Shaken by Qin Zheng's threatening dream-link and the haunting memories he shared, Zetian struggles to separate dream from reality. She resolves she must become irreplaceable to him by enabling a strike on the Heavenly Court before he decides to execute her. Yizhi leaves a note arranging to meet, and when they reunite in the tunnels, he updates her on his consolidation of power: as Imperial Secretary with influence over the new Gewei Bu (Revolutionary Defense Department), he tracked down the recipient of Shimin's harvested kidney and, in one night, arrested and executed the Brotherhood's remaining leaders, including his eldest brother, seizing control of the syndicate to repurpose it as a spy network.

The next morning, Yizhi disguises himself as Wan'er to accompany Zetian and Qieluo to find the kidney recipient, while Wan'er stays behind to decipher Qin Zheng's book. Riding through Chang'an, Zetian observes the transformation of the city: fled aristocrats' estates have become community shelters, checkpoints prevent escape, and rallies of yellow-sashed laborers parade arrested elites in "Empress Marches" inspired by her own past actions.

Zetian briefly halts the carriage upon seeing an old woman, Ye Xingzhen, being marched, but Yizhi reveals she embezzled four hundred million yuán and ran a brothel that trafficked countryside girls. Seeing the women victims marching with signs depicting Zetian and Qin Zheng as joint icons, Zetian lets the march continue.

At the recipient's xiǎoqū, Yizhi intimidates the guard into silence. They wait near a community outreach gathering led by an elected female Revolutionary Vanguard. Yizhi briefs Zetian on Tang Anding, a fifty-nine-year-old former textiles businesswoman whose family bought her Shimin's kidney without knowing its origin. When Tang appears walking her dog, joyful and alive, Zetian activates her spirit sense and detects a second ember within Tang's soul—a surviving fragment of Shimin's spirit.

Overcome with grief, Zetian weeps but refuses to confront Tang, wanting to return repeatedly to feel Shimin's presence. Secretly, she plans to use these visits to extend her spirit sense's range until she can locate and bring down the gods themselves.