In the final years of the Wanli reign of the Great Ming, something strange was happening in the death-row prison outside Shuntian Prefecture. In its darkest corner, a ragged young man was locked away. His name was Jiang Chen, though while this body belonged to Jiang Chen, his soul came from the modern world five hundred years in the future. He had been a history graduate student who also studied unarmed combat. The night before, while researching a late-Ming saber at a museum, he was suddenly enveloped in an eerie blue light from the blade. When he opened his eyes, he had become the son of a disgraced official convicted of treason and colluding with the enemy. He was to be executed tomorrow...
