Chapter Summaries

The Snow Empress and Yin Wujou captured Liu Yanzhao, but learned his capture would not stop the Puppet Armor from activating, so they set out to destroy the Xuan Abyss Workshop. The Snow Empress sought help from Mu Canglan and showed him a workshop token found in the Meng residence.

• The Snow Empress and Yin Wujou raided the Zhou residence and captured Liu Yanzhao after she blocked the cellar's secret passages and crippled his guards.
• Liu Yanzhao warned them that the Puppet Armor would activate even if he was killed, prompting the Snow Empress to prioritize destroying the Xuan Abyss Workshop.
• The Snow Empress sealed Liu Yanzhao's cultivation at the old ancestral hall and told Yin Wujou to guard him until dawn.
• The Snow Empress visited Mu Canglan, a former Southern Frontier Rogue Cultivator Alliance leader who had been hiding in a tavern in the capital.
• The Snow Empress showed Mu Canglan a Xuan Abyss Workshop token taken from a secret chamber in the Meng residence, and he recognized it.

The Snow Empress recruited Mu Canglan to guide her into the Xuan Abyss Workshop and destroy its Puppet Armor arsenal. After Mu Canglan joined her and Yin Wujou, they planned their approach and divided their duties, but Yin Wujou hesitated at being left to guard Liu Yanzhao alone.

• The Snow Empress asked Mu Canglan to guide her through the Falling Rosy Clouds Mountain Range and help destroy the Xuan Abyss Workshop's Puppet Armor arsenal in exchange for clearing his former subordinates' names.
• Mu Canglan agreed to help and went to find a poison master who could provide Miasma-Repelling Pills.
• Before dawn, Mu Canglan joined the Snow Empress and Yin Wujou at the ancestral hall, where Liu Yanzhao remained unconscious.
• Mu Canglan confirmed the workshop's location and explained that three layers of defenses guarded it, while at least a hundred Puppet Armor suits waited inside.
• The Snow Empress planned to take Mu Canglan to the workshop while Yin Wujou guarded Liu Yanzhao and questioned him, and Yin Wujou hesitated at being left alone.

Yin Wujou questioned Liu Yanzhao and learned that three tokens were needed to activate the Puppet Armor, with the remaining tokens held by Meng Qi and Zhou Jing. Meanwhile, Meng Qi discovered that his secret chamber had been searched and the token and Southern Frontier letters stolen.

• Yin Wujou took Liu Yanzhao to a secluded house, sealed his meridians, and used mind-soothing incense to question him.
• Liu Yanzhao revealed that Meng Qi, Zhou Jing, and he each held a token, and that joining all three would activate the Puppet Armor.
• Liu Yanzhao told Yin Wujou that Meng Qi was in the capital and Zhou Jing was at the Xuan Abyss Workshop guarding the armor vault, but then fell unconscious.
• Yin Wujou realized Zhou Jing could activate a hundred suits of Puppet Armor and decided to keep Liu Yanzhao secure while awaiting the Snow Empress's return.
• Meng Qi found his secret chamber ransacked, with the token and Southern Frontier letters missing.

The Snow Empress and Mu Canglan infiltrated the Falling Rosy Clouds Mountain Range to reach an old Spirit Vein Bureau site. They reached its guarded entrance, where the Snow Empress began disabling the detection formation while Mu Canglan watched the puppets.

• Meng Qi ordered his adviser to find out who had defied him after ten years.
• The Snow Empress and Mu Canglan left the capital and used Miasma-Repelling Pills to enter the dangerous mountains.
• Mu Canglan used Vine-Repelling Powder to guide them through the poisonous vines.
• They found a stone building guarded by detection formations and four suits of Puppet Armor.
• The Snow Empress approached the iron doors with her Spiritual Power suppressed while Mu Canglan stood ready to distract the puppets.

The Snow Empress and Mu Canglan infiltrated the Xuan Abyss Workshop, disabled its entrance array, and discovered enslaved miners and an abandoned assembly area. The Snow Empress descended toward the armor vault with a token and protective bell, while Mu Canglan stayed behind to support her.

• The Snow Empress blocked all five nodes of the iron door's detection array and disabled the four Puppet Armor suits as Mu Canglan opened the door with his old universal key.
• Mu Canglan explained the workshop's three levels, and the Snow Empress noticed the abused miners locked in cages along the corridor.
• The Snow Empress and Mu Canglan entered the deserted assembly area, where she found signs that the craftsmen had left in a hurry.
• The Snow Empress decided to enter the armor vault alone and explained that her token could freeze its Spiritual Power circuits before Zhou Jing activated the Puppet Armor.
• Mu Canglan gave the Snow Empress a protective bronze bell, and she descended the stone staircase as the bell began to chime softly.

The Snow Empress confronted Zhou Jing in a vault filled with Puppet Armor and fought to disable its Spiritual Power hub before the puppets could march on the imperial capital. She destroyed the hub, stopping every suit, but the chapter left her inside the silent vault after the battle.

• The Snow Empress found Zhou Jing beside a token in the vault and learned that the token could freeze the vault's Spiritual Power circuits only briefly.
• Zhou Jing activated the Puppet Armor, and the Snow Empress used her bronze bell to disrupt the puppets long enough to clash the two tokens and throw Zhou Jing aside.
• Mu Canglan arrived and told the Snow Empress that the Spiritual Power hub lay three feet beneath the floor.
• The Snow Empress kicked Zhou Jing unconscious as he warned that the activated puppets would leave the mountain and head for the imperial capital.
• The Snow Empress broke through the floor and embedded her token in the hub's central node, extinguishing its circuits and stopping all the Puppet Armor.

The Snow Empress and Mu Canglan disabled the Xuan Abyss Workshop, freed its captive miners, and set out for the capital with Zhou Jing to build a case against Meng Qi. They returned to Yin Wujou’s safe house, where he confirmed the unconscious man was Zhou Jing.

• The Snow Empress explained that the armor vault’s central control was temporarily disabled, and Mu Canglan carried the unconscious Zhou Jing away as evidence for the court.
• The Snow Empress and Mu Canglan freed the imprisoned miners and led them through a dangerous route out of the mountains.
• The Snow Empress told Mu Canglan that Song Xuanwei had a map and a formation-breaking talisman to rescue his daughter from a dungeon near Yuanzhou City.
• At dawn, the Snow Empress said they would return to the capital, compare Liu Yanzhao’s and Zhou Jing’s confessions, and use the evidence to confront Meng Qi.
• Yin Wujou let the Snow Empress and Mu Canglan into the safe house, recognized the unconscious Zhou Jing, and learned that he was alive.

The Snow Empress interrogated Zhou Jing and secured his signed confession naming Meng Qi’s twelve covert agents in the capital. She discovered that three were clerks at the Court of Judicial Review, leaving the group unsure how to submit evidence without it being intercepted.

• Mu Canglan warned that the Puppet Armor’s central control would recover unless the court sealed it within seven days, and the Snow Empress ordered Zhou Jing and Liu Yanzhao interrogated before dawn.
• The Snow Empress persuaded Zhou Jing to cooperate by invoking the unresolved case of the Spirit Vein Bureau’s dead.
• Zhou Jing named twelve covert agents and wrote their identities, positions, contact methods, and duties in a confession bearing his fingerprint.
• The Snow Empress compared Zhou Jing’s confession with Liu Yanzhao’s earlier remarks and found three agents among the Court of Judicial Review’s clerks.
• Yin Wujou proposed bypassing the court and appealing to the emperor, but Mu Canglan noted that the emperor would not accept a submission outside official channels.

The Snow Empress sent Yin Wujou to find Song Xuanwei and secure his testimony against Liu Yanzhao. Song agreed to submit a confidential memorial after settling his rescued daughter somewhere safe.

• The Snow Empress identified the Imperial Guard's confidential memorial channel as a way for Song Xuanwei to report directly to the emperor and sent Yin Wujou to find him at the Mooncome Inn.
• Yin Wujou used an old Spirit Vein Bureau signal at the inn and found Song Xuanwei with his frail daughter, whom he had rescued from the Southern Frontier's secret prison.
• Yin Wujou gave Song Xuanwei Zhou Jing's confession and explained that the Snow Empress would include the coercion and hostage-taking in the case file to seek leniency.
• Song Xuanwei said he would place his daughter with trusted friends in the south of the city, then go to the Imperial Guard's garrison to draft a memorial.

Yin Wujou and Mu Canglan gathered evidence linking Meng Qi to the covert agents while the Snow Empress prepared a formal case dossier. They planned to monitor Meng Qi overnight and prevent him from destroying evidence or escaping, with Yin Wujou taking up surveillance outside the Meng residence.

• Yin Wujou secured Song Xuanwei's promise to submit a secret memorial to the palace and left the inn.
• Mu Canglan followed the Chongwen Ward teahouse proprietor's couriers to four locations, then watched the proprietor deliver a letter to Meng Qi at the Meng residence.
• The Snow Empress gave Yin Wujou a chronological case file documenting the evidence against Meng Qi and warned that Meng Qi might act that night.
• The Snow Empress ordered Yin Wujou to watch Meng Qi, Mu Canglan to obtain tracking powder, and herself to remain at the Bell and Drum Tower.
• Yin Wujou reached the old locust tree outside the Meng residence and began sensing activity inside.

Yin Wujou followed Meng Qi to a secret meeting and saw him meet a hidden Imperial Guard operative. After Meng Qi’s men began searching for Liu Yanzhao, the Snow Empress ordered Liu Yanzhao, Zhou Jing, and the case file moved before dawn, leaving the group to carry out their separate tasks.

• Yin Wujou followed Meng Qi from the Meng residence to a house where several powerful Spiritual Power presences gathered.
• Yin Wujou saw Meng Qi meet a captain of the Imperial Guard identified as one of Zhou Jing’s twelve hidden operatives, then reported the meeting to the Snow Empress.
• Mu Canglan told the Snow Empress that Meng Qi’s adviser was leading guards to search the old ancestral hall for Liu Yanzhao.
• The Snow Empress concluded that Meng Qi was still probing and ordered Liu Yanzhao, Zhou Jing, and the complete case file moved to the abandoned kiln before dawn.
• The Snow Empress sent Yin Wujou to move the prisoners, Mu Canglan to urge Song Xuanwei to deliver the memorial, and went to follow Meng Qi’s search party.

Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress hid Liu Yanzhao and Zhou Jing in a concealed cellar while preparing to expose Meng Qi and the Spirit Vein Bureau case. Before dawn, Mu Canglan reported that Song Xuanwei’s confidential memorial had reached the emperor, who had summoned the grand secretaries.

• Yin Wujou hid Liu Yanzhao and Zhou Jing in a cellar beneath an abandoned kiln and concealed the case files and token there.
• The Snow Empress warned Yin Wujou that Meng Qi’s search teams might reach the area before dawn and said the court’s response to Song Xuanwei’s memorial remained uncertain.
• The Snow Empress admitted that she trusted Yin Wujou, Mu Canglan, and Song Xuanwei, and said she wanted to resolve the old case and rest once it was over.
• The Snow Empress let Yin Wujou sleep while she kept watch through the night.
• Mu Canglan reported that Song Xuanwei’s memorial had reached the emperor, who had summoned the grand secretaries to discuss affairs of state.

The Snow Empress transferred Liu Yanzhao and Zhou Jing to the Imperial Guard and waited to learn whether the emperor would act against Meng Qi. The emperor ordered the Xuan Abyss Workshop sealed and Meng Qi detained, while promising to review the ten-year-old Spirit Vein Bureau case.

• The Snow Empress had Yin Wujou take Liu Yanzhao and Zhou Jing to the Imperial Guard headquarters, where Song Xuanwei accepted custody of them and the case files.
• The Snow Empress explained that the emperor needed to order a thorough investigation to overcome Meng Qi’s influence, and that the token from the Meng household could link him to the Xuan Abyss Workshop.
• A palace official delivered an imperial decree ordering the Court of Judicial Review and the Imperial Guard to seal the workshop, investigate Liu Yanzhao’s treason case, and detain Meng Qi and the other implicated people.
• The palace official told the Snow Empress that her arrest warrant would be revoked if the investigation established the Spirit Vein Bureau’s innocence in the case from ten years earlier.
• Yin Wujou noticed the Snow Empress smile as she read the decree.

After the imperial decree was issued, the Snow Empress and Yin Wujou left the Imperial Guard compound, while the Court of Judicial Review began examining the Puppet Armor armory. Pei Jichuan uncovered a star chart that suggested Liu Yanzhao had planned beyond taking the Son of Heaven hostage, and Mu Canglan returned to his tavern to find two visitors had sought him out.

• The Snow Empress told Mu Canglan to rest, then gave Yin Wujou her protective bronze bell as a memento before leaving him in the market crowd.
• Pei Jichuan led twelve bailiffs into the Xuan Abyss Workshop armory and counted fifty-three suits of Puppet Armor.
• Pei Jichuan found a star chart marking the Ziwei Enclosure and ordered Song Xuanwei and the Court of Judicial Review chief to be notified.
• Pei Jichuan realized the Puppet Armor would reactivate after seven days and that only three days had passed.
• Mu Canglan returned to his tavern, where his assistant reported that Boss Liu and a visitor wearing a bamboo hat had come looking for him.

Mu Canglan met Shen Guannan, a surviving former Spirit Vein Bureau astronomer, who revealed evidence that Meng Qi fabricated the case against the bureau. Shen Guannan brought the evidence to the Snow Empress, who recognized him as someone from her past.

• Mu Canglan received a message from Shen Guannan and met him at the abandoned Stargazing Terrace.
• Mu Canglan and Shen Guannan read the court bulletin, which reported Liu Yanzhao's arrest, Meng Qi's house arrest, and the temporary suspension of the Spirit Vein Bureau arrest warrants.
• Shen Guannan explained that the temporary suspension still left the Snow Empress at risk of arrest and gave Meng Qi time to evade punishment.
• Shen Guannan gave Mu Canglan hidden drafts showing that Meng Qi had forged evidence against the Spirit Vein Bureau, and confessed that guilt had kept him silent for ten years.
• Mu Canglan brought Shen Guannan to the Snow Empress, who recognized him as the young astronomer who had once given her roasted chestnuts.

Shen Guannan gave the Snow Empress evidence of Meng Qi’s forgery, but an early activation of the armory’s Puppet Armor forced her and Yin Wujou to rush to the Xuan Abyss Workshop. The Snow Empress drew the puppets toward the main entrance while Yin Wujou entered through a ventilation opening to reach the Spiritual Power hub.

• Shen Guannan handed the Snow Empress Liu Chengze’s original draft of the forged secret letter, and she ordered Mu Canglan to deliver it to the Court of Judicial Review as evidence.
• Commandant Zhao reported that the armory’s Spiritual Power hub had activated early and that two Puppet Armor suits had attacked bailiffs.
• The Snow Empress suspected Meng Qi had sent secret commands through the ventilation opening and set out with Yin Wujou to destroy the hub.
• Pei Jichuan told the Snow Empress that the Puppet Armor had injured two bailiffs and that ordinary arrows could not pierce its Xuantie armor plates.
• The Snow Empress gave Yin Wujou a universal talisman plate and went to the main entrance to distract the puppets while he entered through the ventilation opening.
• Yin Wujou crawled through the narrow passage and reached a vantage point above the armory, where he saw the Puppet Armor hubs flickering and the central suit moving.

Snow Empress and Yin Wujou disabled the armory’s Puppet Armor and recovered its Spiritual Power core as evidence of outside commands. They identified Cao Jing'an as a likely covert agent and moved to arrest him while Meng Qi tested whether he could leave the city, but Snow Empress said one more thing was needed to overturn the Spirit Vein Bureau case.

• Snow Empress distracted the Puppet Armor while Yin Wujou reached the central pedestal and used the talisman plate to open its hub.
• Yin Wujou pulled out the Spiritual Power core, shutting down every Puppet Armor in the armory, and Snow Empress took the core as evidence.
• Snow Empress identified Meng Qi's chief adviser, Cao Jing'an, as the only surviving former Bureau insider who knew about the armory's ventilation opening.
• Pei Jichuan received Meng Qi's request to leave the city for treatment, and Snow Empress advised refusing it while having the Imperial Guard surround his residence.
• Pei Jichuan sent bailiffs to arrest Cao Jing'an, while Snow Empress told Yin Wujou that another thing was needed to overturn the Spirit Vein Bureau case.

The Snow Empress told Yin Wujou that Lu Qingya had hidden his testimony beneath a loose brick in the old imperial prison, and they went to retrieve it. At the drill ground, they found no hollow spot where she remembered the brick, leaving them to search for another clue.

• The Snow Empress explained that Lu Qingya had hidden his testimony draft beneath a loose brick in his prison cell, and she and Yin Wujou agreed to look for it.
• The Snow Empress and Yin Wujou returned to the safe house, where she quietly examined the bronze bell from Mu Canglan while Yin Wujou slept.
• Pei Jichuan's runner reported that Cao Jing'an had been captured trying to leave the city and that Meng Qi had admitted negligence while denying the framing accusations.
• Yin Wujou told Mu Canglan they would search the old imperial prison site, and Mu Canglan gave him a key and directions to the drill ground.
• The Snow Empress and Yin Wujou entered the drill ground at night and searched around the third eastern flagpole, but every spot they tapped sounded solid.

The Snow Empress and Yin Wujou discovered that someone had removed Lu Qingya’s testimony and planned to bluff Meng Qi into moving it. Pei Jichuan agreed to set the trap while the Snow Empress prepared to interrogate Cao Jing'an for a real confession.

• The Snow Empress and Yin Wujou found a scrap showing that someone had dug up and taken the testimony from the training grounds.
• The Snow Empress concluded Meng Qi had likely kept the testimony at his residence, but they lacked grounds to search it.
• Yin Wujou proposed making Meng Qi believe Cao Jing'an had confessed, prompting him to move the testimony where they could intercept it.
• The Snow Empress and Yin Wujou agreed to seek Pei Jichuan's help and spoke of going to the Southern Frontier after the case was settled.
• Pei Jichuan devised a fake secret letter and a watch on the secret passage beneath Meng Qi's rockery to catch anyone moving the evidence.
• The Snow Empress asked to interrogate Cao Jing'an, and Pei Jichuan agreed to send two bailiffs as witnesses.

The Snow Empress uncovered evidence against Meng Qi and secured an imperial decree overturning the old Spirit Vein Bureau case. Reinstated as its director, she resolved to rebuild the bureau and care for the families of its fallen members.

• Cao Jing'an confessed that Meng Qi had ordered him to forge secret letters and retrieve Lu Qingya's original testimony, which he had hidden in his study.
• Pei Jichuan intercepted Meng Qi's attendant with the testimony draft and a letter, then searched Meng Qi's residence and found evidence of treason and a plan to take the emperor hostage.
• Meng Qi was arrested, and the Meng household was placed under guard as Song Xuanwei requested an imperial decree clearing the Spirit Vein Bureau.
• The emperor ordered Meng Qi prosecuted, punished his accomplices, spared and exiled Cao Jing'an, overturned the old case, and posthumously honored Lu Qingya.
• The Snow Empress was reinstated as director of the Spirit Vein Bureau and told Yin Wujou she would rebuild it, honor its dead, and care for their families.