- In the final years of the Xin Dynasty, corruption runs rampant, and the venomous Empress Dowager Xiao Fengzhi rules from behind the curtain.
- Yan Ge, a boy from a frontier garrison, and Yun Xiu, an orphan girl from a Daoist temple, each learn martial arts to survive.
- On the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month, beneath the walls of the capital, Yange clashes with vicious soldiers while trying to save a child. Yun Xiu sees it from the battlements, where she is practicing her sword.
- Yun Xiu secretly comes to Yan Ge's aid by striking an acupoint with a stone, helping him escape the danger. Their eyes meet across the distance, and they first encounter each other amid the flames of a troubled age.
- The City Patrol Bureau intervenes in the case of the moldy grain, and the chaos briefly subsides. Yan Ge vanishes into the shadows, while Yun Xiu retreats toward the palace.
- As the fires of a troubled age rise, the boy and girl are brought together through martial arts. Their journey, fighting side by side with blade and sword, begins here.
