At the victory banquet, Shen Hansu, the Great Liang general guarding the north, drinks the poisoned wine bestowed by the emperor. As he teeters on the brink of death, he uncovers the truth behind his elder brother’s “treason” three years earlier: the great fire at the Wei River, which caused thirty-six cities in the northern frontier to fall, was a deadly plot by the royal family to conceal a bloodline defect. When a blood-written letter from his dying father appears in the crack of the tiger tally, Shen is forced to flee as the “rebel leader.” But in an enemy military camp, he reunites with his half-sister Shen Qiwu, who was supposed to have perished in the fire. The moment the broken, gold-inlaid tiger tallies in their hands fit together, they activate the “dragon-vein earth energy,” powerful enough to overthrow the dynasty.
