Chapter Summaries

Shen Tang assigned key officials to Kang’s newly organized government, giving trusted aides leadership roles across the Three Departments, Six Ministries, and other institutions. The appointments continued as she filled specialized posts and left the Ministry of Works vacant.

• Shen Tang appointed Gu Chi Censor-in-Chief and Cui Xiao Supervising Censor, then added the Court of Imperial Sacrifices minister post to Cui Xiao’s duties.
• Shen Tang appointed Dong Dao Imperial Physician, Kang Shi Minister of Justice, and Lin Feng Vice Minister of Revenue.
• Shen Tang appointed Luan Xin Minister of Personnel and Ning Yan Attendant Official of the Secretariat, then named Qi Shan Director of the Secretariat and Chu Yao President of the Chancellery.
• Shen Tang appointed Jiang Sheng Minister of War, Xun Zhen Minister of Revenue, Qin Li Minister of Rites and Armaments Director, and Liao Jia Left Vice President of the Chancellery.
• Shen Tang assigned Shen Zhi to the Ministry of Agriculture and Yu Zi to intern under Kang Shi at the Ministry of Justice, leaving the Ministry of Works vacant.

Shen Tang distributed court titles and began establishing rules for appointments while balancing the great families’ interests. After she and her ministers reviewed candidate lists, she turned to the military system and asked Chu Yao which of two people he favored.

• Shen Tang awarded Qi Shan the title of Grand Preceptor, named additional officials, and ordered the Three Departments and Six Ministries to submit candidate lists.
• After the meeting, Shen Tang discussed the Censorate and drafted appointment rules with Gu Chi, including regional recusal and restrictions on merchants entering officialdom.
• Shen Tang proposed giving rival great families vice minister positions in the Ministry of Works so they could compete for promotion while keeping each other in check.
• Shen Tang reviewed the recommendation lists, revised some names, and worked with Chu Yao, Qi Shan, Ning Yan, Gu Chi, and other officials to finalize the appointments.
• Shen Tang asked Chu Yao to stay and discuss the military system, then asked whether he favored Chu Jie or Wei Shou.

Shen Tang and Chu Yao weighed candidates for Kang Country’s foremost Great General and discussed reforms to the military system. Shen Tang decided to lead the generals herself and outlined a revised garrison system, leaving plans to establish seven named guards.

• Chu Yao explained why Wei Shou’s Northern Desert origins and ties to Jin Rui made him a risky choice, while Chu Jie lacked the ambition to become foremost Great General.
• Shen Tang rejected Zhao Feng as the top general because his strength and late arrival could weaken his authority and expose him and Gongsu to political attacks.
• Shen Tang proposed gradually abolishing private troops and retainers, then described a revised garrison system with discharge after service, compensation for fallen soldiers, and military pay.
• Shen Tang rejected using soldiers as unpaid laborers and proposed a Ministry of Rites department to promote respect for soldiers while enforcing military discipline.
• Shen Tang planned seven regional guards responsible for their Zhechong Mansions and named them after the Big Dipper.

Shen Tang assigned generals to the seven guards and planned four Division Offices, then learned from Xun Zhen that the treasury could not afford her military-readiness plans. After summoning Xu Xie to discuss raising revenue, she encountered Qin Li, who revealed that he had asked a friend to help with something concerning Lord Wu.

• Shen Tang named commanders for the seven guards, paired Yun Ce and Xianyu Jian in the Kaiyang Guard, and decided Xu Quan needed more time before receiving a high command.
• Lu Ji chose a Division Office and asked to rotate through different Zhechong Mansions; Shen Tang approved the rotations and proposed regular combat drills.
• Xun Zhen told Shen Tang the treasury could not cover the proposed expenses, so Shen Tang decided to summon Xu Xie to discuss raising money.
• Shen Tang went outside with Lu Ji and saw Qin Li use a Word Spirit to speak with a shadowy figure, which departed when he told it to go.
• Qin Li said he had asked a friend to help with something involving Lord Wu and assured Shen Tang it would not cause a falling-out between their states.

Shen Tang discussed Qin Li’s plan to strike Wu Xian once and considered how she might exploit the outcome, then settled appointments and noble titles for her officials. The chapter ended with Qian Yong learning of his new post and title before returning to tunnel-digging duty.

• Qin Li told Shen Tang he intended to strike Wu Xian once to settle their grudge, and Shen Tang said she would use his success as a pretext to meddle in Wu Xian’s affairs.
• Shen Tang discussed posthumous honors for Gu Ziyi and granted Qian Yong a Commandery Duke title alongside his post as a Tianshu Guard General.
• Shen Tang asked Chu Yao why Qin Li had suddenly seemed attractive to her, and Chu Yao warned her not to let romantic feelings distract her from her ambitions.
• Chu Yao met with Qi Shan after leaving Shen Tang, while Qian Yong learned that only he and Gu Ziyi’s child had received noble titles.
• Qian Yong accepted his new rank and title, then told his men to finish eating so they could return to digging a tunnel.

Chao Lian reunited with Fang Yan and learned how Shao Chong and Jimò Qiu were faring, while Lin Si Shu received letters from his family but chose to remain in Qi. Five years later, Jimò Yu brought Jimò Qiu and the others to meet a man imprisoned for a century and promised to set him free.

• Chao Lian returned to Qi, reunited with Fang Yan, and told him that his sister-in-law and nephew were safe in Longwu Commandery under Shen Youli's protection.
• Fang Yan told Chao Lian that Shao Chong still had the mind of a six-year-old and that he and Jimò Qiu had become mischievous companions.
• Chao Lian gave Lin Si Shu gifts and Family Letters from his clan, but Lin Si Shu chose not to return home because he had promised to stay beside Jimò Qiu until his Wisdom Aperture was unsealed.
• Five years passed, and Jimò Yu led Jimò Qiu, Lin Si Shu, Fang Yan, and Shao Chong to a remote mountain while Chao Lian stayed behind for work.
• Jimò Yu revealed a hidden bamboo grove and told the imprisoned old man that he had come to set him free.

Jimò Yu brought Jimò Qiu and the others to the underground palace, where he revealed his plan to free his disciple by using the Che Hou’s body. The chapter ended as Jimò Yu began an Anointing ritual with Jimò Qiu, while the Che Hou struggled to stop him.

• Jimò Yu persuaded the Che Hou to take them to the underground palace, claiming that Shaobai had received guidance from the forebears and that he wanted to see his wish fulfilled before he died.
• The Che Hou transformed into his youthful form and led the group underground as Jimò Yu gave Jimò Qiu final instructions and clashed with the Che Hou over the Gongxi Clan’s history.
• At the palace gate, Jimò Yu revealed that the passage, palace, and mountain were all one tree and that the figure carved into the gate was his mother, Jimò Shuang.
• Jimò Yu asked Jimò Shuang to lift the seal, and she restrained the Che Hou while Jimò Qiu seized his hand.
• Jimò Yu used Borrow Flowers to Offer to the Buddha to control the Che Hou’s body, opened the palace gate, and climbed onto the altar with Jimò Qiu.
• The Che Hou realized Jimò Yu was reversing his martial energy to perform an Anointing ritual and shouted for him to stop.

Jimò Yu drained the old marquis’s cultivation through the Anointing, then confronted him about the conspiracy behind the Gongxi Clan’s destruction. Jimò Yu died after asking Lin Si Shu to protect Jimò Qiu, who awakened with his Wisdom Aperture open and honored his teacher’s last wishes.

• The old marquis failed to stop the Anointing or escape the underground palace’s protections, and Jimò Yu drained his cultivation until he died of anger.
• Jimò Yu revealed that someone had colluded with the Assembly of Gods and questioned the old marquis about the deaths of the High Priests, the Gongxi Clan, and his elder brother.
• Jimò Yu used the last of his life force to control the old marquis’s body, then died after asking Lin Si Shu to take Jimò Qiu away from Qi State and help him live well.
• Jimò Qiu awakened an hour later with his Wisdom Aperture open and recognized Lin Si Shu as his Fourth Uncle.
• Jimò Qiu knelt beside Jimò Yu’s remains, said he was not sad because they would meet again, and clothed his teacher in a High Priest’s robe of light.

After Jimò Qiu cremated Jimò Yu and planted the seed that remained, Lin Si Shu’s group prepared to leave Qi and helped him train. A grieving Gongxi clansman arrived too late, then heard rumors about Jimò Qiu’s humiliating victory over a County Marquis and rushed to find him.

• Jimò Qiu cremated Jimò Yu with the Gongxi Clan’s ritual, and his remains became a seed that sprouted beside the underground palace gate.
• Jimò Qiu destroyed the old man’s corpse and used it as fertilizer, while Lin Si Shu’s group decided to flee Qi before the royal family discovered his death.
• Lin Si Shu said they needed to help Jimò Qiu absorb the remaining Anointing, and Chao Lian tried to train him before retreating after Jimò Qiu blasted him away.
• A young Gongxi clansman found the sprout and mistakenly believed his Big Brother or nephew had died, then left a hidden gravestone and scraps of clothing behind.
• After hearing Jimò’s name at a teahouse, the young clansman tracked down the County Marquis and learned that Jimò Qiu had defeated him and taken his signed bull token.

Gongxi Chou searched for his eldest nephew by challenging powerful Martial Gall warriors and spreading his name, while his Fundoshi trophies accidentally started a wandering-knight custom. He learned his sister Gongxi Lai planned to marry Xun Ding, so he publicized a challenge in Kang Country and gave anyone named Young Bai priority.

• Gongxi Chou forced the County Marquis to reveal that Young Bai and Thirteen had beaten him, then learned they were traveling around challenging powerful people.
• Gongxi Chou made the County Marquis sign and seal a Fundoshi proclaiming Chou invincible, then spent two months defeating warriors and taking Fundoshi or other keepsakes as proof.
• A party including Thirteen and Fang Yan heard that wandering knights had adopted Fundoshi in place of heads, and Chao Lian persuaded Fang Yan to accept the custom.
• Gongxi Chou repeatedly missed Young Bai, once arriving a day after Young Bai had challenged the same opponent, and worried that he would not find his nephew.
• Gongxi Chou received a letter from Gongxi Lai saying she wanted to marry Xun Ding and asking him to preside over the wedding.
• Gongxi Chou publicly declared himself invincible and invited challengers to Kang Country, giving anyone named Young Bai priority.

Shen Youli used trade, work, and settlement policies to draw Ten Crows’ people toward Kang Country and weaken the old tribal order. By early summer of Yuanhuang Year Five, thirteen tribes led by Su Shi Yilu submitted, Ten Crows became Wu Province, and Shen Tang secretly toured the territory.

• Shen Youli offered Su Shi Yilu a path to submit Ten Crows, released him, and appointed him to help bring tribes into Kang Country’s system.
• Su Shi Yilu and other tribal leaders sent slaves and poor people across the border to test Kang Country’s promise of work, food, and lodging.
• After six months, the returnees brought goods and stories of their improved lives, and their children’s experiences stirred interest in Kang Country among the tribes.
• Shen Youli allowed settled workers to bring elderly relatives into Kang Country, while restricting their residence and travel.
• In early summer of Yuanhuang Year Five, thirteen tribes led by Su Shi Yilu submitted to Shen Tang, Ten Crows was renamed Wu Province, and Shen Tang secretly toured it with the mobile royal court.

Shen Tang discussed Kang’s strategy for assimilating the Ten Crows and dividing Wuzhou’s military forces, while rejecting officials’ efforts to arrange a consort for her. The chapter ended with her learning that Supervising Censor Zheng Yu had sent a final letter after a granary robbery in Kunzhou was blamed on a Yin Ghost.

• At Yonggu Pass, Su Shi Yilu learned that Kang was dispersing more than twenty-five thousand Ten Crow youths across its regions, and Old General Jiang warned him about the coming Zhechong Mansion exercises.
• After Su Shi Yilu left, Shen Tang told Old General Jiang she planned to assimilate the Ten Crows over time while supervising them and establishing multiple Zhechong Mansions in Wuzhou.
• Shen Tang rebuked officials for trying to offer her potential consorts, and Old General Jiang confirmed that the candidates had not been forced.
• Gu Chi gave Shen Tang a creased secret letter from Zheng Yu, a Supervising Censor who was inspecting Kunzhou.
• Shen Tang learned that a granary in Jinli Commandery had been robbed and the case had been closed as Yin Ghost Steals Grain, then questioned whether Zheng Yu had been silenced.

Shen Tang ordered officials to investigate Jinli Commandery’s Yin Ghost Steals Grain case and changed her inspection route to travel there. Meanwhile, Chu Yao discovered that a Longwu Commandery shrine modeled on Shen Tang had become a popular place to pray for children before he and the officials were summoned to hear the new plan.

• Shen Tang ordered the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Justice, and the Tianquan Guard to arrest officials involved in Jinli Commandery’s grain case, then decided to travel to Kunzhou and handle the matter herself.
• Chu Yao met officials from the capital while touring Longwu Commandery and learned they had joined a guided tour to visit an Immortal Shrine.
• Chu Yao followed the group through sites associated with Shen Tang’s past and discovered the shrine’s statue resembled Shen Tang as a young woman and was worshiped for fertility.
• The officials bought overpriced waterskins said to preserve the shrine’s blessing, while Chu Yao decided he would discuss the shrine with Qin Gongsu.
• The officials received Shen Tang’s summons, and Chu Yao used a Word Spirit barrier before joining them as they heard that Zheng Yu was missing and the tour would set out incognito for Jinli the next day.

Shen Tang investigated reports that Yin Ghosts had stolen grain from a granary in Jinli Commandery, traveling there undercover with her officials. Locals described seeing ghostly figures carrying away the grain, and Shen Tang began probing their account.

• Ministry of Rites officials whispered about Jinli Commandery’s case, and Shen Tang overheard them and ordered them to write five-thousand-word self-criticisms.
• The officials used Three Hearts, Two Minds to finish their essays overnight, but Shen Tang caught them copying one another and sent the papers to Gongsu.
• Shen Tang considered assigning idle Ministry of Rites officials to the Bureau of Astronomy, which used Qin Li’s abilities to forecast weather and guide the allocation of National Fortune.
• Shen Tang and her trusted ministers disguised themselves as merchant caravans and traveled to Jinli Commandery, where the region appeared bleak and sparsely populated.
• At a waystation, Shen Tang asked about buying grain, and locals claimed that hundreds or thousands of Yin Ghosts had emerged from a graveyard and carried grain away from the commandery granary.

Shen Tang investigated rumors of corruption in Golden Chestnut Commandery and learned that merchants were being forced into corrupt official loans, while flower boats on Canal River Lake might be tied to the missing inspector censor. She enlisted the Zhechong Commandant to help investigate and then asked who the tea drinker had met.

• Shen Tang paid a tea drinker for information, and he claimed that the Sovereign secretly killed people and used official loans to squeeze merchants.
• The tea drinker explained that merchants needed official patrons to avoid having their goods seized, then directed Shen Tang toward a flower boat on Canal River Lake.
• Shen Tang told her people to investigate the tea drinker and traveled secretly to the Zhechong Commandery.
• The Zhechong Commandant explained that flower boats had once been cracked down on and denied knowing anything about Zheng Yu's disappearance.
• Shen Tang asked the Zhechong Commandant to help investigate the flower boat and returned to her room, where she asked who the tea drinker had met.

Shen Tang uncovered a local scheme in which brokers lured merchants into borrowing at predatory rates through a pleasure boat, and she ordered Gu Chi to investigate the broker. Disguised as a widow, she boarded the boat to meet its top courtesan and ask about borrowing money, where the chapter ended with the courtesan asking how much principal she wanted.

• Gu Chi told Shen Tang that a broker was directing merchants to borrow money through a pleasure boat, with local officials secretly profiting from the loans.
• Shen Tang ordered Gu Chi to keep watching the suspicious broker and planned to impeach officials involved in the scheme.
• A guard reported that the broker had visited a grave at night and spoken to it, while strange will-o'-the-wisps appeared nearby; Shen Tang called off the surveillance and suspected a staged ghost show.
• Shen Tang and her companions boarded the pleasure boat on Qujiang Lake using a grain-trading permit and requested an audience with its top courtesan.
• The madam told Shen Tang that meeting the top courtesan required a night together, but made an exception after Shen Tang claimed to be a recent widow.
• The top courtesan asked Shen Tang how much principal she wanted to borrow, and Shen Tang asked how much would keep her business from running into trouble.

Shen Tang sought official protection for her grain-buying venture, but a flower-boat inspection led to her and her officials being jailed. After regrouping, they connected a suspicious joss-paper purchase to the grain theft investigation and learned the broker’s grave held a murdered young woman; Shen Tang was secretly investigating whether officials or a neighboring power had taken the grain.

• Shen Tang told the Courtesan she planned to buy local grain and offered gold so the Courtesan would relay her request for strong official protection.
• The Courtesan described being sold to the flower boat as a child, and a Zhechong Mansion inspection arrested her, Shen Tang, and Shen Tang’s officials.
• Qi Shan and the Zhechong Captain collected the group, and they reunited with Kang Shi, who reported that Niu Zhong had bought a large quantity of joss paper for an official’s gatekeeper.
• Shen Tang connected the gatekeeper Niu Zhong’s original name, Niu Er, to the broker and learned that Niu Er was dead and his wife’s supposed madness seemed suspicious.
• Kang Shi reported finding no traces at the mass grave and shared accounts that the Yin Ghosts seemed insubstantial, while Gu Chi revealed that the broker’s grave contained a murdered young woman.
• Shen Tang’s investigation focused on whether officials had embezzled the grain or a neighboring power had taken it, since the latter could threaten Kunzhou’s security.

Shen Tang secretly questioned the Zhechong Captain and uncovered how Chancellor Liu drew officials into a predatory lending scheme that helped merchants pass through checkpoints. The Captain denied helping steal the granary, but revealed that merchant caravans had left Jinli Commandery around the time of the theft, and Shen Tang suspected the stolen grain and investors’ savings had both been sent away.

• Shen Tang rejected a broad investigation into Literary Scholars and waited for Wei Heng to bring in the Zhechong Captain, whom she suspected after the Captain recognized her identity.
• Shen Tang used a Word Spirit to question the Zhechong Captain, who admitted Chancellor Liu had told her Shen Tang was coming.
• The Zhechong Captain confessed that she and other officials invested in Chancellor Liu’s official loan scheme, which offered merchants loans at exploitative rates and paid dividends from new investors’ money.
• Shen Tang explained that the lending scheme was a Ponzi scheme and questioned whether the officials had sold the granary’s grain to cover its losses.
• The Zhechong Captain denied helping steal the grain but recalled that merchant caravans had passed through the checkpoints and left the commandery around the time of the theft.
• Shen Tang concluded that the grain and the savings of officials who had invested in the scheme might both have been shipped away.

Shen Tang uncovered the scale of Jinli Commandery’s government bond scam and ordered a wider investigation and strict punishment. After officials found the Chancellor had vanished and been appointed through a rebel connection, urgent reports sent Shen Tang rushing to a Ministry of Justice room, where she struck a clerk disguised as the only living person there.

• Shen Tang explained how greed and repeated dividends had drawn officials and others into the government bond Ponzi scheme, while Chu Yao urged severe punishment and she ordered bribery statutes clarified.
• Shen Tang’s forces sealed Jinli Commandery, detained thousands of people connected to the scheme, and began investigating as Qian Yong listened to prisoners curse her.
• Investigators discovered Chancellor Liu had disappeared, his background and official records were fabricated, and the Jinli Commandery Governor had appointed him on the recommendation of a rebel acquaintance.
• Shen Tang read urgent reports, released a brief surge of pressure, asked where a body had been taken, then kicked open a room and struck a Ministry of Justice clerk who was the only living person inside.

Shen Tang exposed the Ministry of Justice clerk as Chancellor Liu, a Northern Desert agent behind the stolen grain and money, and learned the white bones belonged to the Courtesan, whose sister had replaced her remains with Zheng Yu’s. The chapter traced how the Courtesan and a Female Soldier became entangled in the official-loan scheme and Zheng Yu’s murder, ending with the Female Soldier discovering Zheng Yu’s token on a dead man.

• Shen Tang captured the disguised Chancellor Liu, revealed the real Ministry of Justice clerk’s murder, and suspected the stolen supplies had been routed through Gao Country to the Northern Desert.
• Chancellor Liu taunted Shen Tang about her elder sister’s death, while Shen Tang ordered her taken alive for interrogation and learned the Courtesan had been killed after helping Zheng Yu escape.
• Shen Tang explained that the Courtesan’s younger twin had replaced her body in the mass grave with Zheng Yu’s, and Kang Shi identified the true clerk’s corpse.
• The chapter recounted how the Courtesan warned the Female Soldier that official loans were dangerous, helped Zheng Yu investigate them, and was murdered after distracting Chancellor Liu’s search party.
• The Female Soldier later helped the younger twin conceal a killing, then recognized Zheng Yu’s Court of Judicial Review token on the dead man.