Longing for You: The Vermilion Fate

I gave you a tenderness that was like drinking poison to quench your thirst. You repaid me with a truth that cut to the bone.

Shen Zhao, the last survivor of the former dynasty, hides in a brothel to investigate the massacre of her family. One song on the zither sets the martial world in turmoil. The vermilion mole at the corner of her eye marks her as a target on the Blood Robe Tower’s kill list, while also concealing the birthmark of the Qilin Seal. When she discovers Xiao Heng, heir to the Prince of Zhenbei, has a second identity, the theft of a bottle of deadly poison traps them both in a desperate predicament. He needs to drink the poison she concocts to suppress his soul-leaving affliction; she needs to use his secret intelligence network, the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion, to unravel the mystery of the Imperial Seal. A witch doctor from the Southern Border enters the game with his gu arts, while the Blood Robe Tower’s First Seat disguises himself to stoke conflict. And a mistaken kiss on the banks of the Qinhuai River has already sown the seeds of disaster. On the day the treasures of three dynasties come to light, the White Deer Academy, arbiter of the martial world, collapses with a roar, and the flames of revenge from the Baiyue remnants consume all twelve branches. When Xiao Heng, his memories in disarray, drives his blade toward Shen Zhao’s heart, the silver-bell gu worms of Xie Wuju devour their way to a bloody imperial edict from the mausoleum, written twenty years ago...