Ferry Across the Mortal World

Synopsis of the traditional wuxia novel Red Dust Ferry: At the end of the Ming dynasty, Li Guangyu, a righteous man who resisted the Qing, not only gave his life for his country but also saw his hometown razed by marauding bandits. Before dying, he entrusted his orphan, Li Hongguang, to Lin Feng, the Heavenly Demon, who raised the boy to adulthood. Faced with the nation's humiliation and his family's tragedy, Li Hongguang vows to take revenge. He sets out to find and wipe out the bandits who escaped the purge years ago. Wu Jinqiu, the adopted son of the Great General of the Southern Campaigns, Prince Gushan, is a Han bannerman. He brings a group of highly skilled men to southern Hunan to search for the whereabouts of the Twenty-Eight Constellations, former subordinates of Li Zicheng. He seeks the treasures Li Zicheng carried away when he set fire to the capital and withdrew to Xi'an. The treasures included all the gold and jewels in the capital, with more than a hundred carts' worth stored in the imperial treasury alone. Wu Jinqiu hopes to claim them and use the wealth to dominate the martial world. Besides Wu Jinqiu, the Qing court's public representative of Han collaboration, the Soul-Seizing Young Master is another hidden force. For years, the Soul-Seizing Young Master has secretly gathered followers, acting as a lackey for Prince Longyu of Henan and Shanxi. He spies on anti-Qing organizations in exchange for generous rewards and stops at nothing to amass wealth for himself. Meanwhile, Ji Shuibao, a former subordinate of the rebel king, joins forces with Ouyang Wenzong, once a vice minister of war and now known as Bai Liguang, and Lingxiaoke Guan Chongyue, who goes by Guan Yigu, to establish the Sun and Moon Alliance in Xinyang. Together they form a rebel army, hoping to rise again and drive out the Tartars. Caught between these factions, Li Hongguang ultimately decides to set Wu Jinqiu and the Soul-Seizing Young Master against each other...