Recaps

Su Shi Yilu was nearly killed by three unknown Martial Gall Warriors before a surge of literary energy saved him. Shen Tang arrived after defeating one attacker and told Su Shi Yilu that her camp had been destroyed, leaving them to seek the Princess and the surviving troops.

• Three unfamiliar Martial Gall Warriors attacked Su Shi Yilu, who realized they might have been secretly recruited for a succession struggle among the Great King's sons.
• Su Shi Yilu was badly wounded and nearly overwhelmed, but a stream of literary energy shielded him from the attackers' killing blow.
• Two Martial Gall Warriors went after the unseen Literary Scholar, while Su Shi Yilu overwhelmed the one left behind.
• Shen Tang stabbed the remaining attacker from behind and asked Su Shi Yilu whether the Princess was safe.
• Shen Tang told Su Shi Yilu that heavenly fire and an enemy raid had devastated her camp, and that only a few dozen soldiers had escaped.
• Su Shi Yilu said he had sent people to escort the Princess and urged Shen Tang to help him reunite with her and the survivors.

Shen Tang and Jiang Sheng staged Shen Tang’s death while helping Su Shi Yilu escape the ambush, then reunited with their retreating allies. As dawn neared, they discussed exploiting the Ten Crows’ succession struggle by attacking rival tribes and stirring suspicion.

• Shen Tang volunteered to hold off the attackers while Su Shi Yilu fled, and Su Shi Yilu accepted the chance to escape.
• Shen Tang kept the two wounded Martial Gall Warriors occupied until Jiang Sheng revealed himself and empowered her to defeat them.
• Shen Tang and Jiang Sheng destroyed the battlefield to conceal their involvement, then rode the Motorcycle to catch up with the retreat.
• Jiang Sheng spotted Gu Chi’s marker, and he advised Shen Tang to target tribes backing rival princes and frame them to fuel conflict.

Shen Tang rejoined the army and discussed why her martial energy always summoned Motorcycle instead of a warhorse. Princess learned that her unborn child could survive the ordeal and chose to keep it, just as the army announced Shen Tang had returned.

• Shen Tang caught up with the main force on Motorcycle and told Jiang Sheng that her martial energy could only summon the mule, possibly because she cultivated both literary and martial paths.
• Shen Tang and the army reached the escort force as dawn broke, and Princess learned that no enemy troops were nearby.
• Bai Su brought an army physician to examine Princess, who asked whether the child in her womb could be saved.
• The physician said Princess and the child should be fine with medicine and rest, and Princess decided to keep the baby.
• Someone announced that Shen Tang had returned.

Shen Tang reunited with her forces after escaping Su Shi Yilu, and the Princess handed over the complete Ten Crows Defense Map. With the map assembled, Shen Tang and Jiang Sheng began planning their next move, choosing a nearby tribe of more than four thousand people as their first target.

• Bai Su learned Shen Tang had returned safely and hurried to meet her, while Gu Chi reached her first and found her riding with Jiang Sheng.
• Shen Tang told Gu Chi that she had tricked Su Shi Yilu with a staged heroic sacrifice, and her commanders gathered to welcome her back.
• After eating and allowing the exhausted soldiers to rest, Shen Tang waited while the Princess recovered from the night’s ordeal.
• The Princess sent Bai Su the silk handkerchiefs concealing the Ten Crows Defense Map, and Shen Tang’s group pieced them together and confirmed their accuracy.
• Jiang Sheng recommended attacking a nearby tribe of more than four thousand people because its strength and isolation made it less likely to draw in neighboring tribes.

Shen Tang decided to attack a Ten Crows tribe of more than four thousand people, accepting that the raid might require killing every survivor to protect her forces. While she rested, Su Shi Yilu returned to his burned camp, found clues pointing to a rival faction, and learned that the Princess of Geng Country could not be identified among the dead.

• Xu Quan and Xianyu Jian warned Shen Tang that the tribe's forces were stronger than its population suggested, but Jiang Sheng and Gu Chi supported attacking it.
• Shen Tang approved the attack and told Jiang Sheng and Gu Chi that she intended to kill the captives; they clarified that leaving survivors could expose her forces.
• Jiang Sheng called Shen Tang soft-hearted, while Gu Chi argued that her compassion and decisiveness made her suited to their age.
• Su Shi Yilu recovered, gathered troops from a loyal tribe, and returned to find his camp burned and no survivors.
• Su Shi Yilu's men found corpses bearing faction tattoos, and Su Shi Yilu recognized them as belonging to his enemies.
• Su Shi Yilu learned that several disfigured female corpses might be the Princess of Geng Country, but none could be identified.

A'Lu's Mother looked forward to her son's wedding while worrying that his wild ways would put him in danger. After lending her late husband's armor and bow to his brother for a spring hunt, she waited for A'Lu to come home, and he returned to find the tribe ablaze with strange lights.

• A'Lu's Mother told the other women that her son's bride would arrive in thirty-one days, though she worried about A'Lu's childish behavior.
• A'Lu's Mother's late husband's brother asked to borrow the family's armor and bow for the tribe's upcoming spring hunt, and she agreed.
• The man put on the armor and left with the borrowed gear while A'Lu's Mother prepared dinner and waited for her son.
• A'Lu returned late at night and saw strange lights spreading into a blaze among the tribe's tents.

A'Lu witnessed the Ten Crows tribe's massacre and was captured by Lin Feng, who suspected he might be the heir her teacher sought. Gu Chi identified him as the wrong person, while the attackers buried the dead and prepared to continue their search.

• A'Lu ran toward the burning tribe, saw its people—including Zayebor—being slaughtered, and vowed revenge as he crawled away.
• Lin Feng's soldiers captured A'Lu, and Lin Feng judged that he might fit the clues about the person they sought.
• Lin Feng ordered that anyone who met the conditions be killed, while her guards finished the raid and collected right ears as proof of kills.
• Shen Tang arranged for the battlefield dead to be buried in a mass grave and offered them incense and wine.
• Gu Chi examined A'Lu and concluded he was not the Ten Crows heir because his hands lacked the calluses of someone trained in writing.

A Ten Crows garrison investigated the destruction of a neighboring tribe and suspected the attackers were an elite force with powerful backing. Shen Tang, the noble they feared might be involved, counted the gold and silver taken from the tribe.

• A garrison commander learned that a neighboring tribe had been wiped out and led soldiers to investigate.
• The commander found hundreds of dead, adult men missing their right ears, and only a little grain stolen from the tribe.
• After finding no clear tracks, the commander deduced that a small, highly skilled force had carried out the attack and sent his report to his superiors.
• The commander worried that a royal court noble might have ordered the massacre to seize the tribe's resources.
• Shen Tang sneezed and gleefully counted the gold and silver.

Shen Tang’s forces looted a Ten Crow tribe and fled before the garrisons could find them, while Su Shiyilu linked the massacre to the attack on the diplomatic marriage party. As his aide urged him to eliminate the princes threatening the twelfth prince, Su Shiyilu hesitated because they were members of the royal family.

• Jiang Sheng warned Shen Tang that boasting about killing and looting made them sound like bandits, and she agreed to be more careful about their reputation.
• The soldiers sorted and melted down the tribe’s gold and silver for military pay while preserving culturally valuable items.
• Xianyu Jian reported that the Ten Crows had discovered the destroyed tribe, so Shen Tang ordered the army to rest briefly and move out after dusk.
• Su Shiyilu learned that the massacre happened near the diplomatic marriage ambush and suspected a connection between the attacks.
• Su Shiyilu’s aide identified the fifth and seventh princes as possible culprits, though Su Shiyilu suspected they might have been framed.
• Su Shiyilu’s aide urged him to remove the princes who threatened the twelfth prince, but Su Shiyilu objected that they were princes.

Su Shi Yilu considered his aide’s warning that the Great King might be behind the princes’ schemes, while the aide credited a rescued man of letters for the advice. The man of letters then wrote a eulogy for his deceased friend An Wen, declaring his debt for saving his life repaid.

• Su Shi Yilu recognized that the princes’ hostility had left him in danger, and his trusted aide asked how he would handle the marriage alliance.
• The trusted aide urged Su Shi Yilu to show weakness and suggested the Great King might be directing the princes; Su Shi Yilu dismissed him but privately began to doubt the ruler.
• The trusted aide left Su Shi Yilu’s tent shaken and told the man of letters that the General had nearly killed him.
• The man of letters argued that Su Shi Yilu’s restraint showed his loyalty had changed, and the trusted aide rewarded him with more than a hundred taels of gold.
• The man of letters decided that his debt for being rescued was repaid, then wrote an essay titled “In Memory of My Dear Friend An Wen.”

Lin Feng helped Shen Tang’s army secure food by using Word Spirit to harvest wheat, then taught soldiers to read during their spare time. The soldiers grew eager to learn after Lin Feng showed them how to write Shen Tang’s name and encouraged them to hope their children might one day have the talent to produce grain through Word Spirit.

• Jiang Sheng praised the Word Spirit harvest as Lin Feng’s soldiers gathered wheat, while he and the other veterans helped manage the army’s food supply.
• Lin Feng declined Jiang Sheng’s offer to rest because she had promised soldiers she would teach them characters.
• Shen Tang explained that literacy would give soldiers useful skills after the fighting ended and help protect them from being cheated, and she organized literacy squads with rewards and extra training.
• Lin Feng taught her students to write Shen Tang’s name and You Li, and the soldiers practiced the characters eagerly.
• When a soldier asked to learn Lin Feng’s grain-producing ability, Lin Feng said it was unlikely for adults but that their children might have the talent, renewing the soldiers’ enthusiasm for studying.

Shen Tang encouraged her soldiers to build strength through study or martial arts while her forces continued raiding Ten Crows tribes. In the royal court, Su Shi Yilu discovered that accusations had weakened his position and learned that two more tribes under Fourth Brother had been wiped out.

• Shen Tang told Lin Feng that soldiers who struggled with study could pursue martial arts, and promised that one day they could openly celebrate Shou Sheng and Shao Xuan.
• Shen Tang's forces destroyed another tribe on the second night and raided a third on the seventh day of their march.
• Su Shi Yilu arrived at the royal city and found that he was barred from seeing the Great King.
• The Queen Mother told Su Shi Yilu that ministers had accused him of taking bribes and monopolizing military power, prompting the Great King to order an investigation.
• Su Shi Yilu reassured the Queen Mother that her child would inherit the throne, and she told him that two tribes under Fourth Brother had been wiped out.

Su Shi Yilu and his allies speculated about who was behind the attacks on the tribes, while Shen Tang visited her wounded soldiers and discovered that gold had mysteriously fallen into their shelter. The chapter left Shen Tang wondering whether the gold had truly come from the sky.

• Su Shi Yilu warned the Queen Mother to stay cautious and keep a low profile while their rivals fought among themselves.
• The scholar told Su Shi Yilu's trusted aide that the Great King could be behind the attacks and advised him to alert the general.
• Shen Tang visited the wounded with Gu Chi and Jiang Sheng, where the soldiers told her gold had fallen from the shelter's roof.
• A wounded female soldier explained that she had caught two identical triangular pieces of gold while resting.
• Jiang Sheng connected the strange gold to the scholar's remark that spent gold would return, leaving Shen Tang puzzled.

Shen Tang learned from Jiang Sheng that his friend’s unusual scholarly abilities let him wield immense power by spending gold, and that Qi Yuanliang had made the man an enemy. Jiang Sheng worried that the gold-spending scholar might now be among the Ten Crows.

• Shen Tang asked Jiang Sheng how gold could fall from the sky, and he explained that a friend’s abilities depended on gold and silver, which could later scatter into the world.
• Jiang Sheng said the friend could become extraordinarily powerful with enough wealth, but would need a treasury large enough to rule the Northwest Continent to reach his full strength.
• Jiang Sheng revealed that Shen Tang had fought the man before, when he had aided the refugee army at Luxia Prefecture.
• Jiang Sheng said the man held a grudge against Qi Yuanliang, possibly because Qi had done something to his only son, and Shen Tang worried about encountering him.
• Jiang Sheng wondered whether the gold-spending scholar had joined one of the Ten Crows’ nobles.

Shen Tang reassured Jiang Sheng about the possible defector, cared for her wounded soldiers, and discussed their health with the chief physician. As she ate with Xianyu Jian and Xu Quan, a scout reported about a group of roughly a thousand Ten Crows people hiding in a valley ahead.

• Jiang Sheng warned Shen Tang that a wealthy friend might have joined the Ten Crows and could trace their actions back to them, but Shen Tang said they would handle him if they encountered him.
• Shen Tang returned the wounded soldier’s gold fragments, brought the injured chicken soup, and promised them food, medicine, and care.
• Shen Tang privately instructed the chief physician to address the female soldiers’ health problems, including ailments caused by years of malnutrition.
• The wounded soldiers were moved by Shen Tang’s visit and care, and Gu Chi heard their growing loyalty to her.
• Shen Tang invited Xianyu Jian and Xu Quan to eat with her, then learned that about a thousand people were hiding in a valley ahead.

Shen Tang investigated a hidden group in a barren valley and learned they were starving Ten Crows refugees, not an ambush. She considered whether their hatred of the tribes could make them allies in her campaign.

• Gu Chi and Jiang Sheng advised Shen Tang that detouring around the valley would risk discovery and cost time, so she ordered scouts to learn more.
• Xu Quan captured a merchant scouting for the valley refugees, and Gu Chi interrogated him with his Literary Scholar ability.
• The merchant revealed that he had been trapped in the valley for over a month after refugees robbed him of his smuggled salt.
• The merchant said more than a thousand refugees were starving in the valley, with only a little over a hundred able-bodied fighters.
• Shen Tang asked whether the refugees hated the Ten Crows tribes enough to fight them as pawns, even at the cost of their lives.

Shen Tang sent Xu Quan with two hundred elite soldiers and Jiang Sheng to negotiate with refugees occupying a valley, but Xu Quan quickly captured them instead. After securing the survivors, Xu Quan discovered a young slave with rare purple hair among them.

• A salt merchant told Shen Tang that the people of Ten Crows followed whoever provided for them, and Shen Tang warned him to keep their identities secret.
• Shen Tang assigned Xu Quan to handle the refugees and sent Jiang Sheng along, while Xu Quan took two hundred elite soldiers and the salt merchant to the valley.
• Xu Quan destroyed the refugees’ watchtower, stormed their stronghold, and captured the able-bodied adults in less than a quarter of an hour.
• Xu Quan ordered the remaining refugees guarded and promised they would live and receive food if they cooperated.
• The salt merchant pulled a young slave from the crowd, and Xu Quan ordered the cloth covering his head removed to reveal his shimmering purple braid.

Xu Quan brought a mysterious purple-haired slave back from Ten Crows, but Jiang Sheng and Gu Chi could not determine why he was cut off from Heaven and Earth Qi. They decided to keep him under watch as Shen Tang recruited Ten Crows refugees to attack nearby tribes.

• Xu Quan questioned the purple-haired slave and learned his hair was dyed, then took him along to find out how it was done.
• Jiang Sheng suspected something was unusual about the slave, and Gu Chi found that neither his passive nor active Word Spirit could read him.
• Jiang Sheng ordered the slave kept under constant watch and assigned Lingde to monitor him.
• Shen Tang offered food and military funds to Ten Crows refugee leaders, who agreed to help attack the nearby tribes.

Shen Tang planned to use the Ten Crows refugees to stir up trouble, while Steward Lin took charge of a mysterious slave boy Gu Chi had sent her. The boy, renamed Sparrow Head, settled into camp and praised Shen Tang, but Steward Lin soon called him away.

• Shen Tang told Steward Lin that the army would feed the refugees with grain taken from their next target, rather than spend its own supplies.
• Gu Chi's guard delivered a slave boy to Steward Lin and explained that Xu Quan wanted her to learn how his hair had been dyed.
• Steward Lin named the boy Sparrow Head, assigned him work, and learned that he came from a wealthy family whose members had been punished for a crime.
• Sparrow Head worked hard, thanked the soldiers for his safer circumstances, and praised Shen Tang as a rescuer.
• Steward Lin interrupted Sparrow Head's conversation with a soldier and ordered him to follow her.

Lin Feng searched the valley during a night patrol for a boy who matched her teacher’s warning, then discussed the suspicious slave boy with Gu Chi. Gu Chi ordered her to keep him alive and under watch while he reported the matter to their lord.

• Lin Feng took the slave boy on patrol and searched hiding places for someone his age, but found nothing.
• Lin Feng told Gu Chi that the slave boy matched the description from her teacher’s warning.
• Gu Chi advised Lin Feng to keep the boy alive and watch him, noting that Ten Crows’ nobles were usually guarded during their trials.
• Lin Feng warned Gu Chi that the boy had asked about their lord’s identity, and Gu Chi said he would report the concern to their lord.
• Xu Quan offered to use his beauty to deal with the boy, prompting Lin Feng’s silence.

Xu Quan warned Lin Feng that the slave boy might be using a Ten Crows secret art that let his consciousness inhabit another body, and Shen Tang’s forces prepared to exploit the boy’s captivity. After resting, the army launched a surprise attack and gave the slave boy a knife, leaving him to confront the operation’s violence.

• Xu Quan told Lin Feng that the slave boy might be a dead man created by a rare Ten Crows secret art, and warned that killing him could let the true target escape.
• Lin Feng reported Xu Quan’s theory to Shen Tang, who concluded that the slave boy’s living body could be kept imprisoned while her forces pursued their plans.
• Shen Tang reviewed her accounts and considered how to intensify the bloodshed in the Ten Crows royal court to meet her target.
• The army finished resting and launched a surprise attack on its target the following evening.
• Lin Feng gave the slave boy a crude knife and told him it was for killing people.

Shen Tang’s forces captured a Ten Crows granary, and she devised a plan to use the Golden Crow ancestor legend to divide the tribes and turn them against their rulers. Gu Chi and Jiang Sheng understood the plan as the story left them preparing to spread a new interpretation of Ten Crows beliefs.

• The refugees brutally killed the tribespeople guarding the granary, and Lin Feng noticed that the young slave fought with skill and composure.
• Lin Feng assigned the young slave to help collect ears from the dead, while Xu Quan joked about Ten Crows customs and Lin Feng chased him off.
• Shen Tang’s forces brought the captured grain back to the valley, where the refugees rejoiced and thanked their Golden Crow ancestor.
• Shen Tang told Gu Chi that educating the Ten Crows might let them divide the tribes from within, and Jiang Sheng questioned whether the people could be persuaded.
• Shen Tang proposed promoting the Golden Crow as a benevolent ancestor and blaming the Ten Crows’ hardship on rulers who seized the people’s land, giving them grounds to unite against those rulers.

After Shen Tang distributed supplies to the Ten Crows refugees, a strange object fell from the sky during their celebration. It proved to be a stele about the Golden Crow and its descendants, leaving Shen Tang to decide what to do with evidence that could strengthen the Ten Crows' claim to divine ancestry.

• Shen Tang gave the Ten Crows refugees food and winter supplies and held a victory celebration, while she and Sparrow Head stayed apart from the revelry.
• Lin Feng sat with Sparrow Head, who said he disliked killing as they watched the celebration.
• A black, three-legged crow-like beast trailing a red halo fell from the sky and vanished into the mountains, drawing the camp into an uproar.
• Shen Tang and her officers found a stone stele inscribed in Ten Crows characters and sealed off the area.
• Xianyu Jian warned Shen Tang that the stele described the Golden Crow and its family precepts, and urged her to destroy it before it could validate the Ten Crows' ancestry.
• Shen Tang refused to destroy the stele before learning what it said, fearing that destroying a divine gift might offend the heavens.

Shen Tang and her advisors staged a heavenly stele inscribed with Ten Crows ancestral lore to manipulate the refugees’ beliefs. The stele’s discovery began spreading among the Ten Crows, while Shen Tang and Gu Chi planned to amplify the story.

• Shen Tang had Gu Chi and Jiang Sheng inspect the stele, and they decided to copy it and guard the original rather than destroy it.
• Lin Feng asked Sparrow Head to read a copy, warning him not to remember its contents, while he secretly hoped the stele would prove the Ten Crows’ ancestry.
• Sparrow Head helped spread rumors about the stele, and the story reached nearly all the refugees by the next day.
• Shen Tang questioned why the refugees believed the stele had fallen from heaven, and Gu Chi explained how strongly they wanted proof of their lineage.
• Gu Chi revealed that he had selected gossipy refugees to learn the inscription and spread the story further.

Shen Tang and her advisers discussed how to divide the Ten Crows by exploiting their Golden Crow ancestry, while the refugees embraced a stele declaring them equal descendants with rights to their ancestral land. Gu Chi helped spread the inscription’s message, and the chapter ended with unrest beginning to take root among the Ten Crows.

• Jiang Sheng proposed dividing the Ten Crows into competing lineages descended from different Golden Crows, but Gu Chi said they should wait until the first stele inscription had spread further.
• The refugees learned the stele’s claims that all Ten Crows descendants were equal, entitled to their land and inheritance, and wronged by traitors who had betrayed their ancestors’ will.
• The refugees connected the inscription to their own oppression, grieving over lost families, stolen land, slavery, and the powerful tribes that controlled their resources.
• Shen Tang suspected Gu Chi had shaped the refugees’ reaction, and Gu Chi admitted he had explained the inscription to influential people so its ideas would spread.
• Shen Tang concluded that unrest was beginning to grow among the Ten Crows and that they would deal with the conflict step by step.