Chapter Summaries

Verdant Green Maiden confronted Heaven over the Book of Fate’s plans for Yang Chan, while Yang Guang’s grand displays and proposed war on Goguryeo revealed the strain on Great Sui. After Li Yuan met with uneasy ministers, Yang Guang dismissed their concerns and ordered Li Yuan summoned.

• Verdant Green Maiden told Heaven she would not let the Book of Fate force Yang Chan into a Love Tribulation, and Heaven eventually laughed with her.
• Yang Guang celebrated the completed Grand Canal and the submission of foreign envoys, while his ministers worried that the people were suffering under Great Sui’s burdens.
• Yang Guang announced plans to invade Goguryeo with one million fighting men, and the ministers agreed without daring to object.
• After court, Li Yuan joined several ministers at the Duke of Tang Mansion to discuss Yang Guang’s decision.
• Yang Guang dismissed the gathered ministers as outdated and ordered that Li Yuan be summoned after they dispersed.

Officials at the Duke of Tang Mansion urged Li Yuan to oppose Yang Guang’s costly Northern Expedition to Goguryeo, but Li Yuan promised to speak with the emperor when the time was right. After catching his children and Verdant Green Maiden eavesdropping, he sent the siblings away and stayed behind to speak with her.

• Dou Shi cleared the room so Li Yuan could meet with the officials privately, while Verdant Green Maiden and Li Jiancheng, Li Xiu Ning, and Li Shimin listened from the roof.
• The officials asked Li Yuan to persuade Yang Guang to abandon the Northern Expedition, arguing that recent projects and a million-man army would overburden Great Sui and that Goguryeo would be difficult to conquer.
• Li Yuan told the officials he would speak to Yang Guang when the time was right, and they left the mansion worried about the expedition.
• Li Yuan caught the children eavesdropping, and Verdant Green Maiden caught Li Xiu Ning when she fell from the roof.
• Li Yuan dismissed the three siblings and asked Verdant Green Maiden to remain so he could discuss something with her.

Li Yuan followed Verdant Green Maiden’s advice, pledged loyalty to Yang Guang, and prepared to move his family to Taiyuan. Verdant Green Maiden left the Li household without telling the children, and Li Xiu Ning and her brothers were left wondering where their teacher had gone.

• Verdant Green Maiden advised Li Yuan to support Yang Guang and take his family to Taiyuan, dismissing the Guanlong Aristocrats as a threat.
• Li Yuan told Yang Guang he would follow the emperor in all things, and Yang Guang praised him.
• Li Yuan returned home and began preparing his family to leave Luoyang for Taiyuan.
• Verdant Green Maiden said goodbye to Li Yuan and Dou Shi, then departed with Hong Luan on Old Yellow Ox without telling the children.
• Li Xiu Ning searched for Verdant Green Maiden and learned from her parents that the teacher had left the Li household.
• Li Shimin and Li Jiancheng asked Li Xiu Ning where their teacher had gone.

Verdant Green Maiden traveled with Hong Luan to Dragon Tiger Mountain to visit the graves of her old friends, Liu Boshi and Liu Boyuan. The Heavenly Master Zhang Tongxuan led them to the graves and revealed that the two women had left a letter for her.

• Li Xiu Ning told Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin that their teacher had died, while Verdant Green Maiden sneezed on the road and wondered why she felt a chill.
• Verdant Green Maiden, Hong Luan, and Old Yellow Ox traveled for three months to Dragon Tiger Mountain, where Verdant Green Maiden recalled her past dealings with Heavenly Master Zhang Sheng.
• A disciple recognized Verdant Green Maiden and hurried to summon the current Heavenly Master, Zhang Tongxuan, who greeted her respectfully.
• Verdant Green Maiden asked Zhang Tongxuan to take her to the graves of Liu Boshi and Liu Boyuan.
• Zhang Tongxuan led Verdant Green Maiden and Hong Luan to the graves and told her that the two women had left a letter for her.

Verdant Green Maiden visited the graves of two old companions, then stayed at the Heavenly Master Mansion and discovered her old room had become a woodshed. In the morning, she introduced Hong Luan as the Blue Bird who served the Queen Mother of the West and directed the Heavenly Master Mansion disciples to learn from her.

• Verdant Green Maiden mourned at the graves and talked to the sisters while Hong Luan and Zhang Tongxuan stood with her.
• Verdant Green Maiden brought offerings to the graves and reminisced about the sisters as evening fell.
• Zhang Tongxuan invited Verdant Green Maiden to stay at the Heavenly Master Mansion, where she found her old room being used as a woodshed and took its firewood.
• Zhang Tongxuan and the mansion's disciples asked Verdant Green Maiden to teach them the next morning.
• Verdant Green Maiden revealed that Hong Luan was the Blue Bird who served the Queen Mother of the West and told the disciples to seek instruction from her.

After teaching a small portion of the Dao Scripture at Dragon Tiger Mountain, Verdant Green Maiden and Hong Luan traveled north to Goguryeo, where they saw the suffering caused by Yang Guang’s campaign. At Liuhe City, Verdant Green Maiden judged Yang Guang’s reckless conduct and decided he should die.

• Verdant Green Maiden and Hong Luan left Dragon Tiger Mountain after six months of lessons, and Verdant Green Maiden joked that she could also teach the Heavenly Master Mansion Buddhist Scriptures because she was a Bodhisattva in another world.
• Verdant Green Maiden chose to travel north to Goguryeo, where Yang Guang had led a million-man army and exhausted commoners lay dead along the roads.
• Verdant Green Maiden used the Dragon Pearl to gather the roadside corpses and vowed to bury each person in their hometown, with Hong Luan agreeing to accompany her.
• Verdant Green Maiden and Hong Luan reached Liaodong, where the Sui Army besieged Liaodong City and Yang Guang had Liuhe City built through the deaths and injuries of many soldiers.
• Verdant Green Maiden watched Yang Guang feast and compose poems in Liuhe City, then concluded that he should die.

Verdant Green Maiden persuaded Heaven to obscure the Heavenly Secrets around Yang Guang during the Sui army’s defeat, hoping the emperor would die in the ensuing chaos. As the army collapsed at Pyongyang, Yang Guang sensed something wrong and ordered the elderly Grand Astrologer to reach Liuhe City within five days.

• Verdant Green Maiden asked Heaven to conceal the Heavenly Secrets when Yang Guang fled, and Heaven agreed to do no more than that.
• The Sui army reached Pyongyang City but advanced too slowly because Yang Guang required reports and approvals while remaining away from the front.
• Heaven watched the Sui army collapse beneath Pyongyang City and dimmed the Emperor Star.
• Yang Guang noticed the darkened sky and ordered an attendant to summon the Grand Astrologer from the Eastern Capital within five days.
• The Grand Astrologer protested the impossible deadline, then ordered a cushioned carriage and horses prepared for the journey.

Yang Guang summoned the exhausted Grand Astrologer to interpret ominous celestial signs, but dismissed his warning that the Liaodong campaign was about to turn and the old man died. Soon afterward, the Sui army suffered a catastrophic defeat at Pyongyang, and Yuwen Shu urged Yang Guang to flee Liuhe City with the surviving Imperial Guards.

• The Grand Astrologer arrived in Liuhe City after traveling without rest, and Yang Guang ordered him to run to the palace despite his frail condition.
• The Grand Astrologer interpreted Yang Guang’s strange chill and vanished stars as Heaven warning that the Liaodong battlefield was about to change, but Yang Guang rejected his warning and dismissed him.
• The Grand Astrologer fainted and died, and Yang Guang ordered his body sent back to the Eastern Capital for burial.
• The Goguryeo army routed the Sui forces beneath Pyongyang, leaving only a few thousand of the more than three hundred thousand troops who had crossed the Yalu River able to return.
• Yuwen Shu arrived at the palace bloodied and told Yang Guang that the army had been defeated, then urged him to break through with three thousand Imperial Guards.

As Yang Guang fled Liuhe City with Yuwen Shu, Verdant Green Maiden rescued his abandoned concubines and offered them their lives if they killed him. The women caught up with Yang Guang and pretended to be grateful for his rescue, while Yuwen Shu urged him to leave them behind.

• Yang Guang abandoned the beauties in the imperial lodge and escaped Liuhe City with Yuwen Shu as the army routed.
• Verdant Green Maiden approached the concubines and offered to save them if they killed Yang Guang.
• The concubines accepted after Verdant Green Maiden revealed herself as the Holy Mother Empress of Mount Tai, and she arranged for routed soldiers to escort them to Yang Guang.
• The concubines told Yang Guang that the soldiers had helped them escape, and Yuwen Shu warned that bringing them along could slow the retreat.

Yang Guang's concubines strangled him during a staged dance, with Verdant Green Maiden helping them escape the consequences. Yuwen Shu discovered the emperor's body after the women had left.

• Yang Guang agreed to let his concubines join his flight after one accused Yuwen Shu of slowing their march.
• After several days without pursuers, Yang Guang watched the women perform a dance, and they used silk to strangle him.
• The women accepted responsibility together, then Verdant Green Maiden praised them and promised them ordinary lives with money to live on.
• Yuwen Shu forced his way into Yang Guang's tent, found him dead, and demanded to know where the women had gone.

After killing Yang Guang, Verdant Green Maiden brought the women who had nowhere else to go to Peach Blossom Spring and stayed there briefly. She then set out to find Old Yellow Ox, unaware that Heaven had already taken him away to help make up for the punishment awaiting her.

• Yuwen Shu ordered the attendants who failed to find the women executed, then commanded the army to return to the Eastern Capital with Yang Guang's body.
• Verdant Green Maiden led the women to Peach Blossom Spring, where the villagers welcomed them and learned that she was the Qing Xiao Jade Maiden.
• The villagers held a Jade Maiden Festival for Verdant Green Maiden and gave her food before she left after several days.
• Verdant Green Maiden and Hong Luan realized they had both forgotten to watch Old Yellow Ox and headed north to find him.
• Heaven told Old Yellow Ox that the Book of Fate would punish Verdant Green Maiden for altering Yang Guang's fate, then took him along to earn merit for her.
• Verdant Green Maiden became anxious when she calculated that she could not find Old Yellow Ox.

After Yang Guang’s death plunged Luoyang into uncertainty, Yuwen Shu urged the ministers to enthrone a new emperor, and they chose to ask Empress Xiao to decide. Verdant Green Maiden arrived in Luoyang searching for Brother Ox, then learned the ministers planned to enthrone Yang Jian, a name she did not recognize.

• Verdant Green Maiden questioned Heaven about Brother Ox, and Heaven claimed he had sent the cow away to do a task and would bring him back afterward.
• Heaven reminded Verdant Green Maiden that Yang Guang’s death had thrown Luoyang into chaos, so she traveled there with Hong Luan.
• Yuwen Shu told the ministers that Yang Guang had been killed by rebels and urged them to enthrone a new emperor quickly.
• The ministers debated whether Yang Guang’s son, Prince of Qi Yang Jian, or his five-year-old son should succeed him, then decided to ask Empress Xiao.
• Verdant Green Maiden stopped at a Luoyang breakfast shop, demanded a bowl made with all the beef she supplied, and asked Hong Luan what she had learned.
• Hong Luan told Verdant Green Maiden that the ministers planned to enthrone Yang Jian, and Verdant Green Maiden asked who he was.

Qing Nü learned from Heaven that Yang Jian, Yang Guang’s second son, needed to take the throne to prevent the Sui Dynasty from enduring too long. After gathering beef soup, she brought it to hungry people outside Luoyang and began asking where they had come from.

• Qing Nü summoned Heaven, who explained Yang Jian’s nature and said she needed to find a way to put him on the throne.
• Qing Nü paid a proprietor for a tableful of beef soup and had Hong Luan store it with her powers.
• Qing Nü and Hong Luan went outside Luoyang to a ruined temple where many hungry people had gathered.
• Qing Nü portioned out the beef soup and gave bowls to the people.
• Qing Nü asked the people where they had come from and what had brought them to Luoyang.

Verdant Green Maiden promised the families searching in Luoyang that she would bring their missing loved ones home, then set out to bury and return the scattered dead. As Li Yuan hurried to Luoyang after learning Yang Guang had died, Yang Jian took the throne, and Verdant Green Maiden continued her journey into Shu.

• Verdant Green Maiden met Gongsun Xiaoyu and other families searching for relatives lost in Liaodong, promised to bring their loved ones home, and gave them money to return home.
• Verdant Green Maiden sent Li Yuan a letter announcing Yang Guang's death and urging him to install Yang Jian; a court decree then summoned Li Yuan to Luoyang.
• Li Yuan reassured Dou Shi, told Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin to care for their mother, and rushed to Luoyang without telling them that Verdant Green Maiden was alive.
• Verdant Green Maiden and Hong Luan traveled across the realm, burying the remains of soldiers and laborers and promising to take them home.
• Yang Jian ascended the throne as Verdant Green Maiden traveled through Cangzhou, You Zhou, Jiangdu, and Yuhang, before entering rain-soaked Shu.

After completing her years-long burial of the dead across Zhu Xia, Verdant Green Maiden went to Jiangdu with Hong Luan to end the Sui Dynasty. There they witnessed an Imperial Guard attack, spared Liu Yan Chang, and headed for the palace as it came under siege.

• Verdant Green Maiden finished burying the last of the dead, chanted the Sutra of Rebirth, and learned that it was Year of Great Undertaking Fourteen.
• Verdant Green Maiden and Hong Luan set out for Jiangdu to bring the Sui Dynasty to an end and traveled there by boat.
• In Jiangdu, Verdant Green Maiden and Hong Luan saw Imperial Guards storm the prefecture yamen and kill its bailiffs.
• Hong Luan helped Liu Yan Chang escape the guards, while Verdant Green Maiden considered killing him because she feared he might court Yang Chan.
• Verdant Green Maiden and Hong Luan went to the Jiangdu Imperial Palace, which the Imperial Guards had surrounded.

Yuwen Huaji killed Yang Jian, installed Yang Hao as a puppet emperor, and led the Sui army west from Jiangdu. Verdant Green Maiden watched the Great Sui’s fortune scatter, then noticed it dividing among several people and encountered Gongsun Xiaoyu at the palace gate.

• Yuwen Huaji had Imperial Guards strangle Yang Jian with white silk after Yang Jian begged to be spared.
• Yuwen Huaji claimed Yang Jian had willingly taken his own life and installed Yang Hao as emperor, while the imperial family was slaughtered.
• More than a hundred thousand Sui soldiers left Jiangdu and marched west toward Chang'an.
• Verdant Green Maiden told Hong Luan that Li Tang’s rise would strengthen her fortune, then saw the Auspicious Fortune Dragon split into smaller dragons flying in different directions.
• Verdant Green Maiden questioned a furtive woman at the palace gate, and Hong Luan identified her as Gongsun Xiaoyu, a refugee they had met outside Luoyang City.

Verdant Green Maiden met Gongsun Xiaoyu in Jiangdu, then traveled with Hong Luan to Chang'an as the Great Sui gave way to new rulers. In Chang'an, Li Yuan pressed the young Yang You to accept the coming change while presenting himself as a loyal minister.

• Verdant Green Maiden and Hong Luan encountered Gongsun Xiaoyu, who thanked Verdant Green Maiden for bringing her father and brothers home, and agreed to keep her role secret.
• Verdant Green Maiden treated Gongsun Xiaoyu to a feast, gave her money, and warned her not to become rich and heartless before leaving Jiangdu with Hong Luan.
• Verdant Green Maiden and Hong Luan traveled west through Tong Pass, where they saw Great Tang banners, and continued to Chang'an.
• Yang You worried over the fall of the Great Sui and the deaths and upheavals reported from Jiangdu.
• Li Yuan entered Yang You's hall, told the attendants to honor the emperor, and urged Yang You to do what a Son of Heaven ought to do.
• Li Yuan reported that Yuwen Huaji had taken Yang Hao to fight the Wagang Army, while Yang You privately recognized Li Yuan as his greatest threat.

Yang You defied Li Yuan’s order and insisted on visiting Dragon Treasure Garden to pay respects to the Goddess. Li Xiu Ning agreed to escort him, while Li Jiancheng arrived too late to stop them.

• After Li Yuan left, Yang You ordered his attendants to prepare for a visit to Dragon Treasure Garden, but learned that Li Yuan’s men controlled the palace.
• Li Yuan refused Yang You permission to leave, while Dou Shi worried about how the Goddess might view the Li family’s treatment of the emperor.
• The next day, Yang You left the palace despite the Imperial Guard blocking his way, and the guards backed down rather than risk harming him.
• Li Xiu Ning arrived at the palace gates and offered to take Yang You to Dragon Treasure Garden; he agreed, and she told the guards to disperse.
• Li Jiancheng arrived after Yang You had departed and objected to the emperor leaving the palace.

Yang You visited Verdant Green Maiden’s shrine and questioned why she had turned against the Sui, while Li Xiu Ning revealed that the Goddess Empress had been her master. After Yang You returned to the palace under Li Jiancheng’s watch, Verdant Green Maiden and Hong Luan arrived to meet him.

• Yang You asked Li Xiu Ning to let him pray alone, and she told him Verdant Green Maiden had been her master.
• Yang You silently asked Verdant Green Maiden why she had not supported Great Sui, and she blamed his grandfather for the dynasty’s downfall.
• Li Jiancheng arrived at the shrine and took Yang You back to the palace after Yang You addressed him with unexpected composure.
• Verdant Green Maiden told Hong Luan that Yang You was making life difficult for the Li Family and chose to visit him before his reign ended.
• Yang You gathered his attendants in the palace, then recognized Verdant Green Maiden when she entered with Hong Luan and knelt to greet her.

Qing Nü offered to spare Yang You’s life if he abdicated, and he agreed, sending Li Yuan an Abdication Edict that the Tang prince accepted. Li Yuan ordered Li Xiu Ning to summon Li Shimin and prepared to go to the palace, where the Duke of Qin arrived as Yang You spoke with Qing Nü.

• Qing Nü refused to help Yang You reclaim the empire but offered to spare his life if he wrote an Abdication Edict, and Yang You agreed.
• Li Jiancheng returned to Prince of Tang’s Mansion with Li Xiu Ning and informed Li Yuan about Yang You.
• An imperial attendant delivered Yang You’s Abdication Edict to Li Yuan, who accepted it after the attendant said Yang You had forbidden the customary refusals.
• Li Yuan sent Li Xiu Ning to bring Li Shimin and set out with Li Jiancheng for the palace.
• Yang You asked Qing Nü about her immortal disciples and the scenery in Heaven before an attendant announced that the Duke of Qin had arrived.