Blood on the Mo Dao: A Soldier's Legend as the Golden Age Crumbles

In Chang’an during the Tianbao era, the splendor of a prosperous age could not hide the hardships of the poor. Chen Yuan was learned, but his humble origins kept him from the imperial exams. In the end, carrying a peace charm embroidered by his wife, he joined the Anxi Army.

Under Li Siyè, he trained from a frail scholar into a skilled wielder of the stranger sword. At the bloody Battle of Talas, he fought to the last and held the rear, surviving a mountain of corpses. Five years of war left him covered in scars, yet all he received in return was the cold shoulder: “The poor have no military merit.”

He dragged his broken body home, only to find his home reduced to ruins. A neighbor told him that powerful families had colluded with officials to seize their land, his parents had died with hatred in their hearts, and his wife had taken her own life rather than endure further humiliation. He tried to file a complaint with his record of military service, but instead had his ribs broken and was thrown into death row.

A riot gave him the chance to escape. That night, wielding a steel saber, he stormed the home of his enemies and unleashed every killing technique he had learned on the battlefield. With his blood debt repaid, he headed north to join the rebels.

At the Battle of Xiangji Temple, he swung his blade at his former comrades and killed the Tang general who had once looked down on him. Standing atop a mountain of corpses, he felt nothing but boundless emptiness.

As the chaos of war drew to a close, he threw his bloodstained stranger sword into the Yellow River and changed into commoner’s clothes to blend in with the refugees. Years later, an old man appeared among the fields of Jiangnan, teaching children to read. The calluses on his palms silently told of those years of blood and fire.