Magnificent Beard

Joe Anderson

15 Mar 2026 — 1 min read

Chapters 24-26

In this section, the three Peach Garden Oath brothers are separated and we mostly follow Lord Guan. We see him conditionally decide to work with Cao Cao while looking for Liu Bei and Zhang Fei.

Cao Cao tries to win over Lord Guan with all sorts of gifts. One of my favorites was a “gorgeous silk sack to protect Lord Guan’s beard,” which was so outstanding that the Emperor dubbed Lord Guan “the Man of the Magnificent Beard.” (p. 421) Lord Guan’s favorite gift from Cao Cao is more practical: the legendary horse Red Hare, which once belonged to Lu Bu. When Cao Cao asks why Lord Guan likes it so much, he replies that it’s because if he ever finds Liu Bei alive again, he’ll be able to return to him that much faster.

It’s nice to see Lord Guan separate from the other brothers; he has had the least characterization of the three so far. Now he finally feels like his own character.

Death by Indignation

Chapters 31-33 The plot takes us farther north than we’ve been before, into the desert. We meet a “khan.” And we finally get the “Desert Sandstorm” Magic card (p. 607). The desert is dangerous; Cao Cao only survives his visit through luck. When he returns from it, he rewards

Enter el-Hajjaj

Nights 228-246 (Although I had originally scheduled only through night 245 this week, night 246 was only 2 pages and resolved the story from nights 237-245). The two stories this week aren’t the best stories of lovers, but they are fast-paced. The first story is better. In it, al-Amjad,

Millennium: Purification and Guidance

Chapters 29-30 Sun Ce has a memorable death. A poison arrow ultimately killed him. He could have recovered, but he insisted on burning a holy man to death. The holy man haunted him, greatly distressing Sun Ce and exacerbating the poison until he finally died. His legacy passes to Sun

Peak Misogyny

Nights 210-227 Wow, this story really fell apart. It had been one of my favorites, but it took a very bad turn in this week’s reading. We left Princess Budur, dressed as a man, betrothed to Princess Hayat. Through some twists and turns (and some homophobia), the problem is

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Death by Indignation

Enter el-Hajjaj

Millennium: Purification and Guidance

Peak Misogyny