Recaps

Jiang Ziya joined Ji Chang, whose sudden death plunged Xiqi into a succession crisis as Great Shang prepared to invade. Zi Shou launched a campaign of deception and a punishing march, while Nangong Shi’s assault on Sishui Pass ended in retreat, leaving the pass still in need of reinforcements.

• Ji Chang made Jiang Ziya Xiqi’s Chancellor after agreeing to pull his carriage, and Lei Zhenzi joined them on the journey home.
• Lei Zhenzi escorted Ji Chang to Xiqi, where Ji Chang died upon his return, leaving Ji Fa and Jiang Ziya to suspect Ji Dan had arranged an assassination.
• Ji Fa considered Jiang Ziya’s doubts about Ji Dan as Ji Chang’s funeral procession reached Mount Qi, while Gao Jieneng reported Xiqi’s preparations to Zi Shou.
• Zi Shou rallied Great Shang’s court for war, declared Ji Chang King Wen, and created War Deception Bureaus Five and Six to manage domestic information and spread false reports abroad.
• Nangong Shi and Lei Zhenzi besieged Sishui Pass while Ji Shuqian feinted toward Jiameng Pass, but Dou Rong detected Xiqi spies and kept the pass sealed.
• Zi Shou ordered Shi Yan to produce propaganda, including the Monthly Appraisal, which Xiqi’s generals circulated despite Jiang Ziya suspecting it might be a trap.
• Zi Shou sent Lu Xiong’s army west after a punishing march and appointed Yin Hong to oversee the realm, while Nangong Shi planned a night assault on Sishui Pass.
• Dou Rong’s forces repelled Nangong Shi’s night attack after Dou Rong manipulated the watch signals, forcing Nangong Shi to retreat before dawn.

Zi Shou marched west as Lu Xiong and Nangong Shi struggled over Sishui Pass, which fell to the Zhou after Jin Zha and Mu Zha infiltrated its defenses. Lu Xiong’s pursuit of the pass ended in a crushing ambush, and Zi Shou prepared to take command of the campaign himself.

• Zi Shou camped outside Tong Pass, then indulged in entertainment while Lu Xiong debated how to lead the Western Expedition.
• Nangong Shi’s repeated assaults on Sishui Pass failed, and Jin Zha and Mu Zha gained Dou Rong’s trust by posing as Penglai Island cultivators.
• Jin Zha captured Ji Shuqian with the Dragon-Binding Pillar, then he and Mu Zha betrayed Dou Rong during a night raid and helped the Zhou take Sishui Pass.
• Han Rong and Dou Rong died defending the pass, and Nangong Shi ordered an attack on the surviving garrison and civilians to draw Lu Xiong into dividing his army.
• Lu Xiong refused to rescue the surrounded survivors and kept attacking Sishui Pass despite Zi Shou’s repeated orders to withdraw, while Zi Shou led troops to rescue the remnants.
• Lu Xiong captured Sishui Pass but fell into Lei Zhenzi’s ambush, lost more than thirty thousand troops, and escaped with the surviving column.
• Zi Shou took responsibility for Lu Xiong’s defeat, ordered the army west, and then refused Ao Lie’s offer to lead the reinforcements as he demanded the military map and declared he had a plan.

Zi Shou used feigned weakness and carefully planned battles to unite the Shang Army and capture Sishui Pass. Ji Fa then ambushed Shi Bufan’s force, but Zhang Guifang’s southern army arrived and trapped the Zhou Army at the Quicksand River.

• Zi Shou published the Shang Army’s route and lured Lei Zhenzi into a failed night raid, then used revelry and provocation to draw the Zhou Army into a costly attack.
• Zi Shou feigned illness after meeting Ji Fa, and rumors of heavenly punishment pushed Zhou soldiers to attack the Shang camps, where Ao Lie and Lu Xiong defeated them.
• Lu Xiong led a renewed assault on Sishui Pass, and after Lei Zhenzi summoned darkness and rain, the spirits of the pass’s defenders illuminated the battlefield as the Shang Army broke through.
• The Shang Army captured Sishui Pass, killed Ji Shuqian, and tallied its losses, while Ji Fa regrouped and learned that Shang forces were approaching from the north and south.
• Ji Fa ambushed Shi Bufan’s Dare-to-Bear Army in a mountain forest, captured Shi Bufan, and discovered that the dead soldiers bore slave markings from Xiqi.
• Zhang Guifang, Fang Xiang, and Fang Bi arrived with a southern Shang army, and their ships blocked the Quicksand River as Ji Fa ordered the Zhou Army to hold its position.

As Great Shang and Zhou fought at Sishui Pass, Zi Shou honored the dead and tried to limit further losses while Jiang Ziya used a series of formation contests to buy time. The arc left the Zhou Army preparing to retreat and march north as Jiang Ziya set plans for a later attack from both sides.

• Ji Fa’s retreating army suffered a devastating defeat at Zhang Guifang’s hands, though Ji Fa escaped across the Quicksand River and Zhang Guifang later used his Name-Calling Dismount technique against Zhou generals.
• Zi Shou held a grand Transcendence Ritual for the fallen soldiers, and Yuanshi Tianzun appeared to recite the Scripture of Deliverance and establish the Court of Flowing Fire.
• Zhang Guifang arrived at Sishui Pass with the heads of Zhou generals, and Jiang Ziya countered the threat by avoiding direct combat while planning ways to draw him out.
• Zi Shou accepted Jiang Ziya’s challenge to a formation contest, and Wen Zhong’s Eight Gates Formation slaughtered Zhou soldiers before Zi Shou ordered a retreat to spare Wen Zhong further karmic consequences.
• After Zi Shou confined Zhang Guifang for proposing a raid, Jiang Ziya kept the Zhou Army on guard for three nights, leaving it exhausted for the next contest.
• Jiang Ziya formed a Spirit-Absorbing Magic Formation, but the deaths of about a fifth of the Zhou soldiers weakened it before Wen Zhong could attack.
• Jiang Ziya withdrew the Zhou Army, told Ji Fa that the contests had bought time for a northern march and a later two-sided attack, and proposed retreating fifty li with sentries and traps.