Chapter Summaries

Gu Moran sent Kim Seon-a back to her tent before dawn, then used his detailed map to plan against Inukami Jusaburo’s forces. As his commanders gathered, he demanded that Goryeo reveal Incheon Port’s depths, reefs, and berths so Great Yan’s ships could enter safely.

• Gu Moran woke Kim Seon-a and urged her to return before the guards noticed she had spent the night in his tent.
• Tuoba Mang encountered Kim Seon-a as she slipped toward the side tent, but silently turned away.
• Gu Moran marked Inukami Jusaburo’s army positions and three granaries on a map, then identified Incheon Port as a vital point.
• Mei Boqian questioned how Gu Moran had obtained such a precise map, and Gu Moran claimed he had pressured a spy for details.
• Gu Moran demanded that Park Roejang provide information about Incheon Port, then rebuked him for withholding Goryeo’s harbor defenses while relying on Great Yan’s help.

Kim Seon-a learned that Great Yan maids had described her as a lowborn foreign woman whom Gu Moran sent away before dawn, and Gu Moli deliberately encouraged her suspicions. Meanwhile, Zhen Meili began preparing hand cannons for the coming campaign, while Su Yao arranged for Yi Prefecture’s donations to be turned into grain and secretly shipped to Dengzhou.

• Kim Seon-a drew a detailed chart of Incheon Port for Gu Moran’s military council, then heard Chunxiang report what Great Yan maids had said about her and Gu Moran.
• Kim Seon-a remembered Gu Moran sending her away before dawn, but she chose not to question him and told Chunxiang to heat another bowl of soup.
• Gu Moli told Qingwu to keep feeding Chunxiang claims that Gu Moran favored Shen Ling'er, hoping Kim Seon-a would draw her own conclusions.
• Zhen Meili instructed Old Zhao to begin forging three-eyed hand cannons and estimated that about thirty could be ready in ten days, while Tuoba Mang urged her to work faster.
• Su Yao ordered Xie Wanqing to convert Yi Prefecture’s 476,000 taels in donations into grain and ship it to Dengzhou in three undisclosed, staggered shipments.
• Liu Ruyan asked Su Yao why she had seemed unwell lately.

As the overseas campaign approached, Su Yao’s friends suspected she might be pregnant, while the army prepared ships and chose a safer landing site. Gu Moli confronted Gu Moran about his feelings for Kim Seon-a.

• Liu Ruyan and Xie Wanqing noticed Su Yao’s unusual symptoms and suggested she might be pregnant, but Su Yao denied it.
• Murong Xue inspected the weapons at Dengzhou’s docks, ordered rusty sabers reforged and spear collars riveted, and reported that the third ship was riding too low.
• Yun Shuyue mapped the coastline and identified a deep northern bay with few reefs as the safest landing point.
• Lin Qingdai approved the northern bay and sent Yun Shuyue to inform Gu Moran and General Pu that the vanguard’s landing point had moved north.
• Gu Moli asked Gu Moran what he truly felt for Kim Seon-a.

Gu Moran reassured Gu Moli that she remained important to him, then faced Kim Seon-a’s questions about their relationship while preparing for the campaign. He sent Kim Seon-a away until the battle was over, promising to answer her fully afterward.

• Gu Moran snapped at Gu Moli, then reassured her that she mattered most because they had grown up together.
• Kim Seon-a visited Gu Moran’s tent at night and asked what he would do with her after the battle.
• Gu Moran said she could stay by his side or return to Goryeo, and Kim Seon-a angrily started to leave.
• Gu Moran stopped Kim Seon-a and told her he had not lied to her, but that the war and Goryeo’s suffering had to come first.
• Gu Moran wiped Kim Seon-a’s tears, sent her back to rest, and promised to answer her questions after the battle.

Gu Moran launched the campaign against the Wa raiders and ordered Xue Huan to infiltrate Hanseong with rumors that the enemy’s supplies had been destroyed. As the fleet sailed, Shen Ling'er noted that Kim Seon-a had barely spoken, and Gu Moran offered no answer.

• Kim Seon-a accepted Gu Moran’s words and left his tent without looking back.
• Gu Moran read the Empress Dowager’s decree to the assembled forces at Dengzhou, then the troops boarded the fleet with Kim Seon-a and the other women.
• Gu Moran ordered Xue Huan and twenty soldiers disguised as Wa troops to spread vague rumors in Hanseong about a traitor and destroyed supplies, hoping to divide Inukami Jusaburo’s forces and distract him from Busan.
• After nightfall, Xue Huan and his men slipped away by boat to infiltrate Hanseong and spread the rumors.
• Shen Ling'er prepared medicine for Gu Moran aboard the ship and told him that Kim Seon-a had hardly spoken that day; Gu Moran replied that she had never been talkative.

Gu Moran feinted east while secretly landing at Incheon Port, where his forces seized the harbor before dawn. As he prepared to advance on Inukami Jusaburo, the Japanese command learned its supply route and granaries had been destroyed and suspected a traitor among its generals.

• Mei Boqian led three thousand Luoyang private soldiers ashore on Vanishing Shadow Island, where the defenders spotted them and the fighting began.
• Gu Moran's fleet sailed west around the island and landed secretly near Changkou Town with Park Roejang's help.
• Tuoba Mang's vanguard took the Incheon garrison by surprise, and Park Roejang presented the King's command token to the garrison commander.
• Gu Moran confirmed that Incheon Port was under his control and vowed to finish off Inukami Jusaburo.
• A Japanese soldier told Inukami Jusaburo that Great Yan forces had destroyed the supply route and granaries, prompting him to question his generals about a traitor.

Inukami Jusaburo executed a grain officer and ordered the army to keep silent about its supply route, while Xue Huan spread rumors to deepen the Japanese soldiers’ fear. As Mei Boqian’s three thousand troops fought the Japanese advance force on the beachhead, Pu Yunshan attacked a grain convoy in a ravine with Subduing Fire Thunder.

• Inukami Jusaburo questioned two grain officers, executed one, and learned the third was at the main camp in Busanpo.
• Inukami Jusaburo ordered that anyone who discussed the supply route would be beheaded, and Xue Huan spread rumors about the granary being destroyed and food running low.
• Mei Boqian led his three thousand troops against the Japanese advance force on the beachhead while Gu Moran’s fleet sailed away.
• Pu Yunshan watched a Japanese grain convoy from ambush and signaled his three thousand cavalry to attack.
• Pu Yunshan lit and hurled a Subduing Fire Thunder into the grain carts, setting off an explosion in the ravine.

Pu Yunshan’s cavalry ambushed a Japanese grain convoy in a gorge, killing its escorts and burning the supplies. On Vanishing Shadow Island, Mei Boqian refused to retreat from the Japanese spear formation and charged toward it as the tide left his troops stranded.

• Pu Yunshan signaled his three thousand cavalrymen to attack the Japanese convoy trapped by exploding carts in the gorge.
• Pu Yunshan and his guards killed the ronin leader and captured Japanese soldiers trying to burn the grain.
• Pu Yunshan ordered the captured supplies taken and the remaining grain and salted fish soaked in fire oil and burned.
• At Vanishing Shadow Island, Mei Boqian snapped off an arrow lodged in his arm and bound his hand to his saber.
• Mei Boqian kicked away an old retainer urging retreat and charged at a gap in the Japanese spear formation.
• A Japanese standard-bearer thrust his bamboo spear toward Mei Boqian’s throat.

Gu Moran exploited the Wa army’s dwindling supplies and distrust of Inukami Jusaburo to persuade captured Satsuma soldiers to defect and open Hanseong’s west gate. The soldiers headed back to the city with orders to lower the drawbridge during Gu Moran’s planned attack at noon the next day.

• Mei Boqian took a spear wound and killed a junior officer, inspiring the Luoyang soldiers to stand their ground against the Wa troops.
• Wa grain escorts reported that Great Yan cavalry had destroyed the rice convoy, but Inukami Jusaburo killed one of them and threatened anyone who repeated the news.
• Gu Moran’s vanguard found hungry Satsuma deserters at an abandoned relay station, where Lin Qingdai had captured and questioned them.
• Gu Moran fed the squad leader and convinced him that Inukami planned to abandon the common soldiers and flee with the spoils.
• The Satsuma soldiers agreed to guide Gu Moran’s army and lower Hanseong’s west gate during the attack, then returned to the city with food and promises of reward.

Gu Moran’s party discovered that Bloodline Gu had contaminated the Han River and learned that a Goryeo royal attendant was among the victims, raising fears for the temporary palace and Kim Seon-a’s father. As Kim Seon-a struggled with panic, Gu Moran steadied her while Zhen Meili organized a plan to isolate the water and prepare an antidote.

• Gu Moran explained why the Satsuma soldiers were unlikely to inform Inukami Jusaburo, then flirted with Kim Seon-a as she tried to mount her horse.
• Yun Shuyue sent up three red-silk warning arrows, and Gu Moran’s party hurried toward the Han River gorge.
• Gu Moran examined a dead imperial guardsman and found writhing red threads beneath his skin, while Shen Ling’er’s test showed that the corpse’s blood was poisonous.
• Meng Jiuning identified the corpse as a Goryeo royal attendant and explained that Bloodline Gu spread through flowing water, warning that the temporary palace might already be affected.
• Kim Seon-a feared for her father, but Gu Moran suppressed her surging White Tiger Gang Qi and reassured her that he would protect him.
• Zhen Meili ordered combat engineers to build charcoal-and-quicklime filtration dams downstream, while Meng Jiuning and Shen Ling’er prepared an antidote.

Gu Moran learned that Grand Prince Anpyeong had betrayed Goryeo and planned a trap to draw Inukami Jusaburo’s starving army out of Hanseong. At the coast, Xie Linyuan rescued Mei Boqian’s besieged troops, and they captured the Wa outpost force.

• Yun Shuyue reported that Inukami Jusaburo had forced twenty thousand Goryeo civilians onto Hanseong’s walls as human shields.
• Gu Moli revealed that Grand Prince Anpyeong had secretly helped Inukami Jusaburo seize the palace on Ganghwa Island.
• Gu Moran sent Lin Qingdai and Murong Xue to ambush the enemy’s flank while he led three thousand infantry to camp by the Han River.
• Inukami Jusaburo, desperate for food, marched twelve thousand troops out of Hanseong to attack Gu Moran’s riverbank camp.
• Xie Linyuan arrived at the coast after destroying two granaries and cut through the Wa rear ranks, letting Mei Boqian counterattack and capture two thousand prisoners.

Gu Moran’s Great Yan forces used Subduing Fire Thunders to rout the Japanese army outside Hanseong. Kim Seon-a admired Gu Moran’s strength but warned that twenty thousand Goryeo civilians were being held hostage inside the city.

• Gu Moran held his fire as the Japanese army charged, and Great Yan infantry blocked the enemy’s arrows with iron shields.
• Gu Moran gave the signal for Great Yan elites to hurl Subduing Fire Thunders into the Japanese vanguard, tearing open the charge and throwing the army into confusion.
• Zhen Meili fired five modified catapults, launching heavy Subduing Fire Thunders into the Japanese center and destroying Inukami Jusaburo’s command banner.
• Japanese soldiers panicked and fled into Hanseong, while Inukami Jusaburo and his bodyguards shut the south gate to escape Lin Qingdai and Murong Xue.
• Kim Seon-a praised Gu Moran but pointed out that the Japanese still held twenty thousand Goryeo civilians hostage inside Hanseong.

Park Roejang entered Hanseong under a truce to persuade Inukami Jusaburo that Gu Moran planned to destroy the city with ten thousand Subduing Fire Thunders. He claimed Princess Royal Kim Seon-a had sent him with an offer to ally Goryeo with Great Wa against Great Yan, leaving Inukami to weigh the warning and the proposed alliance.

• Gu Moran observed Wa soldiers forcing women and children onto Hanseong’s battlements and said he would avoid damaging the gates.
• Park Roejang threatened to burn the grain carts unless Inukami Jusaburo sent men out, then entered the city alone after the Wa lowered a basket.
• Inukami confronted Park over his past betrayal, and Park claimed Gu Moran planned to blow up Hanseong with ten thousand Subduing Fire Thunders.
• Inukami doubted Park’s warning and forced him to eat raw wheat to test whether it had been poisoned.
• Park showed Inukami half of Princess Royal Kim Seon-a’s bloodstained jade pendant and offered an alliance between Goryeo and Great Wa against Great Yan.

Park Roejang gained Inukami Jusaburo’s trust by proposing a banquet ambush to kill Gu Moran, while Great Yan’s engineers discovered that bloodworms had survived the quicklime filtration dam and were heading for the vanguard’s wells.

• Inukami Jusaburo forced Park Roejang to stab a civilian, and the old woman sacrificed herself by lunging onto the blade to save him.
• Park Roejang claimed Gu Moran was conceited and infatuated with the Goryeo princess, then proposed luring him to a banquet on White Sandbar and attacking him with hidden water ghosts.
• Inukami Jusaburo agreed to the ambush plan and kept Park Roejang under guard while ordering a mute soldier to deliver the invitation.
• Zhen Meili and Great Yan’s combat engineers saw bloodworms emerge beneath the filtration dam and head toward the vanguard camp’s drinking wells.

Meng Jiuning and Shen Ling'er sacrificed their blood to poison the Nine-Segment Mother Insects breeding beneath Hanseong and threatening the army. Yun Shuyue delivered their medicine to the sewage outlet, killing the insects and freeing the infected soldiers.

• Shen Ling'er discovered a Nine-Segment Mother Insect inside a dead carp and warned Zhen Meili that the river contained more mothers.
• Murong Xue reported that dozens of soldiers were infected and that hundreds more had drunk contaminated well water.
• Meng Jiuning proposed using her poisonous blood as bait, and Shen Ling'er insisted on contributing an equal share.
• Meng Jiuning and Shen Ling'er bled into a basin and mixed their blood with stove soot and arsenic to prepare thirty medicinal balls.
• Yun Shuyue and six scouts swam to Hanseong's sewage outlet and placed the medicine in the jars beneath its water gate.
• The mother insects killed one another over the poisonous blood, and the blood threads in the infected soldiers shriveled and died.

After Shen Ling'er and Meng Jiuning lost blood helping kill the mother worm, Gu Moran discovered their injuries and cared for them. He learned that Inukami Jusaburo had invited him and Princess Kim Seon-a to a deadly banquet on White Sand Islet, but decided to go and turn the trap to his advantage.

• Murong Xue found Shen Ling'er and Meng Jiuning collapsed by the river after they drew blood to kill the mother worm.
• Gu Moran discovered Shen Ling'er's wound and learned from Murong Xue what she and Meng Jiuning had done; he ordered both women to rest and fed them ginseng soup.
• Yun Shuyue delivered Inukami Jusaburo's invitation to peace talks at White Sand Islet, and Lin Qingdai recognized three marks on its seal as Park Roejang's signal that he was being held hostage.
• Gu Moran burned the invitation and declared he would attend the banquet, hoping to help Park Roejang and persuade the Satsuma soldiers at Hanseong's west gate to open the city gates.

Inukami Jusaburo discovered that Gu Moran had neutralized the gu poison and forced Park Roejang to help poison Gu Moran at the White Sandbar banquet. As Gu Moran prepared for the meeting, he gave Kim Seon-a celestial silkworm silk armor to wear beneath her disguise.

• A Wa combat swimmer found poisoned oilcloth among the dead mother insects and told Inukami Jusaburo that Gu Moran had likely cured the gu poison.
• Inukami Jusaburo poisoned Park Roejang and ordered him to serve Gu Moran red-crowned crane poison at the next day's banquet.
• Inukami Jusaburo moved his shadow ninjas to the northern reed beds and ordered fierce-fire oil buried beneath the negotiating table.
• Kim Seon-a entered Gu Moran's tent dressed in a thin robe, explaining that her appearance would make Inukami Jusaburo believe she was being humiliated.
• Gu Moran dismissed Lin Qingdai, dressed Kim Seon-a in silver-white inner armor, and identified it as celestial silkworm silk.

Gu Moran prepared Kim Seon-a for the meeting with Inukami Jusaburo and brought white-phosphorus-laced liquor to the White Sandbar. During the meeting, Park Roejang secretly marked the northern reeds as the hiding place of the water ghosts, and Gu Moran identified the poisoned wine as carrying a faint smell of tung oil.

• Gu Moran fastened protective armor on Kim Seon-a and prepared ten jars of distilled liquor concealed with white phosphorus.
• Gu Moran and his companions met Inukami Jusaburo and Park Roejang on White Sandbar for the arranged exchange.
• Gu Moran acted crudely toward Kim Seon-a, causing Inukami Jusaburo to lower his guard.
• Park Roejang spilled poisoned wine on Gu Moran’s sleeve and secretly scratched the character for north onto his hand.
• Gu Moran spotted hidden water ghosts in the northern reeds and noticed a faint tung-oil smell in the spilled wine.

Gu Moran pretended to be wounded after Kim Seon-a attacked him, drawing Inukami Jusaburo into revealing the Wa ambush. He ignited the hidden oil beneath the sandbar, setting off a devastating explosion among the attacking Wa forces.

• Inukami Jusaburo demanded that Kim Seon-a dance for him, and Gu Moran pretended to agree while insulting and threatening her.
• Kim Seon-a stabbed Gu Moran with her phoenix hairpin and drew a short sword, while Gu Moran knocked the table toward Inukami Jusaburo.
• Inukami Jusaburo ordered his hundred shadow ninja and nine dual-sword warriors to attack Gu Moran, Lin Qingdai, and Tuoba Mang.
• Gu Moran revealed that the hairpin had pierced a blood pouch and hurled two jars of Burning Blade liquor toward the charging shadow ninja.
• White phosphorus ignited the liquor and the buried fierce-burning oil, splitting White Sandbar with an explosion and setting dozens of Wa shadow ninja ablaze.

Gu Moran and his allies defeated the Wa shadow ninjas’ ambush, though Park Roejang died after revealing the guard-change signal for Hanseong’s west gate. Gu Moran then ordered his forces to prepare to attack the gate that night.

• Kim Seon-a fought through the flames while Park Roejang held back a Wa warrior long enough for Lin Qingdai to kill him.
• Gu Moran stopped Inukami Jusaburo from escaping, broke his katana, and struck him into the river, but Inukami’s guards dragged him away by boat.
• Park Roejang revealed that the Satsuma troops at Hanseong’s west gate changed their watchword that morning and left the signal written in blood on his palm before he died.
• Kim Seon-a cut off the Wa leader’s head and placed it at Park Roejang’s feet, while Gu Moran covered Park’s body with his robe.
• Gu Moran ordered Tuoba Mang to carry Park Roejang’s body to camp and announced that he would attack Hanseong’s west gate at the hour of the Dog.