In the final years of the Great Zhao dynasty, the realm is divided among warlords and chaos engulfs the land. Then the Crown Prince is born amid auspicious omens, carrying the hopes of all the people. Yet it proves no more than an illusion: the dynasty falls and his family is destroyed in a single night. Fortune smiles on him, and he narrowly escapes death.
See how the young lord of a fallen kingdom endures hardship and changes his fate, gathering worthy allies, foiling his enemies' schemes, restoring the realm, and witnessing every side of the human condition.
Within these pages are plots laid with meticulous care and desires left unfulfilled, as well as partings in life and death, and questions of merit and blame. Power and fame, love and hatred: that is the human world. The boy's journey to adulthood unfolds here.
