The Great Yu's Black-Clad Guards: Masters of Killing Martial Artists

[Swordsmanship + martial arts; the writing style leans toward works like Sword Comes, That Year, the Cicadas and That Sword, The Blade Speaks Not, and The Most Satisfied Man in the World. No System. Readers who prefer System-driven power fantasies should stay away.]

The novel was originally titled: Tilting the Heavens: The Hidden Sword in the Imperial Court

There are eighteen levels of martial arts in the world: twelve levels of Ascending the Tower, five of Building the City, and one final realm known as White Jade Capital.

Beneath White Jade Capital stand twelve towers and five cities. Great Adepts can tap a finger and shatter mountains; banished Sword Immortals can cross the sea on their blue blades; martial artists can suppress nations with their fists...

He was a farm boy in the morning, and by evening he had entered the emperor's court.

Gu Chaoci, commander of the Black-Clad Guard and the Sword Court's Great Spiritual Officer of the Capital of Heaven, known as “Immortal by the River,” challenges the martial world to a duel. He leaves the entire world of martial arts strewn with severed heads.

After that, not a single person in the martial world dares call this Commander an “imperial lapdog.”