Chapter Summaries

Zhang Xuezhou watched the palace guards suppress a mass brawl involving retainers of the imperial family, Tian Fen, Dou Ying, and the Guan Household. As Shen Chong began arresting and punishing the participants, curse masters attacked him, but archers killed the attackers before they could finish their assault.

• Zhang Xuezhou counted 2,337 people bound beneath Sima Gate and identified the factions involved in the brawl.
• Shen Chong concluded that the Guan Household was the safest target for punishment and learned that some of its people had tried to break into prison to free Guan Fu.
• Shen Chong ordered the participants shackled, with prisoners facing ransom, hard labor, or execution depending on their alleged actions.
• A venomous snake split into poisonous insects and attacked Shen Chong while he inspected the arrests.
• Two curse masters pounced on Shen Chong, but archers shot them down, and Shen Chong realized one had briefly controlled his body.

Tian Fen tried to defend himself before the emperor, but his quarrel with Dou Ying escalated into accusations of corruption and treason. The chapter ended with Dou Ying producing evidence against him.

• Tian Fen used his illness to deny responsibility for the attack on Shen Chong and accused Dou Ying of seeking his chancellorship.
• Dou Ying confronted Tian Fen in the great hall, and Han Anguo stopped Dou Ying from punching him.
• Tian Fen and Dou Ying traded accusations over corruption, Guan Fu’s attempted rescue, and the Red Empyrean Sword.
• Tian Fen argued that he had no reason to seize the dynasty because the empress dowager was his sister and the emperor was his nephew.
• Dou Ying produced evidence after Tian Fen demanded proof.

After Zhang Xuezhou failed to find the two incantation masters’ Yang Corporeal Souls, he sent word to Sima Tan to help search. At court, Dou Ying confronted Tian Fen with a genealogy that Tian Fen claimed was fabricated, and the two ended up fighting and accusing each other of wrongdoing.

• Zhang Xuezhou told Shen Chong that the two incantation masters’ Yang Corporeal Souls had escaped their bodies and searched for them without success.
• Shen Chong suggested asking the court historians, and Zhang Xuezhou went to Qilin Pavilion to find Sima Tan.
• Shen Chong expected Dou Ying and Tian Fen to clash at court over the brawl, jailbreak, and assault on the emperor’s carriage.
• Dou Ying presented a genealogy bearing Tian Fen’s handwriting and accused him of ties to forbidden forces.
• Tian Fen denied recognizing the writing, grappled with Dou Ying, and struck him with his Tongtian Crown.
• Dou Ying fell and spat blood, while Tian Fen also faked an injury and shouted that Dou Ying had attacked him.

At court, Dou Ying exposed a secret edict from Emperor Jing that implicated much of the former court, including Tian Fen and the empress dowager’s circle. The new emperor faced pressure to purge them but avoided committing to it, fearing that the investigation would undermine his own legitimacy.

• The new emperor watched Tian Fen and Dou Ying’s dispute until Dou Ying vomited blood and ordered the Tongtian Crown removed and an imperial physician summoned.
• Dou Ying produced Emperor Jing’s sealed final edict, claiming it proved Tian Fen’s ties to the Immortal Court.
• The new emperor ordered the edict read aloud, revealing allegations against the empress dowager, Tian Fen, vassal kings, and most of the former court.
• Dou Ying urged the new emperor to purge the implicated officials, while Tian Fen denied knowing anything about his alleged background.
• The new emperor agreed that the court needed new ministers but avoided endorsing the purge because it could threaten the empress dowager and his own legitimacy.

Zhang Xuezhou recruited Sima Tan to locate two incantation masters whose bodies had died but whose Yang Corporeal Souls survived. After Sima Tan found them near the West Straight Gate, Zhang Xuezhou captured and examined them, then headed to the Palace of Eternal Faith.

• Zhang Xuezhou persuaded Sima Tan that the Yang Corporeal Soul Incarnation Technique could help court historians observe events far away, and Sima Tan began searching for the two incantation masters.
• Sima Tan located the two Yang Corporeal Souls near the West Straight Gate and was astonished that they remained alive after their bodies died.
• Zhang Xuezhou told Sima Tan that Dong Zhongshu could teach him the technique, and Sima Tan set off to find him.
• Zhang Xuezhou found the two nearly transparent Yang Corporeal Souls, grabbed them, and questioned them in the Sacred Land Language.
• Zhang Xuezhou studied the souls, classified them as human medicine for further research, and headed toward the Palace of Eternal Faith.

Zhang Xuezhou brought two Yang Corporeal Soul Incarnations left by cultivators killed at Sima Gate to the Empress Dowager, who began investigating whether they could survive apart from their bodies. She agreed to help Huo Qubing cultivate if the method proved viable, but Tian Fen arrived with news that Dou Ying had the late emperor’s final edict and was demanding their deaths.

• Zhang Xuezhou showed the Empress Dowager two Yang Corporeal Soul Incarnations left behind after their owners were shot dead by Sima Gate guards.
• The Empress Dowager ordered Zheng Dangshi to retrieve the corpses and examined the Incarnations to determine whether the bodies were truly dead.
• Zhang Xuezhou argued that the technique could preserve cultivators’ lives and asked the Empress Dowager to help Huo Qubing advance his realm.
• The Empress Dowager agreed to help Huo Qubing if the method worked, while noting that his young, undeveloped body made cultivation difficult.
• Tian Fen called from outside the palace, announcing that Dou Ying had the late emperor’s final edict and wanted them to kill themselves as proof of innocence.

After Dou Ying revealed Emperor Jing’s secret edict, the empress dowager and Tian Fen faced the threat of losing their power and tried to decide how to respond. Zhang Xuezhou overheard their discussion and stopped Tian Fen from attacking him, while the empress dowager appealed to Zhang Xuezhou to help keep the new emperor’s court stable.

• The new emperor avoided addressing Dou Ying’s secret edict directly and ordered physicians to treat Dou Ying and Tian Fen.
• Tian Fen went to the Palace of Eternal Faith and told the empress dowager what had happened; they recognized that the edict threatened their family and positions.
• Tian Fen proposed killing Dou Ying, but the empress dowager warned that Dou Ying had powerful allies and that the conflict had grown beyond him.
• Tian Fen discovered Zhang Xuezhou crouching nearby and demanded that guards kill him, but Zhang Xuezhou revealed that no guards would answer Tian Fen’s calls.
• Tian Fen tried to attack Zhang Xuezhou with the Tongtian Crown, but his illness flared and Zhang Xuezhou took the crown.
• The empress dowager stopped Tian Fen and urged Zhang Xuezhou to prevent the court from destabilizing and Liu An from taking the throne.

The new emperor decided to side with the empress dowager against Dou Ying and rushed to the Palace of Eternal Faith to plan a response. Zhang Xuezhou explained that Emperor Jing’s posthumous edict was designed to let the new emperor benefit whichever faction won, but changing circumstances had left him with no safe way to play it.

• Dou Ying accused the ministers of rebellion, and the new emperor left the Imperial Medical Hall after ordering Chen He to care for him.
• The new emperor summoned trusted ministers and considered killing the marquises gathered at the Imperial Medical Hall, then replacing the court with his own supporters.
• At the Palace of Eternal Faith, the new emperor found the empress dowager prepared for violence and heard her argue that Dou Ying had to be dealt with ruthlessly.
• The empress dowager explained that Emperor Jing’s edict could have enabled Dou Ying and the grand empress dowager to purge her faction, or allowed her to destroy the Dou Household and secure the throne for the new emperor.
• Zhang Xuezhou told Tian Fen that the edict was meant to benefit the new emperor whichever faction won, but the grand empress dowager’s death and the new emperor’s uncontested rule had made the strategy dangerous.

Zhang Xuezhou helped the new emperor and the Empress Dowager confront Dou Ying’s secret edict by turning Tian Fen’s accusations into a challenge to its authenticity. The emperor and his mother planned to counter the edict and overhaul the marquis system, while Dou Ying’s threat remained unresolved.

• Zhang Xuezhou brought Tian Fen into the discussion and prompted him to accuse Dou Ying of framing him and stealing the secret edict.
• Zhufu Yan dismissed the edict as potentially forged, and Tian Fen claimed Dou Ying had stolen it along with the Red Empyrean Sword and his family genealogy.
• The new emperor realized the edict’s authenticity could be challenged and asked the Empress Dowager to write a counter-edict in Emperor Jing’s handwriting.
• The Empress Dowager agreed to undermine support for Dou Ying and advised the emperor to gradually remove ineffective marquises.
• The new emperor and the Empress Dowager discussed creating rules to appoint capable marquises and strip titles from those who lacked ability.
• The Empress Dowager revealed that Zhang Xuezhou had proposed the plan and that Zhufu Yan had been recommended to help design the removal mechanism.

The empress dowager and Zhang Xuezhou examined two Yang Corporeal Soul Incarnations and discussed testing whether their minds could survive the death of their original bodies. She proposed using condemned cultivators as test subjects, while Zhang Xuezhou avoided advising her on the emperor’s military appointments.

• The empress dowager summoned Zhang Xuezhou to discuss the Yang Corporeal Soul Incarnation Technique after he stayed behind rather than follow the emperor to deal with Dou Ying.
• The empress dowager had corpses brought into the hall and confirmed that two of them belonged to the cultivators whose incarnations remained intact.
• The empress dowager asked whether an incarnation’s mind would survive if its original body died while prepared, and Zhang Xuezhou said the question required testing.
• The empress dowager proposed using gifted cultivators who had committed capital crimes, including Dou Ying and Wang Hui, to test the technique with Fortune Pills.
• The empress dowager asked Zhang Xuezhou about Wei Qing and warned him to urge the emperor to reconsider relying on young talent, but Zhang Xuezhou avoided taking sides and redirected her to the research.

Zhang Xuezhou returned from the Palace of Eternal Faith and heard Zhufu Yan recount Dou Ying’s humiliating defeat and the political fallout from his forged imperial edict. As Gongsun Hong anticipated advancement amid the coming court upheaval, Zhang considered his own stalled cultivation and wondered whether the Spirit Wood Staff or an underlying illness had left Dou Ying weakened.

• Zhang Xuezhou gave up on finding a quick way to master the Yang Corporeal Soul Incarnation Technique after discussing it with the empress dowager and others.
• Zhufu Yan told Zhang Xuezhou and Gongsun Hong that Dou Ying had been badly frightened after his defeat, then went to answer the empress dowager’s summons.
• Zhang Xuezhou told Gongsun Hong that the fallout from Dou Ying’s forged imperial edict could create an opening for him to rise in court.
• Zhang Xuezhou tended his pill furnace and reflected that he needed more medicinal ingredients before he could make effective pills.
• Zhang Xuezhou wondered whether Dou Ying’s lingering injuries came from a problem with his body or from the Spirit Wood Staff’s hidden effects.

Zhang Xuezhou’s Yang Corporeal Soul visited the heavily guarded prison where Dou Ying was being held and encountered Laotong. He revealed that the Divine Lord had been stripped of his power and body, leaving Laotong convinced that Kunlun was doomed.

• Zhang Xuezhou learned that Dou Ying had been taken to the Office of the Governor of Jingzhao and found him denouncing Tian Fen and the officials holding him.
• Tian Fen taunted Dou Ying outside the cell, while Shen Chong explained the prison’s defenses and the nine keys needed to open its bronze gates.
• Zhang Xuezhou discovered Laotong in the same dungeon, eating happily despite his injuries, and complained about his past ingratitude.
• Zhang Xuezhou told Laotong that the Divine Lord had lost his cultivation and been forced into another body, then proved his knowledge of Laotong’s past.
• Laotong accepted that the Divine Lord was truly in trouble and despaired that Kunlun was doomed.

Zhang Xuezhou freed Laotong from prison and assessed Dou Ying’s weakened body, while warning him to cooperate with the empress dowager’s test if he wanted to survive. Dou Ying was left wondering whether Tian Fen or the Red Empyrean Sword had damaged him, and his loyalty to Great Han began to falter as he considered fleeing to Xiong State.

• Zhang Xuezhou and Laotong discussed matters in the prison, then Zhang Xuezhou broke the hooks and chains pinning Laotong’s shoulders.
• Laotong changed into a small white-furred mouse and escaped through the cage and the bronze doors’ ventilation holes.
• Zhang Xuezhou examined Dou Ying and concluded that his body had become dangerously fragile, then considered the threat of Dao Lord seeking revenge.
• Dou Ying asked Zhang Xuezhou to free him and offered wealth, pills, and women, but Zhang Xuezhou asked where he planned to go.
• Dou Ying said he could flee to Xiong State, and Zhang Xuezhou warned him to cooperate with the empress dowager’s Technique test before disappearing.
• Dou Ying blamed Tian Fen and considered whether the Red Empyrean Sword had damaged him, while his certainty in his loyalty to Great Han crumbled.

Zhang Xuezhou negotiated with Hongku over a rapid exchange of Fortune Pills for medicinal ingredients, agreeing to supply five hundred pills after three days if the ingredients were verified. Hongku hoped the deal would secure his rise in the Yedie River Holy Land, while Zhang Xuezhou anticipated that Hongku’s new authority could serve his own interests.

• After nourishing the Spirit Wood Staff for three days, Zhang Xuezhou heard Hongku arrive and learned that the Dao Lord had detained him before sending him to Chang'an City with medicinal ingredients.
• Hongku explained that the Northern Kuru Continent’s Alchemists could not operate the Nine Dragons Cauldron effectively and that pill yields had fallen during negotiations.
• Zhang Xuezhou told Hongku that he could arrange ready-made pills and offered five hundred Fortune Pills within three days if Hongku gathered all the ingredients.
• Hongku and Zhang Xuezhou agreed that both sides could reject goods that failed to meet their terms.
• Hongku said he hoped to rise to become the Yedie River Holy Land’s second-ranking figure, and Zhang Xuezhou welcomed the prospect of working together.

Zhang Xuezhou helped the new emperor devise a way to obtain five hundred Fortune Pills by confiscating Guan Fu’s household. They also discussed the threat of Dao Lord and how to delay the investigation into their identities, leaving Tian Fen as the likeliest target.

• Zhang Xuezhou suggested sourcing Fortune Pills from wealthy court officials, and the new emperor agreed to confiscate Guan Fu’s household after its retainers attacked the prison.
• The new emperor tried to persuade Zhang Xuezhou to accept a marquis title, but Zhang refused and said he would not become a marquis.
• The new emperor worried Dao Lord might retaliate after Hongku took the medicinal herbs, while Zhang Xuezhou pointed out Dao Lord first had to uncover their identities.
• The new emperor and Zhang Xuezhou discussed incantation masters investigating them through Tian Fen and Hongku, and agreed that delaying the investigation would help.
• Zhang Xuezhou said his irregular routine and guarded residence made him hard to track, so the new emperor decided to have his uncle keep a low profile and concluded Tian Fen was the likelier opening.

Zhang Xuezhou and Hongku completed a pill-for-ingredient trade in Shanglin Park, with both complaining about the quality of what they received. After Hongku left, Zhang Xuezhou told the new emperor that the ingredients could support an attempt at stronger life-saving pills, and began preparing for another large refining effort.

• Zhang Xuezhou and Hongku exchanged pills and medicinal ingredients while criticizing each other's goods.
• Zhang Xuezhou argued that Hongku's assorted lingzhi did not match the purple lingzhi he wanted, and Hongku stopped pressing for a better deal.
• Hongku packed up the ingredients, mounted his white bone horse, and rode away from Shanglin Park.
• The new emperor asked whether the trade was a loss, and Zhang Xuezhou explained that the potent, mixed ingredients would be profitable but difficult to process.
• Zhang Xuezhou proposed refining a stronger pill formula whose low-grade version had ten times the effects of Tenfold Complete Great Tonic Pills, and the new emperor agreed to let him try while keeping some pills in reserve.
• Zhang Xuezhou began his second round of extravagant pill refining.

Zhang Xuezhou and the new emperor opened Qin Furnace No. 8 after a long pill-refining process, producing a burst of top-grade pills that scattered through Shanglin Park. The furnace’s jade pendant seemed to have drawn the empress dowager’s attention, and the new emperor suspected Liu An’s involvement.

• The new emperor helped Zhang Xuezhou refine pills, while Wei Qing complained that Dongfang Shuo had put him and Wei Zifu to work.
• Zhang Xuezhou endured the poisonous fumes in the Alchemy Chamber to improve his Poison Avoidance Instruction and prepared to open the eighth furnace.
• The new emperor struggled with the furnace drawer, then pulled it open, causing Qin Furnace No. 8 to erupt and launch pills across the area.
• Zhang Xuezhou and the new emperor caught several pills, but many flew away; Zhang Xuezhou then handed the new emperor the jade pendant and said it seemed to be causing trouble.
• The empress dowager’s Fortune Technique appeared to inspect the Alchemy Chamber, and the new emperor grew wary that Liu An might be involved.

The court’s decree drew people across the realm by offering clear routes to titles and office, while adding gross disrespect toward the emperor as grounds for losing a noble title. After Zhang Xuezhou tested a supreme-grade pill and endured its overwhelming effects, the new emperor took one and found it was correcting the harm caused by the Spirit Silk Jade Lotus Root.

• The court’s talent decree spread throughout the realm, attracting countless people to Chang'an City and adding gross disrespect toward the emperor as a punishable offense.
• The new emperor returned from refining pills and told Wei Qing to search for the supreme-grade pills that had flown away.
• Zhang Xuezhou swallowed a supreme-grade pill, became intensely hot and thirsty, and drank from a vat while using the Nine Revolutions Qi Uniting Technique.
• The new emperor took a pill himself and drank water as its heat and surging power filled his body.
• The new emperor realized that the pill was replenishing his Qi and Blood and reducing the harmful side effects of his Spirit Silk Jade Lotus Root condition.

After refining an exceptionally potent imitation Life-Creating Fortune Pill, Zhang Xuezhou and the new emperor considered whether it could cure injuries from the Dao Lord’s Flying Dagger Technique. The new emperor left for Chang'an City with the dragon-and-phoenix jade pendant, while Zhang Xuezhou stayed to continue refining pills.

• The new emperor and Zhang Xuezhou recovered from the pill’s effects and discussed whether it could heal the empress dowager and Tian Fen.
• Zhang Xuezhou explained that the pill had helped him reach the eighth revolution of the Nine Revolutions Qi Uniting Technique, but he could not tell whether it would cure Flying Dagger Technique injuries.
• The new emperor decided the empress dowager might try a pill, though both men worried her health might not withstand its powerful effects.
• The new emperor told Zhang Xuezhou to continue refining pills, handed back the dragon-and-phoenix jade pendant, and warned him not to wear it before leaving for Chang'an City.
• Wei Qing returned the recovered pills and reported that only sixty-seven had been found; Zhang Xuezhou identified the black lingzhi as the key ingredient and prepared to practice refining other pills.

After learning that Han Yan had been executed as an Immortal Court spy, Zhang Xuezhou suspected Fortune Techniques had exposed him and grew wary of returning to Chang'an. The new emperor, prompted by Han Yan’s last question, decided that the ban on ministers practicing Fortune Techniques should be abolished and considered Zhang Xuezhou as an example.

• Zhang Xuezhou learned from Attendant Guo that Han Yan had been identified as an Immortal Court spy and executed after the King of Jiangdu reported suspicious behavior to the empress dowager.
• Zhang Xuezhou suspected that the King of Jiangdu had used the Fortune Eye to expose Han Yan, and he worried that his own Fortune Body could leave him vulnerable.
• Zhang Xuezhou left the pill-refining work to clear his head, while exhausted Wei Qing and the others stayed behind.
• The new emperor hurried to Shanglin Park and asked whether Dongfang Shuo was alive, then learned that he had gone out for a walk.
• The new emperor recalled Han Yan’s final question about the ban on Fortune Techniques and decided he could abolish the rule, with Zhang Xuezhou among the examples he wanted to establish.