The Lone Blade Supports the Dragon Throne

In the waning years of the Ming dynasty, the cracks in the land spread from the imperial court to the martial world. The powerful eunuch Wei Zhongxian dominates the court. Taking advantage of the Tianqi Emperor's critical illness, he gathers twenty-four groups of extraordinary martial artists, including “the Poison, the Two Guests, the Three Monks, and the Four Fiends.” He forms factions, persecutes loyal officials, and plots to seize power as the country falls apart. Meanwhile, the brilliant and ambitious fifth prince, Zhu Youjian, is trapped in one deadly predicament after another, his life hanging by a thread.

At this perilous moment, Wu Fenglou, a third-generation disciple of the Xiantian Wuji Sect and the orphan of a loyal official, returns from Mount Song after training in martial arts, bearing the burden of his family's blood debt. He intends to shatter the eunuch faction's schemes with his blade, but during his first battle after descending the mountain, at Yingchou Ravine, he unexpectedly saves Wei Yinping, the daughter of his enemy. From then on, he is swept into a fateful whirlpool of love, hatred, and uncertain survival.

From the bloody dusk of the upheaval in Hangzhou to the searing grief of losing his father and home, from venturing alone into a demon's lair to save his mother to fighting to protect the prince at the imperial tombs in Fengyang, Wu Fenglou and the finest heroes of their masters' generation, the “Five Mountains and Three Birds”, the golden eagle Xiao Jianqiu, the goshawk Bai Jianfei, the soaring hawk Jiang Jianchen, and others, force their way into the conflict with a single, solitary blade. They break through the layers of deceit laid by the demon queen Hou Guoying and, pursued and besieged by the Embroidered Uniform Guard, carve a path through the defenses of the imperial palace's elite guards, placing Zhu Youjian upon the bloodstained throne.

Yet the day the true dragon ascends the throne marks the beginning of the rabbit's death and the hound's cooking. The Chongzhen Emperor is headstrong, suspicious, and ungrateful. The eunuch faction's remnants, the “Seven Fiends,” rise again from the ashes, turning meritorious ministers and famed generals into prisoners. Jiang Jianchen is forced by imperial decree to kill his wife, Hou Guoying leaps into the sea in despair, imperial treasures are stolen, and traps abound. When the gratitude of a life-saving rescue becomes a blade of suspicion in the new emperor's hands, what path will Wu Fenglou and his heroic allies take?