Winter, the twenty-third year of Xuanhe's reign in Daliang.
The old emperor is critically ill, and the battle among the princes for the right to inherit the throne has become fierce, and the court is filled with bloodshed.
As the son of a rebel general in the north, Gu Shenyan served as a hostage in the capital for ten years. In this man-eating imperial city, he pretended to be crazy, drank and lusted, and lived like a dog wagging its tail begging for mercy, just for a chance of survival.
Everyone in the world thought that he was a loser who couldn't hold up the wall, but they didn't know that the hundreds of thousands of cavalry in the north only listened to his orders.
When the butcher knife was finally placed on his neck, Gu Shenyan wiped off the disguise on his face and revealed his fangs.
"Since you are unwilling to give me a way to survive, then I will overturn this chessboard and replace it with an emperor."
From a humble proton to a powerful emperor, this is not only a game of power, but also a road to becoming an emperor paved with blood.
