The Blade Returns to Zhaoming

In his previous life, he was Xiao Hanji, a celebrated general who had won countless battles in the north. The other was Chu Xi, an iron-fisted emperor who had ascended the throne in his youth. For ten years, they were ruler and subject, trusting each other with their lives. But a frame-up eventually saddled the general with a charge of treason, and the emperor personally had him thrown into the prison. On the night before his execution, Xiao Hanji learned the truth: those “proofs” of his guilt had been a desperate measure by the emperor to save his life and shield him from the noble houses’ attack. Behind the decree ordering his death lay Chu Xi’s resolve to use himself as bait and die alongside him.

Reborn in an earlier era, when the struggle for power was just beginning, Xiao Hanji wanted only to give everything he had to keep his emperor safe and at peace. He concealed his abilities and secretly purged the court, unaware that Chu Xi had also been reborn, carrying his hatred with him. In the emperor’s eyes, the former “traitor general’s” gentle, considerate actions were nothing but hypocritical pretenses, concealing treacherous intent.

One approaches step by step, seeking atonement; the other remains on guard at every turn, consumed by boundless hatred. Amid court intrigues and flames of war on the frontier, the fragments of truth gradually come together. It turns out that the entanglement between them in both lives was born of a misunderstanding between two people whose love was too deep to last. When their true feelings finally break through the barriers of time and hatred, the emperor lets down his guard, and the general kneels to offer his loyal heart. The blade that once pointed at them both finally becomes the strongest armor protecting their realm and each other.