Chapter Summaries

Su Hu led the Jizhou army to Chaoge, declaring that they would defend King Zhou, while Chong Heihu’s forces broke through the South Gate. Reinforcements trapped Chong Heihu’s army outside the gate, but flames erupted near the Royal Palace, leaving Su Hu and Huang Feiying alarmed.

• Su Hu recalled Wu Yi’s failed campaign and rallied the Jizhou soldiers to enter Chaoge and defend King Zhou.
• Chong Heihu’s forces defeated Zhou Ji’s defenders and broke through Chaoge’s South Gate.
• Chong Yingbiao and his household warriors tried to hold the gate against the rebels, but his small force was surrounded.
• A female general and Lu Xiong led reinforcements out of Chaoge, and Su Quanzhong’s Jizhou troops arrived behind Chong Heihu’s army.
• Chong Heihu fled as his forces were trapped, while flames rose near the Royal Palace and alarmed Su Hu and Huang Feiying.

After rebels appeared in the city, Zi Shou confronted them at the Meridian Gate, using his strength to intimidate them while sending the Royal Guards to protect the Imperial Harem. He escaped by another route and drew the rebels after him, hoping to survive until the system’s settlement.

• Zi Shou realized that provoking rebellions endangered his life and decided he needed a gradual, methodical plan to earn Foolishness Value.
• Zi Shou led three hundred Royal Guards to the Meridian Gate and sent Lei Guan flying with a single shove.
• Zi Shou pulled wooden pillars from the Meridian Gate and piled them up to block the rebels, then ordered the Royal Guards to protect the consorts in the palace.
• After the rebels cleared the pillars, Lei Kai discovered Zi Shou had escaped by another route and ordered his soldiers to pursue him.
• Zi Shou reasoned that the pursuing infantry would leave the Imperial Harem safe and hoped to hold out until the system settled his rewards.

Yin Pobai remembered his loyalty to King Zhou and led the retired Royal Guards and grateful townspeople toward the palace, only to follow the rebels north when they fled. Zi Shou faced the rebels alone at the Beacon Tower as they set it alight, while Daji began to confess something she had long hidden from him.

• Yin Pobai put on his old armor, took a Bronze Plow as a weapon, and decided to go protect King Zhou.
• Wang Da and the other retired Royal Guards joined Yin Pobai, and townspeople who owed him kindness joined their march.
• Yin Pobai found the rebels fleeing north from the palace and pursued them.
• Zi Shou reached the Beacon Tower with Daji and used its narrow approach to hold off the rebels.
• Lei Kai ordered his troops to retreat and set the Beacon Tower on fire.
• As smoke rose, Daji told Zi Shou that she had kept something from him for a long time.

Daji revealed that she was a thousand-year-old Nine-Tailed White Fox and offered to save Zi Shou, but he kept her from exposing herself while rebels surrounded the burning Beacon Tower. As loyal Royal Guards, townsfolk, and reinforcements arrived to defend him, Zi Shou waited for his system to tally his Foolishness Value and prepared to use a powerful item.

• Daji confessed that she was a Nine-Tailed White Fox and vowed to destroy the rebels, but Zi Shou said he already knew and refused to let her fight.
• Lei Kai surrounded the Beacon Tower with his troops and waited for the fire and smoke to force Zi Shou down.
• More than thirty Royal Guards and nearly a thousand townsfolk arrived, declaring their support for Zi Shou.
• Huang Feiying's troops and Su Hu's forces joined the defenders, surrounding Lei Kai and leaving him convinced that Zi Shou had anticipated the rebellion.
• Zi Shou chose a powerful item on his system panel and waited for his Foolishness Value tally as Su Hu, Yin Pobai, and Huang Feiying apologized for arriving too late to save him.

Zi Shou watched Su Hu and Yin Pobai arrive with reinforcements, realizing their actions had undermined his plan to earn Foolishness Value. When bandits from Yellow Flower Mountain attacked and the battle turned dangerous, he left Daji on the Beacon Tower and went to fight alongside his troops.

• Su Hu and Yin Pobai arrived with forces that made the commoners view Zi Shou as a wise king rather than a fool.
• Deng Zhong and the Yellow Flower Mountain bandits attacked the Jizhou army, and their magic-wielding leaders put Su Quanzhong and Yin Pobai's forces under pressure.
• Zi Shou told Daji to remain on the Beacon Tower and descended to join the battle.
• Zi Shou resolved to protect his soldiers and fight beside them, declaring that he would share their hardships and risk his life with them.

Zi Shou’s intervention and Shi Ji’s Tai'a Sword wiped out the rebels, while the arriving lords interpreted the victory as proof of his divine authority. Ji Chang resolved to seek another way to challenge King Zhou, and Zi Qi, Zi Yan, Bi Gan, Mai Yun, and Mai Zhi awaited punishment in Chaoge.

• Zi Shou fought beside the Shang Army, inspiring his soldiers to fight fearlessly despite his worry that their loyalty would strengthen his reputation.
• A tremendous blast incapacitated nearly ten thousand rebels, including Deng Zhong, Xin Huan, Zhang Jie, and Tao Rong, and the Tai'a Sword flew into Zi Shou’s hand.
• Shi Ji arrived on an Azure Luan and told the lords that Zi Shou’s sovereign might and sagely virtue had unleashed the sword’s power.
• Zi Shou escorted Daji back to the palace and ordered the battlefield cleared as the lords witnessed the rebels lying helpless.
• Ji Chang concluded that King Zhou had used the uprising to intimidate the lords and considered relying on distant peoples to oppose him.
• Zi Qi, Zi Yan, Bi Gan, Mai Yun, and Mai Zhi gathered in Chaoge, knowing King Zhou would soon summon them to account for the failed rebellion.

Zi Qi sacrificed himself so Mai Yun could use his head and the Bloodstained Belt Edict to gain an audience with King Zhou and attempt an assassination. As Zi Shou convened court to address the captured rebels, Mai Zhi and Mai Yun arrived carrying Zi Qi’s head and asking forgiveness.

• Zi Qi proposed that Mai Yun approach King Zhou with a rebel leader’s head and the Bloodstained Belt Edict, then attack him with a hidden dagger.
• Zi Yan realized the rebels intended to use his head and feared he would be killed, while Zi Qi explained that he hoped to preserve Great Shang by changing the succession and overturning the Mandate of Heaven Theory.
• Zi Qi gave Bi Gan a life-preserving talisman, then cut his own throat rather than sacrifice Zi Yan.
• Mai Yun took Zi Qi’s head, the Bloodstained Belt Edict, and the dagger, and vowed to carry out the mission.
• Zi Shou summoned the ministers to discuss the captured rebels, and Mai Zhi and Mai Yun arrived at the Nine-Bay Hall carrying Zi Qi’s head and begging forgiveness.

Mai Yun attempted to assassinate King Zhou, but Zi Shou turned the attack into a staged display of mercy and ordered the rebels imprisoned. Bi Gan interpreted Zi Shou’s actions as proof of his virtue and tore out his own heart, leaving the court in shock.

• Mai Yun presented Zi Qi’s head and the Bloodstained Belt Edict to Zi Shou, then revealed a dagger and attacked him.
• Zi Shou feigned fear, evaded Mai Yun around a pillar, and captured him while preventing the Royal Guards from killing him.
• Zi Shou ordered Mai Yun and Mai Zhi sent to Yuan Prison and secretly kept the names of Zi Yan and Bi Gan from the court.
• Zi Shou announced that Mai Yun’s assassination attempt should be publicized, claiming it would encourage the prisoners to remain peaceful.
• Bi Gan concluded that Zi Shou had spared him and honored his brotherly bond with Zi Qi, then stabbed himself and pulled out his heart.

Bi Gan survived having his heart removed and resolved to protect Great Shang, while Zi Shou rejected human burial sacrifices and faced a minister’s proposal to offer prisoners to Heaven. Jiang Ziya continued spying on Chaoge, and the court debate over the Mandate of Heaven and sacrificial customs remained unsettled.

• Bi Gan bought Heartless Vegetables from an old seller, whose claim that a person could live without a heart triggered his wound to heal; he recalled Zi Qi’s warning and decided to safeguard the realm.
• Jiang Ziya reflected on his mission to aid Xiqi, his failed attempts at business, and his efforts to gather intelligence in Chaoge alongside Yun Zhongzi.
• Zi Shou ordered the guards to collect Bi Gan’s heart and Zi Qi’s head, then continued court deliberations despite the shocking scene.
• Junior Grandee Xia Zhao proposed burying prisoners of war as human sacrifices, but Zi Shou rejected the practice and resolved to abolish it.
• Senior Grandee Yang Ren proposed using the prisoners as offerings to Heaven, opposing Zi Shou’s Mandate of Heaven Theory in the name of preserving Great Shang.

Zi Shou rejected Yang Ren’s appeal to revive human offering sacrifices and proposed sending the rebellion’s prisoners north to build a Great Wall. He explained the wall as a defense against nomadic raids, while planning to make the project wasteful enough to provoke curses without causing rebellion.

• Zi Shou cited declining numbers of human offering sacrifices across successive Shang reigns and challenged Yang Ren to continue the practice.
• When Yang Ren argued that the captured prisoners were dangerous and costly to feed, Zi Shou ordered them sent north to build the Great Wall.
• Zi Shou described connecting frontier platforms and forts into a continuous wall to stop the cavalry of Gui Fang and Tu Fang from raiding the south.
• Wen Zhong, Lu Xiong, and other officials praised the plan, while Xu Gai questioned why the wall needed to cross mountains where cavalry could not pass.
• Zi Shou dismissed the idea of building only at key routes and defended extending the wall across mountains and precipitous ridges.

Zi Shou announced plans to build earthen walls along the northern frontier and assigned generals and guards to new posts. He ordered prisoners of war and slaves sent to construct the Great Wall, while privately hoping the costly project would help fulfill the accusations later leveled against him.

• Zi Shou explained how connected walls and beacon towers could help defend the frontier, and the court praised his plan.
• Zi Shou appointed Su Quanzhong Frontier Garrison General and sent Chong Yingbiao to the Royal Guards.
• Yin Pobai and the other Royal Guards asked to return to their former ranks, and Zi Shou agreed while intending Chong Yingbiao to teach them tyranny.
• Zi Shou ordered prisoners of war and slaves sent north to build the Great Wall, and the ministers accepted the decree.

King Zhou issued edicts recruiting talent regardless of birth and sending slaves to build the Great Wall. As Ji Chang plotted to turn the policy against Great Shang, Bi Gan supported it and sent most of his slaves to the Hall of Worthies; runaway slave Wu Wenhua decided to seek freedom by joining the construction, while Zi Shou considered extravagant palace projects.

• Royal Guards proclaimed King Zhou’s Meritocratic Edict and Great Wall Slave Conscription Edict throughout Chaoge City.
• Ji Chang saw the Great Wall policy as a way to provoke unrest and planned to encourage northern tribes and other enemies to attack Great Shang.
• Bi Gan interpreted the two edicts as a path for slaves to earn merit and rise to office, then sent two-thirds of his slaves to the Hall of Worthies.
• Bi Gan concluded that Great Shang needed a cheap, lightweight material for spreading written messages across the realm.
• Wu Wenhua, a runaway slave scarred by his parents’ deaths, decided to go north and build the Great Wall rather than remain enslaved.
• Zi Shou considered using available labor to renovate the Royal Palace and named several extravagant construction projects.

Zi Shou used a fabricated report of auspicious birds on Phoenix Mountain to secure permission to travel there, secretly planning to proclaim himself emperor before Chentang Pass flooded and then issue an insincere edict of self-reproach. He appointed Jizi to arrange the ancestral sacrifices, and Jizi set out believing the order showed King Zhou’s mercy toward his rebellious relatives.

• Zi Shou planned to visit Chentang Pass and exploit its coming flood as supposed divine punishment, then issue an edict of self-reproach to quiet public anger.
• At court, Fei Zhong presented Zi Shou’s fabricated report that a Dark Phoenix and phoenixes had appeared on Phoenix Mountain, while Su Quanzhong dismissed the sighting as ordinary birds.
• Zi Shou announced that he would travel to Phoenix Mountain to offer sacrifices to his ancestors, and the ministers mistook the plan for a conciliatory gesture.
• Zi Shou privately planned to perform Fengshan rites, style himself emperor, and use the flood at Chentang Pass to provoke outrage and gain foolishness value.
• Jizi received Zi Shou’s decree to arrange the ancestral sacrifices and interpreted it as an act of mercy toward Bi Gan and Zi Qi.
• Jizi set out for Phoenix Mountain, determined to arrange the highest-order ancestral rites.

Zi Shou prepared to leave Chaoge for a grand ancestral sacrifice and appointed Yin Jiao and Yin Hong as regents, leaving them broad freedom to govern. He told the ministers the princes would be tested while he took nearly all senior officials with him to Phoenix Mountain.

• Jizi sent riders ahead to Chentang Pass to prepare for the ancestral sacrifice, while Bi Gan resolved to continue his research after learning the ceremony would honor him and Zi Qi.
• Zi Shou told Yin Jiao and Yin Hong they would serve as regents, then encouraged them to govern freely and gave each a Dark Phoenix Jade Pendant.
• Yin Jiao interpreted his father’s instructions as a chance for the princes to learn through practice, while Yin Hong asked whether he could punish people he disliked.
• Shang Rong worried that the young princes would have almost no experienced ministers to assist them, but Zi Shou said Fei Zhong and Du Yuanxian would remain in Chaoge.
• Zi Shou told the ministers to prepare to travel with him, presenting the regency as a way to see which prince was more capable.

In August of Di Xin’s eighth year, Zi Shou traveled toward Chentang Pass, hoping to take the blame for the coming disaster and provoke resentment after months of being praised. Along the way, he discovered that his Royal Guards’ awkward gait had become a popular symbol of loyalty, and he began considering another scheme to earn Foolishness Value.

• Zi Shou ordered his ministers to leave for Chentang Pass after hearing that the garrison commander’s son had caused towering waves while bathing in the river.
• As Zi Shou’s procession crossed Chaoge, he found that people welcomed him and imitated the Royal Guards’ gait, which You Hun said they called the Loyalty Step.
• You Hun explained that Fei Zhong’s servants had copied the gait to get lower prices on vegetables, helping spread the fashion among the people.
• Zi Shou saw a lavish tomb and learned from You Hun that it belonged to the messenger who had brought news of victory in the North Sea.
• After hearing how the messenger’s family was honored, Zi Shou considered building relay stations and later abolishing them to create complaints, but kept Chentang Pass as his immediate priority.

Huang Feihu interpreted King Zhou’s edict as a plan to bring Gui Fang into Great Shang through trade, military pressure, and eventual protection within the Great Wall. He began organizing the plan with help from Fei Lian, Ji Sheng, and Kong Xuan.

• Huang Feihu learned that Gui Fang was impoverished and too weak to threaten Great Shang, which made him question why King Zhou had appointed him to the Northwest Protectorate.
• Fei Lian received an edict ordering the construction of the Great Wall and the appointment of talented people regardless of their origins.
• Huang Feihu proposed trading with Gui Fang, demonstrating Great Shang’s military strength, and drawing Tu Fang into an attack so Gui Fang would seek Great Shang’s protection.
• Ji Sheng recommended Shen Gongbao as an envoy to Gui Fang, and Fei Lian agreed to send him.
• Kong Xuan agreed to provide subdued demonic beasts as mounts for a cavalry unit and explained that vengeful spirits had misled the delayed messenger.
• Huang Feihu praised King Zhou’s foresight, while Fei Lian remarked that a relay station could prevent future delays in communication.

Zi Shou deliberately changed the royal procession’s route to stay in drought-stricken Guanjiangkou, hoping to provoke criticism and appear foolish. After hearing rumors that Heaven’s disasters punished his mandate of heaven theory, he defended the people and declared that he would offer himself in sacrifice, though he knew the drought would not end easily.

• Zi Shou asked You Hun to find a nearby village where the procession could stay without advance preparations.
• You Hun warned that Guanjiangkou had suffered Heavenly Thunder and a prolonged drought, but Zi Shou ordered the procession to stop there.
• Shang Rong tried to keep Zi Shou from hearing the villagers’ accusations and sent You Hun to investigate them instead.
• You Hun reported that people blamed the thunder and drought on the court’s attempt to defy Heaven and alter fate.
• Zi Shou denounced the idea that Heaven punished the innocent, took responsibility for the calamities, and announced he would follow Cheng Tang’s example by offering himself in sacrifice.

Zi Shou arranged a public rain-prayer ceremony in drought-stricken Guanjiangkou, while the Heavenly Emperor refused Wen Zhong’s request for rain. Zi Shou ascended the altar as skeptical villagers watched, leaving the ceremony’s outcome uncertain.

• Mei Bo welcomed King Zhou’s rain-prayer sacrifice as a sign of goodwill, though he wondered whether it could succeed.
• Wen Zhong warned Zi Shou that failed prayers would inflame public resentment and offered to seek rain from the Heavenly Court, but Zi Shou let him go.
• Zi Shou instructed You Hun to build the altar, and You Hun accepted after Zi Shou praised his loyalty.
• Wen Zhong returned from the Heavenly Court without rain and found You Hun’s altar already completed; the Heavenly Emperor had refused his request.
• Zi Shou ascended the altar with the Royal Guards as worried Wen Zhong and skeptical villagers watched, while a pale-faced, beardless youth observed from the crowd.

Zi Shou rejected traditional rain sacrifices and proclaimed that people should master the mandate of heaven, but a sudden torrential downpour followed his self-sacrifice. The crowd began to credit King Zhou for the rain, while Yang Jian took the storm as proof that fate could be resisted and vowed to rescue his mother and avenge his father.

• Zi Shou declared that heaven followed natural laws and that people should master the mandate of heaven, then pushed the sacrificial tablet to the ground and exposed the words “King Zhou of Yin Shang.”
• Wen Zhong summoned thunder to calm the crowd, but the thunder came without rain and the people grew agitated.
• An Azure Luan passed overhead, and a torrential downpour began as the crowd fell silent.
• Yang Jian concluded that the mandate of heaven could be resisted and ran home to tell his younger sister and Dahei that he would rescue his mother and avenge his father.
• The ministers and common people began to credit King Zhou for sending the rain, and many knelt before him.

Zi Shou brought rain to Guanjiangkou, winning the people’s praise while realizing the salty seawater rain would eventually ruin their fields. After reaching Phoenix Mountain, he continued toward the Fengshan Sacrifice, expecting the feudal lords to resent his claim to surpass ancient rulers.

• Chong Yingbiao and the assembled officials and commoners praised Zi Shou after rain fell at the Sacrificial Altar.
• Zi Shou realized the rain tasted salty and expected it to damage the farmland, but decided the people’s gratitude could help him secure the mandate of Heaven and carry out his plans.
• Commoners fought over You Hun’s stone tablet, then agreed to build a shrine honoring Zi Shou, and some escorted him for thirty li.
• At Phoenix Mountain, Jizi welcomed Zi Shou and reported that the local people were praising him as a wise king.
• After resting overnight, Zi Shou rode up Phoenix Mountain in a carriage while Wen Zhong, Mei Bo, Shang Rong, and the other ministers climbed on foot.
• Zi Shou considered how the feudal lords would resent his Fengshan Sacrifice as mist drifted around a hidden mountain palace where a woman in a red robe appeared.