Chapter Summaries

Miao Ne killed the Qi Country Sovereign, escaped the guarded territory with Cui Xiong as a hostage, and left him behind after revealing her real identity. Cui Xiong later admitted to Cui Zhi that he had killed the Sovereign, while Cui Zhi suspected he was covering for someone and began containing the fallout.

• Miao Ne strangled the Qi Country Sovereign and staged the body to conceal her death.
• Cui Xiong confronted Miao Ne, admitted he knew the Sovereign had died, and said he had let her death stand because he cared more about Miao Ne.
• Miao Ne knocked Cui Xiong unconscious, used him to pass through a checkpoint, then restrained him by a river and escaped with a Word Spirit.
• Cui Xiong told his rescuers that the culprit had escaped, then pretended to faint when news spread that the Sovereign had been assassinated.
• Miao Ne returned to her wandering-knight disguise and left the area, while Cui Zhi confronted Cui Xiong, who admitted killing the Sovereign and asked when his father would announce her affliction.

Cui Xiong confronted Cui Zhi over the Cui Lineage’s secret dealings and tried to learn You Bao’s identity, while Cui Zhi managed Qi Country’s succession and concealed the Sovereign’s assassination. When Cui Mi arrived as Kang Country’s envoy, he revealed that the Cui family’s maternal grandfather was a powerful figure in Kang Country, leaving Cui Xiong stunned by how deep the family’s ties ran.

• Cui Xiong challenged Cui Zhi over Baojun’s identity and warned that the Cui Lineage could not escape Kang Country’s reach by making concessions.
• Cui Zhi covered up the Sovereign’s assassination as an illness, oversaw her funeral, and avoided taking a position on who would succeed her.
• Qi Country’s ministers enthroned a debauched imperial clansman, who sought peace with Kang Country as its forces advanced through the southwest.
• Cui Mi arrived at the Sovereign’s funeral as Kang Country’s envoy, and Cui Xiong acknowledged him as his younger brother before questioning him about You Bao.
• Cui Xiong pieced together You Bao’s likely identity, while Cui Mi urged him to show sincerity and revealed that their maternal grandfather was an important figure at Kang Country’s court.
• Cui Mi told Cui Xiong that their grandfather planned to ask Cui Zhi to hand over either Cui Xiong or Cui Mi, and Cui Xiong was shocked by the revelation.

Cui Zhi caught his son-in-law Yuan Wu Lang plotting to keep the Cui family's dowry and wrote him a divorce letter, but Yuan Wu Lang retaliated by accusing Cui Zhi's daughter of seeing another man. Cui Mi recognized the supposed lover as the young scholar who looked like their maternal grandfather, leaving the accusation unresolved.

• Cui Xiong and Cui Mi learned that their maternal grandfather wanted to adopt them, then received a Yuan family servant's plea to save his master.
• Cui Xiong and Cui Mi arrived to find Cui Zhi armed with a sword, Yuan Da Lang trying to intervene, and Yuan Wu Lang hiding with two disheveled maids.
• Cui Zhi revealed that Yuan Wu Lang had planned to pass off a child from the maids as his wife's and keep her valuable dowry, then forced him to sign a divorce letter.
• Yuan Wu Lang accused Cui Zhi's daughter of having an affair with a man associated with the Eternal Life Cult, and Yuan Da Lang tried to contain the scandal.
• Cui Mi recognized the man Yuan Wu Lang had seen with his sister as the young scholar who resembled their maternal grandfather, but said the accusation was not entirely false.

Cui Zhi learned that Cui Long had kept her slave lover and several retainers, while Cui Xiao discovered that his granddaughter had helped the rebel army take a city to seize her husband’s family assets. Cui Xiao worried that Cui Long’s illegal businesses would bring punishment, and considered asking Cui Hui to persuade her to stop.

• Cui Zhi explained that he had spared Cui Long’s slave lover and planned to train him as a retainer, but Cui Mi revealed that Cui Long had chosen to keep both the slave and her other attendants.
• Cui Zhi worried that the retainers sent to watch Cui Long had concealed her situation, and wondered what she intended to do.
• Cui Xiao recalled meeting Cui Long while investigating the Eternal Life Cult and learning that her businesses included smuggling, slave trafficking, weapons production, and a private army.
• Cui Long helped Cui Xiao’s rebel forces open the city gates, intending to take the Yuan family’s assets and target two other families.
• Cui Xiao warned his friend that Cui Long’s forbidden businesses could lead to prosecution, and decided he might ask Cui Hui to persuade her to abandon them.

Cui Xiao protected Cui Long from assassins and urged her to sever risky ties, then revealed his connection to Kang Country and that he was her grandfather. As Kang Country’s armies advanced through the southwest, Shen Tang’s forces used relief grain and local support to secure captured cities, while Gongyang Yongye returned to serve Shen Tang.

• Cui Xiao rushed to Cui Long’s residence after assassins attacked, and his Word Spirit exposed them as deathsworn seeking revenge for her earlier actions.
• Cui Xiao warned Cui Long to review her affairs and break ties that could endanger her family, then disclosed his Kang Country allegiance and urged the Cui family to defect.
• Cui Long said she would consider his proposal after sorting through the businesses and households that depended on them, and Cui Xiao told her to call him Grandfather before riding away.
• Cui Xiao used Eternal Life Cult influence to weaken local resistance as Kang Country’s four armies advanced, while Shen Tang’s forces took cities and distributed relief grain to refugees.
• Gongyang Yongye asked to return to his rightful place and serve Shen Tang, who shared porridge with him and defended her Divine Oracle as a ruler’s familiar tool.

Shen Tang discussed Gongyang Yongye’s plans to use a Gu Worm to have a child, then investigated a disturbance at a porridge station where a starving woman carried the remains of her children. The woman had been directed to seek justice from Shen Tang, giving Shen Tang a chance to investigate the authorities who had ruled the area before her arrival.

• Gongyang Yongye told Shen Tang that Cui Zhi had promised to help him find a suitable woman to serve as the Gu guide for his planned child, and Shen Tang suggested he establish a school instead of relying on Cui Zhi.
• Gongyang Yongye and Shen Tang went to a commotion at a porridge station, where soldiers apprehended a woman carrying a rotting head and arm.
• Shen Tang used Word Spirit to learn that the remains belonged to the woman’s son and daughter, then sent guards to investigate.
• Shen Tang learned that the woman’s family had been slaughtered and that an expert had told her to bring the remains to Shen Tang to seek justice.

Shen Tang used an old woman’s wrongful imprisonment and family’s murder as grounds to launch public investigations and punish the powerful, hoping to win the people’s trust. As she searched for the wise man who had advised the woman, an old comrade visited Chu Yao and asked him to take in his headstrong great-granddaughter.

• The old woman recounted how a wealthy family framed her family for robbing a tomb, leading to their deaths in prison, and how a wise man urged her to bring proof of their murder to seek justice.
• Shen Tang decided to publicize the case, investigate grievances across her territories, and use the old woman’s case to punish corrupt officials and win the people’s hearts.
• Shen Tang posted a notice inviting people to seek redress, and two days later Lord Shen personally tried the case and sent the old woman’s enemies to prison.
• Shen Tang’s search for the wise man came up empty, as his hut appeared to have been abandoned for half a month.
• An old friend from Chu Yao’s campaigns visited him, reminisced about their past, and asked him to take responsibility for his great-granddaughter, who wanted to make her own way in the world.

Chu Yao reunited with an old friend, whose life was extended by an Xinglin Physician, and met the friend’s great-granddaughter, a descendant of Chu Yao’s old comrades. As Chu Yao considered guiding her and a possible match with his disciple, Gongyang Yongye arrived to examine the disciple.

• Chu Yao welcomed his old friend and arranged for an Xinglin Physician to diagnose him, who offered treatment that could extend his life by seven or eight years.
• Chu Yao met his old friend’s great-granddaughter, recognized her ancestral connection, and found she could still sense literary qi despite beginning cultivation late.
• The young woman explained her cynical strategy behind urging an old woman to divide her children’s corpses, and Chu Yao discussed why her ancestors had remained loyal to Chu State.
• Chu Yao considered whether his disciple Tu Rong might suit the young woman, but left the possibility to fate.
• Xianrong arrived with a friend, and Gongyang Yongye followed to examine Chu Yao’s disciple.

Gongyang Yongye sought Tu Rong in hopes of gaining Lin Feng’s help, but Chu Yao rejected his proposal. He instead met a mysterious woman at Chu Yao’s residence who offered to help him rise in exchange for his support, leaving Gongyang Yongye intrigued by their potential alliance.

• Chu Yao worried that Tu Rong might have a serious health problem, while Gongyang Yongye laughed at his distress.
• Gongyang Yongye stayed at Tu Rong’s home and planned to approach Lin Feng through Tu Rong and Chu Yao, hoping to secure a Gu Worm catalyst.
• Shen Tang realized Gongyang Yongye was seeking Lin Feng, while Gongxi Chou struggled through shedding his skin and was kept warm and treated by Jimò Qiu.
• Gongxi Chou questioned Tu Rong about Gongyang Yongye’s conversation with Chu Yao, then agreed to spar with Gongyang Yongye despite his weakness.
• Gongyang Yongye told Gongxi Chou that he had found someone to carry on his legacy: a mysterious woman who had proposed that they help each other rise to power.

The woman and Gongyang Yongye secretly agreed to help each other, with her assisting him in exchange for his future support. Gongyang then offered to join Shen Tang’s side, bringing his connections to her plans against the Central Continent.

• The woman challenged Gongyang Yongye’s assumptions about ordinary people, and he recognized her strength of mind before agreeing to discuss a bargain.
• Gongyang examined the woman and learned about her maternal family’s ties to the Mother Goddess, the Assembly of Gods, and its Inner Society; she said the Inner Society was already dead.
• The woman and Gongyang secretly agreed that she would help him first and he would repay her later, while she chose not to tell her great-grandfather.
• Gongxi Chou learned from Jimò Qiu that carrying a Gu Worm catalyst for forty-nine days worked as well as nurturing it in the Dantian, and laughed at Gongyang’s insistence on the latter method.
• Gongyang offered to join Shen Tang and use his old friendships and family connections to support her, though he refused to serve as a vanguard or devote himself like her ministers.

Gongyang Yongye’s defection helped Kang break the southwestern alliance’s resistance, and he arranged for his military rewards to go to Xiang Zhao. After Shen Tang found a way to register them as relatives, Gongyang Yongye got Luan Xin to guide Xiang Zhao, leaving Shen Tang wondering how he knew about Luan Xin’s secret needs.

• Gongyang Yongye appeared on the front lines for Kang, and the news of his defection crushed the southwestern defenders’ morale.
• Gongyang Yongye asked Qin Li to direct his military rewards to Xiang Zhao, but Qin Li said Kang had no precedent for transferring National Fortune between officials.
• Shen Tang proposed putting Gongyang Yongye and Xiang Zhao on the same household register, and they were recorded as grandfather and granddaughter under Kang nationality.
• Qin Li learned Gongyang Yongye’s real name was Gongyang Ji and recorded Xiang Zhao’s name as well.
• Gongyang Yongye arranged for Luan Xin to guide Xiang Zhao in her cultivation through an exchange of resources.
• Shen Tang asked how Gongyang Yongye knew about Luan Xin’s secret needs.

Shen Tang’s officials investigated Xiang Zhao after Luan Xin discovered that her Way of the Scholar could disrupt his own. Gu Chi’s probe suggested that Xiang Zhao could temporarily plunder Literary Scholars’ abilities, and Shen Tang decided to let Luan Xin continue teaching her.

• Luan Xin told Shen Tang that Xiang Zhao’s Way of the Scholar was beyond his sight and had briefly slipped out of his control when he tried to examine her.
• Shen Tang sent Gu Chi to probe Xiang Zhao, while warning Luan Xin to leave her alone if the attempt failed.
• Gu Chi visited Luan Xin during a meal, gave Xiang Zhao a thoughtful gift, and found that his own Way of the Scholar had been briefly taken from him.
• Gongyang Yongye took Xiang Zhao away and reassured her that Gu Chi’s attention did not mean she had done anything wrong.
• Xiang Zhao later asked after Gu Chi, but Luan Xin said Shen Tang had sent him to the frontlines and that the other officials had also left.
• Gu Chi and Luan Xin reported that Xiang Zhao’s ability seemed to plunder and temporarily control any Literary Scholar’s Way, and Shen Tang told Luan Xin to teach her well.

Xiang Zhao met Miao Ne, another of Luan Xin’s students, and learned that she had returned to report on her service. Luan Xin helped Miao Ne secure an imperial commendation for her mother and prepare for a challenging government post, while Miao Ne invited Xiang Zhao to join her once she gathered her Literary Heart.

• Xiang Zhao entered Luan Xin’s tent and was seized by Miao Ne, who had mistaken her for an intruder.
• Miao Ne explained that she had returned to report on her service, and she and Xiang Zhao realized they were both Luan Xin’s students.
• Miao Ne asked Luan Xin to seek an imperial commendation for her mother, and he agreed while advising her to enter government service for protection from the Cui clan.
• Miao Ne chose a difficult post in Lin Commandery, and Luan Xin promised her fifty private retainers and told her to request funds from Shen Tang.
• Miao Ne invited Xiang Zhao to join her after Xiang Zhao gathered her Literary Heart, and Xiang Zhao looked to Luan Xin for guidance.

Miao Ne returned to Shen Tang’s service and requested a dangerous post in Yuanfu, while Shen Tang struggled with the cost of her plans. After Qi Country’s new Sovereign died in a bloody clash, Miao Ne’s disguise was exposed when Cui Xiong recognized her scent.

• Shen Tang welcomed Miao Ne back and offered her a choice of court service or a prefectural post.
• Luan Xin proposed sending Miao Ne to Yuanfu, and she accepted despite Shen Tang’s warning about its dangers.
• Miao Ne requested extra funds and named Xiang Zhao as the junior disciple who would accompany her.
• A messenger reported that Qi Country’s new Sovereign had died during a clash between surrender advocates and hardliners, and Cui Xiong delivered the Sovereign’s body and National Seal to Shen Tang.
• Cui Xiong discussed local taxation with Shen Tang, who postponed the matter, then recognized Miao Ne’s disguise by her scent and called her Baojun.

Miao Ne reunited with Cui Xiong but kept her feelings in check after Luan Xin warned her that the southwest’s political struggle was still unresolved. Shen Tang explained that Cui Xiong’s clan could challenge the Royal Court by exploiting the southwest’s tax revenues and locally funded armies, leaving her to contend with a treasury strained by military demands.

• Luan Xin rebuked Cui Xiong for recognizing Miao Ne by her scent, revealed that he was her teacher, and dismissed Cui Xiong’s claim that he was engaged to her.
• Luan Xin urged Miao Ne not to soften toward Cui Xiong until the Royal Court had brought the southwest under control, and Miao Ne set her personal feelings aside.
• Shen Tang worried over memorials demanding money from the Ministry of Revenue and military budget increases as Kang Country prepared to govern the southwest.
• Miao Ne praised Shen Tang, then realized the southwest’s taxes and the Royal Court’s finances were the real constraints on Cui Xiong’s ability to threaten them.
• Shen Tang explained that local authorities’ control of tax revenue let them fund armies loyal to regional leaders, while centralizing revenue would bring the southwest under the Royal Court’s control.

Shen Tang planned to fund southwest reconstruction with grain while resisting pressure from the great lineages, then confronted Cui Xiong with evidence of the Cui clan’s secrets. After Cui Xiong returned home, his family faced both Shen Tang’s leverage and the turmoil surrounding Cui Long’s personal life.

• Shen Tang told Miao Ne that Kang Country would pay reconstruction wages partly in grain and use Heyin IOUs only if necessary, while refusing to yield to the great lineages.
• Shen Tang learned that Chu Yao had prevented Qi Country’s former officials from humiliating its child ruler during the surrender ceremony, though he had left their coffins in the procession.
• Shen Tang summoned Cui Xiong, treated him warmly, and sent him home with local specialties without letting him discuss his mission.
• Cui Xiong returned to the Cui clan residence, where Cui Zhi recognized Shen Tang’s gift as genuine account books containing incriminating evidence against the clan.
• Cui Zhi confronted Cui Long over the men she had brought to the family banquet while Cui Xiong stood by, alarmed by the family’s tension.

After learning that the Cui family’s women were being cast out as retaliation for the feud between the lineages and Kang Country, Shen Tang offered to arrange voluntary marriages for them and sent Cui Zhi a mountain of prospective matches. She then began confiscating the households that had targeted the Cui family, leaving their leaders insisting they were innocent.

• Cui Zhi’s former allies learned that he would not attend their meeting because he was arguing with his daughter over her divorce and her wish to make a male favorite her principal husband.
• Shen Tang heard that Cui women were being divorced and cast out, and recognized that the feud with the Cui family had driven the reprisals.
• Shen Tang offered Cui Zhi voluntary remarriages for the women who wanted them and other arrangements for those who did not.
• Shen Tang sent Cui Zhi portraits of suitable unmarried men, and news of her support for the Cui family spread among the households.
• Shen Tang’s troops confiscated households on charges including usurious lending and private coin minting, while those being arrested protested that they were innocent.

Shen Tang arranged for Lady Cui to meet two young men, then inspected the countryside with her officials and considered repairing the southwest’s waterways. Their outing turned into an investigation after they encountered loan sharks who had brutalized a family, and Shen Tang traced the debt to a gambling den in Sheep Lane.

• Shen Tang arranged a chance meeting between Lady Cui and two unmarried men, and the three gradually found common ground.
• Shen Tang and Qin Li discussed how old rivalries between countries had damaged waterways and worsened flooding around Qi Country’s capital.
• Shen Tang noticed Cui Zhi’s unusual satisfaction after Lady Cui met the two men, while the pair’s conversation went well and one man left to report back to his lord.
• Gongxi Chou’s soldier warned the group that loan sharks had attacked a family, taken the gambler’s mother and young son, and killed his father.
• Shen Tang questioned the wounded gambler, learned he had borrowed money eight days earlier from a gambling den in Sheep Lane, and ordered an investigation.

Shen Tang used Cui Zhi’s staged debt-collection incident to expose gambling operations and pressure the Cui clan into helping punish their owners. After receiving word that the southwest’s fighting had ended, she asked Luo Sha about the foreign tribes there and learned they had been driven onto islands and nearly wiped out.

• Shen Tang condemned a proposal to legalize gambling and ordered the casino ledgers seized so the owners could be fined to the maximum.
• Cui Zhi explained that Cui Long had withdrawn from the gambling businesses but had left witnesses who might betray her, and Shen Tang realized he had arranged the villagers’ debt-collection crisis to draw her in.
• Shen Tang gave a frightened child candied hawthorns, heard his wish to kill the people who had killed his father and cheated his brother, and pushed Cui Zhi to take responsibility for punishing them.
• Shen Tang and Cui Zhi confirmed the matchmaking arrangement, while Shen Tang decided the Cui clan could act as her vanguard against the gambling interests.
• After receiving Ning Yan’s report that the southwest battlefield had ended, Shen Tang asked Luo Sha about foreign tribes there, and he said his ancestors had driven them into the sea and exterminated most of them.

Shen Tang explained her plans to assimilate the Northwestern tribes and reshape the Southwest, while Xun Zhen worried about the cost of development and Shen Tang endured her crushing workload. After New Year, her officials debated whether Kang should lend grain to its ally Qu, and they reached a decision while she was briefly driven away by giant cockroaches.

• Luo Sha urged Shen Tang to kill the Northwestern foreigners, but she explained that she planned to assimilate them over generations and warned him not to provoke Su Shi Yilu's group.
• After the Southwest was incorporated, Shen Tang studied an updated map and proposed connecting its waterways, while Xun Zhen warned that the project would strain the treasury and require careful oversight.
• Shen Tang obtained a fortune from the Cui family, and Xun Zhen welcomed the funds even as she noted that they barely covered the Southwest's deficit.
• Shen Tang spent New Year working in the Southwest, then fled her post after two giant cockroaches flew at her; Qin Li suggested she recall her personal guards.
• Shen Tang's officials debated whether Kang should lend grain to its ally Qu, and they decided to lend it so Qu could hold out while Kang continued developing.