The Great Sheng Dynasty is in decline. Its borders are under constant threat, with the Di and Rong tribes invading from the north and Tibet eyeing its western frontier. Powerful eunuchs dominate the court, and the martial world is in turmoil. Thirty years ago, in a single night, the “Tianqi Bloodshed” left seven of the ten great sects destroyed and the other three gravely wounded. An entire generation of grandmasters fell. Since then, the martial world has split into the “Nine Central Plains Sects,” the “Southern Ridges Alliance,” the “Western Regions Blade Sect,” “Penglai Island in the Eastern Sea,” and the “Desert North Iron Cavalry Alliance,” locked in endless rivalry. Now the legendary Sword Manual of Mountains and Rivers has resurfaced. It is said that whoever obtains it can comprehend the “sword intent of heaven and earth,” wield the righteousness of the world, and even reverse the fate of the nation. Yet no one has seen its true form in a hundred years. Only a prophecy remains: “When the sword's shadow appears, mountains and rivers stir; when the white robe returns, all under heaven unite.”
