Doctor Hua discontinues Zetian's anti-microbial shots, which had wreaked havoc on her body. Sima Yi reports that a once-in-a-generation super-typhoon is bearing down on the Han frontier, where reactionary activity is strongest. Despite still recovering from her surgery and recent collapse, Zetian decides she must return to battle to set an example for the newly conscripted girls. Qin Zheng questions whether she feels well enough, surprising her with what seems like genuine concern, though she interprets it as doubt in her abilities and brushes him off.

Arriving at the Han frontier with Qieluo, Zetian visits a training camp cafeteria where pilots, soldiers, and workers in revolutionary yellow sashes salute her with chants wishing her long life. She joins the Iron Widow table to meet the new female conscripts, most of whom come from cities because rural testing is sparse. Wan'er has explained the worsening countryside situation: landlords and elites wage guerilla insurgency, burning harvests, killing tenants, and spreading misinformation that drives peasants toward Zhuge Liang and the reactionaries.

Zetian confirms the girls are receiving both strategist and dream training, which has spread across frontiers since she and Qieluo reintroduced it. She plans to teach Qieluo the new techniques learned from Qin Zheng so they can be passed down. Liang Yuhuan, the highest-pressure pilot from the Chang'an seven, has already manifested her own Chrysalis, the Plum Blossom Deer. Watching the girls laugh about their new privileges, Zetian is overcome with dread imagining them dying in battle and abruptly leaves the table.

As she exits, Liu Che, the boy who once tried to kill her, throws himself to his knees in his Azure Dragon armor and performs an exaggerated, hollow-sounding apology, vowing to serve as her cattle or horse in his next life. Disturbed by the public spectacle and reminded of his earlier violence, Zetian curtly dismisses him and leaves, suspecting someone forced the apology and finding it the opposite of comforting.