In the twenty-eighth year of the Jiajing reign, the Yan faction is ruining the country, and the imperial court lies in darkness.
At court, Yan Song and his son monopolize power, embezzle public funds, break the law, and frame loyal officials. Beyond the borders, Mongol cavalry break through the passes to raid and plunder, while Japanese pirates burn, kill, and lay villages to waste along the southeastern coast. The Great Ming hangs by a thread. Borderland families are driven from their homes, and there is no safe haven left in all the land.
Shen Yan was born the son of a frontier garrison commander, his family having guarded the borders for generations with a loyalty as bright as the sun and moon. But after his father exposed the Yan faction for withholding soldiers’ pay and colluding with foreign enemies, his entire family was executed overnight. All seventeen members of his household perished. Only Shen Yan survived, saved at the cost of a loyal servant’s life. Yet he was thrown into the death row prison, awaiting execution after the autumn harvest so that the whole family could be eradicated.
The icy prison cut to the bone. So did the injustice.
He awoke at the edge of a mountain of corpses, covered in wounds and consumed by hatred. With the indelible memories of his family’s ancestral Iron-Blooded Border Guard Saber Art, he broke out of prison carrying half a broken blade. From then on, the saber was his heart, and blood his vow.
He would not curry favor with the powerful, yearn for the martial world, or play at being a carefree swordsman.
He joined the frontier army to guard the nation’s gates, cutting down Mongol cavalry with a single stroke. He went south to scourge the pirates, pacifying thousands of miles of coastline with his three-foot blade. He stormed the capital and fought corrupt ministers, toppling half the Yan faction’s power despite being a commoner.
From condemned prisoner in a death row cell to iron-blooded saber wielder; from nameless nobody to comrade-in-arms of Qi Jiguang.
He cut down corrupt officials, rooted out traitors, wiped out pirates, and repelled the Tatars, carving a bloody path to protect the country and its people with nothing but an ordinary Ming military saber.
He sought neither a noble title nor a place in the history books. He wanted only to avenge his family, protect the elders of the frontier, and restore peace and justice to the land.
When the smoke of war had finally cleared and peace reigned across the realm, he gave up his military command and noble title, then retired to the countryside with the woman he loved.
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