Chapter Summaries

Noble Consort Ning pursued greater power by exploiting shortages in the frontier, while Zhou Wanwan responded by sharply lowering prices at her own shops. Yanmen Pass grew into a bustling trade hub, with caravans flocking to the Treasure-Gathering Trading Company.

• Princess Jing'an and Princess Ningyuan were surprised when the imperial edict granted their families generous rewards instead of the expected consort arrangements.
• Noble Consort Ning dismissed the empress as a threat and hinted that she wanted the emperor's position, while Princess Jianing said she wanted Gu Sinian.
• Noble Consort Ning ordered her frontier shops to raise the prices of grain, cotton, medicinal herbs, and cloth, worsening the shortages faced by common people.
• After Old Scholar Tree and Qin Shan explained Noble Consort Ning's profiteering, Zhou Wanwan ordered her shops to cut prices by thirty percent and frontier prices by fifty percent.
• Caravans poured into Yanmen Pass, where Zhou Wanwan's shops and the Treasure-Gathering Trading Company drew crowds with plentiful goods and convenient, secure services.

Zhou Wanwan expanded her estate at Yanmen Pass, planting crops and medicinal herbs in sandy soil and using spiritual power to make them grow. The crops sprouted overnight, and her transplanted ginseng roots began growing as well.

• Caravan members discovered that food delivery and affordable shops marked with a sword were available in Yanmen Pass, which they learned was still part of Great Xia.
• Zhou Wanwan ordered wheat, rice, and many other crops planted at her estate despite Shen Xiao's doubts, while General Qin told him to follow her orders.
• Zhou Wanwan used spiritual power to improve the soil and rapidly grow the crops, including rice paddies stocked with fish fry.
• Shen Xiao found the crops sprouted overnight and warned the soldiers not to tell anyone, while Mu Qing dismissed their questions about Zhou Wanwan's methods.
• Zhou Wanwan planted medicinal herbs and transplanted Lingbao's ginseng roots, which began to sprout as Lingbao celebrated.

Zhou Wanwan cultivated medicinal herbs and made Hundred Grasses Hall offer affordable medicine and treatment, drawing crowds and outshining a rival pharmacy. The chapter ended with physicians from Hundred Grasses Hall abducted to Great Qi’s army camp and ordered to treat a general suffering from the plague.

• Zhou Wanwan tested Lingzhi spores on the Old Ancestor and the Old Scholar Tree, where they sprouted mycelium, and she harvested medicinal herbs after cultivating them.
• Zhou Wanwan ordered her pharmacies to sell affordable herbs and provide resident physicians, and a manager carried out her instructions.
• Patients flocked to Hundred Grasses Hall, where the trees examined and treated them quickly and cheaply, spreading word of its effective care.
• A rival shopkeeper worried as customers abandoned his pharmacy, while his assistant confirmed Hundred Grasses Hall’s medicines and treatments were both cheap and effective.
• Masked men seized several Hundred Grasses Hall physicians and took them to Great Qi’s army camp, where a general asked them to cure his plague-stricken commander.

Tree people rescued the physicians and looted the plague-stricken Great Qi camp, while the Grand General Who Proclaims Might led fifty thousand troops to Yanmen Pass. Zhou Wanwan faced the army from the newly heightened wall and demanded their surrender, but the soldiers mistook her for a child playing there.

• Soldiers threatened the physicians with death unless they cured the plague-stricken general, but tree people knocked the soldiers down and reassured the physicians.
• The tree people searched the camp storehouse and carried away its weapons, armor, valuables, and other supplies with help from reinforcements.
• Great Qi officials discussed the plague, the missing soldiers, and the inexplicable emptying of a city as the Tiger-Breaking Army's general lay sick.
• The Grand General Who Proclaims Might agreed to lead his army against Yanmen Pass and set out with fifty thousand soldiers to scout and attack it.
• The Grand General Who Proclaims Might and his soldiers were stunned by Yanmen Pass's towering wall.
• Zhou Wanwan used a megaphone to tell the Qi soldiers to surrender, and they mistook her for a child playing on the wall.

Zhou Wanwan used mysterious powers to repel the General Who Proclaims Might’s attacks on Yanmen Pass and humiliated him, but he then surrounded the pass. As the defenders faced a siege, Zhou Wanwan forced the Xie Family Army to train, leaving its men exhausted and longing for home.

• Zhou Wanwan turned the General Who Proclaims Might’s arrows and catapult stones back on his forces, then flew down and slapped him repeatedly.
• The General Who Proclaims Might retreated and, following his strategists’ advice, surrounded Yanmen Pass to cut off aid.
• Shen Xiao asked Zhou Wanwan whether the Xie Family Army could defeat Great Qi’s army, and Zhou Wanwan’s question revealed they could not win alone.
• Zhou Wanwan punished the Xie Family Army with harsh drills, dark cells, hunger, and lashes until the soldiers obeyed.
• The exhausted Xie Family Army soldiers complained about their training and said they wanted to go home and missed their mothers, then received another lash.

Zhou Wanwan traveled to Great Qi's capital to rescue Old Master Xie and recruit officials from the prison. She secured their families as well and left with them for Yanmen Pass.

• Zhou Wanwan led a group of trees to Great Qi's capital to find Old General Xie, but Old Scholar Tree and Old Ancestor were hurt by black flames when they probed the imperial palace.
• Zhou Wanwan healed Old Scholar Tree and Old Ancestor, then went to the prison and found Old Master Xie.
• Zhou Wanwan made Old Master Xie sign a contract that sold the entire Xie Family to her, and he agreed to serve her.
• Zhou Wanwan questioned thirty-two imprisoned Great Qi officials, and a tree confirmed they were worth recruiting.
• Zhou Wanwan offered the officials a choice to leave alone or bring their families, and they agreed to sign themselves and their families over to her.
• Zhou Wanwan had the trees collect the officials and their families, then hurried toward Yanmen Pass with them.

Zhou Wanwan settled former officials and generals at Yanmen Pass, where they pledged loyalty after learning she was emperor. As her border trade grew, envoys from Mobei Uyghur and Western Rong arrived, but they openly mocked her claim to be the city lord.

• Zhou Wanwan told the officials and generals that their families had been moved to Yanmen Pass and that they would work for her.
• Qin Shan urged the former officials and generals to follow Zhou Wanwan, while several doubted that a young girl could become emperor.
• Soldiers saluted Zhou Wanwan as emperor, and the officials swore loyalty to her after she offered to send anyone who wished to leave back home.
• Zhou Wanwan expanded her businesses and reviewed the map, warning that Mobei Uyghur and Western Rong were nearby threats.
• Envoys from Mobei Uyghur and Western Rong requested an audience, then laughed when Zhou Wanwan said she was the city lord.

Zhou Wanwan rejected the envoys’ demand to surrender and prepared Yanmen Pass for an attack by three enemy armies. As the attackers arrived, she waited for their tunnel plan to fail and asked Old General Xie to request more provisions.

• Zhou Wanwan frightened the Western Rong and Mobei Uyghur envoys away after declaring that Yanmen Pass would fight to the end.
• The General Who Proclaims Might, the Ever-Victorious General, and Amur planned a three-sided assault through a tunnel and divided the nearby cities among themselves.
• Zhou Wanwan stood guard with Old General Xie, spotted the approaching enemy troops, and told him to ask his daughter to send provisions.
• Old General Xie asked Zhou Wanwan to spare the Xie Family, and she said the family would be safe if he and his army earned merit.
• Old Scholar Tree revealed that the enemy tunnel had gone off course and emerged outside the city, while Zhou Wanwan complained that she was hungry from waiting.

Zhou Wanwan’s forces repelled an attack on Yanmen Pass and trapped the General Who Proclaims Might inside the city, while the Ever-Victorious General continued his assault. Amur arrived by hot-air balloon, planning to capture Zhou Wanwan for her money-making skills.

• Old Scholar Tree brought a feast from the imperial estate, and Zhou Wanwan, Qin Shan, Shen Xiao, and Old Master Xie ate before the battle began.
• The Ever-Victorious General launched fire arrows at Yanmen Pass, but they bounced back and burned his soldiers.
• Qin Shan trapped the General Who Proclaims Might and his troops in a smoke-filled passage, then showed them Yanmen Pass, which had been transformed to resemble Suiyuan City.
• The Ever-Victorious General prepared to ram the gates, while the General Who Proclaims Might stood restrained on the city wall and could not answer him.
• Zhou Wanwan spotted Amur arriving in hot-air balloons, and Amur said he intended to capture her and take her back to make money for his ruler.

Zhou Wanwan captured Amur, the General Who Proclaims Might, and the Ever-Victorious General along with their 400,000 troops, then made the generals sign contracts to serve her or face death. After learning they had rebelled because their countries left their soldiers hungry and poorly equipped, she promised to provide for the entire army, and Amur swore to take her as his master.

• Amur's hot air balloon crashed, and he found the General Who Proclaims Might and the Ever-Victorious General drinking tea as prisoners of Zhou Wanwan.
• Zhou Wanwan rejected the generals' offers to make her a princess and demanded they sign contracts to serve her, threatening death if they refused.
• The Ever-Victorious General drew his sword but dropped it in pain, and all three generals signed the contracts.
• The generals explained that their soldiers were neglected, hungry, and poorly equipped, and that they had rebelled to seize grain.
• Zhou Wanwan promised to feed and care for their entire army, and Amur swore to take her as his master.

Zhou Wanwan completed a river channel at Yanmen Pass and showed the generals and ministers thriving farms, then sent the three generals back to request supplies by claiming the pass was nearly conquered. Great Qi and Mobei Uyghur agreed to send provisions and equipment, while Western Rong refused, prompting the Ever-Victorious General to consider rebellion.

• The General Who Proclaims Might and the Ever-Victorious General swore loyalty to Zhou Wanwan after joining her side.
• Zhou Wanwan inspected the newly completed river channel and showed everyone rice paddies, fish, and abundant crops growing around Yanmen Pass.
• Zhou Wanwan told Amur and the other two generals to write their rulers that Yanmen Pass was nearly theirs and that they needed more supplies.
• The ruler of Great Qi ordered provisions for one hundred thousand soldiers, weapons, and padded coats sent to the General Who Proclaims Might, while the ruler of Mobei Uyghur agreed to supply Amur.
• The ruler of Western Rong refused to send provisions to the Ever-Victorious General, who accused him of forcing a rebellion and vowed to show no mercy.

Zhou Wanwan foiled the General Who Breaks Tigers’ attempt to seize Yanmen Pass and began planning to turn the frontier into a commercial center. After hearing a legend about the Old War God of the Northern Frontier, she decided to search for the hidden opportunity he had left behind.

• Zhou Wanwan gathered the ministers to discuss making the frontier a commercial and military center, but the General Who Breaks Tigers arrived and accused the General Who Proclaims Might of treason.
• The General Who Breaks Tigers threatened Zhou Wanwan and ordered his soldiers to attack, but the troops were bound by threads after Jiang Yong revealed that many had secretly joined Zhou Wanwan’s side.
• Jiang Yong condemned the General Who Breaks Tigers for his treatment of the soldiers and his reckless use of the plague, and the General Who Breaks Tigers and his men were taken away.
• Zhou Wanwan ordered the enlarged army to train in the mornings and farm in the afternoons, then asked Cheng Chao and Shen Wanjun to help develop the frontier into a commercial center.
• After hearing the legend that the Old War God of the Northern Frontier had left behind a chance at longevity, Zhou Wanwan said they should find the hidden opportunity.

Zhou Wanwan turned the legend of the War God of the Northern Frontier into a major attraction, drawing crowds and prosperity to Yanmen Pass. As she revealed her plan to build a capital there, Old Scholar Tree announced that a group of elders had arrived to confront her.

• Zhou Wanwan spread stories about the War God of the Northern Frontier's tomb and had her people build an elaborate, trap-filled tomb with treasures and supposed immortality water.
• Zhou Wanwan ordered Cheng Chao to establish a large black market, and visitors from several countries flocked to Yanmen Pass and marveled at its prosperity and low prices.
• Cheng Chao reported that Zhou Wanwan's group controlled ten cities with several hundred thousand people, then asked what they would do when interest in the tomb faded.
• Zhou Wanwan proposed drawing visitors with a new legend about the Goddess of the Southern Frontier and told Cheng Chao and Shen Wanjun that she intended to build a capital there.
• Old Scholar Tree told Zhou Wanwan that a group of elders was waiting at the door, and she hurried to find her shoes.

Zhou Wanwan welcomed Zhao Muyuan and hundreds of ministers to the borderlands, then assigned them posts across its cities. At Crushed Stone Fort, she began planning roads and wider development, while Zhao Muyuan pleaded with her not to make the region a capital.

• Zhao Muyuan brought hundreds of ministers to protect Zhou Wanwan, and she welcomed them before he explained that Great Xia had postponed its imperial examination to search for the War God of the Northern Frontier's tomb.
• Qin Shan told Zhao Muyuan that generals from the Northern Desert, Western Rong, and Great Qi had joined their side, and Zhou Wanwan assigned the visiting ministers posts throughout the borderlands.
• Zhou Wanwan appointed Zhao Muyuan fort lord of Crushed Stone Fort and took him there with Old Scholar Tree.
• Zhou Wanwan described the borderlands' poor roads and houses, proposed using cement to build roads, and said the region could become more prosperous than the capital.
• Zhao Muyuan mistook Zhou Wanwan's plans as an attempt to establish a new capital and begged her to reconsider.

Zhou Wanwan refused to change her decision to move the capital to the poor frontier and explained how towns would receive supplies to rebuild and repay them as they developed. After showing the ministers rice and fish thriving on improved sandy soil, she left Zhao Muyuan surprised that she had no immediate plan to attack Great Qi or ascend the throne.

• Zhou Wanwan rejected the ministers’ objections and ordered them to begin developing the frontier towns.
• Zhou Wanwan explained that towns could apply for registered supplies and repay the costs after they became prosperous.
• Shen Wanjun warned Zhou Wanwan that providing grain to thirty-six cities would be expensive, so she took him and the ministers to see her farm.
• The ministers saw rice and rice paddy fish growing in the sandy frontier soil, and Zhao Muyuan’s doubts about moving the capital faded.
• Zhao Muyuan asked whether Zhou Wanwan planned to attack Great Qi, but she said she wanted to govern the region well before gradually expanding into other countries.

Zhou Wanwan inspected the medicinal farms and encouraged her ministers to develop the territory while she avoided taking on more burdens. After learning that the Jianghu Alliance had a branch in Qingfeng City, she went there to rent shops and faced a woman who wanted every remaining one.

• Zhou Wanwan and Zhao Muyuan agreed to build up their strength gradually instead of attacking Great Qi, and Zhou Wanwan worried about the palace and the trouble taking the throne would bring.
• At the farm estate, Zhou Wanwan showed the ministers thriving ginseng and fleeceflower root, prompting them to make plans to farm, rebuild houses, and repair roads.
• Old Scholar Tree and Old Ancestor discussed the strange fire in Great Qi's palace, their cultivation, and the Jianghu Alliance's branch in their territory.
• After waking, Zhou Wanwan learned the branch was in Qingfeng City and went there, where she decided to rent several shops.
• Zhou Wanwan used gold to secure seven of the largest shops, but a woman arrived and offered to take all the remaining shops.

Zhou Wanwan stole Zhao Lili’s wealth and belongings, leaving her home stripped bare, even of its floor tiles. Zhao Lili tracked her to the city lord’s residence, where her dogs abandoned the search to eat and sleep, leaving the confrontation unresolved.

• Zhou Wanwan learned that Zhao Lili managed the Jianghu Alliance’s finances and discovered Zhao Lili had bought up the shops to spite her.
• Zhou Wanwan broke into Zhao Lili’s home at night and took its money, valuables, stored goods, plants, and floor tiles.
• Zhao Lili woke to find her home emptied and ordered the Zhao Family to send over eight fierce dogs to track down the thief.
• Zhao Lili’s dogs followed a trail to the city lord’s residence, where Zhou Wanwan revealed she was the city lord of Yanmen Pass.
• Zhao Lili’s dogs rushed inside, ate the resident dogs’ meat, and fell asleep, prompting Zhou Wanwan to demand payment.

Zhou Wanwan kept Zhao Lili’s dogs after they refused to leave, then changed morning court to the afternoon and listened to reports from the ministers. The Zhao Family brought her to their residence to care for the dogs, where she faced insults from their steward.

• Zhao Lili gave Zhou Wanwan ten taels of silver after her dogs refused to leave Zhou Wanwan’s home.
• Cheng Chao told Zhou Wanwan that the ministers were waiting for court, and she moved morning court to the afternoon.
• Zhou Wanwan heard the ministers’ reports, dismissed court, and slept until evening.
• Steward Zhao and a man in a brocade robe demanded that Zhou Wanwan come to the Zhao residence to care for the dogs and learn about their fourth young master.
• Zhou Wanwan arrived at the Zhao residence with the dogs, and the steward mocked her for being impressed by the estate.

Zhou Wanwan arrived at the Zhao Family residence, where Fourth Young Master tried to make her kneel after his dogs refused to obey him. When his animals attacked him, she demanded ten thousand taels to stop them, then learned she would be housed in the woodshed and given no dinner; Fourth Young Master vowed to make things difficult for her.

• Steward Zhao brought Zhou Wanwan to Fourth Young Master, whose dogs ignored him and stayed beside her.
• Fourth Young Master ordered Zhou Wanwan to kneel, but hundreds of his escaped animals stormed in and attacked him.
• Zhou Wanwan demanded ten thousand taels to make the animals leave, and Nan Hao waved them away after Fourth Young Master agreed.
• Fourth Young Master assigned Zhou Wanwan the woodshed, and the steward and kitchen staff left her without dinner.
• Fourth Young Master complained that Zhou Wanwan had turned his beasts against him and vowed not to let her off easily.

Zhou Wanwan enjoyed a lavish meal while Fourth Young Master Zhao raged over a vegetarian dinner, then he took her to the Jianghu Alliance’s beast arena to show off the Zhao Family’s influence. When he asked her to judge the fights, she dismissed the task as simple.

• Fourth Young Master Zhao flew into a rage when his dinner consisted of vegetarian dishes, while Zhou Wanwan ate the delicacies Old Scholar Tree had provided.
• Old Scholar Tree explained that Fourth Young Master was the Zhao Family patriarch’s favored grandson, the family’s heir, and able to communicate with animals.
• Fourth Young Master summoned Zhou Wanwan, taunted her, and asked how she had learned to command beasts; she said she had been born knowing how.
• Fourth Young Master took Zhou Wanwan to the Jianghu Alliance’s crowded beast arena and introduced her as a servant.
• Fourth Young Master asked Zhou Wanwan to assess which contender might win, and she said betting was simple: choose the side with the better chance.