Chapter Summaries

Huo Qilang returned to the Main Hall and eased Li Yuanying’s severe headache after discovering that repeated acupuncture had made it worse. As they grew close, she reassured him about Baozhu and spoke lightly of the emperor’s limited power, leaving Li Yuanying laughing and receptive to her kiss.

• Huo Qilang returned to the Main Hall and found Li Yuanying suffering through another painful acupuncture treatment.
• After Li Yuanying ordered the physician to withdraw, Huo Qilang removed the needles and used her internal energy to massage his pressure points.
• Huo Qilang comforted Li Yuanying about Baozhu, telling him that Wei Da would obey the princess rather than control her.
• Li Yuanying told Huo Qilang that the investigation had identified only four ingredients in the bleeding medicine and that they were ordinary remedies.
• Huo Qilang joked that the emperor was merely the Military Governor of Chang'an, making Li Yuanying laugh despite his pain.
• Huo Qilang kissed Li Yuanying, and he responded by lightly pressing the back of her head.

Huo Qilang helped Li Yuanying dress and learned that he planned to honor his mother at Minzhong Temple, while warning him of suspicious soldiers gambling in Youzhou. After Li Yuanying left on his outing and spent the night with Lady Jing, Huo Qilang was sent into the Western Courtyard, where she hoped to meet Princess Consort Cui.

• Huo Qilang dressed Li Yuanying in a crimson robe and heard him explain that he would prepare for the anniversary of his mother's burial.
• Huo Qilang warned Li Yuanying that soldiers gambling recklessly might signal trouble in Youzhou, and he sent someone else to investigate.
• Li Yuanying visited Minzhong Temple in ceremonial robes, then went to Lady Jing's residence and stayed the night.
• Huo Qilang declined to go out with the Xu brothers and spent the evening playing cards with the guards.
• Matron Xu recruited Huo Qilang to move heavy objects in the Western Courtyard, and Huo Qilang happily followed her, hoping to meet Princess Consort Cui.

Huo Qilang visited Cui Lingrong in the Western Inner Residence and learned how deeply the princess consort still cared for Li Yuanying. When Cui Lingrong recognized the embroidery on Huo Qilang’s sleeve, she ordered her to leave, exposing that Huo Qilang had worn a garment tied to her past.

• Huo Qilang carried Bath Beans into the Western Inner Residence and waited while Nanny Xu arranged for her to serve tea to a person of rank.
• Cui Lingrong met Huo Qilang and asked about Li Yuanying’s health, clothing, medicines, and meals, while Huo Qilang advised her to keep pursuing him.
• Huo Qilang offered to read Cui Lingrong’s palm, and Cui Lingrong agreed after washing her hands.
• Cui Lingrong saw the distinctive embroidery on Huo Qilang’s sleeve, turned pale, and ordered her to leave.

Prince Shao’s illness worsened after he returned to his manor, and he struggled with Huo Qilang’s bluntness and the secrets surrounding his household. After their intimacy ended in a furious sword chase, he told her to keep her past to herself, and she understood that he wanted her to stay.

• Prince Shao returned to his manor ill, and Madam Li urged him to keep Huo Qilang at his side while she sought shamans to ward off evil.
• Huo Qilang tended to Prince Shao and admitted that the princess consort had asked about his health, prompting him to criticize her for sharing information.
• Li Chengyin brought Liu Kun’s seating request and mentioned a possible marriage alliance, but Prince Shao refused to take a secondary consort and confirmed he would attend the banquet.
• Huo Qilang and Prince Shao became intimate, but her suggestion that she disguise herself as Lady Jing or Prince Shao enraged him, and he chased her with a sword.
• Huo Qilang disarmed Prince Shao after his nose began bleeding, cared for him, and reassured him that she wanted only him.
• Prince Shao told Huo Qilang not to reveal her past or former partners, and she accepted his terms before kissing him.

Huo Qilang disguised herself as Xu Xing to accompany Li Yuanying to Liu Kun’s banquet, where she witnessed Li Yuanying turn aside a Khitan marriage proposal by suggesting the khan send him a son to adopt. The banquet continued, and Huo Qilang learned that Princess Dongyi had also been a substitute in a political marriage alliance.

• Huo Qilang failed to wash the blood from Li Yuanying’s robe, then disguised herself as Xu Xing so she could join the four-person party attending the banquet.
• Huo Qilang and Li Yuanying arrived at Liu Kun’s residence, where they joined the banquet with Liu Kun, Ruan Ziming, foreign envoys, and local officials.
• When the Khitan envoy offered Ugu Khan’s daughter as a bride, Li Yuanying refused and proposed adopting one of the khan’s sons instead.
• After the banquet resumed, Kang Simo explained that Princess Dongyi had been sent to Tubo in place of the emperor’s daughter, and Huo Qilang recalled seeing her bridal procession years earlier.

At Liu Kun’s banquet, Huo Qilang protected Li Yuanying when fireworks concealed inside a roast ox exploded, and her swordsmanship impressed the assembled generals. After the banquet, a quarrel over her loyalty gave way to Huo Qilang’s warning that Liu Kun’s guards had reacted to the blast as if they suspected him; Li Yuanying ended by telling her she was worth more than a thousand gold pieces.

• Liu Kun’s whole roast ox exploded, and Huo Qilang shielded Li Yuanying, split the ox and its copper platter with her saber, and extinguished the remaining fuses.
• Liu Kun had the cooks and servants beheaded, then praised Huo Qilang’s strength and offered a thousand gold pieces to recruit her; Li Yuanying refused to part with either of his trusted retainers.
• In the carriage, Huo Qilang joked about taking Liu Kun’s offer, angering Li Yuanying, and she explained that she served for pay rather than lifelong loyalty.
• Huo Qilang told Li Yuanying that two of Liu Kun’s household soldiers had looked toward him and reached for their swords when the fireworks exploded, suggesting they suspected him of causing the danger.
• At Prince Shao’s Residence, Li Yuanying told Huo Qilang that her worth exceeded a thousand gold pieces.

Huo Qilang and Li Yuanying spent the night together after she kept watch over his sleeplessness. The next day, an investigation into poisoned sparrows led Huo Qilang to suspect Li Yuanying’s clothes had been poisoned, and she stripped him to protect him.

• Huo Qilang confronted Kang Simo for fleeing, but he claimed he had gone to seek reinforcements before running off again.
• Li Yuanying privately discussed Huo Qilang’s report about the headquarters troops with Yuan Shaobo, then kept her on night duty beside him.
• Li Yuanying pulled Huo Qilang behind the curtains, and they became intimate before falling asleep together.
• Yuan Shaobo reported that Liu Kun’s headquarters troops were likely preparing a mutiny, and Li Yuanying’s council discussed how to respond.
• Huo Qilang noticed that sparrows had died after eating poisoned scraps near a soakaway well; she connected the poison to wastewater from pounding silk in the Western Courtyard.
• Huo Qilang tore off Li Yuanying’s clothes and wrapped him in bedding, declaring that his clothes were poisoned.

Li Yuanying and his allies uncovered that Cui Lingrong had poisoned him through his clothes, and Cui admitted she was the mastermind. She revealed that her motive was tied to Li Ciyin, the imperial clanswoman sent to Tubo as Princess Dongyi.

• Testing Prince Shao's garments in a silver basin revealed poison, and Lady Xu confessed to poisoning him while claiming she had acted alone.
• Li Yuanying and Huo Qilang realized that his illness had eased whenever he stopped wearing the poisoned clothes, and he changed into Huo Qilang's garments.
• Cui Lingrong arrived at Li Yuanying's residence and openly acknowledged that she had planned to kill him.
• Song Yinghui found arsenic in Cui Lingrong's dressing case, and Cui said she had masterminded the poisoning without her relatives' involvement.
• Cui Lingrong explained that she could not return to the person she loved, Li Ciyin, whom Li Yuanying had sent to Tubo as Princess Dongyi.

Cui Lingrong confessed that she had poisoned Li Yuanying to avenge her friend Li Ciyin, who had been sent to marry into Tubo in place of Princess Wanshou. Li Yuanying ordered the conspirators executed and Cui Lingrong kept alive, while the crows at Prince Shao's Residence celebrated the deaths of those who had poisoned their companions.

• Cui Lingrong revealed that Li Ciyin was her childhood friend, forced to marry the son of the king of Tubo after being sent in Princess Wanshou's place.
• Cui Lingrong said Li Yuanying's wedding-night offer that she befriend his sister Baozhu sparked her desire for revenge, and she described poisoning his clothes with arsenic.
• Cui Lingrong condemned the imperial family for sacrificing women to settle political conflicts and admitted she had targeted Li Yuanying to weaken Li Tang.
• Cui Lingrong prepared to leave and die by poison or white silk, but Li Yuanying ordered his men to guard her and keep her alive as a hostage.
• Li Yuanying ordered the conspirators and their accomplices executed, and the crows celebrated as their enemies' blood spread toward the poisoned well.

After the arsenic plot was exposed, Li Yuanying developed a severe fever and learned that Huo Qilang had fought as a Hexi soldier. Despite his illness and despair, he set out for Yandu Ward, with Huo Qilang accompanying him to see Lady Jing.

• Li Yuanying refused to keep wearing old clothes meant to evade Chang'an's scrutiny, then developed a fever from years of arsenic poisoning.
• While tending him, Huo Qilang told Li Yuanying that her family’s bones rested in Lingzhou and explained that she had served in the Hexi Army.
• Li Yuanying reflected on the Hexi Army's losses and Princess Dongyi's marriage to Tubo, then asked where Baozhu had reached.
• Huo Qilang coaxed Li Yuanying out of bed by threatening to send him to marry a foreign chieftain.
• After Yuan Shaobo requested an audience, Li Yuanying prepared to visit Yandu Ward, and Huo Qilang joined him in hopes of seeing Lady Jing.
• On the carriage, Li Yuanying ate a little medicinal sheep-lung soup and Huo Qilang finished the rest, joking that he had been testing it for poison.

Huo Qilang discovered that Li Yuanying’s private residence housed his intelligence network, led by Lady Yu, rather than a mistress. Disguised as a woman, Li Yuanying left the city with Huo Qilang in a concealed ox cart to meet people outside and answer Ugu Khan.

• Huo Qilang entered Li Yuanying’s private residence and mistook his wet nurse, Lady Yu, for a noblewoman connected to his supposed mistress, Lady Jing.
• Lady Yu briefed Li Yuanying and his advisers on intelligence from Youzhou, including a plot to rebel by the commander of Liu Kun’s right division.
• Huo Qilang learned from Kang Simo that Ugu Khan had sent one of his sons to Li Yuanying as an adopted son.
• Li Yuanying revealed that Lady Jing was a bronze mirror, then changed into women’s clothing while explaining that his disguise plan predated Huo Qilang’s arrival.
• Lady Yu disguised Huo Qilang as well and led them through a concealed passage to a padded ox cart bound for the road out of the city.

Li Yuanying told Huo Qilang how his mother, Lady Xue, survived the Jingyuan Mutiny and how rumors about her and his birth undermined the emperor’s trust in him. He revealed that the emperor’s suspicions and a prophecy led to his exile in Youzhou, then began explaining the deeper reason they became enemies.

• Li Yuanying disguised himself as a woman to pass through the East Gate, then changed back into men’s clothing after leaving the city.
• Li Yuanying told Huo Qilang that if anything happened to him, she must tell Baozhu the secrets he was about to reveal.
• Li Yuanying recounted how Prince Liang abandoned Lady Xue during the Jingyuan Mutiny, then found her in a cave after a white fox led him there.
• Li Yuanying explained that rumors questioning Lady Xue’s character and his legitimacy angered the emperor, who had the suspected source executed.
• Li Yuanying said the emperor’s doubts deepened after Lady Xue died, and a prophecy comparing him to Lü Buwei’s alleged son prompted his exile to Youzhou.
• Li Yuanying drew out a bamboo-green Floating-Light Brocade pouch and said it held the true reason he and the emperor became enemies.

Li Yuanying revealed that he had fabricated the External Appointment Subsidy to restore his standing, then used Youzhou Terrace to recruit allies for a plan to replace Liu Kun. After securing support and explaining his peaceful trade arrangement with Ugu Khan, he returned to the city and continued preparations in a separate house.

• Huo Qilang recognized Zhao Yuanbao, and Li Yuanying revealed that the eunuch and subsidy had been part of his scheme to make the emperor treat him as an imperial heir.
• Li Yuanying explained that Zhao Yuanbao funded him in hopes of winning his sons the right to study and take the imperial examinations.
• At Youzhou Terrace, Li Yuanying met with generals and foreign envoys, who agreed to act when Liu Kun's Yab soldiers rebelled.
• Yuan Shaobo led troops into the city to prepare an ambush, while Song Yinghui took charge of guarding Li Yuanying.
• Huo Qilang asked what Ugu Khan expected in return, and Li Yuanying explained that he sought a tea-and-horse trade rather than land or permission to raid.
• Li Yuanying stayed at a separate house as his guards took up positions, and Huo Qilang admitted to Xu Xing that she had once disguised herself as a woman.

Liu Mian surrounded Prince Shao’s villa under the pretext of searching for Khitan spies, trapping Li Yuanying and his guards inside. Huo Qilang’s defense killed the first attackers, and Liu Mian ordered his archers onto the walls and declared the prince a traitor.

• Lady Yu discovered that the streets were deserted, the carriage had been sabotaged, and Cailu had not returned, then warned Li Yuanying that danger was coming.
• Huo Qilang found that several hundred Yab soldiers had surrounded the villa and learned that Kang Simo had vanished while the Khitan boy remained inside.
• Liu Mian demanded to search the villa for Khitan spies, and Lady Yu refused to open the gate as Li Yuanying’s guards prepared to defend the central courtyard.
• Liu Mian threw Cailu’s severed head into the courtyard, then ordered his soldiers to break down the gate when no one surrendered.
• Huo Qilang killed seven Yab soldiers who charged through the entrance, forcing Liu Mian to declare Li Yuanying a traitor and order archers onto the walls.

Huo Qilang and Prince Shao’s guards fought Liu Mian’s overwhelming Yab forces in the courtyard as they tried to protect Li Yuanying. Huo Qilang was badly wounded but continued fighting to defend him, ending the chapter with her fate uncertain.

• Huo Qilang held the courtyard against the Yab soldiers, first with her Horizontal Saber and then with Li Yuanying’s Jade Dragon Sword, which she eventually ruined.
• Song Yinghui gave Huo Qilang his Mo Dao, and she used it to cut through the advancing soldiers as the guards were driven back toward the building.
• Li Yuanying told Huo Qilang to escape, but she refused and recalled how, ten years earlier, she had sworn never again to pledge her loyalty to anyone.
• A wounded Yab soldier stabbed Huo Qilang in the thigh, causing severe blood loss, but she continued fighting to protect Li Yuanying and shouted, “Huo Qi-duty fulfilled!!!!!”

Li Yuanying and Huo Qilang survived the attack on the outlying residence after reinforcements arrived, though the defenders suffered heavy losses and Yuwen Rang died. As Huo Qilang lay gravely wounded on the ride back, Li Yuanying kissed her.

• Li Yuanying crawled to Huo Qilang and stopped the bleeding from her thigh wound with his hands and his forehead band.
• Huo Qilang collapsed a covered walkway onto the Yab soldiers, then helped hold the north gate until the defenders rallied.
• Liu Mian ordered the residence burned, but Yuan Shaobo and the cavalry arrived, killed Liu Mian, and drove off his troops after learning the Inner City was under attack.
• Yuan Shaobo found Li Yuanying and the wounded survivors; Huo Qilang discovered Yuwen Rang had died and was carried back for treatment.
• Huo Qilang asked Li Yuanying to help her sew her wound and joked with him in the carriage, and Li Yuanying leaned down and kissed her.

Li Yuanying consolidated his rule over Youzhou and uncovered that Physician Zhu Minhe was a spy from Chang’an, winning his loyalty by avenging his family. Zhu Minhe then revealed that Li Yuanying’s prolonged arsenic poisoning had irreparably damaged his health and urged him to choose an heir, leaving Li Yuanying to make further arrangements.

• Zhang Jifang seized Youzhou’s Inner City after Liu Kun’s defeat, then surrendered the Military Governor’s seal to Li Yuanying when troops from other prefectures surrounded the city.
• Li Yuanying took control of Youzhou, honored the battle dead at their funeral, exempted the people from land tax for a year, and restored Minzhong Temple.
• Li Yuanying summoned Zhu Minhe and exposed him as a spy who had been secretly monitoring his health for Chang’an.
• Li Yuanying presented Zhu Minhe with the preserved head of the man who had murdered his parents, and Zhu pledged his loyalty in return.
• Zhu Minhe agreed to report that Li Yuanying had a hereditary illness, then warned him that prolonged arsenic poisoning had severely damaged his health and advised him to choose an heir.
• Li Yuanying dismissed Zhu Minhe and told his trusted attendants that he had arrangements to make.

Gravely ill, Li Yuanying left Youzhou City and gave Huo Qilang instructions to take his identity and authority after his death. As he waited for Baozhu, Huo Qilang chose to use her inner power to try to save him rather than inherit his position.

• Li Yuanying ordered those around him to conceal his grave illness and traveled with Huo Qilang to Youzhou Terrace.
• Li Yuanying told Huo Qilang to bury him under Lady Jing's identity and become the true Prince Shao Ying and Regional Governor of Youzhou.
• Li Yuanying gave Huo Qilang Flower Mud and the Bronze Official Seal, explaining that Baozhu would know how to carry on.
• As Li Yuanying waited for his younger sister, Huo Qilang weighed accepting his authority against the loss of her freedom to travel.
• Huo Qilang carried Li Yuanying indoors, pressed his back to her chest, and used her inner power in an attempt to keep him alive.

Li Yuanying explained that he needed Huo Qilang’s insight to pursue his plan to become Chang'an Military Governor, and asked her to stay until Baozhu arrived. Huo Qilang named her price: she wanted him to dress as Lady Jing, prompting a furious fight that ended with Li Yuanying collapsing after spitting blood.

• Li Yuanying worried that Baozhu’s elusive escort was hiding her and explained that he needed to meet her before deciding his next move.
• Li Yuanying told Huo Qilang he intended to become Chang'an Military Governor and asked her to remain by his side for her insight.
• Huo Qilang said she wanted Li Yuanying to wear Lady Jing’s outfit so they could enjoy themselves, and he angrily protested her request.
• Li Yuanying grabbed an Ivory Tea Knife and attacked Huo Qilang, who disarmed and restrained him in the carriage.
• Li Yuanying spat blood and passed out, and Huo Qilang promised to wear the skirt in a panic.

Dou Jing was forced by a gray-robed woman to take part in a crime against the true dragon bloodline. After she showed him a golden hair and named the Yellow Lion, she declared that her command was the mandate of heaven.

• Dou Jing trembled in a secret chamber as a gray-robed woman ordered him to act.
• Dou Jing protested that the deed was one of the ten unpardonable crimes and feared the true dragon's guardians.
• The woman revealed a golden hair and named the Yellow Lion.
• The woman declared that her command was the mandate of heaven.