Chapter Summaries

At Hanseong’s west gate, starving Satsuma soldiers rebelled against the Inukami samurai, but concealed repeating crossbows slaughtered many of them. Inukami Jusaburo then threatened to burn Kim Tae-heung alive unless Kim Seon-a surrendered as a hostage, leaving Gu Moran and Kim Seon-a facing his ultimatum.

• A Satsuma squad leader urged three thousand starving soldiers to seize the gate winch, claiming Inukami had betrayed them and Great Yan promised them food, gold, and passage home.
• The Satsuma soldiers attacked the Inukami samurai guarding the winch, but the gate commander opened concealed firing ports and cut down more than two hundred with repeating crossbows.
• Gu Moran and Murong Xue waited outside the west gate as the drawbridge remained raised and fighting continued inside the barbican.
• Inukami Jusaburo suspended the bloodied Kim Tae-heung beneath the gate tower and threatened to set him alight if Great Yan advanced.
• Kim Tae-heung urged Kim Seon-a to attack and protect herself, but Inukami struck him and ordered Kim Seon-a to surrender her sword and come alone as a hostage.

Gu Moran used a feast and a fortune in rewards to turn Satsuma soldiers against Inukami Jusaburo’s defenders, while Zhen Meili’s quicklime-and-chili attack let Xie Linyuan rescue Kim Tae-heung and open the western gate. Murong Xue led Great Yan’s cavalry across the drawbridge and into the city.

• Gu Moran stopped Kim Seon-a from rushing toward the moat and promised that her father would survive.
• Gu Moran offered Satsuma soldiers pork, flatbreads, gold, and two women if they killed Inukami Jusaburo and opened the gate.
• Satsuma soldiers used corpses as shields, stormed the bunkers, and fought the Inukami clan’s crossbowmen.
• Lin Qingdai signaled Zhen Meili, who fired quicklime mixed with chili powder onto the western gate’s battlements, blinding Inukami Jusaburo and his archers.
• Xie Linyuan crossed the moat, cut Kim Tae-heung free, and killed three Wa soldiers as the Satsuma leader broke the drawbridge’s winch pin.
• Murong Xue led a thousand armored cavalrymen across the lowered drawbridge and charged through the open gate.

After Hanseong’s western gate fell, Gu Moran rode toward the bell tower to rescue the twenty thousand Goryeo prisoners, only to find his supposedly dead uncle Gu Debai commanding Great Yan archers on the rooftops. Gu Debai aimed two hundred armor-piercing arrows at Gu Moran and invited him to dismount and die.

• Inukami Jusaburo shattered the royal blood jade, then fled toward the bell tower with five hundred death warriors, threatening to use the imprisoned civilians as a shield.
• Shen Ling'er treated the wounded king of Goryeo and warned that corpse poison was spreading toward his heart, so Gu Moran sent him to the rear camp under guard.
• As Inukami’s men set fires across Hanseong, Kim Seon-a begged Gu Moran to save the twenty thousand prisoners, and he ordered Tuoba Mang to fight the fires while he and Pu Yunshan led cavalry toward the bell tower.
• The system warned Gu Moran of danger as two hundred Great Yan naval archers blocked Bell Tower Street with heavy bows trained on his party.
• Lin Qingdai recognized their rooftop commander as Gu Debai, Gu Moran’s uncle, who had been presumed dead at sea, and Gu Debai declared that he intended to claim Great Yan’s throne and kill his nephew.

Gu Moran and his allies fought off Gu Debai’s ambush in Hanseong after Gu Debai revealed his plan to seize the Great Yan throne. Gu Moran shattered his uncle’s weapon in a rooftop duel, and Pu Yunshan’s cavalry blocked Gu Debai’s escape.

• Gu Moran drenched himself and his horse with water to survive Gu Debai’s first volley of flaming arrows, then took shelter in a pawnshop.
• Gu Moran sent Kim Seon-a, Lin Qingdai, and Tuoba Mang to investigate trouble near the cellar while he prepared to face the rebels.
• Gu Debai revealed that he had secretly allied with General Inukami and declared that killing Gu Moran would clear his path to the throne.
• Murong Xue led guards in using indigo-soaked quilts as shields, allowing Gu Moran to leap from the pawnshop roof and attack the rebel archers.
• Gu Moran’s Second Rank Pure Yang Gang Qi broke Gu Debai’s nagamaki and injured his hands, forcing him to flee across the rooftops.
• Pu Yunshan led three hundred armored cavalrymen into the back alley and blocked Gu Debai and his guards as they landed.

Gu Moran and Pu Yunshan stopped Inukami Jusaburo from burning twenty thousand Goryeo commoners, then captured him. Meanwhile, Kim Seon-a, Lin Qingdai, and Tuoba Mang uncovered a horrifying underground ritual and found Choi Seong-min dressed as Goryeo's sovereign.

• Gu Moran reached the bell tower square and saw Inukami Jusaburo ignite a phosphorus fuse threatening twenty thousand Goryeo commoners.
• Pu Yunshan smashed a three-hundred-jin bluestone trough into the paving, burying the fuse in mud and extinguishing the flames.
• Zhen Meili shot Inukami Jusaburo in the knee, and Pu Yunshan silenced and bound him.
• Kim Seon-a, Lin Qingdai, and Tuoba Mang opened a hidden passage beneath the altar and entered an underground cavern.
• Kim Seon-a found Goryeo children being forced to drink blood-laced liquid while Choi Seong-min wore royal robes before a blood pool.

Choi Seong-min revealed his treason and unleashed Bloodline Gu puppets against Kim Seon-a and her companions, but Kim Seon-a and Lin Qingdai fought back to protect the captive children. After Kim Seon-a pinned Choi Seong-min, he claimed that Gu Moran had died in an explosion, just as a man’s voice came from beyond the cellar door.

• Choi Seong-min confessed that he had sold Goryeo’s military secrets to General Inukami and planned to seize the throne with drug puppets.
• Choi Seong-min released eighty Royal Dragon Guards infected with Bloodline Gu, and Kim Seon-a hesitated to strike Kim Seok until Lin Qingdai killed him and warned that the guards were already dead.
• Choi Seong-min threw a torch toward the cages holding five hundred children, prompting Kim Seon-a to unleash her Eastern Peak Tiger Spirit Art and crush the warriors blocking her path.
• Lin Qingdai knocked away the torch and freed three cages while Tuoba Mang collapsed the stone door, blocking Choi Seong-min’s escape route.
• Kim Seon-a pinned Choi Seong-min to a pillar with her sword, and he claimed that an explosion had killed Gu Moran and twenty thousand people.
• A languid male voice came from beyond the cellar’s iron door.

Gu Moran reached Incheon with three thousand cavalry as Kuki Yoshitaka’s fleet advanced behind a chained-together floating fortress. With the wind and tide delaying his fire-ship plan, Gu Moran ordered two prisoners’ bodies displayed at the lighthouse and surrendered Wa soldiers brought forward to taunt the fleet while his army waited for a chance to strike.

• Gu Moran arrived at Incheon with Kim Seon-a and learned that Kuki Yoshitaka’s fleet had sunk three patrol ships and was advancing toward the docks.
• Xue Huan reported that Wa had armored its eighty atakebune and linked them into a floating fortress that Great Yan’s weapons could not penetrate.
• Gu Moran assessed that the linked ships could not easily turn or flee, while Zhen Meili warned that the wind and tide would not favor fire ships until the hour of the Dragon.
• Kuki Yoshitaka ordered his fleet to reach the docks before the tide ebbed, bringing it within five hundred paces as Wa archers prepared to fire.
• Gu Moran ordered Pu Yunshan to hang Inukami Jusaburo and Choi Seong-min’s corpse naked from the lighthouse and make surrendered Satsuma infantrymen taunt the Wa fleet.

Gu Moran’s forces held Kuki Yoshitaka’s fleet outside the harbor while preparing a fire-ship attack. With the tide turning and the wind rising, Gu Moran sent disguised Satsuma soldiers toward the chained fleet to ignite the boats and destroy the enemy ships.

• Kuki Yoshitaka recognized the captive Inukami Jusaburo and, suspecting a trap, halted his fleet and sent ten kobaya to test the shore.
• Kim Seon-a killed the lead kobaya’s helmsman and ordered Goryeo sailors to block the harbor with their ten remaining turtle ships.
• Mei Boqian led eight hundred Luoyang private soldiers into the channel and sacrificed more than two hundred men to hold back the Wa vanguard.
• Zhen Meili announced that the tide was ebbing and the southwest wind had risen, and Gu Moran revealed twenty prepared fire ships.
• Gu Moran sent sixty Satsuma soldiers aboard the fire ships, posing as Inukami Jusaburo’s guards fleeing with captured gunpowder, while Pu Yunshan’s archers staged pursuit from shore.

Kuki Yoshitaka’s fleet was destroyed in Incheon Bay after Satsuma fighters set fire to gunpowder boats, and Gu Moran’s forces captured the surviving ships and Kuki. After Kim Seon-a presented Goryeo’s submission memorial, she confronted Gu Moran about a secret letter bearing the Great Yan empress’s seal that ordered his death.

• Kuki Yoshitaka ordered a gap opened in his chained fleet to admit twenty gunpowder boats, but Satsuma fighters set the boats ablaze and detonated their explosives against the atakebune.
• Gu Moran led the Great Yan fleet out of port to attack the burning Wa ships, while Murong Xue stopped Kuki Yoshitaka from killing himself and captured him alive.
• By noon, sixty-three of the Wa navy’s eighty atakebune had been destroyed, the rest had been captured, and more than fourteen thousand Wa raiders had been killed.
• Kim Seon-a offered Gu Moran the Memorial of Submission of the Entire Nation, written by Kim Tae-heung, but held on to it as she questioned him about a secret letter found in Kuki Yoshitaka’s cabin.
• Kim Seon-a said the letter bore the Great Yan empress’s nine-phoenix gold seal and ordered Kuki Yoshitaka to ensure Gu Moran and Goryeo’s royal family died in Incheon Bay; Gu Moran pulled her into his arms.

Gu Moran showed Kim Seon-a evidence that Goryeo’s naval commander Kim Seung-hwan might be conspiring with the Wa pirates and warned that her father was in danger. He offered her two choices, and she cut her finger with her phoenix hairpin as the chapter ended.

• Gu Moran examined the secret letter’s sealing wax and showed Kim Seon-a that it contained pine resin from Goryeo.
• Lin Qingdai presented a short sword taken from Kuki Yoshitaka’s deputy, and Kim Seon-a recognized Kim Seung-hwan’s personal seal inside its hilt.
• Gu Moran accused Kim Seung-hwan of betraying Goryeo and warned that he could hand Kim Seon-a’s father over to the Wa.
• Mei Boqian arrived to ask what to do with the Wa pirate prisoners, then pretended to busy himself clearing the deck while listening nearby.
• Gu Moran offered Kim Seon-a the choice of joining his fleet to attack the Wa emperor or staying in Incheon while he sent Kuki Yoshitaka to Gyeongsang Province.
• Kim Seon-a stopped resisting and cut the pad of her index finger with her phoenix hairpin.

After the victory at Incheon, Kim Seon-a pledged Goryeo’s forces to Gu Moran in exchange for a share of Kyushu’s resources and blades. At the victory feast, Gu Moran fed osmanthus wine to Kim Seon-a by kissing it into her mouth, provoking Gu Moli’s anger.

• Kim Seon-a stamped the Memorial of National Submission with her blood and offered Gu Moran ten turtle ships and command of ten thousand naval troops in return for iron, sulfur, and Wa blades from Kyushu.
• Gu Moran ordered his army to occupy the Incheon governor’s residence, hold a victory feast, and imprison Kuki Yoshitaka in the water dungeon under guard.
• Shen Ling'er brought medicinal broth for Gu Moran and Kim Seon-a while Meng Jiuning, despite her wound, insisted that her own medicinal liquor was better.
• Gu Moli arrived with osmanthus wine, pushed aside Gu Moran’s medicine, and spilled wine on her skirt while trying to feed him.
• When Kim Seon-a asked when Gu Moran would question Kuki Yoshitaka about Gyeongsang Province, Gu Moran drank the wine and kissed it into her mouth, angering Gu Moli.
• Murong Xue left the feast with Zhen Meili to compete over Burning Blade liquor.

Kim Seon-a left the reception hall after Shen Ling'er urged her to rest, while Gu Moran used his Pure Yang True Qi to treat Shen Ling'er and Meng Jiuning's blood loss. In the water dungeon, Kuki Yoshitaka retrieved a hidden whalebone needle and prepared to bargain with the Goryeo jailers.

• Shen Ling'er escorted Kim Seon-a from the reception hall, and Kim Seon-a accidentally scorched her sleeve on a fallen lantern.
• Gu Moran carried the drunken Gu Moli to bed, then Shen Ling'er and Meng Jiuning dragged him into the main room.
• Gu Moran examined Shen Ling'er and Meng Jiuning's wounds and replenished their depleted qi and blood with his Pure Yang True Qi.
• Kuki Yoshitaka dug a hidden whalebone needle from his broken leg while the jailers gambled outside.
• Kuki Yoshitaka spat out a large eastern pearl and called to the Goryeo jailers in halting Goryeo speech.

Kuki Yoshitaka tried to enlist a jailer with a promise of hidden gold and revealed that Kim Seung-hwan was allied with Great Wa. A raid on the prefect’s residence exposed Kim Tae-won’s rebellion, and Kim Seon-a set out to crush it and bring his head to Gu Moran.

• Kuki Yoshitaka offered a jailer an eastern pearl and promised him ten thousand taels of gold in exchange for delivering a secret message to Kim Seung-hwan.
• Masked warriors attacked the prefect’s residence, and Gu Moran, Murong Xue, Lin Qingdai, and Xie Linyuan fought them off as they attempted to reach the water dungeon.
• Lin Qingdai identified the attackers as Gyeongsang Province navy death warriors, and Kim Seon-a recognized their leader’s blue-wolf tattoo as the mark of Kim Tae-won’s private forces.
• The death warrior leader declared that Kim Tae-won had brought ten thousand troops to blockade the southbound waterway and planned to destroy Incheon Port at daybreak.
• Kim Seon-a killed the leader, then vowed to assemble five hundred guards and return to Gu Moran before the hour of the snake with Kim Tae-won’s head and Gyeongsang Province’s military command tallies.

Gu Moran’s forces seized Incheon’s ships and sailors, then sailed toward Tsukushi Port aboard newly reinforced floating fortresses. When Kuki Yoshitaka advised them to enter the dangerous Ghost Cry Shoal, Gu Moran detected his treachery but ordered the fleet into the channel anyway.

• Kim Seon-a killed Kim Tae-won and delivered his head and half a naval tiger tally to Gu Moran as Pu Yunshan brought surrendered Goryeo sailors to Incheon.
• Gu Moran assigned the surrendered sailors to Great Yan ships and had the captured atakebune joined into armored floating fortresses under Zhen Meili’s direction.
• Zhen Meili reinforced the twin-hulled ships, fitted them with repeating crossbows, and divided their powder holds into fire-resistant compartments.
• Gu Moran led three armored floating fortresses and sixty warships toward Tsukushi Port, with the wounded Kuki Yoshitaka chained at the lead ship’s bow.
• In dense fog near the Tsushima Strait, Kuki Yoshitaka pointed toward Ghost Cry Shoal and warned that the route on the right held dangerous shoals.
• Gu Moran used his system vision to recognize Kuki Yoshitaka’s hostile intent, then ordered the fleet to enter Ghost Cry Shoal.

Gu Moran’s fleet entered Ghost Cry Shoal and survived Kuki Yoshitaka’s betrayal and a cliffside ambush. Lin Qingdai and the Satsuma squad leader turned the attack against the Shimazu forces, but Shimazu Yoshihiro ordered the Eight-Forked Miasma released on both the Great Yan troops and the Satsuma men.

• Kim Seon-a pretended to argue with Gu Moran while secretly arranging for Lin Qingdai and the Satsuma squad leader to lead five hundred elite soldiers around the cliffs in Wa uniforms.
• Kuki Yoshitaka sprang his ambush at Ghost Cry Shoal, but Gu Moran knocked him unconscious with the pommel of his sword before he could stab him with a poisoned needle.
• Gu Moran ordered the iron canopies raised, shielding the ships from the incendiary jars falling from the cliffs.
• Lin Qingdai and the Satsuma squad leader attacked the eastern cliff and destroyed the bamboo catapults.
• The Satsuma squad leader urged the suicide troops to stop fighting for Shimazu Yoshihiro, and they hesitated on the ropes.
• Shimazu Yoshihiro ordered his men to release the Eight-Forked Miasma, despite the five hundred Satsuma troops still below.

Gu Moran and his allies dispersed the poison smoke at Ghost Cry Shoal with medicinal powder fired from mortars, then prepared to strike the Japanese defenders’ poison cauldrons. The smoke’s dispersal changed the gorge’s wind, while Gu Moran exposed Shimazu Yoshihiro’s sacrifice of his own soldiers to Kuki Yoshitaka.

• The defenders released poisonous smoke across Ghost Cry Shoal, killing seabirds, Satsuma troops on the cliffs, and Goryeo soldiers aboard the floating fortress.
• Gu Moran shielded Kim Seon-a and Zhen Meili with a wet cloak, while Kim Seon-a raised her White Tiger Barrier and Meng Jiuning identified the poison and called for realgar and heartbreak grass ash.
• Meng Jiuning mixed her blood into realgar and quicklime powder, and Zhen Meili fired the mixture from three mortars, dispersing the poison smoke over the sea.
• Shimazu Yoshihiro saw the smoke disperse, while the resulting heat shifted the gorge’s airflow upward along the cliffs.
• Gu Moran forced Kuki Yoshitaka to look at the dead Satsuma soldiers and condemned Shimazu Yoshihiro for sacrificing them.
• Gu Moran ordered the repeating crossbowmen to coat their arrows in poisoned water and fierce-fire oil and target the bronze cauldrons in the western cliff caves.

Gu Moran’s forces destroyed Shimazu Yoshihiro’s poison defenses, captured the wounded clan lord, and broke through to Tsukushi Port. The shogunate then offered supplies, silver, and Princess Takaichi Nanako in exchange for stopping the invasion at Tsukushi.

• Murong Xue and Xue Huan set the poison stores ablaze, sending toxic smoke back into the Shimazu Clan’s western bunkers and watchtower.
• The Satsuma squad leader joined Lin Qingdai’s attack, charged Shimazu Yoshihiro with Subduing Fire Thunder, and was killed in the blast; Xie Linyuan severed Shimazu Yoshihiro’s arms and captured him.
• Tuoba Mang’s engineers blasted a breach in the sea barrier, allowing the armored floating fortresses to smash through and land at Tsukushi Port.
• Gu Moran disembarked on Kyushu with his companions as Xie Linyuan brought the captured Shimazu Yoshihiro to him.
• A Wa messenger delivered the shogunate’s offer of Tsukushi City’s supplies, one million taels of silver, and Princess Takaichi Nanako in exchange for Gu Moran advancing no farther.

Gu Moran accepted the shogunate’s offer of a princess and silver while ordering his army into Tsukushi City, then investigated suspected Goryeo theft at the iron depot. He exposed the lead captain as a shogunate spy moving refined iron through an underground passage, leaving Kim Seon-a facing his accusations.

• Lin Qingdai found bee-luring incense in the shogunate’s secret scroll, and Gu Moran ordered the army to rest in Tsukushi City and await the promised delivery.
• Kim Seon-a asked to take three thousand Goryeo sailors to inventory the iron depot, and Gu Moran approved while sending Pu Yunshan’s cavalry to guard it.
• Pu Yunshan caught Goryeo sailors hiding sword blanks in a concealed hole, and Kim Seon-a confronted him as their forces drew weapons.
• Gu Moran stamped out a fire near the sulfur sacks and used the Eye of Detection to identify the lead captain as a shogunate spy moving refined iron through an underground passage.
• Gu Moran accused Kim Seon-a’s subordinate of knowing about the secret chamber, while Pu Yunshan questioned how the captain had found it.

Gu Moran exposed a shogunate spy among Kim Seon-a’s Goryeo troops and recovered a map of Dazaifu’s waterways. Shōni Sukemoto prepared a poisoned ambush and sent an ox-cart procession to Tsukushi City, where a powdered hand reached for a Great Yan guard’s spear.

• Gu Moran identified a disguised Japanese spy by the callus between his toes, and the spy died after biting into a poison pouch.
• The spy wounded Kim Seon-a before Tuoba Mang broke his knee and found a map of Dazaifu’s waterways; Kim Seon-a accepted Great Yan’s military authority over her sailors.
• Gu Moran ordered Pu Yunshan to take scouts and Yun Shuyue through a secret passage to investigate Dazaifu.
• Shōni Sukemoto drugged Imperial Princess Takaichi Nanako and planned to use her to lure Gu Moran into an ambush involving poison-smoke pellets and hidden Iga jōnin.
• Shōni Sukemoto secretly withdrew Dazaifu’s main force and treasury toward the Iwami Silver Mine, leaving a decoy garrison behind.
• A fog-shrouded ox cart arrived at Tsukushi City, and a powdered hand reached from its curtain to seize a Great Yan sentry’s spearhead.

Takaichi Nanako arrived at Tsukushi’s gate enclosure and tried to seduce Gu Moran, but Shen Ling'er exposed her as poisoned bait. Gu Moran’s preparations trapped and killed the Iga death warriors hidden in the chests, leaving Nanako unharmed and still unaware of what had happened.

• Takaichi Nanako stripped off her robes and ran toward Gu Moran, saying her father had promised her colorful butterflies if she slept with him.
• Lin Qingdai and Murong Xue restrained Takaichi Nanako, and Shen Ling'er discovered she had been drugged with datura and Meridian-Severing Powder meant to poison Gu Moran through intercourse.
• Gu Moran used the Eye of Detection to spot the threat in the chests and stopped Kim Seon-a from attacking Takaichi Nanako.
• Thirty Iga death warriors burst from the chests and charged through poisonous smoke toward Gu Moran.
• Tuoba Mang dropped iron nets over the attackers, and scalding lime-and-manure water poured down from the walls, killing all thirty Iga death warriors.
• Takaichi Nanako clapped and giggled at the corpses, calling them pretty dancers.