In the final years of the Tianqi reign, undercurrents stir across the thirteen provinces of Jiuyuan.
Xiao Jin, the illegitimate son of a fallen marquis's household, is drawn into a century-spanning game of power by a damaged jade pendant of Zhurong. A bronze cauldron at the bottom of the river conceals the secret behind the rise and fall of dynasties; an ancient clan's legacy lies dormant in fire-resistant cloth; and in the sound of a lame old servant sweeping snow is hidden the blood oath of the three thousand ghosts of the Northern Garrison Army.
