Gongxi Chou accused Xin Country of receiving the clan’s Sacred Object and Wu Kingdom Gu Worm records after Geng Country destroyed the clan.
• Zhang He revealed that he and others had mistaken the Sacred Object for a Gu Worm and the person in the coffin for a young Gongxi Clan member.
• Zhang He said grave robbers had stolen the coffin, and Gongxi Chou angrily pointed out that his clan cremated its dead, making the burial suspicious.
• Gongxi Chou connected the plagues in Tianhai, Heyin, and Shang Nan to the clan’s stolen research, while Shen Tang wondered how the supposedly dead person could be alive as her.