The Horizontal Blade Order

In the chaotic Five Dynasties era, Bu Xiaochu, a young man from the Taihang Mountains, descends into the martial world carrying the horizontal saber Chengping, passed down by his grandfather. A mysterious letter draws him into the jianghu. The saber is closely tied to the Order of the Horizontal Sabers, which has endured for more than two hundred years. Before his death, Emperor Taizong of Tang forged thirteen horizontal sabers and used the promise of treasure to set a deadly trap, intending to wipe out the descendants of his meritorious officials. The secret hidden among the thirteen sabers could change the balance of power across the land.

From the bloodshed in Weizhou to the showdown among the pagodas at Daxiangguo Temple, Bu Xiaochu gradually peels back the layers of mystery. The mastermind is none other than his grandfather’s old friend, the monk Yuantong. For more than twenty years, this chief of the Arhat Hall at Daxiangguo Temple has feigned death while secretly rallying forces from all sides. He means to gather the thirteen sabers and use Taizong’s final edict to choose a “true Son of Heaven” for the troubled age. His allies include Chai Rong and Guo Wei in the Central Plains, as well as the Khitan cavalry on the steppe.

As he pursues the truth, Bu Xiaochu travels the world alongside Murong Shuang, a swordswoman of the Plum Blossom Sect. Together they journey from the misty rains of Lake Tai to the snowy winds of the Yan Mountains, and from the deserts of Longyou to the Khitan grasslands. He gathers the thirteen horizontal sabers scattered across the land and has them forged into a single new blade at a blacksmith’s shop in Xiangzhou, putting an end to a curse that has lasted more than two hundred years.

The Five Dynasties rise and fall; Chai Rong launches his northern campaign, Zhao Kuangyin stages the Chenqiao Mutiny, and the Northern Song is founded. Bu Xiaochu witnesses every upheaval of this blood-soaked age. Outside Liangzhou, he stands alone against three master saber fighters from the Ganzhou Uyghurs. In the Ganzhou king’s tent, he gets an Uyghur khagan not yet ten years old to sign his own name to a peace treaty. This is a story about a saber, and about how the person who wields it holds on to his true self amid flashing blades and clashing steel.