The Blood Edict of Chang'an

Synopsis of the epic tragic romance Chang'an's Blood Edict

Winter of the seventh year of the Tianyou reign. The first snow falls on Chang'an.

Shen Zhaoning, the chancellor's daughter, is forced to don her bridal crown and robes. But on the eve of her wedding, she receives a letter written in blood: her childhood sweetheart, Xie Chengyan, has had his eyes gouged out and legs broken, and is imprisoned deep within the Imperial Prison. Clutching her marriage contract, she storms into the torture chamber, only to discover that the farewell letter soaked in blood and tears conceals a shocking secret capable of overturning the court.

Three years later, a plume of smoke rises over the desert.

Attacked on her way to a political marriage, Shen Zhaoning falls from a cliff and loses her memory. When she wakes, she has become the most mysterious shaman-healer in the Xiongnu khan's tent. She can cure every poison but cannot heal the old wound in her heart, until one day the fearsome Wolf Lord removes his bronze mask, revealing a vicious scar beneath his left eye. It is in the exact spot where he took a fatal blow for her in the torture chamber all those years ago.

The day Chang'an falls, Shen Zhaoning climbs the Vermilion Bird Gate with the late emperor's orphan in her arms.

Below the city walls, Xie Chengyan rides a western-region Ferghana horse, the mandarin-duck sachet she embroidered for him hanging at his waist. Behind him stands an army of a hundred thousand fierce warriors, while a half-branch of long-withered red plum rests at his chest. Zhaozhao, I have paved the way to the peace you wanted with a million bones.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.