Chapter Summaries

Kang debated how to fulfill the Qu Kingdom’s request for grain without draining its treasury, and Shen Tang proposed sending farmers to grow it on Qu land. Lin Feng was assigned to lead the farming mission with Tan Ting, escorted by Feng En and Shen Lu, and began preparing for the journey.

• Xun Zhen calculated that transporting the requested grain would require sending fourteen times as much, while Luo Sha suggested cheaper coastal shipping with help from his Humpback Whale friends.
• Shen Tang proposed sending farmers to grow grain in the Qu Kingdom, and Gu Chi explained how the plan could avoid transport losses.
• Shen Tang assigned Feng En and Shen Lu to escort Lin Feng, each with fifty elite soldiers, and Lin Feng prepared a list of assistants for the mission.
• Shen Tang warned Lin Feng about dangers in the Qu Kingdom and told her Tan Ting would travel with her.
• Chu Yao gave Lin Feng careful instructions, returned her sharpened sword, cooked her noodles, and sent her off with boxes of dried shrimp.

Zhai Le and Yu Hai arranged for Qu to accept Kang’s grain loan while trying to secure troops for the war, but Shen Tang’s incarnation agreed to their requests and had the convoy already underway. Meanwhile, Miao Ne reached Yuanfu Prefecture with Li Wan’s help, and Gongyang Yongye encountered Shen Tang’s incarnation, Wu You’s incarnation, and a group led by Gongxi Chou.

• Zhai Le confirmed Shen Tang had agreed to lend grain, and Yu Hai warned that the offer tested Kang’s strength and could let Qu draw Kang’s troops into the war.
• Yu Hai urged Zhai Le to ask for soldiers along with the grain, and Zhai Le included the request in his reply to Zixu.
• Zixu told Xiahou Yu that Kang would accept all of Qu’s requests because the grain convoy was already on the road, then arranged for her reply to Zhai Le.
• Miao Ne arrived near Yuanfu Prefecture and discovered that her old rival Li Wan had arranged the people she needed to help her take up her post.
• Gongyang Yongye followed Miao Ne and Xiang Zhao, encountered Shen Tang’s incarnation and Wu You’s incarnation, and later met Gongxi Chou’s arriving group.

Xiang Zhao discussed her arrangement with Gongyang Yongye and her refusal to marry, while Gongyang Yongye returned from visiting old friends with a bizarre story about martial arena customs. Lin Feng’s disguised party reached Qu with a thousand followers after recruiting defeated bandits, and Zhai Le recognized her as Lin Lingde.

• Gongyang Yongye left Yuanfu Prefecture to visit old friends, warning Miao Ne to protect Laiqu and prioritize her safety.
• Xiang Zhao told Miao Ne that Gongyang Yongye would bear her children, and she explained that she did not intend to marry because she feared creating unequal circumstances for her children.
• Cui Xiong overheard the conversation and claimed he could give birth too, while a drunken Xiang Zhao remained on the roof overnight.
• Gongyang Yongye returned after half a month and told Xiang Zhao that old friends had tried to humiliate him with their fundoshi after their sparring matches.
• Gongxi Chou defeated a mountain warlord who attacked Lin Feng’s disguised caravan, and Lin Feng spared the warlord and his followers to put them to work.
• Lin Feng’s enlarged party arrived in Qu without provisions, and Zhai Le recognized her as Lin Lingde.

Lin Feng arrived in Qu Country with Shen Tang’s letter and revealed that the promised grain still had to be planted. Zhai Le agreed to support her work, while his wrestling match with Gongxi Chou exposed how formidable Zhai Le had become; Gongxi Chou suspected his power might be connected to a sealed site in the southeast.

• Lin Feng gave Zhai Le Shen Tang’s letter, which explained that the grain had not yet been planted, and assured him it would arrive by the deadline.
• Zhai Le provided Lin Feng with land, grain seeds, and his personal seal to command the Imperial Guards as workers.
• At a banquet, Zhai Le challenged Gongxi Chou to wrestle, and the two fought to a draw while the guests watched.
• Luo Sha told Lin Feng that Zhai Le’s cultivation seemed to surpass his own, and Gongxi Chou later admitted he was not confident he could defeat Zhai Le.
• Gongxi Chou sensed that Zhai Le’s martial energy carried traces of divine power and said he would investigate a sealed site in the southeast.

Lin Feng began preparing Qu’s farmland for a promised grain harvest while Zhai Le used her work to investigate land ownership and remove corrupt officials. After she killed Imperial Guard soldiers who defied her orders, Yu Hai arrived with crop seeds, and Zhai Le asked whether he had intercepted a letter.

• Lin Feng and Gongxi Chou discussed Qu’s hidden strength and the mysterious 20th Rank Che Hou guarding Zhai Le.
• Zhai Le defended Lin Feng’s use of the Imperial Guard’s private seal and told his ministers that she would produce grain in half a month.
• Zhai Le requisitioned royal and ministers’ farmland, using Lin Feng’s project to expose resistance and investigate land ownership.
• Lin Feng and her team selected and cultivated seeds while Luo Sha guarded them and confirmed their letter had safely left Qu.
• Lin Feng ordered the deaths of Imperial Guard soldiers who challenged her authority, and Yu Hai stopped the killings and took away the survivors and bodies.
• Yu Hai brought Zhai Le a small bag of crop seeds, and Zhai Le asked whether he had intercepted the letter.

Zhai Le sent the Minister of Agriculture to investigate Lin Feng’s improved grain seeds, but Lin Feng’s Word Spirit ripened the fields in moments and convinced him that Qu could not easily replicate Kang’s methods. The chapter ended with Shen Tang’s kitchen discovering that its supposed jellyfish had turned into a person.

• Zhai Le let Lin Feng’s escape and the deaths of the Imperial Guard soldiers go without pursuing her, then asked Yu Hai to arrange for the Crown Princess to spend time with Lin Ling De.
• Zhai Le gave the Minister of Agriculture Lin Feng’s improved seeds and explained that he wanted Qu to overcome Kang’s limits on seed reproduction.
• The Minister of Agriculture visited the Ji Tian, witnessed Lin Feng’s Word Spirit turn green rice golden, and accidentally flattened crops while wandering into the fields.
• Lin Feng told the Minister of Agriculture that only women could cultivate the Word Spirit, then ripened the fields and began harvesting the grain.
• Shen Tang and her companions found that the jellyfish in the kitchen had turned into a person, narrowly avoiding making soup from human flesh.

Shen Tang discovered that the jellyfish spirit who nearly became soup was actually a messenger serving Luo Shen Lu, carrying news of an ambush tied to Qu State’s royal court. After learning that Zhai Xiaofang’s strength and the hidden 20th Rank Che Hou could threaten Lingde’s party, Shen Tang considered how to secure reinforcements and learned Xiahou Yu had a plan connected to Shanyong Commandery.

• Shen Tang gave the naked jellyfish spirit clothes, questioned the kitchen staff, and learned he had been added to the seafood delivery by mistake.
• The jellyfish spirit invented a merchant story, and Shen Tang let him go after discussing a possible seafood trade, then ordered Xiahou Yu to have him followed.
• The jellyfish spirit accidentally returned to the Prefectural Yamen, where he revealed that he served under Luo Shen Lu and had been carrying a secret letter.
• The jellyfish spirit said he had been ambushed by attackers whose techniques suggested military training, and Shen Tang destroyed the letter after reading it.
• Shen Tang told the group that Zhai Xiaofang would not let Lingde’s party leave easily but would not harm them, while Gu De warned that a hidden 20th Rank Che Hou could endanger them.
• Xiahou Yu proposed calling in reinforcements tied to the next battle in Shanyong Commandery, identifying its Captain as a possible contact.

Shen Tang learned that the Captain of Shanyong Commandery was a fallen Che Hou whose strength could rise to match stronger opponents, then devised a plan to exploit his hidden identity and send soldiers into the city disguised among frozen fish. Gu De met the Captain with the dean’s unsent letters and claimed he had come seeking a way to live, leaving the Captain questioning his motives.

• Xiahou Yu told Shen Tang that the Captain of Shanyong Commandery was once a Che Hou whose cultivation had fallen, and explained that his strength could temporarily rise against stronger opponents.
• Shen Tang considered the Captain’s limits and rejected Xiahou Yu’s offer to approach him, deciding instead to use Gu De to sow discord while concealing her faction’s strength.
• Shen Tang planned to hide elite soldiers among frozen fish and send them into Shanyong Commandery to attack from within when the time came.
• A caravan carrying frozen fish entered the city, and Gu De identified himself to the Captain as a student of Quqing Academy and an old acquaintance through the academy.
• Gu De gave the Captain the dean’s unsent letters and said he had read them, prompting the Captain to threaten him while Gu De claimed he had come seeking a way to live.
• The Captain asked how many men Gu De had brought, and Gu De said he had just over two hundred trusted men and had brought the fish because food supplies were tightly guarded.

Gu De’s plan to sow discord between Captain and the Commandery Governor succeeded when the Governor seized the fish sent to the camp, while Captain continued to tolerate his rival. Shen Tang emerged from the frozen fish inside the enemy’s granary, putting her in position to act from within.

• Captain had his men inspect Gu De’s followers and the frozen fish, confirming the men were trained fighters and the fish were not poisoned.
• Captain’s subordinate reported that the enemy scouts were searching for someone while the troops pulled back their defensive lines.
• The Commandery Governor demanded the fish, and Captain let him take them despite his deputy’s protests about the soldiers’ shortages.
• Gu De recognized that the feud between Captain and the Commandery Governor had made the plan work better than expected and considered acting ahead of schedule.
• Shen Tang climbed out from among the fish in the enemy’s granary after hiding inside a fish’s belly.

Shen Tang and her men infiltrated Shanyong Commandery’s granary, set a fire, and flooded several storehouses through underground tunnels. As the Captain rushed toward the city gate, a huge disturbance erupted there, leaving the attack’s next stage underway.

• Shen Tang ordered her men to set fire to the granary while keeping their identities hidden.
• Shen Tang’s men killed the watchmen who discovered the water they had spread across the granary grounds.
• The governor learned that the granary was on fire and sent soldiers to extinguish it.
• The Captain used palm strikes to put out the flames, unknowingly triggering underground water that flooded several granaries.
• The Captain headed for the city gate, and the governor heard a tremendous commotion there.

Gu De escaped the enemy camp after setting fire to the granary, then devised a way to disrupt its formation while Shen Tang’s forces attacked Shanyong Commandery. Shen Tang joined the assault on the city wall, where she took over the Rope Dart Warlord’s body to fight the Captain, leaving him furious at her unorthodox tactic.

• Gu De set fire to the granary, escaped through the camp’s Eight Trigrams formation, and met his colleague after the enemy’s orders recalled his pursuers.
• Gu De explained how they could rearrange the camp’s formation to confuse the Captain’s soldiers, and his colleague agreed to the plan.
• Shen Tang’s forces blew open the city gate, raised their flag on the wall, and confronted the Captain as he arrived.
• The Captain attacked Shen Tang, but the Rope Dart Warlord intervened and fought him while Shen Tang sabotaged the wall’s defenses.
• When the Captain’s vines threatened Shen Tang, she rescued the Rope Dart Warlord and took over his body, using his senses and fighting skill to face the Captain.

Shen Tang led a raid on Shanyong Commandery, where she fought Captain and discovered that his Martial Gall Totem had gone berserk. She withdrew after the raid’s objectives were met, and the chapter ended with her rejoining Xiahou Yu’s troops and joking about Captain’s name.

• Shen Tang taunted Captain while fighting through the Rope Dart Warlord’s body, and the Rope Dart Warlord gained insight into a new way to use her weapon.
• Captain revealed his enormous plant-type Martial Gall Totem, and Shen Tang switched to defense after realizing its condition was worse than she had expected.
• Shen Tang signaled a retreat, then fired a scarlet arrow into the Totem’s maw before its mental shock wave left the Rope Dart Warlord injured and disoriented.
• Shen Tang’s troops withdrew after destroying Shanyong Commandery’s granaries, damaging its wall, and inflicting heavy losses on its garrison camp.
• Xiahou Yu received Gu De’s returning troops, and Shen Tang arrived afterward and asked about Luo San before making a joke about his name.

Shen Tang discussed preserving endangered languages with Gu De, then the Rope Dart Warlord’s jokes about being possessed by her lord led Xiahou Yu to mistake their conversation for a romantic entanglement. The chapter then shifted to Lin Feng, whose composure was unsettled when Zhai Le left his daughter in her care.

• Xiahou Yu admitted he did not know Luo Zhongshu and Luo Lin, and Shen Tang explained that she had asked because of Robert and J.K. Rowling.
• Gu De recalled an ancient language he had heard about and the dean’s lost collection of endangered languages, prompting Shen Tang to propose seeking out people who could preserve them.
• Gu De was moved by Shen Tang’s support for the dean’s legacy, while she reassured him that he and Xiahou Yu carried that legacy forward.
• The Rope Dart Warlord boasted that Shen Tang had possessed her body, and Xiahou Yu mistakenly concluded that she and her colleague had been discussing a love affair with their lord.
• Lin Feng reflected on her reputation in Qu State and recalled her reluctance when Zhai Le left his daughter in her care.

Lin Feng hosted Zhai Le’s Crown Princess at Ji Tian, where the girl questioned her about Kang’s ruler, divine statues, and Shen Youli. Lin Feng carefully deflected the Crown Princess’s probing questions and left her curiosity about Shen Youli’s past unanswered.

• The Crown Princess arrived at Ji Tian and asked Lin Feng whether Kang’s ruler had an heir, while Lin Feng avoided discussing Kang’s succession.
• The Crown Princess watched Lin Feng’s Word Spirit work and said officials, not the ruler, should handle specialized duties.
• After seeing the grain grow through its stages, the Crown Princess asked why Lin Feng had no temple or statue, and Lin Feng said anyone could earn reverence through service.
• The Crown Princess challenged Lin Feng’s claim that anyone could become a god, and Lin Feng redirected the question to a future exchange between the rulers of Qu and Kang.
• The Crown Princess asked Lin Feng to recount stories about Shen Youli and her father, but Lin Feng only said the two had gotten along well.

Lin Feng spoke with the Crown Princess of Qu Country, observed her court and tasted the rice cakes she had made. Gongxi Chou returned with news that a seal had vanished and that he had been ambushed, leaving Lin Feng to investigate alongside him when she negotiated with Zhai Le the next day.

• Lin Feng deflected the Crown Princess's pointed remarks about Zhai Le and learned that the young heir understood common people's livelihoods and had a carefully prepared group of officials around her.
• A trusted female official told Lin Feng that the Crown Princess had been dispirited but had smiled after speaking with her, then served her rice cakes the Crown Princess had made after harvesting grain.
• Lin Feng assessed the fields' declining fertility while eating the unusual rice cakes, and Gongxi Chou returned looking disheveled.
• Gongxi Chou told Lin Feng that both a sealed person and the seal suppressing them had disappeared, and that he had been ambushed while investigating.
• Lin Feng invited Gongxi Chou to join her next day when she negotiated with Zhai Le about the National Fortune's fertility, and he agreed.
• Gongxi Chou remarked that the Crown Princess was a Martial Gall Warrior and that no one could touch her, then spoke of the corruption he had witnessed beside Tang Guo.

Lin Feng learned that the red-clad Crown Princess was far more dangerous and mature than her age suggested, while a female official hinted at a secret about herself. After securing Zhai Le’s approval to use National Fortune on Ji Tian’s fields, Lin Feng and Gongxi Chou planned their withdrawal and identified the scent of Gongxi Chou’s former enemy near the palace.

• Gongxi Chou warned Lin Feng that the red-clad Crown Princess was a predator, not a helpless child, and urged her to avoid getting caught in palace intrigue.
• Luo Sha recognized that Gongxi Chou had practiced the Chastity Cultivation Technique, and the two argued over the strange scents they detected on each other.
• Lin Feng discussed the fertility of Ji Tian’s fields with the Crown Princess, then learned that the female official’s Literary Heart Sigil lacked a seal knot because she was born incomplete.
• Lin Feng met Zhai Le the next day and obtained his approval to use Qu Country’s National Fortune to improve the fields.
• Gongxi Chou detected the earthy scent of the enemy who had ambushed him near the palace, and Lin Feng said their work would take another month and ten days before they could withdraw.

Lin Feng completed her grain mission in Qu and prepared to return to Kang, while secretly setting plans in motion around the Crown Princess and Ji Tian. As her party reached Qu’s border, an attacker tried to stop them, and Lin Feng revealed that she had exposed secrets that could destabilize the capital.

• Lin Feng explained that she had planted a Gu Worm in the female official to uncover a threat near the Crown Princess and use it to pressure Qu’s court.
• Gongxi Chou and Luo Sha took turns keeping watch as Lin Feng’s mission continued, and Luo Sha suspected she had also planted Gu Worms around Ji Tian and the harvested rice.
• Lin Feng completed the grain assignment early, observed the Crown Princess’s closeness with the female official, and accepted Zhai Le’s farewell banquet before preparing to leave Qu.
• Zhai Le personally saw Lin Feng’s party off, but a hidden attacker raised a fog barrier at the border and threatened to kill them if they continued.
• Lin Feng challenged the attacker and argued that Zhai Le would have to choose between stopping them and allowing Qu’s capital to fall into turmoil.
• Lin Feng declared that the capital was changing hands and that she had sent Zhai Le secrets he had been kept from knowing.

Lin Feng and her companions escaped Qu after Wei Cheng drove off the hidden Marquis, then continued toward Shanyong Commandery. Back in Qu, Zhai Le’s purge of the court followed the discovery that the Crown Princess had been manipulated into an affair with a disguised male official seeking revenge.

• Lin Feng recognized Marquis Wei, who revealed himself as Wei Cheng and forced the hidden Marquis to retreat by threatening to fight him.
• Lin Feng explained that she had invoked the danger to Qu’s capital to give both sides an excuse to avoid battle, and Wei Cheng escorted her group out of the country.
• Lin Feng and her companions set off for Shanyong Commandery, while Wei Cheng left after ensuring they were not being followed.
• Scouts later found enemy scouts dead with their intelligence intact but their map missing.
• Zhai Le’s returning envoy learned from Yu Hai that the capital was locked down after Zhai Le executed several families, crippled Prince Xun, and purged many attendants.
• Yu Hai explained that a female official had seduced the Crown Princess as part of a revenge scheme, and that the official was actually a man whose identity and accomplices had gone undetected.

After the Crown Princess killed the female official who had betrayed her, Zhai Le let her take charge of purging the mansion, while Yu Hai investigated how she had been drugged. Meanwhile, Lin Feng agreed to Gongxi Chou’s plan to seize Shanyong Commandery and surprise Shen Tang.

• The Crown Princess questioned the female official in the dungeon, learned that the woman had never been loyal to her, and killed her before asking Zhai Le for time to clear her head.
• Yu Hai said the Crown Princess would handle the mansion’s purge herself, and the blue-robed scholar suspected Lin Ling De had arranged the drugging.
• Yu Hai ordered an exhaustive search of Ji Tian and the provisions while concluding that the Gu Worm might have left no evidence.
• Gongxi Chou proposed taking Shanyong Commandery before Shen Tang arrived, and Lin Feng reluctantly agreed to join the attack.
• Gongxi Chou planned to display Shen’s banner and open the city gates to make Shen Tang suspect an Empty City Strategy.

Gongxi Chou and his small force challenged Shanyong Commandery, where they discovered that its defender, Luo San, had concealed his true strength. As the fight escalated, Shen Tang learned that another formidable warlord force had launched a direct assault on the commandery.

• Lin Feng worried that Shen Tang's forces might have encountered trouble, but Gongxi Chou argued that Shen Tang was using Shanyong Commandery to lure enemy reinforcements into a trap.
• Gongxi Chou led forty-nine people to Shanyong Commandery and threatened its defenders, provoking Luo San into appearing on the city wall.
• Gongxi Chou charged Luo San and was blasted off the wall, so Luo Sha joined the fight while Lin Feng supported them with her Word Spirit and ordered the troops in the valley to prepare to retreat.
• Luo San revealed overwhelming strength, attacked Gongxi Chou and Luo Sha, and easily knocked the Humpback Whale phantom into the moat.
• Shen Tang received an urgent report that a powerful warlord force had bypassed her troops and attacked Shanyong Commandery directly.