Chapter Summaries

Fang Yun used his position as Left Prime Minister to draft an open, people-focused reform of the Ministry of Personnel's evaluations and solicit feedback from officials across the kingdom. The Empress Dowager and Sheng Boyuan discussed the proposal's effects on accountability and the sovereign's power.

• Fang Yun returned to the Left Prime Minister's Office and reviewed its business, finding its officials unusually compliant and eager to join the Fang Party.
• Fang Yun began drafting reforms to the Ministry of Personnel's evaluations with the Left Prime Minister's Office, guided by the pursuit of benefits for the people.
• Fang Yun distributed copies of the draft to the Empress Dowager, several offices and ministries, and Grand Secretariat Councillors, inviting their opinions and suggestions.
• The Empress Dowager asked Sheng Boyuan whether Fang Yun's proposed accountability system was a bid to control the Censorate.
• Sheng Boyuan said the reform could be either a path to power or a genuine effort to institutionalize accountability, while both recognized that it would curb the sovereign's ability to demote and reinstate officials at will.

Fang Yun pushed a sweeping series of government reforms through the Jing Kingdom while the Empress Dowager and Sheng Boyuan debated how to resist his growing influence. The chapter left the kingdom’s officials working at frantic speed as Fang Yun continued drafting reforms and the Grand Secretariat prepared to relocate.

• The Empress Dowager rejected Fang Yun’s accountability-system draft in principle, while Sheng Boyuan warned that opposing it directly could provoke a backlash.
• Sheng Boyuan advised the Empress Dowager to yield on the first draft and challenge a later proposal instead.
• Fang Yun circulated further drafts to strengthen the Grand Secretariat, require officials to serve away from their home regions, and regulate their terms and promotions.
• Fang Yun issued new drafts almost daily, keeping officials across the Jing Kingdom busy and earning their admiration for his broad expertise.
• The Left Prime Minister’s Office expanded until nearby residences filled, prompting Fang Yun to submit a quickly approved proposal to relocate the Grand Secretariat.
• Fang Yun worked relentlessly with Dual-Mindedness and divine medicine, while the Empress Dowager and Jing Lord endured the greatest strain from the reforms.

Fang Yun continued his reforms while the Empress Dowager’s grueling workload left her gravely ill and unable to manage the flood of state business. After recovering enough to act, she approved cabinet self-governance, formally shifting many powers to the Grand Secretariat and setting the stage for wider institutional change.

• The Empress Dowager became ill from overwork as she struggled to review Fang Yun’s drafts and handle state affairs, while imperial clansmen pressed her to appoint a prince regent.
• Officials’ growing complaints and rumors that Fang Yun had poisoned the Empress Dowager spread after she collapsed and vomited blood, but a Great Scholar of the Medical School diagnosed excessive strain.
• Three days after regaining clarity, the Empress Dowager approved Right Prime Minister Cao Dean’s proposal for the Grand Secretariat to decide specified state affairs without sovereign approval.
• The Grand Secretariat drafted and received approval for a decree defining cabinet self-governance, removing more than half the documents awaiting the Empress Dowager’s review.
• The Wu Lord followed the Jing Kingdom’s example by beginning to delegate power to the Wu Kingdom’s Grand Secretariat and ministries.

The empress dowager’s concession of self-governance weakened imperial authority as Fang Yun consolidated his influence and began restructuring Jing Kingdom’s government. After establishing the Water and Land Ministry, he secretly convened elders from three halls to discuss the kingdom’s land information.

• The empress dowager vomited blood and fainted after scholars explained the consequences of granting the Grand Secretariat self-governance, and she fainted again when imperial family members blamed her.
• Fang Yun used the Ministry of Personnel and the Censorate to punish officials who had obstructed him, while the Chen Family expelled and exiled an officer who had abused his authority in dealings with the Qing Kingdom.
• Fang Yun announced that offices beneath the Grand Secretariat would be called ministries and that existing offices would be split up to create new ones; Cao Dean and Yang Xuwen publicly supported the reforms.
• The Jing Kingdom established the Water and Land Ministry under acting minister Cai He to survey and record land and other territorial resources.
• After officials in Yan Prefecture obstructed its surveys, the Grand Secretariat swiftly ordered their arrest and trial, and no major power opposed Fang Yun.
• Fang Yun secretly convened a Three Halls Grand Assembly with elders from the Hall of Punishment, the Agriculture Hall, and the Crafts Hall after receiving the ministry’s first land information.

Fang Yun explained to the Three Halls that the Jing Kingdom’s financial and land crises could not be permanently solved, but could be eased through development, expansion, and technological progress. He began outlining how to strengthen the Human Race, leaving the question of how to make ordinary people stronger unanswered.

• Fang Yun reviewed evidence showing that the Jing Kingdom’s finances and land system were in precarious condition, and recalled securing senior officials’ support for reform.
• Fang Yun summoned the Crafts Hall, Law Hall, and Agriculture Hall to a Three Halls Grand Assembly and asked them to assess his findings.
• Fang Yun admitted that he had no permanent solution to financial and land problems, but proposed development, progress, and expansion as temporary relief.
• Fang Yun argued that defeating the Demon Barbarians required a stronger Human Race, new technology, and abundant resources.
• Fang Yun distinguished scholars from ordinary people when discussing how to strengthen the Human Race, then asked how those unable to attain a literary rank could be made stronger.

Fang Yun argued that the Human Race could accelerate technological progress by moving surplus labor from farming into workshops, supported by increased food production and resources. He acknowledged that this policy would sacrifice ordinary people, but insisted that leaders must accept responsibility rather than blame those they burdened.

• Fang Yun explained that technological breakthroughs depended on accumulated knowledge and proposed actively investing manpower and resources to speed that accumulation.
• Fang Yun described how farming and population growth had reinforced technological development throughout Human history, then asked whether workers or farmers could better advance technology.
• Gao Mo asked how the Human Race would obtain surplus grain, and Fang Yun cited high-yield crops cultivated in the Bloodmang Realm and resources from several lands.
• Gao Mo questioned whether relocating people to workshops would cause unrest, and Fang Yun answered with the avalanche problem, admitting that leaders might have to sacrifice people for the Human Race.
• Fang Yun vowed not to profit from those sacrifices or blame ordinary people for leaders' failures, prompting Gao Mo to express shame and the Great Scholars to regard Fang Yun with respect.

Fang Yun laid out a plan to move Jing Kingdom’s farmers into workshops through agricultural reforms, land requisition, and worker protections, then spread industrialization across the Saint Origin Continent. He left the Great Scholars confronting the danger that mass production would saturate markets and cause a crisis for the entire Human Race.

• Fang Yun secured the Crafts Hall’s new agricultural tools and the Agriculture Hall’s Armored Oxen to reduce the number of farmers needed in Jing Kingdom.
• Fang Yun proposed a two-stage land requisition plan, with legal safeguards, compensation, housing, and training for farmers who became workers.
• Fang Yun accepted responsibility for the unrest and hardships the reforms would cause, and said Niu Shan would initially transport goods using a Heaven-and-Earth Shell.
• Fang Yun proposed building a waterway network with the Water Demons and the Sea Race, with its profits helping compensate displaced farmers.
• Fang Yun said Jing Kingdom’s workshops would eventually cooperate with other nations to spread technology and industrialization across the Saint Origin Continent.
• Mo Shangtong warned that mass production could saturate markets, leaving goods unsold and causing a crisis throughout the Human Race.

Fang Yun won the Sacred Academy’s support for his reforms and turned to drafting a detailed plan, while the Hall of Punishment launched a sweeping campaign against crime in Jing Kingdom. The campaign secretly targeted corrupt local lineages, leaving Jing officials under intense scrutiny.

• Fang Yun argued that trade with other races could spread Human Race influence, and accepted the risk of criticism for his reforms.
• After a day-long meeting, the Eastern Sage decreed that the Sacred Academy would bear the reforms’ infamy, and Fang Yun agreed to let the Hall of Punishment handle land acquisition.
• Fang Yun began drafting a detailed proposal while his subordinates consolidated the reforms’ results.
• Gao Mo established the Jing Kingdom Temporary Anti-Thug Office for Severe Criminal Activities and led a crackdown on criminal forces.
• The Hall of Punishment secretly deployed Legalist scholars across Jing Kingdom to gather evidence against local lineages.

Han Si was caught by Han Shouling, a young noble sent to Ya County to help enforce the law, and tried to save himself by appealing to their shared surname. Han Shouling revealed his ties to Fang Yun and explained why he had come to clean up the county, leaving Han Si at his mercy.

• Han Si begged for mercy after Han Shouling exposed his crimes and intimidated him with his killing intent.
• Han Shouling identified himself as Han Si’s relative, then handed him county records detailing his offenses and suspected involvement in major cases.
• Han Shouling told Han Si that he would decide whether the crimes merited execution, regardless of Han Si’s protests or the county magistrate’s judgment.
• Han Shouling explained that his cousin Han Shoulu had advised him to serve Void Sage Fang to advance his career.
• Han Shouling said he had come to Ya County with household members to help the Jing Kingdom enforce the law and put the notorious county in order.

Han Shouling recruited Han Si to help expose the crimes of Ya County’s powerful households, offering him wealth and official status in return. Three days later, the Han Household was publicly punished, and its property was confiscated.

• Han Shouling explained that he intended to investigate Ya County’s powerful clans and demanded that Han Si choose whether to work for him or leave.
• Han Si agreed to gather evidence in exchange for protection, wealth, and a recommendation for Official Provincial Graduate status.
• When Han Si refused to betray the Han Household, Han Shouling threatened to recruit Han Xiaotian instead.
• Han Si pledged himself to Han Shouling and asked him to kill Han Xiaotian and let Erniang marry him.
• Three days later, authorities uncovered evidence of murder against the Han Household; its patriarch and twelve others died, while Han Xiaotian was killed trying to flee.
• The magistrate publicly tried and beheaded three Han Household criminals, sent the remaining criminals to the capital, and confiscated the household’s property.

The Jing Kingdom gradually restructured its courts and expanded its campaign against bandits, while the Hall of Punishment used evidence from the crackdown to bring small and medium-sized lineages to public trial. The chapter leaves the kingdom’s deeper changes largely unnoticed by scholars across the Saint Origin Continent.

• Fang Yun guided gradual judicial reforms that established the Legal Affairs Department and placed the Grand Judicial Department under the Sacred Academy’s direct administration.
• The Jing Kingdom reorganized its Ministry of Justice and Grand Judicial Department, drawing debate over the weakening of imperial and Grand Secretariat authority.
• The Jing Kingdom launched a sweeping campaign to capture bandits, and the Wu Kingdom soon followed with its own crackdown.
• The Hall of Punishment used witness testimony and material evidence from the campaign to prosecute lineages that had colluded with bandits.
• The Jing Kingdom exiled suspected scholars and other implicated people, executed principal offenders publicly, confiscated property, and transferred farmland to the Sacred Academy.

Fang Yun visited the Eastern Sea Dragon Palace, where the dragon throne empowered his Literary Palace Coiled Dragon and revealed itself as an ancient Sea-Calming Stone. He secured the Dragon Race’s cooperation in building a continent-wide waterway network and establishing a Water Hall, then ordered a purge of the Water Race in one river of Qing Kingdom to enforce its authority.

• Fang Yun took the Eastern Sea Dragon Sage’s seat, and its power flowed into his Literary Palace Coiled Dragon, making the assembled dragons prostrate themselves.
• Fang Yun told the Eastern Sea Dragon King to restore the throne to its original form and send the Sea-Calming Stone to Grandpa Dragon Sage.
• Fang Yun learned that Yu Wei was cultivating in the forbidden grounds and Ao Huang had gone to the Sacred Dragon Land.
• Fang Yun proposed a joint Human-Dragon waterway network, including reverse currents in major rivers, and the Eastern Sea Dragon King agreed to provide the Dragon Race’s support.
• Fang Yun agreed to become master of a Water Hall while leaving its operations to grand secretaries, and the Eastern Sea Dragon King promised to enforce its orders.
• Fang Yun ordered the Water Race in one river of Qing Kingdom purged to establish the Water Hall’s authority.

Fang Yun gave the Eastern Sea Dragon Palace rare treasures and ordered the dragons to establish the Water Hall and waterway network. The Eastern Sea Dragon King revealed that Burial Saint Valley might remain closed for tens of thousands of years, making the Dragon Race’s Conquest Gate unusable for now.

• Fang Yun told the Eastern Sea Dragon King to maintain the Qing Kingdom’s sea ban and tasked Ao Qingyue and the other dragons with dealing with the Qing Lord’s birthday celebration.
• Fang Yun ordered the dragons to establish the Water Hall, open river channels, and punish those who refused to honor it.
• Fang Yun gave the Eastern Sea Dragon King a Sea-Swallowing Shell filled with dragonfire grass, startling the king with the immense quantity.
• Fang Yun presented the Eastern, Southern, and Northern Sea Dragon Palaces with lists of treasures available for exchange, and Ao Qingyue recognized how much divine medicine Fang Yun had obtained.
• The Eastern Sea Dragon King explained that the Ancient Emperor’s Gate could command armies and said the Dragon Race had hoped Fang Yun would use it to capture the Dragon Soul Battlefield.
• The Eastern Sea Dragon King told Fang Yun that a powerful fiend might keep Burial Saint Valley closed for tens of thousands of years, rendering the Conquest Gate useless for the foreseeable future.

Fang Yun traded the listed treasures for the Conquest Gate and received a Literary Star Fragment from the Eastern Sea Dragon Sage. After the fragment strengthened his miniature Literary Star, Fang Yun considered where the remaining fragments might be found.

• The Eastern Sea Dragon King explained that the Conquest Gate could transport only dead or undying forces and offered to trade it for items on his sage father's list.
• Ao Qingyue and the other dragons inspected Fang Yun's Sea-Swallowing Shell and were astonished by its enormous supply of Dragonfire Grass.
• Fang Yun transferred the requested treasures into a Heaven-and-Earth Shell, and the Eastern Sea Dragon Palace completed the exchange for the Conquest Gate.
• Turtle Demon Kings delivered a Literary Star Fragment from the Eastern Sea Dragon Sage, and Fang Yun thanked him and absorbed it into his miniature Literary Star.
• Fang Yun reviewed the known locations of the Literary Star Fragments and reflected on how his acquisition at the Governor-General's Office had changed the Sacred Academy's and sages' attitudes toward him.

Fang Yun considered seeking a Literary Star Fragment in Sea-Cliff Ancient Land after learning that the Merfolk there were in danger. He also discussed the threat from the Western Sea Dragon Palace with Ao Qingyue, who revealed that the dragons had found a clue to entering Dragon City.

• Fang Yun decided to visit Sea-Cliff Ancient Land, where a Literary Star Fragment might be within his reach and Lei Tingyu was building influence.
• Ao Qingyue told Fang Yun that the Merfolk had sent a distress Bloodfish, and Fang Yun received its message and promised to go after handling affairs in the Jing Kingdom.
• Fang Yun and Ao Qingyue discussed the Western Sea Dragon Palace's likely retaliation for Fang Yun killing Ao Wushan and the protection offered by the Two-Dragon Seal and the Human Race's Sages.
• Fang Yun explained that he could not control the Crime-Suppressing Hall's Five-Dragon Seal without a higher-tier Blank Dragon-Race Sage Edict.
• Ao Qingyue privately told Fang Yun that the dragons had found a clue to entering Dragon City and might explore it within ten years.

Fang Yun discussed the Dragon Race’s plans for Dragon City with Ao Qingyue and received the Conquest Gate from the Eastern Sea Dragon King. He proposed that Jing Kingdom manufacture goods for the Water Race, then departed to prepare a Water Hall proposal for their meeting in three days.

• Ao Qingyue explained that the Dragon Race hoped to reach Dragon City through the Myriad-Pearl and seize its Jade Seal to reactivate the city.
• Fang Yun and Ao Qingyue discussed Dragon City’s dangers, the ancient souls there, and why the dragons had abandoned using the Conquest Gate to capture its Dragon Soul Battlefield.
• The Eastern Sea Dragon King gave Fang Yun the Conquest Gate, which Fang Yun recognized as sharing an origin with his Black Dragon Gate.
• Fang Yun proposed that Jing Kingdom workshops in Yunhai City manufacture goods for the Dragon and Water Races, and the Eastern Sea Dragon King agreed to consider purchasing them.
• Fang Yun said he would present a detailed Water Hall proposal at the Sacred Academy in three days before leaving the Water Hall and worldwide water network in the dragons’ hands.

Fang Yun oversaw the launch of the Water Hall as the Hall of Punishment began its crackdown on private punishments and prisons, provoking a fierce clash with the Ritual Hall. A People's Gazette article rallied public support for the crackdown, while its pen name, Bell Chime, sparked speculation.

• Fang Yun returned to the capital and continued handling state affairs as the Hall of Punishment completed its sweep of Jing Kingdom's bandit camps and began targeting private punishments and prisons.
• Fang Yun defended the crackdown as necessary to strengthen grassroots governance, while clan leaders and scholars argued against it on the Discourse Ranking.
• Fang Yun became master of the newly established Water Hall, which the Ten Kingdoms, Kong City, and the Four Seas Dragon Clan founded to manage the world's water network.
• The Ritual Hall's pavilion elders confronted the Hall of Punishment, and the two sides debated until the Eastern Sage Pavilion intervened; the Hall of Punishment decided to stall.
• The People's Gazette published an article condemning private punishments and prisons under the pen name Bell Chime, prompting public support and renewed debate over clan law and national law.

Fang Yun’s allies continued Jing Kingdom’s campaign against private punishments and prisons despite criticism and obstruction. Meanwhile, Qing Kingdom transferred control of its waterways to the Water Hall and held a grand birthday celebration for Qing Lord, which was interrupted by a dragon’s roar.

• The Hall of Punishment investigated deaths caused by private punishments, arrested suspects, and punished people who spread fabricated rumors.
• As evidence of brutal abuses emerged, many scholars stopped opposing the Anti-Thug Campaign, which continued despite resistance from Jing Kingdom officials.
• The Dragon Race expanded its waterways network in Qing Kingdom, transferring jurisdiction over the waterways to the Water Hall and forcing obstructing officials to back down.
• Qing Kingdom celebrated Qing Lord’s recovery and birthday with a Banquet of Ten Thousand Elders and a Ten-Thousand Longevity Painting.
• Qing Lord arrived at the Golden Throne Hall to address the birthday gathering, but a dragon roared from the north of the capital.

The Dragon Race disrupted the Qing Lord’s birthday banquet, leaving him humiliated after he swallowed a fish demon’s toe, while scholars mocked him across the Discourse Ranking. Fang Yun weighed possible reforms and decided to begin with commercial taxes by establishing a General Taxation Office.

• The Qing Lord ordered officials to stop the Dragon Race after lightning and a shower of dead Water Demons ruined his birthday banquet.
• The Qing Lord vomited after swallowing a fish demon’s toe, and the Discourse Ranking spread jokes and insults about him.
• Scholars learned that the Dragon Race was helping transform the waterways under the Sacred Academy and that Fang Yun had invited them.
• A restaurant article named braised pig trotters the Qing Lord’s Dinner, renewing the scholars’ mockery.
• Fang Yun erased plans for Village Schools, land tax, and corvée labor, then chose commercial taxes as the starting point for reform and planned a General Taxation Office.

Fang Yun used a Summer Literary Assembly to prepare Jing Kingdom’s powerful lineages and scholars for commercial tax reform by presenting the national treasury’s financial crisis. He left the gathering weighing tax exemptions for lower-income people while hinting that the wealthy might bear more of the burden.

• Fang Yun established the General Taxation Office and invited Jing Kingdom’s major lineages, wealthy households, and powers to a Summer Literary Assembly presided over by Chen Mingding.
• Fang Yun lamented the difficulties of being Left Prime Minister and won declarations of support from young scholars.
• Fang Yun announced that the national treasury’s income could not cover its expenses and rejected raising land taxes on farmers.
• Fang Yun falsely attributed a proposal to impose extra taxes on Jing Kingdom’s richest people to Xu Changgeng, leaving Xu bewildered and Dong Yueqian already blamed for a land-tax proposal.
• Fang Yun said he was considering reducing or exempting taxes for people with lower incomes.