Sui and Tang: The Eighteen Rebel Kings

In the thirteenth year of Daye, the last snow in Luoyang reflected the blood-red hue of the imperial city. Music and revelry continued aboard Emperor Yang of Sui’s dragon boat on the Luo River, while flames of war had already spread across the land. Ling Zhiyuan, a garrison commander in Hedong, was framed by a powerful minister and beheaded. With his dying breath, he shoved a bronze tiger tally and half a sealed letter into the hands of his son, Ling Yunxiao. The cinnabar inscription, “When eighteen rebel forces rise, let the tiger tallies unite the righteous and decide the fate of the realm,” became the first move in the game of war.

Ling Yunxiao, a former lieutenant of the Black Armored Guard, flees for his life with the tiger tally. After evading the Xuanming Cult’s pursuers and surviving a deadly crossbow attack and a desperate battle in the snow, he finally finds his father’s old friend, Qin Qiong, at Wagang Fort. The incomplete map hidden in the letter reveals a shocking secret: Luoyang’s armory houses the former dynasty’s Art of War by Wu Mu and an arsenal of divine weapons. It can only be opened with the combined power of the bronze keys held by the eighteen rebel kings. The Dragon-Patterned Key in the hills behind Wagang is where it all begins.