Recaps

Shen Tang uncovered Huang Lie’s use of civilians as food, prepared to fight the Huang and Zhang forces, and tried to keep her alliance intact as Zhao Feng learned of his family’s deaths. The enemy attacked Wu Xian’s hunting party and camp, leaving Shen Tang fighting Zhang He while Chaoli Pass prepared for battle.

• Shen Tang ambushed Huang Lie’s troops with camouflaged soldiers, then discovered the enemy had been killing civilians for food and destroyed its supply depot.
• Shen Tang sought Qin Li’s help against the Huang and Zhang families, and Qin Li provided a troop-deployment map without agreeing to serve her.
• Shen Tang planned the campaign, promised local villagers tax and farming relief so they would return home, and learned that Zhao Feng’s relatives had died in Tianhai while his newborn survived.
• Zhao Feng grieved for his family and later agreed to wait until after the battle to seek justice, while Qin Li grew close to Wu Xian’s eldest son and vowed to teach Wu Xian a lesson.
• Wu Xian’s hunting party was ambushed near Chaoli Pass, and Zhang He’s forces split their pursuit between Wu Xian and his second son.
• Gongxi Chou rescued Wu Xian’s second son after he and his guards were driven over a cliff, while Wu Xian remained surrounded by Zhang He’s troops.
• Shen Tang rescued Wu Xian from the encirclement, sent her Literary Qi Incarnation away with him, and stayed to fight Zhang He and his four morale giants.
• Huang Lie’s forces attacked and burned Wu Xian’s weakened camp, Zhao Feng rallied its defenders, and Ning Yan sent Wei Shou and Chu Jie out from Chaoli Pass as Shen Tang continued fighting Zhang He.

Shen Tang defeated Zhang He and helped break Huang Lie’s assault on Chaoli Pass, then gained Qin Li and his followers after their rupture with Wu Xian. Evidence linking the enemy to the Assembly of Gods led her to investigate its origins and seek records from the Gongxi Clan’s ancestral lands.

• Shen Tang trapped Zhang He in an illusion, recovered a strange emblem after his suicide, and hurried to Chaoli Pass with his head.
• Chu Yao and the defenders held Chaoli Pass while Lin Feng deployed Corpse Man Vine and Yu Zi awakened her Way of the Scholar.
• Shen Tang killed the Black-clothed Martial Artist after he mentioned the Assembly of Gods, and the High Priest disabled the Heavy Shield Warriors by putting their Gu Worms to sleep.
• Shen Tang’s forces routed Huang Lie’s army, Bai Su killed Huang Lie, and Shen Tang learned that his National Seal remained missing.
• Qi Shan revealed to Liao Jia that he had become a deputy in the Assembly of Gods to monitor it for Shen Tang.
• Qin Li confronted Wu Xian over attacks on his followers’ families, pledged himself to Shen Tang with Zhao Feng and their faction, and accepted the culprit’s corpse from Wu Xian.
• Shen Tang recognized the Assembly of Gods’ symbols as hazard signs from her world and resolved to investigate its origins through the Gongxi Clan’s surviving records.
• Shen Tang endured repeated accidents caused by Kang Shi’s Way of the Scholar, discussed the generals’ personal troops with Qin Li, and received his offer to recommend a tomb raider.

Shen Tang secured her share of the conquered territories, pursued reforms for women and soldiers, and forced Ganzhou’s aristocratic clans to accept a government-led land system. The arc ended with Wu Xian punishing those involved in the mistreatment of Zhao Feng’s family and confining his principal wife.

• Shen Tang planned reconstruction with Qin Li, negotiated the division of conquered lands with Wu Xian, and secured Shang Nan for Gu Ren’s family.
• Shen Tang addressed pregnancy and childbirth among female soldiers, established a trial reproductive-health policy, and punished a man who denied his role in a soldier’s pregnancy.
• After rumors spread by Tao Yan’s former followers discouraged noble families from joining Shen Tang, she pressured the clans to donate, while Gongxi Chou and her forces confronted those who resisted.
• Lin Feng revealed her place in the Lin clan and helped expose the clans’ mistaken assumptions about Shen Tang’s land demands.
• Shen Tang presented a land audit and government rental system to the clan heads, backed it with standardized measures and a civil-service recruitment plan, and urged them to include capable women.
• Wu Xian arranged for Zhao Feng’s family to leave under escort, executed people connected to his principal wife’s family, and confined his wife after she admitted concealing the household’s troubles.

Shen Tang welcomed the Mohists into her camp and became their Grand Master while preparing for the future capital and agricultural projects. At the Assembly of Gods’ New Year gathering, she encountered Wu Yuan’s Northern Desert party as Qi Shan pursued power within the Assembly and revealed its hidden mechanisms.

• Wu Xian sent Zhao Feng’s family out of Tianhai, and Zhao Wei reunited with her mother at Shen Tang’s border before Zhao Feng returned to Heyin with his troops.
• Xu Xie rejected Wu Xian’s envoy with Shen Tang’s letter, while Chao Lian entrusted Gu Ren’s family to Shen Tang’s protection.
• Bei Jiu revealed her dream of the Mohist Sacred Hall and her ability to create machinery, and Shen Tang recruited the Mohists after their members awakened with qi.
• Shen Tang accepted the Mohists as her followers, became their Grand Master, and encouraged them to develop agricultural and construction machines while planning a royal capital in Yanzhou.
• Qi Shan revealed his long deception of the Assembly of Gods and prepared to attend its New Year’s Eve gathering, while Shen Tang learned that it might help the Northern Desert obtain a National Seal.
• At a tavern, Shen Tang’s party encountered Wu Yuan and his Northern Desert companions, whose women mocked them and raised Bai Su’s suspicions about possible spies.
• Gu Chi explained that Gong Cheng had gained power through a 20th Rank Che Hou’s [Anointing], and Shen Tang weighed whether to kill him.
• Qi Shan guided Shen Tang through an illusory passage at the Assembly, where she wounded a disguised attacker, and he gathered support in his bid to become deputy head.