Across Mountains and Rivers: Reborn in Ancient Times to Slay Corrupt Officials

For ten years, lanterns glow through the misty rain over the Mei River, while the changing tides of a chaotic age play out like a game of chess. Once a pampered young lord, now he wields a sword that deals death. Qiao Ziqin, the legitimate grandson of the Qiao clan of Yangzhou, was once a wastrel who lounged in brothels and tossed out gold to buy a smile. Only when he saw starving refugees' bones choking the rivers did he understand: the wine in the mansions of the rich stank of the blood of the starving. His grandfather taught him the blade of the human heart. On its edge was carved, “Use mercy as bait”; along its back lay hidden, “Weave a web of murder.” The martial world stirs. The True Heaven Sect rallies a hundred thousand refugees in the name of the divine, burns government granaries, and tears provinces apart. The court is a maze of intrigue. Eunuchs and corrupt officials bleed the people dry; tax silver becomes bones, and infants' cries become counting beads. Qiao Ziqin strides through blood as fire ships consume the night on the Mei River and iron chains stretch across Eagle's Beak Bay. Yet he sees a Yue maiden's sword raise the moon over China, a tattooed man swallow Guanyin clay, and fresh graves rise where the loyal dead lie buried. In this game of chess, black stones pressing down on the city are the people's tears; white stones breaking through the formation are generals' tombs. He asks the young man: Can all the smoke of war across the land be burned away in exchange for a bowl of porridge without sand? Can the power of a thousand years be severed, leaving even half an inch of blade uncorroded? The land is easy to tread, but the ways of the world are hard to change.