Chapter Summaries

Fourth Young Master survived the Court Session by using Wu Xian’s abdication edict to claim the throne, but the mysterious events that followed revealed that his teacher, Mei Meng, had turned against him. Three days after Gao Country’s second Palace Coup, Shen Tang received an encrypted report that the mission had succeeded and considered visiting Shang Nan.

• Fourth Young Master convinced the officials that he had hidden Wu Xian’s edict out of filial duty, then ordered the clan elder, Mei Meng, held in custody instead of executed.
• Qi Cang freed Mei Meng from the dungeon, and she vowed to teach Fourth Young Master and the person who produced the edict a final lesson.
• A woman who had impersonated a civil official killed the real official who had produced the edict, leaving Fourth Young Master with no answers about the document.
• Fourth Young Master learned that three consorts tied to powerful families had been killed, and Consort Mi suggested that his aunt might be responsible.
• Shen Tang received an encrypted message three days after Gao Country’s second Palace Coup confirming that the mission had succeeded, and she considered visiting Shang Nan.

Shen Tang persuaded Chu Yao to let her leave camp on a secret trip to Shang Nan, while her subordinates grumbled about the extra work and their tangled loyalties. On the journey, Jimò Qiu made dumplings, and Gongxi Chou misread the High Priest’s duty to satisfy Shen Tang’s “desire.”

• Shen Tang argued with Chu Yao about her age and persuaded him to let her take time off and leave camp.
• Chu Yao’s colleagues complained that Shen Tang’s absence would leave them with extra work, while Wei Shou explained why he avoided provoking Chu Yao, Chu Jie, and Shen Youli.
• Shen Tang traveled in disguise with the Jimò brothers and Bai Su, heading away from Shang Nan before stopping to make red bean dumplings.
• Jimò Qiu showed Gongxi Chou how to make dumplings and told him to eat the misshapen ones he had made.
• Gongxi Chou wondered whether Jimò Qiu had learned bedroom arts, and Jimò Qiu explained that Shen Tang’s “desire” meant something different from human sexual desire.

Gongsun Chou discussed the High Priest’s duties and divine approval with Jimo Qiu, while Shen Tang learned how Bai Su and Gu Chi fell in love and why they postponed marriage. The chapter left Shen Tang questioning her own lack of romantic feelings after Bai Su suggested she could choose someone who suited her taste.

• Jimo Qiu explained to Gongsun Chou that the High Priest needed divine approval to marry and that the role’s intimate duties depended on the god’s wishes.
• Jimo Qiu and Gongsun Chou quietly wrestled over a glutinous rice ball while Shen Tang questioned Bai Su about her relationship with Gu Chi.
• Bai Su explained that she and Gu Chi grew close after she read his manuscript and understood his sincere reasons for writing, then confirmed their feelings after the Dragon-Slaying Gambit.
• Bai Su told Shen Tang that she and Gu Chi had postponed marriage until the realm was pacified because a public union could draw political factions around them and constrain her influence.
• Shen Tang wondered why she had never felt romantic love for her close companions, and Bai Su told her that someone who suited her appearance and temperament would be enough.

Shen Tang met Miao Shu’s cousin, a wandering knight who had investigated Gao Country and agreed to help her stir up conflict in Qi Country. Bai Su worried about trusting someone from a family Shen Tang had punished, but learned that Gongyi had recommended her; the woman then departed for her mission.

• Shen Tang reflected that her debts and responsibilities as ruler kept her from indulging in romance or luxury.
• Gongxi Chou and Jimò Qiu stopped fighting when they noticed someone approaching, and Shen Tang told Bai Su that she was expecting the newcomer.
• The wandering knight revealed that she belonged to Miao Shu’s clan, and Bai Su recognized her resemblance to the woman she had killed.
• The woman delivered a report confirming Shen Tang’s prediction about Gao Country, then accepted instructions to go to Qi Country with Cui Hui and foment infighting.
• Bai Su questioned Shen Tang’s decision to trust her, and Shen Tang explained that Gongyi had recommended her after learning she was Miao Shu’s cousin.

Luan Xin learned about Miao Ne’s past and offered her a place to stay, while Shen Tang and her companions traveled to war-ravaged Shang Nan Commandery. The chapter left them inside the ruined seat of government, where Shen Tang sent for Qi Shan.

• Luan Xin heard how Miao Ne’s academy years and travels had shaped her, then offered to help her study the Way of the Scholar.
• Shen Tang and Bai Su discussed Miao Ne’s choice to oppose wrongdoing without entering government service.
• Shen Tang’s group reached Shang Nan Commandery and found scorched battlefield ruins and metal lightning rods stamped by Bei Jiu.
• A squad leader warned Shen Tang and her companions away from the rods and explained that the city’s commoners had been evacuated.
• Shen Tang used her Word Spirit to pass the patrol and sent a bluebird message to Qi Shan before entering the ruined city, where rows of tents stood among the rubble.

Shen Tang confronted Qi Shan after discovering he had lost an arm, then learned that her other ministers were also badly injured. Jimò Qiu regrew Qi Shan’s arm, and the chapter ended with Shen Tang finding Luan Xin and Cui Xiao recovering from their own injuries.

• Shen Tang arrived in devastated Shang Nan Commandery and confronted Qi Shan when she saw his empty right sleeve.
• Qi Shan admitted that he had amputated his shattered, poisoned arm himself and concealed the injury from Shen Tang.
• Jimò Qiu used divine power to regrow Qi Shan’s arm, though his new hand remained weak.
• Shen Tang learned that Luan Xin was recovering from the severe side effects of his Way of the Scholar.
• Cui Xiao appeared with a forgettable face and numerous wounds, explaining that he had gone hungry while handling camp business unnoticed.

Cui Xiao recounted how He Shu’s perfected Way of the Scholar had created lightning-powered Deity Generals and Immortal Officials, devastating Shang Nan and killing the city’s great clans before the defenders turned the battle around. Shen Tang learned that He Shu had been captured alive and began preparing to decide his fate, while questioning why he had slaughtered the clans.

• Cui Xiao described how his weakened presence left him overlooked and how he survived his injuries by refining literary qi and finding supplies.
• Cui Xiao explained that He Shu’s Great Auspice Under Heaven transformed thousands of soldiers into lightning-powered Deity Generals and Immortal Officials.
• Cui Xiao told Shen Tang that lightning had turned a commoner into one of the transformed fighters, who then slaughtered the great clans and destroyed much of the city.
• Yun Ce held off enemy generals while Bei Jiu’s Mohists placed lightning rods, and He Xin’s struggle with He Shu helped the defenders turn the battle around.
• Qi Shan told Shen Tang that He Shu had survived and been captured after the clans suffered heavy losses.
• Shen Tang requested casualty and displacement figures, then asked Qi Shan why He Shu had slaughtered the great clans despite having dealings with them.

Shen Tang met the captured He Shu and learned that he and He Xin shared one body, then questioned He Shu about his slaughter of prominent lineages. He Shu admitted he despised their hypocrisy and began explaining how his own life as an unseen, unnamed brother shaped his hatred, leaving Shen Tang to hear his further accusation about her treatment of the clans.

• Shen Tang visited He Shu's tent and discovered that He Xin and He Shu alternated control of the same body.
• He Shu challenged Qi Shan, while Shen Tang defended Qi Shan and explained that she would recruit He Shu only if they were suited to serve together.
• Shen Tang asked why He Shu had slaughtered members of prominent lineages, and He Shu admitted he had killed them because he despised them.
• He Shu described how he had been conscious from infancy but had been treated as an unnamed, unseen brother while his father gave the name He Shu to He Xin.
• He Shu condemned the prominent lineages for exploiting the people and disguising their wrongdoing as charity, then argued that Shen Tang had let their leaders survive because of old political obligations.

Shen Tang rejected He Shu’s attempt to push her into a war against the great lineages, then recruited He Xin and learned Qi Shan had brought the He family to camp as leverage. The He brothers agreed to Shen Tang’s offer, while she discovered their wife knew about their shared arrangement and accepted them both.

• He Shu told Shen Tang about the He lineage’s exploitation of commoners and explained why he had turned against the interests of his own class.
• Shen Tang recruited He Xin, saying his temperament suited Kang, and planned to keep He Shu alive for the uses of his Scholar’s Way.
• Qi Shan asked why Shen Tang had recruited He Xin, and she explained that the brothers could work in turns while He Shu’s abilities were studied.
• Qi Shan revealed that he had forged a family letter and brought He Xin’s wife and children to camp, prompting He Shu to rage and He Xin to agree to enlist.
• Shen Tang learned that the brothers’ wife knew they shared one body and had accepted both men.

Shen Tang considered the political fallout from He Shu’s attack on Shang Nan and assigned Bei Jiu to investigate ways to store and use lightning. As she faced the enormous rebuilding costs, she remembered a Word Spirit that might help repair the city, while He Xin weighed entering Shen Tang’s service to protect his brother.

• Qi Shan explained that He Xin’s marriage had been arranged for the He family’s political benefit, and Shen Tang said she would like to meet his wife sometime.
• Shen Tang reviewed Fang Yan’s report and concluded that the surviving noble families’ feud with the He family might make He Shu a useful weapon against them.
• Bei Jiu met Shen Tang, who asked her to develop a way to store lightning and put it to use; Bei Jiu agreed and asked about funding and official posts for the Mohists.
• Shen Tang saw the rebuilding budget for Shang Nan and recalled a Word Spirit that might build houses and repair roads without cost.
• He Xin’s wife asked whether he would enter officialdom, and He Xin said he needed to do so to keep He Shu safe.

Shen Tang summoned He Xin, He Shu, and He Xin’s wife to the ruins of Erdao City, where she tested whether she could use a Word Spirit to rebuild the damaged city one room at a time. The chapter ended as her spell made four walls rise from the ground.

• He Xin and his wife worried about He Shu’s reckless actions, while He Shu learned that his daughter Bear might be able to begin cultivation and agreed to seek Qi Shan’s advice.
• Shen Tang summoned He Xin and his wife to the ruins, where He Xin’s wife offered to draw a more accurate plan of the city foundations.
• Shen Tang asked whether she could borrow literary qi from He Xin or He Shu to compensate the commoners affected by the destruction.
• Qi Shan brought sacrificial livestock as Shen Tang prepared an altar, while Bei Jiu and the Mohist workers cleared the ruins.
• Shen Tang cast a modified Word Spirit asking for one small room, and four walls rose from the ground.

Shen Tang used a modified Word Spirit to build houses for people displaced by the war and organized her companions into a rotation to expand the shelter. By the time the streets filled with new homes, He Shu and Qi Shan had exhausted their literary energy, and Shen Tang was calling for the next person to take over.

• Shen Tang successfully invoked the Word Spirit to construct a cottage, then tested its literary-energy cost by building additional houses with different layouts and finishes.
• Shen Tang calculated that she could build roughly fifty to fifty-five houses and arranged for everyone to take turns supplying literary energy, using livestock as sacrificial offerings.
• Shen Tang assigned tasks to her companions and added Jimò Qiu to the work after he reminded her that she had overlooked him.
• Shen Tang increased the number of houses she could build at once, creating rows separated by firebreak walls and connected by paved roads and drainage ditches.
• He Shu exhausted his literary energy and asked Shen Tang to stop draining him, then Qi Shan also ran out and went to recover.
• Shen Tang continued building as displaced residents returned to the ruined city and watched the busy construction.

Shen Tang’s forces rebuilt Shang Nan Commandery by using Literary Scholars’ energy to raise new houses and roads, astonishing the war-weary residents. Fang Yan and the other scholars were left meditating in the array, while a visiting friend warned that the new homes could spark disputes over fairness.

• Shen Tang’s army protected Shang Nan’s common people during the battle, returned recovered valuables, and punished soldiers who stole from residents.
• The common people panicked at a noise, then watched in disbelief as houses rose from the fields and a wide stone road appeared.
• A giant snake and its rider ordered curious residents away from the construction site, and soldiers later roped off the area to keep the crowds back.
• Fang Yan’s old friend found Fang Yan and more than twenty clerks meditating on the city wall after Jimò Qiu arranged for their literary energy to fuel Shen Tang’s Word Spirit.
• Fang Yan explained that the houses were being built through the array and guessed that households would receive them by drawing lots, prompting his friend to warn that unequal housing could cause resentment.

Shen Tang rebuilt Shang Nan Commandery’s inner city with her Word Spirit, but suffered a severe freezing backlash that left her unable to enter buildings. After arranging fair housing policies, she recovered enough to set out and finish the weakened Gao Country.

• Fang Yan and his old friend watched clerks build charging posts and discovered that Shen Tang’s Word Spirit replenished and strengthened their literary qi through Jimò Qiu’s methods.
• Shen Tang finished creating houses, then began freezing from her Dantian as ice formed over her body and the tents around her shattered.
• Qi Shan concluded that Shen Tang’s Word Spirit caused both freezing and the destruction of dwellings, so she sat in a freezing ceramic vat while holding a meeting beneath the open sky.
• Shen Tang proposed auditing land deeds, charging residents affordable government-backed payments, compensating renters, and offering future housing vouchers to prevent resentment.
• After the water thawed and her condition eased, Shen Tang ate, borrowed martial qi from Jimò Qiu, and prepared to return to finish off Gao Country.

Shen Tang returned to camp sick and learned that a Gao Country delegation was secretly offering to defect in exchange for the great clans’ usual privileges. She rejected their terms and made them wait, leaving their attempt to bargain with Kang Country unresolved.

• Qi Shan teased Shen Tang about their bond, while Jimò Qiu failed again to recruit him to the faith.
• Shen Tang left Qi Shan in Shang Nan Commandery and returned toward camp with Cui Xiao, Luan Xin, Gongxi Chou, and Jimò Qiu.
• Cui Xiao discussed the need for Shen Tang to have heirs and bet Luan Xin that Qi Shan would be the first to propose she take consorts.
• Bai Su introduced the Gao Country delegation, whose members claimed to seek peace talks while secretly offering to defect and help Kang Country seize Gao territory.
• Chu Yao told Shen Tang that the deaths of three consorts had destroyed trust between Gao Country’s ruler and its great clans, prompting the delegation’s offer.
• Shen Tang read the delegation’s demands for concessions, rejected them, and ordered that they be told to wait or leave.

Shen Tang collapsed after her Literary Qi resonated with Ning Yan’s during Ning Yan’s dangerous Perfection Ritual, then revealed that Wuyou had tried to kill Ning Yan and that Shen Tang had taken over her body to defeat it. The chapter left Ning Yan’s condition unknown as Shen Tang and her companions waited for her return.

• Chu Yao told the Gao Country envoy that Shen Tang was ill, while physicians examined her and discovered a third aura in her meridians that resembled Ning Yan’s Literary Qi.
• Three-year-old Goodness awakened in Shen Tang’s body and told Chu Yao that Shen Tang had gone to find Ning Yan.
• Shen Tang regained control and explained that Ning Yan was attempting the Perfection Ritual, in which Wuyou could replace her if it survived for half a year.
• Shen Tang recounted that Wuyou had nearly killed Ning Yan, so she took over Ning Yan’s body and cut Wuyou down with a single sword.
• Shen Tang said she had been kicked back after the battle, and the group remained unsure how Ning Yan was doing.

Ning Yan completed her Perfection Ritual despite Shen Tang intervening, and the group discovered that a sovereign could inherit part of the abilities of a trusted minister’s Way of the Scholar. The revelation left Shen Tang wary of the political consequences, while Liao Jia arrived with an urgent request tied to his own ritual.

• Shen Tang considered allowing someone else to kill Wuyou, but Ning Yan arrived smiling and revealed that she had completed her Perfection Ritual.
• Ning Yan explained that her bond with Shen Tang meant the sovereign’s help did not invalidate the ritual, and Shen Tang arranged a banquet to celebrate.
• Luan Xin described his ritual’s demands for ninety-nine perfected Ways of the Scholar and nine supreme Ways, leaving the ministers stunned.
• Luan Xin revealed that Shen Tang possessed [Zixu Wuyou], prompting the group to realize that trusted ministers’ literary qi could develop into part of their sovereign’s Way of the Scholar.
• Shen Tang ordered the others to keep the discovery secret, and Luan Xin identified her ability as letting a Literary Qi Incarnation operate remotely for a long time.
• Liao Jia arrived from Fengluo, requested leave for an urgent matter, and told Shen Tang that it concerned his Perfection Ritual and Mei Jinghe’s.

Shen Tang learned that Liao Jia’s Way of the Scholar could reach perfection by taking the results of another person’s newly completed ritual, but he had missed Mei Jinghe’s disrupted attempt. She rejected Gao Country’s envoy’s demands and resumed the invasion, then heard Wu Xian plead for his consort and children to be spared.

• Shen Tang guessed that Liao Jia’s Perfection Ritual involved stealing another person’s newly perfected Way of the Scholar, and Liao Jia confirmed she was broadly right.
• Liao Jia learned that Ning Yan had perfected her Way of the Scholar and that Mei Jinghe’s ritual had already been disrupted, so he had missed his chance to use it.
• Shen Tang assured Liao Jia that they would find another suitable target, possibly Mei Jinghe, and planned to continue pressuring Qi Country.
• Shen Tang rejected the Gao envoy’s demands, warned that Gao Country would be conquered, and sent three armies toward its borders.
• Wu Xian requested an audience with Shen Tang and asked her to spare Consort Mi and their two sons and two daughters.

Shen Tang learned that Gao Country’s generals and officials were refusing to support its new Sovereign, allowing Kang Country to advance rapidly. As her forces reached a defended city, Bai Su proposed winning over its people instead of storming the walls, and the defenders began yielding.

• Wu Xian asked Shen Tang to spare Consort Mi and her children, and she promised not to harm them as long as they did not obstruct her.
• Ning Yan told Shen Tang that Gao Country’s generals were ignoring orders and its officials were abandoning the court, leaving the country unable to mount a united defense.
• Shen Tang kept her army’s advance disciplined while Wu Xian grew despondent over how quickly his former allies were letting Gao Country fall.
• After more than half a month, Kang Country had taken half of Gao Country’s territory, and many cities had surrendered or been abandoned by their officials.
• Bai Su ordered soldiers to scatter notices promising safety to the city’s residents if its ringleaders surrendered, and the people and wandering knights began calling to open the gates.

Bai Su’s forces took control of the surrendered city and fed its starving people while punishing profiteering grain merchants. Shen Tang’s armies pressed Gao Country’s regions to surrender and moved against local families, while Wei Cheng questioned Shen Tang’s methods.

• Bai Su entered the city without a fight, found its stores and granary emptied, and ordered soldiers to count residents and distribute congee and flatbread.
• Bai Su’s soldiers enforced strict ration lines and punished people who tried to steal extra portions or exploit the vulnerable.
• A grain merchant offered Bai Su a share of inflated grain profits, so she killed him and his attendants and seized his hidden stores.
• Bai Su’s army urged Gao Country’s soldiers and officials to surrender, while Shen Tang used threats and accusations to drive out or detain local families and claim their land and tenant farmers.
• Wei Cheng accused Shen Tang of acting like a bandit, and Shen Tang defended her campaign against the local families before asking why he had come to Gao Country.