There is a market in this world called the Market of Rules. Gold and silver are not traded here. Instead, people buy and sell rules. The price can be set on anything, from an individual's fate to the fortunes of an entire dynasty.
Chen Zhuo, a down-and-out young man who sells ink shards at the Market of Rules, wants nothing more than to spend the rest of his days guarding the few old inksticks passed down through his family. That is, until Lin Qinghan arrives with her sword. Cold as snow, she comes from the Northern Foothills Sword Sect to hunt down a traitor named Mo Qi and clean house.
What seems like a simple pursuit through the martial world draws them both into a vast vortex sweeping across the land. There is the lost legacy of the ink guardians, the mysterious organization Shadow Puppets, which believes in "breaking the rules," and the traitor Mo Qi, who seeks to reshape the world through bloodshed... As the ancient rules begin to crumble, who will be the one to break the deadlock?
