Chapter Summaries

Master Yuantong’s disciple accidentally changed Tian’s forced laughter into uncontrollable sobbing while trying to remove a talisman. As the Tian Family moved to seize Li Qian and force her into marriage, government soldiers arrived, summoned after Princess Ximing drew a crowd with cries about the scandal.

• Young monk Yunda struck Tian’s crying acupoint with eighty percent of his Magic Arts, making her sob uncontrollably instead of suppressing the talisman.
• The Tian Family elders persuaded Tian to agree to sending Li Qian back with them, then ordered their servants to tie Li Qian up.
• Attendant Li opposed the Tian Family, but Tian threatened to die, leaving him unable to decide how to stop them.
• Lord Qin arrived with government soldiers, Liu Shi, Qin Yan, and Yuanbao, and announced that he had received a report of a fatal incident.
• Princess Ximing revealed that she had drawn the soldiers and onlookers to the residence by shouting about the Tian Family’s attempt to force Li Qian to marry her uncle.

Lord Qin heard Li Qian’s accusations against the Tian Family, while Xia Wanwan proposed a way to uncover the truth. The chapter ended with Master Yuantong suggesting that Tian Peng must die so his soul could be questioned.

• Lord Qin arrived to hear the case and had Tian dragged away when she could not stop crying long enough to speak clearly.
• Li Qian recounted Tian Peng’s abuse and the crimes committed against Ning’er, prompting Attendant Li to realize how his family’s actions had estranged his sister.
• The Tian Family denied Li Qian’s accusations and demanded evidence, while Li Qian swore a terrible oath that her account was true.
• Xia Wanwan whispered an idea to Master Yuantong, who proposed summoning Tian Peng’s soul and questioning it.
• Master Yuantong told the frightened Tian Peng that he would have to die first for them to summon his soul.

Master Yuantong used a truth-telling talisman to expose that Tian Peng had molested his niece Li Qian when she was ten. Yuanbao healed Ning'er and helped Li Qian face Tian Peng's confession, which continued as the chapter ended.

• Tian Peng agreed to Master Yuantong's proposed truth-telling talisman after refusing to die to prove his innocence.
• Yuanbao secretly healed Ning'er with spiritual power and helped Li Qian stand.
• Master Yuantong placed two talismans on Tian Peng, and Lord Qin asked whether Tian Peng had molested Li Qian ten years earlier.
• Tian Peng confessed that he had lured ten-year-old Li Qian to his room with sweets and described abusing her.
• Xia Wanwan knocked down the two Tian elders when they tried to silence Tian Peng, and government soldiers restrained them.
• Tian Peng claimed that Li Qian had hurt herself while struggling and pleaded for his sister to keep the abuse secret.

Lord Qin sentenced Tian Peng and his accomplices after Ning'er revealed the Tian Family had drugged her, but Xia Wanwan pushed for swift justice. Tian Peng was beheaded, and the chapter ended with evil spirits devouring his soul.

• Ning'er explained that she had fought back after the Tian Family drugged her, while Lord Qin forced Tian Peng to fingerprint a confession and sentenced him and his accomplices.
• Xia Wanwan objected to waiting a month for Tian Peng's execution, and Lord Qin agreed to carry out the beheading immediately.
• Yuanbao blasted away Tian Peng's newly reattached root, and a soldier beheaded him as Li Qian and Ning'er watched.
• The Tian Family Elders fainted and died, and Xia Wanwan sent their ghosts away before they could curse her.
• Young Master Yunda claimed he had summoned Li Kengqiang's original soul, but the evil spirits that arrived tore apart and devoured Tian Peng's soul.

Xia Wanwan fought the evil spirits attacking Attendant Li's Residence while Master Yuantong called for help from Golden Mountain Temple. The spirits targeted Li Shuqi, and Xia Wanwan caught their final attack just as it was about to kill him.

• Master Yuantong identified the attackers as powerful spirits from the Abandoned Infant Pagoda and sent Young Master Yunda to summon help from Golden Mountain Temple and nearby allies.
• Xia Wanwan gave Liu Shi Peachwood Swords, which let him disperse an evil spirit, while she destroyed others with her Little Pink Hammer.
• Xia Wanwan summoned spiritual power and dispersed spirits throughout the residence, but their leader ordered the remaining black mist to pursue Li Shuqi.
• Master Yuantong said the spirits were targeting Li Shuqi and that they would have to wait for reinforcements, leaving Li Shuqi to run for his life.
• When the spirits combined into an arrow and charged at the exhausted Li Shuqi, Xia Wanwan caught them effortlessly with both hands.

Xia Wanwan destroyed the gathered evil spirits attacking Li Shuqi and learned that supernatural misfortunes had plagued him and harmed anyone who helped him. After sensing a sealed stone in his consciousness, she wondered whether Li Shuqi was Sun Wukong.

• Xia Wanwan crushed the combined evil spirit, and Master Yuantong recognized her as the reincarnated deity from his prophecy.
• Attendant Li thanked Xia Wanwan for saving Li Shuqi, who said he did not know why evil spirits kept targeting him.
• Li Shuqi recounted years of hauntings and misfortunes that had harmed his family and anyone who helped him.
• Attendant Li warned that Li Shuqi's Peace Talisman would expire on his tenth birthday the next day and begged Xia Wanwan and Master Yuantong to save his son.
• Xia Wanwan entered Li Shuqi's sea of consciousness and found a sealed stone that repelled her spiritual power.
• Xia Wanwan opened her eyes and wondered whether Li Shuqi was Sun Wukong.

Xia Wanwan learned that Li Shuqi and Crown Prince Xia Qianlin shared a mysterious seal and was urged to protect them, while Master Yuantong revealed the long-lost soul of Madam Li’s true son. As the soul began to fade, Li Shuqi decided to use his peculiar constitution to force Master Yuantong to help.

• Xia Wanwan recognized that Li Shuqi’s sealed stone resembled the seal inside Crown Prince Xia Qianlin, and Master Yuantong begged her to save Li Shuqi.
• Yuanbao reminded Master Yuantong that Xia Wanwan’s Little Pink Hammer could protect Li Shuqi from evil spirits, and Attendant Li and Li Shuqi knelt to thank her.
• Madam Li rejected Li Qian, while Master Yuantong summoned the soul of Madam Li’s original son, who told her he had been displaced by a vengeful ghost and had wandered for nine years.
• Madam Li, Li Qian, Attendant Li, and Li Shuqi begged Master Yuantong to keep the fading soul from dispersing, but he warned that saving it would demand a price.
• Li Shuqi decided that if Master Yuantong would not help willingly, he would make him help.

Master Yuantong protected Li Kengqiang’s original soul and told Madam Li to enter monastic life for three years to atone before her son could reincarnate. Xia Wanwan left to avoid being asked to help, but returned with a Teleportation Talisman when she heard Master Yuantong was being beaten.

• Master Yuantong gathered Li Kengqiang’s original soul into a Charm Pouch and told Madam Li to atone for three years before he could reincarnate.
• Madam Li accepted the Charm Pouch and resolved to seek forgiveness, repay her victims, and accumulate virtue.
• Yunda brought Master Youzheng, Master Shunfeng, Master Zhongtong, Shentong, Abbess Jingdong, and Jitu to Attendant Li’s Residence, where they beat Master Yuantong for summoning them after the evil spirit had already been dealt with.
• Attendant Li returned to his room and wept over the losses his family had suffered.
• Xia Wanwan left Attendant Li’s Residence to avoid being guilt-tripped into helping Li Kengqiang reincarnate before Madam Li had atoned.
• After hearing that Master Yuantong was being beaten, Xia Wanwan used a Teleportation Talisman to return and watch.

Xia Wanwan entered the palace with Liu Wan, hoping to ask the emperor to protect young girls by law, while Xia Siheng went to the Imperial Study. The emperor’s secret plan to keep the Grandmaster in Great Xia remained hidden, but Minister Liu nearly exposed his connection to the bombing when he loudly cursed the culprit.

• Consort Ling sent Xia Siheng to see the emperor and took Liu Wan to discuss the wedding, while teasing Xia Siheng for his reluctance to leave them.
• The emperor told his officials that he would not return the jade mines or cede Qingli City, and he ordered them to stop investigating the bombing if the culprit could not be found.
• The emperor’s officials left the Imperial Study and complained about the bombing and the prospect of losing the Grandmaster to Southern Mei.
• Minister Liu loudly joined Qian Zhibing in cursing the bombing criminal to conceal that his son-in-law and granddaughter, Xia Wanwan, were involved.
• Xia Siheng arrived behind Minister Liu and the other officials while holding Xia Wanwan, and they turned around stiffly at his voice.

Xia Wanwan asked the emperor to create a law protecting young girls, and Xia Siheng explained that he planned to persuade officials to support it. The emperor agreed to back her proposal, while Wanwan declared she would not fail.

• Xia Siheng invited officials to a banquet at the Emerald Mist House to win their support for Xia Wanwan's proposed law.
• Xia Siheng explained to Xia Wanwan that officials would vote twice on a new law and that more than three opposing votes in the second round would defeat it.
• Xia Siheng reassured Xia Wanwan that he would help protect girls, and she warmly called him Daddy.
• Xia Siheng and Xia Wanwan told the emperor about the proposed law, and he agreed to support her while warning that it might not succeed.
• Xia Wanwan declared that she never failed when she took the field.

Xia Wanwan helped draft a proposal for the people before discovering a sealed golden sword in Xia Qianlin’s consciousness and sensing trouble in his parents’ relationship. When she learned the emperor and empress had started fighting, she hurried off with Xia Qianlin to watch.

• Xia Wanwan helped officials draft a proposal and checked it before asking the emperor for roasted pig’s trotters.
• The emperor invited the Empress Dowager, Consort Ling, and others to lunch, and Xia Wanwan asked for the Crown Prince to join them.
• The adults sent Xia Wanwan and Xia Qianlin to the imperial garden while they tried to resolve the emperor and empress’s conflict.
• Xia Wanwan entered Xia Qianlin’s sea of consciousness, found a sealed golden sword, and learned evil spirits had troubled him as a newborn.
• Xia Wanwan read Xia Qianlin’s palm and sensed that his parents’ relationship faced a tribulation.
• A young eunuch reported that the emperor and empress had begun fighting, so Xia Wanwan urged Xia Qianlin to go watch.

The Empress Dowager confronted the emperor over his favoritism toward Noble Lady Snow and the harm it caused the Empress and Crown Prince. She forbade him from visiting Noble Lady Snow and ordered that she be given a choice of white silk or poisoned wine if she continued threatening suicide.

• Xia Qianlin and Xia Wanwan arrived at Dragon Glory Hall and found the emperor being scolded while the Empress sat with Xia Siheng and Liu Wan.
• The Empress Dowager condemned the emperor for letting Noble Lady Snow insult the Empress, take her privileges, and raise a son who attacked the Crown Prince.
• The emperor explained that Noble Lady Snow had once saved his life and had spent seven years raising their son in hardship, leaving him consumed by guilt.
• The Empress Dowager warned the emperor to protect the Empress and Crown Prince, and threatened to deal with them herself if Noble Lady Snow and her son plotted against them.
• The emperor promised not to visit Noble Lady Snow and begged the Empress Dowager to spare her and her son.
• The Empress Dowager ordered a nanny to tell Noble Lady Snow the emperor would not come and to give her white silk or poisoned wine if she persisted in threatening suicide.

Xia Siheng explained how the Emperor’s favoritism toward Noble Lady Snow had stirred resentment in the harem, while the Emperor insisted he could still tell right from wrong. Xia Wanwan spotted a red worm in the Emperor’s eye, and Xia Siheng suspected Noble Lady Snow and the Eleventh Imperial Prince had something to do with it.

• The Empress Dowager threatened Noble Lady Snow and her son before leaving, while the Empress and Xia Qianlin also departed.
• Xia Siheng told the Emperor that his generous rank for Noble Lady Snow had fueled her arrogance and caused conflict in the harem.
• The Emperor defended his actions, but Xia Siheng challenged him over protecting Noble Lady Snow after her son injured the Crown Prince.
• Xia Wanwan noticed a red worm flash through the Emperor’s eye and offered Xia Siheng eye drops and ointment.
• Xia Siheng agreed to have an Imperial Physician examine the Emperor, then suspected a Gu Worm and grew wary of Noble Lady Snow and the Eleventh Imperial Prince.

The Empress Dowager visited Noble Lady Snow after she threatened suicide, questioned her claims of misery, and exposed the danger in her words. When Noble Lady Snow insisted she could not live unless her confinement was lifted, the Empress Dowager ordered her to choose between White Silk and poisoned wine.

• Noble Lady Snow staged a suicide threat to draw His Majesty to Falling Snow Hall, but learned the Empress Dowager had stopped him.
• The Empress Dowager arrived and had servants punished for their disrespect, frightening Noble Lady Snow and Xia Qianxian into paying their respects.
• The Empress Dowager heard Noble Lady Snow blame her distress on confinement while defending the Empress's punishment of Xia Qianxian.
• The Empress Dowager doubted Noble Lady Snow's story after noticing her hands showed no signs of hard labor.
• Noble Lady Snow said her melancholy would worsen and she might die unless her confinement was lifted, so the Empress Dowager presented her with White Silk and poisoned wine.

The Empress Dowager punished Noble Lady Snow by forcing her to drink poisoned wine that left her mute, then warned Xia Qianxian never to harm the Crown Prince again. Back at the Liu Residence, Xia Siheng prepared to tell Liu Wan something serious about Xia Wanwan, leaving Liu anxious about what he knew.

• The Empress Dowager forced Noble Lady Snow to drink poisoned wine, leaving her mute, and threatened Xia Qianxian over his treatment of the Crown Prince.
• The Empress Dowager told Consort Ling and Liu Wan that she had spared Noble Lady Snow's life to avoid a rift with the emperor.
• Consort Ling teased the Empress Dowager about her beauty, then left with Liu Wan to visit Xia Wanwan.
• Xia Siheng brought Liu Wan and Xia Wanwan back to the Liu Residence, then went to the study with Liu Wan to discuss the emperor and the suspected gu worm.
• Xia Siheng told Liu Wan that Xia Wanwan had not personally told him what he knew, and asked her not to be upset before revealing something serious.

Xia Siheng learned that many people could hear Xia Wanwan’s thoughts, then worked with Liu Wan to arrange a plan to examine the Emperor’s Gu Worm and secure support for a new law. After Consort Ling persuaded Xia Wanwan to help her become beautiful, the officials’ banquet ended with the initial review looking promising but some ministers still hesitant.

• Xia Siheng told Liu Wan that he could hear Xia Wanwan’s thoughts, and Liu Wan revealed that several members of her family and possibly Qingqing could hear them too.
• Xia Siheng arranged for Master Shunfeng to bring Daoist Qianyun from Jiangnan to examine the Emperor’s Gu Worm, while Liu Wan took charge of the officials’ banquet.
• Consort Ling asked Xia Wanwan to bury her beneath the Coral Tree to make her beautiful, but Xia Wanwan offered to help her without being buried and drew on the Coral Tree’s spiritual energy.
• Xia Siheng hosted officials at Emerald Mist House to win support for the new law, and Liu Wan and Xia Wanwan listened from a nearby private room.
• Xia Siheng told Liu Wan and Xia Wanwan that the initial review should pass, though some officials with sons remained hesitant about the law.

Xia Wanwan reflected on the difficulty of protecting women’s rights, while Liu Wan and Xia Siheng planned how to win support for their proposal. After dinner, Xie Jinqian privately approached Liu Wan and offered to help her leave Xia Siheng.

• Xia Wanwan worried that men saw women’s freedom as a threat, and Xia Siheng reassured her that her father and maternal grandfather would support her.
• Xia Siheng explained that he had investigated officials’ households, and Liu Wan asked for a booklet of the opponents’ family details so she could find ways to persuade them.
• Xia Siheng left early, and Liu Wan encountered Xie Jinqian waiting outside the private room with Jing Wu and Yuanbao.
• Xie Jinqian claimed that he needed to discuss Wanwan, prompting Liu Wan to let him into the room despite Jing Wu’s objections.
• Xie Jinqian created a barrier around the room, and Xia Wanwan recognized that he had practiced cultivation for two and a half years.
• Xie Jinqian told Liu Wan he suspected Wanwan’s parentage and offered to take her away if she did not want to marry Xia Siheng.

Liu Wan rejected Xie Jinqian’s offer to take her away and revealed that she had loved Xia Siheng since childhood. She explained that she had married Xie Jin'an only because he resembled Xia Siheng holding winter plum blossoms, leaving Xie Jinqian stunned and Xia Wanwan excited by the revelation.

• Xie Jinqian confessed that Xia Qianhui had admitted Xia Wanwan was Xia Siheng’s daughter and offered to take Liu Wan away if she did not want to marry him.
• Liu Wan accused Xie Jinqian of disguising his selfish desire to keep her close as concern for her happiness.
• Xie Jinqian promised Liu Wan respect, protection, and power in Southern Yue, but Liu Wan said he did not understand her and asked whether he found her disgusting for being his former sister-in-law.
• Liu Wan told Xie Jinqian that marrying Xia Siheng had been her lifelong wish.
• Liu Wan recounted meeting Xia Siheng as a child, helping save him, and falling in love with him after seeing him protect plum blossoms.
• Liu Wan revealed that she married Xie Jin'an partly to repay the Xie family and partly because he reminded her of Xia Siheng, while Xia Wanwan reacted with astonishment and excitement.

Xie Jinqian revealed that a dream had shown him the Xie family’s original fate and explained how he had tried to change it, but he still distrusted Xia Siheng and warned Liu Wan against marrying him. Liu Wan refused to let him decide her future, and Xie Jinqian challenged her to a bet.

• Liu Wan asked Xie Jinqian whether he still intended to separate her from Xia Siheng, and he insisted Xia Siheng did not love her.
• Liu Wan reminded Xie Jinqian that the Xie family had schemed to secure her marriage after her aunt died, and he admitted the blame lay with his family.
• Xie Jinqian told Liu Wan that he had dreamed of the Xie family’s future, her death, and his own execution, then described how he learned he was Southern Yue’s Second Imperial Prince and worked to escape that fate.
• Xia Wanwan realized Xie Jinqian had dreamed the same events as the novel, while Liu Wan considered his fear that their changed fate made the future uncertain.
• Liu Wan told Xie Jinqian she would decide whether Xia Siheng could be trusted and warned him not to sabotage their wedding.
• Xie Jinqian flashed a menacing look and challenged Liu Wan to make a bet about her love for Xia Siheng.

Liu Wan accepted Xie Jinqian’s wager about Xia Siheng, then hurried to the palace after learning he had gone there for an emergency. There, Xia Siheng revealed that the emperor’s Gu Worm had struck, and the Empress Dowager demanded his plan to deal with it.

• Xie Jinqian wagered that Xia Siheng would break Liu Wan’s heart before the wedding, and Liu Wan accepted his challenge.
• Liu Wan learned that Xia Siheng had entered the palace and decided to go there with Xia Wanwan and Yuanbao.
• Master Yuantong confirmed that the emperor’s Gu Worm had struck, and Xia Siheng said the emperor’s love for Noble Lady Snow might be caused by the Gu.
• The Empress Dowager ordered Nanny Wei to investigate Noble Lady Snow and ordered Eunuch Yu to keep the emperor’s condition secret.
• Master Yuantong warned that the emperor faced unbearable pain and could die in a future Gu attack, then the Empress Dowager asked Xia Siheng to explain his plan.