Chapter Summaries

Ji Chang found Jiang Ziya by the Qi River and persuaded him to serve as Xiqi’s Chancellor, but their recruitment ceremony was interrupted by the Chaoge Hunting Team. Jiang Ziya and Ji Chang escaped arrest, while Wu Ji watched them flee.

• Ji Chang waited three days by the Qi River before meeting Jiang Ziya, who outlined a campaign to overthrow King Zhou and capture Chaoge.
• Ji Chang pleaded with Jiang Ziya to become Xiqi’s Chancellor, and Jiang Ziya agreed after asking him to pull his carriage as a token of sincerity.
• Jiang Ziya used magic to stop the horse from moving, forcing Ji Chang to prepare to pull the carriage himself.
• Wu Ji arrived with Ding Ce, Guo Chen, Dong Zhong, and the Chaoge Hunting Team, who accused Jiang Ziya of fishing during the legal ban.
• Jiang Ziya dispelled his spell, and Ji Chang drove the carriage away; the Hunting Team failed to catch them while Wu Ji secretly enjoyed their escape.

Lei Zhenzi left Mount Zhongnan to reunite with his father, Ji Chang, and help him campaign against King Zhou. After eating two strange apricots and finding a Golden Cudgel, he tried to rescue Ji Chang but mistakenly carried off Jiang Ziya, who crushed him beneath three mountains; the chapter ended with them recognizing each other.

• Lei Zhenzi learned from Jinxia Boy that Yun Zhongzi had left instructions for him to find a weapon beneath Tiger Cub Cliff before leaving the mountain.
• Lei Zhenzi ate two red apricots, which transformed his appearance, strengthened his Dharma Power, and gave him wings; he also found a golden cudgel and named it the Golden Cudgel.
• Gao Jieneng prepared to intercept Ji Chang, but Lei Zhenzi flew in and mistook Jiang Ziya inside the carriage for his father.
• Jiang Ziya summoned three mountains to crush Lei Zhenzi, then urged him to join the campaign against King Zhou.
• Lei Zhenzi recognized Jiang Ziya as his Uncle-Master, and Jiang Ziya asked how he had come to look so different.

After Lei Zhenzi returned to Ji Chang, he mistook Ji Dan’s escort guards for assassins and killed them while protecting his father. Ji Chang reached Xiqi safely, but he and Jiang Ziya suspected that something was fishy about the supposed ambush.

• Ji Chang set out for Xiqi in the rain after Jiang Ziya was carried away, and Gao Jieneng watched from the woods.
• Several dozen armored men approached Ji Chang, leading him to fear that Chaoge had sent pursuers to capture him.
• Lei Zhenzi returned, revealed himself as Ji Chang’s hundredth son, and challenged the approaching soldiers.
• Lei Zhenzi smashed a mountain spur with his Golden Cudgel, frightening Gao Jieneng into fleeing.
• Lei Zhenzi mistook Ji Dan’s escort guards for assassins and killed them, while Jiang Ziya arrived afterward.
• Ji Chang and Jiang Ziya questioned the strange circumstances, then Lei Zhenzi escorted Ji Chang safely back to Xiqi.

Ji Chang returned to Xiqi and reunited with Ji Fa, Ji Dan, his other sons, and the assembled officials, but suspected Ji Dan had sent the assassins who attacked him. Overwhelmed by illness and distress, Ji Chang collapsed and died before the welcoming crowd.

• Ji Chang arrived outside Xiqi and was welcomed by Ji Fa, Ji Dan, his sons, and General Nangong Shi.
• Ji Dan compared Ji Chang’s imprisonment to Wang Hai’s hardships, prompting Ji Chang to recall competing stories about Wang Hai’s death.
• Ji Chang suspected Ji Dan had ordered the assassination attempt and recognized that the guards behind him resembled the assassins.
• Ji Dan called to his father as Xiqi’s officials and commoners gathered to welcome him.
• Ji Chang collapsed and died, causing an uproar among the officials and people of Xiqi.

After Ji Chang died shortly after returning to Xiqi, Jiang Ziya convinced Ji Fa that Ji Dan may have arranged his father's murder and was a threat to Ji Fa's claim to rule. Ji Fa began reconsidering his brother's past decisions as he escorted Ji Chang to burial at Mount Qi.

• Ji Chang died on the day he returned to Xiqi, and Ji Fa led officials and soldiers in a grand, rain-soaked funeral procession.
• Jiang Ziya concluded that Ji Dan had sent soldiers to assassinate Ji Chang and shared his suspicions with Ji Fa.
• Ji Fa initially rejected the accusation but began to suspect Ji Dan after recalling how their father had died and how Ji Dan had acted.
• Jiang Ziya questioned Ji Dan's past decisions involving Bo Yikao and the rescue of Tai Si and Tai Ren, prompting Ji Fa to reconsider his brother's motives.
• Jiang Ziya warned that Ji Fa's succession lacked legitimacy, and Ji Fa recognized that Ji Dan could challenge him for Xiqi's rule.
• The funeral procession reached Mount Qi.

Ji Chang’s funeral took a suspicious turn when his coffin fell, deepening Ji Dan’s doubts about Jiang Ziya and the Immortals. In Chaoge, Zi Shou learned Ji Chang was dead and that Ji Fa had declared Zhou and sent an army toward Sishui Pass.

• Ji Dan watched Ji Fa trust Jiang Ziya and wondered whether the Immortals had caused Ji Chang’s death.
• During the funeral procession, Ji Fa and 127 others dropped Ji Chang’s coffin in the mud.
• Ji Dan took the fallen coffin as a sign that Ji Chang had died resentful and began reconsidering his trust in Jiang Ziya.
• Ji Fa interpreted the fall as evidence that Ji Chang resented being killed by his own son, as Jiang Ziya had conjectured.
• Gao Jieneng told Zi Shou that Ji Chang was dead, Ji Fa had proclaimed himself Son of Heaven and named his state Zhou, and Nangong Shi was marching toward Sishui Pass with a hundred thousand soldiers.

Zi Shou agreed to prepare a western expedition against Xiqi while insisting that he alone would bear the blame if the war ruined Great Shang. Shang Rong then submitted a memorial bearing signatures and muddy handprints from officials, nobles, and ordinary people, leaving Zi Shou surprised by how broadly the expedition was supported.

• Gao Jieneng urged Zi Shou to exploit Ji Chang's death by sending an army west, and Zi Shou promised him a role in the expedition after consulting his ministers.
• Zi Shou announced at court that Great Shang was ready to campaign against Xiqi, and Lu Xiong and the officials welcomed the chance to earn military merit.
• Zi Shou reminded the ministers that he alone had chosen the war and would accept responsibility if Great Shang lost its realm and ancestral altars.
• Shang Rong presented a memorial that stirred the court's fighting spirit, and Zi Shou initially thought it was a routine call to arms.
• The Charioteer handed Zi Shou the memorial, whose signatures and muddy handprints came from court officials, nobles, and commoners across Chaoge and beyond.

Zi Shou learned that nobles had signed the Memorial on the Campaign because they wanted Great Shang to conquer Xiqi and seize its sheep. Shang Rong and the ministers pledged to share responsibility for the Western Expedition, and Zi Shou then proposed honoring the dead Ji Chang with a statue and posthumous title.

• Zi Shou realized the nobles had signed the memorial to support conquering Xiqi and gaining access to its sheep.
• Chong Houhu interpreted Zi Shou's declarations of war against loyal feudal lords as a plan to spare them from blame if Great Shang lost, and he wept with gratitude.
• Shang Rong declared that the ministers would shoulder the campaign and its consequences alongside Zi Shou.
• Zi Shou ordered the Royal Guards to take Shang Rong to Epang Palace for Gua Sha.
• Zi Shou described an imperial star that had dimmed and fallen, then proposed erecting a statue for Ji Chang and granting him a posthumous title.

Zi Shou used the debate over Ji Chang’s posthumous title to praise his enemy and confuse the ministers about his motives. He then proposed a Strategic Deception Bureau, which the ministers mistook for an intelligence agency.

• Great Shang’s ministers planned to use posthumous titles to reclaim public opinion and discredit Ji Chang before the campaign against Xiqi.
• Zi Shou declared that Ji Chang would receive the honorific title King Wen, prompting Xin Jia and Yang Ren to object.
• Zi Shou defended Ji Chang’s achievements and implied that his choice had a hidden purpose, leading the ministers to stop challenging him.
• Zi Shou announced plans to establish a Strategic Deception Bureau as war approached.
• Lu Xiong suggested that the bureau collect and analyze intelligence, but Zi Shou rejected the idea of making it a conventional intelligence agency.

Zi Shou established the War Deception Bureau to spread false intelligence abroad and generate Foolishness Value, appointing Chong Yingbiao and Shi Yan to lead its two divisions. He ended court confident that the plan could benefit him whether it succeeded or failed.

• Zi Shou assigned War Deception Bureau Five to handle domestic intelligence and War Deception Bureau Six to spread false intelligence abroad.
• Zi Shou appointed Chong Yingbiao, backed by his ministers as a way to reassure Chong Houhu, to lead Bureau Five and incorporate the Dark Phoenix Guard.
• Zi Shou named Shi Yan, the Court Music Bureau's director, to lead Bureau Six, surprising Bo Yi and the other ministers.
• Zi Shou explained that Bureau Six would spread false reports about Great Shang's weakness rather than risk lives gathering enemy intelligence.
• The ministers accepted that Shi Yan's appointment would make the bureau's deception more convincing, and Zi Shou clarified that only bureaus Five and Six existed.
• Zi Shou ended court and returned to Shouxian Palace to sleep.

Nangong Shi planned a feint against Jiameng Pass while his army prepared to attack Sishui Pass, but Ji Shuqian insisted on leading the feint instead of Lei Zhenzi. Ji Shuqian reached Stone Pavilion with sixty thousand troops, and the Mo brothers learned that Xiqi was advancing on Jiameng Pass.

• Nangong Shi decided that his army should secure Stone Pavilion to block reinforcements from Jiameng Pass while attacking Sishui Pass.
• Lei Zhenzi proposed splitting the vanguard to feint toward Jiameng Pass, and volunteered to lead the force.
• Ji Shuqian insisted on commanding the sixty thousand troops assigned to the feint, and Lei Zhenzi yielded the role to him.
• A few days later, Ji Shuqian marched to Stone Pavilion and made a show of force toward Jiameng Pass.
• The Mo brothers heard that Ji Shuqian had reached Stone Pavilion and sent word to Dou Rong at Sishui Pass that Xiqi was attacking Jiameng Pass.

Nangong Shi’s Zhou Army reached Sishui Pass, where Dou Rong’s beacon tower had already warned the defenders. Dou Rong prevented Han Rong from charging out by drugging him with warm wine, then opened the gates—but only a lone white horse emerged.

• Nangong Shi’s army passed the beacon tower, and its defenders lit a warning fire that Lei Zhenzi refused to extinguish because of the karmic consequences.
• Dou Rong learned that Nangong Shi had arrived and watched Lei Zhenzi challenge the pass from the battlements.
• Dou Rong’s archers fired a volley at Lei Zhenzi, who blocked the arrows and vowed to destroy the defenders.
• Han Rong repeatedly asked to lead a sortie, but Dou Rong gave him warm wine that made him collapse and ordered him carried home to rest.
• Dou Rong ordered the gates opened and the army to march out, but only a single white horse trotted toward the Zhou formation.

Nangong Shi staged a feint at Sishui Pass to trick Dou Rong into sending reinforcements to Jiameng Pass while Ji Shuqian’s troops secretly shifted toward Sishui Pass. Dou Rong heard his scout’s analysis but refused to send troops to Jiameng Pass.

• Nangong Shi withdrew ten li and left signs of the Zhou Army’s supposed bluff so Dou Rong would believe Sishui Pass was not the real target.
• Nangong Shi planned for Ji Shuqian to move his troops from Jiameng Pass to Sishui Pass in batches before the Zhou Army launched its full assault.
• Dou Rong sent scouts to inspect the ground outside Sishui Pass and gather intelligence about the Zhou Army.
• A scout told Dou Rong that the Zhou Army was feigning an attack on Sishui Pass and urged him to reinforce Jiameng Pass.
• Dou Rong considered the report and said he would not send troops to Jiameng Pass.

Dou Rong refused to reinforce Jiameng Pass and strengthened Sishui Pass, while Nangong Shi prepared to seize the pass through undercover agents among its residents. Ji Gao arrived disguised as an injured refugee, determined to deliver Sishui Pass to Xiqi.

• Dou Rong rejected his scout’s warnings and refused to send troops to Jiameng Pass, choosing instead to inspect and reinforce Sishui Pass.
• Nangong Shi told Lei Zhenzi that undercover scouts would exploit Sishui Pass’s commoners and rear gates to take the town from within.
• Ji Gao ended his long undercover mission and set out for Xiqi with intelligence and Sishui Pass as his intended gift.
• Ji Gao reached Sishui Pass disguised as a filthy refugee with a deliberately broken leg, while Dou Rong personally inspected people at the gate.

Ji Gao and Tai Ji tried to pass through Sishui Pass disguised as commoners, but Dou Rong arrested them along with an old woman who was also a Xiqi spy. Ji Gao remained convinced that Xiqi’s widespread influence meant its Conquest of Zhou would succeed.

• Ji Gao used an invented identity and praised King Zhou while waiting to pass the checkpoint, but Dou Rong identified his travel permit as a forgery and had him arrested.
• Tai Ji, Ji Fa’s daughter, arrived at Sishui Pass with an adopted child and claimed she was returning to Li Commandery.
• Dou Rong suspected Tai Ji because she showed little concern for the child, and he had her taken to prison without searching her.
• Tai Ji found Ji Gao in prison, and guards then brought in the old woman Ji Gao had spoken with earlier, revealing that she too was a Xiqi spy.
• Ji Gao asked Dou Rong how he had exposed him, but Dou Rong kept silent and continued preventing anyone from passing Sishui Pass.

Shi Yan received Zi Shou’s decree to create an opera portraying Great Shang as unjust, supposedly to deceive its enemies, while Zi Shou also asked about the worsening military situation. The chapter ended with Shi Yan reporting that the Zhou forces were probing the passes and the feudal lords were preparing to join the fighting.

• Shi Yan presented his opera Peace Across the Four Seas, but Zi Shou ordered him to turn it into a tragedy exposing official corruption and wrongful convictions.
• Zi Shou devised the plot of Yang Jian and Heartless Vegetable, whose wrongful imprisonment and damaged lives left them questioning whether a clear blue heaven existed.
• Zi Shou ordered Shi Yan to compose Yang Jian and Heartless Vegetable and stage it throughout Great Shang, claiming it would help deceive the enemy and promising to bear the court’s criticism.
• Shi Yan accepted the decree while wondering whether Zi Shou had another reason for commissioning such a damaging portrayal of Great Shang.
• Zi Shou asked about the war, and Shi Yan reported that Nangong Shi remained stalemated with Dou Rong at Sishui Pass, Ji Shuqian was attacking Jiameng Pass, and the feudal lords were gathering troops and supplies.

Zi Shou ordered Shi Yan to publish a Monthly Appraisal that praised Xiqi’s generals while mocking Great Shang’s, using the list as a deception tactic to mislead the enemy and stir morale. He protected Shi Yan with a Dark Phoenix Jade Pendant, then added Grand Tutor Wen as Great Shang’s sole general with both courage and strategy.

• Zi Shou learned that Xiqi’s army was still lingering at Mount Qi, and he praised Shi Yan for avoiding dangerous intelligence-gathering missions.
• Zi Shou ordered the War Deception Bureau to feed Xiqi false intelligence and told Shi Yan to compile a Famous Generals List.
• Zi Shou classified Great Shang’s generals as frail strategists or reckless brutes, then praised Xiqi’s generals as accomplished in both civil and military affairs.
• Shi Yan completed the list, and Zi Shou named it the Monthly Appraisal and ordered it printed and sold at the start of each month.
• Zi Shou gave Shi Yan a Dark Phoenix Jade Pendant for protection, then called him back to add Grand Tutor Wen as Great Shang’s only general with both courage and strategy.

At the foot of Mount Qi, Ji Fa and the Xiqi generals read Great Shang’s Monthly Appraisal, which lavishly praised Xiqi’s commanders while disparaging Shang’s. Jiang Ziya convinced them the publication was a morale-boosting trick and concealed his belief that it could make Xiqi arrogant, hoping a future defeat would strengthen his own standing.

• Shi Yan was taken to the Imperial Medical Bureau after the Dark Phoenix Guard covered his head with a sack, while Chong Yingbiao was rumored to be responsible.
• Ji Fa inspected the newly completed Spirit Platform as Jiang Ziya displayed half of the Investiture List and privately worried about how he would confer godhood with only half of it.
• A messenger brought the Monthly Appraisal to Ji Fa and the Xiqi generals, who read glowing assessments of their own commanders and disparaging entries about Great Shang’s generals.
• Ji Fa suspected the appraisals were a scheme, and Jiang Ziya claimed they were meant to provoke Shang’s generals, prompt self-improvement, and confuse Xiqi about the enemy.
• Jiang Ziya urged Ji Fa to spread the appraisals and add more Xiqi names, while secretly hoping the generals would grow arrogant and lose a battle so he could gain their trust by rescuing them.

Nangong Shi and Lei Zhenzi struggled to explain why their spies had failed to help them take Sishui Pass, and suspected Great Shang had infiltrated their army. Unable to rely on Lei Zhenzi’s power to storm the pass, Nangong Shi remained stalled as the army bound for the Western Expedition began moving from Chaoge.

• Nangong Shi learned that the Monthly Appraisal had lifted morale, then summoned Lei Zhenzi to discuss the prolonged siege of Sishui Pass.
• Lei Zhenzi showed Nangong Shi the camp he had rebuilt using a formation diagram, and Nangong Shi urged him to focus on breaking through the pass.
• Lei Zhenzi suggested that a spy might have exposed Nangong Shi’s agents, and the two suspected Great Shang had infiltrated the Zhou army.
• Nangong Shi and Lei Zhenzi blamed the War Deception Bureau for the enemy’s intelligence advantage and concluded that they would have to storm the pass.
• Lei Zhenzi explained that karmic consequences prevented him from using his full power against ordinary soldiers, leaving Nangong Shi without a clear way to take Sishui Pass.
• Nangong Shi remained frustrated by the stalemate, while the army bound for the Western Expedition began moving from Chaoge.

Zi Shou reasoned that the Investiture List’s final names would only be decided after death, so he ordered Shen Gongbao to build Deer Terrace and display Great Shang’s list. As the Western Expedition began, Zi Shou named Yin Hong to oversee the realm alone, leaving the court to speculate about his choice of successor.

• Zi Shou concluded that the Investiture List was effectively a draft whose final appointments would be determined after people died in the calamity.
• Zi Shou ordered Shen Gongbao to build Deer Terrace in New City and hang the Investiture List there, and the unfinished platform was completed three days later.
• Zi Shou issued the decree for the Western Expedition against Xiqi, and Chaoge’s troops, officials, and laborers prepared to march.
• Zi Shou ordered Lu Xiong to lead the expedition and announced that he would see him off for a hundred li.
• Zi Shou appointed Yin Hong to oversee the realm with Shang Rong, Bo Yi, and Wan Nian assisting, prompting speculation about the succession.