Chapter Summaries

Zhao Cheng’s forces seized Wu City and massacred the great clans, while Lin Yi’s anger at the elites shaped his brutal actions. Though Zhao Cheng restored order and public support inside the city, news of the massacre turned the realm against him, and he rode out to reinforce the Yellow Heaven Army and claim its foundation.

• Lin Yi had Wang Qi and Zhu Xian dragged from a pleasure house, broke their legs, and ordered the execution of the rest of their families.
• Chu Taixing led a small armored force against the Heaven-Answering Army but was overwhelmed and killed as the army swept through Wu City.
• Zhao Cheng asked Lin Yi what he thought of the killings, then ordered him to garrison Wu City.
• The Heaven-Answering Army burned the corpses, paraded surviving dignitaries with lists of their crimes, and publicized its redress of false accusations, restoring Zhao Cheng’s standing among Wu City’s people.
• Reports of the massacre spread across the realm, prompting heroes to join a new campaign against Yellow Heaven; Zhao Cheng dismissed his generals’ indignation and led his troops out to reinforce the main army and take over its foundation.

Zhao Cheng returned to Heaven's End Pass after taking Wu City, and Yellow Heaven Daoist personally welcomed him with the Generals of Earth and Man and the Yellow Heaven followers. Zhao Cheng reported that he had fulfilled his promise to capture Wu City, leaving Yellow Heaven Daoist celebrating his victory.

• Zhao Cheng and a hundred elite riders traveled from Wu City to Heaven's End Pass in ten days.
• Yellow Heaven Daoist, the Generals of Earth and Man, Li Tonghai, Huang Qi, and others waited outside the city to welcome Zhao Cheng.
• The veterans and Daoists reflected on Zhao Cheng's rise and the hope his victory had brought to Yellow Heaven.
• Zhao Cheng dismounted, approached Yellow Heaven Daoist, and said he had returned after taking Wu City.
• Yellow Heaven Daoist laughed and praised Zhao Cheng, repeating, “Good!” three times.

Zhao Cheng returned to Heaven's End Pass and took command of the Yellow Heaven Army as Yellow Heaven Daoist prepared for the coming invasion. As the thirteen warlords' armies arrived, Yellow Heaven Daoist revealed a nuclear weapon and left the future to Zhao Cheng, declaring that he would act at the final moment.

• Yellow Heaven Daoist and Zhao Cheng discussed the Human Dao as they rode toward Heaven's End Pass, and Zhao Cheng told him the city could not rule all under heaven.
• Yellow Heaven Daoist appointed Zhao Cheng Heaven-Answering General and placed him in command of the Yellow Heaven Army, while Zhao Cheng learned its structure and postponed reforms until the coming war.
• Zhao Cheng's forces delivered ore to Heaven's End Pass, while Wu Qi's attacks on Wu City failed against buried landmines and the Feng and Chen families' forces took Shanglin County.
• Yellow Heaven Daoist withdrew from public view as rumors spread that he was refining a golden pill to extend his life.
• Zhao Cheng visited the ailing Yellow Heaven Daoist, who showed him a nuclear weapon and said he would act at the final moment.
• The allied armies of the thirteen warlords arrived in Qing Province in October, beginning the great war.

In the third year of Bright Light, thirteen forces formed a coalition of more than four hundred thousand troops to attack the Yellow Heaven Army, which had retreated to Ancient Hill Pass. As Zhao Cheng prepared to use the war to reorganize his army, the coalition’s leaders feasted in their camp, where Huo Zicheng sang of his expected glory.

• Thirteen forces answered the imperial court’s call and formed a coalition army to punish Yellow Heaven.
• Zhao Cheng rejected proposals to abandon Qing Province and retreat to Wu City, intending instead to hold the pass and reform the Yellow Heaven Army.
• The coalition army encamped outside Bamboo County, frightening its people into hiding while its leaders celebrated in a great tent.
• Huo Zicheng sat as alliance leader between Cao Zheng and Yuan Chu, while Cao Zheng let others take the lead and Yuan Chu resented Huo’s position.
• Huo Zicheng struck his sword and sang about defeating Yellow Heaven and winning lasting fame; Cao Zheng voiced agreement, while Yuan Chu only gave a cold snort.

As the coalition pushed Yellow Heaven Dao back to Heaven's End Pass, Zhao Cheng used months of battle to reshape his army while Liu Guangzheng wondered why the victories seemed too easy. The Yellow Heaven Daoist emerged with a massive iron sphere and rode toward the enemy camp with his brothers and veteran soldiers, leaving his final fate uncertain.

• Lu Xun and Gao Shou watched Huo Zicheng sing in the coalition camp, knowing a nuclear bomb would soon kill him and planning to flee before it detonated.
• Zhao Cheng argued that Yellow Heaven had to fight rather than retreat, then deployed his forces to defend Heaven's End Pass.
• The coalition captured Ancient Hill Pass and the remaining counties after months of bloody battles, leaving Yellow Heaven Dao with only Heaven's End Pass.
• Liu Guangzheng studied the coalition's smooth progress and suspected the Son of Heavenly Mandate's luck was powerful but limited.
• Zhao Cheng's army was reduced from seventy thousand to sixty thousand, while combat losses allowed him to replace officers and break up entrenched cliques.
• The Yellow Heaven Daoist emerged from meditation carrying a massive iron sphere, gave his robe to Zhao Cheng, gathered his two brothers and veteran soldiers, and rode toward the coalition camp.

Huo Zicheng maintained strict defenses while using lavish feasts to build trust among the allied forces. As the Yellow Heaven Army neared defeat, Cao Zheng left the camp to tend to his gravely ill father, and Huo Zicheng ordered the dancing to continue.

• Huo Zicheng kept the allied encampment heavily guarded despite its string of victories.
• Huo Zicheng held regular feasts to win the support of the lords and young warriors, while treating their factions impartially.
• Yuan Chu recognized that Huo Zicheng had governed the alliance fairly and gained the lords' trust.
• Huo Zicheng and Yuan Chu noticed that Cao Zheng was absent and recalled that he had requested leave to return to his gravely ill father.
• Huo Zicheng accepted Cao Zheng's departure, knowing it would reduce Cao Zheng's share of the coming military rewards.
• Huo Zicheng praised the performance and called for the music and dancing to continue.

Cao Zheng explained that he had fabricated his father’s illness to withdraw from the campaign against Yellow Heaven Daoist, citing political strategy, filial reputation, and unease about the Heavenly Mandate. Meanwhile, Daoist masters gathered near Heaven’s End Pass to witness Yellow Heaven Daoist’s final stand as the allied army closed in.

• Cao Zheng told his followers that his father was not ill and that he had invented the illness to justify his retreat.
• Cao Zheng explained that withdrawing would reduce Yuan Chu and Huo Zicheng’s suspicion of him and strengthen his reputation for filial piety.
• Cao Zheng said he feared the Heavenly Mandate might turn against the allied army, despite a Daoist’s assurances that Yellow Heaven Daoist could not reverse his fate.
• Cao Zheng argued that the allied lords might benefit if the Zhao bandit survived, since he could serve as a pretext for future campaigns while remaining trapped in the Southern Wasteland.
• Daoist masters and Human Immortals gathered near Heaven’s End Pass, where Xuanzhenzi declared that Yellow Heaven Daoist’s final moment was approaching.

As Daoists watched Heaven's End Pass, the coalition's fate suddenly turned into overwhelming death qi, though they did not know why. Yellow Heaven Daoist led his brothers and several dozen restored veteran soldiers in a final charge toward the coalition camp, using the World-Destroying Divine Thunder as his grievous injuries worsened.

• Human Immortals and Daoists discussed the difficulties of cultivation and the perilous fate of Yellow Heaven's cause while watching Heaven's End Pass from afar.
• Fan Qingmeng sensed that something momentous was about to happen, though she could see no change in fate.
• Thunder erupted, and the thirteen-route coalition's flourishing fate transformed into dense death qi that shocked the watching Daoists.
• Yellow Heaven Daoist led his brothers and several dozen maimed veterans out of Heaven's End Pass toward the coalition camp.
• Yellow Heaven Daoist struck down the watchtower guards with lightning and empowered the horses and veterans with Daoist arts, at the cost of aggravating his injuries.

Yellow Heaven Daoist and his followers attacked the allied army, where he and his two brothers fought to the death before he detonated the divine thunder. A month later, Emperor Liu Guangzheng read of the devastation and realized the weapon resembled a nuclear bomb.

• Huo Zicheng ordered the allied army to kill Yellow Heaven Daoist and offered a marquis title to whoever killed him.
• Yellow Heaven Daoist and his followers fought through the allied soldiers, killing nearly a thousand before only Yellow Heaven Daoist and his two brothers remained.
• Yellow Heaven Daoist's brothers charged into the enemy and died, leaving Yellow Heaven Daoist alone on the battlefield.
• Yellow Heaven Daoist detonated the divine thunder, and a blazing sun rose as the blast devastated the army.
• Zhao Cheng ordered his army to withdraw toward the Southern Wasteland, while Cao Zheng sent soldiers to investigate the blast.
• One month later, Emperor Liu Guangzheng read a report of the destruction and wondered whether he should abdicate before the enemy's nuclear bomb.

Liu Guangzheng concluded that the Yellow Heaven Daoist had refined the nuclear bomb that devastated the allied forces, possibly at the cost of his life, and that the Child of Heavenly Mandate posed a greater threat than the Imperial Uncle. Unable to attack the Southern Wasteland without risking his authority, Liu Guangzheng turned to granting lavish posthumous honors to the fallen troops.

• Liu Guangzheng reasoned that nuclear bombs could not be produced freely and suspected the Yellow Heaven Daoist had refined the bomb through Daoist purification arts.
• Liu Guangzheng considered whether the Child of Heavenly Mandate was a transmigrator who might develop the Southern Wasteland’s resources and build modern weapons.
• Liu Guangzheng judged the Child of Heavenly Mandate a greater danger than the weakened Imperial Uncle, but feared an attack on the Southern Wasteland would undermine his authority.
• Liu Guangzheng regained control of his emotions and began arranging lavish posthumous honors for the allied forces killed at Heaven’s End Pass.

Zhao Cheng reorganized his forces and began building Wu City’s defenses and industrial capacity in preparation for a future war with Wu Qi. As his plans took shape, his Dao Seed reached the ninth grade, and the Demon Fetus’s influence over him grew stronger.

• Zhao Cheng oversaw repairs to Wu City’s breached walls and reorganized seventy thousand troops into seven armies under a rotation-based promotion system.
• Zhao Cheng established a Ministry of Works, encouraged craftsmen to innovate, and assigned Huang Qi’s Daoists to produce seamless steel pipes and other military supplies.
• Zhao Cheng planned to build a two-thousand-man firearms battalion by March and eventually attack Wu Qi’s forces.
• Zhao Cheng used grain as wages to train Wu City’s people as teachers, craftsmen, and apprentices, aiming to shift surplus labor into industry.
• Zhao Cheng’s Dao Seed reached the ninth grade as the Demon Fetus increased its investment in him, giving him an aura that made him seem to bear the Heavenly Mandate.

Zhao Cheng strengthened his Dao Seed while planning to conquer the Southern Wasteland and eventually seize the realm. He ordered a coal-mine camp to produce steel and improve smelting, laying groundwork for his military expansion.

• Zhao Cheng absorbed the Demon Fetus’s ink-staining as nourishment while using the Dao Venerable’s Change to root his Dao Seed deeply enough to eventually Plant the Dao within the Demon.
• Zhao Cheng judged that slow consolidation in Wu City would invite heaven and earth to empower his enemies, so he planned to take Wu City in half a year and pacify the Southern Wasteland within a year.
• Zhao Cheng resolved to break the scholars’ and gentry’s influence, replacing those who resisted his rule with people produced by the system he had built.
• Zhao Cheng planned to spend three more years building strength after unifying the Southern Wasteland, then move to seize the realm.
• Zhao Cheng ordered a camp and blast furnaces built beside a newly discovered coal mine in Qing Province so craftsmen could produce steel and develop better smelting techniques.

Zhao Cheng toured Wu City and observed how the Heaven-Answering Army had turned confiscated clan properties into schools and workshops, rewarding skill and education with merit. The city’s specialized training programs were preparing workers and officials for the army’s future expansion.

• Zhao Cheng walked through Wu City and saw confiscated properties operating as schools and workshops, where residents learned skills and earned merit.
• Zhao Cheng observed that merit had become more valuable than money and that people were eager to join the militia and the Heaven-Answering Army.
• Zhao Cheng noted that children over five attended school for three years, after which successful students could continue studying while others learned a trade.
• Zhao Cheng passed a central workshop where craftsmen researched carts, weapons, farm tools, and steam engines, and he remembered the promising Lu Da.
• Zhao Cheng saw specialized schools training agricultural officials and other local administrators so they could serve in newly conquered territories.

Li Tonghai became convinced that Zhao Cheng’s plan could break the power of aristocratic clans and provide resources and popular support. Meanwhile, Huang Qi and the Daoists tested firearms and discussed forming a gun-wielding force, though they remained stuck making weapons.

• Li Tonghai admired the city’s transformation and concluded that Zhao Cheng’s method could make it possible to eliminate unreliable local powers while gaining troops, grain, and popular support.
• Huang Qi and the Daoists reported that their magical furnaces had enabled them to make seamless steel gun barrels.
• Huang Qi tested Zhao Cheng’s firearm and judged that Daoists could use rifles to kill large numbers of armored soldiers in mountain forests.
• Huang Qi planned to build a larger, more powerful rifle and imagined using it to shoot down enemy generals from a distance.
• The Daoists imagined forming an elite firearm unit but admitted that Zhao Cheng might refuse and that forging iron every day was tedious.

The Southern Wasteland’s factions hesitated after learning of the Heaven-Answering Army’s devastating power, while Wu Qi grew increasingly alarmed by Zhao Cheng’s ability to expand Wu City’s military strength. The Feng and Chen Families remained divided over whether to wait for both sides to weaken or join Wu Qi against Heaven-Answering.

• News spread across the Southern Wasteland that the Heaven-Answering Army had destroyed a million-man force, leaving poisoned soil and glowing corpses beneath Heaven's End Pass.
• The Feng and Chen Families argued over whether to let Wu Qi and Heaven-Answering exhaust each other or ally with Wu Qi to destroy Heaven-Answering.
• Wu Qi avoided attacking Wu City and waited, but reports from his spies made him fear what Zhao Cheng could achieve if left undisturbed.
• Wu Qi estimated that Zhao Cheng could raise another two hundred thousand crossbowmen from Wu City’s population and resources, bringing his forces to roughly three hundred thousand.
• Wu Qi recognized that he could not copy Zhao Cheng’s system because he lacked control over local clans, currency, and the resources to support a mass army.

Wu Qi rejected surrender and joined the Feng and Chen Families in a coalition against Zhao Cheng, but their repeated attacks on Wu City failed. As winter deepened, Wu Qi fell gravely ill while Lin Yi continued defending the city and learned that Zhao Cheng was secretly preparing a force of Dao soldiers.

• Wu Qi refused Mr. Wen's advice to surrender and instead negotiated an alliance with the Feng and Chen Families, handing over two cities and six counties in exchange for a promise to protect surviving Wu descendants.
• The three families assembled a coalition of two hundred thousand troops and attacked Wu City repeatedly, but Zhao Cheng's forces held the city walls.
• After months of fighting, Wu Qi fell seriously ill, and Mr. Wen told him the coalition could not take Wu City until its provisions ran out.
• Lin Yi observed Wu City's well-equipped care for wounded soldiers, including the use of penicillin, while he continued following Zhao Cheng's orders to defend the city.
• Lin Yi learned that Zhao Cheng had selected two thousand soldiers to form Dao soldiers, while distant explosions came from a forbidden zone outside the city.

Zhao Cheng demonstrated the Peace Camp’s firearms to his civil officials, showing how two thousand soldiers could annihilate rows of targets with volleys. Meanwhile, the Southern Wasteland’s generals gathered without the ailing Wu Qi, as his subordinates increasingly shifted their loyalties to Feng Bao and Chen Qing.

• Han Qing commanded two thousand Peace Camp soldiers to fire repeated volleys, destroying every straw dummy in the clearing.
• Zhao Cheng used the display to impress his civil officials, and Li Tonghai concluded that the Peace Camp could pacify the realm.
• Zhao Cheng ordered Gongsun Jin to have the army rest for half an hour before returning to the city.
• Feng Bao, Chen Qing, and the Southern Wasteland generals drank in the main tent while Wu Qi recovered from serious illness.
• Wu Qi’s generals had begun surrendering to Feng Bao or joining Chen Qing as they sought a way forward for themselves.
• Feng Bao threw back his head and laughed heartily as the wine flowed.

Feng Bao and Chen Qing worried that Wu City’s defenses would make the siege unsustainable, while Zhao Cheng launched a sudden attack on the allied camp. The chapter ended with Huang Qi killing General Jia Tiezhen with an oversized firearm.

• Feng Bao publicly mocked Zhao Cheng and Li Tonghai, raising the allied army’s spirits by arguing that Wu City had no room to maneuver.
• Feng Bao privately warned Chen Qing that Wu City could grow stronger over time and that failure to capture it soon could reverse the siege’s balance.
• Feng Bao dreamed of taking Wu City atop a road of corpses, then woke before dawn to the sound of a commotion.
• Zhao Cheng sent two thousand Peace Camp cavalry out of Wu City, and Huang Qi led the Heaven-Answering Army’s attack toward the allied camp.
• Huang Qi answered Jia Tiezhen’s challenge and shot him down with an oversized firearm.

Huang Qi killed Jia Tiezhen with lightning, but the allied commanders ordered their vastly larger army to advance rather than answer his challenge. As the battle began, Wu Qi sensed a vision of crimson flames consuming the Divine Province and demanded that his guards armor him.

• Huang Qi killed Jia Tiezhen with a lightning strike, terrifying the allied commanders.
• The allied commanders sent their armored soldiers forward, while Huang Qi fired at enemy officers and then withdrew toward the flank.
• Han Qing ordered the Peace Camp troops to dismount and form ranks as the allied army closed in.
• Feng Bao dismissed the Heaven-Answering Army's raid as a doomed attack, while Chen Qing wondered what Zhao Cheng intended to accomplish.
• Wu Qi saw a premonition of crimson flames burning the Divine Province, coughed blood, and ordered his guards to help him put on his armor.

Peace Camp’s gunfire shattered the allied army’s advance, triggering a mutiny that forced Wu Qi’s forces into collapse. The Heaven-Answering Army went on to conquer the Southern Wasteland, and Zhao Cheng established the Heaven-Answering kingdom.

• Han Qing ordered Peace Camp’s two thousand armored soldiers to fire, cutting down the allied troops as they charged.
• Peace Camp continued firing to break the allied army, whose soldiers fled and turned on their supervising officers.
• Mr. Wen told Wu Qi that the army had mutinied, and Wu Qi collapsed after lamenting that Heaven’s mandate favored Zhao.
• The Heaven-Answering Army crushed the two hundred thousand allied troops, while Feng Bao and Chen Qing escaped with a small remnant.
• The Heaven-Answering Army seized half the Southern Wasteland, and Chen Qing later killed himself after forming the Anti-Zhao Alliance with Feng Bao.
• Zhao Cheng ascended the throne in Wu City, renamed it Heaven-Answering City, and founded the Heaven-Answering kingdom.