“Your son is no son, and your father is no father. Zhao Shide, I curse you to die without descendants.” The Southern Frontier witch's dying curse unsettled General Zhao Shide, but an imperial decree from the capital arrived before he could find out whether it would come true.
“Now that the frontier is secure and the people at peace, your service has benefited the realm. We grant you the title of Marquis of the Pacified Frontier, with a fief of a thousand households. The title may be inherited by your descendants, passing down at a reduced rank, and your family shall enjoy it for generations.”
After receiving his reward, Zhao Shide stopped taking the witch's words to heart. Then, ten days later, he received another letter from home. His beloved youngest legitimate son had fallen from a horse and injured his leg. The physician declared he would likely never stand again.
But his youngest son was the best horseman and archer in the family.
The witch's curse flashed through Zhao Shide's mind again!
The Zhao family had four sons: three legitimate sons and one son born to a concubine.
The three legitimate sons were the precious children borne to him by his wife, his childhood sweetheart. Now that the youngest was injured, Zhao Shide couldn't help linking the accident to the curse. The son born to a concubine was not favored, but he was obedient and well-behaved.
Desperate to break the curse for the sake of his four children, Zhao Shide thought of all the strange occurrences he had encountered during the campaign against the Southern Frontier. He secretly searched the city, which his troops had just captured, for people with extraordinary abilities.
At last, a fortune-teller named Gao was brought before Zhao Shide. He claimed he could help find a solution, but all he needed was a “talisman.”
A human-shaped “talisman”!
Meanwhile, in the capital, demons and evil spirits were already running rampant!
