Chapter Summaries

At the Legalist Sacred Way Literary Assembly, Fang Yun explained the Three Insufficiencies and argued that laws should be controlled by scholars rather than rulers. His radical proposal stunned the audience and left Han Shoulu anticipating trouble for the Miscellaneous School as well.

• Fang Yun clarified that the Three Insufficiencies meant people should pursue what they believed would benefit the Human Race without being deterred by heaven, ancestral precedent, or criticism.
• Fang Yun said the Sages had granted people the right to criticize them and that their Sacred Ways could be surpassed by later generations.
• Fang Yun contrasted Legalist teachings about rulers making laws with the view that justice and fair laws preserved order.
• Fang Yun argued that most rulers lacked the experience and wisdom to govern, while scholars understood the state and should control its laws.
• Han Shoulu complained about Fang Yun's bold speech, and Li Fanming predicted the Miscellaneous School would fare even worse than the Legalist School.

Fang Yun argued that laws were imperfect and that people judged them by public morality, then warned that those with influence over lawmaking used it to protect their own interests. He left the assembly facing the question of how different groups’ moral standards shaped the laws of the Human Race.

• Yan Yukong said the other schools envied the Legalist School, and the assembly agreed.
• Fang Yun explained that no laws or lawmakers were perfectly impartial, and that people judged laws as just or unjust by how closely they matched public morality.
• Fang Yun said scholars, especially Legalist scholars, should have greater influence over laws, while the Human Race should make them jointly.
• Fang Yun pointed out that the scholars had accepted his argument because they valued the power and privileges they already held.
• Fang Yun argued that lawmakers used laws to protect themselves, citing how punishments for officials’ embezzlement had grown lighter as scholars gained influence.
• Fang Yun said that different groups across the Myriad Worlds had different public moral standards.

Fang Yun explained how inherited instincts and a race’s moral standards shaped its laws, distinguishing benevolent races from bandit races. He used the Vikings and the Exiles as examples of peoples who established laws to maintain stability after gaining wealth through violence.

• Fang Yun argued that races with high moral standards tended to favor conciliation, protect victims, and punish criminals severely, while bandit races were more aggressive.
• Fang Yun described a study suggesting that humans’ widespread fear of snakes might be an inherited instinct, and connected inherited instincts to humans’ preference for punishing criminals and protecting victims.
• Fang Yun said benevolent races formulated just laws and introduced the Vikings as a bandit race whose ancestors lived by plunder.
• Fang Yun explained that the Vikings established laws against banditry after gaining wealth and power, to preserve stability within their race.
• Fang Yun described the Exiles as descendants of criminals banished to the Austral Continent who seized it by slaughtering its indigenous inhabitants, then established laws to maintain stability.

Fang Yun explained how the Bandit Race protected itself from guilt through doctrines of original sin, divine forgiveness, individual freedom, control over moral interpretation, and invented links to ancient civilizations. He argued that its laws favored perpetrators over victims, calling them bandit law.

• Fang Yun asked how the laws of the Bandit Race differed from those of a kindhearted people and explained that they believed themselves prone to crime.
• Fang Yun described how the Bandit Race blamed humanity as a whole for original sin, while clarifying that Saint Xun's theory of innate evil meant self-interest could lead people to harm others.
• Fang Yun said the Bandit Race sought divine forgiveness, used individual freedom to excuse wrongdoing, claimed authority over universal moral ideas, and asserted links to ancient civilizations.
• Fang Yun argued that the Bandit Race made laws that sympathized with perpetrators, reduced their punishments, and shifted responsibility away from them.
• Fang Yun called those laws bandit law, and the scholars felt they had gained a new understanding.

Fang Yun argued that laws should protect victims and potential victims, condemning laws that shield perpetrators as bandit laws. He challenged arguments against the death penalty and accused some Legalist School members of seeking to monopolize law, then began explaining how bandit laws could arise within a good race.

• Fang Yun defined justice laws as those that protect victims and citizens at risk, and bandit laws as those that protect perpetrators.
• Fang Yun used fraud and its deadly consequences to argue that severe criminals could deserve the death penalty and that its threat could protect citizens.
• Fang Yun answered arguments against capital punishment by discussing deterrence, the value of victims’ lives and relationships, and the risk of wrongful convictions.
• Fang Yun accused some Legalist School members of seeking to abolish the death penalty and replace shared moral standards with laws they alone could control.
• Fang Yun said bandit laws could arise among a good race and began contrasting powerful potential criminals with farmers who lacked the means to do evil.

At the Sacred Way Literary Assembly, Fang Yun argued that laws should protect a race’s interests without abandoning morality, then proposed natural law founded on “principle.” His declaration stirred reactions across the continent, while the nature of natural law remained open to further exploration.

• Fang Yun explained how powerful groups could shape laws to protect their own interests, and urged kindhearted races to protect themselves without copying the Bandit Race’s brutality.
• Fang Yun rejected laws dictated solely by sovereigns or human morality and argued that human laws should continually approach a preexisting natural law.
• Fang Yun said natural law could not be equated with the Heavenly Way, easing some Confucians’ fears while giving Legalists hope of escaping their dependence on imperial power.
• Fang Yun named “principle” as the foundation and beginning of all laws, and thunder seemed to sound across the sky.
• An old man at the Chen Family’s Plum Garden praised the younger generation and returned inside to rest, while a wolf in the Wolf Barbarians’ lands feared Fang Yun’s declaration and threatened the Human Race.

Fang Yun declared Principle the beginning of all laws, prompting scholars to debate its significance and whether he intended to build a path to sainthood upon it. He then shifted the discussion to Perfect Law, describing justice, morality, and verification as traits that could help Legalists refine their laws.

• Fang Yun named Principle the beginning of all laws, and the Sacred Way Literary Assembly erupted into debate.
• Li Fanming, Zhang Zhixing, Yan Yukong, and others discussed Principle’s scope, its risks, and its relationship to the Legalist School and Perfect Law.
• Kong Detian realized that Fang Yun might be using Principle as the foundation for his Great Scholar’s path to sainthood.
• After the crowd quieted, Fang Yun called Principle a possibility for the Legalist School and said Perfect Law was the key point he wanted to address.
• Fang Yun argued that Perfect Law should be just and correct, retain moral standards, and use Legalist methods of verification to avoid the harms of one-sided laws.

Fang Yun introduced perfect law at the Legalist School's Sacred Way Literary Assembly, leaving the other Great Scholars to expand on his ideas. The gathering continued through the night, while Jing Kingdom's novel self-service meals impressed scholars and prompted orders for new vegetable and fruit seeds.

• Fang Yun argued that perfect law should correct destructive laws, reject misguided goodness, and actively prevent and eliminate evil.
• Gao Mo joked that Fang Yun had turned the Legalist School's assembly into his own, then made perfect law its first main topic and gave the scholars an hour to prepare.
• The Legalist School's Great Scholars presented detailed views on perfect law and considered questions submitted by the audience through the night.
• At seven the next morning, Jing Kingdom officials directed attendees to dining halls serving more than thirty dishes and unfamiliar vegetables and fruits in a self-service format.
• Scholars praised the convenient meals, and Agricultural School scholars and officials from various nations arranged orders for vegetable and fruit seeds.

The Legalist School concluded its ten-day Sacred Way Literary Assembly after debating reforms to law, and Gao Mo announced that its academies would honor Fang Yun as their Master. The Legalists pledged to treat anyone who made an enemy of Fang Yun as their own enemy.

• The Legalist School spent ten days debating natural law, constitutional law, and other laws, with Fang Yun guiding reforms.
• As the assembly concluded, Gao Mo announced that every Legalist Academy would honor Fang Yun as the Master of the Legalist School.
• The scholars accepted the announcement without objection, recognizing Fang Yun's contributions to Legalist reform.
• Gao Mo recounted how Legalist scholars had doubted Fang Yun's reforms and told of a disciple whose Literary Guts cracked after rejecting them.
• Gao Mo declared that whoever made an enemy of Fang Yun would be regarded as an enemy of the Legalist School, and the Legalist scholars rose in support.

At the end of the Sacred Way Literary Assembly, the Legalists’ success brought advances in rank and the Sacred Way Law Crown, which Fang Yun wore. A second Sacred Way Orange Spring then confirmed that his Perfect Law was part of the Heavenly Way, while Liu Shan continued waiting outside the capital.

• Gao Mo declared the Sacred Way Literary Assembly concluded, and the Legalists’ Literary Qi formed the Sacred Way Orange Spring.
• The Imperial Examination Record bestowed Literary Qi on tens of thousands of Legalist scholars, advancing their Literary Ranks.
• The Sacred Way Orange Spring drew down Xiezhi, which transformed into the Sacred Way Law Crown.
• Gao Mo asked Fang Yun to wear the crown, and the Law Beast returned to it after appearing above Fang Yun.
• The Legalists’ Literary Qi formed a second Sacred Way Orange Spring, and Yan Yukong said it showed Perfect Law was part of the Heavenly Way.
• At Old Peach Residence, one of the two identical figures said the outcome was not decided, while Liu Shan told the Miscellaneous School scholars to keep waiting outside the capital.

During the second Sacred Way Orange Spring reflux, Fang Yun entered the Legalist Sacred Way Torrent and summoned the Sacred Way Codex. Its arrival caused Sacred Way power from across the Myriad Worlds to pour into the Legalist Sacred Way, and Gao Mo declared that Fang Yun had effectively sealed the Myriad Worlds with it.

• The second Orange Spring reflux advanced large numbers of Legalist School scholars and strengthened the Legalist School’s influence.
• Fang Yun transcended his ordinary self within the Legalist Sacred Way Torrent as sages across the realms witnessed his giant form.
• The Sacred Way Orange Spring drew a colossal black book toward Saint Origin Star, and Fang Yun seized the Sacred Way Codex.
• The Codex blazed with light, and sages across the Myriad Worlds discovered that parts of their races’ Sacred Ways were flowing into the Legalist Sacred Way.
• Gao Mo praised Fang Yun, saying he had used the Legalist Sacred Way to seal the Myriad Worlds.

Fang Yun’s second Sacred Way Orange Spring successfully summoned the Legalist Sacred Way Codex, thrilling the Human Race and transforming the Legalists’ standing. The Qing Lord responded by ordering a full-scale attack on Xiang Prefecture to stop Fang Yun’s rise.

• Fang Yun revealed the Sacred Way Codex after the Sacred Way torrent vanished, and Gao Mo announced that the second Orange Spring had summoned the Legalist supreme treasure.
• Scholars across the venue celebrated Fang Yun as the Legalists gained a treasure that could greatly amplify their Sacred Way power.
• The Qing Lord raged over the Codex’s arrival and feared the Legalists would protect Fang Yun and hinder Qing Kingdom’s plans against Jing Kingdom.
• Qing Kingdom ministers urged the Qing Lord to continue preparations to invade Xiang Prefecture, and he ordered the Divine Martial Army and Dragon-Tiger Army to attack with scholars recruited throughout the kingdom.

Fang Yun’s Sacred Way Literary Assembly ended with the Legalist treasures punishing scholars who had plotted against him, while the Legalist Great Scholars tried and failed to recruit him. Fang Yun agreed that the treasures would belong jointly to him and the Legalist School, then planned to visit the Sacred Academy and train at the Heavenly Prison.

• More than five hundred Legalist scholars’ Literary Guts cracked or shattered, and the broken Legalist Guts attacked over a thousand attendees who had plotted against Fang Yun.
• Gao Mo explained that the Legalist Literary Guts had united against the assembly’s enemies, and the scholars dispersed as Jing Kingdom’s military cleared the grounds.
• Gao Mo and Han Yulong offered Fang Yun a path to join the Legalist School and promised support for his rise, but Fang Yun refused because he had little time and would pursue his own path.
• Gao Mo said the Sacred Way treasures belonged jointly to Fang Yun and the Legalist School, and Fang Yun agreed they should remain with the Hall of Punishment.
• Fang Yun said he would return to the Bloodmang Realm, stay in the capital briefly, then take the treasures to the Sacred Academy and train in Legalist powers at the Heavenly Prison.

Fang Yun tried and failed to control the Dragon Race’s Five-Dragon Crime-Suppressing Jade Seal, then used the Sacred Way Law Crown, Sacred Way Codex, and three Legalist Sages’ sacred images to absorb the Main Crime-Suppression Hall into his Crime-Suppressing Literary Platform. He returned to the capital with the newly strengthened platform, planning to see off the Hall of Punishment elders.

• Fang Yun submitted a detailed Legalist reform plan to the Hall of Punishment after the elders agreed to reform Jing Kingdom’s Legalist offices during their three-day stay.
• Fang Yun entered the Bloodmang Realm and failed to control the Five-Dragon Crime-Suppressing Jade Seal, learning from Ao Qingyue that only a sufficiently high-ranking Dragon Court Sage Edict could help him.
• Fang Yun used the Sacred Way Law Crown, Sacred Way Codex, and sacred images of Li Kui, Han Feizi, and Shang Yang to pull the Main Crime-Suppression Hall toward his Crime-Suppressing Literary Platform.
• After two days of struggle, Fang Yun absorbed the Main Crime-Suppression Hall and nine Sin Turtle Prison Chariots, leaving the Crime-Suppressing Jade Seal behind.
• Fang Yun returned to the capital with the strongest Crime-Suppressing Literary Platform in Legalist history and prepared to see off the Hall of Punishment elders.

After the Legalist School departed, Fang Yun continued governing Jing Kingdom as the Miscellaneous School prepared to challenge it. Meanwhile, Qing Kingdom’s army surrounded Ding County, where County Magistrate Yang Chutao rejected Xi Shi’s demand to surrender.

• Fang Yun returned to the Left Prime Minister's Office, gave Zhao Yuan a day off, and worked through the night while Jing Kingdom’s officials remained at their posts.
• The Miscellaneous School joined with Qing Kingdom, Gu Kingdom, and Jia Kingdom to launch a rival Clerk Examination, heightening fears of an attack on Jing Kingdom.
• A Qing Kingdom army of two hundred thousand troops, accompanied by scholars and siege engines, advanced on Ding County and prepared to attack.
• County Magistrate Yang Chutao ordered Ding County’s people to muster for its defense as many civilians fled through the western gate.
• Xi Shi offered to spare Ding County if its officials surrendered, but Yang Chutao refused and accused Qing Kingdom of starting a war while the Second Battle of Two Worlds Mountain was underway.

Liu Shan and the Miscellaneous School brought the Imperial Jade Seal to bear on Jing Kingdom, sparking a Sacred Way battle above the capital as a Legalist Law Beast fought the seal’s nine dragons. At Ding County, Xi Shi launched burning fireballs at the walls, but a streak of cold light destroyed them all.

• Yang Chutao warned Xi Shi and the scholars that Fang Yun would punish them, but Xi Shi gave them a quarter of an hour to reconsider.
• Dragon Race members cut off the Yangtze River’s flow, weakening the Flood Dragon Sage Palace downstream.
• Liu Shan led Miscellaneous School scholars to Jing Kingdom’s capital, where the Imperial Jade Seal descended and overwhelmed the Sword of the Realm.
• A Law Beast from the Left Prime Minister’s Office fought the seal’s nine dragons, then gained strength from the Sacred Way Codex and forced a stalemate.
• Xi Shi ordered thirty flaming firestone balls launched at Ding County, and a streak of cold light cut them all down.

Zhang Poyue used the Dragon Might War Gear to annihilate the Qing Kingdom army outside Ding County, while the battle between the Law Beast and nine dragons continued above the capital. As the Sacred Academy considered Fang Yun’s danger from the Imperial Jade Seal, Jiang Hechuan declared that Fang Yun would not be confined or forced to leave.

• Zhang Poyue revealed the four Dragonfire War Engines and unleashed their divine flames, destroying the Qing Kingdom’s armies and burning two fleeing figures before they were rescued by a streak of light.
• Zhang Poyue told Yang Chutao that he would take responsibility for the massacre and that the Sacred Academy would conceal the Dragon Might War Gear to keep its existence from the Demon Realm.
• Zhang Poyue explained that Fang Yun had sent him away because Fang Yun intended to face the Miscellaneous School’s suppressive sealing alone, and he vowed to preserve himself and retaliate against the Qing Kingdom later.
• Officials in the capital, an old man in the Chen Family’s Plum Garden, the Eastern Sea Dragon Sage, and scholars at the Sacred Academy watched the battle overhead.
• He Qionghai urged the Legalist scholars to bring Fang Yun to the Sacred Academy before the Imperial Jade Seal descended, but Gao Mo said Fang Yun refused to leave the capital.
• Jiang Hechuan declared that Fang Yun was not a man who could be confined to a cage.

As Fang Yun wrote Political Science during the Contest of Sacred Ways, the Imperial Jade Seal overwhelmed the Law Beast and the Qing Kingdom’s forces advanced into the capital. Fang Yun’s argument for politics as an independent authority caused the Confucian Sacred Way to descend and crack across the Solar System, leaving humans and Sages stunned.

• Cao Dean told the officials in the Right Prime Minister's Office to go home as the Law Beast weakened, while the Empress Dowager’s chief eunuch begged her to flee to Ning'an County.
• The Fang Faction gathered silently at the Chen Family Residence, unable to intervene, as Liu Shan led the Miscellaneous School into the capital.
• The nine jade dragons returned and the Imperial Jade Seal pressed the Law Beast downward while Fang Yun began writing Political Science.
• Fang Yun wrote that politics involved competition for power and intrigue, and the enormous Confucian Sacred Way descended across the Solar System.
• Fang Yun declared politics independent and supreme, causing a vast fissure to spread through the Confucian Sacred Way as conservative scholars fainted and the Sages watched in shock.

Fang Yun completed the Vernacular Prose edition of Political Science, and his Literary Qi gathered fragments from the shattering Confucian Sacred Way into a new torrent. At the Eastern Sage Pavilion, Zong Ganyu sought to stop him, but the gathered scholars split over whether Fang Yun was creating a new Sacred Way or endangering the Human Race, and Gao Mo ordered the academy sealed.

• Fang Yun finished writing Political Science, releasing a pillar of Literary Qi that drew fragments from the Confucian Sacred Way into a growing new torrent.
• Scholars across the Saint Origin Continent saw the Sacred Way shatter, and Miscellaneous School scholars accused Fang Yun of plundering it.
• Zong Ganyu gathered officials at the Eastern Sage Pavilion and proposed issuing an Eastern Sage Decree to stop Fang Yun.
• He Qionghai and Gao Mo argued that Fang Yun was not a traitor and might be forming a new Sacred Way, while Legalist and other scholars pledged to take responsibility for letting him continue.
• Zong Ganyu raised his hand to issue the decree, and Gao Mo shouted for the academy to be sealed.

The Sacred Academy sealed itself as Zong Ganyu revealed that Liu Shan held the Eastern Sage Decree, but Fang Yun’s work rewriting Political Science shattered the Miscellaneous School Sacred Way. As a new Sacred Way began to form, Guan Che abandoned the Miscellaneous School, and Liu Shan collapsed in shock.

• The Sacred Academy elders activated the Academy Sealing, and Zong Ganyu announced that the Miscellaneous School was activating the Lü Marquis Seal while Liu Shan held the Eastern Sage Decree.
• Liu Shan revealed the Eastern Sage Decree and launched its power at the Left Prime Minister’s Office, where the Ancestral Dragon Sacred Fang shielded Fang Yun.
• A gray-white hand pressed down on the Eastern Sage Great Seal, but an old fisherman’s sleepy words raised a wall of sacred qi that destroyed the hand and shattered the seal.
• The Miscellaneous School Sacred Way appeared and was shattered by the pillar of light and fire around Fang Yun as he rewrote Political Science in classical Chinese.
• Fragments of the Miscellaneous School Sacred Way rushed toward Fang Yun’s embryonic new Sacred Way, Liu Shan spat blood, and Guan Che pledged himself to the new Way while Ji Wu passed out.