Recaps

Zhou Wanwan encouraged Zhou Fusheng to study by suggesting he could become a top scholar and high official, and she checked on the growing schools in the stronghold. The Old Scholar Tree then told her that their new houses had returned and asked where to place them.

• Gu Sinian, Zhou Qingyan, and the other children admired the armor and weapons, and Zhou Wanwan let them choose armor to try on.
• Zhou Fusheng showed Zhou Wanwan that his injured leg had healed and lamented that the people of Zhou Family Village had looked down on him.
• Zhou Fusheng read the Three Character Classic from memory, and Zhou Wanwan, Zhou Qingyan, and Gu Sinian praised his ability and urged him to pursue the examinations.
• Excited by the prospect of surpassing Zhou Fuyu and becoming a high official, Zhou Fusheng decided to stop working in the fields and study.
• Zhou Wanwan discussed adult and children's classes with Liu Su'e, then visited the crowded school and planned to turn returned houses into classrooms.
• The Old Scholar Tree told Zhou Wanwan that their new houses had returned and asked where to put them.

Zhou Wanwan recovered hundreds of luxurious houses and rescued rare medicinal herbs, then set up hot spring pools and discovered that Khotan’s fruit trees had also been taken. The second prince and the prefect prepared to attack Black Wind Stronghold after learning Zhou Wanwan had seized the golden houses.

• Zhou Wanwan found more than five hundred houses, including one filled with valuable medicinal herbs, and agreed to give Lingbao a bath.
• Zhou Wanwan fed energy to the dying herbs, which awakened and feared that a human had come to catch them; Lingbao ordered them to stay in the heated greenhouses.
• Zhou Wanwan and the old locust tree arranged for five hot spring pools to be dug, and she learned that the peach and grape varieties had been cultivated by the second prince.
• The second prince brought several thousand soldiers toward Black Wind Stronghold after losing his fruit trees, while the prefect told Cheng Xiao that an earlier force had returned empty-handed and lost its catapults.
• Cheng Xiao revealed that Zhou Wanwan had also taken the second prince’s more than five hundred golden houses, and the prefect learned the second prince planned to attack Black Wind Stronghold in a few days.

The second prince and Cheng Xiao planned to pressure the mountain stronghold by targeting its allies and relatives, while Cheng Xiao imprisoned Feng Jiao to draw out Zhou Wanwan. Feng Yueyao rescued Feng Jiao with the Old Scholar Tree, and the chapter ended as they heard Feng Jiao’s third brother calling after them.

• The second prince ordered Cheng Xiao to kill the families of the stronghold’s members if they refused to surrender, and Zhou Fuyu suggested arresting people from Wild Field Village.
• Cheng Xiao had Feng Jiao arrested and claimed her family had been exiled, then said he would use her to make Zhou Wanwan come to her rescue.
• Feng Caigu taunted Feng Jiao about her imprisonment and the Feng Clan’s downfall, and Feng Jiao challenged her claims about their family’s past generosity.
• Feng Yueyao arrived on the Old Scholar Tree and took Feng Jiao to its treehouse, where Zhou Wanwan gave her tea.
• Feng Jiao recognized her third brother’s voice as he ran after the walking Old Scholar Tree, and Zhou Wanwan asked the tree to stop.

Feng Yunting joined Feng Jiao and Zhou Wanwan at Black Wind Stronghold, warning that fire and siege weapons could make the wooded settlement vulnerable. Zhou Wanwan discovered Luban Village had already made effective fire extinguishers and ordered them produced in large numbers to protect the forests.

• Feng Yunting arrived as a wanted criminal and told Feng Jiao and Zhou Wanwan that the emperor had purged respected officials and generals, while he had paid to keep his family safe.
• Feng Yunting said he wanted to settle at Black Wind Stronghold and asked Zhou Wanwan about buying tree people, but she explained that only she could operate them.
• Zhou Wanwan showed Feng Yunting and Feng Yueyao around the stronghold, where he pointed out that an army could surround it and set its tree-covered slopes on fire.
• Zhou Wanwan asked the village chief of Luban Village about fire extinguishers and learned that the villagers had already made them using hard-to-find medicinal herbs.
• Zhou Wanwan tested the extinguishers on wood and rapeseed-oil fires, then ordered about a thousand cylinders for every forest; the village chief agreed and said the bridge was finished.

Zhou Wanwan agreed to help Feng Yunting bring his exiled family to Black Wind Stronghold and offered him sweet potato seed stock on the condition that he use it to aid disaster victims. Feng Yunting also showed her Human Ranking jobs, but none interested her, leaving their search for work unresolved.

• Feng Yunting offered Zhou Wanwan a hundred thousand taels to bring his family to Black Wind Stronghold, and she accepted.
• Zhou Wanwan served Feng Yunting a feast and explained how sweet potatoes could produce over nine thousand jin from two crops on a mu of mountain land.
• Zhou Wanwan offered Feng Yunting sweet potato seed stock for free if he would use it to help disaster victims, and he promised to do so through his estates.
• Feng Yunting offered to connect Zhou Wanwan with jobs from the Human Ranking and showed her a booklet of listings.
• Zhou Wanwan found the listed errands and delivery work unappealing, and Feng Yunting noted that none of the jobs interested her.

Zhou Wanwan accepted numerous Earth Ranking missions and set out with Feng Yunting toward Lion Camel Ridge, eager to face its notorious bandits. Feng Yunting warned her about the dangers and revealed he had brought a hundred death warriors as backup.

• Feng Yunting explained that Earth Ranking missions earned points and that Heaven Ranking missions required 100,000 points.
• Zhou Wanwan claimed she had several hundred-year-old purple lingzhi and chose many medicinal-herb, escort, and other Earth Ranking missions.
• Feng Yunting warned that an escort mission carrying three snow ginseng kings would cross the dangerous Lion Camel Ridge and Soul-Severing Gorge, but Zhou Wanwan eagerly decided to visit Lion Camel Ridge.
• Feng Yunting withdrew one hundred thousand taels of silver from one of his remaining money houses, and Old Scholar Tree carried him and Zhou Wanwan toward Qingzhou.
• As Zhou Wanwan rested on the way, Feng Yunting described Lion Camel Ridge’s brutal chieftain and said he had brought a hundred death warriors to protect them.

Zhou Wanwan reached Lion Camel Ridge and learned that its mountain king’s gang preyed on travelers, while Lingbao infiltrated the stronghold and discovered the gang planned to intercept a shipment connected to Eunuch Hai. Lingbao drugged the mountain king, but he woke up and chased it as it fled.

• Zhou Wanwan and Feng Yunting arrived at Lion Camel Ridge, where Old Scholar Tree spoke with the trees and learned the mountain king was powerful and had many stolen treasures.
• The trees revealed that corpses were buried beneath them and mocked Zhou Wanwan’s danger, so Old Scholar Tree pulled them out by their roots.
• Zhou Wanwan suggested entering the stronghold, and Lingbao went ahead to scout while she stayed behind.
• Lingbao overheard the mountain king tell his men that a shipment would pass through their territory the next day and that he planned to rob it despite Eunuch Hai’s request to guard it.
• The mountain king sensed someone nearby, but Lingbao hid underground, followed him to his room, and slipped Zhou Wanwan’s drug into his teapot.
• The mountain king drank the drugged water and collapsed, then woke as Lingbao tried to leave and chased it out of the room.

Zhou Wanwan defeated the chief of Lion Camel Ridge with Old Scholar Tree, claimed the stronghold, and discovered the bandits’ stolen riches and abused captives. She left the surviving bandits alive to work the mountain fields and freed the women, telling them they could go home.

• Old Scholar Tree restrained and beat the old fellow, and Feng Yunting told Zhou Wanwan that defeating the Earth Ranking’s ninety-ninth-ranked fighter gave her his ranking and a token for missions.
• Zhou Wanwan led her companions into Lion Camel Ridge and surveyed its defenses, supplies, and farmland.
• Lingbao found the old fellow’s room crammed with stolen valuables, and Zhou Wanwan decided to keep the bandits alive to work the land instead of killing them.
• Zhou Wanwan and Old Scholar Tree arranged for hundreds of trees to stay and watch over the bandits as they worked.
• Lingbao led Zhou Wanwan to a room containing jars full of women’s heads and dozens of abused women, and Zhou Wanwan told the survivors they could go home.

Zhou Wanwan rescued and treated more than four hundred captive women, then forced Lion Camel Ridge’s bandits to farm and put the upright second-in-command in charge. The next morning, Eunuch Hai’s party arrived at the stronghold, expecting hospitality after paying its people thousands of taels of silver.

• Zhou Wanwan offered the rescued women a place to stay, found more than a dozen women trapped in jars, and treated the captives’ wounds with Lingbao’s bathwater.
• The bandits woke and mourned their dead boss after his head fell from the sky, and Zhou Wanwan gave them the choice to farm or face punishment from the Old Scholar Tree.
• Zhou Wanwan reorganized the stronghold, and the women agreed to contribute while the bandits began farming.
• The stronghold’s second-in-command reported that Eunuch Hai’s party had arrived, and Zhou Wanwan told him to welcome them.
• Eunuch Hai’s young eunuch demanded lodging and reminded the stronghold that its people had taken several thousand taels of silver from his party.

Zhou Wanwan’s tree allies captured Xiao Dezi and the caravan’s advance party, and she questioned him about their cargo and the palace. Xiao Dezi revealed that a much larger shipment was following and described the valuable goods and rare orchids, leaving the fate of the main caravan unresolved.

• The second-in-command led Xiao Dezi and more than 200 men into the mountains, where Zhou Wanwan’s trees subdued them and forced them to work.
• Zhou Wanwan offered Xiao Dezi lighter work in exchange for news, and he explained that the caravan was carrying goods bound for Mobei.
• Xiao Dezi revealed that more than 100 loaded carriages were following the advance party.
• Xiao Dezi recognized Feng Yunting and explained that the court wanted the Feng Clan’s shops, estates, and money houses.
• Xiao Dezi described Noble Consort’s cruelty and said he had volunteered for the journey to escape palace life.
• Zhou Wanwan had Xiao Dezi bring rare orchids into her room, and he explained their value and that the Princess Consort of Mobei had requested them.

Zhou Wanwan learned from a peony that a nearby mountain held a mine and went to investigate. After discovering it contained hematite and treasure from an ancient tomb, she led the trees and Lingbao in a raid to seize it.

• Zhou Wanwan befriended the peony, which identified Sunset Glow Mountain as the location of a mine.
• Zhou Wanwan and Old Scholar Tree went to Sunset Glow Mountain and learned from the trees that miners were working there and had uncovered an ancient tomb.
• Old Scholar Tree sent a small tree to scout the mining site, and it reported that the mine contained hematite rather than jade.
• Lingbao returned with herbs and said the mine owner had a warehouse full of iron ore and objects from the ancient tomb.
• Zhou Wanwan ordered the group to take the mine's riches, and the trees knocked down the miners and dug hematite from the tunnel.

Zhou Wanwan’s desert wormwood dug up and buried the hematite from Sunset Glow Mountain, while the mine’s abused miners killed the mine owner and fled with his grain. The Noble Consort then learned that the mine and a shipment of more than a hundred carriages were both gone, and ordered a general to attack Lion Camel Ridge as Zhou Wanwan prepared to collect the people there.

• Zhou Wanwan watched the desert wormwood dig up the mine’s hematite, and the plants buried most of it in a huge pit.
• The miners rebelled, killed the mine owner, and fled with the stored grain after finding the mine empty.
• The Noble Consort learned that Sunset Glow Mountain’s mine had been emptied and ordered Eunuch Hai to investigate.
• A young eunuch reported that more than a hundred carriages had disappeared, and the Noble Consort ordered an investigation into Qingshui County.
• Eunuch Hai suspected Lion Camel Ridge had intercepted the shipment, so the army ordered a great general to suppress the bandits; he agreed after hearing the ridge might be wealthy.
• Zhou Wanwan counted the captured cargo and decided to go pick up the people before sorting the supplies.

Zhou Wanwan and her companions tracked Feng Yunting and Feng Jiao’s parents to the Valley of Evildoers, despite learning how dangerous it was. After entering, they were surrounded by threatening criminals, but the red camphor tree dropped a powder that knocked the men down.

• Zhou Wanwan questioned trees along the way and learned that the prisoners from the capital had been sent to the Valley of Evildoers.
• Feng Yunting explained the valley’s deadly reputation, but Zhou Wanwan decided to enter because she had accepted a hundred thousand taels of silver and wanted to see it.
• Zhou Wanwan and her companions entered the valley with a group of men who promised them treats and treasures.
• The men threatened Feng Yunting’s group and approached Zhou Wanwan, but the red camphor tree scattered powder that made them collapse.

Zhou Wanwan reached the Valley of Evildoers, defeated its local desperadoes, and learned that people from the capital were imprisoned at a logging camp. After empowering the camp’s trees, she prepared to enter and rescue Feng Yunting’s family despite the danger posed by Black Impermanence.

• Zhou Wanwan stripped the defeated evildoers, took their valuables, and learned that prisoners from the capital were sent to the western logging camp.
• Zhou Wanwan traveled to the camp, where Old Scholar Tree introduced her to the enormous trees.
• Zhou Wanwan used jade to give the camp’s trees energy, allowing them to pull up their roots and move.
• The trees warned Zhou Wanwan and Feng Yunting that Black Impermanence, the eighth-ranked evildoer, guarded the logging camp.
• Feng Yunting worried that Black Impermanence would overpower them, but Zhou Wanwan insisted on going to rescue the prisoners.

Zhou Wanwan rescued Feng Jiao’s father and other prisoners from abusive constables at the forest farm, then used her energy to revive some felled trees and gather their saplings. She left with a carriage full of saplings and promised to take the remaining trees too, while the grateful prisoners bowed to her.

• Zhou Wanwan and Lingbao explored the forest farm, where constables forced prisoners to chop trees and tend medicinal herbs under brutal conditions.
• Feng Jiao recognized her father, Old Master Feng, among the prisoners, and the constables moved to capture Zhou Wanwan’s group.
• Old Scholar Tree swept the constables off their feet, and Zhou Wanwan ordered them to work hauling timber instead of tormenting the prisoners.
• Zhou Wanwan used energy from top-grade mutton-fat jade to revive some tree roots, producing saplings that called her their mother and then their little ancestor.
• Zhou Wanwan loaded the saplings into the carriage and said they would take the remaining trees; Old Master Feng and the prisoners knelt to thank her, while Feng Jiao identified her as her goddaughter.

Zhou Wanwan defeated Black Impermanence at Ningguta and learned that Old Scholar Tree could grow stronger by absorbing powerful martial artists. Survivors at the forest farm asked her to take them in, including hundreds of soldiers and officials of the former dynasty, leaving her worried that her growing following might look like a rebellion.

• Black Impermanence confronted Feng Weizheng and the others, but Zhou Wanwan subdued him, and Old Scholar Tree absorbed his blood and energy.
• Old Scholar Tree told Zhou Wanwan that absorbing powerful martial artists strengthened him, especially his roots.
• Zhou Wanwan and the others entered Black Impermanence's warm cabin and learned that more than a hundred thousand exiles lived at Ningguta.
• Exiles asked Zhou Wanwan to take them in, and Qin Shan offered the service of more than three hundred surviving soldiers.
• Shen Jingzhi and other former-dynasty officials also asked Zhou Wanwan for a way to survive, making her fear that accepting them would look like plotting a rebellion.

Shen Jingzhi and Shen Chaoge urged Zhou Wanwan to lead the former-dynasty survivors in rebellion, but she chose to bring them back to Lion Camel Ridge instead. After taking in 96,000 people, Zhou Wanwan set off to investigate the perilous Soul-Severing Cliff.

• Shen Jingzhi offered the former-dynasty survivors’ skills and loyalty to Zhou Wanwan, even proposing rebellion against the court.
• Shen Chaoge revealed that he had survived the destruction of his army and had been secretly protecting members of the Shen Clan at Ningguta.
• Zhou Wanwan questioned whether the former- and current-dynasty survivors could cooperate, and Shen Jingzhi and Shen Chaoge swore to serve her.
• Shen Jingzhi explained that the survivors had useful skills, and Zhou Wanwan decided to bring all 96,000 people to Lion Camel Ridge.
• Feng Yunting warned Zhou Wanwan that the court might kill the survivors if she left them behind, and Old Master Feng pledged his clan to her.
• Zhou Wanwan asked Feng Yunting to take her to Soul-Severing Cliff, despite his warning that no one had managed to climb it.

Zhou Wanwan discovered that Old Scholar Tree could store mushroom toxins in his roots and release them to kill prey. After climbing Soul-Severing Cliff with the trees, she found a hidden village and met its startled residents.

• The trees hunted game and gathered mushrooms for Zhou Wanwan at the foot of Soul-Severing Cliff.
• Old Scholar Tree found that he could store mushroom toxins in his roots and used them to kill a rabbit.
• After Zhou Wanwan prepared to make an antidote, she ate with the group and led them up the cliff using the trees’ roots.
• Zhou Wanwan and her companions reached a vast, secluded village with houses, fruit trees, and a stream on the summit.
• Lingbao scattered white powder to stop a pack of wolfdogs, and Zhou Wanwan then encountered children who had never seen a stranger.
• The villagers gathered after Zhao Xin reported seeing a living person, and the village chief asked Zhou Wanwan where she came from.

Zhou Wanwan and Shen Jingzhi discovered that Zhao Muyuan and his clan had been living in seclusion on Soul-Severing Cliff. Zhao Muyuan agreed to serve Zhou Wanwan as her grand tutor if she became empress and asked to bring his family to join her, while Zhou Wanwan insisted she was focused on feeding the people.

• The village chief warned Zhou Wanwan not to cause trouble or reveal the hidden village's location, and she learned that three elders could fly.
• Zhou Wanwan and Shen Jingzhi met Zhao Muyuan, who recognized Shen Jingzhi and explained that he had returned to the village after failing to find him.
• Shen Jingzhi urged Zhao Muyuan to follow Zhou Wanwan and rebel, but Zhao Muyuan mocked the idea and offered to send them back down the mountain.
• As Zhou Wanwan and her companions prepared to leave, Zhao Muyuan declared that he would serve as her grand tutor if she became empress and asked her to give the Shen Clan a future beyond the cliff.
• Zhou Wanwan accepted Zhao Muyuan and his family, offering them places in her mountain strongholds and opportunities for their children to study and gain experience.

Zhou Wanwan brought about ninety thousand people from Ningguta to Lion Camel Ridge and arranged for half to stay there, using houses taken from the Valley of Evildoers to solve their housing shortage. When she returned to Black Wind Stronghold with her family, she found it engulfed in flames.

• Zhou Wanwan returned to Lion Camel Ridge with about ninety thousand people, and Zhou Qingyan, Zhou Qinghe, Zhou Qingchen, and Gu Sinian questioned how the stronghold would accommodate and feed them.
• Zhou Wanwan explained that the newcomers included former officials, soldiers, medicinal-herb growers, and embroiderers, then chose fifty thousand people to settle at Lion Camel Ridge.
• Old Scholar Tree revealed that the group had brought back more than three hundred houses from the Valley of Evildoers, and he arranged them at Lion Camel Ridge.
• Zhou Wanwan gave Feng Yunting silver notes worth fifty thousand taels and hurried back toward Black Wind Stronghold with her family.
• Zhou Wanwan and Old Scholar Tree arrived at Black Wind Stronghold and saw that it had become a sea of fire.

After attackers burned part of the stronghold and badly injured two young men, Zhou Wanwan discovered that energy-infused medicinal herbs could heal human burns. The men recovered completely, though their families and neighbors barely recognized their newly smooth, fair skin.

• Liu Xiuyuan told Zhou Wanwan that attackers had fired flaming arrows, started fires, and badly burned two young men.
• Zhou Wanwan used energy to nourish medicinal herbs and found that it seeped through them into the injured men.
• After treating the men’s front and backs, Zhou Wanwan woke them and sent them home to rest.
• The villagers failed to recognize Liu Fugui and Liu Shugen because their burned skin had healed and become fair and smooth.
• Liu Fugui and Liu Shugen examined their reflections, and Liu Shugen asked whether Fugui still wanted to marry his fiancée.

Liu Fugui caught Yinggu and her cousin together after they plotted to exploit his possible death for compensation, and he ordered them to leave Black Wind Stronghold. The chapter ended with Liu Fugui confronting Yinggu over the five taels he had spent to save her.

• Liu Fugui told Liu Shugen he no longer wanted to marry Yinggu after she mocked his burns and called him a ghost.
• Yinggu and her cousin discussed hoping Liu Fugui would die so they could take the stronghold’s compensation and run away together.
• Liu Fugui suddenly appeared, while Zhou Wanwan and the nearby trees watched and hid the couple’s clothes in the treetops.
• Liu Fugui exposed Yinggu’s affair with her cousin and ordered them to leave Black Wind Stronghold by the next day.
• Yinggu begged to stay, but Liu Fugui slapped her and reminded her that he had spent five taels to rescue her.

Liu Fugui returned Yinggu to her family and demanded his silver back, but Xiugu offered to marry him instead. As the family argued, Zhou Wanwan learned Xiugu was hardworking and had loved Liu Fugui since childhood, while the truth about who rescued him from a trap remained unresolved.

• Zhou Wanwan sent Yinggu and Tang Hao down the mountain, and Liu Fugui took Yinggu to her family the next day.
• Liu Fugui refused to marry Yinggu and demanded that her parents return his silver, while Yinggu pleaded to go back with him.
• Xiugu offered to marry Liu Fugui, but he refused because he had always treated her as a younger sister.
• Zhou Wanwan questioned nearby plants, which revealed that Xiugu was hardworking, had loved Liu Fugui for years, and had once saved him from a hunter's trap.
• Yinggu reminded Liu Fugui that she had rescued him as a child, and he wondered whether that was why he had always treated her so well.

Zhou Wanwan exposed Yinggu’s lie about saving Liu Fugui and arranged for Xiugu and Liu Fugui to marry. As the wedding procession returned, a cousin arrived with yamen runners to arrest the supposed bandits, and Zhou Wanwan revealed she was the boss of Black Wind Stronghold.

• Zhou Wanwan questioned Yinggu about saving Liu Fugui, and Xiugu identified Maiden Mountain as the place where she had rescued him.
• Zhou Wanwan revealed that Yinggu had taken credit for Xiugu’s rescue and arranged for Xiugu and Liu Fugui to marry that day.
• Zhou Wanwan’s maids prepared the wedding, and Xiugu and Liu Fugui married while Yinggu protested.
• As the bridal sedan chair returned, the cousin arrived with dozens of yamen runners and accused the group of being bandits from Black Wind Stronghold.
• Zhou Wanwan said she was the stronghold’s boss, and the old yamen runner asked permission to leave because he was friends with Gu Chaoyang.
• Zhou Wanwan let the old yamen runner take his men away, while the other runners remained behind.

Zhou Wanwan defeated the bailiffs and their allies, then made the captured men work at Black Wind Stronghold. She discovered Lingbao’s rootlets could grow into ginseng and planted the first batch of seedlings in a prepared plot.

• The old bailiff fled with his disciples and warned them not to reveal they had been near Zhou Wanwan, while the remaining bailiffs attacked her group.
• Old Scholar Tree defeated Zhou Wanwan’s cousin, and Zhou ordered the captives taken to Black Wind Stronghold to farm.
• Zhou Wanwan threatened the bailiffs with punishment if they failed to work, then sent them away to begin farming.
• Zhou Wanwan and Lingbao discovered that Lingbao’s rootlets sprouted and grew into ginseng seedlings when Zhou cultivated them with her energy.
• Zhou Wanwan prepared a shady plot near the village and planted more than fifty ginseng seedlings.