Chapter Summaries

Tongtian defended Shi Ji after a nobleman challenged her fortune-telling, then disciplined her for leaving the Interception Sect and gave her the Heart-Piercing Lock. Wen Zhong announced that his junior brother had returned.

• A young nobleman confronted Shi Ji over an old pork-price prediction, struck Caiyun Boy, and tried to entice Shi Ji to his residence.
• Tongtian arrived and predicted that the young nobleman should beware of slippery ground; the nobleman fell three times before leaving the market.
• Tongtian brought Shi Ji to Wen Zhong's residence, cut her palm with the Qingping Sword as punishment for leaving the sect, and questioned her about fleeing from Taiyi.
• Tongtian gave Shi Ji the Heart-Piercing Lock on the thousandth anniversary of her entering his tutelage and warned that he would expel her if she lost to Taiyi again.
• Tongtian ordered Shi Ji to reflect in the rear courtyard, and Wen Zhong reported that his junior brother had returned.

Yang Jian met Tongtian and the elders after becoming Golden Spirit Holy Mother's disciple, and Tongtian bestowed a new name and magical power on his dog. At court, Zi Shou staged a drunken appearance to provoke criticism, while ministers praised him as enlightened; Lei Kai then reported the hunting troops' achievements.

• Yang Jian greeted Tongtian, Wen Zhong, and Golden Spirit Holy Mother, who praised his progress in the Eight-Nine Arcane Art.
• Tongtian bestowed a fateful opportunity on Dahei and named the dog Howling Heaven.
• Wen Zhong told Yang Jian that General Lei planned to request a reward for him before King Zhou, whom Yang Jian was eager to meet and serve.
• Zi Shou appeared at morning court smelling of wine, and Yang Ren remonstrated with him for drinking through the night.
• Fei Zhong and You Hun praised Zi Shou as an enlightened sovereign, prompting the assembled ministers to echo their acclamations as Tongtian watched.
• Lei Kai reported that the hunting troops had achieved results and requested rewards for the officers and soldiers, so Zi Shou ordered the meritorious troops summoned into the hall.

Zi Shou learned that Guanjiangkou’s drought had turned seawater rain into a plentiful source of sun-dried salt, leaving its people grateful and prosperous. He realized the settlement could become a major salt-producing center, while his Foolishness Value reward might be cut in half.

• Lei Kai reported that his troops had killed more than ten thousand wild animals and requested recognition for his soldiers, while giving most of the credit to his subordinates.
• Yang Jian introduced himself to Zi Shou, who recognized the third eye between his brows and asked how Guanjiangkou’s people were faring.
• Yang Jian explained that seawater rain had left salt in the fields, and that regular seawater showers and constant sunshine let the people gather and sell it.
• Golden Spirit Holy Mother revealed that she had arranged for Guanjiangkou’s Dragon King to send seawater rain regularly, exploiting the restriction on sending ordinary rain.
• Zi Shou realized the people’s praise might halve his Foolishness Value and considered how Guanjiangkou’s reliable salt production could make it a major economic center.

Zi Shou devised ways to preserve his foolishness value, giving Yang Jian a demon-slaying title and ordering the feudal lords to send unusual stones as tribute. After court, Tongtian asked Jin Ling and Gongming what they thought of King Zhou.

• Zi Shou decided to keep Long Ji close for protection and postpone dealing with the consequences of Guanjiangkou's sea salt.
• After hearing Yang Jian's accomplishments, Zi Shou appointed him Demon-Slaying Great General and sent him to travel the realm and subdue demons.
• Zi Shou ordered the feudal lords to present rare treasures and unusual stones through the Flower and Stone Transport when they paid homage the following April.
• Zi Shou dismissed court and went to Shouxian Palace to discuss architectural wonders with Daji.
• Tongtian returned to the Grand Preceptor's Residence with the others and asked Jin Ling and Gongming for their opinions of King Zhou.

Golden Spirit Holy Mother explained that King Zhou sent Yang Jian traveling to broaden his experience, while Tongtian foresaw that the Flower and Stone Transport would let King Zhou weaken the feudal nobles. Tongtian assigned his disciples new tasks, then left Chaoge convinced that King Zhou was the great variable in the coming calamity, as Zi Shou awaited the system’s midnight settlement.

• Golden Spirit Holy Mother told Zhao Gongming and Yang Jian that King Zhou’s orders were meant to temper Yang Jian by sending him to travel the realm.
• Tongtian predicted that King Zhou would use the Flower and Stone Transport tributes as a pretext to strip feudal lords of their titles and weaken their power.
• Tongtian sent Zhao Gongming to Yuanjue Cave before taking office in Great Shang, directed Shi Ji to answer King Zhou’s future request, and ordered Jin Ling to guide Yang Jian.
• After seven days, Tongtian watched King Zhou win the horse race again and concluded that he was the key variable in the Investiture Calamity.
• Zi Shou ate Daji’s Citrus Beef Soup, bathed with Long Ji’s help, and waited for the system’s midnight settlement.

Zi Shou celebrated earning 23 foolishness points and planned ways to increase his infamy before the next tally. Half a month later, lords questioned the Flower and Stone Transport tribute, giving him a chance to put his plans into action.

• Zi Shou checked the system tally and found he had earned 23 foolishness points, mostly from nobles and lords.
• Zi Shou analyzed how his tour and foolish actions had spread his reputation, then planned to use upcoming projects and court celebrations to earn more points.
• Zi Shou considered ways to stir resentment, including spreading rumors, staging grief over the Great Wall, expanding postal stations, and cultivating a pleasure-seeking image.
• Zi Shou embraced Daji and Long Ji after Daji asked why he was smiling.
• Half a month later, lords sent people to ask Zi Shou why they had to provide tribute for the Flower and Stone Transport, and he saw an opportunity to act.

Bo Yi and Shu Qi arrived in Chaoge to investigate King Zhou’s tribute arrangements and grew appalled at his extravagance. After he treated them to a lavish feast, they decided to give their food to the common people and seek wild plants instead, leaving their plan to remonstrate with him for later.

• Bo Yi and Shu Qi visited Jizi, heard about King Zhou’s recent actions, and concluded that the Pool of Wine and Forest of Meat showed disregard for the people’s hardship.
• Jizi brought Bo Yi and Shu Qi to meet Zi Shou, who recognized their reputations and decided to use their disapproval to damage his reputation in the north.
• Zi Shou took Bo Yi, Shu Qi, and Jizi to the Pool of Wine and Forest of Meat and staged an extravagant feast for them.
• Bo Yi and Shu Qi watched Zi Shou feast and became more convinced that his excesses were harmful to the people and court.
• Bo Yi told Shu Qi to distribute the palace food among the common people and proposed that they go outside the city to find wild fruit and greens.

Bo Yi and Shu Qi left Chaoge determined to refuse Shang millet, but their conversations with commoners challenged their view that King Zhou’s pleasures were harming the people. After hearing about the horse races, they resolved to remonstrate with King Zhou at the next race.

• Bo Yi and Shu Qi reached a grove outside Chaoge and mistook the commoners gathering wild fruit for evidence of poverty under King Zhou.
• An old woman explained that people gathered fruit to make wine and sold Chaoge’s heartless vegetables, and Bo Yi bought some from her.
• Bo Yi told the old woman that he and Shu Qi were envoys from Guzhu who would eat wild vegetables rather than Shang millet until King Zhou changed his ways.
• The old woman praised King Zhou for protecting Chaoge and described the fruit wine and weekly horse races, where commoners could bet small sums.
• Bo Yi and Shu Qi decided that King Zhou’s entertainments encouraged extravagance and planned to remonstrate with him at the next day’s race.

Zi Shou rode to the Racecourse, where Bo Yi and Shu Qi blocked his path to remonstrate against his horse racing and betting. Chao Tian defended the Racecourse’s benefits, and the ministers let Zi Shou pass, though they remained concerned about the Meat Forest.

• Zi Shou dismounted when Bo Yi and Shu Qi stopped his horse and pleaded with him to reconsider his pursuit of pleasure.
• Zi Shou ordered Yin Pobai and the Royal Guards to seize the brothers, but Yang Ren intervened and urged the king to put Great Shang first.
• Chao Tian arrived and praised Zi Shou, explaining that the races improved soldiers’ riding, helped select breeding horses, and that betting brought in profits and revealed skilled horse judges.
• Chao Tian argued that Zi Shou’s personal participation made commoners trust the Racecourse and its betting, persuading the ministers and the brothers to stop blocking him.
• Bo Yi and Shu Qi joined the ministers but remained troubled by the Meat Forest.

Zi Shou tried to make race betting seem like a vice, but his ministers praised its benefits for cavalry training and agreed to limit his visits to the racecourse. After he threatened Bo Yi and Shu Qi for obstructing his procession, Shang Rong invoked the story of Xia Jie and Guan Longfeng, and Zi Shou sent the two men to the West Garden to reform in the army.

• The ministers arranged for them to attend the races in rotating groups and limited Zi Shou to one visit a month.
• Lu Xiong placed third in a race, while Yang Ren surprised the bettors by winning first and praised the races for improving soldiers through competition.
• Zi Shou decided to pursue other forms of entertainment to make himself look pleasure-loving and undermine the ministers’ praise of race betting.
• Zi Shou asked what punishment Bo Yi and Shu Qi deserved for obstructing his procession, but the ministers stayed silent until Shang Rong mentioned Xia Jie and Guan Longfeng.
• Recognizing Shang Rong’s indirect remonstrance, Zi Shou spared Bo Yi and Shu Qi from death and transferred them to the West Garden to reform in the army.

King Zhou sent Bo Yi and Shu Qi to the West Garden, where Zhu Zizhen showed them how castrated pigs could be raised cheaply and produce abundant meat. After tasting the pork, the brothers began to understand the purpose of their assignment and admitted it was tasty.

• Fei Zhong supported King Zhou’s decision to send Bo Yi and Shu Qi to the West Garden, and they arrived there the next day.
• Zhu Zizhen made Bo Yi and Shu Qi chase pigs and scolded them when they refused to accept food from him.
• Zhu Zizhen showed the brothers that castrated pigs stayed calm, grew fat, and required little labor to raise.
• Bo Yi and Shu Qi recognized that Zhu Zizhen’s method could increase pork production and saw how their literacy and prestige could help document and spread it.
• Zhu Zizhen fed the brothers cooked pork, and both admitted that it was very tasty.

Bo Yi and Shu Qi embraced Zhu Zizhen’s pig-raising work after seeing how it could make meat affordable for ordinary people. Zi Shou pardoned them and led his ministers to inspect the Pigsty, where he expected to gain foolishness value from their reactions to its stench.

• Bo Yi and Shu Qi praised the pork and concluded that Zhu Zizhen’s methods could make meat plentiful and cheap for commoners.
• Bo Yi and Shu Qi spent a month in the West Garden learning animal husbandry and recording what they discovered.
• Yang Ren and other grandees submitted a memorial asking Zi Shou to review Bo Yi and Shu Qi’s conduct, and Zi Shou invited them to the West Garden.
• Bo Yi and Shu Qi greeted Zi Shou and the ministers, who saw how exhausted and animal-stained the two had become.
• Zi Shou pardoned Bo Yi and Shu Qi, then followed Zhu Zizhen to inspect the Pigsty with the ministers as its stench filled the air.

Bo Yi and Shu Qi revealed that their time in the West Garden had produced practical livestock-raising knowledge, transforming Zi Shou’s zoo into a project the ministers believed would benefit the people. As the court praised the undertaking and ate pork, Zi Shou realized the West Garden’s other attractions might also have gone awry.

• Bo Yi and Shu Qi praised the West Garden’s Seven Colonels and explained that they had learned useful lessons in animal husbandry.
• Zi Shou and the ministers visited the pigpens, where Bo Yi described the benefits of castrated pigs and the work of recording livestock practices.
• Shu Qi presented bamboo slips compiling guidance on raising pigs, cattle, and sheep, and asked Zi Shou to share the knowledge with common people.
• Yang Ren and Jizi urged the court to support the West Garden and praised Bo Yi, Shu Qi, and the Seven Colonels.
• Zhu Zizhen served pork, and the ministers praised its flavor as Zi Shou realized Hu Ximei’s Poultry House and the Fruit Swimming Hall were also in the West Garden.

Zi Shou toured Hu Ximei’s Poultry House and discovered an integrated system for raising chickens, fish, and silkworms. The ministers credited the operation to Zi Shou’s foresight and the palace maids’ practical knowledge, while he lamented that Hu Ximei had turned his swimming pool into a fishpond.

• Zi Shou led his ministers from the Pigsty to the Poultry House, where Hu Ximei welcomed them.
• Hu Ximei showed how palace maids collected chicken droppings to breed insects that fed the chickens.
• Hu Ximei explained her large-scale chicken coop, with suspended bamboo flooring and carefully controlled temperature and ventilation.
• Hu Ximei revealed that she had built the Poultry House around Zi Shou’s idle pool, using its water for fish and its surroundings for mulberry trees and silkworms.
• Hu Ximei described how pond silt, manure, silkworm byproducts, and insects supported the fish, trees, and chickens, and praised the palace maids who helped her.
• The ministers concluded that Zi Shou had planned the system a year earlier by recruiting common-born palace maids, and Bo Yi and Shu Qi saw its potential for the women of Great Shang.

Zi Shou redirected Bo Yi and Shu Qi from the West Garden to the Court Music Bureau, where he tasked them with creating new music for the court audience. He also staged a cockfight and ennobled the winning chicken, while the exhausted brothers saw how the spectacle might encourage chicken raising.

• Zi Shou pardoned Bo Yi and Shu Qi’s offenses and offered to reward them, but they refused to leave their work in the West Garden.
• Zi Shou persuaded the brothers to serve at the Court Music Bureau and collect folk music to create new compositions for the court audience.
• Zi Shou staged a fight between two chickens, then named the winning black chicken the Lord of Chaoge.
• Yang Ren and Jizi tried to remonstrate with Zi Shou over the chicken’s title, but he ignored them.
• Bo Yi and Shu Qi considered how cockfighting might increase demand for chickens, then prepared to go to the Court Music Bureau.

Zi Shou arranged for the Great Wall Guards to help Gui Fang against Tu Fang and then promoted football and stir-frying as part of his plan to appear a pleasure-loving ruler. He ended the day entertaining Noble Consort Huang and the guards in the rear garden, pleased with the new pastimes and meal.

• After learning that Tu Fang had been raiding Gui Fang, Zi Shou agreed to send the Great Wall Guards north and told Su Quanzhong to apply pressure on Tu Fang.
• Zi Shou spent the night with Noble Consort Huang, then brought her to watch football in the rear garden.
• Zi Shou arranged an eleven-a-side match between Imperial Guards while the Royal Guards cheered from the sidelines.
• Zi Shou joined the match under rules that favored him, and the players continued until noon.
• Zi Shou had eunuchs cook stir-fried dried fish with scallion, ginger, vinegar, and salt, then shared the meal with the guards.

Zi Shou staged his new opera, Mai Yun Stabs King Zhou, in Chaoge’s North Market, using a tale of rebellion to make its condemned figures appear loyal and righteous. The crowd embraced the performance, and musician Shi Yan began to reconsider his opposition to opera as the third act approached.

• Zi Shou rode with Long Ji to the North Market, where You Hun had overseen a stage for Great Shang’s first public opera.
• Zi Yan played Zi Qi in Mai Yun Stabs King Zhou, while Yin Jiao and Yin Hong portrayed Mai Yun and Mai Zhi in the first act, Prince Offers His Head.
• Bi Gan watched the performance with tears in his eyes and believed Zi Shou had used it to protect his reputation.
• In the second act, Lei Kai bade farewell to Mai Yun and Mai Zhi beside the Qi River, and Yin Jiao sang of a brave man who would not return.
• The audience became immersed in the opera and viewed Mai Yun and Mai Zhi as heroic figures, while Shi Yan’s skepticism began to fade.

After Mai Yun's attempted assassination of King Zhou was performed for a huge crowd, Shi Yan realized theater could teach ordinary people through accessible stories. He left to write plays, convinced they could benefit the realm far more broadly than Elegant Music.

• The actors performed Mai Yun's death, and the audience erupted in praise of his loyalty and courage.
• Zi Shou watched the crowd's reaction and was pleased that the play drew attention away from King Zhou's prowess and shaped the audience's view of the characters.
• Shi Yan recognized that theater made moral ideas understandable to common people and could influence how they viewed King Zhou.
• After reflecting on the crowd and the music, Shi Yan decided to write plays and headed to the Hall of Worthies.

Kong Xuan, Huang Feihu, and Fei Lian discussed Gui Fang’s submission and a suspected plot by feudal lords to stir up border tribes against King Zhou. Su Quanzhong marched north to pressure Tu Fang, joined by prisoners of war and slaves who volunteered to fight, leaving Zhao Bing worried about the dangerous expedition.

• Fei Lian explained that Gui Fang’s people kept moving the Boundary Stele, forcing the Great Wall to curve around their tribes.
• Huang Feihu warned that feudal lords were likely using Tu Fang and Gui Fang to provoke a crisis before the court homage, and said Daoist Shen would take Gui Fang’s chieftain to Chaoge once they submitted.
• Zhao Bing reported King Zhou’s order for Su Quanzhong to march north against Tu Fang, but his warnings about the snow and uncertain route failed to stop the general.
• Wu Wenhua arrived with several hundred prisoners of war and slaves who volunteered to join the campaign to repay King Zhou’s mercy.
• More prisoners and slaves followed Su Quanzhong’s army the next day, while Zhao Bing worried about the force setting out through the snow without a clear destination.

Li Jing worked to revise Great Shang’s laws while rejecting Taiyi Zhenren’s claim that Nezha’s fate was dictated by an unavoidable heavenly mandate. When the Eastern Yi invaded, Chao Lei led the newly formed navy north by sea to strike their hinterland, though his seasickness slowed the voyage.

• Lady Yin brought Li Jing steamed buns, and he continued drafting new laws while reflecting on Nezha’s fate and King Zhou’s defense of Chentang Pass.
• Li Jing argued that Taiyi Zhenren’s talk of heaven’s mandate served to make Nezha a shield against tribulation, and Lady Yin stayed to grind ink as he worked.
• A servant reported that the Eastern Yi had launched a major border attack, and Li Jing called a council and ordered General Chao to be informed.
• Chao Lei realized the navy’s purpose was to bypass the Eastern Yi’s northern defenses and decided to lead its twelve hundred troops by sea into their hinterland.
• Chao Lei ordered the fleet to sail cautiously along the coast, but he and his guards became seasick and repeatedly demanded that the ships slow down.