Beneath the wheels of history, he is the infamous “turncoat.” Trapped by fate, he is a “deadly blade,” powerless to control his own actions.
One night, the modern soul Hong Qiming wakes to find himself transformed into Hong Chengchou, the Ming governor-general of Jizhou and Liaodong in the dynasty's final years. After the defeat at Songshan, this celebrated official should have died for his country. But a soul from another world sends him down a very different path at history's crossroads, into an abyss.
He thinks he can rewrite his fate, unaware that he has long since become the most important piece on the board. Deep in the palace, the seemingly frail Consort Zhuang, Bumbutai, has threads around her fingers, but they are not silk. They are a blood-eagle curse, drawn from ancient shamanic magic and powerful enough to devour the Mandate of Heaven. Hong Chengchou's “surrender to the Qing” is no act of cowardice. His mind has been corroded by dark magic, turning him into a living weapon of slaughter, carrying boundless resentment and destruction.
The mysterious deaths of Hong Taiji and Dorgon, the young Fulin's horrified discovery of a blood eagle in the mourning hall... Every upheaval at the pinnacle of Qing power is steeped in the shadow of sorcery and the bloody strokes of Hong Chengchou's axe, wielded under another's control. He struggles between his modern conscience and the corruption of his demonic nature, his soul torn apart inch by inch amid the despairing cries of “Hong Qiming” and the destructive roar of the “deadly blade.”
He opens Shanhai Pass with his own hands, letting Qing troops enter the Central Plains. He swings the cursed axe to clear the way for Consort Zhuang. He seems to have truly “created” the vast empire that is about to take the Forbidden City.
