Recaps

Fang Ke returned to Road Pavilion with news of Yang Ge’s promotion and the court’s reluctance to act against the grain merchants, while quietly arranging resistance to the Wang Family. Yang Ge remained distressed over the hungry poor, and Fang Ke remembered that Yang Ge had once endured cold and hunger himself.

• Fang Ke saw Yang Ge handing out porridge at the vegetable market, then went to the Embroidered Uniform Guard station and learned the Wang Family had asked them to arrest grain-house robbers.
• Fang Ke told Gu Tong that Yang Ge would become a Probationary Hundred-Household Commander and hinted that they should curb the Wang Family’s influence without disturbing Yang Ge.
• Gu Tong gathered the brothers to visit the County Yamen after Fang Ke left to see Yang Ge.
• Fang Ke gave Yang Ge his new token and described his meeting with Shen Fa, leaving out how difficult the higher-ups thought it would be to stop the grain merchants.
• Yang Ge condemned the famine as a man-made calamity and lamented how hard it was for people to endure both cold and hunger.
• Fang Ke recalled that Yang Ge had once survived for days in the snow with thin, ragged clothes.

Yang Ge practiced his saber before defeating Yu Gang at the Abundant Prosperity Grain House and claiming eight thousand jin of millet for the people of Luting County. As he led the grain toward the market, he realized he could use his position in the Embroidered Uniform Guard to protect the county and take charge of the fight against the Three Great Grain Houses.

• Yang Ge completed three thousand saber swings, then left home in disguise while a woman in the neighboring courtyard asked Uncle Wu to follow and help him if needed.
• Yang Ge arrived at the Abundant Prosperity Grain House and challenged Yu Gang, who offered two thousand jin of millet if Yang Ge would spare him.
• Yang Ge broke Yu Gang's shin in their duel and forced him to provide eight thousand jin of millet.
• Yang Ge led the grain carts toward the vegetable market, where the equipment and cooks were ready for another porridge distribution.
• Yang Ge considered using his Embroidered Uniform Guard authority to protect Luting County and prevent the Three Great Grain Houses from interfering.

Yang Ge accepted the Three Great Grain Houses’ offer to hire the Embroidered Uniform Guard to keep Zhang Mazi occupied, then planned to use the payment to fund a final raid on their granaries. He left Fang Ke with a scheme to keep officials and the merchants’ guards away while Yang Ge and the common people seized the grain.

• Fang Ke brought Yang Ge a note for three thousand taels from the Three Great Grain Houses, who wanted the Embroidered Uniform Guard to keep Zhang Mazi busy for three days.
• Yang Ge explained that the grain merchants would target him regardless and proposed one last major job: taking grain from all three houses in Road Pavilion.
• Yang Ge told Fang Ke to demand six thousand taels and make the merchants believe they were begging the Embroidered Uniform Guard for help.
• Yang Ge planned to raid the Zhao Family of Rich Harvest’s granary that night, with Fang Ke disguised as him and staging a clash before withdrawing.
• Yang Ge instructed Fang Ke to gather the brothers, constables, and County Soldiers away from the granaries, then arrest him after the townspeople seized the grain.
• Yang Ge ordered Fang Ke to misdirect searches, lock down the town, detain the merchants’ household guards, and demand payment for their release.

Yang Ge planned to rally Luting's people to seize grain, then went to Rich Harvest Granary and fought Fang Ke's staged Embroidered Uniform Guard ambush. He drove the guards off and began calling the people to take the grain, leaving the granary raid underway.

• Yang Ge reasoned that his porridge handouts and reputation as Zhang Mazi would help gather Luting's people and prepare them to seize the Three Great Grain Merchants' grain.
• Yang Ge arrived at Rich Harvest Granary, where Zhao Yonggui offered him prepared millet and wine while secretly summoning Fang Ke and the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
• Fang Ke led the guards in surrounding Yang Ge, who challenged their service to the wealthy merchants and fought Fang Ke while holding the others back.
• Yang Ge broke Fang Ke's Ox-Tail Saber, and Fang Ke feigned defeat and retreated with the enforcers while Zhao Yonggui and the Zhao Family disappeared.
• Yang Ge summoned the people by shouting that there was a fire, then urged them to open the granary and save the people.

Yang Ge, posing as Zhang Mazi, opened the Rich Harvest and Everlasting Peace granaries so Luting County’s starving residents could take grain. After warning Ling Guan to keep the Wang Family from retaliating, he left to open the Abundant Prosperity Rice Shop.

• Yang Ge opened Rich Harvest’s granary and urged the hesitant residents to take grain for themselves and their neighbors.
• A starving man became the first resident to enter, and the crowd followed, carrying grain and spreading the call to open the granaries across Luting County.
• Yang Ge led residents to the Everlasting Peace granary and broke its gates open with his saber.
• Yang Ge told Ling Guan to keep the Wang Family from harming the people, warning that he would hold the family responsible and could destroy them if pushed.
• After the crowd took more than half the grain, Yang Ge led some residents toward the Abundant Prosperity Rice Shop.

Yang Ge discovered that the Abundant Prosperity Rice Shop had burned its grain to deprive Road Pavilion’s people of food, and he resolved to retaliate against the Li Family. He ordered Fang Ke to build a case tying the family to Zhang Mazi and the riot, while Gu Tong was assigned to restore order.

• Yang Ge saw the Abundant Prosperity Granary ablaze and concluded that the Abundant Prosperity Rice Shop had burned its grain to stop the people from seizing it.
• Yang Ge returned to Gong and Drum Lane, where Fang Ke reported that the County Yamen and the Three Great Grain Merchants were demanding action against Zhang Mazi.
• Yang Ge gave Fang Ke the Nine of Diamonds mask and ordered him to arrest the Li Family members in Luting County and find Yu Gang, the family guards’ leader.
• Yang Ge instructed Fang Ke to link Yu Gang to Zhang Mazi and establish the Li Family as organizers of the riot, while making the Three Great Grain Merchants suspect one another.
• Yang Ge told Fang Ke to focus on the Li Family and assigned Gu Tong to restore order.

After reading about Zhang Mazi’s actions in Luting County, Shen Fa regained the resolve he had lost and decided to strike at the officials backing the Three Great Grain Merchants. He ordered their arrests and hurried to bring the case before the emperor and Imperial Court.

• Shen Fa read the dispatch about Zhang Mazi and reflected on how his own failed campaign and years in the Embroidered Uniform Guard had worn down his courage.
• Shen Fa concluded that even limited actions could help the people and resolved to act against the Three Great Grain Merchants’ corrupt allies.
• Shen Fa ordered Feng Sheng and Duan Lin to arrest Sun Zhaoming, Liu Yuquan, Wu Youzhang, and the other implicated Ministry of Revenue officials and confine them in the Imperial Prison.
• Shen Fa set out to present the case to the emperor, intending to blame the Luting County riots on the Li Family of Abundant Prosperity and pressure the corrupt officials.

Yang Ge trained his guards and received the Floating Shadow Blade from the Li Family, whose men were trying to influence an unresolved case. After refusing to alter the investigation, he went to test the new saber with Fang Ke.

• Yang Ge drilled two teams of guards in coordinated attacks and corrected their shield and crossbow tactics.
• Fang Ke arrived with a sandalwood box containing a tribute from the Li Family, while Gu Tong worried that the prisoners had gone hungry for four days.
• Yang Ge drove his staff into a wall near Gu Tong and called him over to loosen his muscles, but Fang Ke interrupted with a report.
• Yang Ge examined the Floating Shadow Blade and asked who had come to plead for the prisoners.
• Fang Ke said Pei Yu, a Banner Commander of the Southern Pacification Office, had introduced himself on the Li Family's behalf, and that the family had invited him to drink at Spring Splendor House.
• Yang Ge reminded Fang Ke not to help the Li Family and then invited him outside to test the blade.

Yang Ge spent a peaceful New Year holiday cooking and hosting Fang Ke, while the unresolved Luting County affair remained untouched. His meal was interrupted by a visit from his neighbor Yunzhi’s brother, Wang Dashi, whose arrival left Fang Ke visibly shaken and prompted Yang Ge to consider investigating the family next door.

• Yang Ge accepted that the court might punish him for the Luting County affair and welcomed the New Year in his own home.
• Fang Ke visited Yang Ge with gifts and chickens from his father, and Yang Ge served him glutinous rice balls.
• Wang Dashi arrived with pastries, introduced himself as Yunzhi’s elder brother, and entered Yang Ge’s courtyard despite Fang Ke’s alarm.
• Wang Dashi chatted with Yang Ge before leaving when Yunzhi called him home for a meal.
• Yang Ge questioned Fang Ke about his reaction, then said they should look into the peculiar family next door.

Wang Dashi tried to comfort his younger sister by explaining the Xie Family’s crimes and sacrifices, insisting that they had not betrayed their country. He also defended Yang Ge as a possible husband for her, but she remained silent and grief-stricken.

• Wang Dashi crossed into the neighboring courtyard and told his younger sister that Yang Ge lacked ambition but could still be a suitable husband for her.
• Wang Dashi rejected his sister’s accusation that the Xie Family had betrayed the country, explaining that his relatives had acted to protect their family amid the court’s struggles for power.
• Wang Dashi showed his sister the scars from years of fighting alongside their family and said the Xie Family had done wrong but had also fulfilled its duty to the frontier.
• Wang Dashi told his sister that the family owed its debt to the frontier soldiers, not the Zhao Family, and promised to keep repaying it.
• Wang Dashi said Yang Ge’s character was decent and warned that the Huainan Li Family’s bounty on Zhang Mazi could bring trouble, but his sister did not respond.

On the first days of the lunar new year, Yang Ge mourned his family by making a grave in his vegetable patch, then learned that martial artists had come to town to claim the bounty on Zhang Mazi. He ordered Fang Ke to keep the town safe and prepare for trouble.

• Yang Ge dreamed of his grandfather, then bought funeral offerings and built a grave for his family in the backyard.
• Yang Ge burned paper money at the grave and told his parents he could not return home, asking them to look after his family.
• Fang Ke visited Yang Ge and reported that more than thirty martial artists from Huainan had entered town to hunt Zhang Mazi for the Li Family's five-thousand-tael bounty.
• Yang Ge told Fang Ke to warn the hunters not to cause trouble in Road Pavilion and to stop following them.
• Yang Ge ordered Fang Ke to pressure the prisoners for payment and have his men patrol in groups of three with signal arrows.

Yang Ge confronted Long Wind Gang men searching for Zhang Mazi and, after they attacked him, lost control and killed several of them. As Road Pavilion’s residents gathered and Fang Ke’s Embroidered Uniform Guard enforcers arrived, Yang Ge escaped toward Gong and Drum Lane.

• Yang Ge left home after Long Wind Gang thieves disturbed his sleep and waited near the burned-out Abundant Prosperity Rice Shop ruins.
• Yang Ge knocked a black-clad Long Wind Gang man from a roof, learned the gang had come for him, and severed the man’s hand when he tried to flee and raise the alarm.
• A blue-clad swordsman accused Yang Ge of provoking the Long Wind Gang and rejected his offer to pay silver; the gang then attacked him with crossbows and swords.
• Yang Ge killed the blue-clad swordsman and several black-clad men in a furious rampage, then shouted that Zhang Mazi was there and dared anyone to kill him.
• Road Pavilion residents poured into the streets, while Fang Ke announced that the authorities were apprehending Zhang Mazi; Yang Ge escaped toward Gong and Drum Lane.

After killing three Long Wind Gang men, Yang Ge struggled with the weight of his actions while Fang Ke tried to steady him and promised to deal with the surviving gang members. A letter from the Northern Pacification Office then warned Yang Ge that an Eunuch Imperial Commissioner would soon arrive to investigate the Three Great Grain Merchants.

• Fang Ke found Yang Ge absent from home and learned from Wang Dashi that he had not returned after the killings.
• Fang Ke warned Wang Dashi not to drag Yang Ge into his family's dangerous affairs, and Wang Dashi ordered him to leave.
• Fang Ke found Yang Ge at the outpost, where Yang Ge vomited after learning the scene had been cleaned up and asked about the surviving Long Wind Gang members.
• Fang Ke urged Yang Ge not to let the killings weigh on him, and Yang Ge ordered him to make an example of the gang and investigate its background.
• Yang Ge received an urgent letter warning that an Eunuch Imperial Commissioner would soon investigate the Three Great Grain Merchants' grain hoarding and price manipulation.

Yang Ge woke up weak and feverish, and Liu Mang came to take him to a New Year reunion meal and then to see a doctor. Before leaving, Yang Ge warned Liu Mang to avoid openly hosting passing jianghu visitors, and Liu Mang carried him out with Little Yellow.

• Liu Mang brought cured pig's trotters and insisted on taking sick Yang Ge to his family's reunion meal.
• Yang Ge and Liu Mang teased each other and sparred, despite Yang Ge's illness.
• Yang Ge warned Liu Mang that hosting jianghu travelers could expose him to dangerous feuds, citing Zhang Mazi's killing of Long Wind Gang members.
• Liu Mang agreed to stop openly entertaining passing jianghu visitors and to send them travel money quietly instead.
• Liu Mang wrapped Yang Ge in a thick garment, carried him out, and brought Little Yellow along as they set off for the reunion meal and a doctor.

After Luting’s grain shops reopened shortly before the imperial envoy’s arrival, Yang Ge confronted his officers over their dealings with the Southern Pacification Office and the Kaifeng troops blocking the road. He resolved to meet the envoy himself, leaving Fang Ke worried about how Yang Ge would respond to the investigation.

• Luting’s grain shops reopened and sold grain at last year’s prices, but Yang Ge learned that an imperial envoy would soon arrive.
• Yang Ge reprimanded Gu Tong for allowing the Kaifeng prefectural troops to block starving people from reaching Luting, and Gu Tong hurried out to disperse them.
• Yang Ge rejected the possibility of leaving Luting to oversee Kaifeng, while Fang Ke refused to take such an assignment in his place.
• Fang Ke proposed letting the imperial envoy go through the motions, but Yang Ge ordered him to prepare to meet the envoy the next morning.
• Fang Ke warned Yang Ge about the deadly consequences of an envoy’s death, and Yang Ge insisted he had no plans to harm the visitor.

Yang Ge confronted Pei Yu at the post station as Road Pavilion prepared to welcome the Imperial Envoy. Eunuch Wang arrived, rebuked Yang Ge over Zhang Mazi, and warmly favored Pei Yu, leaving Yang Ge to suspect the visit had a purpose; Fang Ke then worried that Yang Ge’s muttered insult would bring trouble.

• Yang Ge endured the Road Pavilion officials’ flattery and accused Pei Yu of the Southern Pacification Office of interfering in his territory, warning that he could report Pei Yu to Lord Shen.
• Yang Ge used Pei Yu’s retreat to tell Gu Tong to continue his work without fearing further interference.
• The Imperial Envoy, Eunuch Wang, arrived and criticized Yang Ge for failing to capture Zhang Mazi, while Yang Ge respectfully accepted the rebuke.
• Eunuch Wang greeted Pei Yu warmly, mentioned Pei Yu’s father, and led him into the post station as the officials and gentry praised him.
• After the crowd ignored him, Yang Ge muttered an insult about Eunuch Wang, and Fang Ke panicked at the trouble it might cause.

Yang Ge replaced himself with a subordinate while the imperial envoy lingered in Luting County, then secluded himself to refine his Frost-Defying Blade and Snowfall Formula. More than two months later, Fang Ke told him the envoy was still in town.

• Yang Ge had a Strongman impersonate him on duty, while Fang Ke concealed the stand-in’s mistakes because he feared Yang Ge might kill the imperial envoy.
• Yang Ge avoided Gong and Drum Lane after growing uncomfortable with Fang Ke’s strange stares, and turned to practicing martial arts at home.
• Yang Ge realized that killing intent had awakened the Frost-Defying Blade’s true sharpness and helped him understand its six killing moves.
• Yang Ge continued cultivating the Snowfall Formula instead of forcing a premature breakthrough into the Return to the True Realm.
• Yang Ge shut himself away for more than two months, until Fang Ke came to his courtyard and told him the imperial envoy was still in Luting County.

Yang Ge learned that martial-world figures were gathering in Road Pavilion to seek justice over grain price manipulation, putting Eunuch Wang and the city at risk. He set rules to control the newcomers and headed to Shopkeeper Liu’s place, intending to profit from their arrival.

• Fang Ke told Yang Ge that hundreds of martial-world figures were approaching Road Pavilion and that Yang Ge had become known as Zhang Mazi, “Timely Rain.”
• Yang Ge and Fang Ke discussed Eunuch Wang’s long stay, the falling grain prices, and the devastation the grain merchants’ price hikes had already caused.
• Yang Ge reasoned that the Three Great Grain Merchants had more to lose if Eunuch Wang died, since their families would face severe punishment.
• Yang Ge ordered Fang Ke to post strict rules forbidding martial practitioners from drawing weapons, harming residents, or causing disorder in Road Pavilion.
• Yang Ge finished practicing his saber, took Little Yellow out, and went to visit Shopkeeper Liu to prepare the inn’s copper hot pots for the arriving martial-world figures.

Fang Ke defended Road Pavilion’s rules while welcoming martial artists from Huainan who had come to seek justice, and the townspeople backed him. At the Welcome Inn’s opening, Yang Ge saw Shopkeeper Liu reunited with grateful neighbors and received baby rabbits from Wang Dezhu as the community began to recover.

• Fang Ke had Yang Ge’s words carved on a stone tablet and read its inscription aloud at the eastern city gate, drawing cheers from Road Pavilion residents.
• When martial artists mocked the Embroidered Uniform Guard and threatened to draw their swords, Fang Ke stood his ground as guards aimed bows and crossbows at them.
• Fang Ke told the martial artists they could enter the city to petition the Imperial Envoy but had to obey Road Pavilion’s rules, and the locals voiced their support.
• Yang Ge lit firecrackers to open the Welcome Inn, where neighbors crowded around Shopkeeper Liu to congratulate and comfort him and help clean the inn.
• Wang Dezhu brought Yang Ge a nest of baby rabbits and firewood for the inn, and Yang Ge accepted the gift as he watched the community celebrate.

Yang Ge watched the Welcome Inn prosper as martial heroes flooded Luting County, but their clumsy efforts to expose the Three Great Grain Houses only muddied the political situation. As their frustration with the Imperial Envoy grew, Yang Ge prepared for the coming upheaval and returned to the martial world as Zhang Mazi.

• Yang Ge expanded the Welcome Inn to handle its crowds, and the inn earned more in a day than it had once made in months while fights became a daily attraction.
• Martial heroes brought evidence against the Three Great Grain Houses to the Imperial Envoy, but he accepted weak petitions and rejected account books and insider witnesses.
• Heroes raided the Three Great Grain Houses' granaries and forced their people to confess, while the houses cooperated in ways that made the protests ineffective.
• Yang Ge secretly preserved crucial evidence, believing it should eventually reveal the crimes committed against ordinary people.
• As the heroes' anger at the court grew, Ma Yinghu called a Heroes' Assembly at the Ruined Temple on the night of March nineteenth, and Yang Ge put on the Nine of Diamonds Mask and returned as Zhang Mazi.

Yang Ge infiltrated the Road Pavilion Post Station to burn evidence against the Three Great Grain Houses, but he clashed with Yang Tiansheng, who had come to kill the Imperial Envoy. They discovered a bearded eunuch was the man they sought, and the chapter left Yang Ge and Yang Tiansheng preparing to fight him.

• Yang Ge fought a masked swordsman in the passage, and their battle revealed they were both targeting the Imperial Envoy for different reasons.
• The bearded eunuch appeared, identified Yang Tiansheng as a member of the Bright Cult, and recognized Yang Ge as 'Timely Rain' Zhang Mazi.
• Yang Ge warned that killing the Imperial Envoy could bring disaster upon Luting County, and Yang Tiansheng challenged his reasoning.
• Yang Ge explained that he had come to burn the case files on the Three Great Grain Houses and the people behind them.
• The bearded eunuch praised Yang Ge's political acumen but said he had a duty to stop him, so Yang Tiansheng joined Yang Ge in facing him.

Yang Ge and Yang Tiansheng fought Wei Heng, the powerful chief of the Imperial Secret Guards, and barely escaped after Yang Ge set fire to the Archives Repository. The two friends parted ways, with Yang Ge concealing his identity and promising they might meet again.

• Yang Ge tried to flee after attacking Wei Heng, but Wei Heng quickly caught him and knocked him back while Yang Tiansheng rejoined him.
• Wei Heng revealed his Golden Bell Shield and formidable strength, then overwhelmed Yang Ge and Yang Tiansheng despite their combined attacks.
• After their weapons shattered and all three were blasted apart, Yang Ge landed inside the Archives Repository and set its scrolls alight with lamp oil.
• Yang Ge found Yang Tiansheng in the Lotus Pond, helped him escape, and the two staggered out of the Road Pavilion Post Station as Wei Heng let the fire burn before calling for it to be put out.
• Outside a house, Yang Ge removed his Nine of Diamonds Mask but kept another mask on, refused to reveal his name, and parted from Yang Tiansheng with a promise to meet again if fate allowed.

After the Three Great Grain Houses were punished, Yang Ge celebrated with the people of Luting while Shen Fa warned that the scandal had made him a target. Shen Fa proposed that Yang Ge take his former post as an Embroidered Uniform Guard Thousand-Household Commander, and they reached a bargain that left Yang Ge responsible for handling affairs while remaining largely idle.

• Fang Ke led the Three Great Grain Houses’ managers through Luting as the crowd jeered and pelted them, and Yang Ge joined the celebration with firecrackers.
• Shen Fa told Yang Ge that the grain scandal had toppled more than three hundred officials and that the man at the top knew Yang Ge’s identity as Zhang Mazi.
• Shen Fa warned that Yang Ge’s actions had made powerful people uneasy and urged him to go to the Capital City, but Yang Ge resisted leaving Luting.
• Shen Fa proposed that Yang Ge take his former position as an Embroidered Uniform Guard Thousand-Household Commander to protect himself and his associates.
• Yang Ge bargained with Shen Fa and agreed to take the position on the terms that he would handle affairs as before and be more proactive, then celebrated the deal over hot pot and wine.

Yang Ge received an imperial appointment as Thousand-Household Commander of the Upper Right Office, along with a Python Robe that he found more burdensome than useful. He promoted Fang Ke to Probationary Hundred-Household Commander to oversee the office’s new premises and agreed to make the Long Wind Gang the office’s first target.

• Shen Fa’s appointment certificate and the imperially bestowed Python Robe arrived at Road Pavilion, and Yang Ge gave Fang Ke responsibility for keeping the robe safe.
• Yang Ge asked Fang Ke how to run the Upper Right Office, and Fang Ke explained that Yang Ge could either coast in the post or take on major cases as Shen Fa did.
• Yang Ge recommended Fang Ke as a Probationary Hundred-Household Commander and assigned him to find and build premises without bullying people, disturbing residents, or exceeding the budget.
• Yang Ge put Gu Tong and the other men under Fang Ke and told Fang Ke to train them while improving his own martial arts.
• Yang Ge asked about the Long Wind Gang, and Fang Ke proposed making the gang the Upper Right Office’s first target; Yang Ge approved the plan and went back to the inn to serve customers.

Jiang Kui and his exhausted troops fought to break through the Tartar lines until reinforcements from Lu Mountain arrived, helping the Wei army turn the battle into a decisive victory. By late August, the Royal Army had captured the grasslands' Khan, grain prices had fallen, and Emperor Xiping was praised as the sovereign who restored the dynasty.

• In Luting County, Shopkeeper Liu treated the inn's patrons to wine after news arrived that General Lan Ying had routed the Uriyangqad Tribe.
• Jiang Kui led his depleted battalion toward the Tartars' left flank, opening a path through the enemy while his horse and saber gave out.
• As Jiang Kui neared death, his brothers arrived with the Lu Mountain troops and fought alongside him, driven by grief for their fallen brothers.
• The reinforced Wei army advanced under artillery cover, routed the Tartars, and attacked their vast camp in Tartary.
• At the end of August, news reached Luting County that the Royal Army had captured the Khan of the Grasslands alive, and grain prices fell as acclaim for Emperor Xiping grew.