Chapter Summaries

The King of Yu Yue agreed to submit to Great Shang after Zhang Youren rejected his offer to seek refuge and warned that resistance would mean certain defeat. At Three Mountains Pass, the King of Yu Yue was forced to face a humiliating surrender ritual, and Zhang Youren stood his ground when the king threatened him with a saber.

• The King of Yu Yue met Zhang Youren and offered to seek refuge with Great Shang, but Zhang Youren insisted that only submission would be accepted.
• After Zhang Youren warned that the Baiyue Tribes would be conquered and the King of Yu Yue had nowhere to turn, the king agreed to submit.
• Zhang Youren required the King of Yu Yue to prepare a letter of surrender and enter Three Mountains Pass alone to present it.
• At the pass, Zhang Youren told the King of Yu Yue to kneel and kowtow before cenotaphs honoring Shang soldiers whom the king had helped kill.
• The King of Yu Yue drew his saber and threatened Zhang Youren, who endured his fear and accused the king of betraying Great Shang and disgracing its fallen soldiers.

The King of Yu Yue accepted a humiliating public surrender ceremony, then convinced Zi Shou that he genuinely wanted to submit and retire in Chaoge. After handing over his three hundred retainers and departing that night, Zi Shou sat awake, troubled by the turn of events.

• The King of Yu Yue performed three kneelings and nine kowtows before entering Three Mountains Pass, enduring soldiers’ ceremony and the commoners’ jeers.
• Deng Xiu told the gathered people that the King of Yu Yue had surrendered and said taxes might rise to support King Zhou’s southern campaign.
• The King of Yu Yue realized the spectacle was meant to reassure the people and secure supplies, and he entered the General’s Mansion feeling safer.
• The King of Yu Yue declared his loyalty to Zi Shou, offered his three hundred retainers, and asked to live in Chaoge.
• The King of Yu Yue left for Chaoge that night, while Zi Shou stayed awake with a bowl of soup and a troubled expression.

The King of Nanyue challenged Three Mountains Pass with eight thousand troops, hoping to defeat Shang’s generals and rule all Baiyue. Deng Jiugong chose to wait until the enemy was exhausted, then sent Deng Xiu and Zhao Sheng out to fight as he prepared an encirclement.

• The King of Nanyue sent Wood Snake, Wood Zhuang, and Wood Tiger with eight thousand troops to challenge Three Mountains Pass.
• Zi Shou let Deng Jiugong decide whether to fight, and Deng Jiugong delayed the battle until noon to tire out the Nanyue troops.
• Deng Jiugong ordered Deng Xiu to lead the attack and Zhao Sheng to support him from the flank.
• Deng Jiugong praised the Nanyue soldiers’ exhaustion and ordered Tai Luan and Sun Hongyan to flank them while Li Jin’s troops prepared to block their escape through the forests.
• Zi Shou admitted he knew nothing of warfare as Deng Jiugong and Wen Zhong praised each other’s military skill.

Deng Xiu’s Shang vanguard defeated the Nanyue champions with Zhao Sheng’s fire, then pursued the retreating army despite Zhao Sheng’s warnings. The Nanyue king’s Daoist revealed that a Poison Formation was ready to ambush the Shang forces.

• Deng Yu challenged Wood Snake, but his spear could not pierce Wood Snake’s body, and Wood Snake killed him with one slash.
• Deng Xiu wounded Wood Snake’s eye but was overwhelmed when Wood Zhuang and Wood Tiger joined the fight.
• Zhao Sheng burned Wood Snake and Wood Tiger with his fire, allowing Deng Xiu’s soldiers to capture them and forcing the Nanyue army to retreat.
• Deng Xiu ignored Zhao Sheng’s warnings and pursued the Nanyue army, believing his father’s troops had blocked the forests and flanks.
• The King of Nanyue learned from a sinister Daoist that the Poison Formation was laid and that the Shang Army would enter its ambush after retreating another three li.

After the Shang Army suffered a crushing defeat at Three Mountains Pass, Zi Shou watched Deng Xiu face blame and saw a chance to learn from the generals’ failures. The discussion began with Wen Zhong praising the victory at E City, but Zi Shou redirected it toward analyzing the recent defeat.

• Deng Xiu and Zhao Sheng returned after Nanyue’s poison formation routed the Shang Army, and Deng Jiugong scolded Deng Xiu for the costly pursuit.
• Children cheered Deng Xiu up with a childish seesaw trap, and Zi Shou wondered why his own pursuit of E Shun had ended in victory instead of ambushes.
• Deng Jiugong asked Wen Zhong to teach Deng Xiu about formations, and Zi Shou proposed that the generals share their battlefield experience, including defeats.
• Three days later, Zi Shou and the generals gathered to discuss military lessons, but Wen Zhong began by praising the Battle of E City.
• Zi Shou interrupted Wen Zhong and asked the generals to analyze their recent loss, while Deng Jiugong and Wen Zhong reminded them that commanders could not win every battle.

Wen Zhong and Deng Jiugong taught Deng Xiu lessons from his defeat, while Zi Shou misread their praise of his victory at E City as evidence of his military skill. After Zi Shou returned to Chaoge, Wen Zhong sensed that the Heavenly Court and other powers might threaten Great Shang.

• Wen Zhong outlined three principles of warfare and rebuked Deng Xiu for pursuing the enemy without understanding their strength or securing victory first.
• Deng Jiugong presented Zi Shou’s battle at E City as an example of the principles, while Zi Shou privately admitted that his apparent strategy had mostly been luck and confusion.
• Zi Shou listened to accounts of the generals’ defeats, then left to organize a football game and planned to make reviewing failures a practice across the Shang Dynasty.
• Zi Shou expected his foolishness value to rise during the next settlement period because of poor harvests, resentment toward the Women’s Federation, higher commercial taxes, and Li Jing’s reforms.
• Half a month later, Zi Shou returned to Chaoge with a few hundred soldiers and Li Lie, whom Wen Zhong had persuaded him to bring.
• Wen Zhong looked toward the Heavenly Court and considered the likely threats from the Heavenly Emperor, the West Sea Dragon Tribe, Zhou, the Chan Sect, and Western Teachings.

The Heavenly Emperor reflected on how rumors had turned his ordinary efforts into a supposed grand plan to expand the Heavenly Court’s power. After Taibai Jinxing reported that Princess Longji had returned and was hiding with Matchmaker Yue, the Heavenly Emperor let her be, while Taibai mistook his response for part of a vast scheme against King Zhou.

• The Heavenly Emperor recalled how incense offerings, his subordinates’ actions, and his attempt to recruit immortals for the Investiture Calamity had fueled rumors that he sought to surpass the Three Teachings.
• The Heavenly Emperor considered the First Emperor of Shang’s defiance of the heavenly gods and blamed confusion over mortal worship partly on impostors and the Heavenly Court’s slow response.
• Taibai Jinxing requested an audience, and the Heavenly Emperor summoned him.
• Taibai Jinxing reported that Princess Longji had returned and was hiding at Matchmaker Yue’s place.
• The Heavenly Emperor remembered confining Longji to protect her from the Investiture Calamity, then told Taibai to let her be.
• Taibai Jinxing interpreted the Heavenly Emperor’s response as evidence that Longji was an inside agent preparing to slay King Zhou, and he concluded the Heavenly Emperor was orchestrating a grand strategy.

Long Ji visited Matchmaker Yue to check her marriage bond, but accidentally snapped the red threads of several gods reincarnated in the mortal world. She realized her father had engineered the incident to turn those gods into reinforcements for Zhou, and returned to the mortal world determined to stand by King Zhou.

• Long Ji visited Matchmaker Yue, and their struggle over her red thread snapped the marriage bonds of Tianpeng and several other reincarnated gods.
• Matchmaker Yue explained that the gods had chosen love tribulations in mortal lives and that broken bonds would halt their tribulations until they died naturally.
• Long Ji discovered that Tianpeng’s eighth-life tribulation would have ended with his death as a general serving Xiqi, but the broken thread could let him remain a powerful general.
• Long Ji concluded that the Heavenly Emperor had planned for her to break the threads so the gods could aid Zhou and advance his ambition to strengthen the Heavenly Court.
• Long Ji left for the mortal world, choosing to trust King Zhou and oppose her father’s treatment of mortals as tools in the calamity.

Zi Shou learned that Mei Bo had invented movable-type printing, then found a newspaper quiz claiming China’s writing system had been standardized in the Shang Dynasty. The revelation left Zi Shou stunned as his coins spilled across the street.

• Zi Shou met Long Ji on the road and disguised their appearances before entering Chaoge to gather news.
• At the market, Zi Shou questioned an old woman selling newspapers about how they had reached ordinary people.
• The old woman explained that Mei Bo invented movable type after engraving inscriptions on bronze ritual vessels.
• Zi Shou reasoned that printing would have limited impact because literacy and written forms were not standardized, then bought a newspaper.
• Zi Shou read a quiz stating that China standardized its writing in the Shang Dynasty, and his coins fell from his robe in shock.

Zi Shou learned that court officials and Turtle Spirit Holy Mother had standardized written characters, helping spread literacy through the new law, and Queen Jiang explained how his policies had enabled their adoption. After returning to Chaoge, Zi Shou visited the pregnant Daji while Lu Xiong welcomed Xiao Yin and his troops from Lintong Pass to reinforce the capital.

• Zi Shou discovered that people across the realm could easily recognize and write the newly standardized characters, though he had missed Queen Jiang's memorial about the effort.
• Queen Jiang explained that Yang Ren had begun the work, court officials had pooled their efforts, and Turtle Spirit Holy Mother had accelerated it with her knowledge of written language.
• Queen Jiang credited Zi Shou's destruction of the shamans' books and his strict new law with making simplified characters and literacy necessary for officials and commoners.
• Zi Shou realized the new law had created a path for commoners to become highly paid penal officials, then reassured himself that Zhang Da's oversight would serve his plans.
• Zi Shou asked Queen Jiang about other matters, visited Daji as she neared childbirth, and Chaoge received Xiao Yin's forces from Lintong Pass.
• Lu Xiong welcomed Xiao Yin, praised his disciplined troops, and prepared to take him to the palace to meet Zi Shou.

Xiao Yin presented his self-supporting, field-farming army as a model of military training, winning the ministers’ praise while Zi Shou doubted the soldiers’ combat readiness. Zi Shou secretly ordered Fei Zhong to challenge Xiao Yin, and Fei Zhong struck at him outside the hall.

• Lu Xiong introduced Xiao Yin to Zi Shou, who asked him to explain his methods for training troops.
• Xiao Yin described how Lintong Pass soldiers farmed in peacetime, drilled, and earned enough to support themselves and replace their equipment.
• The ministers praised military farming, while Zi Shou questioned whether the soldiers had time to train and ordered Xiao Yin to prepare a memorial for an inspection.
• After dismissing court, Zi Shou secretly spoke with Fei Zhong, who turned pale but agreed to carry out his sovereign’s order.
• Fei Zhong accused Xiao Yin of deceiving Zi Shou by neglecting military training and swung his fist at him before Lu Xiong could intervene.

After Zi Shou ordered Fei Zhong to provoke Xiao Yin, the Royal Guards beat the general, making him suspect the king was behind the attack. Xiao Yin and Gui Tianlu then planned to win Zi Shou’s favor while preparing to rebel if their crimes were exposed.

• Fei Zhong struck Xiao Yin, and the Royal Guards joined in until Li Jing stopped the fight.
• Xiao Yin returned to camp injured and told Gui Tianlu that King Zhou’s men had beaten him.
• Xiao Yin and Gui Tianlu suspected that Zi Shou knew about their past crimes, though they doubted their secret had been discovered.
• Xiao Yin warned Gui Tianlu that they might have to act if an investigation threatened them and pointed out that Immortals could not freely use their powers.
• Xiao Yin ordered Gui Tianlu to prepare for the troop inspection while keeping the soldiers alert in case they needed to act.

Li Jing investigated whether Xiao Yin had secretly misused farmland to support his troops but found no evidence until he received an anonymous letter. During Zi Shou’s troop inspection, Li Jing confronted Xiao Yin and asked him to explain.

• Li Jing suspected Xiao Yin’s soldiers could not have become self-sufficient from Lintong Pass’s limited farmland, but Jin Cheng’s investigation uncovered nothing.
• Mei De delivered Li Jing a secret letter from E Gao, concealing that he knew the sender, and Li Jing ordered him to alert Lei Kai to prepare troops at the West Gate.
• Zi Shou left Daji and joined the officials for the inspection, while Daji continued leading the Women’s Federation despite growing opposition.
• Xiao Yin’s soldiers displayed disciplined formations and impressed Zi Shou and the generals, who praised them as elite troops.
• Li Jing turned back toward Xiao Yin, produced the secret letter, and publicly asked him to explain what he did not understand.

Li Jing confronted Xiao Yin over farmland seizures and tax evasion, then accused him of claiming credit for killing innocents. Xiao Yin denounced King Zhou and declared a rebellion, leaving the Royal Guards and Imperial Guards facing off against his soldiers as he ordered them to attack.

• Li Jing praised Lintong Pass's military farming before accusing Xiao Yin of seizing commoners' land and evading trade taxes.
• Xiao Yin admitted his crimes but denied Li Jing's accusation that he had claimed credit for killing innocent people.
• Xiao Yin decided King Zhou had set him up and urged his soldiers to rebel, proclaiming that the throne would pass to his house.
• Yin Pobai called for the guards to protect King Zhou as the Royal Guards blocked Xiao Yin's soldiers and Li Lie led the Imperial Guards to surround them.
• Xiao Yin hardened his resolve and shouted for his soldiers to kill.

Xiao Yin launched a rebellion in Chaoge, and Zi Shou treated the uprising as a chance to undo the reputation he feared his achievements had earned him. Lei Kai’s troops arrived to reinforce the defenders, but fires broke out across the city, revealing that Xiao Yin’s forces might not be the only rebels.

• Xiao Yin led his troops in attacking the Imperial Guards, while Zi Shou refused armor and watched from the high platform, confident his Immortals could protect him.
• Xiao Yin broke through the defenders, defeated Chao Tian, and clashed with Li Lie as court officials cursed the rebels and fought back.
• Lei Kai arrived with an orderly formation of troops, easing the pressure on the Royal Guards and Imperial Guards.
• Chaoge’s guards debated how Xiao Yin, Li Lie, and other generals ranked in martial strength.
• Fires flared throughout Chaoge, alarming Li Jing and Zi Shou and suggesting that more than Xiao Yin’s troops had risen in rebellion.

Lou Yunqu's rebellion set Chaoge ablaze as Jiang Ziya's scheme drew defenders away from the capital. At the beacon tower, Shen Gongbao confronted Jiang Ziya and accepted his wager over whether the royal palace would fall.

• Lou Yunqu led his followers into rebellion, seized weapons, and marched toward the royal palace while fires spread through Chaoge.
• Jiang Ziya reviewed how he had manipulated Lou Yunqu, Ji Gao, the nobles, and Xiao Yin to draw Chaoge's defenders outside the city.
• Lou Yunqu's men killed the remaining Dark Phoenix Guards at the palace and set another fire after Lou Yunqu mistook the Afang Palace for Epang Palace.
• Shen Gongbao flew to the beacon tower, where he found Jiang Ziya and the unconscious soldiers who had tried to light the beacon.
• Jiang Ziya challenged Shen Gongbao to wager that the royal palace would fall, and Shen Gongbao accepted.

As rebel troops attacked the palace, Empress Jiang organized the consorts while Noble Consort Huang and Deng Chanyu prepared to defend them. Outside, Gao San led the Women's Federation to arm themselves and march to the palace, determined to prove women could stand against danger.

• A bloodied eunuch warned Daji, Empress Jiang, Noble Consort Huang, Consort Yang, Long Ji, Deng Chanyu, and the other consorts that rebels were attacking and urged them to flee.
• Daji whispered to Empress Jiang before falling asleep, and Empress Jiang organized the palace while Noble Consort Huang and Deng Chanyu readied their female soldiers.
• Gao San gathered the Women's Federation after the rebels rose, and the women recalled the violence and hardship that had strengthened their resolve to fight for women's rights.
• Gao San led the women to the Armory, where they put on the remaining bronze armor and took up weapons.
• The women marched toward the palace, knowing they were outmatched but determined to stand alongside men in defending Great Shang.

As rebel forces advanced through Chaoge, the Dare-to-Bear Army rallied to defend their families and the women of the palace resisted Lou Yunqu’s troops. The Chan Sect blocked Shang’s supernatural defenders from intervening, while the palace women’s traps threw the rebels into confusion.

• Shitou left Guihua and their sleeping child to fight the rebels, and Shi Bufan renamed the Slave Army the Dare-to-Bear Army.
• Lou Yunqu ordered his men to capture the female soldiers, and Zhao Gongming, Luo Xuan, Yuan Hong, and Lü Yue were each prevented from aiding King Zhou by Chan Sect figures.
• Noble Consort Huang’s women fired arrows at beehives, splashed honey water on the rebels, and set fire to goats carrying planks and straw.
• Lou Yunqu recognized the burning animals as goats and shouted for his confused troops not to panic.

Noble Consort Huang’s forces used Poison Bird Wine on burning sheep to poison the rebels, then fought to hold their ground as the Slave Army arrived. Shitou and the other former slaves pressed forward despite Lou Yunqu’s fierce resistance.

• Lou Yunqu steadied the rebels, who ate the burning sheep and taunted the female soldiers.
• Noble Consort Huang ordered the attack after the poisoned sheep killed many rebels, and Deng Chanyu led the female soldiers forward.
• Lou Yunqu rallied the surviving rebels as reinforcements arrived, and the Slave Army charged into battle.
• Lou Yunqu fought Deng Chanyu and swept Slave Army soldiers aside with Yu the Great’s Rod.
• Shitou led the Slave Army’s advance, drawing strength from the cruelties he had endured as a slave and fighting for his country, wife, and children.

The Slave Army and Gao San’s women helped defeat the rebels attacking the Imperial Palace, while Lou Yunqu escaped after rallying his own troops. At the Drill Ground, Xiao Zhen revived Xiao Yin and claimed him as a disciple, but Zi Shou immediately tried to kill him again.

• The Slave Army’s family-bound soldiers fought with desperate resolve and drove the rebel forces back from the Imperial Palace.
• Gao San led the women into battle and pinned down Lou Yunqu as the Coalition Army fell into disarray.
• Lou Yunqu broke free and escaped, convinced he could find the immortal masters backing the rebellion.
• At the Drill Ground, Zi Shou forced Yang Ren to help execute Xiao Yin and announced that Yang Ren would command the campaign against Xiqi.
• Xiao Zhen revived Xiao Yin with his silken jade sash and asked Zi Shou to let him take Xiao Yin as a disciple.
• Zi Shou attacked Xiao Yin again, but Xiao Zhen’s jade sash blocked the Tai’a Sword, so Zi Shou took out the Kongtong Seal.