Recaps

Shen Tang rebuilt Fugu’s civic life through an unusual labor market, a sports meet, and a dazzling festival while pursuing justice for Yu Zi. Xu Xie arrived from Tianhai, recognized the value of Shen Tang’s spirit wine, and began negotiating a trade that could bring Heyin supplies and connect it more closely to Wu Xian’s power.

• Shen Tang caught a beggar who tried to steal her jade ornament, then learned the beggar was Yu Zi, whose family had been abused and exploited.
• Shen Tang helped Yu Zi bring charges against her grandparents, and Kang Shi arrested Zhu Family Village before Gu Chi’s Word Spirit exposed the traffickers’ crimes.
• Shen Tang put Yu Zi in Kang Shi’s care and arranged for her to study with Lin Feng and Chu Yao.
• Shen Tang used house notes and goods vouchers to pay workers, while residents and merchants began trading through Fugu General Store.
• Shen Tang rejected a plea to let Yu Zi’s sons take punishment for their fathers, then joined Kang Shi in shutting down a gambling stall she had visited.
• Shen Tang and her companions staged fireworks and glowing lantern illusions for the sports meet, delighting the people of Fugu as the competitions and market brought the city together.
• Xu Xie arrived from Tianhai, toured Fugu with Gu Chi, and confirmed through Zhao Feng that Shen Tang’s wine benefited Literary Scholars and Martial Gall Warriors.
• After learning that twenty-three people had frozen to death, Shen Tang worked with craftsmen on an earthen kang while Xu Xie proposed buying spirit wine and supplying Heyin with seeds and farm tools pending Wu Xian’s approval.

Shen Tang expanded Heyin’s trade and farming, then contained a plague caused by both disease and Gu Worms. Her investigation led her to Zhang He, whose account of a stolen coffin and the Gongxi Clan’s Sacred Object raised questions about Shen Tang’s identity.

• Shen Tang used Xu Xie’s wine sales to fund supplies for Heyin and held a Spring Ploughing Sacrifice that unleashed a Word Spirit, enriched the farmland, and helped Lin Feng and Bai Su advance.
• Bai Su formed her Martial Spirit, received the courtesy name Shaoxuan, and agreed to keep dressing as a man while she trained under Zhao Feng.
• When a deadly outbreak reached Fugu, Shen Tang sealed the city, organized isolation and protective measures, and sent Gu Chi to investigate its source.
• Gu Chi captured Literary Scholars who confessed to spreading plague-tainted remains through rats and a well, and he discovered Gu Worms among the bodies.
• Shen Tang’s physicians drew out the Gu Worms and treated the remaining epidemic, while she sent records and prevention measures to Tianhai and Shang Nan.
• After the outbreak devastated Shang Nan, Shen Tang traveled toward Yiru to question Zhang He, met Gongxi Chou, and welcomed Xianyu Jian into her service.
• Zhang He described a stolen coffin and the Gongxi Clan’s Sacred Object, prompting Gongxi Chou to connect the Gu Worm outbreaks to his clan’s stolen research and Shen Tang to question how the dead person he described could be her.

Shen Tang prepared Heyin for a flood of refugees and led an allied force to relieve Luxia Prefecture. After defeating the bandits and surviving an attack inside the city, she learned that Jiang Sheng had approached her because of the National Seal.

• Gongxi Chou revealed the coffin’s connection to the Gongxi Clan and Wu State, then left to seek the clan’s Sacred Object while Shen Tang kept her suspicions about her identity to herself.
• Shen Tang returned to Fugu, welcomed Xianyu Jian, and oversaw Heyin’s harvest, during which Lin Feng formed a Second Rank Upper-Middle Literary Heart.
• Xu Xie warned Shen Tang that Zheng Qiao’s forces were driving more than two hundred thousand starving people toward Kunzhou, and Shen Tang began preparing Heyin for the approaching refugees.
• Lord Lu asked Shen Tang for help after refugees and bandits seized towns and surrounded Luxia Prefecture, so she gathered allied troops and marched to relieve him.
• Shen Tang’s forces fought the bandits outside Luxia, where Chu Yao and the commanders countered the Heavy Shield Warriors and Shen Tang killed the scar-faced bandit chief.
• After reaching Luxia, Shen Tang discovered that the city had fallen and its people had been massacred, and she fought through the ambush while Prefect Lu stayed behind to face the attackers.
• Kang Shi’s [Water Drowns Seven Armies] scattered the fire-bull formation, and Shen Tang found Prefect Lu mortally wounded before promising to care for his daughter and restore peace.
• Shen Tang learned that Prefect Lu’s brother-in-law had aided the attackers, then questioned Jiang Sheng, who said he had come to her because the National Seal was a catch.

Shen Tang built Heyin’s prosperity, then accepted a royal transfer to Longwu and left Xu Xie in charge. In Longwu, she began rebuilding the frontier and aiding its people while tensions with the pass garrison threatened to turn into conflict.

• Shen Tang recruited Jiang Sheng, suppressed Luxia’s bandits, and secured the cooperation of its leading families before returning to Heyin.
• Zhai Huan avenged A Jing, seized the capital with his power over memories, and made Xun King the new Sovereign with Zhai Le’s help securing the Zhao Clan alliance.
• Shen Tang’s pork and velvet flowers became successful trades, while Lin Feng’s Word Spirit revealed its potential to grow wheat for troops and earn her a place in the Spring Ploughing Sacrifice.
• The royal court transferred Shen Tang to Longwu, and she arranged for Xu Xie to govern Heyin while taking a small force, Elder Physician Dong, and Captain Yang with her.
• Xu Quan joined Shen Tang’s company, and she left Heyin amid tearful farewells before reaching Longwu, where Ten Crows bandits were terrorizing the villages.
• Shen Tang and Xu Quan defeated a bandit camp and rescued its captives, then Shen Tang ordered captured raiders buried with their heads exposed as punishment.
• Shen Tang rebuilt Rurong, aided refugees, and sent grain and winter supplies to Yonggu Pass despite the garrison general’s refusal to recognize her authority.
• After reading the pass clerk’s hostile reply, Shen Tang sent Chu Yao to assess the garrison, and Xu Quan suspected the mission could become a fight.