The Sealing Decree

Poisoned by a gu for twenty-two years, Emperor Xiao Jin uses himself as a piece on the board, setting up a game with no way out. The gu in his blood shares its origins with the forbidden grounds. He cannot complete the seal himself, so he can only push the “untainted” Ling Chuan to take the final step.

Ling Chuan, master of the Tingfeng Pavilion, follows a secret letter into the Heaven-Reaching Gorge, walking step by step into Xiao Jin’s trap. Only after the forbidden grounds’ gates close and Xiao Jin dies does he realize he was merely a pawn on the board. But a pawn has always been free to choose its own path.

What he doesn’t know is that on the night of the sealing, Su Qinghe used half her life as fuel to shield him from the backlash. An unforeseen side effect left him unable to remember her face. He remembers the wooden horse she spent three days carving. He remembers the long road she carried him along. But the face etched with emotion is a blank in his memory.

When the lingering warmth of the forbidden grounds quietly awakens his power, and that blank outline begins to emerge in his dreams, this game, with their lives as the stakes, has only just begun.