The world is on the brink of chaos, and seven kingdoms vie for supremacy. Shen Qingyun, an illegitimate son of a frontier family, starts out as a nobody whom everyone looks down on. But with his talent for reading people and predicting the tides of power, he steps into court politics and takes the battlefield by storm. He serves the fourth prince, the least favored contender, guiding him from a crisis on the frontier to a fight for the throne, from forging alliances to unifying the realm. He wields strategy as a blade, using one scheme to break another. But when the land is united and his achievements threaten the throne, what path will he choose for himself?
