Crosswise Blade

Once upon a time, there was a sect called the Formless Zen Fighters. Its leader was Xu Ji, Xu Ji had a disciple named Hu Li, and Hu Li had a blade. It had no name and had never taken a life, though it had seen plenty of blood, if killing chickens and ducks counts. One day, this tiny sect of four was suddenly, foolishly and clumsily swept into a conspiracy that had been festering for sixteen years. The martial world, the imperial court, a sect wiped out, old dreams: the past was a tangled mystery, unraveled one thread at a time. No one in the martial world knew it that year, but many years later, Hu Li would still be holding a battered blade. “My blade’s edge is the martial world: I wield it with sweeping force as storms rise and clouds gather. My hilt is my heart. How can anyone whose heart is not upright shoulder the burden of the martial world?”