The Yanyun Sword Records

The Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, the setting sun red as blood. The shame of Shi Jingtang ceding territory and submitting as a vassal still lingers in the wind, while Khitan iron hooves bring witchcraft and evil spirits, hoping to reshape the land through a blood sacrifice to Chiyou. Shen Yifeng, heir to the Later Tang, bears the River Chart Sword, while a secret imperial edict to restore the dynasty lies hidden in its divinations. Lin Ruoli, a Maoshan Taoist nun with the bloodline of the Mysterious Phoenix, is being drained of life by a petrification curse. Su Yuchen, an abandoned disciple of the Mohists, calculates every move and uses Zhuge repeating crossbows to fight mechanical puppets.

In the chess game of a chaotic age, the powers are tightly interwoven. Li Yu of Southern Tang's poems become secret codes, the Dangxiang and Blood Moon Cult plot dark sorcery along the Hexi Corridor, and the vengeful ghosts of the Bohai Kingdom haunt the walls of Youzhou. The heroes move through the shadowy dances of Chang'an's entertainment quarter, the bloody deals of Luoyang's ghost market, and the poisoned-grain scheme in Bianliang's canal transport, searching for a way to break the deadlock in the cracks of history.

When Zhou Shizong Chai Rong's northern campaign trumpet clashes with Yelu Deguang's netherworld battle formation, the River Chart Sword summons heavenly thunder, and Mysterious Phoenix talismans burn away the darkness. Some turn their lives into lamps to carry on the light of the Seven Stars; others give themselves up to form a formation and suppress the rampaging dragon veins. This is both a stirring ballad of the martial world in a time of chaos and a battle to the death over the survival of civilization. When the smoke finally clears, who will carve their own legend into the history books?