Chu Zhao died beneath the sword of the emperor he had personally helped to power.
As the Great Yong dynasty’s foremost strategist, he had fathomed the hearts of everyone under heaven, yet failed to foresee the betrayal of the person at his side. On the night the new emperor ascended the throne, his eyes were gouged out and he was trapped atop the Star-Plucking Tower, soaked in lamp oil, listening as the rebel forces slaughtered every one of his students and old friends. Amid the flames soaring into the sky, he clenched a blood-red jade in his palm. It was the token of a wager that Xiao Hanzhou, the enemy kingdom’s God of War, had thrown to him after losing a battle in the snowy northern frontier three years earlier.
When he opened his eyes again, he had returned to the day he first arrived in the imperial capital, six years earlier.
He had yet to don his court robes, but the schemes were already in motion. On the throne room floor, the ministers watched him like hungry wolves. The Qiulubai poison he had used to kill the crown prince in his previous life was hidden in his sleeve. Outside the hall, Xiao Hanzhou, whom he should not have faced until three years later, was now disguised as an attendant to a hostage prince. The Ice-Soul Stone set in his sword hilt pulsed with heat in unison with the blood jade in Chu Zhao’s arms. It turned out this chance at rebirth had been triggered by a rift in time and space, created by the enemy kingdom’s secret art, “Reincarnation Summons.”
Two people reborn + identities exposed + evenly matched rivals
When the mastermind becomes the one who breaks the deadlock:
The prince whose legs he had crippled in his past life was secretly gathering evidence that he was “colluding with the enemy.”
The crown prince of the Eastern Palace, who should have died of illness long ago, coughed up black blood containing a parasitic worm right before his eyes.
Xiao Hanzhou pressed the tip of his blade to Chu Zhao’s throat. “The hand hiding poison in your sleeve is just as cold as the one that saved me on the snowy plains all those years ago.”
At that moment, a third crack appeared in the blood jade.
Chu Zhao gazed at the star chart and smiled faintly. This game would require him to defy fate and save the people, all while watching out for the Wolf King’s blade at his back, ready to stab him at any moment. It was certainly more interesting than his previous life.
As the Great Yong dynasty’s foremost strategist, he had fathomed the hearts of everyone under heaven, yet failed to foresee the betrayal of the person at his side. On the night the new emperor ascended the throne, his eyes were gouged out and he was trapped atop the Star-Plucking Tower, soaked in lamp oil, listening as the rebel forces slaughtered every one of his
Very profound. Support the author. I like the author's writing style, bold and mysterious