Chapter Summaries

Shen Tang took Cui Mi with her to her new post, while Cui Zhi and Cui Hui accepted his decision and sent money and belongings after him. Cui Zhi considered Cui Mi’s visions of the Cui family’s destruction and treated the three years of unpaid taxes as a test of whether Shen Tang could work with the Northwest Branch.

• Cui Mi warned Shen Tang that the royal court’s taxes burdened poor regions and suggested she take a post elsewhere rather than inherit the Cui family’s unpaid debts.
• Shen Tang playfully seized Cui Mi and demanded ransom, and he later followed her to her new post as her supposed hostage.
• Cui Zhi dismissed Cui Xiong’s worry about Cui Mi and arranged to send his belongings and servants after him.
• Cui Hui encouraged Cui Xiong to give Shen Tang money, then extracted his private funds to send to her.
• Cui Zhi’s aide warned him about trusting Cui Hui and Shen Tang, but Cui Zhi insisted the Cui family came first and recalled Cui Mi’s visions of its fate.
• Shen Tang received money instead of weapons and joked that she might sell Cui Mi if the Cui family’s unpaid debts could not be settled.

Shen Tang struggled to recruit workers for her impoverished county, so she announced a martial arts challenge to find a husband, secretly planning to make defeated challengers work for her. The scheme drew wandering knights to the county, and the chapter left Shen Tang veiled and ready to defend the ring.

• Shen Tang hired a poor scholar and his grandfather to work at the county yamen, offering food in place of wages, and also hired a cook.
• Shen Tang refused Cui Mi's offer to recruit his classmates and instead ordered him to write a notice for a martial arts challenge to find her a husband.
• Shen Tang explained that the winner would become her groom, while defeated challengers would owe her a month of labor, and Cui Mi helped publicize the contest.
• Cui Zhi spread the news through the Cui lineage's connections, while Miao Ne recognized Shen Tang's plan and felt relieved that she had found a way to attract people.
• Wandering knights flocked to the county, and Shen Tang required each challenger to sign a contract before facing her in the ring.

Cui Hui went hunting with Cui Zhi and discovered that he had deliberately revealed his youthful vigor to catch her attention. At the hunting grounds, Miao Ne heard about Mi Fei’s husband-selection contest, while Cui Zhi received a letter revealing the contest’s hidden cost for its challengers.

• Cui Hui told Cui Zhi that his mature nature lacked youthful vigor, so he arrived at the hunt with his clothes loosened to show off his physique.
• Cui Hui pinched Cui Zhi’s arm, and he said he wanted his wife to see his vigor of youth.
• Miao Ne rode with Cui Xiong and heard that Mi Fei’s martial contest had drawn many challengers, who were organizing themselves to wear down the woman defending the ring.
• Miao Ne rebuked the gossipers for mocking Mi Fei and explained that the Heavenly Dao would hold the challengers to their promises.
• Cui Zhi received a letter saying that losing challengers were forced into hard labor, and that the Second Young Master oversaw the work.

Cui Zhi learned that Shen Tang had turned the wandering knights he sent to investigate into laborers, while Shen Tang continued expanding her construction workforce through a rigged martial arts contest. After reviewing Gu Chi’s draft of the Biographies of Famous Ministers and Scholars, she learned Qi Shan would arrive soon and offered Gu Chi diamonds made by Jimò Qiu.

• Cui Zhi destroyed the secret letter, stopped plans to test Shen Tang, and ordered his informants to investigate the captured wandering knights.
• Shen Tang subdued a group of wandering knights who challenged their contracts and forced them to work after punishing their resistance.
• Shen Tang explained to Cui Mi that she considered the wandering knights’ labor a fair consequence of their greed, and the new recruits were made to work longer hours for causing trouble.
• Shen Tang continued using the wandering knights as construction laborers while the skilled workers in Kang treated their projects as high-end renovations.
• Gu Chi presented Shen Tang with the first draft of the Biographies of Famous Ministers and Scholars, which featured Qi Shan, and said Qi Shan would arrive in half a day.
• Shen Tang praised Gu Chi’s draft and offered him diamonds made by Jimò Qiu, inviting him to choose as many as he wanted.

Gu Chi asked Shen Tang for diamonds and then sought Bai Su’s help making him a jeweled ring. While discussing the Censorate’s concerns about Yu Weiheng and Gongshu Wu, Bai Su explained the source of their resentment and warned Gu Chi not to interfere with Yu Weiheng’s affairs.

• Gu Chi took a handful of diamonds from Shen Tang’s box, and she promised to send him a separate box rather than let him take the stones reserved for year-end gifts.
• Gu Chi gave his diamonds to Bai Su and asked her to make him a ring like the design Shen Tang had shown him; Bai Su reluctantly agreed.
• Gu Chi asked Bai Su whether Yu Weiheng and Gongshu Wu were in conflict, and she connected their tension to the death of Yu Weiheng’s scout and Gongshu Wu’s adoption of Gong Cheng’s daughter.
• Gu Chi revealed that Yu Weiheng had killed members of the Gong Clan who had fallen into her hands, partly because of her personal resentment toward the clan.
• Bai Su said Yu Weiheng knew where to draw the line and warned that her strength had advanced toward perfecting the Way of the Scholar, so Gu Chi should not interfere without permission.

Shen Tang learned that Gu Chi’s damaged Literary Heart had left it incomplete and discussed possible ways to restore it. Gu Chi later found Kang Shi and Yu Zi in the middle of a failed collision between their Perfection Rituals, and learned that Yu Zi faced death if her ritual failed.

• Shen Tang told Gu Chi that Yu Zi was attempting to reach Perfection and teased him about feeling anxious.
• Shen Tang pressed Gu Chi about his inability to reach Perfection, and he revealed that his Literary Heart was missing a piece after he tried to erase the courtesy name Tao Shenyu had given him.
• Shen Tang said Yu Zi’s Literary Heart might be restored through replacement or destruction and reshaping, and Gu Chi warned her to be careful around Jimò Qiu.
• Gu Chi left Shen Tang’s office, enjoyed the peaches she had sent him, and later went to Kang Shi’s tent to seek information.
• Kang Shi explained that his Perfection Ritual had accidentally doubled the difficulty of Yu Zi’s ritual, and that failure would kill her body and soul.

Gu Chi learned that Yu Zi’s Perfection Ritual left her near death and that Kang Shi feared repeating a tragedy from his past. Kang Nian revealed how Kang Shi’s disastrous engagements and the fifth family’s plot led to his father’s and second brother’s deaths, leaving the circumstances of his father’s fate unfinished.

• Kang Shi grieved over Yu Zi’s danger, while Gu Chi stopped him from hurting himself and heard him vow not to let the past repeat itself.
• Yu Zi emerged from her first trial exhausted and warned Gu Chi to stop Kang Shi if he tried to pay a price to save her.
• Gu Chi met Kang Nian, who had hurried to see Kang Shi, and learned that Kang Shi’s father and second brother had died in an incident connected to him.
• Kang Nian recounted Kang Shi’s failed engagements, including a fifth match used to deceive and financially ruin the Kang Clan.
• After Kang Shi learned that the fifth fiancée had been poisoned, Father Kang confronted her family; Kang Shi intervened when violence broke out, and his second brother was fatally stabbed protecting their father.

Kang Nian urged Kang Shi to survive even if Yu Zi died, while Yu Zi’s great-uncle warned that the Yu family would not accept her sacrifice. Yu Zi and Kang Shi found no compromise, and Shen Tang concluded that their Perfection Ritual required both to face their own choices without outside interference.

• Gu Chi learned that Kang Shi had long blamed himself for his father and brothers’ deaths, while Kang Nian admitted he had once accused him of bringing disaster on the family.
• Kang Nian confronted Kang Shi and insisted he should survive, even if Yu Zi had to die, because Kang Shi’s Way could still reach perfection.
• Yu Zi’s great-uncle entered the tent, denounced Kang Nian’s indifference to Yu Zi’s life, and threatened Kang Shi if she died.
• Kang Shi told Kang Nian that he would decide his own fate, and Kang Nian left after revealing he had brought a coffin.
• Yu Zi suggested that crippling one person could avert the outcome, but rejected sacrificing her own ability to advance, leaving Kang Shi with no solution.
• Shen Tang told Gu Chi that the Prisoner’s Dilemma required Kang Shi and Yu Zi to confront their own human nature, and that outsiders could not save them.

Shen Tang dealt with resistance to Kang Country’s land survey while Wu Xian revealed that former Gao Country clans had hidden his children and planned to use them in a rebellion. Gu Chi then reported that Kang Shi had ended the Perfection Ritual early because Wei Heng had been unconscious for two days, leaving Shen Tang rushing to see them.

• Shen Tang rejected Gu Chi’s suggestion to cripple Kang Shi and Wei Heng, trusting that their bond might help them survive the Prisoner’s Dilemma.
• Shen Tang learned that local power families were obstructing land surveys and census work, and she gave Wu Xian a final chance to persuade them before taking action.
• Wu Xian received a reply revealing that former Gao Country clans had hidden his surviving children and planned to use them as figureheads for rebellion, so he asked Shen Tang to save them.
• Shen Tang issued an order to act against the clans after Wu Xian supplied grounds for intervention.
• Gu Chi told Shen Tang that Wei Heng had been unconscious for two days and Kang Shi had ended their Perfection Ritual early, prompting Shen Tang to hurry to them.

Shen Tang and the others watched Jimò Qiu use Dream Induction to reveal the memories surrounding Kang Shi and Yu Zi’s Perfection Ritual. The vision showed Kang Shi’s youthful encounter with Yan An before turning toward the unseen person who had been spying on them.

• Qi Miao reported that Kang Shi and Yu Zi both had dying pulses, while Shen Tang asked for Jimò Qiu to examine them.
• Qi Shan begged Jimò Qiu to save Kang Shi and Yu Zi, but Kang Nian and Yu Zi’s great-uncle insisted that their wishes should be respected.
• Shen Tang asked Jimò Qiu to use Dream Induction, and Kang Nian and Yu Zi’s great-uncle agreed to watch the memories it revealed.
• The vision showed young Kang Shi gambling and joking with women in a pleasure house before Yan An arrived to meet him.
• Kang Shi asked Yan An to lend him his name and private seal so he could kill a father and son, and Yan An urged him to come study in the royal capital.
• After Yan An left, Kang Shi looked toward the unseen observer and demanded to know who was spying on him.

Yu Zi confronted young Kang Shi in an illusion but chose to spare him after recognizing his Word Spirit and accepting his explanation. The two temporal illusions converged, and Kang Shi and Yu Zi answered the divine voice that they had no regrets, leaving the outcome of the trial unresolved.

• Yu Zi struck young Kang Shi and threatened to kill him, then took him to behead the father and son who had wronged her.
• Yu Zi lowered her sword after realizing Kang Shi's Word Spirit ensured he would win when he truly fought for his life, and she admitted she wanted to live and protect her family.
• Kang Shi's other illusion showed him rescuing Beauty Yu and her children, finding the frightened child Yu Zi, and comforting her with his sword and promises of wealth.
• Kang Shi reflected on the gamble that had brought him there and told Yu Zi that he accepted defeat, while the two illusions reached unity.
• A divine voice asked whether Kang Shi and Yu Zi had regrets, and both declared that they would not regret their choices even if they died.

Shen Tang’s companions survived their ordeals, and Kang Shi and Qi Shan reconciled after a chaotic reunion. Yu Zi learned Lin Feng’s scholarly perfection ritual required an impossible two billion mu of farmland, leaving Lin Feng convinced she had no chance of completing it.

• Shen Tang and Jimò Qiu realized Yu Zi and Kang Shi had appeared to die, but both revived, prompting Qi Shan to attack Kang Shi before embracing him in relief.
• Yu Zi reunited with her great-grandfather and explained that she had resisted repeated visions tempting her to kill Kang Shi for a better future.
• Qi Shan revealed that he had seen Kang Shi’s and Yu Zi’s dreams, embarrassing them by imitating Kang Shi’s words from his vision.
• Lin Feng met Yu Zi by the fields, where Yu Zi said Luan Xin had spoken to her about the Perfection Ritual for the Way of the Scholar.
• Lin Feng told Yu Zi that her ritual required planting seeds across two billion mu, and concluded that she could never perfect her Way of the Scholar.

Lin Feng explained to Yu Zi that her Perfection Ritual required an enormous territory and farmland, while Yu Zi encouraged her with hopes of Kang Country’s expansion. Shen Tang later discussed Yu Zi’s grief and Gongshu Wu’s daughter with her, then inspected the rebuilt city and encountered a public effort to treat children’s intestinal worms. The chapter left Shen Tang proposing a compromise in a bizarre case where two families claimed the same girl.

• Lin Feng told Yu Zi that she needed two hundred billion mu of farmland and that gaining enough territory would require Kang Country to expand across much of the continent.
• Yu Zi urged Lin Feng to trust in the Shen family’s eventual unification of the world, and Lin Feng admitted she had kept her Perfection Ritual secret from Shen Tang and her teacher.
• Shen Tang met Yu Zi outside her seclusion, heard her speak candidly about the death of her companion, and told her that Gongshu Wu’s daughter had been adopted and had a tragic past.
• Shen Tang and Yu Zi inspected the rebuilt former capital, where Shen Tang discovered that Qi Miao was distributing candy as a treatment for children’s intestinal worms.
• Shen Tang synchronized with [Zixu] and heard a case in which a girl claimed her soul belonged to the Li Family but her revived body belonged to the Wang Family.
• Shen Tang proposed that each family find a husband for one of the two girls.

Shen Tang resolved a dispute between the Li and Wang families over a woman who claimed to be the Li family’s dead daughter returned in the Wang family’s body. After learning the woman had fabricated the story to protect both families from predatory relatives, Shen Tang let her decide whether to confess and accepted a gift from the Li family, suspecting they already knew the truth.

• Shen Tang proposed that each family take in a son-in-law, then ruled that the Li family’s soul and the Wang family’s body should be returned to their respective families if they refused.
• The Wang family’s daughter asked to stay at the Prefectural Yamen while the families chose where she would go.
• Shen Tang questioned the woman privately, and she admitted that she had invented the possession story after her close friend, the Li family’s daughter, died.
• The Wang family’s daughter explained that she had acted to protect the Li couple from relatives seeking to seize their property, while also hoping to protect her own future.
• Shen Tang gave the woman time to decide whether to confess and suspected the Li couple already knew the truth.
• The Li family sent Shen Tang a generous gift that evening, ostensibly to thank the authorities for looking after their daughter and apologize for the trouble.

Shen Tang recruited the Li and Wang families into a profitable salt-trading venture that could also conceal and support her growing army, while Gu De and Xiahou Yu attracted scholars and former officials to her service. The chapter ended as the newcomers discovered Shen Tang’s provocative book, signed in her name, and began to read it.

• Shen Tang persuaded the Li and Wang patriarchs to let their daughters serve as clerks, then offered the families a fifty-fifty partnership trading salt and other goods from Kang.
• Shen Tang told Gu De to prepare for her forces to grow to five thousand troops within a year, and Gu De reported that nine Quqing Academy classmates had answered his call.
• A former commandery deputy governor arrived with his family to seek service under Shen Tang, and he was startled to learn that their new lord was a bald woman.
• More Quqing Academy scholars arrived, some with their families or troops, and both they and Shen Tang began assessing whether they would work together.
• A young scholar showed the group a Dragon Scale Binding copy of Biographies of Famous Ministers and Scholars, whose rebellious preface was signed Shen Tang of Kang.

Readers in the south examined Shen Tang’s lavish Dragon Scale Binding edition of the Biographies of Famous Ministers and Scholars and read Qi Shan’s turbulent early life. The chapter ended as Qi Shan met Shen Tang in the story and abandoned his despair to travel with her toward Xiaocheng.

• Shen Tang explained how she had modified Dragon Scale Binding to display nine portraits in her edition of the Biographies of Famous Ministers and Scholars.
• The onlookers recognized Qi Shan, Ning Yan, and Yan An among the portraits, then learned the book was a new Kang Country edition written under the pen name Five Elements Lack Virtue.
• Xiahou Yu opened the book, and the group admired its full-color portrait of Qi Shan before reading about his background and rise to become Kang Country’s Director of the Secretariat.
• The readers followed Qi Shan’s years of exile, during which he repeatedly served cruel lords, rejected them, and suffered injuries and hardship.
• After returning to his fallen homeland, Qi Shan became so despairing that he considered ending his life.
• Qi Shan met the fugitive Shen Tang, was moved by her compassion, and chose to travel with her toward Xiaocheng.

Shen Tang and her colleagues read embellished biographies of Qi Shan and other Kang officials, learning about their pasts and debating whether the praise was too good to be true. The chapter ended with Shen Tang lamenting that her Friday guard shift would delay her driving test until Monday.

• Shen Tang urged Gu Chi to portray Qi Shan as beautiful, powerful, and tragic, and Gu Chi revised the biography to satisfy her while avoiding details that made Qi Shan seem cursed.
• The readers learned how Qi Shan had remained loyal to Shen Tang through years of hardship, then read colleagues’ praise of him and his affection for his cat, Su Shang.
• The readers discovered Ning Yan’s late cultivation and her resolve to join Shen Tang to fulfill the dream she had shared with Yan An.
• The biographies revealed Gongshu Wu’s exile, Bai Su’s rise from thief to Great General, and Zhao Feng’s move from Wu Xian’s service to Kang.
• Shen Tang realized her Friday afternoon guard shift would prevent her from taking her fourth driving test, delaying her license until Monday.

The group read the biographies of Dong Dao, Bei Jiu, and Li Lianghua, learning about the founding of the Xinglin Physicians and the Mohists’ role in Kang Country. In Yanzhou, the county magistrate brought Li Lianghua the newly published biography that honored her as a famous scholar and read it aloud to her.

• Shen Tang approved Qi Shan’s plan to bring Su Shang on camera and Zhao Feng’s plan to arrange a blind date for his daughter, while Xiahou Yu and the others rebuked colleagues for speaking carelessly about marrying into her family.
• The group learned that Dong Dao had founded the Xinglin Physicians after a lifetime as a wandering doctor, and they discussed the dangers Xinglin Physicians faced.
• Shen Tang explained that the Mohists had long worked in Kang Country, and the group read about Bei Jiu, the Mohists’ achievements, and Yun Ce.
• The narrative shifted to Li Family Town, where neighbors discussed Li Lianghua’s good fortune and the town named after her.
• The county magistrate visited Li Lianghua with the biography that featured her as its finale and read aloud the account praising her character.

Li Lianghua received honors and gifts before passing peacefully in her sleep, and Shen Tang commemorated her while using the public reaction to promote the Biographies of Famous Ministers and Scholars. The chapter left Shen Tang preparing a more aggressive publicity campaign for her diamonds.

• The county magistrate warned Li Lianghua's eldest son not to exploit his mother's title, then local families arrived with lavish gifts and an old scholar chose Li Lianghua's youngest granddaughter as his student.
• The old scholar examined Li Lianghua's collector's edition of the Biographies of Famous Ministers and Scholars, and Li Lianghua's third son arranged for his daughter to take the Li surname.
• Li Lianghua spent the evening listening to her granddaughter read before dying peacefully in her sleep, and Shen Tang wrote a memorial couplet for her.
• The honors Shen Tang gave Li Lianghua changed public opinion about the book and reassured many officials and clan scions about Shen Tang's treatment of her subjects.
• Shen Tang ordered a crackdown on pirated books and urged Gongxi Chou to produce more diamonds, then planned to recruit local scholars to advertise them.

Shen Tang’s conspicuous diamond promotion sparked a craze in Qi Country after Cui Xiong bought jewelry to placate Cui Hui and Miao Ne presented a piece to the Sovereign. Cui Zhi returned from his long absence to find diamonds everywhere and learned that the man he had sent away had joined the Second Young Master.

• Cui Hui wore Qi Yuanliang’s diamond bracelet, and Cui Zhi confronted her after recognizing it from the Biographies of Famous Ministers and Scholars.
• Cui Zhi sent Cui Hui two chests of jewelry, but she scorned them, so Cui Xiong sought out merchants and ordered diamond pieces for her and Miao Ne.
• Miao Ne gave the Sovereign a diamond bracelet, and the Sovereign wore it to court after praising Miao Ne’s tactful flattery.
• Mei Meng questioned the Sovereign about the diamond’s origin, but the Sovereign dismissed her concern that it came from the northwest.
• Merchants spread word of the Sovereign’s taste, and scholars and noblewomen across Qi Country began buying and exchanging diamonds.
• Cui Zhi returned to work, found diamonds popular among his colleagues and friends, and learned that the man he had sent away had joined the Second Young Master.