Recaps

Chen Yu became Wu Junji’s summoned general, gaining the ability to act as a durable puppet controlled by the Crown Prince. After testing his control over Chen Yu, Wu Junji gave him one last chance to leave before warning him that staying would lead to certain death.

• Chen Yu offered Wu Junji a Red Cord that would let the Crown Prince sense his thoughts, and Wu Junji tied it around his wrist with a drop of blood.
• Wu Junji shared his fortune with Chen Yu, awakening Chen Yu’s ability as a puppet who could not disobey his lord’s commands.
• Wu Junji ordered Chen Yu to lie on the floor and eat a dirt-covered apple, but found the act dull.
• When the carriage arrived, Wu Junji stepped over Chen Yu and told him to leave or face a road to certain death.

Wu Junji entered Jixia Academy and discovered that its students and staff were demons who viewed him as prey. After the Academy’s guide separated him from Chen Yu, Wu Junji was left isolated in the harsh Zhou dormitories as lunchtime began.

• Wu Junji entered Jixia Academy with Chen Yu, while Nanny Wang and Eunuch Qian remained outside the gates.
• Wu Junzheng used his heavenly eye to see that many Academy residents were demons, but he followed Wu Junji to the Zhou dormitories.
• A guiding scholar led Wu Junji and Wu Junzheng through the dormitories and explained their strict rules and inferior status.
• The guiding scholar and three men attacked Chen Yu, while the scholar held a blade to Wu Junji’s neck and forced Chen Yu to surrender.
• The Academy’s men took Chen Yu away, leaving Wu Junji alone in the Zhou dormitories as the lunch bell rang.

Wu Junji endured the demons’ abuse when he came to the dining hall seeking food, while Wu Junzheng’s idealized image of him shattered. Wu Junzheng unleashed his imperial fortune against the demons and fled in tears, leaving Wu Junji to claim the cooking pot as his bowl.

• Wu Junji found no bowl among his belongings and carried a spittoon to the dining hall for food.
• The cook spat into Wu Junji’s spittoon, then the demons surrounded him, tore at his clothes, and humiliated him.
• Wu Junzheng broke down as he realized Wu Junji had once been a beggar and could endure losing his status more easily than he could bear to watch.
• Wu Junzheng smashed the spittoon into the cook and used his red flood dragon fortune to subdue all thirty-one demons.
• Wu Junzheng dressed and groomed Wu Junji, then ran away sobbing that he hated him.
• Wu Junji climbed onto the table and decided to eat from the pot.

Wu Junji learned that Great Zhou had traded away his human emperor fortune and resolved to build achievements inside the Academy by compiling the Peaceful People's Encyclopedia. He recruited Wu Junzheng to help him confront the demons, ending with the two agreeing that skinning them was an option.

• The Lord of Changbai Mountain planned to take Wu Junzheng's General Summoning while insisting he would not harm Great Zhou's second prince.
• Wu Junzheng told Wu Junji that his General Summoning had been taken, and Wu Junji concluded that the Retired Emperor and Emperor Zhou had sold them both to the Demon Domain.
• Wu Junji explained that his human emperor fortune needed achievements to become usable and began writing the Peaceful People's Encyclopedia as his path to gaining them.
• Wu Junzheng returned after failing to find Ruan Yuan and confirmed that Imperial Grandfather had sold him off too.
• Wu Junji said he would do what he had done before, and Wu Junzheng accepted that skinning the demons would work.

Wu Junji sensed a Peach Blossom Demon among the injured demons in the Zhou dormitory while writing the Peaceful People's Encyclopedia and drawing out a tiny strand of human emperor fortune. He left for evening study with Wu Junzheng, hinting that they would eat meat that night as the demons' carnival began.

• Wu Junzheng noticed a peach-blossom scent around Wu Junji, who suspected a Peach Blossom Demon was nearby.
• Wu Junji considered the demons' injuries and the threat they would pose after recovering, deciding they had to die.
• Wu Junji wrote ten thousand characters of the Peaceful People's Encyclopedia and drew out a small strand of human emperor fortune.
• Wu Junzheng worried about Wu Junji's injured hands, and Wu Junji said they would eat meat that night.
• Wu Junji headed with Wu Junzheng to evening study at Yuesi Pavilion, where the demons' carnival began.

Wu Junji and Wu Junzheng were captured and tormented by White King and the other demon heirs, who wanted Wu Junji’s human emperor fortune. Wu Junji negotiated a deal to trade it for their help against Zhou She’s beasts and Jixia Academy, then used his dangerous vulnerability to pain to make the demons handle him cautiously.

• Lang Xi and the other demons attacked Wu Junji, but his human emperor fortune remained steady despite their attempts to frighten and injure him.
• Wu Junji pretended to cry and offered the demons his fortune in exchange for killing the beasts in Zhou She, the Retired Emperor, Emperor Zhou, and everyone at Jixia Academy.
• Wu Junji refused to give up his fortune without a deal, and the demon heirs agreed to target Zhou She’s beasts while keeping Wu Junzheng as a hostage.
• White King squeezed Wu Junji until he was in pain, so Wu Junji slammed his head into White King’s and fainted, prompting the demons to fear heavenly punishment.
• Wu Junji woke and warned the demons that whoever hurt him would be responsible if he died, making them cradle him carefully while Xiong Yu kept Wu Junzheng captive.

At Yuesi Pavilion, Wu Junji provoked the five Demon Heirs by exposing their lack of authority, then offered White King a wisp of human emperor fortune. After absorbing it and growing stronger, White King rejected Night Reading’s rules and embraced the power to kill his own subjects.

• White King brought Wu Junji to Yuesi Pavilion and told him to wait until after Night Reading to fulfill their agreement.
• Wu Junji mocked the Demon Heirs as powerless puppies, provoking Xiong Yu to attack until White King kicked him aside.
• Wu Junji warned that killing the Human Emperor carried heavenly punishment and said he would take one of them down with him, making the demons hesitate.
• Wu Junji offered White King a wisp of human emperor fortune, which White King swallowed, gaining strength and stature.
• White King declared that he would pursue human emperor fortune instead of obeying Night Reading rules, while Wu Junji insisted that power entitled a ruler to decide who lived and died.

Wu Junji manipulated the Demon Heirs into killing demons at Yuesi Pavilion by promising them Human Emperor Fortune and future protection. As the killings continued, Wu Junzheng watched in horror, while Wu Junji revealed that he planned to make the killers depend on him for shelter and advancement.

• The White King became inspired by Wu Junji’s apparent authority and vowed to kill whoever Wu Junji wanted.
• Wu Junzheng realized Wu Junji had twisted the rules to provoke the Demon Heirs and make them believe killing their own kind was justified.
• At Yuesi Pavilion, Wu Junji named demons from Zhou She, and the White King and the other Demon Heirs killed them.
• Wu Junji silently asked Wu Junzheng what he wanted to eat as he watched the demons’ bodies fill the floor.
• Wu Junji told 88 that, once the Demon Heirs finished killing, they would have to rely on him for shelter and the promised rewards.

At Yuesi Pavilion, Wu Junji confronted Ruan Yuan and offered the Lord of Changbai Mountain a deal to establish a Demon Court before swearing a great oath to unite humans and demons under his rule. His vow stirred the human emperor fortune, and Emperor Zhou ordered the Northern Army to surround the imperial palace.

• Ruan Yuan arrived at Yuesi Pavilion after the demon heirs had slaughtered many demons, and Wu Junji rebuked him for trying to shift blame onto the crown prince.
• Wu Junji tortured the surviving Chicken Demon and offered the Lord of Changbai Mountain a deal: he would establish a Demon Court in exchange for a promise.
• Wu Junji swore to bring prosperity to the Demon Domain and common people, unite the Nine Provinces, and use human emperor fortune to command the Demon Domain.
• Heavenly thunder struck Yuesi Pavilion as Wu Junji's human emperor fortune surged across a hundred thousand miles, horrifying the Demon Domain and Great Zhou's court.
• Emperor Zhou realized Wu Junji had made a dangerous great vow and ordered Eunuch Qian to mobilize the Northern Army and surround the imperial palace.

Wu Junji sealed a grand vow that bound Great Zhou’s national fortune to him, then used its power to confront the Academy and the demons who sought his fortune. As the demons attacked him, a pink dragon appeared and swallowed a hundred of them.

• Wu Junji’s grand vow awakened Great Zhou’s Human Emperor Fortune, and Ruan Yuan warned that failure could bring down the nation.
• Wu Junji declared that he would make the rules for demons at Jixia Academy and killed the Chicken Demon cook with the fortune’s power.
• Ruan Yuan excused the demons’ actions and evaded responsibility for Wu Junzheng’s captured summoned general, while the Lord of Changbai Mountain promised an explanation.
• Wu Junji and Wu Junzheng left with a pheasant corpse, but the demons attacked after Wu Junji said he would eat it.
• A pink dragon with a severed tail swallowed a hundred attacking demons at Wu Junji’s imperial command.

Emperor Zhou arrived at Jixia Academy and found Wu Junji bloodied, cold, hungry, and abused, then unleashed his fury on the people and demons he blamed. He destroyed the Academy and slaughtered its occupants while Wu Junji clung quietly to him.

• Emperor Zhou arrived on Azure Cloud Road, found Wu Junji injured and underdressed, and learned that the Academy had denied him proper food, clothes, and shoes.
• Humans and demons accused Wu Junji of crimes, but Wu Junzheng told Emperor Zhou that the Crown Prince had been fed watery porridge and insulted as a bastard.
• Emperor Zhou ordered the demons killed and threatened to devastate the Demon Domain; the Golden Eagle Guards attacked while the Lord of Changbai Mountain joined the fight in tiger form.
• Ruan Yuan begged Emperor Zhou to spare the students, but Emperor Zhou kicked him away and ordered the assault to continue.
• Emperor Zhou burned Jixia Academy and killed its two thousand eight hundred scholars as Wu Junji kept his eyes closed and clung to him.

Emperor Zhou destroyed Jixia Academy despite Ruan Yuan’s pleas, then rode to the palace with Wu Junji as the Northern Army surrounded it. In the Palace of Eternal Longevity, the Empress Dowager confronted the Retired Emperor over his stolen throne and denied elder brother.

• Ruan Yuan begged Emperor Zhou to spare Jixia Academy’s students, but Emperor Zhou ordered the academy burned and had Ruan Yuan seized.
• Wu Junji remembered how Ruan Yuan had refused to help him in his former life and reflected on his resolve to become emperor.
• Wu Junji bit Emperor Zhou, who soothed him, while Wu Junzheng watched enviously and the foreign heirs and Demon Heirs feared the consequences of the massacre.
• Emperor Zhou sent the foreign heirs and Demon Heirs to the Foreign Guests’ Inn, then rode to the imperial palace with Wu Junji.
• Wu Junji learned that Chen Yang’s Northern Army had surrounded the palace and the Golden Eagle Guards had entered the Imperial City.
• The Retired Emperor cursed the Empress Dowager and Wu Junji, and she accused him of taking the throne from his elder brother, Wu An.

Emperor Zhou discovered that the Retired Emperor had secretly signed a National Pact and beat him until he surrendered the secondary seal. Back at Taiji Palace, he reassured the Crown Prince that he could handle any disaster, even the fall of Great Zhou, and the two reconciled before sleep.

• Emperor Zhou revealed his dragon fortune and confronted the Retired Emperor over the National Pact and the Crown Prince's ordeal at Jixia Academy.
• Emperor Zhou beat the Retired Emperor in a brawl and took a box containing the secondary seal.
• Emperor Zhou brought the injured Crown Prince back to Taiji Palace and asked him to voice his feelings instead of shutting him out.
• The Crown Prince worried that he had caused trouble, so Emperor Zhou promised to settle the consequences and told him to do what made him happy.
• The Crown Prince told Emperor Zhou that he loved him, and Emperor Zhou tucked him in while asking him not to hold a grudge.

After Emperor Zhou’s forces destroyed Jixia Academy, Wu Junji considered using Human Emperor Fortune to create contracts with demons and tested the idea on Turtle Thirteen. Emperor Zhou then appointed Yu Sheng as Wu Junji’s teacher, and Yu Sheng accepted under pressure.

• Emperor Zhou’s armies slaughtered Jixia Academy’s teachers and students and exterminated their families, while he used the Retired Emperor’s self-reproach decree to ease the political fallout.
• Wu Junji sensed that Turtle Thirteen had become more spiritually aware and devised a plan to create new demons bound to him through contracts powered by Human Emperor Fortune.
• Wu Junji tried to channel Human Emperor Fortune through Turtle Thirteen’s tank but failed to establish a contract.
• Emperor Zhou returned from court with Yu Sheng and proposed that the scholar become Wu Junji’s teacher.
• Yu Sheng recalled Jixia Academy’s destruction and tried to refuse, but Emperor Zhou’s silence frightened him into accepting.

Emperor Zhou took Wu Junji through Taiji Palace and told him he would send him to Minglu Academy after destroying Jixia Academy’s powerful families. Wu Junji accepted his father’s ruthlessness, and Emperor Zhou promised to give him whatever power he wanted, leaving Wu Junji unimpressed.

• Emperor Zhou urged Wu Junji not to lose the courage to start over and explained that he had killed those who bullied him at Jixia Academy.
• Emperor Zhou asked whether the Jixia Academy students and their relatives deserved to die, and Wu Junji said they did because his father wanted them dead.
• Emperor Zhou asked whether he was cruel and tyrannical, and Wu Junji called him wise and enlightened.
• Emperor Zhou described how he would have kept Wu Junji close if he had been a girl, and Wu Junji asked whether his father had heard that loving someone meant giving them power.
• Emperor Zhou kissed Wu Junji’s eyelids and promised to give him whatever he wanted, declaring they would guide the realm together.
• Wu Junji rolled his eyes, finding that Emperor Zhou’s questions had erased the feelings he had begun to develop the previous night.

Madam Zhaohua brought Ruan Zhizhi to the palace and asked Emperor Zhou whether his old promise to marry their children still stood, while Wu Junji recoiled from the girl because of their bitter marriage in his past life. After Wu Junji promised the Imperial Noble Consort he would speak to Emperor Zhou about Chen Yu’s punishment, Chen Yu saw Ruan Zhizhi while still kneeling and thought of the one person he truly wanted to atone to.

• Qian Deli told Emperor Zhou that Madam Zhaohua had arrived with her daughter, and Wu Junji insisted on staying to watch their meeting.
• Madam Zhaohua introduced Ruan Zhizhi, and Wu Junji led the girl away after Emperor Zhou joked that he was shy.
• Madam Zhaohua asked whether Emperor Zhou’s old marriage agreement still counted and worried that the Ruan family would mistreat Ruan Zhizhi after her death.
• Wu Junji avoided Ruan Zhizhi and left her crying, then encountered the Imperial Noble Consort, who asked him to seek leniency for Chen Yu.
• Wu Junji told the Imperial Noble Consort he would speak to Emperor Zhou, while Chen Yu continued kneeling and felt abandoned by the Crown Prince.
• Ruan Zhizhi passed Chen Yu as he knelt, and Chen Yu wondered why she had come to the palace before thinking of the person he most wanted to atone to.

Madam Zhaohua faced a dangerous pregnancy and planned for Ruan Zhizhi’s future by seeking Emperor Zhou’s protection and considering a royal marriage. Meanwhile, Wu Junji discovered the Deputy Imperial Seal, learned it could issue imperial commands, and secretly kept a shard of broken porcelain after asking 88 whether he could return to his previous life.

• Madam Zhaohua, pregnant and at risk of dying in childbirth, sought Emperor Zhou’s help and considered sending Ruan Zhizhi to Minglu Academy and marrying her into the imperial family.
• Ruan Zhizhi told her mother she liked the Crown Prince because he was pretty, while Madam Zhaohua reassured her that they would become friends.
• Wu Junzheng visited Wu Junji and found him holding the Deputy Imperial Seal, which Wu Junzheng explained carried authority equivalent to the Jade Seal.
• Wu Junji realized he had never known about the seal in his previous life and suspected that Emperor Zhou and the court had concealed it from him.
• Wu Junji asked 88 if it could send him back, then hid a sharp shard of broken porcelain beneath his mattress while 88 pleaded with him to live peacefully.

Emperor Zhou dreamed of the Crown Prince enduring starvation and abuse in a dungeon, and finally accepted that the young prisoner was his son. After waking, he comforted the little Crown Prince, who relaxed in his arms and decided to postpone killing him for the sake of the secondary seal.

• Emperor Zhou watched the Crown Prince suffer through days of starvation in a dungeon, enduring abuse while desperately trying to survive.
• Emperor Zhou recognized his son's eyes in the prisoner's face, broke down, and cried out that the young man was his Crown Prince.
• Emperor Zhou woke in tears and pulled the little Crown Prince into his arms.
• Emperor Zhou sang to and soothed the little Crown Prince until he relaxed and grew sleepy.
• The little Crown Prince decided he could postpone killing Emperor Zhou for another day to pursue the secondary seal.

Wu Junji discovered that Emperor Zhou had recovered Li Gong after the Lord of Changbai Mountain trapped him, and learned that General Summoning could be changed. Emperor Zhou offered Wu Junji a new group of loyal Golden Eagle Guards and promised to teach him how to change his summoning.

• Wu Junji noticed the porcelain shard had vanished and went to find Emperor Zhou in the Admonition Hall.
• Wu Junji recognized Li Gong, whom Emperor Zhou revealed had been summoned by his General Summoning and recently ransomed back from the Lord of Changbai Mountain.
• Emperor Zhou showed Wu Junji the shard, explained that Eunuch Qian had been killed for betraying the Crown Prince, and promised to replace the shard with a dagger.
• Emperor Zhou introduced ten skilled Golden Eagle Guards and told Wu Junji he could change his General Summoning, offering to teach him how.

Emperor Zhou arranged a general summoning for Wu Junji, who chose Li Jiu after learning he was the brother of Li Maomao, a woman from Wu Junji’s previous life. Emperor Zhou then took Wu Junji to witness the royal house’s power to alter heaven’s decree.

• Emperor Zhou rejected Chen Yu as Wu Junji’s summoned general and selected ten Golden Eagle Guards as candidates instead.
• Wu Junji recognized Li Jiu as the brother of Li Maomao, whose death in his previous life had stayed with him.
• Wu Junji chose Li Jiu, and Emperor Zhou asked whether he was sure before accepting his decision.
• Emperor Zhou praised the Deputy Imperial Seal and carried Wu Junji off to show him the Zhou Wu Royal House’s power to change heaven’s decree.

Emperor Zhou showed Wu Junji how the Jade Seal revealed fate threads and explained that Wu Junji could sever Chen Yu’s branch from his fate. Wu Junji freed Chen Yu, who received mysterious compensation and was left confronting why the Sick Emperor had hated him but never killed him.

• Emperor Zhou used the Jade Seal to show Wu Junji the fate threads and explained how fortune could sever the branch linking a summoned general to his lord.
• Wu Junji gathered his human emperor fortune and severed Chen Yu’s fate thread, drawing thunder and dark clouds over the palace.
• The Empress Dowager sensed the severing and summoned the Imperial Noble Consort.
• Chen Yu felt his connection to Wu Junji snap and received a mysterious power in return, then laughed beneath his quilt.
• Chen Yu recalled the Sick Emperor’s dying plea for five more years and realized Wu Junji had refused to punish him despite his hatred.

Wu Junji adjusted to life as Crown Prince after losing some fortune, while Emperor Zhou arranged Li Jiu as his new General Summoning partner. After enduring a month of painful martial arts training, Wu Junji set off for Minglu Academy with a grand entourage.

• Wu Junji considered whether to take revenge on people from his previous life as Emperor Zhou carried him through the palace gardens.
• Emperor Zhou told Wu Junji that he could attend Minglu Academy once he and Li Jiu developed an understanding, and Li Gong delivered Li Jiu to serve as the Crown Prince’s personal attendant and General Summoning partner.
• Li Jiu joined Wu Junji in Taiji Palace, where Wu Junji carved a jade seal and began watching his new partner practice martial arts.
• Wu Junji forced himself through daily stretching and martial arts practice until Emperor Zhou intervened, but Wu Junji insisted on continuing his training.
• After a month of leg stretches, Wu Junji achieved a full split and departed for Minglu Academy with his turtle, Demon Seal, servants, and supplies.

Wu Junji returned to Minglu Academy as Crown Prince and toured its classrooms. He chose Black Six, a class full of familiar demons and foreign imperial heirs, despite Yu Sheng saying he belonged elsewhere.

• Wu Junji recalled his past as a trafficked child and how he had survived in Minglu Academy’s orchards before learning he was the Crown Prince.
• Yu Sheng and the academy’s teachers welcomed Wu Junji at the main gate, and Yu Sheng showed him around the academy.
• Yu Sheng explained that Black Five housed newly elevated nobles who had requested to study with the Crown Prince.
• Li Jiu carried Wu Junji past Black Six, where he recognized White King, Mu Zhao, Xiong Yu, Lang Xi, Gao Hu, Chen Yu, and other imperial heirs.
• Yu Sheng told Wu Junji that his classroom was elsewhere, but Wu Junji declared that he liked Black Six and intended to study there.
• Wu Junji’s human emperor fortune burst forth, startling the class into defensive stances as he resolved to have some fun with them.

Wu Junji took control of Black Six Class by having Li Jiu defeat the royal heirs and Demon Heirs. Chen Yu then knelt before him as his new personal eunuch, and Wu Junji learned that Chen Yu had castrated himself to serve at his side.

• Wu Junji declared himself the boss of Black Six Class and ordered Li Jiu to beat Langdun Jiayang and the other resisting royal heirs into submission.
• Eri Dun and the five Demon Heirs submitted, while Li Jiu knocked Gao Nan and Yu Fusang into the wall.
• Wu Junji ordered Li Jiu to throw Chen Yu out, but Chen Yu knelt and presented a token naming him Wu Junji's personal eunuch.
• Wu Junji read Chen Yu's thoughts through the Red Cord and discovered that he had castrated himself to gain the chance to serve him.
• Wu Junji recalled Chen Yu's past kindnesses and betrayals, then called him Eunuch Chen with bitter mockery.

Chen Yu secured permission to remain by Wu Junji’s side after revealing that he expected to live only thirteen more years. Wu Junji granted his request, leaving Chen Yu bound to him at Minglu Academy.

• Wu Junji chose Black Six Class at Minglu Academy, while the demon heirs discussed whether the thousand-year-old Mr. Hu could challenge him.
• Emperor Zhou sent Wu Junzheng to Minglu Academy at the Retired Emperor’s insistence, and Wu Junzheng burned the Red Cord that could be used to curse Wu Junji.
• The Retired Emperor spread word that Chen Yu had castrated himself to stay with the Crown Prince, damaging the Chen Family’s reputation and leaving Chen Jin distraught.
• Wu Junji read Chen Yu’s thoughts and learned that he planned to serve him for thirteen years before dying from exposure to meteorite power.
• Wu Junji granted Chen Yu’s request to stay, and Chen Yu kowtowed in thanks.