Recaps

Zi Shou pushed land and farming reforms that drew nobles into the fields and made Li Jing a public symbol of the New Law. As the reforms reshaped Chaoge, Zi Shou uncovered plans for an imperial mausoleum and turned his attention to the nobles’ donations.

• Zi Shou revealed that farmers had produced the bumper harvest, then approved a proposal for nobles and officials to help with spring plowing.
• Li Jing used criminal investigations to tax noble households, registered their servants and slaves, and accepted imprisonment until Zi Shou ordered him released with an Imperial Sword.
• When crowds gathered to argue over Li Jing’s punishment, Li Jing shaved his head and accepted the penalty in place of execution, winning praise for the New Law.
• Nobles and officials helped farmers and developed tools including Xin Jia’s well sweep, Ji Chang’s Dragon-Bone Waterwheel and Curved-Shank Plow, and Gao Lanying’s Treading Pestle.
• Zi Shou promoted horse-plowing, converted nobles’ private fields into public fields, and required farmers to perform military service, while Lu Xiong and Chao Tian recognized the policies’ military purpose.
• Pixiu told Zhao Gongming about plans for an imperial mausoleum, and Zhao Gongming interpreted it as a sacrifice to anchor humanity’s fortune.
• Zi Shou learned that Wen Zhong’s Baiyue campaign was progressing slowly and that bandits in the Marsh of Liangshan might proclaim a king, then investigated the nobles’ temple donations.
• Pixiu showed Zi Shou plans for an elaborate mausoleum intended for him, and Zi Shou sent Pixiu to establish a bank in Xiqi before inviting him to inspect the Ancestral Temple.

Zi Shou’s schemes to move ancestral tombs and reshape Chaoge’s politics led him to the Yellow Emperor’s Mausoleum, where he confronted Ji Fa and stripped Nezha of his powers. He returned to a city celebrating an unexpected surge in pregnancies and oversaw civil service examinations that did not go as he planned.

• Zi Shou ordered the royal and noble tombs moved to Cloud Dream Mountain and appointed Tu Xingsun to relocate them, while Qian Bao and Yu Hua prepared circumcision procedures and Zhang San and Li Si became their first unwilling patients.
• Jiang Kao killed Jiang Midang and led the Qiang revolt, but Xiqi’s forces defeated the Qiang army, driving its survivors toward Chaoge for refuge.
• Yang Jian joined Liangshan’s chiefs, learned that King Zhou had organized the group to protect commoners, and agreed to help them establish refuge across Great Shang and the feudal territories.
• Zi Shou announced civil service examinations as disputes over ancient history and ancestral graves stirred the nobles, then led 180,000 troops west while leaving Wu Geng to oversee Chaoge.
• At Qiaoshan, Zi Shou moved the Yellow Emperor’s Mausoleum and found records of lost technologies, but the underground palace rose into Kunlun City as Ji Fa and Nezha confronted him.
• Nezha and Ji Fa demanded Zi Shou confess and surrender, but Zi Shou raised Great Shang’s cauldron, stripped Nezha of his cultivation, and had his soldiers capture him with firearms.
• As Zi Shou’s army returned, officials linked a surge in pregnancies across Chaoge to his circumcision campaign, and crowds gathered to welcome him while he learned that the palace consorts were not pregnant.
• Zi Shou published civil service examination questions and answers, but Li Ye’s practical responses defeated his intended screening criteria, leaving him to turn his hopes toward the upcoming martial examinations.

Zi Shou maneuvered against the nobles and prepared an ancestral ceremony in Kunlun City, while his policies and the coming great tribulation drew human and immortal powers into conflict. The ceremony ended with Ji Fa proclaiming Zhou’s Mandate and accusing Zi Shou of crimes before the ancestors.

• Zi Shou named Gao Jieneng the Martial Top Scholar after Fei Zhong secretly supplied him with model answers, then required the successful candidates to learn the Ten-Thousand Dance.
• Fei Zhong and Chong Houhu persuaded Wei Ben that King Zhou intended him to lead Liangshan as the Bandit King, and Wei Ben departed for Liangshan.
• Zi Shou established the Court of Judicial Review under Li Sui and sent him to Li Commandery, where the nobles chose to fund Jiang Wenhuan’s campaign against the West Qiang.
• Li Jing revealed that Yao Qi and the Li Commandery nobles had backed the western campaign, turning the nobles’ accusations against Zi Shou into support for his policies.
• Zi Shou moved the ancestral shrine to Kunlun City and summoned the Feudal Lords, while Chong Yingbiao rejected Guangchengzi’s warning and remained loyal to Shang.
• At the ancestral ceremony, Tu Xingsun challenged Zi Shou, but Chong Yingbiao struck him with the Sky-Flipping Seal before Wei Hu and the Yellow Turban Strongmen exposed the nobles’ ancestral coffins.
• Ji Fa arrived beneath a cloud bridge, claimed the title of Son of Heaven, and accused Zi Shou of ten crimes as Shang’s ministers stood by their king.
• Ji Fa proclaimed Heaven’s Mandate with Zhou before the ancestors, whose spirits and statues reacted as Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan left Fire Cloud Palace to avoid interfering in human wars.

As the Investiture List appeared and Zi Shou declared war on the feudal lords, Great Shang won Baiyue’s secret submission and prepared to face Xiqi. Ji Chang returned toward Xiqi as Jiang Ziya waited by the Qi River, while Zi Shou feigned illness and secretly ordered Ji Chang killed.

• The ancestors appeared in Kunlun City and vanished after sighing, while Wei Hu and Fajie accused Daji of being a demon until Zi Shou defended her and Patriarch Bodhi carried Fajie away.
• Yuanshi Tianzun announced the Great Tribulation and sent the Investiture List, which split during a clash with the golden sword, leaving Ji Fa and Shen Gongbao with one half each.
• Zi Shou declared war on the surrounding states and vassals, while Wen Zhong investigated Deng Xiu’s defeat and Mai Yun sent Chen Tong and Chen Wu to rescue him.
• Ma Zhong captured the Five Kings of Baiyue, and Deng Xiu returned to Chaoge with them and the Heavenly Mandate Sword.
• Zi Shou snapped the sword and the Five Kings pledged allegiance to Shang, but he ordered their submission kept secret and received Uncle Wen’s plan to use it against the feudal lords.
• Jiang Ziya summoned Chan Sect’s disciples to help Zhou, while Zi Shou postponed the Western Expedition and discussed its strategy with Lu Xiong and Ji Chang.
• Ji Chang proposed that Zi Shou feign illness to lull Xiqi, and after the two men drank together in the rain, Zi Shou began the deception and secretly ordered Gao Jieneng to kill Ji Chang on his journey home.
• Ji Fa prepared Xiqi for a spring campaign despite Ji Dan’s warnings, while Ji Chang dreamed of a winged tiger and later reached the Qi River as Jiang Ziya introduced himself to Wu Ji as Flying Bear.