Chapter Summaries

Shen Tang and her companions discovered that a mysterious scroll was a living list that recorded the dead and reacted to her. After its restrictions lifted, the names began fighting on the scroll, and several attacked Shen Tang, prompting her to call for Sheng Mei.

• Jiang Sheng, Gu Chi, and Jimò Qiu helped Shen Tang inspect a strange scroll covered in glowing characters, which Jimò Qiu identified as writing passed down by his vanished clan.
• Jimò Qiu explained that the scroll was a list but could not reveal who was listed; new names appeared in real time, including one added by his younger brother.
• Gu Chi inferred that the scroll recorded people killed by Shen Tang or her incarnations, and Shen Tang confirmed that Zixu had killed people in battle.
• Shen Tang tested the names and learned from Jimò Qiu that one person she had known was a male civil official who died in his forties.
• A breeze lifted a restriction, and the names began brawling across the scroll; one fashioned a bow and shot a stroke at Shen Tang, while other names charged her.
• Shen Tang asked for Sheng Mei to be summoned to deal with the hostile archer name.

Shen Tang persuaded Yang Ying to learn the life-draining Time Arrow so she could deter threats and help protect Kang’s growing faction. Meanwhile, a defending general learned that a violent new force was approaching his city, leaving its fate uncertain.

• Shen Tang asked Yang Ying whether she remembered Yuan Nü Jūn and offered to have her learn the Time Arrow, warning her that using it cost lifespan.
• Yang Ying agreed to learn the art after Shen Tang explained that she wanted it as a deterrent and raised concerns about Bai Su bearing too much responsibility as Kang expanded.
• Jimò Qiu left with Yang Ying to teach her the secret art, while Gu Chi told Jiang Sheng that Shen Tang had led Yang Ying to imagine the royal court’s factional struggles as more dangerous than they were.
• Jiang Sheng and Gu Chi discussed threats beyond Kang, including a rising force that attacked without regard for supplies or governance.
• A defending general learned that the force, including multiple 18th Rank Da Shuchang, was only forty li from his city and feared his troops could not stop it.

The city commander sent Lin Chun to negotiate with Shen Tang’s army, hoping to avoid a siege without formally surrendering. After Shen Tang recognized that Lin Chun had been made a scapegoat, she asked whether he had considered finding a better patron.

• The city commander accepted a proposal to negotiate passage and assigned the socially isolated Lin Chun to serve as envoy.
• Lin Chun accepted borrowed clothes from a colleague and left the city alone to approach the bandits’ camp with the commander’s token.
• A general let Lin Chun pass, while a newcomer recognized that he had likely been pushed forward by workplace bullies.
• Lin Chun met Shen Tang and asked what she intended to do about the city; she said she planned to attack it.
• Lin Chun offered to open the city gates while insisting his lord was not surrendering, and Shen Tang guessed he had been sent as a scapegoat.
• Shen Tang told Lin Chun his humble origins gave him some protection from her and asked whether he wanted to find a better patron.

Lin Chun discovered that Lin Feng was his younger sister, and the siblings reunited in her tent after Shen Tang learned their relationship. Their conversation turned tense when Lin Chun asked why Lin Feng was serving Shen Sovereign in the north.

• Lin Chun refused Shen Tang’s recruitment offer, and Shen Tang rejected his proposed compromise before having him detained.
• Lin Feng arranged decent accommodations for Lin Chun, who learned her name and wondered if she was the sister he had lost contact with.
• Lin Feng reported to Shen Tang, who realized Lin Chun was Lin Feng’s brother and arranged for them to meet.
• Lin Feng and Lin Chun recognized each other as siblings and discussed their family and their father’s health.
• Lin Chun asked Lin Feng why she was serving Shen Sovereign in the north.

Lin Feng disguised herself as Lin Chun to negotiate with Kang Country’s officials and planned to help him earn credit while keeping his family from returning to her side. After reaching Lin Chun’s shabby home, she was recognized by Father Lin, who challenged her for not recognizing him in return.

• Lin Chun questioned Lin Feng about why she had left Kang Country and whether Shen Sovereign had sent her, but Lin Feng told him he was powerless to interfere and urged him to protect himself and the family.
• Lin Feng made Lin Chun drink until he passed out, then used a Word Spirit to put him to sleep for three days and three nights.
• Lin Feng told Shen Tang she would disguise herself as Lin Chun and open the city gates, explaining that she wanted to earn him some credit and keep his family living apart from her; Shen Tang agreed.
• With Tu Rong’s help, Lin Feng disguised herself as Lin Chun and entered the city, where officials accepted her letter and celebrated the prospect of avoiding a fight without suspecting her identity.
• A colleague sexually harassed Lin Feng while she was disguised as Lin Chun, and she resolved to kill him when the city gates opened.
• At Lin Chun’s shabby home, Father Lin recognized that Lin Feng was an impostor, and she asked why he had not recognized her as his child.

Lin Feng revealed herself to Father Lin, then prepared to open the city gates for her forces while keeping her family confined. During the night, she killed the official who had harassed Lin Chun and arranged for his body to be publicly disgraced.

• Lin Feng dispelled her disguise and told Father Lin that Lin Chun was safe and that she had come from outside the besieged city.
• Lin Feng introduced Tu Rong and warned Father Lin that no one could leave the residence before dawn, then set off to open the city gates.
• With Tu Rong's help, Lin Feng prepared the gate defenses and sent him to meet their lord while she pursued the official who had harassed her.
• Lin Feng found the official with a pageboy and waited until the moment was right before killing them both with one sword.
• Lin Feng bound the bodies with Corpse Man Vine and had Tu Rong hang them up, leaving the household to discover their disgrace.

Shen Tang’s forces captured the city in a night raid, and Shen Tang seized the fleeing defending general and looted his household. Lin Feng and Xiahou Yu dealt with the general’s allies, while Father Lin and his household waited anxiously for dawn.

• Lin Feng and Tu Rong returned to find Shen Tang’s army already breaking through the city gates and overwhelming the defenders.
• After learning that Lin Chun had betrayed him, the defending general fled with his family but abandoned stragglers and encountered Shen Tang at the south gate.
• Shen Tang defeated and captured the defending general, seized his valuables, and forced his youngest concubine to reveal another stash of wealth.
• Shen Tang and Gongxi Chou discovered that they had both been pursuing the same captured general, then Shen Tang’s troops stripped his residence of its valuables.
• Lin Feng reported that she and Tu Rong had dealt with six or seven groups of rioters, and Shen Tang told her to submit an inventory of the spoils.
• Before dawn, city residents began sweeping the streets while Father Lin and his household emerged from a night spent barred inside their home.

Shen Tang stayed at the Lin residence after Kang’s forces captured the city, using the visit to support Lin Feng’s family and prepare for Lin Chun’s appointment as local governor. After receiving Tan Ting’s warning that the Central Branch was courting Qu Country, Shen Tang decided to send Wuyou to investigate and vowed to sabotage any alliance against Kang.

• A young general checked on the Lin family at Lin Feng’s request, repaired their damaged home, and brought gifts that Father Lin worried might look like bribes.
• Shen Tang arrived with Lin Feng, arranged to stay at the Lin residence for two days, and used the visit to give the family public backing.
• Tan Ting’s map warned that the Central Branch was contacting Qu Country, prompting Shen Tang’s group to discuss the risk that Qu Country might switch sides.
• Xiahou Yu offered to visit Qu Country, but Shen Tang refused and decided to send Wuyou instead.
• Shen Tang declared she could frame Zhai Xiaofang to break any alliance with the Central Branch, while Wuyou and Lin Feng reacted uneasily.
• The Central Branch, reeling from military losses and internal turmoil blamed on Tan Ting, placed its hopes on Yu Gui Long.

Yu Hai and Zhai Le met Deputy Chief Wu of the Central Branch to discuss an alliance against Shen Youli, but Zhai Le resisted Wu’s attempts to turn him against Kang Country. Wu promised that Qu Country could rule the southeast independently if it joined the Central Allied Army, and the chapter ended with him appealing to Zhai Le’s family and the legacy of Zhai Yuewen.

• Yu Hai told Zhai Le that the Central Branch had requested talks, and they agreed to meet in Pi City three days later.
• Zhai Le and Yu Hai met Deputy Chief Wu at a secluded pavilion, where Wu proposed cooperation between the Central Branch and the Southeast Branch.
• Yu Hai challenged the proposal by pointing to the branches’ past bloodshed and Qu Country’s recent battles against the Central Allied Army.
• Deputy Chief Wu warned that Shen Youli might eventually annex Qu Country, but Zhai Le admitted she had made no promise that their countries would coexist.
• Zhai Le rejected Wu’s claims and demanded to know what profit the Central Branch offered, while Wu promised that Qu Country could rule the southeast without interference.
• Deputy Chief Wu urged Zhai Le to consider his family, clan, and the legacy of Zhai Yuewen.

Shen Tang persuaded Zhai Le to reject the Central Branch and seal a wager: if the world-ending threat proved false, she would leave the Qu Kingdom independent for her lifetime, but if it proved true, Zhai Le would surrender. After the Central Branch’s envoys were killed on their way home, Shen Tang turned her attention toward the Central Continent, while Yu Hai lamented that Zhai Le had accepted the wager too quickly.

• Zhai Le weighed the Central Branch’s offer amid doubts about Shen Tang’s warning and guilt over the soldiers killed in the war.
• Shen Tang confronted Zhai Le and wagered that she would respect the Qu Kingdom’s independence if the apocalypse was false, while he would surrender if it was real; Zhai Le agreed.
• Zhai Le learned that someone had planted a skinned monkey hide near the Crown Princess during a hunt, recognized Shen Tang’s message, and ordered it burned.
• Zhai Le rejected the Central Branch’s alliance proposal, and its envoys were intercepted and killed on their journey home.
• Shen Tang washed the blood from her hands and declared that she would now focus on the Central Continent.
• Yu Hai concluded that Shen Tang had an insider among the Central Branch and lamented that Zhai Le had wasted one of his cards by agreeing to her wager.

Tan Qu awoke from the Ice Coffin and learned about his past from Yu Hai, who kept him from dwelling on an old feud with Qi Shan. Meanwhile, Shen Tang dreamed that figures in the Investiture of the Gods were gathered around something with its bottom half missing.

• Tan Qu woke earlier than expected, and Yu Hai helped him into a wheelchair to see the full moon in the villa garden.
• Tan Qu asked about Zhai Le's bet, and Yu Hai complained that the wager could cost the state of Qu while Tan Qu wished the conflict would spare ordinary people.
• Yu Hai told Tan Qu that his name was Tan Qu, his courtesy name was Le Zheng, and he had painted, studied military texts, raised hundreds of cats, and known Qi Shan.
• Tan Qu recalled the cat Huai Xu and said he did not blame Qi Shan, while Yu Hai insisted he would settle his own grudge.
• Tan Qu fell asleep in his wheelchair, and Yu Hai stayed up studying game records.
• Shen Tang dreamed that figures on the Investiture of the Gods were watching something missing its bottom half, but she could not find the missing piece.

The boy questioned Gui Long’s lies while Yu Hai tried to manage his strange symptoms and growing suspicions. Meanwhile, Shen Tang rewarded Su Shi Yilu, learned that he and Chu Jie had reconciled, and revealed that Stone Fort had been without provisions for eleven days.

• The boy woke hungry, learned that Yu Hai’s estate had no food prepared, and asked the attendant to arrange a meal.
• The boy developed blisters after touching sunlight, enjoyed a meal of pig’s and duck’s blood, and secretly tested his reaction to a stray cat.
• Yu Hai told the attendant to discourage the boy from keeping a cat because he suspected the boy was becoming suspicious of him.
• The boy wondered how much Gui Long had lied to him before falling into a dream about a missing piece of a character.
• Shen Tang placated Su Shi Yilu by giving him extra rewards, while Chu Jie explained that he and Su Shi Yilu had made peace.
• Shen Tang told Chu Jie that Stone Fort had run out of provisions eleven days earlier and asked how many ordinary soldiers might still be alive inside.

Shen Tang explained why she refused Stone Fort’s commander’s surrender, then spent a sleepless night with her ministers and generals eating barbecue outside the camp. A growing group of starving deserters approached the gathering, and Shen Tang suspected their sudden numbers signaled something unusual.

• Shen Tang told Chu Jie that Stone Fort’s commander had tried to surrender, but she had refused because he and his elite troops were tied to the Central Branch and posed a future threat.
• Shen Tang followed her usual routine of eating, working, and cultivating, then went on a night patrol and met Qin Li and Kang Shi, who were both awake.
• Shen Tang discussed the internet with Qin Li and Kang Shi, then invited them and other officials to a late-night lamb barbecue.
• The group revealed their various side businesses while Su Shi Yilu grilled meat, and more than ten people joined the gathering.
• A dozen starving deserters threatened the group and devoured the food after Shen Tang pretended to surrender.
• About twenty more deserters arrived, and Shen Tang grew suspicious because they were gathering in unusually large numbers.

Shen Tang and her companions were captured by deserters while disguised, then followed them to a mountain hideout where they exposed themselves and defeated the Central Allied Army commander. The commander was revealed to be fleeing with his guards rather than launching a night raid, and Shen Tang began mocking him after his capture.

• Su Shi Yilu and Yang Ying competed to step in front of Shen Tang, but Yang Ying stopped him with a subtle shove.
• Shen Tang and her companions posed as pampered officials’ children and let the deserters bind them and take them to their hideout.
• Shen Tang recognized the hideout’s soldiers as elite defenders from Stone Fort and prepared her companions for a possible fight.
• The Central Allied Army commander arrived, recognized Shen Tang, and was ambushed by Yun Ce and the other martial generals.
• Bei Jiu sealed the commander’s Dantian, and Shen Tang learned from Qi Shan that the commander had been attempting a night escape.
• Shen Tang mocked the captured commander for abandoning his troops, and he spat blood from rage and shame.

Shen Tang’s forces captured Stone Fort, discovered that its defenders had resorted to cannibalism, and spared the surviving prisoners by sending them to the mines. As the Central Allied Army reeled from its defeats and failed plots, its leaders considered unleashing ancient diseases against Kang.

• Shen Tang’s forces interrogated and killed the captured allied commander after he tried to attack her, then displayed his head before Stone Fort.
• Su Shi Yilu and Chu Jie stormed Stone Fort and found nearly ten thousand corpses, while the surviving soldiers described how their leaders had turned people into food.
• Shen Tang ordered the surviving prisoners sent to work in the mines for ten years instead of executing them.
• After three days of clearing Stone Fort, Kang received news that the Central Allied Army had also failed to secure Qu’s support and that its attempt to disrupt Kang’s waterways had failed.
• The Central Allied Army’s leaders discussed using ancient diseases against Kang, despite the risk that the outbreak could destroy both sides.

Lin Su learned that the Central Allied Army planned to unleash an ancient disease on Kang’s commoners, while Shen Tang’s forces left the mountains. A prophetic warning of a deadly plague in Kang’s most populated places left Shen Tang and her companions facing a looming catastrophe.

• Lin Su opposed the Central Allied Army’s plan to release ancient diseases, but the alliance leader and most of the commanders approved it and had Lin Su watched.
• Kang Shi told Jiang Sheng about a recurring nightmare in which the dead rose, Qi Yuanliang attacked Tan Lezheng, and people were devoured.
• Kang Shi, Jiang Sheng, Gu Chi, and Shen Tang tried to investigate the nightmare, but Kang Shi’s dreams turned into comic gambling and hide-and-seek scenes instead.
• Chu Yao’s Way of the Scholar foretold a strange disease that would kill everyone in several of Kang’s most populous places, including Capital Fengluo.
• In Chu Yao’s vision, diseased officials had blue skin and fangs, the throne held only a coffin, and the Ji brothers said they would take the Sacred Object back to the Clan Land.

After Chu Yao’s vision foretold a deadly plague striking Fengluo and the court, Shen Tang’s ministers suspected the Central Branch of the Assembly of Gods had access to the zombie virus. Shen Tang mobilized troops and medical resources, then ordered the Medical Office to take priority as they prepared to face the outbreak.

• Chu Yao awoke from [Willow Dark Flower Bright] and warned Shen Tang that a deadly plague would strike Fengluo and leave the court transformed and infected.
• Kang Shi proposed gathering physicians and medicine, reinforcing regional garrisons, and quarantining or killing infected people if treatment failed.
• Gu Chi suspected the Central Branch of the Assembly of Gods, which controlled the virus samples, was behind the plague; Shen Tang mobilized half the southwest troops and ordered the borders guarded.
• Shen Tang summoned Jimò Qiu, who urged them to trust physicians and meet the crisis with the Medical School’s help.
• Shen Tang issued an order that the Medical Office would take priority over all royal court matters if the plague broke out.

Lin Su confronted the allied army's commander over his approval of releasing the ancient diseases, but the commander defended using them to control ordinary people. In Kang, Dong Dao mobilized physicians and Xinglin Physicians to prepare for an epidemic, while warning that the capital itself could soon be affected.

• Lin Su asked the commander why he had agreed to release the ancient diseases, and the commander said he considered them a way to keep ordinary people obedient and content.
• The commander invited Lin Su to join his plan, but Lin Su rejected him and left the tent.
• The Central Allied Army sent people to retrieve the ancient diseases, while Dong Dao received a confidential warning and began preparing Kang's physicians for the threat.
• Dong Dao summoned Xinglin Physicians to discuss the disease, but they lacked patients or corpses to examine and struggled to identify a treatment.
• One Xinglin Physician volunteered to enter the epidemic zone, but Dong Dao refused because Fengluo itself might soon become one.

Dong Dao mobilized Kang Country’s physicians and resources to prepare for a deadly epidemic, while the capital’s officials worked themselves to exhaustion. Miao Ne learned that Cui Mi had foreseen people in Fengluo turning into lifeless, inhuman figures, confirming the danger was close.

• Dong Dao persuaded the Medical Office to focus on finding a cure and secretly ordered preparations to prevent the disease from spreading through drinking water.
• Dong Dao sent Qi Miao to secure coal, post public notices, and urge people across Kang Country to boil their water.
• Independent Xinglin Physicians joined the regional response, while Ning Yan, Li Wan, and Miao Ne struggled under weeks of exhausting preparation.
• Cui Xiong and Cui Mi arrived in Fengluo and reunited with Miao Ne, who fainted when Cui Xiong embraced her.
• Cui Mi told Miao Ne that he had foreseen people in Fengluo with blue faces, fangs, and no signs of life, yet walking like the living.

After Cui Mi’s visions revealed that a plague source might be released in Fengluo, Ning Yan organized an effort to identify the location and stop its spread. Her investigators prepared to intercept the culprits, while a group of smugglers who had slipped through an inspection hid their goods in a restaurant courtyard.

• Miao Ne learned from Cui Mi that Kang State officials, including Li Wan, had fallen ill, and she took the Cui brothers to report the danger to Ning Yan.
• Ning Yan had Cui Mi examine guards; he identified a murdered guard whose death scene pointed to a shady mountainside with running water and dense vegetation.
• Cui Mi warned Ning Yan that interfering with the future could make events worse, but Ning Yan said she would stand with Kang State regardless.
• Cui Mi examined four guards who had served with the murdered man and found that two had become living corpses while two had been murdered; one had seen an enemy with an ordinary face.
• Fengluo prepared to catch the spies and contain the plague, while the Four Divisions Office inspected a restaurant and its patrons.
• After the inspection, smugglers discussed retrieving goods they had hidden in the restaurant’s courtyard water tank.