Recaps

Shen Tang established a village, took in survivors, and began building its strength by raising pigs and recruiting people. After buying a dead child and recruiting Lili, she learned more about Literary and Martial Fortune and questioned why women could not form a Literary Heart or Martial Gall.

• Qi Shan and Gongshu Wu raided the bandits’ hideout, while Shen Tang woke in the captured stronghold and promised Wind under the Woods she would search for her family below the cliff.
• Shen Tang chose to spare the captured bandits and give them work, named the village Hand in Hand, We'll All Strive for Prosperity, and promised to care for Lin Feng.
• Qi Shan faced the prefect’s tests, left Xiaocheng with more than forty carts of goods, and later returned to find Shen Tang raising piglets and riding a wild boar.
• Shen Tang agreed to raise pigs for ordinary people, while Qi Shan and Chu Yao argued about her education and Zhai Le joined her in a boar race.
• Qi Shan took Shen Tang and Zhai Le to recruit people, where Shen Tang bought a dead child and proclaimed that she would pacify the whole world.
• Shen Tang accidentally activated a Word Spirit and collapsed, so Qi Shan explained that she needed to learn to control her Literary Heart.
• Shen Tang recruited Lili after Qi Shan reminded him of a painting connected to Madam Mei, and Qi Shan helped select more than seventy people for their group.
• Qi Shan explained how officials and generals gained Literary or Martial Fortune, and Shen Tang wondered whether women’s inability to form a Literary Heart or Martial Gall depended on who held the National Seal.

Shen Tang discovered Lin Feng’s ability to store Heaven and Earth Qi, strengthened her ties with her companions, and prepared to intercept a Tax Silver convoy amid growing threats from the Northern Desert and the Ten Crows. The convoy carrying the real silver took a muddy detour, where a chance encounter with an old man and a Shepherd Boy left its fate uncertain.

• Shen Tang helped Lin Feng reveal her Heaven and Earth Qi to Chu Yao and Qi Shan, and Lin Feng chose to study literature under Chu Yao.
• Shen Tang defeated Lili in a staff fight, heard about his despair over failing Madam, and offered to help him gain a Martial Spirit if he pledged loyalty.
• Qi Shan told Shen Tang that her Sage-rank Literary Heart meant she possessed the National Seal, while Shen Tang tried and failed to convince him and Chu Yao that she was a woman.
• Shen Tang castrated the village piglets, recruited Lili to learn from Half-Step, and decided to build her strength patiently.
• Gu Chi warned Shen Tang that matters were about to get rough, and Chu Yao and Shen Tang connected the danger to a possible alliance between the Northern Desert and the Ten Crows.
• Shen Tang and her allies prepared to seize the Tax Silver, while Chu Yao revealed that he had restored his Dantian and condensed a Literary Heart by pledging his life to Shen Tang.
• The governor arranged five Tax Silver convoys, and Zhai Le and Zhai Huan escorted one as it diverted around a landslide.
• The convoy’s silver was exposed when a cart spilled ingots, and Zhai Le heard a flute before soldiers ordered an old man and a Shepherd Boy off the road.

Shen Tang’s group returned toward Xiaocheng as the Rebel Army invaded Sibao Prefecture, and Qi Shan confronted Governor Yan Cheng over the death of the friend whose identity he had taken. Qi Shan recounted how he survived, was exposed and exiled, leaving his past with Yan Cheng unresolved.

• Zhai Huan and Zhai Le helped Shen Tang’s group defeat Captain Yang’s Tax Silver convoy, but Wolf Smoke signals drew Captain Yang’s survivors back toward Xiaocheng.
• Shen Tang learned that Geng Country had descended into civil war and rode against the fleeing refugees to reach Xiaocheng and her people.
• Shen Tang’s group killed Rebel Army soldiers who were abusing villagers, then took a mountain path while avoiding patrols.
• Shen Tang and Qi Shan found the fugitive prefect Yan Cheng, and Qi Shan revealed that he was really Qi Yuanliang, who had taken his dead friend’s name.
• Qi Shan explained that Yan Cheng had betrayed him and his friend during a deadly trial in Book Mountain, where his friend died saving him.
• Qi Shan accused Yan Cheng of killing his friend and stealing his identity, and Shen Tang killed Yan Cheng after Qi Shan asked her to do so.
• Qi Shan recounted how he assumed Qi Yuanliang’s identity, later confronted Yan Cheng, and was exposed as the original Qi Shan’s impostor.
• Qi Shan said his cat allergy proved his identity, leading to a sentence of caning and exile, and Yan Cheng arrived with ashes he claimed were Huai Xu’s remains.

Shen Tang and her companions struggled to protect Xiaocheng from the Rebel Army’s siege and plague scheme while seeking to draw Zheng Qiao into the conflict. The National Seals revealed themselves, the young general rescued Lin Feng and Tu Rong, and Zheng Qiao’s court issued an offer meant to turn the rebel factions against one another.

• Chu Yao and Gongshu Wu entered besieged Xiaocheng, found Su Shang, and searched for Chu Yao’s missing students as Shen Tang and Qi Shan attacked a Rebel Army supply convoy.
• Shen Tang infiltrated the Rebel Army camp with Qi Shan, befriended the young general, then joined Zhai Le and Zhai Huan in setting the camp’s supplies ablaze and escaping.
• The Rebel Army’s leaders planned to spread plague in Xiaocheng and weaken Xin Country’s National Fortune, while Chu Yao warned the defenders and advised them to hold out for reinforcements.
• Shen Tang and Qi Shan reunited with Chu Yao and Gongshu Wu, and Shen Tang’s golden dragon subdued the Azure Dragon of Xin Country’s National Seal.
• The young general rescued Tu Rong and Lin Feng after discovering that their families had been killed, and he allowed both to remain in camp.
• The dragon apparition drew attention from rival powers, while Zheng Qiao’s court debated Yan An’s proposal to promise rewards to anyone who helped defeat the rebels.
• Yan An challenged Zheng Qiao over his rule and the Princess’s poisoning, but Zheng Qiao refused to change course and sent out decrees that tempted the factions with power.