Chapter Summaries

Shen Tang’s forces secretly completed a chain bridge across the mountain cliffs while Gongyang Yongye fought his old friend on the restricted battlefield. The bridge was ready for the next stage of the attack, but Gongyang Yongye’s opponent unleashed a powerful technique against him.

• Gu Chi received Bei Jiu’s coded message that the bridge construction was ready, while Shen Tang and Qi Shan discussed the battlefield’s suppression of martial and literary energy.
• Bei Jiu and nearly a hundred Mohists secretly secured chains across the cliffs, then returned safely after completing the bridge’s main structure.
• Yun Ce’s soldiers began laying fire-resistant planks across the chains as Bei Jiu and the other Mohists watched.
• Gongyang Yongye confronted his old friend, explaining that he had joined the fight because the Central Branch had harmed Xiang Zhao.
• Gongyang Yongye’s opponent gathered killing intent and unleashed a technique that multiplied his arms into countless palm shadows.

Gongyang Yongye and his old friend secretly agreed to prolong their duel, letting Gongyang lose while buying time for Kang Country. Jimò Qiu then revealed his strength and volunteered to fight the Central Allied Army’s champion.

• Gongyang Yongye privately offered to help his old friend win if he would stall for time, and the two arranged to throw their duel.
• Gongyang Yongye retreated after a staged clash, while Shen Tang drove his pursuing opponent back with an arrow.
• Gongyang Yongye returned to Shen Tang’s formation, having fulfilled the stalling goal despite losing the duel.
• Jimò Qiu asked Shen Tang for permission to fight and offered to sign a military pledge.
• Jimò Qiu revealed his red armor, saber, and Great Shuchang Peak rank, then challenged the opposing fighter to meet his death.

Jimò Qiu challenged the Central Allied Army and fought its general while the inheritor of the Time Arrow attacked from the fog. As the Time Arrow’s power gathered into a silver bow, Luo San prepared to intervene.

• After the old High Priest defeated Gongyang Yongye, the Central Allied Army’s commander dismissed Jimò Qiu as an unproven bedmate, but the High Priest rebuked him and recognized Jimò Qiu’s strength.
• With no enemy accepting his challenge, Jimò Qiu called out the inheritor of the Time Arrow, alarming Wei Lou and Luo San while Shen Tang calmly told them to wait and see.
• The Time Arrow’s inheritor offered to fight Jimò Qiu alongside another general, and Jimò Qiu accepted the two-against-one match.
• Jimò Qiu fought the spear-wielding general with a style combining the Nuo Dance and War Dance while ordinary arrows from the fog gradually began striking him.
• A mysterious power formed a phantom silver bow above the iron chain bridge, and Luo San prepared to intercept the incoming Time Arrow.

Jimò Qiu took Yuan Nü Jūn’s Time Arrow and revealed that he could wield strange divine power, defeating and converting the opposing general. With his martial armor restored, he asked Yuan Nü Jūn whether she could shoot a second Time Arrow, after Shen Tang asked if he could send tens of thousands of enemies into reincarnation.

• Yuan Nü Jūn shot Jimò Qiu with a Time Arrow, which sent his body back sixty years, but he survived and blocked the enemy general’s attacks with a Vine Wall.
• Jimò Qiu offered the enemy general a chance to withdraw, then converted him when he charged, leaving his body dead and explaining that he had cleansed the man’s soul of Killing Sin.
• Both armies reacted with shock as observers questioned whether the Jimò Clan’s High Priests had possessed such abilities in the past.
• A vine climbed to Shen Tang, who asked Jimò Qiu whether he could send tens of thousands of enemy soldiers into reincarnation; thunder rumbled overhead.
• Jimò Qiu’s martial armor returned as the Time Arrow’s effect was undone, and he asked Yuan Nü Jūn whether she could shoot another Time Arrow.

Jimò Qiu asked Yuan Nü Jūn to shoot him with the Time Arrow that sent its target sixty years into the future, but she instead used its soul-annihilating form. He survived the shot and urged her to try again, while Yun Ce prepared to cross the bridge and wondered why the battlefront had fallen silent.

• Yuan Nü Jūn mistook Jimò Qiu’s request for an insult and fired the Time Bow’s Soul-Rending Annihilation arrow at him, sacrificing years of her life.
• The arrow destroyed Jimò Qiu’s Gu Worms, but he caught it and used divine power to heal the tiny damage it caused to his soul.
• Luo San realized Jimò Qiu had survived the soul-annihilating attack and warned him that Yuan Nü Jūn’s arrow could erase a soul.
• Jimò Qiu told Yuan Nü Jūn she had used the wrong form and asked her to shoot the arrow that sent him sixty years into the future.
• Yun Ce prepared his troops to cross the bridge for a surprise attack on the Central Allied Army’s rear and wondered why the front was so quiet.

Yun Ce’s elite soldiers used fog and camouflage shields to slip behind the enemy, while Shen Tang and her companions watched Jimò Qiu provoke Yuan Nü Jūn into unleashing a devastating attack. Jimò Qiu survived her arrows, reached the 20th Rank Che Hou, and seized her inheritance, leaving the battlefield stunned.

• Yun Ce sent elite soldiers through the dense fog toward the enemy rear, using lightweight camouflage shields made by the Directorate of Imperial Manufactures.
• Shen Tang defended Jimò Qiu’s sincerity as she bantered with Gu Chi and Wei Lou, who warned her not to assume victory was certain.
• Yuan Nü Jūn burned through her vitality to fire a vast barrage of arrows at Jimò Qiu, who charged into them without trying to evade.
• Jimò Qiu survived the arrows, rose to the 20th Rank Che Hou, and told Yuan Nü Jūn he would still be alive sixty years later.
• Jimò Qiu used Yuan Nü Jūn’s shattered bow to pierce her forehead and reach into her sea of consciousness, intending to preserve her inheritance by finding it a successor.

Jimò Qiu exposed Yuan Nü Jūn’s memories, killed her with the Time Arrow, and used the arrow against the defenders of Stone Fort before its bow was destroyed. When the surviving enemies attacked him, Jimò Qiu fought back, and a mysterious young spearman appeared behind Stone Fort to battle the mage.

• Jimò Qiu saw Yuan Nü Jūn’s memories of torturing the old woman and provoked her by promising to find her a worthy disciple.
• Jimò Qiu carried Yuan Nü Jūn back to Stone Fort, where she collapsed, raged at him, and died after seeing him summon the Time Arrow.
• Jimò Qiu’s arrow passed through the defenders’ attacks and killed a youth by draining away his life, while Shen Tang called out as Jimò Qiu tried to draw a second arrow.
• The bow crumbled and Jimò Qiu’s rank fell, so Luo San helped him fend off the enemies who rushed to kill him.
• Jimò Qiu summoned a spear and charged Stone Fort, while a young spearman emerged behind the fort and attacked the mage.

Yun Ce defeated and captured a weakened mage who claimed he had come only to repay an old debt connected to Yun Da. As Bei Jiu’s Mohist weapons battered the Central Allied Army’s supplies at Stone Fort, the mage recognized their importance and challenged her to prove they could take the iron-chain bridge.

• Yun Ce blinded the mage with a flash of golden light, adapted to the mage’s defenses, and defeated him with an ice-wreathed spear thrust.
• The mage said he had settled an old debt and asked to visit Yun Da’s grave; Yun Ce told him it was in Mozhou.
• Yun Ce’s soldiers captured the mage, and Bei Jiu sealed his Dantian with a special Mohist method.
• Bei Jiu explained that her Directorate of Imperial Manufactures explosives could still function despite the ore vein’s suppression of martial energy.
• The mage watched the explosives devastate the Central Allied Army’s rear supplies and challenged Bei Jiu, suggesting her force could not take the bridge.

Bei Jiu’s Mohists trapped a charging battle bull, but Yun Ce faced two enemy generals until a Mohist excavator knocked them down. Meanwhile, Shen Tang charged across the iron-chain bridge and Gongyang Yongye joined the assault, leaving both sides fighting fiercely at Stone Fort.

• The mage warned Bei Jiu that the Central Allied Army’s century of connections could bring many rare talents against Kang, but Bei Jiu declared that My Lord would turn every obstacle into a stepping-stone.
• Bei Jiu lifted the mage and led Kang’s surprise troops as a battle bull charged; she ordered the Mohists to form ranks and trap it with their Non-Aggression devices.
• The battle bull broke free with a burst of flame, and Yun Ce attacked it with ice and his spear until two enemy generals intervened and freed it.
• Bei Jiu sent a Mohist excavator swinging into the two generals, while Yun Ce prepared to fight them and the mage predicted he would make a fine grandson-in-law.
• Shen Tang led the charge across the iron-chain bridge, fighting through enemy soldiers and reaching the far bank as the Allied Army targeted her.
• Wei Lou praised Shen Tang’s courage, Gu Chi objected to his comparison, and Gongyang Yongye charged onto the bridge to challenge the enemy.

Shen Tang and the Kang army fought to seize the Iron Chain Bridge while Bei Jiu, the Literary Scholars, and Gongyang Yongye disrupted Stone Fort’s forces. Shen Tang’s attack on the enemy generals continued as the battle spread across the bridge and both flanks.

• Bei Jiu freed the mage’s martial energy, and he blocked an enemy general’s halberd before attacking him alongside Bei Jiu.
• Shen Tang led Gongyang Yongye, Jimò Qiu, and the other generals against Stone Fort’s siege weapons while Kang troops crowded onto the Iron Chain Bridge.
• The Central Allied Army sent reinforcements and fire arrows toward the bridge, while Qin Li used [Cloudy Sky and Foggy Land] to guide Kang’s forces through the fog.
• Chu Yao ruptured enemy soldiers’ eardrums with his Word Spirit, and Qi Shan’s wine-themed Word Spirit made others drowsy and unsteady.
• Wei Lou warned Chu Yao to secure the bridge quickly and held back so Qin Li could continue directing the battlefield.
• Shen Tang soaked pursuing enemy generals in wine, set one ablaze with a spark, and crushed his chest with a spiked mace.

Wei Lou’s Way of the Scholar turned the battlefield’s civil and martial powers upside down, giving Kang’s prepared forces the advantage and driving the Central Allied Army back toward Stone Fort. As the allies realized Wei Lou had joined Shen Tang, one commander feared he knew the truth behind Wu Country’s old grudge against the Assembly of Gods.

• A violent gale swept Central Allied Army soldiers from the iron-chain bridge while Qin Li’s warned Wu troops held their formation and crossed to the opposite shore.
• Wei Lou reversed civil and martial qi across the battlefield, leaving the enemy generals weakened as Shen Tang attacked them with her sword and fire dragons.
• Gu Chi, Qi Shan, and Chu Yao joined the fighting, while Jimò Qiu remained unaffected and used his vines to attack the enemy as Gongyang Yongye struggled without martial qi.
• Kang’s reinforcements seized control of the bridge and pushed the Central Allied Army’s battle line toward Stone Fort.
• The allied commander learned that Wei Lou had joined Kang and worried that the old Wu minister knew the truth behind Wu Country’s past conflict with the Assembly of Gods.

Shen Tang’s army seized the iron-chain bridge and pushed the Central Allied Army back to Stone Fort, with Wei Lou’s Way of the Scholar giving Kang a decisive advantage. After the fighting paused, Shen Tang ordered captured enemies who refused to surrender killed, while Yun Ce brought her three important heads and the captured demon monk.

• The Central Allied Army struggled under Wei Lou’s Way of the Scholar, and its commander ordered the troops to abandon their attack and defend near Stone Fort.
• Shen Tang took the enemy’s Great Banner and ordered her forces to bombard the enemy with devices from the Directorate of Imperial Manufactures.
• Kang’s soldiers pressed the Allied Army from both sides, and the battle ended with Kang holding the iron-chain bridge and surrounding the enemy near Stone Fort.
• Shen Tang ordered her forces to persuade prisoners to surrender and kill those who refused, while Wei Lou admitted he could not fight again soon.
• Yun Ce reported to Shen Tang and presented three heads, then brought in the captured demon monk, whom Gongyang Yongye recognized as his former opponent.

After Kang’s forces defeated the Central Allied Army’s hidden fighters, Shen Tang explained why she planned to keep Stone Fort as bait rather than rush through the Yudi Mountains. A scout’s report revealed that Kang’s attempt to seize the water source had failed because the source was contaminated with nuclear wastewater.

• Qin Li recited sutras for the five dead fighters, while Qi Shan teased him until Qin Li chased him with a dagger.
• Qi Shan said the day was the death anniversary of one of his former lords, and Qin Li dismissed his assumption that the date had prompted the sutra recitation.
• The mage asked why Shen Tang had not pressed the attack, and she explained that keeping the allied army’s fighters alive would draw reinforcements into Kang’s advantageous battlefield.
• A scout delivered bad news about the water source, and Shen Tang imprisoned the surrendered mage with three other captured fighters.
• The mage learned that the Inner Society had sealed away something that disrupted Heaven and Earth Qi, while Shen Tang identified the contamination at the source as nuclear wastewater.

Kang's army discovered that the river and surrounding area were contaminated by radioactive remnants from a previous civilization, which the Central Branch had used as a weapon. Jimò Qiu offered to purify a limited area, but Shen Tang was soon incapacitated by backlash from overusing her Qi Yun, leaving Kang in a standoff at Stone Fort.

• Kang Shi suspected the Central Allied Army's retreat concealed a trick, and Chu Jie wondered whether the enemy had tampered with the river.
• Dead fish appeared in the river, and wounded soldiers and prisoners developed unexplained fevers; Chu Jie ordered the troops away from the water.
• Kang Shi noticed the Heaven and Earth Qi remained turbulent and sent water samples and recovered fragments to Shen Tang, who recognized them as radioactive remnants from a previous civilization.
• Jimò Qiu explained that the contamination could spread through waterways, and he offered to purify a small area, though he could not cleanse the ocean.
• Shen Tang suffered the delayed backlash from overusing her Qi Yun, so Kang's forces settled into a siege and stalemate at Stone Fort.

Jimò Qiu purified the polluted river and stayed with the army as it pursued enemy forces, where a confused clash brought an unexpected victory and valuable intelligence. Kang Shi and Su Shi Yilu urged Chu Jie to report the intelligence but attack the allied army’s reinforcements before they could be called away, while Jimò Qiu learned Shen Tang was still suffering repeated accidents.

• Jimò Qiu used a divine plant to clear the polluted river, and Su Shi Yilu persuaded him to remain with the army by suggesting his deeds could earn him official recognition.
• Scouts reported that enemy troops were marching in a vulnerable formation, so Chu Jie led the army out to intercept them.
• Kang Shi realized during the clash that the enemy was not the force they had fought before, but both sides continued fighting through the night.
• Jimò Qiu helped defeat the enemy’s powerful fighters, while Chu Jie captured or killed his opponents and Su Shi Yilu suffered a wound.
• Kang Shi learned the defeated force had been an elite vanguard sent to reinforce Stone Fort and had useful information about the allied army’s deployments.
• Su Shi Yilu proposed reporting the intelligence while attacking the reinforcements, and Chu Jie resisted his attempt to draw him into the plan.

Chu Jie agreed to lead his troops to intercept the Central Allied Army’s reinforcements after Su Shi Yilu shamelessly pressed him for military merit. Shen Tang learned that the Wu Kingdom had hidden treasuries, and she secretly sent Xu Xie to recover them for her private funds.

• Su Shi Yilu clung to Chu Jie and called him “brother” to persuade him to seek military merit, and Chu Jie ordered his army to rest before setting out to intercept the Central Allied Army’s reinforcements.
• Chu Jie reported his decision to central command, and Shen Tang reacted with surprise before joking that she would make Su Shi Yilu pay for scheming to take her merit.
• Shen Tang explained to Chu Yao that she pursued merit because her campaigns and the rewards owed to her troops left her deeply in debt.
• Wei Lou described how the Wu Kingdom had plundered wealthy families and revealed a map to hidden treasuries containing millions in buried wealth.
• Shen Tang sent Wei Lou’s map to Xu Xie and ordered him to recover the money secretly so Xun Zhen would not claim it for the Revenue Department.

Xu Xie received Shen Tang’s confidential order to retrieve assets, but Xun Zhen discovered the note and took over the mission, eager to transfer the Sovereign’s private stash into the treasury. Xun Zhen explained his return to the capital and his struggle to manage the Southwest’s finances, while Xu Xie went home to learn that his wife already knew about the stash being seized.

• Xu Xie panicked over Shen Tang’s confidential assignment until Xun Zhen returned to the capital and read the note.
• Xun Zhen persuaded Xu Xie to carry out the assignment and recover the assets for the cash-strapped treasury.
• Xu Xie learned that Xun Zhen had been traveling through the Southwest, where he struggled with reconstruction costs and demands for funding.
• Xun Zhen recalled arguing with Cui Zhi over the cost of recruiting talent and the Southwest’s worsening finances.
• Xu Xie told his wife that Xun Zhen had seized Shen Tang’s private stash, and she said the court already knew about his habit of taking her money.

Shen Tang negotiated with captured masters and offered them a choice between serving Kang State in the Southwest under a three-year Gu Worm restriction or remaining captives. Gongyang Yongye tested a pill, but most of the others still refused to swallow one, leaving their cooperation unsettled.

• Jiang Sheng explained that Xun Zhen had diverted Shen Tang’s private savings to the treasury because the Ministry of Revenue was under severe strain, and Shen Tang let go of her resentment.
• Shen Tang and Jiang Sheng decided to use the captured masters in the Southwest rather than trust their promises or release them.
• Shen Tang told the masters they could not leave Kang State until the war ended and presented Gu Worm pills as a means of restricting their Dantians for up to three years.
• Gongyang Yongye swallowed a pill and let Jimò Qiu activate it, confirming that it sealed his martial energy.
• Only one other captive accepted a pill, while the remaining masters offered to work for Shen Tang rather than risk swallowing the Gu Worms.

Shen Tang secured the surrender of several Central Continent generals, then discovered new uses for Jimò Qiu’s Gu Worm and considered who should inherit the Yuan clan’s Time Arrow. The chapter left Shen Tang planning to use the Time Arrow’s reputation to divide her rivals while she continued searching for a suitable heir.

• Shen Tang assigned the Gu Worm carrier to the southwest and kept the other three surrendered Martial Gall Warriors in her army.
• Jimò Qiu explained the Gu Worm’s benefits to Gongyang Yongye and demonstrated its decorative tattoos, prompting Shen Tang to try Gu Worm makeup and consider opening a tattoo shop.
• Wei Lou questioned Shen Tang’s use of Gu Worms to secure surrender, but she insisted she had no need to plant more in the generals.
• Shen Tang asked Gu Chi about finding an heir for the Yuan clan’s Time Arrow, and Gu Chi refused to volunteer Shaoxuan because using it could shorten her life.
• Shen Tang decided to keep searching for a suitable heir and considered using the Time Arrow inheritance to divide the Central Continent’s upper circles.

Shen Tang rejected Gu Chi’s suggestion to use [Anointing] on prisoners of war, while Jimò Qiu warned Gu Chi against provoking the Heavenly Dao. A strange celestial omen revealed that spiritual qi was returning to the world, and Jimò Qiu told Gu Chi that an Investiture of the Gods might be beginning.

• Gu Chi suggested that Shen Tang learn the lifespan-consuming Time Arrow and later proposed using [Anointing] to rapidly train talented youths, but Shen Tang refused to abandon the righteous path.
• Gu Chi watched Jimò Qiu raise Gu Worms from the citrus peels and asked whether prisoners of war could be used for [Anointing]; Jimò Qiu said the method would not work and warned him not to become a target of the Heavenly Dao.
• Jimò Qiu explained that Shen Tang had once held authority to enlighten people but was now like a commoner, and Gu Chi wondered whether reincarnation would make him the same person.
• Black thunderclouds and rosy light appeared in the sky, and Jiang Sheng told Gu Chi that the chaotic Qi Yun had made the future impossible to read.
• Jimò Qiu revealed that spiritual qi was returning to the world and connected the omen to an approaching Investiture of the Gods, telling Gu Chi to survive if he could.