Chapter Summaries

Xu Xie assessed Shen Tang’s leadership and saw signs that she had revived impoverished Heyin in just two months. Gu Chi showed him around Fugu, ending at the unfamiliar Fugu General Store.

• Shen Tang joked about her poverty while Gu Chi tried to reassure her and then laughed.
• Xu Xie discussed Shen Tang’s abilities with his attendant, who argued that her young age and lack of backing did not diminish her accomplishments.
• Xu Xie recalled that Wu Xian’s followers had dismissed Shen Tang and her forces, while he had stayed neutral about whether to recruit or suppress her.
• Xu Xie acknowledged that Heyin had been desolate before Shen Tang took charge and doubted anyone else could have made it thrive so quickly.
• Gu Chi guided Xu Xie around Fugu, told him about Shen Tang’s sports meet and its pig-riding contest, and led him to the Fugu General Store.

Xu Xie toured Fugu General Store with Gu Chi, studying Shen Tang’s unusual shop practices and questioning the rules for buying limited goods. Gu Chi spun a story about the wine’s special benefits and Shen Tang’s bond with Wu Xian, then took Xu Xie around Fugu and said Zhao Feng would soon return.

• Gu Chi showed Xu Xie the General Store’s shopping baskets, guarded shelves, price symbols, and customer-friendly layout, which Xu Xie recognized as evidence that Shen Tang was not focused on profit.
• Xu Xie tried to buy several jars of wine, but the shop assistant explained that limited goods required wine slips and were subject to a daily limit.
• Captain Yang arrived, arranged for Xu Xie to receive wine, and told Gu Chi to pay with wine slips; Xu Xie reimbursed Gu Chi in silver.
• Gu Chi claimed that Shen Tang’s family recipes produced wine with special benefits for Literary Scholars and Martial Gall Warriors, and Xu Xie privately doubted the story and tested him about the slips.
• Gu Chi explained the slips as a temporary substitute for copper coins, then showed Xu Xie Fugu’s poverty and potential during a two-shichen tour.
• Gu Chi told Xu Xie that Zhao Feng should soon return and mentioned Xu Xie’s close friendship with him, prompting Xu Xie to question the exaggerations of Shen Tang’s subordinates.

Xu Xie visited Zhao Feng to investigate whether Shen Tang’s wine benefited Literary Scholars and Martial Gall Warriors, but Zhao Feng’s muddy appearance and account of plowing for Shen Tang distracted him. Zhao Feng confirmed that the wine did have benefits, leaving Xu Xie with the answer he had come to seek.

• Xu Xie followed Gu Wangchao to Zhao Feng’s camp, hoping to learn whether Shen Tang’s wine was genuinely beneficial.
• While waiting for Zhao Feng, Xu Xie opened the wine and shared a drink with Gu Wangchao, but Zhao Feng’s sudden arrival made him choke.
• Zhao Feng returned looking muddy and sweaty, and explained that he had been plowing more than two hundred mu for Shen Tang.
• Xu Xie warned Zhao Feng not to let Shen Tang exploit his kindness, but Zhao Feng defended her sincerity and praised her care for the people of Fugu City.
• Xu Xie asked whether the wine benefited Literary Scholars and Martial Gall Warriors, and Zhao Feng confirmed that it did.

Zhao Feng and Gu Chi realized Xu Xie could be drawn into a deal involving Shen Tang’s wine, whose restorative effects came from refined Heaven and Earth Qi. Shen Tang then turned to the urgent problem of cold-related deaths in Heyin, while Xu Xie recognized that she had a purpose for offering the wine and considered her proposal.

• Zhao Feng suspected Gu Chi wanted to draw Xu Xie into a profitable wine business, and decided to let the scheme proceed because it could benefit Shen Tang and Wu Xian.
• Gu Chi explained to Shen Tang that her wine contained refined Heaven and Earth Qi, and she considered trading it to Xu Xie for seeds and farming tools.
• Shen Tang told Gu Chi that twenty-three people had frozen to death in Heyin the previous day and proposed building Earthen Kangs.
• Xu Xie had his attendant drink several jars of wine, and the attendant reported that it made his martial energy circulate almost as quickly as during cultivation.
• Xu Xie concluded that Shen Tang had a purpose for offering the wine and accepted that her coming proposal would be difficult to refuse.

Xu Xie tried to use trade with Shen Tang to draw Heyin closer to Tianhai, but his meeting with Gu Chi revealed Shen Tang’s urgent work on earthen kangs for the poor. He arranged to buy some of Shen Tang’s spirit wine and discussed supplying Heyin with seeds and farm tools, though he left that decision to Wu Xian.

• Xu Xie explained to his attendant that trading with Shen Tang could make Heyin depend on Tianhai and serve as a buffer between the powers.
• Gu Chi told Xu Xie that Shen Tang had spent the night devising an earthen kang after learning that twenty-three commoners had frozen to death.
• Xu Xie visited Shen Tang as she worked with craftsmen on the earthen kang design and joined their discussion.
• Xu Xie raised Zhao Feng’s old injuries as a pretext to ask for Shen Tang’s spirit-wine recipe, but Shen Tang refused to reveal it.
• Xu Xie proposed buying one or two hundred jars of spirit wine and possibly acting as a seller for Shen Tang’s goods.
• Shen Tang said Heyin needed seeds, farm tools, and circulating copper coins more than silver, while Xu Xie said he would need Wu Xian’s approval to provide supplies.

Shen Tang negotiated with Xu Xie for wine distribution while steering him toward supplying Fugu with farming goods and investing in Heyin. Xu Xie returned to Wu Xian, where his account of Shen Tang’s growing power sparked a clash with Qin Li over the deal.

• Shen Tang let Xu Xie set the wine profits and asked him to arrange seedlings, farming tools, and draft cattle for Fugu.
• Shen Tang explained to Gu Chi that she hoped to make Wu Xian wary of Xu Xie’s profits and draw Xu Xie into investing in Heyin.
• Xu Xie left Fugu with two hundred jars of wine and a deposit, while Zhao Feng urged him to deliver a letter to his family.
• Xu Xie reported Heyin’s progress and Zhao Da Yi’s circumstances to Wu Xian, who praised Shen Tang and asked after his younger brother.
• Qin Li warned that Shen Tang would become a threat and criticized Xu Xie for sharing the brewing business; Xu Xie defended the deal by invoking Wu Xian’s supposed closeness with Shen Tang.
• Wu Xian separated the angry men and reminded Xu Xie that he and Qin Li were both among the people dearest to him.

Wu Xian sought Consort Mi’s advice and went to apologize to Qin Li after their dispute over Xu Xie. Qin Li accepted the apology but remained wary of Shen Tang, while Xu Xie celebrated with the wine he had brought back.

• Wu Xian told Consort Mi that Qin Li was angry, and she urged him to apologize in person.
• Consort Mi reflected on how much Wu Xian valued Qin Li and how precarious her own favor was.
• Wu Xian braved the snow to visit Qin Li and apologized for taking Xu Xie’s side during their dispute.
• Qin Li warned Wu Xian that Xu Xie’s pursuit of advantage was dangerous, but agreed to avoid confronting him directly.
• Qin Li cautioned Wu Xian to stay alert around Shen Youli, while Wu Xian offered him wine from Xu Xie’s gift.
• Xu Xie held a party while Qin Li remained burdened with worries.

Xu Xie hosted Tianhai's influential families and sold them on Shen Tang's spirit wine by demonstrating its benefits and auctioning a limited supply. The first ten jars sold for 460 taels, and Wu Xian heard the news the following evening.

• Xu Xie deflected an awkward remark about his dancers and steered the banquet conversation toward Heyin and the wine.
• Xu Xie served the spirit wine, and the guests felt it warm their Dantians and quicken their literary or martial energy.
• Xu Xie claimed he had only 150 jars and described a plan to sell the wine in batches to the highest bidders.
• The guests considered the wine's limited supply and benefits, while Xu Xie carefully encouraged demand without raising the price too far.
• The first ten jars sold for 460 taels, and Wu Xian learned the final price while relaxing with his principal wife.

Wu Xian taxed Shen Tang’s wine sales heavily while offering her farm supplies and a warning to keep the recipe quiet. Shen Tang accepted the deal and immediately proposed legal ways to dodge the liquor tax.

• Wu Xian told his principal wife that the wine taxes would benefit Tianhai, then left her after she mentioned an invitation from her younger brother’s wife.
• Wu Xian approved Xu Xie’s purchase of seedlings, farm tools, and draft cattle with the wine revenue, and sent him back to Heyin with warnings and offers of help.
• Shen Tang examined Xu Xie’s accounts and learned that taxes and other expenses had reduced the proceeds to about 2,300 taels.
• Shen Tang agreed to keep doing business exclusively with Tianhai, while inwardly deciding she would keep fleecing Wu Xian.
• Shen Tang suggested selling malt and rice with wine as a free gift, then proposed bundled purchases and a lottery to evade the liquor tax.

Shen Tang uncovered Wu Xian and Xu Xie's attempt to pass off poor-quality farming supplies, then prepared to lead Heyin's Spring Ploughing Sacrifice. The ceremony began with Shen Tang improvising a prayer after Su Shang ruined her prepared text.

• Shen Tang persuaded Xu Xie to use creative but legal tax strategies and warned him that merchants' wealth was safer in her hands.
• Shen Tang learned that Wu Xian and Xu Xie had supplied old tools and oxen at an inflated price, and vowed to drive a wedge between them.
• Chu Yao and Gu Chi explained the Spring Ploughing Sacrifice, and Shen Tang agreed to lead it and ordered improvements to the wooden plows.
• Xu Xie departed for Tianhai with fifty jars of spirit liquor after Shen Tang reminded him to legally avoid taxes.
• Su Shang urinated on Shen Tang's prepared prayer, so Shen Tang improvised at the altar and prayed for a bountiful harvest and good fortune for Heyin.

During the Spring Ploughing Sacrifice, Shen Tang accidentally triggered a Word Spirit that drained her and four Literary Scholars, producing only a brief, faint rain. After the ceremony, she divided the sacrificial livestock and unknowingly paid her officials their accumulated Literary and Martial Fortune, leaving Gongshu Wu overwhelmed by the sudden surge.

• Shen Tang's words during the sacrifice activated an uncontrolled Word Spirit, and Chu Yao, Qi Shan, Gu Chi, and Kang Shi helped supply the Literary Qi it consumed.
• Lin Feng heard passages from the Qi Min Yao Shu, memorized them clearly, and sensed that the seeds in the fields could help her form a Literary Heart.
• The Word Spirit brought a brief rain across Heyin, while Shen Tang and the four scholars were left nearly drained; Shen Tang realized she had accidentally summoned it.
• Shen Tang completed the Spring Ploughing Sacrifice by plowing and sowing a full acre, then Lin Feng explained that she was nearing a breakthrough in her Literary Heart.
• Shen Tang distributed the two sacrificial pigs according to her officials' performance, and the recipients also received accumulated Literary or Martial Fortune.
• Gongshu Wu suffered an intense surge of martial energy and a heavy nosebleed, while Shen Tang worried Zhao Feng might have noticed her power.

Shen Tang and her advisers uncovered changes to Heyin’s farmland after the Spring Ploughing Sacrifice and discussed Lin Feng and Bai Su’s progress toward forming their respective strengths. Xu Xie returned with a liquor ledger showing an unexpectedly large sale, leaving Shen Tang wondering how fifty jars had become two hundred.

• Kang Shi learned that Shen Tang possessed a National Seal and was a woman, while Gongshu Wu admitted he had not known her gender either.
• Gu Chi found that farmland across Heyin had grown more fertile, and he and Chu Yao suspected the change was linked to Shen Tang’s Word Spirit at the Spring Ploughing Sacrifice.
• Chu Yao agreed to quietly spread the saying that timely snow promised a good harvest, and Shen Tang approved the plan.
• Shen Tang learned that Lin Feng might need to experience a full cycle of seasons before forming her Literary Heart, while Bai Su was nearing the formation of her Martial Gall.
• Xu Xie presented Shen Tang with a ledger showing two hundred jars of liquor sold to Shang Nan and Yiru, despite the expected batch of fifty jars.

Shen Tang learned that Wu Xian had been selling diluted spirit wine in Shang Nan and Yiru, then devised her own scheme to compete in those markets. Twenty days later, Bai Su broke through and formed her Martial Spirit.

• Xu Xie explained that Wu Xian had smuggled spirit wine into Shang Nan and Yiru after diluting it, and that the wine had been diluted again by secondhand dealers.
• Shen Tang asked Kang Shi about Wu Xian’s scheme, then decided to smuggle her own relabeled, watered-down wine into the two regions under Xu Xie’s name.
• Shen Tang tested how much wine to mix with water, making Gongshu Wu drink the mixtures, and her goods began flooding the markets of Shang Nan and Yiru.
• After twenty days, Gongshu Wu found Bai Su absorbed in sword practice and realized she had trained for four shichen.
• Bai Su noticed her heightened strength and senses, and Gongshu Wu congratulated her on becoming a Low-Tier Gongshi and forming her Martial Spirit.

Bai Su learned that she had become a Low-Tier Gongshi and immediately challenged Gongshu Wu to gauge the gap between them, only to be defeated in one move. She returned with Gu Chi, reaffirmed her determination to reach the peak of martial arts, and revealed that she knew how to smith.

• Gongshu Wu told Bai Su she was a Low-Tier Gongshi, and she asked to challenge him.
• Gongshu Wu subdued Bai Su with one move, broke both her swords, and told her to report to camp for roll call.
• Gu Chi found Bai Su and teased her about seeing how high the mountain of martial arts rose; Bai Su criticized his apparent eavesdropping and resolved to keep her distance.
• Bai Su declared that she would reach the peak of martial arts regardless of how long it took, and Gu Chi wished her success.
• Gu Chi noticed a busy smithy and asked whether Bai Su wanted her swords reforged; she said she could do it herself because she had studied smithing.
• Bai Su explained that her teacher's family had once been a renowned smithing clan before its fortunes collapsed after the Calamity Star descended.

Gu Chi persuaded Zhao Feng to accept Bai Su’s newly formed Martial Spirit and keep her ability secret, while Shen Tang welcomed her as a future leader and planned an elite women’s unit. Bai Su chose to dress as a man for safety, and Shen Tang began looking for a courtesy name to engrave on her Martial Spirit Tiger Tally.

• Gu Chi explained Bai Su’s Martial Spirit as a rare result of her aptitude and perseverance, then convinced Zhao Feng that the ability should be kept quiet rather than treated as heresy.
• Zhao Feng assured Bai Su he would not hold her achievement against her and became curious about whether her experience could help his sword-loving daughter.
• Shen Tang proposed celebrating Bai Su and said she would eventually let her build an elite women’s unit, though Bai Su should first continue learning from Zhao Feng.
• Bai Su asked Shen Tang’s permission to dress as a man until their faction was strong enough to withstand prejudice, and Shen Tang agreed.
• Shen Tang learned Bai Su had no courtesy name and explained that her Martial Spirit Tiger Tally needed one to avoid bearing an embarrassing childhood nickname.

Shen Tang granted Bai Su the courtesy name Shaoxuan, and Lili condensed his Martial Spirit while keeping his real name secret. After breaking up a feud between Chu Yao and Qi Shan over their cat and dog, Shen Tang turned to the growing refugee crisis and learned King Zhi was seeking aid from Ten Crows and the Northern Desert.

• Shen Tang gave Bai Su the courtesy name Shaoxuan, which Bai Su accepted because it had been her teacher's former name.
• Lili condensed his Martial Spirit and refused Shen Tang's offer to choose a name, saying his wife had already chosen one for him.
• Su Shang and Chu Yao's puppy fought over territory, and Chu Yao and Qi Shan escalated the dispute into a sword duel before Shen Tang ordered the cat and dog to write self-reflections.
• Xu Xie told Wu Xian about the cat-and-dog feud, then discussed the serious refugee situation with him.
• Shen Tang learned that more than 1,300 refugees had arrived in Heyin and that King Zhi was seeking military aid from Ten Crows and the Northern Desert.

Shen Tang and her advisers learned that the Ten Crows and the Northern Desert might exploit the Northwest’s wars to enter the region, while Zheng Qiao accepted the Ten Crows’ offer of troops and grew suspicious of Yan An. Zheng Qiao’s spies uncovered Shen Tang’s growing influence in Heyin, leaving him with new information about her.

• Gu Chi warned Shen Tang and Kang Shi that the Ten Crows and the Northern Desert had secretly colluded and might use the Zheng brothers’ conflict to bring their armies into the Northwest.
• A Ten Crows envoy offered Zheng Qiao one hundred thousand troops as a betrothal gift, and Zheng Qiao kept Yan An behind to question his unexpected silence.
• Zheng Qiao pressured Yan An to bring his wife and young daughter to the palace, and Yan An’s wife agreed to take their daughter there as a guest.
• Zheng Qiao secretly reviewed reports describing Shen Tang’s liquor sales, her close ties with Wu Xian, and her tight control of Fugu.

Zheng Qiao manipulated the Ten Crows envoy into promising troops and sending a prince as a hostage, while Shen Tang’s summer routine in Heyin was interrupted by news of a deadly epidemic in Shang Nan. The chapter ended as A Zi and several people in Fugu fell ill, raising the possibility that the epidemic had reached Shen Tang’s territory.

• Zheng Qiao agreed to the Ten Crows envoy’s request, named a minister’s daughter a Princess, and demanded a hundred thousand elite troops as betrothal gifts along with the arriving prince as a temporary hostage.
• As summer arrived, Shen Tang noticed she was growing taller and ate the meat-heavy meals Lin Feng brought her while asking about Su Shang’s kittens.
• Xu Xie told Shen Tang that a deadly epidemic had broken out in Shang Nan, apparently brought by refugees, and that its victims died within seven days.
• Lin Feng reported that A Zi had vomited blood and fainted, while Old Mister Wan and several others had also fallen ill.
• Shen Tang and Xu Xie both suspected that the epidemic had reached Fugu.

Shen Tang discovered that the refugees in Fugu were suffering from a deadly epidemic linked to an earlier outbreak in Heyin. She sealed off parts of the city, organized quarantine measures, and prepared to protect people with masks as the disease threatened to spread.

• Shen Tang ordered Xu Xie to remain in Fugu and sent word to seal the city after Yu Zi and the others collapsed coughing up blood.
• Elder Physician Dong told Shen Tang that the outbreak matched an earlier Heyin epidemic, which had killed every patient and most of the physicians who treated them.
• Shen Tang divided Fugu into isolated districts, restricted movement, and separated the sick, their contacts, and other residents.
• Elder Physician Dong warned Shen Tang not to enter the patients' room, but she insisted on staying to oversee the response.
• Shen Tang ordered Lin Feng to gather kudzu linen so they could make masks, and Elder Physician Dong endorsed them as protection against disease-bearing air.

Shen Tang organized Fugu City’s response to a sudden plague while trying to identify its source and protect the city’s people. She received a large shipment of medicinal herbs, but the outbreak’s cause remained unknown as she assigned Gu Chi to investigate possible sabotage and Chu Yao to search nearby villages for sick people.

• Elder Physician Dong noted Shen Tang’s idea to use masks, while Lin Feng fetched kudzu linen and Zhao Feng arrived to organize isolation zones and guard the treatment center.
• Shen Tang ordered the commoners to be told that a poisoner had attacked her and the officials, hoping to prevent panic while the city’s isolation measures were put in place.
• Shen Tang examined the unconscious patients and questioned them about what they had eaten, drunk, or encountered, but no one could identify a common source.
• Shen Tang had masks, protective clothing, and gloves made, and ordered that drinking water be boiled and food kept clean.
• Xu Xie offered more than a dozen cartloads of medicinal herbs, and Shen Tang accepted them as a temporary supply for the treatment center.
• Shen Tang assigned Gu Chi to watch for disloyal activity and Chu Yao to search nearby villages for sick people and isolate their communities.