> Xiao Jian flees for his life through a snowy night on Mount Zhongnan, carrying his gravely wounded master.
> A killer in a bronze mask relentlessly pursues them. As his master dies, he presses half a broken sword into Xiao Jian’s hands and manages to utter only the words “Nine Heavens Ringing Jade” before drawing his last breath.
> At a moment of crisis, Xiao Jian’s jade flute shatters as it deflects a hidden arrow, revealing a fragment of a map inside.
> He assumes a false identity and hides in a bodyguard agency, investigating the undercurrents of the martial world as a musician.
> When the Liao army tramples through Yanmen Pass, the various factions either side with the enemy or look out for themselves.
> Wielding half a broken sword, Xiao Jian rallies the heroes of the martial world, while the cracks in his jade flute sound the “Battle-Breaking March.”
> Beneath a blood-red setting sun, he holds a lonely city alone for seven days with nothing but his sword, until the banners of the Song reinforcements finally appear.
> Ten years later, fresh snow blankets the mountains, and children sing the “Song of Ending War” he composed.
> The cracks remain in the jade flute, but Xiao Jian is gone from the martial world forever.
