Two men with far-reaching influence have been playing a game of chess for years, hoping to settle the victor. A Sword God hasn't drawn his sword in over a decade, living under an assumed name for the sake of a promise. Then there's a young man who, in the twenty-sixth year of Tiancheng, leaves Liaodong for the capital while war rages across Liaodong. He transforms from a chess piece into a player, changing the course of the world for centuries to come.
A poem says: Heaven lays out the board, humanity serves as the pieces. Through countless lives and deaths, none can escape the game. The earth is a bed, the wind a robe. The world is the board, and once a piece is played, there is no taking it back.
This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.
