Chapter Summaries

Luan Xin escaped an attack that trapped him in a nightmare, then entered Xiang Zhao’s dream to learn what had happened after her capture. Xiang Zhao revealed Lady Yuan’s brutal history and the Assembly of Gods’ possession scheme, while warning that an old man had possessed her body.

• Luan Xin woke from a nightmare in which an unfamiliar force had tried to seize his consciousness, and he agreed with Luo San and Gongyang Yongye that they should leave after arranging a private meeting with Xiang Zhao.
• Luan Xin used his Way of the Scholar to enter Xiang Zhao’s dream, and Xiang Zhao recognized him as her teacher despite his delayed responses.
• Xiang Zhao recounted how Lady Yuan had been adopted by the Yuan family, abused by its head, and forced to bear an heir after he transferred his cultivation to her.
• Lady Yuan secretly conceived a child with another man, seized the Yuan family’s wealth after its head died, and later rose to power in the Assembly of Gods.
• Xiang Zhao explained that the Assembly of Gods had gathered people like her for possession schemes, and that an old man had taken over her body, though she was secretly waiting for a chance to resist.

Xiang Zhao refused Luan Xin’s offer to leave, choosing to stay undercover and search for the women Central Branch was holding. Meanwhile, Central Branch dealt with a failed attempt to possess Luan Xin’s body, and Lin Su learned more about the Alliance Leader’s plan to secure peace through rule by immortal elites.

• Xiang Zhao told Luan Xin she needed to remain undercover, find the women descended from her ancestor, and help screen prisoners for hidden spies.
• Luan Xin woke after the failed possession attempt, confirmed he was himself, and returned to sleep with Luo San and Gongyang Yongye.
• Central Branch members discussed the dead elder whose attempt to possess Luan Xin had failed, then ordered his family to be informed and prepared to calm members awaiting eternal life.
• Lin Su asked the Alliance Leader whether body possession and immortality were real, and the Alliance Leader pointed to Xiang Zhao’s body as evidence.
• The Alliance Leader explained his plan to keep ordinary people struggling for survival while making the wise immortal, then joked that he would become a woman and blew Lin Su a kiss.

Lin Su confirmed the ransom and prisoner-exchange terms with Luan Xin while probing him about Shen Tang’s rule, and Luan Xin returned to the capital uneasy about facing his lord. Shen Tang arranged for Qiu Cheng’s widow and son to confront him at home, where they began appealing to his sense of duty and affection.

• Lin Su confronted Luan Xin about Shen Sovereign’s role in his late lord’s death, then confirmed the exchange contract and discussed whether a wise ruler could secure lasting peace.
• Gu Chi criticized Luan Xin’s negotiating skills, while Shen Tang worried about his safe return and kept Gu Chi to help review memorials.
• Shen Tang and Xun Zhen discussed the ransom, and she secretly tasked Xun Ding with preparing for possible trouble during the exchange.
• Luan Xin returned to the capital and went home instead of reporting to Shen Tang, who had arranged for Qiu Cheng’s widow and son to wait at his residence.
• Qiu Cheng’s son knelt and thanked Luan Xin for caring for the family, while Madam Miao joined him in an emotional appeal.

Madam Miao and her son asked Luan Xin to accept the royal court’s honor for the Qiu family, revealing that Madam Miao resented her late husband and had knowingly accepted the title of Commandery Duke. Luan Xin agreed to stay out of the matter, then took the bundle of hair Shen Tang had sent and appeared to be in a poor state of mind.

• Madam Miao told Luan Xin that Qiu Wenyan had supposedly haunted her son, then revealed that the king had recently granted her son the title of Commandery Duke.
• Luan Xin realized the title was connected to his own position and asked Madam Miao whether she knew the truth about Qiu Wenyan’s death.
• Madam Miao admitted that Qiu Wenyan had been murdered, but said she resented him and wanted her son to keep the title for the family’s future.
• Madam Miao took her son’s sword and threatened that she and her son would kill themselves if Luan Xin opposed the honor; her son joined in the threat.
• Luan Xin agreed to their demand, and Madam Miao gave him a bundle of hair from Lord Shen that he snatched from her.

Shen Tang confronted Luan Xin about Qiu Wenyan’s death and tried to keep him from resigning, eventually persuading him that their bond mattered more than his debt to the dead duke. Luan Xin promised to stay and asked Shen Tang to count the Commandery Duke title as his own reward, leaving her to consider his request.

• Shen Tang admitted that she had ordered Qiu Wenyan’s death and explained that she had offered his widow and son a Commandery Duke title to pressure Luan Xin into staying.
• Luan Xin asked whether Shen Tang would honor the title if he resigned, and Shen Tang argued that the title belonged to him rather than Qiu Wenyan’s descendants.
• Shen Tang told Luan Xin she had cut off her hair as an apology and declared that she had lost to him, then asked whether their years together mattered less than Qiu Wenyan.
• Luan Xin caught Shen Tang’s sleeve and clarified that he had objected to her risking her reputation and harming herself, not compared her unfavorably with Qiu Wenyan.
• Luan Xin promised he would not leave because of their estrangement and asked Shen Tang to count the Commandery Duke title as his reward instead of granting him another title later.
• Luan Xin said he would teach his children to serve their ruler and the people with integrity, and Shen Tang questioned whether that would be unfair to them.

Shen Tang heard Luan Xin’s intelligence about the Central Branch’s Soul Possession schemes and considered recruiting Wei Lou to help against them. She sent Wu Xian to persuade him, and Wu Xian finally reached Wei Lou in the town where he had settled.

• Luan Xin told Shen Tang that the Central Branch pursued eternal life through Soul Possession and sought to rule over others as immortal wise ones.
• Shen Tang praised Luan Xin’s insight, then struggled through a backlog of badly written and dialect-filled memorials from the Southwest.
• Gu Chi helped Shen Tang draft a message for Wei Lou, and she decided Wu Xian should deliver it because she lacked time to visit in person.
• Wu Xian reluctantly accepted Shen Tang’s order and traveled to the town where Wei Lou and his nephew lived in seclusion.
• Wei Lou made Wu Xian wait until he finished a game of chess, then asked what he wanted when they reached his courtyard.

Wei Lou read Shen Tang’s warning that the Central Branch was secretly practicing the Eternal Life heresy and agreed to confront them after arranging support for the local elderly. Meanwhile, Wu Xian learned that Xun Ding’s ransom exchange had been ambushed, and the enemy general ordered the starving Kang prisoners killed.

• Wei Lou learned from Shen Tang’s letter that the Central Branch was secretly practicing the Eternal Life heresy, then agreed to take charge of the matter.
• Wei Lou left gold and silver with the local officials for the elderly before traveling back with Wu Xian.
• Wu Xian returned to find Shen Tang and the troops gone, then learned that Xun Ding had brought ransom to exchange for Kang’s captured soldiers.
• Xun Ding’s men inspected the gaunt, mistreated prisoners while the enemy checked the grain and other ransom goods.
• The enemy general ordered his troops to kill the prisoners before the exchange was complete.

Xun Ding’s forces rescued prisoners from a treacherous attack during a ransom exchange, confirming Shen Tang’s suspicions about Central Branch and leaving her preparing for renewed war. Before heading to the royal capital, Shen Tang pressed Cui Zhi to keep the Southwest stable while the front lines were occupied.

• The enemy attacked the prisoners with volleys of arrows, but a giant crocodile totem shielded many while Xun Ding’s troops fought the one-eyed general and his hyena totems.
• The enemy seized the ransom and retreated after suffering losses, leaving 516 prisoners dead; Xun Ding ordered his forces to withdraw and report to Shen Tang.
• Shen Tang explained that Central Branch’s attack could distract attention from a problem among the prisoners, and warned Xun Ding not to lower his guard.
• After hearing of the attack, Shen Tang prepared to go to the royal capital and decided to visit Cui Zhi first.
• Shen Tang demanded that Cui Zhi prevent disorder in the Southwest for a year, arguing that the Cui clan had no safe future if Kang fell and the region turned against them.

Shen Tang explained why she was investing in roads across the Southwest, reassuring local officials that Kang Country would treat the region and its people equally. After returning to the capital with her forces, she reunited with Yuan Liang as Kang Country prepared for war with the central region.

• Cui Zhi accepted Shen Tang's authority and agreed to work to stabilize the Southwest, though he needed her support and resources.
• Shen Tang ordered official roads built across the Southwest, explaining that the projects would support transport, provide income for commoners, and build confidence in Kang Country.
• Gongyang Yongye gave Shen Tang an overly potent nourishing soup, and Jimò Qiu cooled her with his divine power while she questioned him about their past and her strange memories.
• Shen Tang left the Southwest with elite troops and returned toward the capital to reorganize her generals and reassure her subjects before the coming war.
• Shen Tang arrived in the capital in silver armor and called out to Yuan Liang, who had been waiting for her.

Shen Tang returned to the royal capital amid lavish celebrations, reunited with Qi Shan, and discussed choosing a regent before turning to the looming war with the Central Continent. The chapter ended with Kang’s troop shortages and the uneven quality of its newly recruited soldiers weighing on her.

• The royal court announced Shen Tang’s return across the capital, and she gave an infant the nickname Longlife after her grandfather brought her to receive the Sovereign’s blessing.
• Shen Tang reunited with Qi Shan and praised him and the ministers for keeping Kang prosperous while she campaigned.
• During court sessions and a banquet, Shen Tang learned Qi Shan had used the menu to needle officials whose food preferences he knew.
• Shen Tang and Qi Shan discussed candidates for regent, considering Shi Cang, Wei Heng, and Ning Yan without reaching a final choice.
• Shen Tang worried that Kang lacked enough disciplined troops for a full-scale war with the Central Continent, while officials debated what to do about its poorly trained recruits.

Shen Tang watched Kang’s officials brawl over whether to recruit men from servile households as soldiers, then appointed Ning Yan regent while she left to lead the war. In private, Shen Tang instructed Ning Yan to expand the academy and promote students from poor and commoner backgrounds to help preserve Kang’s political balance if it absorbed the Central Continent.

• Shen Tang and Luo San watched the officials fight after they argued over using men from servile households as cannon fodder, and Shen Tang predicted the proposal’s inexperienced author would be punished but spared.
• Shen Tang appointed Ning Yan as regent because Chu Yao had to oversee the Southwest and Ning Yan could manage both the court and the front through her avatar.
• After Court Session, Shen Tang privately told Ning Yan that the academy’s students needed to help counter the political imbalance that would follow a victory over the Central Continent.
• Shen Tang assigned Miao Ne and Li Wan to assist Ning Yan and urged her to expand the academy, promote poor and commoner students, and send them into local posts.

Shen Tang assigned Ning Yan to lead a major undertaking and gave her Miao Ne and Miao Ximin as assistants. Ning Yan investigated after Miao Ne and Li Wan were detained for fighting, and Li Wan recounted how she had beaten a family that tried to force her into marriage; her account ended as she prepared to answer their presumptuous claim that the match was settled.

• Shen Tang persuaded Ning Yan to accept Miao Ne and Miao Ximin as assistants for the undertaking.
• Ning Yan summoned Miao Ne, who had been detained after fighting a man who mocked her and insulted her over Yuanfu Prefecture.
• Ning Yan learned that Li Wan had also been detained after beating a man who, with his family, tried to exploit her captivity and ruined career to arrange a marriage.
• Li Wan recalled rejecting the family’s demand and mocking their assumption that betrothal gifts could settle the matter.
• Li Wan’s account ended with her asking whether the man’s father was done dreaming.

Li Wan confronted the family conflict that had nearly ruined her career and asserted control over her household. She reconciled with her parents, arranged to manage the marriage family's rumors, and left them stunned by her admission that she had a lover.

• Miao Ne and Ning Yan heard how Li Wan had retaliated against the family who tried to marry her off, while her father had her arrested for beating them and a clan relative.
• Miao Ne warned that Li Wan's parents and relatives could damage her career by filing complaints, and Ning Yan advised her to settle her household troubles before returning to work.
• Li Wan returned home, ordered her parents' belongings packed, and used her strength and Word Spirit to make clear that she now controlled the household.
• Li Wan explained the risks to her career and the family's dependence on her, then knelt to honor her parents and promised to earn them an Imperial Decree.
• Li Wan's father agreed not to hold her back, and she told her parents she could make the marriage family keep quiet without killing them.
• Li Wan's parents questioned her about the lover she had mentioned, and she was left speechless as they asked how many lovers she had.

Li Wan secured a likely capital appointment after resolving trouble with her family, while Shen Tang reflected on the strains of ruling and the court’s dispute over recruiting soldiers from the Ten Crows and Northern Desert. Wei Lou joined Shen Tang, who revealed that she had heard Tan Ting’s desperate cries and seen snow fall where it should not.

• Li Wan placated her parents, who warned her against making her outside mistress a proper spouse and hoped she would have a child of her own.
• Li Wan dealt with the family threatening her and visited Ning Yan, who arranged for her to receive a transfer order for a capital post.
• Miao Ne gathered classmates and friends for a feast celebrating Li Wan and strengthening their connections.
• Shen Tang discussed the costly night view with Luo San and Gongyang Yongye, then recalled the court’s argument over recruitment and leadership for the campaign against the Ten Crows and Northern Desert.
• Wei Lou found Shen Tang and questioned her talk of snow; Shen Tang explained that she had seen snow falling elsewhere and heard Tan Ting crying out in desperation.

Shen Tang searched for the missing Tan Ting in the Northeast Continent, following leads from an informant and the Beggar Gang. Her trail led to a teahouse in a neighboring commandery, where she recognized the woman who answered her.

• Shen Tang sent Wu You toward Tan Ting’s last known location after their search elsewhere failed to find him.
• Shen Tang met Qi Shan’s longtime informant, who could briefly dissolve into shadows, and asked him to look for Tan Ting.
• The informant found a beggar who recalled Tan Ting sheltering in a ruined temple with a woman in a rain cape and bamboo hat.
• Shen Tang learned the woman ran a teahouse in a neighboring commandery and traveled there to find her.
• A woman at the teahouse said it was closed, and Shen Tang recognized her.

Shen Tang questioned the tea-shop proprietress Madam Shen about Tan Ting’s disappearance and learned that he had been searching for a captive woman connected to the Assembly of Gods. Suspecting Madam Shen had engineered the encounter to draw Kang Country into a trap, Shen Tang turned back toward the tea shop and saw it burning.

• Shen Tang recognized that the tea-shop proprietress, Madam Shen, resembled the original and learned she had fled from the north.
• After Shen Tang revealed she was investigating Tan Ting for Kang Country, Madam Shen admitted Tan Ting had questioned her about a missing woman connected to the Assembly of Gods.
• Madam Shen revealed that women with a particular bloodline were being captured to bear more of their kind, and warned Shen Tang that Shen Youli’s bloodline was especially valuable to the Assembly of Gods.
• Madam Shen gave Shen Tang a blood-written bamboo slip to help locate the missing women, while Shen Tang suspected Madam Shen had deliberately lured Tan Ting and Kang Country into a trap.
• After Shen Tang and the original considered that the missing woman might also have been taken through Madam Shen’s scheme, Shen Tang turned back and spotted a fire rising from the tea shop.

Shen Tang followed the blood letter slip to a hidden mountain complex and found women and girls imprisoned there, many of them pregnant. She discovered Tan Ting in a filthy cell and freed him, but he initially mistrusted her until she mentioned Qi Yuanliang.

• Madam Shen and a sickly young woman escaped by merging into the rainwater, then set out to witness their plan's success.
• Shen Tang followed the blood letter slip to a hollow mountain, questioned the porter, and learned that supplies were being carried to a heavily guarded compound.
• Qi Shan realized that Tan Ting's unusual body could make him a target for the Central Branch's breeding scheme.
• Shen Tang infiltrated the mountain and found chambers filled with imprisoned women, pregnant women, and girls, but no sign of Tan Ting at first.
• Shen Tang found Tan Ting locked in a filthy stone chamber and led him to safety, where he threatened her until she asked whether he remembered Qi Yuanliang.

Shen Tang revealed herself to Tan Ting, restored his sealed power, and learned how his search for his sister had led to his capture by a branch of the Assembly of Gods. Tan Ting remained imprisoned, while Shen Tang had yet to learn the full account of what had happened to him.

• Shen Tang identified herself as Tan Ting’s lord and apologized for arriving late to rescue him.
• Shen Tang broke the restriction sealing Tan Ting’s Dantian, and he used his power to clean himself up.
• Tan Ting told Shen Tang that he had been searching for his sister, whom her husband’s family had hidden under the pretense of illness.
• Tan Ting discovered that his sister’s in-laws had sold her and his niece to curry favor, and his investigation led him to a branch of the Assembly of Gods.
• Tan Ting learned that his sister had killed her children and made herself unable to bear more, freeing herself from the people holding her; meanwhile, his captor harassed him and threatened to use him as a stud.

Tan Ting recounted his torture and discovered a route out of the prison, while Shen Tang agreed to help rescue the captives. Their escape plan was exposed when the martial artist attacked, forcing them to flee through the tunnels under pursuit.

• The martial artist tortured Tan Ting repeatedly and taunted him about the prison’s abuse of women, but Tan Ting refused to reveal anything.
• After Shen Tang rescued him, Tan Ting described the prison layout and suggested a route for escape, while admitting he wanted to save the other prisoners.
• Shen Tang agreed to help free the captives and said she and Tan Ting could defeat the strongest guard, a Fourteenth-Rank Right Geng.
• The martial artist burst into their room after overhearing them, and Shen Tang wounded him with her whip.
• The martial artist and guards attacked; Shen Tang pulled Tan Ting out of the way of a lethal strike, and they fled as arrows filled the tunnel.

Shen Tang fought through the guards while rescuing Tan Ting, but the Leopard Martial Artist revealed that Tan Ting’s sister and the captive women had been left in the hideout. The mountain collapsed with them inside, leaving Tan Ting stunned and Shen Tang facing the consequences of the trap.

• The Leopard Martial Artist told Tan Ting that the Tan Clan had profited from his sister’s bloodline and that any help he summoned would betray him, leaving Tan Ting shaken.
• Shen Tang killed the guards at the cave entrance, carried Tan Ting out, and fought the pursuing martial artists as they chased them down the mountain.
• Tan Ting warned Shen Tang that something might change, but the Leopard Martial Artist stopped fighting and hinted that worse heartbreak awaited Tan Ting.
• Explosions erupted inside the mountain, and the Leopard Martial Artist revealed that the captive women were still there and that Tan Ting’s sister had tried to persuade them to destroy their wombs.
• Shen Tang saw a water-shaped figure escape from the collapsing entrance, and the mountain fell as the Leopard Martial Artist’s plan to lure the rescuers away was exposed.