Chapter Summaries

Gongxi Chou crushed Zhao Feng in the generals' challenge, then fired an arrow at Alliance Leader Wu Xian. Shen Tang saved Zhao Feng and split the arrow with her sword, leaving Gongxi Chou and Qi Shan exasperated by her sudden arrival.

• Gongxi Chou defeated Zhao Feng with a finger flick and cowed the Alliance Army with his Killing Intent.
• Gongxi Chou shot a dark-green arrow toward Alliance Leader Wu Xian, and Zhao Feng leaped into its path to protect him.
• Shen Tang caught Zhao Feng by the collar and cut Gongxi Chou's arrow apart with one sword strike.
• Gongxi Chou sighed at Shen Tang's return, while Qi Shan lamented that she had appeared again.
• Before Shen Tang's group set out, Chu Yao gave Kang Shi two bottles of pills and said they were for heart trouble.

Shen Tang rescued Zhao Feng from Gongxi Chou, then faced his taunts as he refused to duel her again. Shao Chong accepted the next challenge and threatened to twist Gongxi Chou’s head off.

• Shen Tang charged into the fight and rescued Zhao Feng from Gongxi Chou, shocking the Alliance Army.
• Kang Shi asked Qi Shan whether Shen Tang was normal, and Qi Shan defended her unusual bravery.
• Shen Tang challenged Gongxi Chou over his refusal to fight her, but he said he was bored of their repeated duels.
• Gongxi Chou mocked the Alliance Army, and Shao Chong rode out with Gu Ren’s permission to challenge him.
• Gongxi Chou called Shao Chong a child, and Shao Chong grinned and threatened to twist his head off.

Gongxi Chou fought Shao Chong, whose bloodlust drove him into a feral, nearly unstoppable state. Just as Gongxi Chou prepared to kill him with his Twin Crescent Serpent Halberd, Shen Youli intervened, provoking his fury.

• Shao Chong absorbed his warhorse's martial energy and charged Gongxi Chou in a frenzied state.
• Gongxi Chou and Shao Chong abandoned their weapons and fought barehanded, trading more than a hundred blows.
• Gongxi Chou overpowered Shao Chong and used the Twin Crescent Serpent Halberd to prepare a killing strike.
• Shen Youli blocked Gongxi Chou's halberd with her sword, and he threatened her before swinging at her.

Shen Tang fought Gongxi Chou while protecting Shao Chong, and Gongxi Chou revealed that he considered killing Shao Chong an act of mercy. The battle continued as Shen Tang faced Gongxi Chou’s next attack.

• Shen Tang taunted Gongxi Chou by counting the times she had saved people from him, then joked that she could run if she could not win.
• Gongxi Chou suddenly attacked Shen Tang and threatened to kill both her and Shao Chong.
• Shen Tang pushed Shao Chong toward Chao Lian, who caught him and rode away with his men while Shen Tang held Gongxi Chou back.
• Gongxi Chou cut Shen Tang’s face and said killing Shao Chong was mercy because leaving him alive would be cruelty.
• Gongxi Chou sent Shen Tang flying and struck the ground with his halberd, but his attack hit empty air before a streak of sword light appeared through the dust.

Shen Tang fought Gongxi Chou but was badly wounded after he unleashed a powerful Martial Spirit attack. She rose from the crater and threatened to cheat in return, while Shao Chong remained injured and recovering at the battlefield’s edge.

• Chao Lian brought the convulsing Shao Chong back to Gu Ren and his sixth brother, who used silver needles to subdue him and suspected Gongxi Chou had disrupted his Dantian.
• Gu Ren blamed himself for Shao Chong’s condition, while Chao Lian vowed to avenge him and Gu Ren urged him to wait for another chance.
• Shen Tang and Gongxi Chou resumed their fight, and Gongxi Chou was astonished by the strength she exerted despite her small frame.
• Gongxi Chou distracted Shen Tang by calling her “Mama,” then struck her with a massive Martial Spirit attack that sent her crashing to the ground.
• Shen Tang struggled back to her feet and accused Gongxi Chou of playing dirty, declaring that she would cheat too.

Shen Tang used alcohol to restore her lost strength and transformed the bout with Gongxi Chou into an escalating fight. She left Gongxi Chou wounded and surrounded him with giant chess pieces, though the outcome remained uncertain.

• Wu Xian ordered Gongsu to prepare the Alliance Army to stop Gongxi Chou if Shen Tang lost, while Qi Shan explained that Shen Tang's drunken state could restore her former strength.
• Shen Tang activated her Literary Heart Word Spirit, and Gongxi Chou charged at her, eager to face her at full strength.
• Gongxi Chou appeared to pierce Shen Tang's head, but Qi Shan recognized the fallen figure as a dummy; Shen Tang reappeared and cut Gongxi Chou across the collarbone and shoulder.
• Shen Tang used Scattered Like Stars and Chess Pieces to create a chessboard that weighed Gongxi Chou down, then defended against his attacks as their powers clashed.
• Shen Tang transformed the literary qi scattered across the chessboard into hundreds of giant chess-piece soldiers, surprising the Alliance Army and delighting Gongxi Chou.

Shen Tang battled Gongxi Chou while Wu Xian and his adviser discussed where to lend her land. As the duel continued, Qi Shan collapsed from his horse, revealing that he was injured.

• Shen Tang commanded Literary Qi giants to attack Gongxi Chou, who fought them off and taunted her.
• Gongxi Chou summoned seven hundred and fifty soldiers with his Martial Gall Tiger Tally, then struck at Shen Tang; she caught his halberd but bloodied her palm while evading the blow.
• Shen Tang and Gongxi Chou continued their exhausting duel as Wu Xian worried about the delay and discussed lending Shen Tang a difficult territory.
• Wu Xian noticed Qi Shan swaying and called attention to him.
• Gu Chi caught Qi Shan as he fainted from his horse, and Kang Shi hurried over, noticing blood on Gu Chi's clothes.

Qi Shan’s injuries revealed that his Way of the Scholar linked his wounds to Shen Tang’s, while Shen Tang faced Gongxi Chou in a decisive duel. She shattered the Rebel Army’s combined shield with a vast sword attack, then vanished as she collapsed, leaving Gongxi Chou determined to defeat her next time.

• Kang Shi and Gu Chi discovered that Qi Shan had suffered the same wounds Shen Tang received, and they realized his Way of the Scholar linked their injuries.
• Qi Shan concealed the truth from Wu Xian’s messenger by claiming an old injury had reopened.
• Shen Tang and Gongxi Chou agreed to settle their duel with one final move, and Shen Tang summoned countless sword images by drawing in literary qi and Heaven and Earth Qi.
• Shen Tang sent the sword images against the Rebel Army’s ten-thousand-soldier shield as Wu Xian ordered the Alliance Army to attack.
• Shen Tang’s sword images shattered the shield, after which she collapsed and vanished before a Rebel Army soldier’s arrow could strike her.
• Gongxi Chou recognized that Shen Tang had deliberately targeted the shield and resolved to claim a true victory next time.

Gongxi Chou fought off the Alliance Army’s elite warriors while Qin Li’s Way of the Scholar’s dense fog shifted the battle in Wu Xian’s favor. Qi Shan explained his history with Qin Li, and the chapter ended with Qin Li realizing his fog had no effect on Gongxi Chou.

• Gongxi Chou killed a Martial Gall Warrior in one move and taunted the surrounding fighters as the battle continued.
• Wu Xian ordered Qin Li to raise a fog, allowing Wu Xian’s troops to navigate it by following Qin Li’s directions.
• Kang Shi and Gu Chi asked Qi Shan about the fog, and Qi Shan identified it as Qin Li’s Way of the Scholar.
• Qi Shan recounted how his former lord’s tyranny and his own actions led to Qin Li’s imprisonment, the kingdom’s collapse, and Qin Li’s family being destroyed.
• Qin Li told Wu Xian that his Way of the Scholar had no effect on Gongxi Chou.

After the fog-shrouded battle ended, the Alliance Army argued over its heavy losses, while Shen Tang remained unconscious as her companions worried over her. She finally woke to the smell of roasted pork and rushed outside, fearing her beloved boar had been slaughtered, only to find Qi Shan and Zhai Le with her pig.

• Gongxi Chou used the fog to strike the Alliance Army, protect his elite troops with armor from the Martial Gall Tiger Tally, and fight off pursuing Martial Gall Warriors.
• Wu Xian ordered Qin Li to end the fog, and the battle continued for more than two hours before both armies retreated with heavy casualties.
• Qin Li blamed the other forces’ poor command for their losses, and Wu Xian calmed the resulting dispute after one man tried to attack Qin Li.
• Chu Yao worried over Shen Tang, ordered a pig slaughtered for recovery soup, and learned that Qi Shan had hidden how her injuries affected him.
• Shen Tang woke to the smell of pork, mistook the news for the slaughter of her great wild boar, and ran outside to find Qi Shan and Zhai Le eating roasted pork.

After Shen Tang recovered, she learned that Qi Shan’s Way of the Scholar made him share her injuries as a second life, and she angrily demanded that he stop. Their argument ended when Gongxi Chou appeared in the secluded spot.

• Shen Tang joined the others for a meal, ate Chu Yao’s stewed pig’s trotters and Zhai Le’s share of the roast pig, and joked with him about fighting Gongxi Chou again.
• Shen Tang noticed Qi Shan looked unwell and pressed the others to explain what they were hiding, believing someone in the Alliance Army had injured him.
• Qi Shan took Shen Tang aside and confessed that his Way of the Scholar made him her second life, sharing the consequences of her injuries for as long as she trusted him.
• Shen Tang grew furious that Qi Shan had concealed the arrangement and demanded that he sever it, but he said he could neither control nor end it.
• Gongxi Chou appeared, and Shen Tang pulled Qi Shan behind her.

Gongxi Chou told Shen Tang that Shao Chong carried a Gu Mother that might be linked to the Wu State Gu Calamity, and the group informed Gu Ren. Gu Ren struggled to accept that Shao Chong’s strength and madness came from a Gu planted in him during childhood.

• Gongxi Chou told Shen Tang he had come to kill Shao Chong because Shao Chong was a Gu Mother carrying a Gu Worm.
• Gongxi Chou explained that Gu Worms could grant great strength at the cost of lifespan, potential, and vital essence, and that Wu State had collapsed when its Gu-empowered warriors died.
• Shen Tang and Qi Shan considered how to investigate the person who had planted the Gu, and Shen Tang wondered whether Gu Ren might be responsible.
• Gu Ren kept watch over Shao Chong as his sixth younger brother reported that Shao Chong’s condition was improving.
• Shen Tang and Qi Shan told Gu Ren about the Gu Mother, and Gu Ren struggled to accept that someone had harmed Shao Chong when he was young and that his strength was consuming his life.

Shen Tang told Gu Ren that Shao Chong’s Gu Worm could be suppressed or overcome by making him kill and grow strong enough to devour it, while warning that success would make him extraordinarily powerful. As Gu Ren considered the choice, his sixth brother revealed that a former Imperial Physician connected to the Wu State Gu Calamity was Zhang He of Yiru, Lingzhou.

• Gu Ren asked Qi Shan how to save Shao Chong, and Shen Tang explained that suppressing the Gu Worm could only treat its symptoms while overcoming it would risk leaving Shao Chong crippled.
• Shen Tang told Gu Ren that Shao Chong could become the Gu Worm’s new Gu Mother by growing strong enough to refine and devour it, and Gu Ren agreed to consider the dangerous method to keep him alive.
• After leaving Gu Ren’s tent, Shen Tang told Qi Shan that Gongxi Chou might have been a victim of the Gu Calamity and had encouraged Shao Chong’s transformation to create a formidable rival.
• Qi Shan inferred that Shen Tang was a woman, and she confirmed that only a handful of their companions knew the truth so far.
• Gu Ren’s sixth brother explained that a former Imperial Physician had investigated the Wu State Gu Calamity and identified him as Zhang He of Yiru, Lingzhou.

Gu Ren and Sixth Brother suspected Zhang He had caused the Lingzhou epidemic by using Gu Worms to build his reputation, and they planned to investigate the connection to Thirteen. Meanwhile, Gongxi Chou learned that the King Zhi's adviser shared his clan name and bore the clan mark, then heard that Xiaocheng's troops might withdraw because the National Seal had been taken.

• Sixth Brother identified Zhang He as the former Imperial Physician of Xin Country's Medical Bureau and connected him to the Gu Worm inside Thirteen.
• Gu Ren and Sixth Brother reconsidered Zhang He's role in the Lingzhou epidemic, suspecting it had been a Gu Worm calamity, and decided to follow Lord Shen's lead to help Thirteen.
• Gongxi Chou returned to his tent and confronted the King Zhi's adviser, who accused him of secretly colluding with the enemy.
• The adviser revealed his Gongxi family name and clan mark, but Gongxi Chou challenged his identity because he had accounted for every clan member and collected the Clan Genealogy.
• The adviser told Gongxi Chou to inspect the Clan Genealogy and warned that Xiaocheng's troops might withdraw because the National Seal had fallen into someone else's hands.

Gongxi Chou learned that King Zhi had been willing to sacrifice thousands of soldiers to seize Xin Country’s National Seal, then investigated the Staff Envoy’s identity. He discovered a likely match in the clan genealogy and suspected that the Staff Envoy was his long-lost older brother.

• The Staff Envoy told Gongxi Chou that the National Seal’s aura had vanished, and Gongxi Chou angrily asked why the soldiers had not been warned sooner.
• The Staff Envoy revealed that King Zhi had ordered Gongxi Chou’s troops and his adoptive father’s troops sacrificed if necessary, and that Xiaocheng’s soldiers could be abandoned if their casualties failed to force out the seal.
• The Staff Envoy told Gongxi Chou that he should have died with the clan and then vanished into the darkness.
• Gongxi Chou searched the clan genealogy and found two names whose handwriting might belong to the Staff Envoy.
• Gongxi Chou recalled his older brother, who had supposedly died young, compared their faces in a mirror, and realized that he and the Staff Envoy looked alike.

Shen Tang maneuvered to secure River Yin as her territory, with Wu Xian assigning Zhao Feng and his thousand private troops to accompany her. The chapter ended with Shen Tang preparing to face River Yin’s dangerous locals while avoiding Zheng Qiao, whose National Seal could expose her.

• Chu Yao and Qi Shan discussed using Gu Ren’s favor to help Shen Tang secure territory without relying on Wu Xian’s goodwill.
• Shen Tang persuaded Gu Ren to recommend her for the difficult territory she had planned to borrow from Wu Xian.
• Wu Xian rejected Shen Tang’s first proposed location, then offered her River Yin and Zhao Feng’s thousand private troops.
• Shen Tang accepted River Yin and explained to Zhai Le that she had reasons for taking an indirect route to secure it.
• Zhai Le warned Shen Tang that River Yin was difficult to claim without enough people or food, and Shen Tang vowed to overcome its challenges.

Gongxi Chou objected to the order to withdraw, then returned to his residence and praised Shen Tang while challenging a dancing girl’s assumptions about women’s education. Shen Tang described Gongxi Chou as a useful, powerful sparring partner, leaving Lin Feng wondering how to remain loyal to both sides.

• Gongxi Chou questioned his adoptive father about withdrawing, but the old general told him to obey the order and dismissed his protest as a reaction to defeat.
• Gongxi Chou returned to his residence, played marbles with the dancing girl, and told her about Shen Tang’s remarkable stamina and abilities.
• The dancing girl said women had little place in the world, and Gongxi Chou insisted Shen Tang was different and criticized the limited expectations placed on women.
• Shen Tang sneezed and guessed Gongxi Chou might be praising her, then told Lin Feng she saw him as an excellent opponent from whom to gain experience.
• Lin Feng wondered aloud how she could remain loyal to both sides, confusing Shen Tang.

Shen Tang advised Lin Feng to follow her heart if she ever had to choose between repaying Gongxi Chou and serving her lord, then promised to capture Gongxi Chou alive if they met. The Alliance Army pursued the withdrawing Rebels but stopped at the edge of King Zhi’s territory, then turned to reclaim other parts of Sibao Prefecture as Shen Tang saw the devastation the Rebels had left behind.

• Lin Feng asked Shen Tang how to repay Gongxi Chou for saving her life when he might one day stand against Shen Tang, and Shen Tang told her to follow her heart.
• Lin Feng declared that she believed Shen Tang and Gongxi Chou would eventually meet, so Shen Tang promised to capture Gongxi Chou alive and let Lin Feng plead for him.
• Scouts reported that the Rebels had withdrawn from Xiaocheng, and the Alliance Army decided to pursue them in case they had obtained the National Seal.
• Gongxi Chou’s older brother used a Word Spirit to speed the Rebel army’s march, while the Alliance Army chased for two days and became increasingly scattered.
• Wu Xian stopped the pursuit before the Alliance Army entered King Zhi’s territory, then led it to reclaim other Rebel-held areas in Sibao Prefecture.
• Shen Tang saw that the Rebels had plundered wealthy households and ordinary people alike, and she remained troubled despite the Alliance Army’s victories.

Shen Tang volunteered to take in three or four thousand survivors left destitute by King Zhi’s Rebel Army, then secured grain loans from the Alliance Army and permission to leave early for Heyin. As she prepared to depart, Captain Yang offered to use his old connections to help her if her resources ran short.

• Shen Tang condemned the Rebel Army’s massacres, looting, and destruction, then pressed Wu Xian to make plans for the surviving commoners.
• Shen Tang told Wu Xian she would take in the three or four thousand elderly people, women, and children, despite Gu Chi’s concerns about the burden.
• Wu Xian presented Shen Tang’s offer to the Alliance Army, and Gu Ren and the other leaders agreed to lend grain; Shen Tang arranged to record their loans.
• Shen Tang used the survivors’ needs and the stabilizing situation in Sibao Prefecture to secure permission to leave early for Heyin, with Zhao Feng assigned to accompany her group.
• Qin Li remained suspicious of Shen Tang’s motives, while Wu Xian defended her and Captain Yang offered to help her borrow supplies through his old connections.

Shen Tang bid farewell to Wu Xian and the Zhai brothers before leading more than eighteen hundred refugees toward Heyin. As her group planned to build strength by taking in their enemies, Lin Feng reported that they had rescued a living person from the water.

• At the farewell banquet, Wu Xian sent Zhao Feng to help Shen Tang repay her debt, and Shen Tang later shared a final drink with Zhai Le, who promised they would meet again after pacifying the southeast.
• Shen Tang and her companions departed with just over eighteen hundred elderly people, women, and children; at a fork in the road, Zhai Huan and Zhai Le parted ways with them for Shen Country.
• The group traveled for more than half a month, leaving Sibao Prefecture and discussing how to establish themselves in unruly Heyin.
• Shen Tang and her companions agreed to build their forces by gradually absorbing their opponents, and Zhao Feng supported the plan with his experience recruiting former bandits.
• Lin Feng rushed to Shen Tang and reported that they had pulled a living person out of the water.