She stands atop the Jiufang Snow Range, holding an umbrella as the bells chime softly.
She is the sharpest snow blade beneath Nüwa, wielding the laws of the Three Realms and overseeing the most dangerous imprisoned demons. A snow-crystal seal marks her brow. She has cultivated the Way of Supreme Detachment for three thousand years.
Nüwa orders her to descend to the mortal world and settle an old debt.
To find the reincarnation of Di Xin.
Three thousand years ago, she was Su Daji, sent to bring ruin to a kingdom, and he was King Zhou of Shang, who burned to death at the Deer Terrace. She betrayed him, and he waited for her, waiting three thousand years.
In a rainy Jiangnan alley, the old man selling candy is not the reincarnation. He is Di Xin’s obsession, lingering in the Three Realms and refusing to enter the cycle of reincarnation.
He waited three thousand years just to hear her say, “I wronged you. I’ll make it up to you in the next life.”
Only after his obsession fades can the true reincarnation be born: Xu Chang’an, a seventeen-year-old candy seller.
Time is in disarray, and reincarnation has gone awry.
Demons have escaped from the forbidden grounds of the Snow Range, leaving behind a mysterious totem. The targets of escaped criminals such as the Blood Bat Demon and Shadow Fiend all point to the same clueless young man. And when the Red Serpent Ancestor says, “The seal on your brow has cracked,” it sets a greater conspiracy in motion.
As Yan Wu protects Xu Chang’an, she begins to question the Way she has believed in for three thousand years.
Does detachment truly mean having no feelings? Is the Heavenly Way always just?
When she discovers that she is not the only one caught up in this storm, and that Bai Xi, who guards the mortal world beneath Nüwa, Teng She, guardian of the demon realm, and Xuan Hu, warrior of the demon realm, have also been drawn in, she understands:
A storm that will shake the order of the Three Realms has begun.
And she, the snow blade that has served for three thousand years,
where can she go from here?
The snow and wind are her. The loneliness is hers. So is the killing.
But this time, she will be Yan Wu.
Just Yan Wu.
