Recaps

After the Way of the Junzi offered him a path out of his servile status, Lin Ke accepted Minister Qi’s challenge to compete against Qi Ye and began studying poetry, painting, and dance. As he trained and settled into life on Chaoyang Street, he entered Butcher Zhang’s cellar and discovered him chopping a human leg.

• Lin Ke split 108,000 pieces of firewood, unlocked the Way of the Junzi, and chose the Confucian path in hopes of escaping his lowborn registration.
• Lin Ke accepted Minister Qi’s year-long contest against Qi Ye, securing a promise that his servile status would be revoked if he won all three matches.
• Lin Ke moved to a courtyard on Chaoyang Street and began studying with Li Chungang and Wang Lin while taking work at Tongfu Grand Restaurant.
• Lin Ke fulfilled three system choices by working for Li Chungang, becoming Wang Lin’s painting disciple, and helping the proprietor of Tongfu Grand Restaurant.
• Lin Ke danced outside the Song-Listening Entertainment House, impressing the crowd, then practiced coordination and sword-dance movements with Bingbing.
• Li Chungang trained Lin Ke to read history while making tofu, and Wang Lin made him paint while wearing the heavy Coiling Dragon Bracelet.
• Lin Ke questioned whether Great Wei should restore corporal punishment, met the boastful Ye Jun, and received a plum tree from Qi Tianxia.
• At Shopkeeper Tong’s request, Lin Ke went to Butcher Zhang’s shop for meat, followed an eerie woman into the cellar, and saw Butcher Zhang chopping a human leg.

Lin Ke solved the Little Golden Crow Prince’s death by tracing it to an accidental reaction to demon beast meat, then received an honorary judicial appointment and launched a milk-tea business. When a rival challenged his standing and attacked his friends, Lin Ke accepted a poetry contest and stepped forward as the rival’s poem oppressed people of Servile Status.

• Lin Ke was given five days to solve the Golden Crow Prince’s murder or face execution, and he volunteered to investigate.
• Lin Ke gathered witnesses and suspects, exposed Wu Dalang’s murder of the prince, and uncovered other crimes, but found no link to Jinganglang’s death.
• Lin Ke identified the poisoned bear as Lord Yang and learned that Lu Renjia, Mei Mingzi, and Zhang San were tied to a separate grain-theft scheme.
• Lin Ke reconsidered the case as a possible accident and reenacted Jinganglang’s final day, discovering that Kuiwater Spirit Ox meat had made the prince dangerously hot.
• Li Hanlin appointed Lin Ke Great Wei Judicial Commissioner without a cash reward, while the Golden Crow Matriarch connected Lin Ke to human officials’ plans.
• Lin Ke developed Cloud Dance Rainbow Tea with Shopkeeper Tong, drew crowds to the restaurant, and made the new business profitable.
• A young man insulted Lin Ke and struck Chen Pingping, but Butcher Zhang intervened and the young man challenged Lin Ke to a poetry contest before the contest with Qi Ye.
• The young man recited a poem about Servile Status that weakened people of that status, and Lin Ke stepped forward.

After Lin Ke’s poems challenged the capital’s hierarchy, he gained imperial approval and began building cultural businesses on Chaoyang Street. His comics stirred a new cultivation path, leaving him facing a choice of school as his ventures drew crowds and attention.

• Lin Ke’s poems condemned the suffering of common people and people of servile status, but the Left Administrator’s son and the Left Administrator attacked his allies, and Chen Pingping took a fatal wound protecting Chen An.
• Lin Ke completed a poem calling for shelter for everyone, and the Sage Emperor granted his request to wield the Bamboo Staff before Qi Tianxia and ministers arrived.
• Lin Ke struck Lord Qiu’s son with the Bamboo Staff and killed him, while Minister Qi drove off the ministers and Li Chungang explained Chen Pingping’s past as a Great Confucian.
• Lin Ke planned the Chaoyang Commercial Entertainment Complex, and he told Minister Qi that he wanted to create a Tide of Ideas by changing thought and breaking status barriers.
• Lin Ke accepted Li Chungang as his master and chose to seek a future with the people of Great Wei rather than sacrifice those of servile status, while Butcher Zhang joined their cause.
• Lin Ke explained his vision for an interconnected network and launched comics, novels, milk tea, an escape room, and other businesses that drew crowds to Chaoyang Street.
• Lin Ke’s Pokémon comic became a Rare Treasure and triggered the emergence of a Beast-Taming Great Dao, leading Wang Lin to warn that sects would seek him out and that he had to choose a cultivation path.
• Lin Ke considered establishing his own path through the world of Pokémon, while Constable Xing saw crowds flock to buy Lin Ke’s illustrated works and Ye Jun’s attempted entry into the studio was rejected.

Lin Ke founded the Reformer School, built a comics and novel business, and gathered disciples and allies. When the Children’s Education Bureau tried to shut him down, his recitation won the crowd and drew offers from academies, while he challenged the Punishments Department to a literary contest.

• Ye Jun returned unharmed, and Lin Ke’s renovated studio filled with customers eager to buy comics as Lin Ke planned to spread culture and stir conflict between the Servile Status and Noble Registry.
• A Plum Blossom Tree Spirit accused Lin Ke of cutting down its kin, but Ye Jun exposed the spirit’s false accusation and Lin Ke later learned that Lord Qiu might be involved.
• Lin Ke achieved Qi Induction, named his power reform, and founded the Reformer School, declaring that reform should serve all under heaven and protect people with servile status.
• Butcher Zhang and Li Chungang became Lin Ke’s disciples, while Wang Lin gave him the Black Spirit Whistle and left on an uncertain journey.
• Ning Caichen moved into Lin Ke’s courtyard, and Wu Daozi later asked to study comics, becoming Lin Ke’s chief disciple of the comics way.
• As comics and novels spread through the capital, Lin Ke rejected the Eclectic School’s restrictive publishing offer and agreed to share revenue equally with Storytellers led by Chen Pingping.
• The Children’s Education Bureau tried to shut Lin Ke’s studio and arrest him, but Lin Ke demanded evidence and laws, then recited a preface about his hardships that moved the crowd and reached students across ten thousand li.
• After academies offered to recruit Lin Ke and accepted him as their disciple, Lin Ke challenged the Punishments Department to a literary contest, and the Assistant Director of the Children’s Education Bureau arrived.