During the reign of Emperor Ningzong of the Southern Song, the imperial court clung to its territories south of the Yangtze, the Jin watched hungrily, and the Mongol cavalry began to show its strength. Rumors spread through the martial world that a fragmentary map from the long-lost Essentials of Military Arts, missing for a hundred years, had resurfaced. It supposedly concealed a secret that could change the course of the world: perhaps peerless martial arts, a legendary weapon, or military formations capable of toppling an empire.
Lu Tianyuan, a renowned hero of the southern lands, is accidentally drawn into the struggle over the map. He adopts Cheng Ruhui, the orphaned child of his close friend, and raises him alongside his own son, Lu Jiansheng. Fifteen years later, the Bloodhand Alliance launches a surprise attack on Guiyun Manor, and Lu Tianyuan fights to the death. With his last breath, he entrusts half of the map to his two sons and leaves them a riddle: “Before the Tower of Mist and Rain, the wonders of creation.”
Lu Jiansheng is hot-tempered and exceptionally skilled with the sword, and vows to avenge his father. Cheng Ruhui is meticulous and adept at mechanisms, yet his origins are a mystery. The two set out into the martial world, only to discover that the map is tied not only to the feuds of the martial world, but also to a tangled web of espionage spanning the Song, Jin, and Mongol empires...
In the lofty halls of the imperial court and the far reaches of the martial world, who moves the pieces, and who is merely a pawn?
