The Swordbearer Asks the Sword About Eternal Life

Others cultivate the sword to kill. He cultivates the sword to make his case. Ye Changsheng, the blacksmith’s son who has been called a “useless waste” for ten years, finds a broken sword. Hidden inside is a sword spirit, who tells him, “I can make you stronger, but first you’ll have to endure the pain of your meridians being torn apart.” So he endures it. From a remote frontier town to the summit of the Nine Regions, from a body-tempering washout to the greatest swordsman under heaven. At the court of the Iron-Blooded Dynasty, he asks three questions that bring a dynasty crashing down. Before the gates of the Myriad Sword Sect, one sword stroke cleaves the righteous and demonic factions apart. Some die protecting him; others live because they believe in him. On the day the Heavenly Demons descend, he stands before their passage, while behind him, countless people of the Nine Regions gather their strength of their own accord to aid him. In that moment, he understands: the greatest strength has never been the sword. It is the belief that “life is worth living.”