Cold Chess

In the Great Jing Dynasty, the Yong'an clan is so wealthy it commands half the realm's riches. Yet Shen Yan, its legitimate heir, is the laughingstock of the capital, dismissed by everyone as a useless playboy. With damaged meridians and no hope of practicing martial arts, he spends his days gambling on cockfights, walking his dogs, and squandering his wealth, making himself a joke throughout the city.

Everyone knows that somewhere in the martial world stands the Cold Chess Pavilion, whose agents wreak havoc across the land and hold life and death in their hands. Its master, Xiao Jinghan, is a peerless martial arts genius without equal.

But no one knows that the true founder of the Cold Chess Pavilion is none other than Shen Yan, the legitimate heir of the Shen family whom everyone looks down on.

He uses his playboy persona as a disguise, laying his chessboard in the shadows as he maneuvers among the imperial family, powerful clans, and sects. With disaster threatening the northern frontier, undercurrents surging through the court, and storms poised to engulf the Nine Provinces, this player hidden in the dust is finally about to make the most astonishing move of all.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.