Slashing Through Mountains and Rivers

In the 129th year of the Dayong dynasty, the golden age burns out and the realm falls apart.

Imperial authority hangs in the balance, and the emperor is frail; powerful clans carve up the realm and keep private armies; regional warlords command their own territories, their ambitions simmering beneath the surface; countless common folk are left adrift, as insignificant as blades of grass.

Xie Linyuan, the son of a disgraced minister, enters the silent, lifeless capital alone, carrying a frosty saber from the former dynasty, stained with imperial blood.

He is the only person in the realm who can save it from collapse, yet the emperor, the powerful clans, and the warlords all want to control him, and all want him dead.

The emperor uses him to quell the unrest, while secretly plotting to kill him; the clans fear his sharp edge, yet use him to eliminate their rivals; the warlords hope he'll throw the court into chaos so they can swallow up the Dayong realm.

The woman he loves is the legitimate daughter of a powerful clan, burdened with the blood feud of the Xie family; his closest elder brother is a warlord commander with a massive army on the northern frontier; the mentor who taught him is the mastermind who forged him into a blade, then personally pushed him into the abyss.

The land is the blade, and the people its sheath. Once this blade is drawn, it will never return to its sheath.

Xie Linyuan's fate was sealed the moment he entered the capital: he can only fight to the death, and he can only meet his end in battle.