Chapter Summaries

Wei Cheng warned Shen Tang about the Eternal Life Cult and revealed its factions as her armies advanced on Gao Country's capital. As Consort Mi and the new lord fled the capital, someone set it ablaze, trapping countless people behind them.

• Wei Cheng told Shen Tang that the Eternal Life Cult had been created as a deception and revealed that powerful lineages had divided it into factions.
• Shen Tang considered investigating the cult in the southwest as three armies advanced toward Gao Country's capital.
• Consort Mi and the new lord discussed fleeing as reports of military defeats and unrest overwhelmed the royal court.
• When Kang Country's army neared the capital, Consort Mi and the new lord fled with nobles and officials while her younger children escaped in disguise.
• Consort Mi learned that someone had set fire to the capital, and the fleeing crowd realized the blaze had cut off their return.

Shen Tang and her allies fought a two-day inferno in the Gao capital, rescuing survivors while much of the city burned. As she confronted Wu Xian over the massacre, Gongxi Chou returned with the heads of Gao’s new Sovereign and the Queen Dowager.

• Shen Tang left Gongxi Chou to guard the rear and rushed toward the burning capital with Kang Shi, Jimò Qiu, and others.
• Jimò Qiu raised a life-detecting plant, Kang Shi summoned torrents of water, and Luan Xin brought rain as Shen Tang cut paths through the flames to rescue people.
• After the main army helped extinguish the fire, Shen Tang blamed the arsonist for the deaths and warned Wu Xian she would destroy the culprit’s family.
• Wu Xian said he would kill his own son if he had started the fire, while Shen Tang sent Gongxi Chou and Wei Shou after the fleeing enemy.
• Gongxi Chou returned after little more than an hour with boxes containing the heads of Gao’s new Sovereign and the Queen Dowager.

Shen Tang learned how Consort Mi and her son died after the Imperial Guards turned on them, and arranged for their remains to be buried. Wu Xian grieved over Consort Mi’s head, while Shen Tang suggested a courtesy name for her.

• Gongxi Chou revealed the heads of Consort Mi and her son, and Wu Xian reacted with shock and grief.
• Wei Shou explained that Consort Mi and her son had led the fleeing party to the royal mausoleum, where the Imperial Guards massacred the great families who planned to betray them.
• Consort Mi’s son died defending her, and she ordered the captured families buried as sacrifices before arranging for the Imperial Guards to take her head.
• Wei Shou relayed Consort Mi’s final request that Shen Tang spare her surviving children and her hope that Gao Country’s people would be treated kindly.
• Wu Xian asked about Consort Mi’s final words, then broke down sobbing as Shen Tang asked where the bodies were and suggested the courtesy name Xiang Nan.

Wu Xian learned how Mi Kui had persuaded the guard commander to slaughter the noble families who blamed her and her son for the capital’s fire, then mourned her while carving her tombstone. Meanwhile, Shen Tang worried that Kang Shi’s unperfected Way of the Scholar was about to bring her a wave of bad luck.

• Wu Xian asked Shen Tang to use Mi Kui’s childhood name, Xiang Nan, on her tombstone, then requested a meeting with the surrendered guard unit.
• The guard commander explained that Mi Kui had urged him to kill both her and her son along with the noble families, turning the nobles’ scheme against them after they blamed Mi Kui for the capital fire.
• Wu Xian grieved that Mi Kui had believed she had no way to live and learned she had not mentioned him; he decided to let her children sign her tombstone.
• Wu Xian noticed military physicians rushing in and out of Shen Tang’s tent, left without asking what had happened, and returned to carving the tombstone.
• Shen Tang asked Kang Shi whether he had perfected his Way of the Scholar, then feared her lack of bad luck meant a worse misfortune was coming.

After Shen Tang choked on a fish bone, Gu Chi’s uncontrolled Way of the Scholar dragged her consciousness into a dream through her Zixu Wuyou. Her kind side reassured her retainers that she would return once Zixu woke, while Shen Tang mistook the dream for a second transmigration and fought back against the constables.

• Shen Tang choked on a fish bone, broke a rib, and fell unconscious, prompting Kang Shi and the others to rush to her tent.
• Jimò Qiu discovered that Gu Chi’s uncontrolled Way of the Scholar had carried Shen Tang’s consciousness away, and Ning Yan explained that her Zixu Wuyou had been affected too.
• Shen Tang’s kind side appeared, told the retainers that Shen Tang had occupied someone else’s body, and estimated she would return within three days.
• Shen Tang woke in a dream that resembled her first transmigration, cursed Kang Jishou, and killed the constables who tried to whip her.
• The chapter revealed that Shen Tang was trapped in the dream of someone near death because Kang Shi’s affliction had overwhelmed Zixu and dragged her consciousness along.

After realizing she had landed in the body of a condemned girl in conquered Sun Country, Shen Tang learned from Zixu that she had entered the body’s dying dream rather than traveled back in time. Zixu needed three days to recover before Shen Tang could return, leaving her to keep the body alive among the exiled prisoners.

• Shen Tang questioned the shackled prisoners and learned that Sun Country had fallen to Qu Country, ruled by Zhai Xiaofang.
• Shen Tang discovered the body was malnourished and losing its hair, then shared food with a hungry girl and heard why the prisoners had been exiled.
• Shen Tang praised Zhai Xiaofang’s appeal policy but recognized that local officials were failing to carry it out fairly.
• Zixu told Shen Tang that Kang Jishou and Gu Chi’s Way of the Scholar had trapped it in the dying body’s dream, and that the original owner had died of heatstroke and hunger.
• Zixu refused to return to the Literary Palace and told Shen Tang she would have to wait three days before she could go back.

Shen Tang traveled down the mountain with a young prisoner and encountered a red-robed girl from the State of Qu, whose arrow she caught. After Shen Tang narrowly avoided meeting her old friend Zhai Xiaofang, the girl told her father, the Sovereign of Qu, about the powerful strangers she had met.

• Shen Tang released the prisoners but kept the young man as her guide, then climbed and sang through the woods.
• Shen Tang caught an arrow marked with the character "Zhai" and met a red-robed girl with armed attendants, who apologized for mistaking her singing for strange monkey cries.
• The young man guessed that the girl was connected to the State of Qu's ruling family, and Shen Tang recognized her as the child of her old friend Zhai Xiaofang.
• Shen Tang subdued a wild boar and rode it down the mountain, avoiding the main path as she tried not to encounter Zhai Xiaofang.
• The Sovereign of Qu recalled riding a boar with a friend after hearing about Shen Tang, while his daughter described the stranger who had effortlessly caught her arrow.

The Man in tight clothes reassured his daughter that her succession was secure despite the Queen’s pregnancy, then secretly investigated Shen Tang and her companion. Shen Tang headed toward a city with the young man and planned to raise money by robbing bandits or thieves, leaving their next move undecided.

• The Man in tight clothes praised the Girl in red robe’s caution and invited her to compete with him at hunting.
• The Man in tight clothes recalled the Queen’s unexpected pregnancy, Yu Hai’s advice to let the child be born, and his public reaffirmation of the Crown Princess as heir.
• The Man in tight clothes ordered an investigation into Shen Tang and the young man after learning they had encountered his daughter.
• Shen Tang and the young man rode toward a city so they could find lodging and register their identities.
• Shen Tang proposed robbing bandits to get start-up money, and the young man warned her that bandits within a hundred li were off-limits.
• Shen Tang refused to sell Boar Number Two and suggested targeting pickpockets in town instead.

Shen Tang saved the badly beaten Zi Kuan after his closest friend You Rong begged her for help, then offered both men a place in her plans to build a business. Zi Kuan agreed to stay, and Shen Tang brought him medicine bought with money she earned by selling a secret recipe for safe contraceptives.

• A bearded man mistook Zi Kuan for a thief and beat him nearly to death, while the constables left him for dead.
• You Rong recognized Zi Kuan and begged Shen Tang to save him, offering his own life in exchange.
• Shen Tang used martial energy to stabilize Zi Kuan, then told You Rong she would look after his friend and offered them work once he recovered.
• You Rong explained that Zi Kuan had suffered Dantian Destruction Punishment and had once been the academy's most praised student.
• After waking at night, Zi Kuan heard what had happened and agreed that he and You Rong might as well stay with Shen Tang.
• Shen Tang delivered top-quality medicine and explained that she had obtained money by selling an apothecary her secret recipe for safe contraceptives.

Shen Tang treated Xiahou Yu and Gu De while trying to recruit them, and Gu De revealed how their homeland fell and how Xiahou Yu lost his Literary Heart. Xiahou Yu suspected Shen Tang was not who she appeared to be and decided to recover so he could help her and remove Gu De’s seal.

• Shen Tang bought medicine for Xiahou Yu and pressed him to recover so he could work for her, while Gu De warned her that dealing with wealthy patrons could be dangerous.
• Xiahou Yu introduced himself and Gu De, and Gu De explained how Xiahou Yu had taken responsibility for students who opposed their royal court’s alliance with Qu Country, leading to his Dantian Destruction Punishment.
• Gu De recounted how Qu Country had swallowed their homeland and described how his teacher had raised him before burning down the academy; Shen Tang gave him a flimsy false name when he asked about her past.
• After Shen Tang left to collect the balance for her appointment, Xiahou Yu told Gu De he suspected she was not the original and considered whether helping her could restore his Literary Heart.
• Xiahou Yu resolved to recover and find a way to undo Gu De’s seal, despite Gu De warning him not to risk trusting Shen Tang.

Xiahou Yu told Gu De he wanted to rebuild Quqing Academy, and Gu De was moved despite his doubts about the National Seal. Shen Tang met Zhai Le while posing as a healer with a secret contraceptive formula, and Zhai Le began investigating her and Gu De.

• Xiahou Yu admitted that hardship had changed his understanding of ordinary people's lives and proposed rebuilding Quqing Academy with Gu De.
• Shen Tang went to a pharmacy and convinced Zhai Le's subordinate that she was an Xinglin Physician's granddaughter who could provide a contraceptive formula.
• Zhai Le met Shen Tang at the training ground, where she recognized him as Silly Chun and offered a method using martial energy to prevent conception.
• Zhai Le accepted the method, promised Shen Tang double the reward she requested, and ordered an investigation after noticing she had not paid her respects.
• Zhai Le reviewed the information on Shen Tang and Gu De, recognized the name Gu You Rong, and recalled Xiahou Zi Kuan.

Zhai Le recalled how Gu De and Xiahou Yu had helped him years ago, but decided to eliminate them rather than risk leaving enemies alive. He then ordered Shen Tang’s disguised identity investigated and targeted, while Shen Tang celebrated receiving a reward that would not go toward her debts.

• Zhai Le remembered Qu Country’s past humiliations at the Mountain Sea Sacred Land and how Gu De and Xiahou Yu had intervened to calm the scholars and help him.
• Zhai Le learned that Gu De had rejected offers to serve in government and that a Qu Country envoy had once been beaten after Quqing Academy students took action.
• Zhai Le weighed his debt of gratitude to Gu De and Xiahou Yu against their political threat, then ordered his confidant to ensure they were killed cleanly.
• Zhai Le read the report about Shen Tang’s impoverished disguise and suspected Gu De and Xiahou Yu had invented her medical heritage, then ordered her identity dealt with.
• Shen Tang happily collected a double reward that would not be deducted from her debt, then worried that Zhai Le might try to take it back.

Shen Tang rescued Gu De and Xiahou Yu from assassins sent by Zhai Xiaofang, then confronted Zhai Le outside the city. She learned that Xiahou Yu and Gu De came from Quqing Academy, while Zhai Le warned her against taking them in.

• Shen Tang hurried back with the reward money, evaded street thugs, and returned to the courtyard where Gu De and Xiahou Yu were staying.
• When assassins attacked, Shen Tang defeated five of them and confronted Zhai Le, who agreed to settle their conflict outside the city.
• Shen Tang summoned her Martial Gall Totem to treat Xiahou Yu and accompany him and Gu De while she pursued Zhai Le.
• Shen Tang and Zhai Le exchanged arrows and fought, but Zhai Le recognized her and demanded an explanation for her presence in Qu Country.
• Shen Tang said she intended to take Xiahou Yu and Gu De under her wing, and Zhai Le warned that both men came from Quqing Academy.

Shen Tang and Zhai Le discussed Quqing Academy and learned how its leaders manipulated Mountain Sea Sacred Land places and built an influential academic clique. After Zhai Le revealed the academy had burned down amid his conflict with its headmaster, Shen Tang asked Xiahou Yu and Gu De what they thought, leaving their future with her uncertain.

• Shen Tang asked Zhai Le about Quqing Academy, and they joked over wine and his proposal to arrange a marriage between their children.
• Zhai Le explained that Quqing Academy received fifty Mountain Sea Sacred Land places and had used its influence to reserve opportunities for its students and royal heirs.
• Shen Tang recognized Quqing Academy as a powerful academic clique and suggested that bringing it under a royal court could address its control of the places.
• Zhai Le admitted that the academy's headmaster had set fire to Quqing Academy and died there after Zhai Le threatened to absorb it into Qu.
• Zhai Le warned Xiahou Yu and Gu De that Quqing Academy's students could face hostility, then cautioned Shen Tang not to repeat the academy's mistakes by taking them in.

Shen Tang and Zhai Le reunited and argued over Quqing Academy, while Zhai Le warned that it could not be rebuilt in the Southeast Continent. Shen Tang’s group decided to head for the central region, but after three days her incarnation was pulled away and Zixu regained control of the body.

• Shen Tang rejected Zhai Le’s attempt to sow discord, and Zhai Le explained why Quqing Academy had become a target of the Southeast Continent’s countries.
• Zhai Le and Xiahou Yu clashed over the use of power, but Shen Tang calmed Zhai Le and sent him off with wine.
• Gu De recognized Shen Tang as Shen Youli despite never having heard of her, and Shen Tang’s group chose to travel to the central part of the continent.
• Jimò Qiu suggested Qi Country, then revealed that its former source of strength had died because of his [Anointing].
• On the third day, Shen Tang suffered World Spinning, so Jimò Qiu released the summons and Zixu resumed control while Benevolent Thought said Shen Tang had probably been intercepted.

Chu Yao and Gu Chi learned that Shen Tang had apparently found several new people, while a report from Shang Nan called for help after Qi Zhongshu fell ill. Shen Tang awakened in a slave market in another body, killed her captors, and stopped a Cui convoy after recognizing its markings, where a familiar woman's voice intervened.

• Kind Intent told Chu Yao and Gu Chi that Shen Tang had found people resembling Chu Yao, Qi Yuanliang, and Gu Chi, leaving the group bewildered.
• An envoy from Shang Nan reported that Qi Zhongshu had fallen into a river and developed a high fever, then asked Chu Yao to send help.
• Shen Tang awakened in a slave market, learned that the body she inhabited had been abused, and killed the old woman and old man who had tormented her.
• Shen Tang killed the slave market's thugs, left its money for the other captives, and traveled out of town to learn about the surrounding war.
• Shen Tang recognized Cui Kewu's carriage markings and deliberately obstructed the Cui convoy, but a literary qi barrier stopped her before she could reach the central carriage.
• A familiar woman's voice called for the guard to wait as he moved to seize Shen Tang.

Shen Tang joined the Cui family’s traveling party under the name Shen Zhongli and reached a city with them. The young man learned his father had deceived him about his mother’s departure, while the tense reunion ended with a palace attendant summoning Lord Cui to see the Sovereign.

• A woman invited Shen Tang to work as a maid for her daughter, and Shen Tang joined the party traveling to Cheng County’s neighboring city.
• The woman reunited with her eldest son, who recalled believing his father had caused her death before learning that she had left by choice.
• The woman revealed that Lord Cui had pretended to be drunk and claimed she still loved someone else, leaving her son shocked that he had believed the story for years.
• The woman explained that she had returned to investigate her son’s prospective bride and visit her mother, then criticized Lord Cui for spending time with the Sovereign.
• Shen Tang gave the name Shen Zhongli, prompting Lord Cui to question her surname and the woman to mock his suspicions.
• A palace attendant met the party and told Lord Cui that the Sovereign requested his presence.

Cui Hui reunited with Shen Tang in Qi Country, while Shen Tang learned that Cui Hui’s former husband and the Sovereign of Qi Country might be at odds. The Cui clan Patriarch was summoned to a tense meeting with the Sovereign, who confronted him with an unexplained scroll.

• The eunuch summoned the Cui clan Patriarch to the Sovereign, and he left after warning the eunuch against insulting his wife, Cui Hui.
• After the Patriarch departed, his son ordered a hidden guard to kill the eunuch, while Cui Hui and Shen Tang secretly overheard him.
• Cui Hui explained that she had mistaken Shen Tang for Miao Ne and believed her former husband was keeping her in Qi Country because the Sovereign might use her as leverage.
• Shen Tang revealed that she was Shen Youli, and Cui Hui warned her that she was in danger among the Cui clan.
• At the Sovereign’s meeting, a general accused the Cui clan Patriarch of secretly defying the Sovereign, and the Sovereign silenced them before presenting him with a scroll.

The Sovereign used Zhao’s death and a private letter to pressure the Cui family head into helping fund her plans, while he accused her of harming his friend and manipulating him. After he left, Shen Tang told Cui Hui that the Sovereign had sent him a pile of cosmetics, which Cui Hui recognized as another reminder that her ex-husband remained youthful.

• The general and Mei Jinghe accused the Cui family head of aiding Zhao and obstructing the Sovereign’s land survey and seed-lending plans, while he denied the charges.
• The Sovereign warned the Cui family head that she could punish him, then asked him to persuade the great clans to lend money; he agreed to do his best.
• The Sovereign revealed she knew he had visited Cui Hui, and later asked him whether he resented her for bringing Cui Hui back and for Zhao’s death.
• The Cui family head accused the Sovereign of using the same underhanded tactics she had once used to seize power, then left after saying he resented her.
• The Sovereign sent the Cui family head a pile of rouge and face powder, and Cui Hui told Shen Tang that he would use it because he was obsessed with cosmetics.

Cui Hui explained why she had left her marriage and why she had returned to Qi Country, while Shen Tang listened. The Cui clan head revealed that Zhao Jun had been sacrificed and that Qi Yuanliang had once searched for Cui Hui, ending with Cui Hui reminding her ex-husband that they had divorced.

• Cui Hui told Shen Tang that the Cui clan’s prejudice and pressure to make room for the Sovereign had driven her to leave her marriage, though she had feared she could not survive outside the household.
• Cui Hui explained that she accepted the dangerous assignment to pursue her own cultivation and independence rather than rely on her ex-husband or anyone else.
• The Cui clan head carried the apparently drunk Cui Hui inside, where she revealed she had only pretended to be drunk and threw a jade pillow at him.
• The Cui clan head told Cui Hui that Zhao Jun had been abandoned and killed after the Zhao clan’s collateral branch prevailed with the Sovereign’s backing.
• The Cui clan head revealed that Qi Yuanliang had searched for Cui Hui years earlier, and Cui Hui admitted they had history while insisting he had owed her.
• Cui Hui accused the Cui clan head of testing her, but he said he had only been concerned about her and Qi Yuanliang; she reminded him they were divorced.