The Last Clan of Bladesmen

The Last Swordfighter Clan is set against the historical backdrop of the failure of the Hundred Days' Reform in the twenty-fourth year of the Guangxu reign (1898), and follows Liu Hu, the seventh-generation heir to the Guanshan Blade, on his journey through the martial world. The Bloodhawk Guards launch a surprise attack on Daojiling. As Liu Hu's father, Liu Zhenshan, lies dying, he entrusts him with the ancestral Guanshan Blade, revealing the century-old feud between the swordfighter clan and the Qing court. Carrying out his father's dying wish, the young Liu Hu sets out on a path of revenge. With help from the mysterious Xue Wanqing, he meets Long Er, leader of the Yellow River Gang, and the two swear brotherhood as they join forces against the Bloodhawk Guards' pursuit.

The three travel across Shaanxi and Henan. From trouble at a Yellow River ferry crossing to a mystery in the ghost market, from escorting goods through Black Wind Pass to corpses rising at a burial lodge, they face one deadly test after another and uncover Governor Sheng Yun's plot with the Netherworld Cult. Liu Hu inherits the swordfighters' legacy in an ancient tomb and swears to restore the clan's honor, only to suffer a devastating blow when Long Er betrays him. At last, in the final battle on Mount Zhongnan, Xue Wanqing's shocking identity as Sheng Yun's illegitimate daughter is revealed, completing Liu Hu's transformation from a youth bent on revenge into the heir to the swordfighter tradition.

The novel weaves together late Qing historical events, using the Hundred Days' Reform, the Boxer Rebellion, and the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Alliance as its backdrop, and portrays the choices swordfighters faced amid the tide of history. Through the rise and fall of four great swordfighter clans, it explores the conflict between traditional codes of honor in the martial world and modern rule of law, as well as the dialectic between individual fate and duty to one's country. Meticulously researched in its depiction of the late Qing and early Republican eras, the novel makes extensive use of martial-world slang and outlaw codes. Amid its tales of vengeance and triumph, it conveys the chivalrous spirit of "I shall go, though ten thousand stand in my way," composing a elegy for the martial world amid flashing blades and bloodshed.