In the third year of Zhonghe in the late Tang dynasty, outside Yunzhou City on the northern frontier, the land lies scorched for a thousand li after the Khitan cavalry's raid, and refugees roam everywhere. Gu Yingfei, sixteen, disguises himself as a refugee while secretly searching for the Khitan killers who murdered his family. Han Xingluo, seventeen, works odd jobs at a frontier post under the old soldier Zhou Hu, earning a living through sheer strength. The two meet when Khitan stragglers raid the area and are forced to join forces to fight back. They accidentally kill a junior Khitan officer and are hunted by Khitan pursuers, while becoming entangled in a struggle between Xuanjizi and Moying over a secret treasure. They learn of the feud between the secretive sects Hanyue Pavilion and Shadow Hall, and discover the Shanhe Map, a treasure capable of changing the balance of power on the northern frontier. (Foreshadowing: The Shanhe Map is more than a map; it also conceals the military deployments of the regional commanders and the Khitans' weakness.)
