[Ensemble cast + slow burn + no System + family + high martial arts + morally gray (no saintly protagonists)]
Song An transmigrates into a calabash vine. Three little boys become sworn brothers before him, pledging to be brothers despite having different parents.
Years later, the calabash vine bears three seeds.
One seed grants rebirth, one grants spiritual awareness, and one grants great strength.
The three boys obtain the seeds and seize the blessings of Heaven and Earth. They worship Song An as their household god and embark on a thrilling life in the underworld.
They beat up thugs, seize territory, make connections with the authorities, smuggle salt, rally heroes, and kill county magistrates...
Under the calabash vine’s protection, the three brothers rise from humble beginnings in the backstreets, founding the Eastern Gang. Starting with a little sailboat and just the three of them, they charge forward at full speed...
Generation after generation, the Eastern Gang’s leaders pass the torch, building their legacy through hardship. Generation after generation, the brothers of the Eastern Gang put loyalty first and charge fearlessly into battle.
The Grand Historian said: “Long ago, there was the Eastern Gang, numbering more than a million. Its infamy was so great that babies stopped crying at its name, and women and children trembled when they heard it. It secretly held the pulse of the imperial court and in truth controlled the machinery of life and death. Its threat rivaled that of the eunuchs and corrupt officials of old, and the chaos wrought by powerful ministers.
“Yet when the barbarian armies marched south and the Central Plains were laid waste, when the Nine Provinces were engulfed in war, the emperor fled, the noble clans withdrew, and the officials threw in their lot with the enemy. Only the Eastern Gang advanced. Its brothers defended the frontier to the death with nothing but a blade and a cudgel, giving their lives to save the common people. Thus the Grand Historian sighed: ‘Though the Eastern Gang began as an organization, it became a family of its own. Let the Night Grand Marshal be the first among the families of this age.’”
