Chapter Summaries

Shen Tang explained her plan to use Word Spirits to improve farming and reduce hunger, while also advancing sericulture and salt production in Longwu Commandery. Liao Jia was assigned to establish salt fields, and the chapter ended with Bai Su recognizing Zhao Wei as a young woman who practiced martial arts.

• Shen Tang told Ning Yan that Word Spirits could make farming far more productive and said she wanted to prevent people from starving.
• Xun Zhen proposed collecting agricultural books to help develop the ability, and Shen Tang agreed as the group planned several projects.
• Shen Tang assigned Liao Jia people to find land for salt fields, then went to inspect abandoned salt wells.
• Chu Yao asked Xu Quan to help arrange purchases of silkworm eggs, mulberry trees, and coarse salt from Xu Xie.
• Qi Shan brought Liao Jia and Zhao Wei to the military camp, where Bai Su accepted the order to assign soldiers for the salt-field project.
• Bai Su recognized Zhao Wei as a young woman who practiced martial arts and asked Zhizong whether he knew her.

Liao Jia accompanied Lu Ji and a hundred female Martial Gall Warriors to begin reclaiming salt fields, where their speed and coordination surprised him. During the journey, Zhao Wei asked about Bai Su’s marriage prospects and hinted that she wanted to match him with her sisters.

• Bai Su ordered Lu Ji to gather twenty Low-Tier Gongshi and eighty soldiers to help Liao Jia reclaim salt fields.
• Bai Su explained that Lu Ji had chosen her name after her father and brothers died in battle, and Lu Ji soon assembled a hundred women for the task.
• Liao Jia questioned whether the women should do such arduous work, but Bai Su defended her troops and Liao Jia praised their strength.
• Liao Jia, Qi Shan, Zhao Wei, and Lu Ji traveled to the abandoned land east of the administrative center, where Zhao Wei asked whether Bai Su was betrothed and revealed her interest in making a match with her sisters.
• Liao Jia marked out the salt fields, and the Martial Gall Warriors cleared and divided the land with martial aura in less than half a quarter of an hour.
• Qi Shan reminded Liao Jia that the workers would need his help replenishing their martial aura.

Liao Jia accidentally stole Shen Tang’s money pouch while trying to use his Word Spirit, then reflected on the role of Martial Gall Warriors as he helped oversee the salt fields. Qi Shan and Bai Su considered how to keep Zhao Wei near Shen Tang’s forces, while Qi Shan went to bed still unable to remember what he had forgotten.

• Qi Shan provoked Liao Jia into using his Word Spirits, and Liao Jia’s attempt to target Qi Shan instead took Shen Tang’s nearly empty money pouch.
• Liao Jia watched Martial Gall Warriors rapidly build the salt-field framework and discussed with Qi Shan how peace would require giving them a place in society.
• Zhao Wei praised Shen Tang’s foresight, and Qi Shan told her she would get the chance to meet Shen Tang.
• Qi Shan privately asked Bai Su to keep Zhao Wei with their group, and Bai Su agreed to have Lu Ji spar with her more often.
• Liao Jia and Qi Shan shared a bed in Ru Yao City, where Qi Shan realized he had forgotten something but could not remember what.

Shen Tang's money pouch repeatedly vanished because of Liao Jia's unusual ability, while her workers rapidly dug salt wells and began producing salt. The chapter left Shen Tang hopeful that the new salt fields would bring in enough money to repay Xun Hanzhang's loan and build savings.

• Liao Jia returned Shen Tang's missing money pouch after Gu Chi explained why its disappearance had upset her.
• Liao Jia's ability made Shen Tang's pouch vanish again, and he returned it after coming back from the salt fields.
• Shen Tang resigned herself to losing the pouch whenever Liao Jia's ability targeted her.
• Shen Tang's Martial Gall Warriors dug eighteen salt wells in less than half a month, succeeding with all but two.
• Shen Tang watched the brine being processed into salt and calculated that the salt fields could help repay Xun Hanzhang's loan.

Shen Tang created seawater for Longwu’s new salt fields and offered Xu Xie a share in producing and selling refined salt from its wells. Xu Xie accepted the opportunity despite his loyalty to Wu Xian, and Shen Tang’s plan reached further toward the Ten Crows.

• Shen Tang summoned seawater to fill the salt fields, then let the workers begin raking the brine while Literary Scholars replenished her energy.
• Shen Tang asked whether Xu Wenzhu had replied, and Ning Yan predicted that Xu Xie would accept her profitable salt offer.
• Xu Xie received Shen Tang’s letter offering him forty percent of the profits from low-cost refined salt production in Longwu.
• After considering the risk to his relationship with Wu Xian, Xu Xie decided that taking the deal was business, not a change of allegiance.
• Someone excitedly asked Shen Tang whether she wanted them to smuggle the salt—or sell it—to the Ten Crows.

Shen Tang arranged for a salt trader to sell refined salt in the Ten Crows, offering him a share in exchange for his experience and guidance. After Xu Xie agreed to supply silkworm stock and feed, Shen Tang turned to preparing silkworm farms and improving textile machinery.

• Shen Tang offered a salt trader ten percent of the profits to sell refined salt in the Ten Crows, with the authorities providing the caravan and supplies.
• The salt trader tasted Shen Tang's refined salt, recognized its quality, and eagerly accepted her offer.
• Gu Chi questioned the size of the trader's share, and Shen Tang explained that she was paying for his expertise and intended to train her own people.
• Gu Chi delivered Xu Xie's letter, and Shen Tang learned that Xu Xie would supply twice the requested silkworm stock and mulberry feed at a very low price.
• Shen Tang confirmed that silkworm farmers had been found and that skilled craftsmen were waiting to improve the textile machinery.

Shen Tang inspected the silkworm sheds and worried about how ordinary people could stay warm through winter, inspiring her to seek cotton for quilts. The chapter ended with her discovering that Shen Zhi had asked Ning Yan about beeswax and flower seeds, leaving her baffled about their relevance to childbirth.

• Shen Tang visited the silkworm sheds and discussed giving silk quilts as year-end bonuses with Gu Chi.
• Lin Feng used her literary qi to grow mulberry leaves and accepted Shen Tang's order to ensure the silkworms had enough food.
• Shen Tang worried that poor families lacked warm bedding and decided to write Xu Xie asking him to find cotton.
• Shen Tang visited the artisans' workshop and offered ideas for improving weaving based on Tian Gong Kai Wu.
• Shen Tang found Ning Yan and Shen Zhi talking and learned that Shen Zhi had asked about beeswax and flower seeds, not childbirth.

Shen Zhi sought beeswax and flower seeds to make rouge and flower dew for Bai Su’s birthday, and Ning Yan explained that Shen Zhi’s talent resonated with flower-related Word Spirits. Shen Tang encouraged her to pursue that talent and imagined building a cosmetics and dye business around it.

• Shen Zhi asked Shen Tang for beeswax and flower seeds so she could make rouge and flower dew for Bai Su’s birthday.
• Shen Tang recalled how Shen Zhi had once mistaken Bai Su for a man and continued to fuss over her after learning the truth, though Shen Zhi’s affection was maternal rather than romantic.
• Ning Yan explained that Shen Zhi had little aptitude for strategy but resonated with Word Spirits related to flowers and romance.
• Shen Tang said Shen Zhi could use her literary energy to grow flowers and later turn her interests into a business.
• Shen Tang envisioned selling cosmetics to customers of different means and encouraged Shen Zhi’s future in business.

After sparring with Lu Ji, Zhao Wei noticed clues that challenged her assumptions about the soldiers around Captain Bai and learned from Xu Quan that Lu Ji and Captain Bai were women. She rushed to confront Lu Ji, who confirmed it by letting Zhao Wei feel her chest, while Liao Jia received an urgent summons from the official office.

• Zhao Wei sparred with Lu Ji, then noticed Lu Ji’s embroidered chest wrap and began to suspect that something about the soldiers under Captain Bai was unusual.
• Xu Quan delivered Zhao Wei’s belongings, and Zhao Wei asked whether Lu Ji was a woman; Xu Quan told her that Lu Ji and Captain Bai were both women.
• Zhao Wei ran to Lu Ji’s home to ask whether she was really a woman, and Liao Jia followed after spotting her abandoned shoe.
• Lu Ji teased Zhao Wei into touching her chest, confirming the truth, while Liao Jia received an urgent summons from the official office.

Liao Jia, Xun Zhen, and Jiang Sheng discussed the refugee bandits who had once attacked Luxia Prefecture, and Xun Zhen began explaining their leader Huang Lie’s past. The chapter left Huang Lie’s story at the crisis and opportunity brought by Zheng Qiao’s conquest of Xin Country.

• Liao Jia hurried to the office and asked Xun Zhen and Jiang Sheng why Shen Tang had urgently summoned them.
• Xun Zhen identified the refugee bandits who had besieged Luxia Prefecture as the likely cause of the emergency and warned that they were more dangerous than rumors suggested.
• Jiang Sheng and Xun Zhen noticed a brightly colored bellyband in Liao Jia’s bundle, embarrassing him as he insisted it was not his.
• Xun Zhen explained that the bandits’ leader, Huang Lie, was a former bell doctor from a poor family who had become a wandering knight after awakening a Martial Spirit.
• Xun Zhen recounted Huang Lie’s return to find most of his family dead and his struggle to support his younger brother and two cousins through medicine.
• Xun Zhen said Zheng Qiao’s destruction of Xin Country brought Huang Lie both the greatest crisis and the greatest opportunity of his life.

Xun Zhen recounted how Zheng Qiao’s massacre destroyed Huang Lie’s family and helped turn him toward building influence, while the group learned Huang Lie’s Heavy Shield Warriors were trained through sinister methods. Shen Tang shared Zhang He’s warning that Huang Lie had ten thousand such warriors linked to the epidemic, and that he was organizing a coalition to overthrow Zheng Qiao.

• Xun Zhen explained that Huang Lie’s wife, son, and daughter were killed during Zheng Qiao’s massacre, leaving Huang Lie with a lasting grudge.
• Xun Zhen said Huang Lie used a secret art to train Heavy Shield Warriors, and Kang Shi recalled that they seemed immune to Chu Yao’s [Sink into Fire].
• Xun Zhen estimated Huang Lie once had twenty-five hundred Heavy Shield Warriors and might have expanded the force to five thousand.
• Shen Tang told the gathered officials that Zhang He had reported Huang Lie now commanded ten thousand Heavy Shield Warriors linked to the epidemic.
• Shen Tang relayed that Huang Lie had invited Tianhai, Shang Nan, Yiru, and other forces to form a Dragon Slaying Bureau against Zheng Qiao’s royal court.

Shen Tang rejected Zhang Yongqing’s invitation to join the Dragon-Slaying Bureau, citing Longwu Commandery’s weakness while privately hoping its rivals would exhaust each other. She sent supplies and a warning about Huang Lie, then resolved to build strength and sweep across the northwest in two years.

• Shen Tang’s advisers, including Xun Zhen, Liao Jia, and Gongshu Wu, urged her not to join the war against Zheng Qiao because Longwu Commandery lacked the strength and resources.
• Shen Tang publicly lamented her inability to fight and asked Chu Yao to draft a polite refusal to Zhang Yongqing.
• After Xun Zhen warned that Huang Lie might betray the alliance, Shen Tang agreed to warn Zhang Yongqing and his allies while secretly hoping they would keep Huang Lie occupied.
• Shen Tang sent the envoy supplies and her reply, then ordered scouts to monitor the Dragon-Slaying Bureau’s progress.
• Shen Tang told Gu Chi she would begin sweeping across the northwest in two years, once Longwu Commandery had grown strong enough.

Zhang He’s advisers judged the Dragon Slaying Bureau’s chances against Zheng Qiao at forty percent, while Wu Xian’s preparations were strained by a feud over military supplies. When Longwu Commandery declined to join the plot, Zhao Feng felt relieved for his daughter’s safety, while Xu Xie was glad his private salt trade with Shen Tang could continue.

• Zhang He learned that Gu Ren and Wu Xian had agreed to join the campaign against Zheng Qiao, though the advisers estimated their chances at only forty percent.
• Xu Xie complained to Zhao Feng that Wu Xian’s trusted aide was sabotaging their work on provisions and supplies.
• Zhao Feng kept his distance from the campaign after Qin Li had warned him that joining the fighting could cost him more than he gained.
• Zhao Feng and Xu Xie received word that Longwu Commandery would not join the plot; Zhao Feng was relieved because his runaway daughter was on Shen Tang’s territory.
• Xu Xie welcomed the news because his private salt business with Shen Tang could continue while Wu Xian focused on the war.

Xu Xie sent a trusted attendant to Longwu to trade for Shen Tang’s refined smuggled salt, while Shen Tang expanded public access to goods through her General Merchandise Store. The attendant collected a large shipment and learned that salt was also being sold to the Ten Crows, as a trader had already entered their territory to deal with the Tatamuer Tribe.

• Xu Xie entrusted his attendant with a salt-trading contract and sent him to Longwu Commandery with a small merchant caravan.
• Shen Tang described Longwu’s growing salt production and her plans to open General Merchandise Store branches for commoners.
• Shen Tang signed Xu Xie’s contract, waived the shortfall in the deposit, and authorized a much larger shipment than the attendant had expected.
• Lord Yang loaded the attendant’s salt and explained that Longwu sold some of its supply to the Ten Crows to keep them from being driven into a corner.
• The attendant promised to seek a larger order from Xu Xie, while a salt merchant reached Ten Crows territory and headed to the Tatamuer Tribe to sell his goods.

Wei Heng traded refined salt and other goods with the Tatamuer Tribe, where Yu Zi discovered a slave spreading ancestral teachings among the women. Lü Jue realized similar changes might be occurring elsewhere in Ten Crows and warned that the tribes were on the brink of upheaval.

• The Tatamuer Tribe leader agreed to buy Wei Heng’s scarce goods at a high price after the Yonggu Pass blockade cut off most supplies.
• Wei Heng noticed a female slave praying and learned she had been reciting ancestral teachings to other slaves.
• Yu Zi and Lü Jue discussed the slaves’ treatment, and Lü Jue explained that the weak were exploited regardless of sex.
• Lü Jue heard that the slave had influenced other slaves and decided to watch for similar behavior at the next stop.
• Lü Jue concluded that Ten Crows was about to undergo a great upheaval.

Yu Zi investigated the slaves’ devotion to the ancestral commandments and found that the belief had spread through nearly every tribe, fueling unrest against the Ten Crows’ leaders. The growing movement had begun to unite oppressed people across the Ten Crows while the royal court remained too distracted to stop it.

• Yu Zi posed as a thirsty guest and approached the female slaves, then watched a whip-wielding woman beat a slave to death for resisting the tribe’s residents.
• Yu Zi gained a female slave’s trust with a fabricated family history and claims of descent from the Golden Crows.
• The female slave revealed her devotion to the ancestral commandments, and Yu Zi learned that slaves believed their leaders had betrayed their ancestors and caused the Ten Crows’ decline.
• Yu Zi and Lü Jue discussed how the commandments gave slaves hope, and Yu Zi reported that devotees had appeared in eleven of the twelve tribes they visited.
• Yu Zi and Lü Jue explained that the planned unrest had spread as slaves escaped, attacked supposed traitors, and drew oppressed people from small tribes into the movement.

The Ten Crows Great King struggled to contain court unrest as his sons died in suspicious accidents, while Su Shi Yilu secretly pursued revenge and Shen Tang fueled rebellion among Ten Crows' slaves. As autumn arrived in Longwu Commandery, Shen Tang received a long-delayed reply to her letter to Xun Zhen's eldest son.

• The Ten Crows Great King learned that the Fifth Prince had drowned in a latrine, then suspected foul play after recalling the bizarre deaths of the Third and Twelfth Princes.
• The Seventh Prince died after drawing a lot to serve as a dart target, and the Great King became consumed by the deaths and threats around him.
• Su Shi Yilu extinguished a lamp marked with the number seven and vowed that the princes' deaths were only the beginning of his revenge for the Twelfth Prince.
• Shen Tang divided the salt-smuggling profits, sent much of the money to repay a loan, and ordered Chu Jie and Gu Chi to foment unrest among Ten Crows' slaves.
• Shen Tang joined the cocoon harvest in Longwu Commandery, and as autumn arrived, a soldier delivered a delayed reply to her letter to Xun Zhen's eldest son.

A long-delayed messenger returned with Xun Ding’s letter, revealing that he had survived by joining another army and working as a hired fighter. Xun Zhen learned his son was alive, while the chapter ended with the revelation that Gongxi Chou had pushed Xun Ding into fighting so he could make a name for himself and find his brother.

• The messenger told Shen Tang how bandits, forced conscription, and battlefield promotions had delayed his delivery of the letter to Xun Ding.
• The messenger explained that Xun Ding had been hired to fight for another commandery, and that Xun Ding had sent back a brief note assuring his father he was well.
• Shen Tang gave Xun Zhen the letter, and he read Xun Ding’s message and learned his eldest son was alive.
• Shen Tang told Xun Zhen that Xun Ding had become a hired fighter, and Xun Zhen reacted with shock before accepting that his son had his own ideas.
• Shen Tang visited Qi Shan as Su Shang prepared to give birth and told him about Xun Ding’s letter and unusual career.
• Xun Ding revealed that Gongxi Chou had decided to emerge from the mountains and make a name for himself so his brother would find him, and had pressured Xun Ding into helping.

Gongxi Chou rejected ruling on his own and explained that he only wanted to find his older brother, fight worthy opponents, and eventually return to the Clan Land. He decided to earn money by helping unstable powers win battles, and Xun Ding realized he had been recruited as part of the deal.

• Gongxi Chou told Xun Ding he would not establish his own power because he disliked the burdens of ruling and only wanted to make a name for himself and find his older brother.
• Gongxi Chou explained that he hoped to retire with his brother and family, and Xun Ding stopped trying to persuade him to rule.
• Xun Ding suggested possible rulers for Gongxi Chou to serve, but Gongxi Chou rejected Gu Ren, Wu Xian, Zhang He, Huang Lie, and Shen Tang for different reasons.
• Gongxi Chou decided to help small, unstable powers secure and expand their territories, then leave once they achieved their goals.
• Gongxi Chou insisted he would charge for his services to fund the Clan Land and future descendants, and Xun Ding understood that he had been recruited as a defeated opponent included for free.

Zheng Qiao imprisoned a court official because his brother joined Huang Lie’s rebellion, while the official’s wife received a visit from an old man seeking the clothes once worn by Yan, a boy with a hidden past. The chapter left the reason for the old man’s request unexplained.

• Zheng Qiao accused the court officials of having ties to the rebels and sent another official to prison.
• The imprisoned official told his colleague that his full brother had raised troops, while the colleague reminded him that Zheng Qiao held their families as leverage.
• An old man arrived at Madam Qiu’s home with a boy named Yan and asked whether the clothes Yan had worn as a child were still there.
• The old man reminded Madam Qiu that Yan had once been passed off as the Qiu Family’s son before being abandoned, and she recognized him as the boy she had seen years earlier.
• The old man asked Madam Qiu to find Yan’s former clothes but did not explain why he needed them.