Chapter Summaries

Shen Tang learned that Qi Shan had arranged the Xu Clan killing and granary fire, while Qin Li suspected Qi Yuanliang of scheming against him. Qin Li detected Huang Lie and Zhang He preparing a surprise attack but chose to wait for scout reports before warning Wu Xian.

• Shen Tang burned Qi Shan's letter and decided to keep his involvement in the Xu Clan incident secret, while Gu Chi recognized her schemes.
• Gongxi Chou told Shen Tang that the dead Xu Clan youth was the grandson of a troublesome Clan Elder, whom Xu Xie already suspected of burning the granary.
• Gongxi Chou said he would leave to search for his brother and nephew after Shen Tang dealt with Huang Xiguang.
• Zhang He received Shen Tang's taunting letter about his intercepted provisions and vowed to make Yanzhou her burial ground.
• Qin Li learned that Wu Xian had turned to the Tianhai Noble Family for grain and concluded that Qi Yuanliang had helped drive a wedge between Wu Xian and Xu Xie.
• Qin Li used his Way of the Scholar to detect Huang Lie and Zhang He's armies preparing a surprise attack, but delayed warning Wu Xian until scouts returned.

Qi Cang returned to his homeland and encountered a female cultivator from Sibao Prefecture who had settled there after fleeing disaster. After she learned his name, she searched the government records and discovered that a man named Qi Cang had been dead for many years.

• Qi Cang drank tea at a roadside stall, learned that war and conscription had plagued the region, and traveled on to a city.
• Qi Cang sneaked into a wealthy estate to wash and steal clothes, but Madam caught him hiding in her room.
• Madam confronted Qi Cang with a sword, then learned that he had once served a lord killed by the Governor of Longwu Commandery.
• Qi Cang and Madam shared tea, discussed their Northwest origins and cultivation, and Madam invited him to stay at her estate.
• Madam searched the Prefectural Yamen records for Qi Cang, and Your Highness told her that he had been dead for many years.

The Consort Captain learned about Qi Cang’s brutal past from the Princess, only for the supposedly dead general to appear in the Princess’s residence. Qi Cang demanded the Princess prepare to seize the throne and build up her fief, leaving her terrified but compelled to obey.

• The Princess told the Consort Captain how Qi Cang’s family had been captured, how he killed them rather than retreat, and how he later vanished after being hunted.
• The Consort Captain described a recent encounter with someone named Qi Cang, prompting the Princess to insist that the man could not be the long-dead general.
• Qi Cang appeared in the Princess’s residence and revealed that he was alive, then questioned the Princess and the Consort Captain about the fief’s population, finances, troops, and household roster.
• Qi Cang criticized the Princess’s household as useless and demanded that she dismiss its members and recruit worthy people.
• Qi Cang ordered the Princess to kill her Father King and seize the throne, threatening her with his blade until she agreed.
• Qi Cang declared that he would personally visit and force capable people to serve if they refused to come, citing his Sixteenth Rank Grand Shang Zao strength.

The Princess recalled how her family had used her in a political scheme, then explained how she seized control of her own future by securing a fief. Meanwhile, Shen Tang and her allies prepared to ambush Huang Lie’s approaching troops, and Shen Tang proposed using ghillie suits to conceal their forces.

• The Princess remembered that her father and royal brother had arranged for a military officer to sleep with her to humiliate her husband’s powerful clan, and the Consort Captain left to avoid worsening her danger.
• After the Princess fell ill, her close friend urged her to go to her fief and become the one who controlled her assets; the Princess then quietly gathered resources until she secured the fief.
• The Princess and her lady decided to use Qi Cang’s strength, hire staff through the Consort Captain, and investigate Shen Youli, while Qi Cang eavesdropped and recognized the Princess’s resemblance to his former lord.
• Shen Tang sneezed repeatedly as Jiang Sheng reported that the southeast was auspicious for an ambush, based on signs of Huang Lie’s troops moving.
• Shen Tang’s forces found that the southeast route was difficult to conceal from aerial scouts, so Shen Tang ordered them to bring out the Gili Suits.

Shen Tang tested camouflage as a way to ambush enemies, then led an elite unit into position based on Jiang Sheng’s divination. As the approaching troops entered the ambush zone, Qin Li watched through his perfected Way of the Scholar and revealed that Qi Yuanliang had once been his friend.

• Shen Tang explained ghillie suits and demonstrated that camouflage could fool Yun Ce’s snowy owl, even hiding herself beneath a stone.
• Jiang Sheng and Gu Chi discussed the limits of camouflage, and Shen Tang led five hundred ambushers to wait for an enemy force estimated at no more than two thousand.
• Shen Tang sensed approaching troops beyond the range of the concealed Word Spirit formation, and her forces restrained their auras and prepared to attack.
• Qin Li watched the ambush through his Way of the Scholar while Zhao Feng urged him to stop, but Qin Li continued observing and drank strong wine.
• Qin Li told Zhao Feng that Qi Yuanliang had taught him to smoke and drink, leaving Zhao Feng shocked that Qin Li considered the wicked strategist a friend.

Qin Li told Zhao Feng how he had befriended Qi Shan at Mount Shouyang, only to discover that Qi Shan had deliberately ingratiated himself with him and later became his political enemy. Their conversation shifted to Shen Tang’s ambush, which they watched unfold on Qin Li’s sand table.

• Zhao Feng questioned how Qin Li and Qi Shan had become friends, and Qin Li recalled finding the wounded Qi Shan during the famine and bringing him to safety.
• Qin Li described how he and Qi Shan became confidants, sharing outings and conversations while Qi Shan concealed his past and political ambitions.
• Qin Li explained that Qi Shan had targeted him, mooched off him, and later burned down the mountain, forcing them to work together despite their political differences.
• Zhao Feng redirected their attention to the sand table, where Shen Tang’s camouflaged troops sprang an ambush on the approaching enemy.
• Shen Tang charged into the enemy formation, and Zhao Feng asked Qin Li to help him find Da Wei, whom he suspected was taking part in the battle.

Qin Li explained why Wu Xian had favored the Tianhai Noble Family and distanced himself from Qin Li’s faction as Shen Tang’s forces grew stronger. After the ambush succeeded, Zhao Wei discovered that her improvised camouflage had caused an allergic rash, and Xu Quan secretly gave her a message to deliver to her father.

• Zhao Feng struggled to find Zhao Wei on Qin Li’s sand-table battlefield and recognized Wu Xian’s troops arriving as reinforcements.
• Qin Li told Zhao Feng that Wu Xian’s preference for the Tianhai Noble Family reflected a conservative strategy, while Qin Li’s faction needed expansion to secure land and resources.
• The ambush force defeated the enemy with few casualties, and the battle’s devastation changed the mountain road.
• Zhao Wei developed a rash after wearing her improvised Gili Suit, and the military physician advised her not to use the camouflage again.
• Xu Quan teased Zhao Wei about her rash, then secretly gave her a message from his cousin and told her to pass it to her father.

Zhao Wei used a staged injury to bring Zhao Feng to her, allowing him to receive a secret letter from his wife. After learning that Wu Xian’s men had surrounded his household and his eldest son had been gravely injured, Zhao Feng asked Shen Tang for help.

• Xu Quan delivered Xu Xie’s secret letter to Zhao Wei, who asked Shen Tang to help her reach Zhao Feng without alerting Wu Xian.
• Shen Tang pretended Zhao Wei was gravely injured and persuaded Wu Xian to summon Zhao Feng to the front line.
• Zhao Feng rushed to Zhao Wei’s tent, where he discovered she was safe and received the letter from his wife.
• Zhao Feng destroyed the letter and told Zhao Wei that his eldest son had been seriously injured after guards surrounded their household.
• Zhao Feng privately explained the crisis to Shen Tang and asked her to lend him aid.

Shen Tang agreed to help Zhao Feng protect his brother’s family and sent Yun Ce to rescue them from Zhao Feng’s besieged residence in Tianhai. Yun Ce arrived to find three coffins in the mourning hall, and Zhao Feng’s sister-in-law revealed that the family had been left without help as the pregnant woman went into a fatal labor.

• Shen Tang agreed to help Zhao Feng protect his family and rescue his brother’s household after Zhao Feng explained that they had been targeted by powerful enemies in Tianhai.
• Shen Tang sent Yun Ce to Tianhai with a personal letter, and Zhao Feng told Qin Li that Shen Tang had agreed to help.
• Yun Ce reached Zhao Feng’s residence at night and found it surrounded by elite guards and mourning streamers hanging beneath the eaves.
• Yun Ce met Zhao Feng’s sister-in-law in the mourning hall and learned that three members of the household had died.
• Zhao Feng’s sister-in-law explained that the pregnant woman had gone into breech labor without access to a midwife or physician, and the chapter ended with her begging for the child to be saved.

With Tianhai’s physicians and midwives driven away, Zhao Feng’s cousin died giving birth, and her husband and mother-in-law later killed themselves to protect their newborn. Zhao Feng’s wife entrusted the surviving child to Yun Ce, who brought him to Xu Xie in Heyin, then led the Zhao Household’s funeral procession out through its gates.

• Zhao Feng’s wife learned that every clinic had closed and no midwives could be found, while her cousin’s labor became fatal.
• At the mother’s request, Zhao Feng’s wife cut open her belly and delivered a living boy, but the mother died; she also stitched wheat bran into the wound to hide the birth.
• Zhao Feng’s wife discovered that the baby’s father and grandmother had killed themselves, leaving a letter asking that the child be raised by a trustworthy family.
• After seven days of mourning, Zhao Feng’s wife refused Yun Ce’s offer to retaliate and asked him to take the hidden newborn somewhere safe.
• Yun Ce borrowed milk from nursing women on the road and delivered the child to Xu Xie in Fugu City, where Xu Xie agreed to care for him.
• At dawn, Zhao Feng’s wife led the Zhao Household out in mourning, carrying a saber and challenging the people gathered outside their gates.

The Zhao matriarch confronted the He Residence’s guards during her family’s funeral procession, then used a series of outrageous public stunts to keep Tianhai’s attention on the Zhao Residence. As Xu Xie secretly helped move soldiers’ families out of danger, she chose to remain until the conflict was settled.

• The Zhao matriarch let the guards open the coffins, then cut off the guard commander’s arm and killed him when he threatened the procession.
• The Zhao matriarch learned from her second son that Xu Wenzhu had secretly helped her, and she explained that she could not leave while the families of Zhao Feng’s soldiers remained at risk.
• The Zhao matriarch said Xu Wenzhu was smuggling the soldiers’ families out under new identities while she kept the Zhao family in Tianhai to draw attention and make trouble.
• The Zhao matriarch sent boxes of night soil to the families behind the scheme and harassed them with dog blood, empty coffins, and public wailing until they shut themselves inside.
• Xu Xie continued covertly moving people out of Tianhai through his trading ventures and connections.

A starving refugee group followed a recruiter to a military camp after hearing that Lord Shen would feed them, but the camp was a trap where the soldiers prepared to kill and cook them. As the little girl was thrown into a boiling vat, a white figure attacked the camp with a water dragon.

• A starving little girl escaped a refugee who tried to seize her for food, then watched the crowd accept a recruiter's promise of meals from Lord Shen.
• The recruiter led the refugees toward a military camp while they spread increasingly outrageous rumors about Lord Shen's generosity and supernatural powers.
• Soldiers separated the refugees, ordered them to bathe, and gathered them in a tent where another captive warned they were about to be eaten.
• The soldiers dragged refugees away to kill them, and they threw the little girl into a pottery vat over a fierce fire.
• As a guard raised his weapon against the girl, a white figure arrived with the literary technique “Water Drowns Seven Armies!” and sent a water dragon crashing into the camp.

After Shen Tang’s surprise attack destroyed Huang Lie’s supply depot, she rescued a burned and terrified child and discovered that the enemy had been luring civilians to be used as food. The chapter ended with Shen Tang condemning Huang Lie and recalling that Qin Li had offered the attack as a “grand gift.”

• A flood and explosions swept through the battlefield, and a little girl survived by hiding beneath a headless corpse.
• Shen Tang found the girl, comforted her with malt candy, and had Yang Ying watch over her.
• Zhao Wei showed Shen Tang pits filled with chopped human bones and heaps of cooked meat, revealing that Huang Lie’s forces had been using civilians as food.
• Shen Tang learned that hundreds of civilians and some captured soldiers had survived, and ordered the bodies dealt with and buried.
• Shen Tang recalled that Qin Li had secretly met with her and offered the surprise attack as a grand gift.
• Shen Tang’s eight hundred elite soldiers destroyed Huang Lie’s supply depot, and she cursed Huang Lie for using her banner to lure refugees.

Shen Tang returned to Chaoli Pass after defeating Huang Lie’s forces and, appalled by their use of captured refugees as food, decided to call for a punitive campaign. She questioned Luan Xin and Cui Xiao about Qin Li’s abilities and intentions, then Qin Li arrived as she discussed whether he and his allies might join her camp.

• Shen Tang returned to Chaoli Pass, learned Chu Yao had everything under control, and ordered Wangchao to write a proclamation calling for a punitive campaign against Huang Lie.
• Shen Tang asked Chu Yao to bring Luan Xin and Cui Xiao to discuss Qin Li, and Luan Xin explained that Qin Li’s perfected Way of the Scholar was called Cloudy Sky and Foggy Land.
• Luan Xin told Shen Tang that he could see no color in her, matching Jiang Sheng’s earlier observation that she might have no Qi.
• Shen Tang asked Cui Xiao whether Qin Li would join her and addressed his fear that Qin Li’s group might face factional conflict; she promised to enforce limits on rivalry and favoritism.
• Qin Li entered the tent and told Shen Tang that her comments about managing subordinates had clearly been meant for him.

Shen Tang met Qin Li, who revealed that his Way of the Scholar created a real-time sand table and offered to help defeat the Huang and Zhang families, but showed little sign of joining her. After Gu Chi suggested Qin Li’s refusal might be a courtship tactic, Shen Tang regained her spirits, while Qin Li returned to Zhao Feng and remarked that she felt differently about Qi Yuanliang.

• Qin Li formed a sand table with his Way of the Scholar, and Shen Tang recognized it as Cloudy Sky and Foggy Land.
• Qin Li offered to help Shen Tang defeat the Huang and Zhang families, then left without agreeing to serve her.
• Shen Tang asked Luan Xin whether he could copy Qin Li’s fully developed Way of the Scholar, but Luan Xin had not yet reached that stage.
• Gu Chi reasoned that Qin Li was unlikely to retire into seclusion and suggested he might be using push-and-pull tactics on Shen Tang.
• Qin Li returned to his tent, reassured Zhao Feng that no one had seen him, and said Shen Tang felt differently about Qi Yuanliang.

Qin Li pushed himself through the night to draw a detailed map of Huang Lie and Zhang He’s troop deployments for Shen Tang, despite Zhao Feng urging him to rest. Over breakfast, Shen Tang discovered that Cui Xiao’s old enemy Qu Tan might be Qi Shan, and planned to confirm whether Qi Shan had once driven Cui Xiao away and abandoned his daughter.

• Zhao Feng stopped Qin Li from continuing his map while his hand trembled, but Qin Li resumed drawing after Zhao Feng left.
• Qin Li finished the troop-deployment map overnight, and Cui Xiao secretly entered the allied camp to collect it for Shen Tang.
• Cui Xiao told Shen Tang that he had searched for Qu Tan for years and wanted to make a human-skin drum from him.
• Cui Xiao explained that his wife had abducted a handsome young man for their daughter, but he helped the young man escape before meeting him again as Qu Tan, an adviser investigating a feudal lord.
• Shen Tang suspected Qu Tan was Qi Shan and decided to write to him to ask whether he had once offended Cui Xiao and abandoned his daughter.

Shen Tang received Qin Li’s detailed map of Huang Xiguang and Zhang Yongqing’s forces and prepared her army for a campaign, refusing to sacrifice the people of Yan and Gan to a prolonged strategy. The chapter ended with her forces mobilizing and the common folk near Chaoli Pass preparing to flee as war approached.

• Shen Tang wrote to Qi Shan and let Yang Ying send the letter to Sibao Prefecture along with a family letter to Yang Ying’s father, Yang Gongcheng.
• Shen Tang presented Qin Li’s map of enemy deployments at the morning meeting, and Wei Shou eagerly hoped its maker would become his military strategist.
• Shen Tang revealed that Huang Xiguang’s forces had three hundred thousand troops and were using refugees as military rations, then rejected an official’s proposal to let the enemy starve and destroy itself at the cost of local lives.
• Shen Tang and her officials settled the campaign’s formations, appointed Wei Shou commander of the central army, assigned Gongxi Chou to the vanguard, and arranged extra support for their shortage of mid-level officers.
• Shen Tang ordered the soldiers fed well before the fighting and recalled elite troops, while villagers near Chaoli Pass began packing in case they had to flee.

Shen Tang stopped fleeing villagers by promising three years of tax relief, then learned from Yun Ce that abuses in Tianhai had left only one child alive from a soldier’s family. She was left worrying about how to tell Zhao Feng and the others the grim news.

• Villagers fled near Chaoli Pass after rumors spread, but Shen Tang’s initial reassurance failed to stop them.
• Shen Tang promised three years without farmland taxes, tool-rental fees, or seed costs, and the villagers returned.
• Shen Tang discussed the villagers’ hardship with Lu Ji before receiving Wu Xian’s message about his preparations for war.
• Yun Ce returned and reported that one woman had died in childbirth and two others had taken their own lives after their family was mistreated in Tianhai.
• Yun Ce said the family’s surviving child had been entrusted to Xu Xie, leaving Shen Tang to consider how to inform Zhao Feng and the others.

Shen Tang told Zhao Feng and Qin Li that Yun Ce had failed to rescue Zhao Feng’s brother’s family in Tianhai, where only a newborn had survived. After Zhao Feng unleashed his grief in a secluded valley, he thanked Shen Tang and chose to postpone confronting Wu Xian until the battle against Huang Xiguang was over.

• Shen Tang sent Cui Xiao to bring Zhao Feng and Qin Li to a secluded valley, where she had prepared a formation to contain Zhao Feng’s martial energy.
• Shen Tang revealed that Yun Ce had reached the family too late and that Zhao Feng’s cousin, her mother-in-law, and another family member had died, leaving only the newborn alive.
• Zhao Feng’s grief erupted into a destructive outburst that flattened the valley, while Shen Tang’s formation kept the devastation from reaching the military camp.
• Shen Tang told Qin Li she would let Zhao Feng act against Wu Xian if he chose, even if it disrupted her plans.
• Zhao Feng thanked Shen Tang for saving the newborn, then decided to wait until after the battle against Huang Xiguang before seeking justice.

Zhao Feng grieved for his fallen subordinate while Qin Li drew close to Wu Xian’s isolated eldest son and helped him practice archery. Qin Li then told Zhao Feng he resented Wu Xian and planned to teach him a lesson during the hunt, stopping short of killing his lord.

• Zhao Feng wept over his brother’s memorial tablet through the night, then drove the soldiers through an unusually harsh drill the next day.
• Wu Xian agreed to take his second son hunting for his birthday, while his jealous eldest son watched them together.
• Qin Li comforted the eldest young master, taught him archery, and promised to make him a suitable bow.
• Zhao Feng confronted Qin Li about befriending the eldest young master, and Qin Li said he pitied him.
• Qin Li told Zhao Feng he resented Wu Xian and would teach him a lesson, and Zhao Feng agreed not to question his decision.
• Qin Li considered exploiting Wu Xian’s hunt to make his move, but said his conscience would keep him from killing his lord.