Recaps

Shen Tang agreed to give the refugees the stone stele in exchange for their help recruiting more people and spreading its revelation. Meanwhile, Gu Chi continued searching for Sparrow Head’s real body, and Lin Feng offered to test an untried Word Spirit.

• A refugee headman offered Shen Tang his loyalty and contacts in exchange for the stone stele, and Shen Tang agreed on the condition that the refugees help recruit people.
• The refugee headman persuaded his followers to contact their scattered relatives, gather more refugees, and build their strength while spreading the revelation about Ten Crows’ traitors.
• Gu Chi explained to Lin Feng that Sparrow Head underestimated the refugees and had not realized his identity was exposed.
• Lin Feng pressed Gu Chi to find Sparrow Head’s real body, and Gu Chi revealed an untested searching Word Spirit that might work on him.
• Lin Feng volunteered to try the Word Spirit, and Gu Chi sarcastically wished her literary fortunes well.

Slaves in Ten Crows fled toward Shen Tang’s refugee “tribe” after recruiters won them over with food, warm clothes, and the Ancestor Stone Tablet’s message. After discovering a royal order to attack Yonggu Pass, Shen Tang considered Gu Chi’s proposal to strike at the Ten Crows capital instead.

• A former tribesman led more than a dozen slaves out of Ten Crows territory, giving them hidden winter clothes and provisions before continuing toward the refugee “tribe.”
• Recruiters spread the Ancestor Stone Tablet’s message among slaves, and its promise of hope took root among the oppressed and reached ordinary Ten Crows people.
• Xianyu Jian brought Shen Tang a secret military order from the Ten Crows royal court calling up troops to attack Yonggu Pass.
• Gu Chi advised Shen Tang not to return with their small force and proposed striking the Ten Crows capital while its forces were away.

Shen Tang decided to exploit the Ten Crows’ weakened defenses by striking at their tribes and potentially their capital, while Jiang Sheng agreed to help her kill a king. As the army marched out, Lin Feng set off with ten guards to hunt Sparrow Head herself, despite having only a fifty percent chance of finding him.

• Gu Chi proposed that Shen Tang’s roughly two thousand soldiers attack the Ten Crows’ royal capital while its defenses were likely weakened, and Shen Tang ordered the army to rest before moving out.
• Shen Tang told Gu Chi she would target tribes along the route to weaken the Ten Crows and fuel discord among their princes, rather than expose the army with a direct march on the capital.
• Jiang Sheng welcomed the chance to complete his Way of the Scholar by cutting off a king’s head, and Shen Tang promised to give him the opportunity if she could.
• Shen Tang arranged for the refugee headman to claim the grain from another tribe after her army destroyed it, but warned him not to ask for more.
• Lin Feng asked to take ten guards to find and personally kill Sparrow Head, and Shen Tang worried about her safety as the army set out at night.

Lin Feng prepared to lead the vanguard while Sparrow Head plotted to use the stele to secure his claim to the throne. In the Ten Crows capital, Su Shi Yilu’s aide learned that a scholar had left, and the scholar’s Word Spirit pointed him northwest instead of toward Yonggu Pass.

• Shen Tang accepted Lin Feng’s decision to follow her teacher and urged her to return safely.
• Xu Quan told Sparrow Head that the stele had been left in the valley and that Lin Feng had gone to lead the vanguard; Sparrow Head resolved to use the stele to strengthen his claim as heir.
• Su Shi Yilu’s aide found the scholar’s farewell letter and learned that the Ten Crows planned to invade Yonggu Pass under a rival prince’s commander.
• The scholar rode away from the royal capital and used his Word Spirit, which indicated northwest and great fortune rather than the route to Yonggu Pass.

At the Ten Crows royal court, Su Shi Yilu forced the Great King to delay the campaign against Yonggu Pass until the Twelfth Prince could return. The princes continued conspiring against the missing heir, while his enemies claimed they had men waiting along the Path to Take.

• The Great King asked his sons who would lead the campaign against Yonggu Pass, but Su Shi Yilu refused to support it without the Twelfth Prince.
• Su Shi Yilu urged the Great King to summon the Twelfth Prince, arguing that he was the most noble heir and warning against succession struggles.
• The Great King agreed to wait seven days for the Twelfth Prince, then threatened to make him a sinner if his absence delayed the campaign.
• After the court session, Su Shi Yilu mocked the Third Prince and other princes for their internal strife and losses among their tribes.
• Several princes held a private drinking party and revealed that they had not found the Twelfth Prince's corpse, but had sent men along the Path to Take to kill him if he appeared.

Su Shi Yilu and his aide planned to send all eleven princes to the front so none could claim sole credit for taking Yonggu Pass. Meanwhile, Lin Feng led ten guards into a mountain range to hunt their target, where she finally crossed swords with someone in the darkness.

• The princes suspected one another of orchestrating the tribal massacres but concealed their suspicions during the banquet.
• Su Shi Yilu's aide proposed dividing the credit for taking Yonggu Pass among all eleven princes, and Su Shi Yilu approved the plan.
• Lin Feng and her ten guards killed a group of men and continued toward the target's hiding place in a rugged mountain range.
• After a shadow moved near their camp at night, Lin Feng told the guards to stay alert and leaped up a cliff.
• Lin Feng's sword met another blade in the darkness, and two beams of literary energy appeared above them.

Lin Feng confronted a mysterious Literary Scholar who had been watching her group in the Ten Crows’ dangerous forbidden zone. After he claimed to be lost and without provisions, he insisted on joining them, leaving Lin Feng stunned.

• Lin Feng fought the hooded Literary Scholar until he escaped her attack and was surrounded by her ten Martial Gall Warrior guards.
• Lin Feng demanded to know who he was and why he had been watching them, but he claimed he was merely passing through.
• The mysterious Literary Scholar said he had encountered mutilated groups of elite troops and had been hunted while traveling through the area.
• Lin Feng warned him to leave, threatening to treat his presence as a provocation if he stayed.
• The Literary Scholar removed his hood and admitted he was lost and had no provisions, then asked to travel with Lin Feng’s group.
• Lin Feng offered to give him provisions if he stayed away from them, but he refused.

Lin Feng and the mysterious Literary Scholar rested together in the Ten Crows wilderness before a band of armed men attacked them. After defeating the attackers, Lin Feng realized their target was nearby, and her guards found a possible hiding place.

• Lin Feng let the mysterious Literary Scholar join her group after he asked for food, and he shared that he did not know where his rebellious son was.
• Lin Feng and the Literary Scholar sensed an approaching group during the night, and he raised a wall of literary qi to block them.
• Lin Feng ordered her guards to leave one attacker alive, but the Ten Crows Martial Gall Warriors were defeated and the captive killed himself.
• The Literary Scholar identified the dead men as elite soldiers connected to the two groups pursuing him, and Lin Feng deduced that their target was nearby.
• Lin Feng ordered a search of the area, and a guard announced that he had found a hiding place.

Lin Feng pursued the assassins through a hidden cave and followed a literary-energy trail to a cliffside ledge. There, she killed the Ten Crows youth she called “Your Highness,” leaving the mysterious scholar stunned.

• Lin Feng and the mysterious scholar entered the hidden cave and found a warm stone bed and several exits.
• The mysterious scholar used a Word Spirit to trace the assassins’ lingering aura, and Lin Feng led the group after it.
• At the trail’s end, Lin Feng leaped from the cliff and attacked two men on a ledge below.
• The mysterious scholar followed Lin Feng down and saw her pin the sleeping Ten Crows youth to the ground.
• Lin Feng stabbed the youth through the heart and Dantian, taunted him about his kin, and killed him.
• Lin Feng took the youth’s head and asked the mysterious scholar whether he had questions.

Lin Feng killed the Twelfth Prince of the Ten Crows and began returning to camp with his head, while Shen Tang learned of the success and prepared to welcome her. The Great Queen Mother awoke from a nightmare of her son’s death with a powerful sense of foreboding.

• Lin Feng confirmed to the mysterious Literary Scholar that the severed head belonged to the Twelfth Prince and let him take the corpse.
• Lin Feng’s guards helped bring the party back up the cliff, and Lin Feng preserved the prince’s head in a box with salt.
• The mysterious Literary Scholar requested food and water, then rode away across the wilderness.
• Sparrow Head suddenly died in camp, and Xu Quan told Shen Tang that Lin Feng might have killed the Twelfth Prince’s original body.
• Shen Tang planned to send someone to meet Lin Feng and hold her a welcome feast when she returned.
• The Great Queen Mother dreamed that her son was dead and woke before dawn unable to shake her foreboding.

Su Shi Yilu tried to reassure the Queen Mother about her dream of the Twelfth Prince, then learned that the prince had been killed and his body found at the A Ye Qi Qi Tribe’s encampment. The Great King heard of his legitimate son’s death and reacted with indifference, leaving Su Shi Yilu to face the news and its consequences.

• The Queen Mother told Su Shi Yilu about her nightmare, and he comforted her while secretly fearing for the Twelfth Prince.
• Su Shi Yilu proposed sending all eleven princes to the battlefield, and the Great King approved the plan despite the court’s uproar.
• Deathsworn men returned with a coffin, and Su Shi Yilu found the Twelfth Prince’s mutilated, headless body inside.
• A wounded deathsworn man reported that they had found the coffin at the A Ye Qi Qi Tribe’s troop encampment and gave Su Shi Yilu evidence implicating Eldest and Second.
• The Great King learned that the Twelfth Prince was dead and dismissed the news before returning to his new beauty.

The Great King and Su Shi Yilu prepared to march on Yonggu Pass after the Twelfth Prince’s death, while Shen Tang worried the weakened National Border Barrier would leave the pass vulnerable. Shen Tang ordered preparations to strike the Ten Crows’ homeland, and Lingde returned as a woman and child fled through Ganzhou toward an old friend.

• The Great King suspected the First and Second Princes had been framed for the Twelfth Prince’s death and judged them too careless to be useful.
• The Great Queen Mother learned of her son’s death, fainted, and begged Su Shi Yilu to avenge him; he vowed to kill the murderer.
• Su Shi Yilu sacrificed captives and led the Ten Crows’ army toward Yonggu Pass with the Great King’s blessing.
• Shen Tang worried that the weakened National Border Barrier and Yonggu Pass’s depleted garrison could not withstand the Ten Crows, but Gu Chi refused to send her National Seal.
• Jiang Sheng suggested Yan Xingning’s long-running scheme might account for the crisis, and Shen Tang ordered her forces to prepare to burn the Ten Crows’ homeland and attack the other tribes.
• Xu Quan told Shen Tang that Lingde had returned, while a disguised youth drove a woman and child through Ganzhou toward an old friend of the woman’s husband.

A young man escorted Yan An’s wife and daughter away from Ganzhou, reflecting on why Yan An had trusted him with their safety. Meanwhile, Zheng Qiao woke alone in a strange palace hall and confronted a youthful-looking Yan An.

• The young man followed Yan An’s map with the woman and her daughter, wondering why he had been chosen to protect them.
• The woman explained that Yan An may have trusted the young man’s conscience and hoped he could escape Zheng Qiao’s influence and find his own future.
• The little girl comforted her mother when she cried over Yan An’s uncertain fate.
• The young man resumed the journey with the mother and daughter before nightfall.
• Zheng Qiao woke from a drunken sleep to find the palace hall empty and sensed that someone had tampered with the space.
• A youthful, black-haired Yan An appeared before Zheng Qiao, looking unlike the aged and ill man Zheng Qiao had last seen.

Yan An confronted Zheng Qiao in a sealed space where neither could use their Literary Heart or National Seal, then overwhelmed him in a sword fight. As Zheng Qiao pleaded with his Senior Brother, Yan An began to age and bear wounds matching Zheng Qiao’s.

• Yan An told Zheng Qiao he had come to kill him and drew the sword he had inherited from his late father.
• Zheng Qiao discovered that the strange space had silenced his Literary Heart and hidden his National Seal, then fought Yan An with swords.
• Yan An wounded Zheng Qiao repeatedly, while Zheng Qiao caught a blade with his bare hand and lost half a sleeve as they fought.
• Yan An knocked Zheng Qiao down the palace steps, and the injured Zheng Qiao tried to escape as the space grew hazy.
• Yan An pursued Zheng Qiao, appearing aged and bearing bloodstreaks that matched Zheng Qiao’s wounds, while Zheng Qiao asked why the brothers had come to this.

Yan An confronted Zheng Qiao and killed him in an illusion, believing he had stopped a catastrophe, but Zheng Qiao survived and emerged furious. Zheng Qiao ordered Yan An’s body destroyed and his family captured, then learned that Yan An’s wife and daughter had escaped with help from his own trusted self.

• Zheng Qiao accused Yan An and his father of ruining his life and argued that his thirst for power came from enduring humiliation.
• Yan An admitted he had failed to guide Zheng Qiao, then stabbed him through the chest to prevent further slaughter.
• After Yan An died, the illusion collapsed, and Zheng Qiao used his Literary Heart and the National Seal to conceal that he had survived the wound.
• Zheng Qiao ordered Yan An’s corpse chopped up and fed to dogs, and ordered his wife, daughter, and family captured.
• Zheng Qiao learned that Yan An’s wife and daughter had escaped openly with his token, escorted by the self he trusted, and he vomited blood in rage.

The eunuchs secretly burned Yan An's remains rather than feed them to animals, while news of his death spread and terrified Zheng Qiao's subjects. Yan An's wife, daughter, and a boy traveling in disguise learned the news on the road and fled, but hoofbeats approached as the chapter ended.

• The eunuchs agreed to burn Yan An's corpse and conceal their disobedience from Zheng Qiao.
• News of Yan An's death spread through the court and reached the road near Ganzhou, where a disguised family stopped at a teahouse.
• The boy overheard constables discussing Yan An's brutal death and the danger facing his wife and daughter.
• Yan An's wife silently mourned, and the group continued traveling in a battered donkey cart to evade searches.
• The boy asked where they should go next, then heard approaching hoofbeats and feared their pursuers had caught up.

Yan An’s wife and a youth changed course for Heyin after discussing how Yan An’s death could destabilize Zheng Qiao’s rule. At the front, a military dispatch ordered the commander to win over Gongxi Chou, though the generals doubted he was worth recruiting.

• A troop of riders passed the donkey cart, and Yan An’s wife identified them as carrying an emergency dispatch from the front.
• Yan An’s wife explained that his death could rally scholars against Zheng Qiao and predicted Zheng Qiao would recall troops to protect his rule.
• Yan An’s wife decided to change course for Heyin, and the youth agreed despite wondering what the dispatch contained.
• The commander received the military orders and told his generals that the Sovereign had sent them a chance to gain military merit.
• The generals learned they were ordered to win over Gongxi Chou, but they questioned the value of recruiting a skilled fighter with little command authority.

In Geng Country, Gongxi Chou ignored his officer’s pleas to seek a campaign and instead sheltered an injured woman whose father he had defeated. A coded letter then informed him of Zheng Qiao’s actions and the uprising against him, but it omitted Shen Tang and Longwu Commandery; an arrow-delivered message left Gongxi Chou visibly angered.

• Gongxi Chou dismissed his officer’s hopes of returning to the front and spent the afternoon playing marbles with him.
• Gongxi Chou agreed to let the lady of his household care for an injured woman whose father he had defeated in battle.
• Gongxi Chou received a coded letter reporting Yan An’s murder by Zheng Qiao and the factions rallying against the Tyrannical Lord, but it did not mention Shen Tang or Longwu Commandery.
• Gongxi Chou intercepted an arrow carrying another letter, read it, and visibly darkened.

A gravely ill woman reunited with the dancer she had once helped, who offered her shelter in Gongxi Chou’s household. Gongxi Chou prepared to send the dancer away before his dangerous private undertaking, and gave her the name Come as he spoke of his doomed ties to his homeland.

• The patient woke and learned that her former acquaintance had reported her background to the household Patriarch and arranged for her to recover there.
• The two women recalled their hardships in Xiaocheng, where the patient had once protected the dancer from a hostile woman.
• Gongxi Chou asked the dancer to pack and leave for a safe place because his coming actions could endanger her.
• Gongxi Chou told the dancer that he could not return to his homeland and that his death would free his soul to return there.
• The dancer asked Gongxi Chou to grant her a name, and he named her Come.

Gongxi Chou adopted Gongxi Lai as his younger sister and told her about the Gongxi Clan’s history, its lost Sacred Object, and the clan’s mysterious benefactor. Their conversation ended with Gongxi Lai noticing the clan’s unusual ties to the Jimò family in its genealogy.

• Gongxi Lai chose the Gongxi surname, and Gongxi Chou added her name to the Clan Genealogy as his adopted younger sister.
• Gongxi Chou told Gongxi Lai about the clan’s benefactor, the Sacred Object, and the hidden Secret Stratagems she should seek at the Clan Land.
• Gongxi Chou admitted that the Sacred Object was lost and that he had prioritized avenging his clan over recovering it.
• Gongxi Lai questioned Gongxi Chou about why he had not taken wives and children to continue the family, and he explained his Chastity Cultivation Technique and his uncle’s teachings.
• Gongxi Lai examined the Clan Genealogy and noticed that many partners’ names were blank, while the recorded surnames were Gongxi or Jimò.

Gongxi Chou explained the Jimò High Priest lineage, its role in the Gongxi Clan, and how the absence of a capable High Priest had worsened the clan’s destruction. He planned to send Gongxi Lai to the Clan Land the next day, hoping the clan’s enemy would soon be executed.

• Gongxi Lai asked why the Gongxi Clan genealogy included the Jimò surname, and Gongxi Chou explained that each generation chose a High Priest successor who took the name Jimò.
• Gongxi Chou described the High Priest’s role in conveying Divine Oracles and protecting the clan, then recounted the gaps and mysterious losses among past High Priest candidates.
• Gongxi Lai asked whether the High Priest was Gongxi Chou’s Biological Father, and Gongxi Chou explained the clan’s customs around marriage and having children.
• Gongxi Chou recalled that the old High Priest’s age and a traitor had contributed to the Gongxi Clan’s destruction during an enemy ambush.
• Gongxi Chou hoped Gongxi Lai’s future child might become a High Priest and told her to pack so one of his trusted men could escort her to the Clan Land the next day.

Gongxi Lai recovered enough to travel, and Gongxi Chou sent her away with his fortune and loyal retainers so she could rebuild the Clan Land. After she left, Gongxi Chou confronted his estranged elder brother about his plans to avenge the Gongxi Clan, and learned that Yonggu Pass had fallen.

• Yang Ying awoke feeling better, and Gongxi Lai invited her to travel with her as she recovered.
• Gongxi Chou gave Gongxi Lai twenty carriages of supplies and wealth, assigned her loyal retainers, and arranged for her to leave for the Clan Land under cover of darkness.
• Gongxi Chou escorted Gongxi Lai's caravan out of the city and returned to his residence, where he polished an ornate dagger.
• A scholar emerged from the darkness and challenged Gongxi Chou's decision to give the Clan Land to Gongxi Lai and his plan to act before the time was right.
• Gongxi Chou insisted he would avenge the Gongxi Clan himself, and the scholar told him that Yonggu Pass had fallen.

Gongxi Chou learned that Ten Crows had breached Yonggu Pass but that the National Border Barrier had risen again, leaving Longwu Commandery under threat but still holding. Three days later, he went with King Zhi to Chengkang Temple, where he began a plan to use his disguised sworn elder brother to get close to King Zhi’s corrupt gathering.

• Gongxi Chou learned from the scholar that Ten Crows had shattered the National Border Barrier at Yonggu Pass, but it had risen again and Longwu Commandery had used a scorched-earth strategy to limit its losses.
• The scholar told Gongxi Chou to meet him at Chengkang Temple in three days, where Geng Country’s Queen Dowager was being humiliated and exploited by King Zhi.
• King Zhi arrived at Chengkang Temple in disguise with his Royal Uncle and a small party, including Gongxi Chou, to indulge in secret pleasures.
• Gongxi Chou approached his sworn elder brother, Gongxi Feng En, and persuaded him to take him along to meet his old flame.

Gongxi Chou killed his adopted brother when the man attacked a woman at Chengkang Temple, then took over guard duty as the other conspirators behind the Gongxi Clan’s annihilation gathered there. He dropped his feigned weakness and launched an attack, with fighting breaking out both inside and outside the temple.

• Gongxi Chou’s adopted brother tried to force the former imperial-clan woman into sharing his bed, and Gongxi Chou killed him by snapping his neck.
• Gongxi Chou told the woman to act as though nothing had happened, then left and claimed to a guard that his adopted brother had gone to discuss scriptures.
• Gongxi Chou volunteered to take over the guard’s shift watching King Zhi and the two Royal Uncles, while recalling that the people behind the Gongxi Clan’s destruction were gathered at Chengkang Temple.
• When the guard refused to leave, Gongxi Chou attacked him with his snake halberd, unleashed his full strength, and shattered the palace halls as weapons clashed outside the temple.

Gongxi Chou attacked King Zhi and the two Royal Uncles at Chengkang Temple to repay the debt of his clan’s annihilation. He destroyed them in a devastating blast, then greeted his foster father Tang Guo, who arrived too late to stop the fight.

• King Zhi recognized Gongxi Chou and realized he remembered the Gongxi Clan’s annihilation.
• King Zhi and two Royal Uncles surrounded Gongxi Chou and attacked him.
• Gongxi Chou split King Zhi in two, wounded one Royal Uncle, and fought off the others’ beasts and arrows.
• Gongxi Chou unleashed a barrage of martial-energy arrows and detonated his giant serpent, killing the two Royal Uncles and devastating Chengkang Temple.
• Tang Guo arrived and told Gongxi Chou to stop, but Gongxi Chou greeted him with a smile.