Chapter Summaries

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.

Zhou Wanwan used her trees to defeat the second prince of Khotan’s force and captured him and Cheng Xiao. She negotiated ransoms and ordered them to remove the wanted notices for her and Black Wind Stronghold, leaving the second prince to send instructions for the payment.

• The second prince of Khotan and Cheng Xiao prepared to attack Black Wind Stronghold with cannons and threatened to capture Zhou Wanwan.
• The trees drained the energy from the soldiers, leaving only the second prince and Cheng Xiao standing as Zhou Wanwan revealed herself.
• Zhou Wanwan demanded gold, jade, and grain from the second prince in exchange for his release.
• Cheng Xiao offered grain as ransom, and Zhou Wanwan ordered him to remove the wanted notices for her and everyone in Black Wind Stronghold.
• The second prince gave Zhou Wanwan a token for his trusted aide and told him to arrange the goods quickly.

Zhou Wanwan kept the second prince of Khotan captive until he surrendered his goods, including ten cannons, then welcomed Feng Yueyao to her orchard and hot springs. She offered to take Feng Yueyao to the Cheng household to see how the family was doing and pick up a few things.

• Zhou Wanwan had the village chief test one of the second prince of Khotan’s cannons, then claimed the cannons for herself.
• The second prince of Khotan lamented his losses, and Zhou Wanwan kept him from escaping overnight.
• The second prince’s steward arrived with more than twenty carriages, and Zhou Wanwan inspected the goods before letting the prince leave.
• Zhou Wanwan returned home and took Feng Yueyao to the orchard’s hot springs, where they ate fruit and discussed supplies for the newcomers.
• Feng Yueyao complained about Cheng Xiao, and Zhou Wanwan proposed visiting the Cheng household to see how the family was faring and pick up a few things.

Cheng Xiao sought advice about whether to send gold and grain to Zhou Wanwan, then planned to bring her family back to the Zhou Family to keep her from causing trouble. Meanwhile, Feng Caigu grew jealous of Concubine Liu and arranged a cruel scheme involving snakes.

• Cheng Xiao asked Old Madam Zhou whether he should send gold and grain to Zhou Wanwan, but she warned him not to provoke Zhou Wanwan and left the choice to him.
• Cheng Xiao told Old Madam Zhou to trick the Zhou family into returning, and she decided to start by coaxing her youngest son, Zhou Fusheng.
• Zhou Wanwan overheard the plan from the treehouse and thought her family would never return, though she did not know what Zhou Fusheng thought.
• Cheng Xiao visited Concubine Liu, named their child Cheng Yue, and praised her for being considerate.
• Feng Caigu complained about Cheng Xiao’s concubine and child, and her old maidservant promised to help; that evening, Zhou Wanwan and Feng Yueyao saw the maidservant carry snakes into Concubine Liu’s room.

After Cheng Yue died from a snakebite, Zhou Wanwan decided to recover Cheng Xiao’s hidden gold and grain and learned they might be in a cave on Long Live Mountain. She reached the mountain with Old Scholar Tree and found several dying, debarked trees, who noticed that he could walk.

• Cheng Xiao and Feng Caigu rushed to Concubine Liu’s room, where a physician declared that Cheng Yue had died from snake venom, and the household argued over who was responsible.
• Feng Yueyao celebrated Cheng Yue’s death, while Zhou Wanwan called Cheng Xiao a deadbeat for avoiding his debt.
• Zhou Wanwan questioned the courtyard plants and learned from the asparagus fern that Cheng Xiao’s goods might be hidden in a karst cave on Long Live Mountain.
• Zhou Wanwan promised to take the asparagus fern with her, then traveled with Old Scholar Tree to Long Live Mountain.
• Zhou Wanwan found several trees stripped of their bark, and they asked whether she was speaking to them as Old Scholar Tree offered to help.

Zhou Wanwan found the hidden cave on Long Live Mountain and recovered gold, silver, and grain with help from the trees. She then went to Dao Family Village to deliver grain and found a family facing starvation, illness, and despair.

• Zhou Wanwan gave water to the thirsty trees and learned that men had hidden gold and grain on Long Live Mountain.
• Zhou Wanwan empowered the trees to move and promised to take them to her stronghold if they led her to the treasure.
• The trees guided Zhou Wanwan and Feng Yueyao to a concealed cave, where Old Scholar Tree brought out chests of gold and silver and thousands of sacks of grain.
• Zhou Wanwan decided to take a hundred sacks of grain to Dao Family Village, while noting that the stronghold’s stores could feed its people for only two months.
• Zhou Wanwan arrived at a poor family’s home and heard the woman, her husband, and his elderly parents lamenting their hunger and desperate situation.