Ancient political intrigue | Two male leads | Ensemble cast and mutual salvation | Happy ending
As the realm falls apart, some seize the imperial seal and fight for the throne, while others use their own backs to hold the land together.
Jiang Jianhe, the martial world’s most notorious wastrel, hides blood beneath his folding fan and sins behind his prayer beads. He laughs as he robs military pay and breaks off an engagement, yet has half of the Mountains and Rivers Seal branded into his palm. It is part of a scheme his master devised twenty years ago in exchange for a blood-written petition from the people.
Xie Linzhou, a frontier general, has a broken spear for a backbone and cold armor for a tombstone. Falsely accused of treason, he is dragged into an underground palace by his sworn enemy as he leaps from a cliff, where they stumble upon the dynasty’s most sordid secret: three thousand skeletons, each with the name of a corrupt official nailed to its chest. The plum-blossom inscription on a heart-protecting mirror even leads to a life-and-death pact between a strategist from the previous dynasty and Xie Linzhou’s birth mother.
The court splashes them with filth; the martial world hands them a blade.
He crushes the Imperial Seal, letting the shards reflect light into the eyes of the refugees. “This land belongs to the people. Vermin don’t deserve to be worshiped.”
He smiles as he sets the Eastern Depot’s secret files alight, flames licking over his enemy’s name. “Xie Linzhou, hell is too cold. How about I go with you and burn the heavens to the ground?”
The ensemble cast’s hidden threads:
· A female doctor disguised as a man and a merchant from the Western Regions use a plague remedy to tear open the corrupt officials’ robes.
· A eunuch’s adopted son infiltrates the Eastern Depot, staking his life for his beloved.
· A mechanical genius rebuilds the city with gears, saying, “Those who are without sex can still have a homeland.”
Highlights:
◆ Two strong-willed leads who love and fight each other: “You want to restore the old dynasty? I’d rather smash that filthy throne!”
◆ An unconventional political intrigue: “The Mountains and Rivers Seal is a petition from the people. The realm has never belonged to emperors.”
◆ A diverse ensemble cast: In a chaotic age, every kind of love is out in the open, and everyone is the hero of their own story.
When the fires of war have burned out, the banquet opens again on the long street.
This time, we raise our cups to the people and let the lanterns light up the land.
