Chapter Summaries

Fang Weiyan inherited the debt-ridden Jiang Kingdom and began planning reforms while learning what he would need to become a Human Sovereign. He introduced high-yield crops and abolished taxes on farmers and corvée labor, leaving the ministers alarmed about the treasury.

• Fang Weiyan reviewed the kingdom’s debts, which totaled nearly three million taels, and told Yunxi he would find the money to repay them.
• Fang Weiyan asked the Dragon King how to become a Human Sovereign and learned that he would need to ascend Mount Kunxu and offer signs of the kingdom’s prosperity.
• Fang Weiyan held court, ordered the Ministry of Personnel to recruit scholars for examinations, and promised to cover their travel expenses.
• Fang Weiyan showed the ministers high-yield corn, potatoes, and other crops, astonishing them with their size and reported yields.
• Fang Weiyan abolished corvée labor and farmers’ taxes throughout the Jiang Kingdom, while keeping merchant taxes for the time being, and overruled the ministers’ objections.

Fang Weiyan abolished oppressive taxes in the Jiang Kingdom, recruited scholars for an examination, and used five billion from Earth to buy silver, food, salt, and other resources for the kingdom. The tax relief spread quickly, winning popular gratitude and drawing scholars toward Yanhuai City as Fang Weiyan returned to the Jiang Kingdom.

• Fang Weiyan told the ministers to announce the abolition of oppressive taxes and prepare for an examination to recruit scholars for training.
• Fang Weiyan asked Su Qingyun for research funds, secured five billion, and arranged delivery of medicinal rootlets to her.
• Fang Weiyan spent most of the funds on silver, rice, salt, and other supplies, and contacted a cement factory about buying it.
• The ministers relayed Fang Weiyan's tax abolition orders across the Jiang Kingdom, where commoners initially mistook the notices for a tax increase.
• A scholar and other literate people confirmed that farming taxes, oppressive levies, and corvée labor had been abolished, and the commoners celebrated.
• News of the relief spread, and scholars began preparing to travel to Yanhuai City for the examination with travel funds provided by the court.

Fang Weiyan used his hidden wealth to begin organizing reforms in the Jiang Kingdom, assigning soldiers, craftsmen, and officials to new work. He left the chapter planning state farms, roads, and factories to rebuild the kingdom.

• Fang Weiyan showed Yunxi his vast store of silver, and she felt reassured that he could govern the financially strained Jiang Kingdom.
• Fang Weiyan put Lin Liyun in charge of the recalled armies and tasked him with keeping only well-trained soldiers.
• Fang Weiyan gave the craftsmen technical books and ordered them to plan roads linking Yanhuai City with the commanderies and counties.
• Fang Weiyan ordered Chu Jiehe to recruit commoners to farm the court’s millions of mu of confiscated land, promising to provide seeds.
• Chu Jiehe warned that the empty treasury could not pay for road construction, but Fang Weiyan said he would supply the money.
• Fang Weiyan reviewed his plans for state farming and roads, then turned to establishing factories for daily necessities and cement.

Fang Weiyan launched factories, paid employment, and public notices to build support for his rule while arranging funds and examinations. He later used a generator to replenish the heavenly lightning power in Tao Lingluo’s peachwood branch, and the attempt succeeded.

• Fang Weiyan began building paper, salt, and textile factories in Yanhuai City, publicizing paid work and future developments to the people of the Jiang Kingdom.
• Common people in Yanhuai City learned that agricultural colonies and road construction were hiring workers, and they hurried to seek jobs.
• Fang Weiyan provided silver for agricultural colonies, road construction, and factory wages, then ordered the scholars’ examinations to begin once most candidates had arrived.
• Tao Lingluo confronted Fang Weiyan about replenishing her lightning-struck peachwood branch, and he agreed to try.
• Fang Weiyan brought a gasoline generator to a safe location and used it to recharge the branch, which began growing shoots as its heavenly lightning power increased.

Fang Weiyan discovered that demons were still preying on people in Yanhuai City, but the weakened Underworld Administration could not stop them. He gathered incense offerings from several places on Earth and returned with a purple-grade store of power for Yunxi, who warned that the offerings were wasteful for Yin Gods at their current cultivation.

• Fang Weiyan gave Tao Lingluo a generator to charge her peach branch and returned to the imperial palace to review Emperor Kaide’s unfinished affairs.
• Fang Weiyan found reports of demons still attacking people in Yanhuai City and realized the Underworld Administration had been too weakened by the battle against the centipede spirit to deal with them.
• Yunxi brought Fang Weiyan a meal, explained that she was only at Transformation, and showed him how to store incense offerings in a Yin-Sinking Plaque.
• Fang Weiyan traveled around Earth for three days, collecting incense offerings from places where they were plentiful until the plaque turned purple.
• Fang Weiyan returned to Yanhuai City and gave Yunxi the plaque, but she said its purple-grade offerings were wasteful for Yin Gods at their current cultivation and that some power had been lost as the offerings rose in grade.

Fang Weiyan organized incense offerings for the Underworld Gods and advanced Jiang Kingdom’s reconstruction by recruiting scholars, distributing practical manuals, and setting up trusted oversight. After assigning officials for Pingjiang City, he worked late into the evening, where Yunxi arrived to urge him to eat, confident in his rule.

• Fang Weiyan gave Yunxi purple-grade incense offerings to refine and told her to inform the Underworld Administrations about them.
• Fang Weiyan arranged an examination for the arriving scholars, planned further development, and gave the departing Dragon King White Rabbit candies for Wu Ruichu.
• Fang Weiyan ordered Cheng Feng to recruit about a thousand trusted people to monitor officials and oversee construction across the country.
• Fang Weiyan gave the Ministry of Works ministers copies of A Friend of Military and Civilian Dual-Use Talent and instructed them to study and apply its knowledge.
• After reading Fude’s report about Pingjiang City, Fang Weiyan decided to send worthy scholars and an accompanying official to fill posts in Jiangling Commandery.
• Yunxi found Fang Weiyan working late and urged him to eat, reassured that he was diligently governing the Jiang Kingdom.

Fang Weiyan assigned the newly trained scholars to posts, threatened ministers who tried to preserve vacancies for personal gain, and arranged a fertilizer trade with Uncle Bai. He then asked Tao Lingluo about the Merfolk Kingdom and trustworthy demons, while she prepared to hunt the centipede spirit.

• The Ministry of Personnel presented the scholars’ assignments, and Fang Weiyan approved them while ordering advance salary payments and more scholars transferred to fill vacancies in the six ministries.
• Fang Weiyan exposed the supervising secretary’s selfish handling of vacancies and warned the ministers that anyone obstructing the Jiang Kingdom’s growth would be executed.
• Tao Lingluo reported that her peach branch’s heavenly lightning power had recovered and said she planned to kill the centipede spirit.
• Uncle Bai arrived to confirm the monthly trade, and Fang Weiyan upheld the agreement and directed him to trade with Tao Lingluo.
• Tao Lingluo completed the fertilizer trade and stored the rootlets in Zhengluan Hall; Fang Weiyan urged her not to let the centipede spirit escape again.
• Fang Weiyan asked Tao Lingluo about the Merfolk Kingdom and decent demons, but she knew no location for the kingdom and questioned how he judged demons’ character.

Fang Weiyan continued strengthening the Jiang Kingdom while managing shortages of money and cement, then reunited with his cousin Fang Hao on Earth. After returning to Yanhuai City with supplies, he ordered affordable vessels to improve transportation throughout the kingdom.

• Fang Weiyan let Tao Lingluo leave after learning she had no trusted demon friends, then focused on governing Yanhuai City.
• Fang Weiyan’s reforms advanced across the Jiang Kingdom, but requests for funds and a shortage of cement drained his resources.
• Fang Weiyan met his cousin Fang Hao in Cloudwater City, and they reminisced about the girl Fang Weiyan had carried out of school in middle school.
• Fang Weiyan transported another batch of supplies to Yanhuai City and ordered cheap, easy-to-operate vessels for the Jiang Kingdom’s waterways.
• Fang Weiyan returned to Yanhuai City while he waited for the vessels to arrive.

Tao Lingluo used her renewed lightning-struck peach wood to kill the centipede spirit, while Yunxi reported that she had dealt with the other yao in Yanhuai City. Fang Weiyan then planned to strengthen Jiangling Commandery and the Jiang Kingdom before the year-end sacrifice at Mount Kunxu, with only five months remaining.

• Tao Lingluo followed the centipede spirit’s traces to a mountain ravine and trapped her in a lightning-charged net formed by the peach wood’s new branches.
• The centipede spirit pleaded to become Tao Lingluo’s slave, but Tao Lingluo ignored her and killed her inside the shrinking net.
• Yunxi told Fang Weiyan that she had broken through and resolved the recent yao attacks in Yanhuai City.
• Tao Lingluo arrived and told Fang Weiyan and Yunxi that she had killed the centipede spirit with the lightning-struck peach wood.
• Fang Weiyan asked Yunxi to send purple incense offerings to Jiangling Commandery’s City God, and Yunxi agreed.
• Fang Weiyan counted the five months left until the twelfth lunar month and resolved to strengthen the kingdom before seeking to become the Human Sovereign at Mount Kunxu.

Fang Weiyan approved funding for projects across the Jiang Kingdom and rebuked his ministers for treating disappearances in Shitai County as ordinary. Yunxi volunteered to investigate the demon in Anyou Commandery, while Fang Weiyan later inspected Yanhuai City and saw its commoners prospering.

• Fang Weiyan approved requests for silver to dredge canals, provide disaster relief, reclaim farmland, build roads, and support breeding farms.
• Fang Weiyan ordered an investigation into reports of a demon in Weaver Girl Lake and condemned his ministers for ignoring the disappearances in Shitai County.
• Fang Weiyan ordered the truth about Shitai County uncovered and the demon responsible killed.
• Yunxi offered to investigate the demon in Anyou Commandery, and Fang Weiyan agreed to send her.
• Fang Weiyan inspected Yanhuai City's busy streets, saw the commoners' fortunes improving, and watched a family drape red cloth over a newly raised roof beam.

Fang Weiyan spared a golden-thread nanmu tree spirit after she pleaded with him in a dream, replacing the planned palace beam with a tree he already owned. Three months later, bumper harvests and relief efforts ended famine across the Jiang Kingdom, and the nation’s strength finally upgraded.

• Fang Weiyan inspected Yanhuai City and learned that the Ministry of Works planned to fell a golden-thread nanmu tree for the Hall of Fengtian.
• A golden-thread nanmu tree spirit visited Fang Weiyan in a dream and begged him to spare her from the imperial order to cut her down.
• Fang Weiyan canceled the felling and provided the Ministry of Works with a golden-thread nanmu tree from his Daoist temple instead.
• Over the next three months, Yanhuai City completed roads to three commanderies and counties, while boats and a cement factory helped transport supplies and support construction.
• Fang Weiyan’s relief efforts gathered displaced people, and bumper harvests produced more than one trillion jin of grain, prompting him to lower grain prices nationwide.
• As people gained enough food and their colors turned yellow, Jiang Kingdom’s national strength upgraded.

Fang Weiyan strengthened the army and rejected a request to share the court’s farming fertilizer with powerful landowners, planning instead to expand state-controlled agriculture. In the modern world, Su Qingyun learned that Cloud-Stilling Temple’s coin wishes were believed to change people’s luck and realized Fang Weiyan had given her a coin to protect her from a car accident.

• Fang Weiyan told Lin Liyun to improve the soldiers’ uniforms, equipment, and discipline after their training made them combat-ready.
• The vice minister of revenue asked Fang Weiyan to share the farming fertilizer with other landowners, but Fang Weiyan said the court would control agricultural production and direct commoners toward workshop jobs.
• Fang Weiyan planned to buy tilling machinery and build grain reserves as he anticipated becoming the Human Sovereign.
• Fan Mengqi asked Su Qingyun about her relationship with Fang Weiyan and offered to visit him at Cloud-Stilling Temple on Frost Crimson Peak.
• Su Qingyun read accounts of the temple’s coin wishes and realized Fang Weiyan had given her a coin before her near car accident, leaving her convinced he had protected her.

Fang Weiyan ordered Lan Mengke to investigate crimes committed by local officials and gentry, authorizing him to execute those found guilty and crack down on persistent bullies. As the Jiang Kingdom recovered and demonic incursions declined, Yunxi reflected on how Fang Weiyan had pulled the realm back from collapse.

• Fang Weiyan reviewed spy reports documenting officials and local gentry committing crimes and blaming their victims’ deaths on demons.
• Fang Weiyan appointed Lan Mengke inspecting commissioner and ordered him to investigate the reported cases and execute those responsible if the allegations were proven.
• Fang Weiyan instructed Lan Mengke to kill local bullies and street thugs who repeatedly refused to mend their ways, and arranged for Lin Liyun to send an armed detachment to protect him.
• Yunxi brought refreshments to Fang Weiyan and explained that the palace’s customary provisions had returned because the treasury was no longer empty.
• Yunxi told Fang Weiyan that demonic incursions had decreased as the Jiang Kingdom recovered, while its people’s improved harvests and incense offerings strengthened the local Yin Gods.

Fang Weiyan prepared for the approaching trip to Mount Kunxu, where monarchs would compete to become Human Sovereigns, while continuing to plan the Jiang Kingdom’s development. Across the continent, rulers made their own preparations, and the emperor of Great Zhou worried that failure would leave him vulnerable to his sons and dependent on Great Shang.

• Fang Weiyan told Yunxi he was uneasy about his chances of becoming a Human Sovereign, and she reassured him that the Jiang Kingdom’s people revered him.
• Fang Weiyan learned that the Underworld Administration still had no news about the Mountain Spirit, then reviewed plans for greenhouses and future industrial development.
• The emperor of Great Zhou heard that his kingdom had improved its harvests and currency and received the Mountain Spirit’s blessings, but Great Liang and Chenwu also had outside support.
• The emperor of Great Zhou ordered his minister to watch neighboring kingdoms closely and worried that failure at Mount Kunxu would leave him short of resources and threatened by his sons.
• Monarchs across the continent intensified their preparations to become Human Sovereigns, while established Human Sovereigns watched them with confidence that few would succeed.

Fang Weiyan burned a declaration at sunrise and ascended from the Jiang Kingdom toward Mount Kunxu, leaving his physical body behind. He arrived in an immortal realm and found himself among several crowned rulers in dragon robes.

• Fang Weiyan confirmed with the Dragon King that the day for ascending Mount Kunxu was tomorrow and checked the offerings he needed.
• Yunxi washed Fang Weiyan's feet, and he took her to the palace storeroom to share snacks he had brought for her.
• Before dawn, Fang Weiyan prepared the declaration at the sacrificial altar while Yunxi, the Dragon King, and others waited nearby.
• Fang Weiyan burned the declaration at sunrise and answered that he would ascend when an unseen voice asked him.
• Fang Weiyan's transparent spirit rose above the Jiang Kingdom, passed through a barrier, and arrived in an immortal realm.
• Fang Weiyan saw several crowned men in dragon robes around him, each apparently an emperor of a realm.

Fang Weiyan joined the climb at Mount Kunxu, where emperors used their nations’ grain to build paths toward the Human Sovereign’s summit. His Jiang Kingdom’s enormous harvest created a path far beyond everyone else’s, and after passing the other emperors, he reached the point where coins formed the next set of steps.

• Fang Weiyan avoided a peach-grove trick after newcomers who tried to pick the supposed Peaches of Immortality disappeared.
• The Emperor of Wu claimed he would become the Human Sovereign after coming seven steps short the previous year.
• The emperors began laying paths from grains that represented their nations’ harvests, and the Emperor of Wu’s path reached the thirteenth island.
• Fang Weiyan’s grain path appeared like a road to heaven, stunning the other emperors and causing them to let him pass.
• Fang Weiyan climbed past the end of his grain steps, where coins formed a new staircase leading onward.

Fang Weiyan reached the highest floating island and received the full regalia of a Human Sovereign, then chose immortal peaches, cloud iron, and a jade bottle containing a great river. After returning to his body, he witnessed the Jiang Kingdom’s fortune gather around him as a golden dragon appeared, proclaiming his enthronement.

• Fang Weiyan climbed to the first floating island using silver that connected the fortunes of the Jiang Kingdom and Huaxia.
• The Wu Kingdom's emperor and another monarch reached the tenth floating island, and heaven and earth crowned all three rulers as Human Sovereigns.
• Fang Weiyan received a crown, dragon robe, imperial seal, edict, sword, cloud boots, and jade belt, then examined the reward items on a stone table.
• Fang Weiyan chose a basin of immortal peaches and cloud iron, then used his luck to select the jade bottle containing a great river.
• Fang Weiyan returned to his body beside the Dragon King and Yunxi as the Jiang Kingdom’s fortune gathered around him and a golden five-clawed dragon roared across the kingdom.

Fang Weiyan became the Jiang Kingdom’s Human Sovereign, discovered how his jade seal and imperial edicts could suppress fiends, and arranged for Tao Lingluo to grow immortal peach trees. He sensed other Human Sovereigns and expected the Jiang Kingdom to encounter other dynasties, leaving Yunxi concerned about possible trouble.

• Fang Weiyan became the Jiang Kingdom’s Human Sovereign, received treasures including immortal peaches, and promised the Dragon King that they could live peacefully.
• Fang Weiyan gave Yunxi an immortal peach and agreed to let Tao Lingluo use a surviving peach tree as her trunk, so Tao Lingluo began nourishing the peach pits with fertilizer.
• Fang Weiyan learned from Yunxi that Human Sovereign Qi would repel fiends and prevent demons from visiting him in dreams, then discovered that his jade seal and imperial edicts could suppress or kill fiends at the cost of national power.
• Yunxi said the immortal peach had added thirty years of cultivation, and Fang Weiyan hoped future peach trees would help strengthen her and the Yin Gods in the Underworld Administration.
• Fang Weiyan told Yunxi that he had sensed many other Human Sovereigns and expected other dynasties to investigate and seek contact with the Jiang Kingdom.
• Yunxi worried that contact with other dynasties could bring danger, while Fang Weiyan said they should prepare and anticipated benefits from trade.

Fang Weiyan tested the power of the Son of Heaven Sword, then planned a new currency to protect the Jiang Kingdom from foreign merchants driving up grain prices. He arranged for a factory on Earth to produce the coins, and the golden dragon reappeared around him as he slept.

• Fang Weiyan used the Son of Heaven Sword to split a mountain, and Yunxi warned that the strike consumed his Human Sovereign Qi, which recovered as the kingdom grew stronger.
• Fang Weiyan summoned Ji Chunzhe and proposed replacing silver and copper coins with new currency to prevent foreign merchants from buying up the Jiang Kingdom's cheap grain.
• Fang Weiyan instructed the minister of rites to prepare notices for the people, then returned to Earth to arrange currency and uniform designs and purchase a factory.
• Fang Weiyan called his parents, arranged when he would return for the New Year, and decided to build them a villa in his hometown.
• Fang Weiyan approved an alloy currency design in five denominations and ordered the factory to produce five million coins.
• Fang Weiyan fell asleep, and the golden dragon reappeared and coiled around him as golden points of light formed on his skin.

After becoming the Human Sovereign, Fang Weiyan handled court business, summoned Mountain Spirit, and reassigned Lin Liyun’s army to Moon-Gazing City. He then discussed the Jiang Kingdom’s recovery and plans to bring modern goods and manufacturing equipment to its people.

• Fang Weiyan noticed his strength and eyesight had improved, then attended court and promised funds for construction in thirty-two counties.
• A vice minister of the Ministry of Rites presented Fang Weiyan with a golden-thread nanmu branch bearing Mountain Spirit’s location, and Fang Weiyan sent an edict ordering Civil Judge Wen to summon Mountain Spirit.
• When ministers questioned Lin Liyun’s army encampment near Yanhuai City, Fang Weiyan ordered Lin Liyun to lead his two hundred thousand troops to Moon-Gazing City and assured him the assignment showed trust.
• Yunxi told Fang Weiyan that demons were moving away from the Jiang Kingdom, and they discussed improving the people’s lives and economy with modern goods.
• Fang Weiyan reviewed his plans for importing equipment and materials, guarding the Jiang Kingdom against other dynasties, and assigning tasks to his trusted aides.