Mad Ballad Beneath the Cloud Cauldron

The day the barbarian cavalry stormed the imperial city of Longqiu, Cao Yun wanted nothing more than to follow his grandmaster into battle as a lowly soldier, fighting with all his might to defend humanity. That was all.

But when the assassins of the Featherfolk shroud the sky with their black wings, when the prophecy of the dwarf demon king's ghost tide begins to come true, and when the thousand-year curse of the Rakshasa slowly lifts its veil, a legendary catastrophe across the Yunding Continent finally begins to unfold.

His grandmaster is dead, his father the king has betrayed his country, and Longqiu has fallen. Where does this path of fate ultimately lead...?

If the end of martial arts is a domain of martial intent: spear, sword, obsession, madness.

If the end of qi arts is the myriad powers of the gods: ice, fire, life, death.

Then what lies at the end of this mortal world?

Is it a tale of romance and beauty?

The wind rises and dies down: an apocalyptic calamity from the Yunding Continent.

Flowers bloom and fade: a hazy, dreamlike tale of love and hatred, passion and pain.

Snow falls across the sky, like the hem of your fluttering skirt.

Moonlight flows like water, like the war song of your years.

(Ensemble cast, no transmigration, no System, no immortal cultivation. An Eastern fantasy in an imaginary world. The blurb does it no justice, so please read the story.)