Chapter Summaries

After the Jing Kingdom defeated the Barbarian Race, Fang Yun prepared to advance on Shuofang City and arranged the aftermath while planning to deal with Liu Shan after returning to the capital. He promoted Zhao Hongzhuang to Official Metropolitan Graduate and army administrative officer, then announced she would serve in his Personal Guard Army.

• Fang Yun ordered the Human Race to pursue the retreating enemy and prepare a hundred thousand cavalry to advance on Shuofang City the next day.
• Fang Yun discussed the aftermath with the officials, learned the Empress Dowager would depart for the capital, and told Zhang Poyue he would force Liu Shan to retire or kill him.
• Zhang Poyue warned Fang Yun to guard against both the Demon Barbarians and the Human Race when he entered the Burial Saint Valley, and Fang Yun agreed to stay alert.
• Fang Yun praised Zhao Hongzhuang's service and promoted her to Official Metropolitan Graduate and Principal Seventh Rank army administrative officer.
• Fang Yun told Zhao Hongzhuang that she would join his Personal Guard Army once the court's written decree arrived.

Fang Yun defended his appointment of Zhao Hongzhuang as chief administrator of the Garrison Army to a group of Great Scholars who argued that women serving as officials violated ritual and law. He left them with a warning that denying innocent people their rights crossed the human race’s moral boundary and threatened its survival.

• After Zhao Hongzhuang left, Fang Yun continued handling official business as Great Scholars gathered to confront him.
• Tian Songshi told Fang Yun that appointing Zhao Hongzhuang as an Official Metropolitan Graduate and promoting her to chief administrator of the Garrison Army violated ritual and law.
• Fang Yun argued that outdated rules should be renewed and explained that Zhao Hongzhuang deserved her post because of her merit, talent, and ability.
• Tian Songshi questioned whether Fang Yun was paving the way for women to take the Imperial Examination, and Fang Yun denied directing his efforts toward that outcome.
• Fang Yun told the Great Scholars that moral codes must protect the innocent, warning that people or nations that advocate indiscriminate harm threaten the human race itself.

Fang Yun defended allowing women to study and take the Imperial Examination, arguing that equality would strengthen the Human Race against the Demon Barbarians. He left the Great Scholars reflecting on the women who were risking their lives to secure future generations’ opportunities.

• Fang Yun argued that the Human Race had to destroy the Demon Barbarians to protect itself and that women deserved equal standing with men.
• Fang Yun used Liu Shan’s many concubines to argue that investing in women’s education would bring greater benefit to the Human Race than spending the same resources on less capable men.
• Fang Yun rejected objections about ritual codes and limited literary qi, stressing that women fought and died alongside men against the Demon Barbarians.
• Fang Yun condemned the Great Scholars for calling his support favoritism and said women were sacrificing themselves to win future generations the chance to take the Imperial Examination.
• Jiang Hechuan, Zhou Junhu, and Tian Songshi acknowledged Fang Yun’s argument, and the Great Scholars left the hall in silence.

As Fang Yun led his army north, Zhao Hongzhuang’s appointment as an Official Metropolitan Graduate sparked a fierce debate over whether women could take the Imperial Examination. The Sacred Academy’s halls, Sage Aristocratic Clans, and several kingdoms united against the appointment, while Jing Kingdom’s officials chose to support Fang Yun; unaware of the controversy, Fang Yun’s army reached Shuofang City.

• As Fang Yun marched north, discussion shifted from his poems to Zhao Hongzhuang’s appointment and whether women could become scholars.
• Jiang Hechuan and other supporters defended Zhao Hongzhuang, while conservative scholars and members of the Zong and Lei Families attacked her and Fang Yun.
• The Ritual Hall, Eastern Sage Pavilion, and Hall of Punishment announced their opposition to women taking the Imperial Examination, followed by more than fifty Sage Aristocratic Clan heads and the rulers and officials of Qing Kingdom and Gu Kingdom.
• By evening, opposition had silenced dissent on the Discourse Ranking, and Jing Kingdom’s officials and the Empress Dowager agreed to support Fang Yun and Zhao Hongzhuang despite their concerns.
• Liu Shan and his faction submitted memorials impeaching Fang Yun as the army continued north, unaware of the controversy.
• After several days of travel, Fang Yun and his army arrived before Shuofang City.

Fang Yun oversaw the construction of a new Shuofang City and left Zhao Hongzhuang there as assistant magistrate while political attacks against them intensified. After reaching the capital, Fang Yun learned that Liu Shan’s mother had died, forcing Liu Shan to take twenty-seven months of bereavement leave.

• Fang Yun’s army found Shuofang City destroyed, so it built a new fortress and city at a pass in Yin Mountain with help from the Craftsmen School and the Nu Zhi Tribe.
• After Shuofang’s main structures were completed, Ao Huang stayed behind to lead the Water Race in building the Ningshuo Grand Canal, while Fang Yun headed south with the scholars.
• Fang Yun left Zhao Hongzhuang in Shuofang as the county’s assistant magistrate, and the appointment sparked fierce debate over her future influence.
• Fang Yun’s party reached the capital and learned that Liu Shan’s mother had died, requiring Liu Shan to leave for twenty-seven months of mourning.

After Liu Shan’s mother died, the Left Prime Minister Faction claimed he would wear mourning robes while serving the country, but Fang Yun turned the proposal into a demand that Liu leave the capital for the Northern Frontier. At court, Fang Yun confronted Liu Shan directly about when he would return home to observe mourning, leaving Liu with regret over how far Fang Yun had risen.

• The Left Prime Minister Faction announced that Liu Shan would don black mourning robes and continue serving the country because the Barbarian threat remained.
• While flying toward the capital, Fang Yun said Liu Shan should serve in mourning at the Northern Frontier, which would remove him from the capital and weaken his faction.
• The imperial family summoned Fang Yun and the officials to the Golden Throne Hall, where the young Jing Lord and the empress dowager received him.
• Fang Yun entered the court with overwhelming authority, took his seat, and asked Liu Shan when he intended to return home to observe mourning.
• Liu Shan remembered Fang Yun’s humble beginnings and regretted having underestimated his rise.

In the Golden Throne Hall, Fang Yun confronted Liu Shan for refusing to leave office and observe mourning, exposing his factional scheming and demanding that he serve the Jing Kingdom elsewhere. Liu Shan refused, and Fang Yun began writing poems for him, leaving the court fearing the consequences.

• Liu Shan explained that he would remain in office because the Jing Kingdom faced threats from Lang Lu, the Grass Barbarians, and the coming battle at Two Worlds Mountain.
• Fang Yun challenged Liu Shan to serve at the Northern Frontier or Two Worlds Mountain, then mocked his lack of accomplishments and recalled how Liu Shan had once massaged his legs and removed his shoes.
• Fang Yun denounced Liu Shan as a corrupt, self-serving official, and the court officials cheered him.
• Fang Yun asked Liu Shan one final time to return home for mourning, but Liu Shan refused to give up the position of Left Prime Minister.
• Fang Yun threatened to compose poems for Liu Shan, and despite officials' warnings, Liu Shan accepted the challenge.
• Fang Yun took out the Four Treasures of the Study and began to write.

Fang Yun defied the officials’ warnings and challenged Liu Shan through a poem condemning his failure to attend his mother’s funeral. The poem reached Prefecture-Reaching level, and a vast storm gathered above the palace as a powerful force of the Sacred Way emerged.

• Civil and military officials united in support of Fang Yun, making Liu Shan and the Left Prime Minister Faction fear the consequences of opposing him.
• Fang Yun wrote “First Gift to Liu Shan: The Crow Cries,” comparing Liu Shan unfavorably to a filial crow and praising the bird as Zeng Shen among birds.
• Scholars recognized that Fang Yun was using a literary contest rather than War Poetry, invoking the challenge known as “Duke Zhu Slays His Son.”
• The poem manifested two feet and three inches of literary qi, reaching Prefecture-Reaching level, while Liu Shan watched tensely for an unusual phenomenon.
• Dense clouds gathered over the palace, and the Great Scholars sensed a rare, powerful presence of the Sacred Way.

Fang Yun forced Liu Shan to accept a literary contest by summoning Zengzi’s power, then followed his first poem with a poem about an abandoned mother. His explanation of filial piety resonated as the voice of the Sacred Way, leaving Liu Shan and his faction shaken.

• Fang Yun’s poem invoked Zengzi’s power, discouraging Saint Zong from intervening, and Liu Shan accepted the poem despite its immense weight.
• Fang Yun wrote a second poem, “Parting from Mother,” whose final line, “having a son was worse than having none,” deeply moved the court.
• Jiang Hechuan praised the poem, and Fang Yun explained that filial piety should be judged by the heart as well as by deeds.
• The Left Prime Minister Faction thought Fang Yun’s explanation could excuse Liu Shan, but Liu Shan grew furious at the apparent contradiction.
• The Sacred Way echoed Fang Yun’s words, revealing their weight as a principle of filial piety and turning the Left Prime Minister Faction ashen.

Fang Yun strengthened his attack on Liu Shan by sending him a second filial poem, while the Sacred Way’s power gathered over the capital and spread across the kingdoms. As Liu Shan struggled to stand beneath the poems, a distant mother turned on her abusive husband and son after a thunderbolt struck her.

• The Voice of the Sacred Way amplified the force of Fang Yun’s poems, drawing on the Classic of Filial Piety and Zengzi’s power as a vast presence gathered above the capital.
• Fang Yun sent Liu Shan the second poem, and Liu Shan accepted it atop the first, forcing his arms down and bending his legs while he kept his head high.
• Fang Yun asked whether Liu Shan dared accept a third poem as dark clouds spread across Jing Kingdom, Qing Kingdom, Qi Kingdom, and Wu Kingdom.
• In Chang County, an eight-year-old boy beat his mother for refusing to buy him an expensive inkstone, and his father joined in when she struck the boy by accident.
• A thunderbolt struck the mother, who seized a club and beat her husband and son, killing her husband.

After Heaven punished an abusive mother and spared her from guilt, the same judgment struck down Qiao Liu and his wife for refusing to support his parents and mistreating his sisters. The sisters were left safe, while Qiao Liu’s property was divided among his daughters, parents, and sisters.

• After a woman killed her husband and tried to take her own life, the magistrate saw the glowing words “not guilty” on her hand and ordered her held for judgment.
• Neighborhood Head Zhang confronted Qiao Liu and his parents over neglecting the elderly Qiaos and exploiting Qiao Liu’s four sisters.
• Qiao Liu refused to support his parents, and Mother Qiao attacked her youngest daughter before staging a false accusation of murder.
• Two bolts of lightning struck Qiao Liu and his wife, killing them, while the four Qiao sisters remained unharmed.
• Neighborhood Head Zhang proposed dividing Qiao Liu’s property among his three daughters, his parents, and his four sisters, and no one objected.

Liu Laoshi defied Liu Shi and brought his ailing mother home, provoking a violent confrontation. As Liu Shi demanded he choose between her and his mother, a splash sounded in the courtyard.

• Liu Shi accused Liu Laoshi of secretly visiting his mother and spending their money on her medicine.
• Liu Laoshi confronted Liu Shi over her control of his wages and declared he would bring his mother home.
• Liu Laoshi carried his mother into the courtyard, where Liu Shi tried to attack her and he kicked Liu Shi away.
• Liu Shi scratched Liu Laoshi and demanded he send his mother back or choose between his wife and child and his mother.
• Liu Laoshi examined his scratched face in a bronze mirror and ignored Liu Shi as a splash sounded in the courtyard.

Liu Laoshi and his mother died in the well, leaving Liu Shi trapped beneath its sealed cover. In the imperial palace, Fang Yun’s poem honoring a mother summoned the Filial Piety Ancestor Stele, while Liu Shan appeared newly confident that Saint Zong could protect him from its limited punishment.

• Liu Laoshi jumped into the well to hold his dead mother, and Liu Shi fell in after him.
• Liu Shi begged Liu Laoshi not to die and promised to change, but he sank beneath the water with his mother; a wind sealed the well cover over Liu Shi.
• Fang Yun wrote “A Wanderer's Chant: Three Gifts to Liu Shan,” and the poem achieved Nation-Quelling literary power, moving people throughout Jing Kingdom to tears.
• The young Jing Lord rushed to the empress dowager, crying after hearing Fang Yun’s poem.
• The Filial Piety Ancestor Stele manifested above the imperial palace, and those present recognized its supreme Sacred Way power.
• Liu Shan’s anxiety vanished as he relied on Saint Zong’s ability to protect him, lifting the spirits of his faction while the court’s scholars grew worried.

As the Filial Piety Ancestor Stele killed officials tied to a plot against ancestral worship, Fang Yun prepared to throw his poem at Liu Shan. The Kong Family’s head unexpectedly invited Fang Yun to drink wine on the Double Ninth Festival, halting the confrontation and leaving the court stunned.

• The Wu Lord discovered that a rebel species agent had persuaded North Yue County’s magistrate to ban paper offerings, threatening the human race’s ancestral traditions, and reported the plot to the Sacred Academy.
• More than a hundred officials died beneath the Ancestor Stele’s light, while Jing Kingdom’s court watched Fang Yun and Liu Shan.
• Fang Yun prepared to flick his hundred-jin poem page toward Liu Shan, but sacred light suddenly rose from the Confucius Temple in Kong City.
• The head of the Kong Family invited Fang Yun to share wine on the Double Ninth Festival, and Fang Yun accepted.

The head of the Kong Family invited Fang Yun and intervened against Saint Zong as Fang Yun prepared to defeat Liu Shan in court. Liu Shan conceded and left to mourn his mother, ending his twelve-year dominance over the Jing court, while Fang Yun stood as its central figure.

• The head of the Kong Family invited Fang Yun, and the Sacred Qi of the Confucius Temple made clear that he was obstructing Saint Zong.
• Fang Yun challenged Liu Shan with a third poem page, but Liu Shan withdrew his resistance and requested three years of mourning leave from the Jing Lord.
• The Jing Lord granted Liu Shan’s request, and Fang Yun recalled the two poem pages as the Ancestor Stele’s radiance faded.
• Liu Shan surrendered his official seal and court tablet, then walked out of the Golden Throne Hall as cracks formed in his literary guts and his power damaged the hall and injured guards.
• The court watched Liu Shan disappear into the palace, then turned to Fang Yun, who stood at the center of a Jing Kingdom left without a ruler or prime minister.

The Fire Race prepared to accompany its Fire Lord into Burial Saint Valley, while the Tree Venerable bestowed Ancient Leaves on the Ancient Demons and singled out Fang Yun for special recognition. The chapter left the Ancient Demons weighing the significance of the absent human’s place among them.

• A Fire Race Emperor ordered the Great Demon Kings to clear a path for the Fire Lord in Burial Saint Valley and warned them to follow his magma road and offer hellfire blood.
• The Fire Race Great Demon Kings pledged to burn their enemies and bring the Myriad Worlds to a boil.
• The Tree Venerable bestowed Ancient Leaves on thirty-four Ancient Demon Great Demon Kings, giving two leaves to the Golden Giant.
• The Tree Venerable explained that one of the Golden Giant’s leaves was for Fang Yun, the youngest Mountain Bearer.
• The Ancient Demons recognized the unusual significance of the Tree Venerable’s gesture, while some remained suspicious of Fang Yun despite his Ancient Demon Inheritance.

As the Myriad Worlds prepared for Burial Saint Valley, the Demon Emperor offered a path to Saint Enfeoffment to anyone who killed Fang Yun. In Jing Kingdom, Fang Yun ordered Liu Shan’s faction purged and sent officials to investigate and punish its members.

• The Tree Venerable sided with Fang Yun, and the golden giant accepted that he would not oppose him in Burial Saint Valley.
• The Demon Realm assembled its kings and emperors, and the Poison Flood Dragon Emperor ordered the Fang-Slaying Guard to stop Fang Yun from reaching Sacred Wall Gorge and the Blood Tomb Mausoleum.
• The Demon Emperor promised a path to Saint Enfeoffment to anyone, regardless of race, who killed Fang Yun, stirring the assembled demon barbarians to make him their target.
• Fang Yun ordered members of Liu Shan’s faction to confess their offenses and choose between military service and harsher punishment.
• Fang Yun commanded the legal offices and Ministry of War to investigate the Liu Party thoroughly and punish its members without leniency.

Fang Yun resigned from all his official posts in the Jing Kingdom, prompting the imperial house and officials to plead with him to stay. He agreed to remain ready to defend the kingdom and was urged to take the post of grand marshal.

• Fang Yun announced in the Golden Throne Hall that he was relinquishing all his official posts in the Jing Kingdom.
• The empress dowager and the young Jing Lord begged Fang Yun not to leave, while officials weighed the risks of his growing power and the kingdom’s need for him.
• Fang Yun started toward the exit, but the Jing Lord grabbed his sleeve and officials urged him to stay, warning that Liu Shan might return after his mourning period.
• Fang Yun said he would still defend the Jing Kingdom against the Barbarian Race despite holding no office.
• Chen Zhixu offered to give up the grand marshal position so Fang Yun could take it, and Cao Dean and other officials supported the proposal.

Fang Yun resigned from office and announced that he would focus on breaking through to Great Scholar and Half-Sage before entering the dangerous Burial Saint Valley. After leaving the court, he flew to Xiang Prefecture to see Yang Yuhuan and hand over his duties, where a warning about Yi Zhishi awaited him.

• The Jing Lord and the officials begged Fang Yun to become grand marshal and reconsider his plans, but Fang Yun refused and left the Golden Throne Hall.
• Fang Yun recited a farewell poem as he departed, and the officials discussed its meanings while seeing him off through poetic appreciation.
• Fang Yun flew toward Xiang Prefecture to visit Yang Yuhuan and transfer the prefecture's affairs.
• Jiang Hechuan sent Fang Yun a letter warning him to beware of Yi Zhishi in Burial Saint Valley, who was said to have been involved in Wen Ying's failure to become one of the Four Great Talents.

Fang Yun recalled conflicting accounts of Yi Zhishi’s role in Li Wenying’s exclusion from the Four Great Talents and remained wary of him. Back in Xiang Prefecture, Fang Yun gathered its officials and began sorting out who would remain loyal to his cause.

• Fang Yun used Memory Reversion to recall reports that the Wu and Qing Kingdoms had helped exclude Li Wenying from the Four Great Talents, and he suspected Yi Zhishi had known and stayed out of it.
• Fang Yun returned to the Governor-General’s Office, reunited with Yang Yuhuan and his family, and arranged a gathering of Xiang Prefecture’s officials and scholars.
• Fang Yun went to the Xiang Prefectural Academy, told the officials he would address Xiang Prefecture’s future, and asked those whose names he called to leave.
• The officials Fang Yun dismissed left without resistance, while those who remained recognized his ability to judge their intentions.