An Ant Seeks the Dao, Its Name Illuminating the Annals of History

In the chaotic final years of the Tang dynasty, the realm lies in ruins, divided among ten rival states. Qi Feng, a young man from Shu, loses both parents in a tragedy at Qingshi Village. He and his closest friend Liu Yan are rescued by the reclusive Taoist Zhen Yizi. After ten years of hardship, the two swordsmen descend from the mountains.

Qi Feng foils the Chu army's scheme to disguise its troops as bandits. With the support of the Yang clan of Bozhou, he gains the Five Prefectures Salt Trade Writ, which controls the lifeline of the salt routes, and gathers a band of passionate young men to form a rebel army. To raise funds, provisions, and weapons, he and six sworn brothers travel the land, establishing the “No Trace” spy network and forging bonds of life and death with young up-and-comers such as Chai Rong and Zhao Kuangyin.

The jianghu has no right or wrong, only the way of survival. Huang Mingyuan, master of the hidden Huamie Sect and a descendant of Huang Chao, seeks to revive his ancestor's ambitions through the Four Directions Edicts. He stirs up bloody strife in the jianghu, fans the flames of war among the states, and schemes to claim the throne. In his pursuit of the Five Prefectures Salt Trade Writ, he clashes with Qi Feng in repeated battles to the death.

On the eve of the Chenqiao Mutiny, Qi Feng places the rebel army's command tally inside the casket holding the Strategies for Pacifying the People and entrusts it to Zhao Kuangyin, who is about to be cloaked in the imperial yellow. On a snowy night at Wangyou Workshop, Qi Feng reforges the meteoric iron Dao-Seeking Sword into a plowshare, then returns alone to his hometown of Qingshi. In Kaifeng's imperial palace, Zhao Kuangyin traces the star patterns on the Dragon's Fat Sword and abolishes the state monopolies on salt and iron. The jianghu becomes a legend at last.

This saga of a war-torn age, woven from feuds and passions, tells of meteoric iron connecting three hidden currents: ore veins, salt routes, and weapons. The fervor of young people caught in the chaos becomes an oath of peace: “Better to till the soil in peaceful times than wield a blade in a world at war.”