Chapter Summaries

As the Yueyang Tower literary gathering prepared for Fang Yun and Zhang Longxiang’s duel, Fang Yun noticed Liu Shan arriving in plain clothes, stirring speculation about Qing Kingdom’s plans. At sunset, the vast human and water-demon audience fell silent as Fang Yun announced the gathering’s beginning.

• Fang Yun deflected a request to compose a poem, saying he would write when he met Zhang Longxiang.
• Fang Yun told Jiang Hechuan that Left Prime Minister Liu Shan had arrived in plain clothes, prompting speculation about his confidence in Qing Kingdom and the Zong Family’s plans.
• The guests descended from Yueyang Tower and took their seats before a crowd of more than three million people and ten million water demons.
• Li Fanming and the Sacred Ruins scholars toasted their reunion and discussed Fang Yun’s influence and the dangers surrounding the literary gathering.
• As the sun set and the moon rose, Fang Yun stood and declared the Yueyang Tower Mid-Autumn Literary Gathering open.

Fang Yun opened the Yueyang Tower Mid-Autumn Literary Gathering with three toasts honoring the heavens, worthy ancestors, and everyone striving to live better, then yielded the host’s role to Dong Wencong. Dong Wencong began with a joke about the Qing Lord that won the crowd’s laughter without offending the Qing Kingdom, before moving on to preside conventionally.

• Fang Yun used Tongue Blossoms Thunder to deliver three toasts, honoring the Myriad Worlds, worthy predecessors, and everyone fighting for a better life.
• Fang Yun announced that Dong Wencong would host the assembly from then on, while he joined the literary contest against Zhang Longxiang.
• Dong Wencong opened with a story about Fang Yun rejecting his speech and his attempt to imitate the Qing Lord, prompting the crowd to laugh.
• The scholars recognized that Dong Wencong’s daring joke could raise his literary reputation and win him the people’s regard, though it risked controversy.
• The Qing Lord and the people of the Qing Kingdom took no offense, and Dong Wencong continued presiding over the assembly in a conventional manner.

Fang Yun watched the Mid-Autumn festivities, shared food with Big Rabbit, and let him join the Moon-Worship Dance. When the young scholars’ poetry competition began, the Qing Lord challenged Fang Yun over the rivalry between the Qing and Jing Kingdoms.

• Fang Yun greeted Big Rabbit, offered him a Red Jade Fruit, and watched him eagerly eat the delicacies.
• Fang Yun invited Big Rabbit onto the stage, where the rabbit danced alongside the performers and delighted the crowd.
• After the opening performances, Dong Wencong announced a poetry competition for five young contestants from each kingdom and Kong City.
• The Qing Lord praised Qing Kingdom’s Ge Yu and challenged Fang Yun to wager a prize against a young scholar from Jing Kingdom.
• The Qing Lord brought up the Qing spectators’ boos during the previous year’s contest, drawing the audience’s attention to his confrontation with Fang Yun.

Fang Yun answered the Qing Lord’s challenge with a cutting anecdote that mocked the people of Qing as dogs frightened by snow, provoking laughter across the literary assembly. As the Qing side tried to respond, Big Rabbit interrupted Zong Wuyuan and was called out by the elderly Flower Lord.

• Jiang Hechuan interrupted the Qing Lord and toasted him, giving Fang Yun time to consider his response.
• Fang Yun told a story about dogs in Qing panicking at snowfall, and the assembly laughed at the insult.
• Grand Academician Gu and the Qing Lord reacted angrily as a School of Historians scholar recorded the phrase “Qing Dog Barks at Snow.”
• Zong Wuyuan began to challenge Fang Yun, but Big Rabbit drowned him out by squealing and laughing.
• The elderly Flower Lord asked whose rabbit Big Rabbit was, and Li Fanming apologized and explained that he had raised him.

At the Mid-Autumn Literary Gathering, Li Fanming and the elderly Flower Lord defused the uproar over Big Rabbit’s insult, leaving Zong Wuyuan and the Qing Kingdom humiliated. When the Wu Lord asked why the Qing Lord’s officials were silent, Fang Yun prepared to tell another story, but Gu Nanhui tried to interrupt and Big Rabbit’s insult became a crowd-wide chant.

• The elderly Flower Lord demanded that Li Fanming explain what Big Rabbit had said, and Li Fanming claimed the rabbit had merely repeated the scholars’ cries of “Qing Dog Barks at Snow.”
• The elderly Flower Lord declared Big Rabbit’s words harmless, shielding the rabbit from punishment and leaving Zong Wuyuan and the Qing Kingdom officials disgraced.
• The Wu Lord asked Fang Yun why the Qing Lord and his officials had fallen silent, and Fang Yun said he had another story to tell.
• The Qing Lord urged his scholars to stop Fang Yun, and Gu Nanhui stood to interrupt him.
• Big Rabbit pointed at Gu Nanhui and squeaked, prompting hundreds of thousands of people to chant “Qing Dog Barks at Snow” as the water demons laughed.

Fang Yun silenced the Qing Kingdom attendees with two stories that mocked them, while the Wu Lord praised him and made the tales compulsory primers. The Mid-Autumn Literary Gathering resumed with poems, leaving the Qing Kingdom humiliated and still mocked.

• Fang Yun told the story of the donkey from Qing, and the crowd mocked the Qing Kingdom with the phrase “Qing Donkey Exhausts Its Tricks.”
• The Wu Lord announced that Fang Yun’s stories would become compulsory primers in Wu Kingdom schools.
• The Qing Lord secretly communicated with Qing officials and stopped speaking as the Qing attendees grumbled and fell silent.
• Dong Wencong resumed the gathering and invited scholars to compose poems in an order chosen by lot.
• A Qi Kingdom scholar included the line “Moonlight, silver as snow,” prompting laughter and sour looks from the Qing Kingdom scholars onstage.

As the literary assembly awaited Zhang Longxiang’s midnight arrival, Fang Yun faced public accusations from the Qing River Trading Company and several aristocratic-clan members. The Sun Bin Aristocratic Clan repudiated its accuser, but coordinated attacks still damaged Fang Yun’s reputation, and Gu Nanhui raised a new question about the Chen Sage Family’s unpaid wager.

• Fang Yun secretly told Lei Tingzhen and others that the literary contest would begin at midnight, while Dong Wencong arranged acrobatics to fill the wait.
• Hua Qingniang and Ge Yiming accused Fang Yun of abusing his authority against the Qing River Trading Company, and Fang Yun openly confirmed that he had cracked down on its pleasure houses.
• The Qing Lord threatened to intervene, then Sun Shicong accused Fang Yun of betraying the Sun Bin Aristocratic Clan over a wager.
• Sun Tianxiong seized Sun Shicong, declared him a traitor, and promised the Sun Bin Aristocratic Clan would demand answers from the Qing Lord and Zong Ganyu.
• Young scholars from several aristocratic clans accused Fang Yun of causing their wager losses, but their clans expelled them; Gu Nanhui then asked why the Chen Sage Family had not paid its stakes to the Zong Family.

The Zong Family and Qing Kingdom pressured the Chen Family over the delayed Desolate City stake, while Fang Yun defended the Chen Family and clashed with Zong Wuyuan. The Wu Lord turned the dispute into a confrontation between the Wu and Qing Kingdoms, promising to lead Wu scholars to the Qing Capital.

• Gu Nanhui represented the Qing Kingdom as its officials seized an opportunity to attack.
• Zong Ganyu insulted the Chen Family and demanded that it hand over the Desolate City stake by the first day of the ninth month.
• Chen Mingding said the Chen Family would hand over the stake after its members had withdrawn, and Fang Yun warned Zong Ganyu not to speak too soon.
• Zong Wuyuan disparaged Fang Yun, prompting the Wu Lord to insult the Qing Kingdom and defend Fang Yun.
• Wu and Qing scholars traded insults, and the Wu Lord promised to lead Wu scholars to the Qing Capital the next morning.

The Wu Lord declared a literary duel against the Qing Kingdom in its capital, while Fang Yun publicly backed the Wu scholars. Tang Zhengwei then challenged Fang Yun over the Male Supremacy Society’s concerns, but Fang Yun’s questions persuaded him to postpone the discussion until after the literary assembly.

• The Wu Lord announced that Wu scholars would compete against the Qing Kingdom in its capital, and Fang Yun promised to support them.
• The Qing Lord and officials worried that the Wu contingent’s arrival near the capital had disrupted their plans against Fang Yun.
• Tang Zhengwei, Minister of Literature of the Shen Kingdom, asked to question Fang Yun before his competition with Zhang Longxiang.
• Fang Yun used the parable of straws accumulating on a person to show that each contributor shared responsibility for the harm caused.
• Tang Zhengwei recognized he had nearly been used as someone else’s pawn and asked the Male Supremacy Society to wait until the literary assembly ended.

The Lei Family arrived at Yueyang Tower in mourning clothes and accused Fang Yun of killing Lei Zhongmo. Fang Yun challenged Lei Tingzhen’s account of the feud, leaving the two sides confronting the original cause of their conflict.

• More than two thousand mourners from the Lei Family arrived at the Yangtze River wharf carrying a portrait of Lei Zhongmo, and thousands of Jia Kingdom supporters and Qing Officials put on mourning clothes.
• Lei Tingzhen led the procession to the first-class seats at Yueyang Tower, where Fang Yun watched him approach.
• Lei Tingzhen accused Fang Yun of killing Lei Zhongmo and argued that the Lei Family had apologized for its earlier grievances.
• Fang Yun said the Lei Family had attacked him over a member killed by the Whale King and demanded that Lei Tingzhen answer for the persecution of an innocent Provincial Graduate.
• Lei Tingzhen claimed the past had been settled when Lei Zhongmo apologized, but Fang Yun pointed out that Lei Tingzhen had distorted how the feud began.

Fang Yun faced the Lei Family, Qing Officials, the Qing River Trading Company, and scholars from Bakuong Mountain as they accused him and rallied against him. The Qing Lord joined them, demanding an explanation from Fang Yun for his actions against Qing forces.

• Lei Tingzhen confronted Fang Yun over Lei Zhongmo’s death, and Lei Zhongmo’s son stabbed himself before the Lei Family’s medical scholars healed him.
• Fang Yun said he wanted to exterminate the Lei Family but would refrain unless they joined the rebel species, prompting Lei Tingzhen to accuse him of murder.
• Ge Yiming, Yan Wu, Huo Long, and other Qing Officials denounced Fang Yun and began a blood petition to impeach him, while residents of Xiang Prefecture angrily defended Fang Yun.
• Hua Qingniang arrived with the Qing River Trading Company, and failed scholars from the Dark Cloud Literary Society at Bakuong Mountain joined the opposition to Fang Yun.
• The Qing Lord rose with Qing Kingdom’s officials and demanded that Fang Yun answer for humiliating the Xuanwu Army and obstructing the Qing River Trading Company.

Fang Yun faced a united coalition of officials, clans, and the Lei Family, whose leaders threatened anyone who supported him. He withdrew toward Yueyang Tower as Jiang Hechuan warned that the opposition’s real goal was to cripple him, possibly with help from a more powerful figure.

• Jiang Hechuan and others moved to stand behind Fang Yun as the opposing crowd’s combined wills weakened the surrounding primordial energy.
• Lei Tingzhen demanded that aristocratic clans stay out of the Lei Family’s feud with Fang Yun, while Zong Ganyu warned them that intervening would make them enemies of the Lei Family and Dragon Palace.
• Fang Yun thanked his would-be allies, insulted his enemies, and rose toward the top of Yueyang Tower on Walking the Blue Clouds.
• Jiang Hechuan urged the crowd to let Fang Yun compete against Zhang Longxiang, but Lei Tingzhen demanded that Fang Yun explain Lei Zhongmo’s death before competing.
• Ning Zhiyuan and Ma Yuan concluded that the coalition aimed to deal Fang Yun a crippling blow and might be relying on a power greater than Lei Konghe or Yi Zhishi.

Yi Zhishi arrived at Yueyang Tower and revealed a presence that even Fang Yun had struggled to detect. The Qing Lord, Zong Ganyu, and their allies gathered around him, raising the stakes before Fang Yun’s literary contest with Zhang Longxiang.

• Zong Ganyu used Tongue Blossoms Thunder to ask Yi Zhishi to judge Fang Yun’s chances in the contest.
• Fang Yun searched the crowd and used his perception to overcome the strange power concealing Yi Zhishi.
• Yi Zhishi entered Yueyang Tower, exchanged a glance with Fang Yun, and walked through the crowd unnoticed until he reached the first-class seating section.
• The scholars recognized Yi Zhishi and speculated that he would join the contest against Fang Yun.
• Jiang Hechuan, Zong Ganyu, and the Qing Lord greeted Yi Zhishi as the factions opposing Fang Yun gathered around him.

Yi Zhishi attended the Baling City literary assembly, where Zong Ganyu repeatedly pressed him to predict whether Zhang Mingzhou or Fang Yun would win their upcoming literary contest. Yi Zhishi avoided answering, leaving Zong Ganyu still trying to draw him into taking a side.

• Yi Zhishi arrived, sat in Fang Yun's former chair, and shared half a mooncake with Big Rabbit.
• Zong Ganyu asked Yi Zhishi to compare Zhang Mingzhou and Fang Yun, and Yi Zhishi praised both men's poetry while declining to predict the winner.
• Yi Zhishi said he had come to clear his mind and travel, and agreed to attend the great literary contest between the two kingdoms.
• Zong Ganyu pressed Yi Zhishi again to predict the winner, while Jing Kingdom officials warned Fang Yun about the past friction between him and Yi Zhishi.
• Yi Zhishi ate another mooncake instead of answering, and Zong Ganyu continued urging him to comment on the contest.

Yi Zhishi declared Fang Yun the foremost of the Four Great Talents but said Zhang Mingzhou had the better chance of winning the literary contest, emboldening the Qing Kingdom’s supporters. As the crowd called for Zhang Longxiang to appear and offered him rewards, Fang Yun spoke from Yueyang Tower, leaving the contest on the verge of beginning.

• The Qing Lord asked Yi Zhishi to judge the coming literary contest, and Yi Zhishi praised Fang Yun while predicting Zhang Mingzhou was likelier to win.
• Yan Yukong and Li Fanming discussed Yi Zhishi’s ambiguous remarks as Qing Kingdom scholars celebrated Zhang Mingzhou and plotted to mock Fang Yun.
• Zong Ganyu, Lei Tingzhen, and the Qing Lord called for Zhang Longxiang to appear and offered him marriage, political office, and military rank if he defeated Fang Yun.
• When the crowd searched for Zhang Longxiang, Fang Yun spoke from atop Yueyang Tower and said there was no need to look.

Fang Yun’s attempt to reveal Zhang Longxiang’s official seal led the crowd to accuse him of imprisoning Zhang Longxiang. As Zong Wuyuan challenged him and threatened the people of humble birth, Fang Yun began to explain why Zhang Longxiang would reject him as a disciple.

• Fang Yun took out Zhang Longxiang’s Pearl River Duke Seal, and Zong Wuyuan and Lei Tingzhen accused him of seizing or imprisoning Zhang Longxiang.
• The crowd argued over Fang Yun’s supposed actions, while Jiang Hechuan defended him and asked people not to speculate.
• Fang Yun challenged Zong Wuyuan to stake his life on the accusation, then said Zhang Longxiang would never accept someone as despicable as him as a student.
• Zong Wuyuan threatened Fang Yun and declared that he would demonstrate the gulf between established families and humble households.
• Fang Yun began to explain why Zhang Longxiang would refuse Zong Wuyuan as a disciple.

Fang Yun revealed that he was Zhang Longxiang, explaining that Zhang Longxiang had been his identity during the final trial of the Three Ascents of Book Mountain. The gathering recognized that Fang Yun alone had fought at Two Worlds Mountain as Zhang Longxiang, leaving the Qing Lord trembling at the consequences of the revelation.

• Fang Yun told the gathering, "I am Zhang Longxiang," and stunned the crowd and the assembled Great Scholars.
• Lei Tingzhen connected Fang Yun’s periods of seclusion with Zhang Longxiang’s appearance and realized that Fang Yun had entered the Literary World after his third ascent of Book Mountain.
• Yan Yukong and Fang Yun’s Sacred Ruins friends understood that Fang Yun had played both the human race and the Demon Realm.
• Yi Zhishi explained that Fang Yun’s final trial had been to become Zhang Longxiang, lead an army to Two Worlds Mountain, and help win the Battle of Bi and Shen.
• Fang Yun confirmed Yi Zhishi’s explanation, prompting the Flower Lord, Jiang Hechuan, and the Wu Lord to celebrate while the Qing Lord trembled.

At the literary assembly, Li Fanming and Yan Yukong explained that Fang Yun’s poems as Zhang Longxiang concealed satire of the Qing Lord and grief over being kept from the war. Their account left the gathered scholars mourning the injustices Fang Yun had endured, while a Qing Hanlin Academician publicly demanded to know who had threatened him.

• Someone questioned why Fang Yun had written “Viewing Dongting Lake, Presented to Qing Lord” if he was Zhang Longxiang, and Li Fanming explained that its final lines satirized the Qing Lord.
• Li Fanming and Yan Yukong interpreted “Ascending Yueyang Tower” as expressing Fang Yun and Zhang Longxiang’s shared sorrow at being unable to fight at the frontier.
• Yan Yukong and Li Fanming condemned the Zong and Lei Families and the Qing Kingdom for forcing Fang Yun into a literary contest against himself instead of letting him fight the demon barbarians.
• A Qing Hanlin Academician used Tongue Blossoms Thunder to demand that whoever had threatened Zhang Longxiang step forward, then wept with remorse over his nation’s treatment of Fang Yun.

The old Hanlin Academician’s roar united the Ten Kingdoms’ grief and indignation, covering the conspirators’ literary guts in dust through Ten Thousand Eyes of Yazi. As Zong Ganyu faced the disgrace and considered the Zong Family’s conflict with Fang Yun, he sent Zong Ming away to guard Saint Zong’s former residence, then looked up at Fang Yun.

• The Ten Kingdoms’ shared resentment descended on those who had plotted the contest, linking their dust-covered literary guts so that all would remain defiled until everyone was cleansed or Fang Yun forgave them.
• Zong Ganyu saw that Zong Wude had avoided the assembly, then noticed Zong Ming eating mooncakes without dust on his literary guts.
• Zong Ming said he had not set the avalanche in motion, advised the Zong Family to avoid Fang Yun, and said their conflict with him could no longer be avoided.
• Zong Ganyu ordered Zong Ming to reflect for three days and guard the Old Peach Residence for three years; Zong Ming left Baling City with a box of mooncakes.
• Zong Ganyu called the Zong Family’s remaining clever people to mind and coldly gazed up at Fang Yun on the city wall.

After Ten Thousand Eyes of Yazi revealed that Fang Yun was Zhang Longxiang, the Lei Family’s young scholars suffered devastating damage to their Sacred Paths. Lei Tingzhen punished Lei Shengpeng and was then publicly exposed for threatening Fang Yun, leaving the Lei Family under mounting condemnation.

• Ten Thousand Eyes of Yazi revealed Fang Yun’s identity as Zhang Longxiang, and the Lei Family’s young Academy Students and Licentiates lost their literary guts vortices or had their Literary Palaces damaged.
• Lei Shengpeng confronted Lei Tingzhen over the ruined hopes of the Lei Family’s young scholars, and Lei Tingzhen used Subtle Words, Profound Meaning to make Lei Shengpeng’s Literary Palace crack.
• Zhou Qingtian condemned Lei Tingzhen for punishing Lei Shengpeng, but Lei Tingzhen dismissed his objection as interference in Lei Family affairs.
• Fang Yun revealed through Tongue Blossoms Thunder that Lei Tingzhen had threatened him in the Literary World, prompting the elderly Flower Lord to curse Lei Tingzhen publicly.
• Zhou Qingtian and Jiang Hechuan supported the Flower Lord and denounced Lei Tingzhen for scheming against a Void Sage.