The Shentu clan had served as pillars of the Later Liang court for three generations. In the third year of Qianhua (913), the entire clan was exterminated over the "forged Imperial Seal" case. Shentu Jin was smuggled out by his wet nurse, who substituted a "death-double puppet" in his place. While fleeing, he encountered a pack of wolves on the Khitan border and awakened the family heirloom hidden weapon, the "Ink Lotus Ember." Using blood as its catalyst, it can transform into thirty-six poison-coated silver needles, each engraved on the end with the Shentu family crest. Now hiding in the Listening Snow Pavilion teahouse in Bianliang, he befriends scholars from across the land under the guise of a frail scholar, while secretly directing spies from the Cold Ink Platform to infiltrate the Privy Councils of five kingdoms.
