The red star Yinghuo blazes overhead, and the Purple Tenuity Emperor Star falls. Emperor Chengping of the Dayin Empire dies suddenly beneath this ill omen. The Nine Tripods barrier, a symbol of the nation’s fortune, wails in grief, and Chang’an, the heart of the empire, plunges into a power vacuum.
Beside a dry well in the Cold Palace, Fourth Prince Zhao Qi bears the blood debt of his mother’s death. He uses his own blood to inscribe ancient tortoiseshell runes, accidentally summoning a heroic spirit from another world: Huo Qubing, the Grand Marshal of the Han dynasty. The God of War arrives, bringing unparalleled martial prowess and a keen eye for the chaos unfolding around him. Zhao Qi has only one goal: to uncover the true culprit who pushed his mother into the well.
But atop the Altar of State, in the empire’s darkest hour, the forgotten eunuch Li Yin crushes a corner of the Imperial Seal. An eerie, blasphemous blue flame rises, summoning another heroic spirit from a different world: Jia Xu, the “Poisoned Scholar,” a master strategist who can read human nature and leave nothing to chance. Li Yin, the conspirator codenamed “Yinghuo,” who has lain in wait for decades, declares his ultimate goal to Jia Xu: use the emperor’s death and the Nine Tripods’ lament as an opportunity to overturn the Dayin Empire’s game board and remake the entire world!
With the late emperor dead, the Crown Prince, the Second Prince, the Third Prince, and other factions bare their fangs in the currents beneath the surface, setting off a bloody struggle for the throne. More deadly still, the cracks in the Nine Tripods barrier and the ambitions of power-hungry schemers draw in more historical heroes from different eras. Famous generals, brilliant advisors, ambitious warlords, legendary beauties... They arrive bearing their own glory and obsessions. Their extraordinary treasures shine with the light of other worlds, while their astonishing schemes shake the dynasty to its foundations.
