Recaps

After returning to his wedding night, Wang Gang exposed Li Qingluo’s affair with Duan Zhengchun and used his reputation panel to build his martial arts. He strengthened the Wang family’s business and drew the attention of both political rivals and a new assassin.

• Wang Gang returned to his wedding night, confronted Li Qingluo and Duan Zhengchun, and struck Duan Zhengchun’s Qi sea after Duan attacked him.
• Wang Gang sought the Lesser Formless Skill, manipulated Master Xuantong with a fabricated story, and asked Murong Bo to teach him martial arts.
• Wang Gang used his panel to learn the Qi Refining Art and master the One-Character Lightning Sword, then disarmed Li Qingluo when she challenged him.
• Wang Gang exposed embezzlement in the family’s shops, ordered managers to repay their losses, and punished Wang Cai by removing him as shopkeeper.
• Wang Gang met the Murong retainers at the Spring Breeze Pavilion and learned they were preparing for rebellion, but he said he would not betray them.
• Liu Cheng sealed two Wang family shops, but Wang Gang frightened him into accepting a ten-percent stake in the Drunken Immortal Tower.
• Wang Gui and his allies turned to the Fish-Dragon Gang to arrange Wang Gang’s murder after Wang Gang’s investigations threatened them.
• Wang Gang declined Li Yun’s offer to serve as a military adviser, survived an assassin stopped by Qin Hongmian and Gan Baobao, and then faced another stranger who said he had come to kill him.

Wang Gang gained the Flame Blade, clashed violently with Duan Zhengchun and his companions, and built up the estate’s ventures while pursuing the Fish-Dragon Gang. His visits to the academy revealed his practical ideas and earned him praise, but he left urgently after learning Gongye Qian had been gravely wounded.

• Wang Gang learned Wang Gui had hired an assassin, had him exiled, and gained Murong Bo’s Flame Blade manual after Madam Wang intervened.
• Wang Gang advanced his martial arts and developed the estate’s liquor and pig ventures, then confronted Duan Zhengchun at Waterside Cottage and killed several of his guards before letting Duan escape.
• Wang Gang took Qin Hongmian and Gan Baobao into his custody, while Li Qingluo pleaded with him to spare Duan Zhengchun.
• Wang Gang captured Jin Long at the Eight Immortals Tower, secured payments from three shopkeepers for the Wang Family’s cooking method, and turned Jin Long over to County Commandant Yang.
• Wang Gang proposed using rival gangs to weaken the Fish-Dragon Gang, then visited the academy, where he rejected a recommendation to become Master Yichuan’s disciple and argued for practical learning.
• Wang Gang challenged the academy students to judge Wang Anshi’s new commentaries after reading them, then defended their scholarship while criticizing their compulsory use in examinations.
• Wang Gang wrote a poem at a contest between academy students and prefectural scholars, then left after Wang Zhong told him Gongye Qian had been gravely wounded.
• Wang Gang reached Gongye Qian’s recovery site and found the four retainers and Murong Bo there.