The world is divided among five kingdoms: Donglan, Xiyue, Nanyan, Beixiao, and Zhongxuan.
Every dynasty has a history of its own. A casual line in the history books may have been a tragedy in its time. Now that we have the benefit of hindsight, can we truly put ourselves in the shoes of those who lived through it?
The protagonist, Song Xingren, is a boy from a remote borderland. After losing both his parents at a young age, he joins a local gang in the county seat, only to be used as a pawn and tossed aside in a mass grave. By a twist of fate, he later joins a border army. After surviving battle after battle, he realizes that this world is filthy beyond measure. When those in power make a single move, countless commoners are left wailing. Eventually, he faces the maelstrom head-on, using himself as bait to enter the capital, the very heart of the struggle for power.
Can he escape the chessboard? Can he overturn it?
[Each volume focuses on one country and one protagonist, recounting the histories of all five kingdoms and the protagonists' personal journeys.]
