[Betrayal + Revenge + The Martial World + Martial Arts + Factions + System + Ensemble Cast!]
He was once the hand moving the pieces from beyond the board, and also an abandoned pawn discarded without mercy by an emperor.
In the chaotic age of the Great Li, the "good-for-nothing" scholar Xu Xuan used the schemes he had mastered in his previous life to support a weak prince and help him claim the throne.
He stabilized the court and laid plans for the realm, but the emperor grew increasingly suspicious of him...
Until one day...
"Xu Xuan, guilty minister, has formed a clique for personal gain and thrown the court into chaos, with suspicions of treason. Your marriage is hereby annulled, and you are immediately stripped of your status and thrown into the Celestial Prison!"
The emperor's merciless sentence rang out in the great hall.
Xu Xuan was shackled in cold irons and thrown without mercy into the Celestial Prison.
Just as Xu Xuan was about to meet his death in despair, the System arrived!
Before long...
A mysterious sect arose in the martial world. Golden armor half concealed a fiendish visage, and a single sword startled dragons and shattered the nine heavens.
Many years later.
The palace halls collapsed. Clad in black and stained with blood, he strode across the jade steps and shattered bones, then swept his sword through the head of an emperor.
The man slowly removed half of his golden mask...
The grandmasters of Great Li trembled, then prostrated themselves on the ground. "We pay our respects to the greatest grandmaster under heaven!"
The writing is good and the overall story is very readable.