Heavenly Court: Battle of the Dragons and Tigers

The Golden Palace towers amid swirling auspicious clouds. All beings in the Three Realms believe the Heavenly Court is an eternal paradise, never knowing that the bronze locks of the Southern Gate have long since rusted, or that old bloodstains are seeping from beneath the throne in the Hall of Numinous Firmament.

Yang Jian, Divine Judge of Heaven, can use the heavenly eye on his forehead to discern demons and glimpse the cycle of reincarnation, yet he cannot see the truth behind his mother Yaoji's imprisonment beneath Peach Mountain. The three-pointed, double-edged blade he wields cleaves not only demons, but also his deep-seated doubts about the “Heavenly Laws.” Why is a love between a mortal and a god a sin? Why can the names on the Investiture of the Gods be altered at will, like the roster of a martial arts sect?

Chang'e of the Moon Palace can summon frost and snow and reflect the past with the moonlight hidden in her sleeves, yet she keeps a fragment of Hou Yi's Bow of the Sun in her arms. Beneath her cool, ethereal robes lies a secret she has guarded for a thousand years: her husband was no traitor to the gods. The “nine suns” he shot down were demon impostors who had usurped the divine throne, and the “elixir of immortality” she stole was actually a key sealing the truth of antiquity.

The shattering of a jade tablet at a Peach Banquet suddenly brings their parallel paths together. Half the star chart formed by its fragments is hidden in the hair of Yang Jian's mother; the other half is carved into the growth rings of the osmanthus tree in Chang'e's Moon Palace. When they discover that the pearls in the Jade Emperor's crown are actually the demon eyes of Xiangliu, and that the furnace of Laozi, the Supreme Lord, holds the wronged souls of the Investiture War, they finally realize that the entire Heavenly Court is nothing but a power game manipulated for a thousand years. The so-called “Way of Heaven” has long since become a set of martial-world rules made up by a select few.

And so the three-eyed general cleaves Peach Mountain, turning his quest for his mother and revenge for her blood into a blade that breaks the deadlock; the fairy of the Moon Palace takes up the Bow of the Sun, and her cool moonlight reveals the path to their allies. What Sun Wukong's Golden Cudgel is meant to smash is no longer the plaque of the Hall of Numinous Firmament, but the “puppet