Rin, Kitay, Venka, and Cholong strategize about an offensive. Rin wants to occupy Arlong with a two-pronged attack: one led through the north by Venka and Cholong, and another in the southeast led by Rin, with new shamans she trains. Everyone is wary, but after the events on Tianshan, they reluctantly agree.

Kitay tells Rin that her people think the Trifecta sacrificed themselves. For Jiang’s sake, Rin lets them believe this. That night, Rin meets with Chaghan. He did research into the House of Yin and found out about the dragon in the grotto, who encountered the true Dragon’s magic and became a manifestation of the ocean. It seeks to possess and own Nezha. Nezha’s power and healing ability is anchored to that physical location.

Many people volunteer to be trained as shamans. Rin gives them a test of pain and only accepts those who do not cry out. She warns the remaining four about the “gamble with [their] sanity” they’ll endure (410). They are all resolved. Among them are Dulin and Pipaji. They’re joined by Lianhua, a scarred girl from Dog Province, and Merchi, a soldier slightly older than Rin. After several fruitless days, she realizes she doesn’t know how to coach them.

Kitay shows Rin a dirigible he’s recreating successfully, even though he doesn’t know everything about its technology. This gives Rin the idea to recreate the circumstance that led to her first encounter with the Pantheon. She asks her recruits about the worst thing that happened to them, eliciting their pain before giving them poppy seeds. Pipaji is the first to succeed at channeling a god, accidentally killing Merchi in the process.

Pipaji tells Rin about the memory she channeled, and Rin urges her to hold onto her pain, as it will keep her human. Lianhua’s ability is to heal. Dulin channels the Great Tortoise and opens sinkholes. Rin takes them far away from Cholang’s camp to test their limits. Lianhua can quickly heal any non-life-threatening injury. Pipaji can send her poison through dirt and water. Dulin can produce earthquakes.

They march on the prosperous city of Jinzhou. Dulin creates a sinkhole under a wall, allowing a path for the army to enter the city. Rin unleashes fire, and they win quickly. Dulin loses control, and Rin forces him to eat opium nuggets.

Rin’s troops pillage Jinzhou for food and goods, especially brown uniforms for her army. As Rin sits on the magistrate’s throne, she contemplates the ends she’d go to for power, authority, and rulership.

Rin’s army advances, seeing signs Nezha deserted his occupied territories and retreated to Arlong. Rin trades pillaged riches to the pirate queen Moag for munitions. Moag warns her about the expenses she’ll have when she rules the empire. She indicates that Rin will need Moag to smuggle in Hesperian grain to make up for famine, and Rin can sell goods to Hesperian buyers through her.

As Rin moves southeast, the populace has no allegiance to Nezha, so they provide her with intel. She learns that he’s dealing with coups and unrest. Rin believes she’s fated to lead the empire. Kitay suspects that Nezha might have a secret weapon at Arlong. They appropriate Hesperian technology, including a box of unused arquebuses.

They receive a missive from Venka telling them to go to an outpost near Xuzhou rather than Arlong. Nezha wants to meet them in battle in a narrow channel surrounded by cliffs, where her fire will have limited capabilities. Rin knows Nezha is less powerful away from Arlong, so she agrees.

They arrive at Xuzhou, a city of tombs built by the Red Emperor. Rin recognizes the sculpture of the Red Emperor’s wife as Mai’rinnen Tearza, the Speerly queen. She realizes that the Red Emperor wrote her out of history so no one would remember her.

When Nezha’s army arrives, Rin sends out “turtles,” armor-covered mechanical carts to draw enemy fire. Dulin gets close enough to set off earthquakes that disrupt Nezha’s army, then retreats. Rin gets in the last turtle and moves to the frontlines, while Venka’s archers on the cliff above draw a large tarp across the battlefield, blocking Nezha’s rain. Rin decimates the front lines, but Nezha is in the rain out of range of the tarp. He halts all projectiles in a shield of water. Rin unleashes all her power on him, but the Phoenix is overpowered by the Dragon. Nezha retreats, and Rin realizes it was a trick to get her to reveal her army’s assets.

Rin reckons with the fact her fire won’t be able to beat Nezha’s water. Rin and Kitay decide their only option is to go to the grotto in Arlong and kill the dragon. They split their forces into seven parts, so Nezha won’t be able to anticipate where Rin is crossing into the province. Kitay’s repaired dirigible flies him, Rin, Dulin, and Pipaji over the river. The dirigible crashes when Republican forces fire at it, but they all survive, and Rin burns their opposition.