Beneath the global economy lies a shadow order that has endured for centuries: the Ghost Arena.
Twelve top-tier conglomerates settle disputes over their interests in the most primitive way. Resources, shipping lanes, technology, mineral rights: if they can't reach an agreement, they send people into the ring to fight. The fighters sign death contracts. The winner takes all, and the loser forfeits everything. At every tournament, people are carried out. Some are alive, some are dead, and some would be better off dead.
Lu Zheng is the sole heir to the Lu family's ancient martial arts tradition. His grandfather, Lu Zhenshan, once used an iron chain to defeat three teams at the Ghost Arena, earning the name "Soul Binder." By Lu Zheng's generation, the family had fallen into decline. He spent five years in a mercenary unit, surviving in the jungle, then two years fighting in underground boxing cages in Southeast Asia. He won all twenty-seven fights. Someone died in every match, and he was the last man standing every time.
When the Donghuang Group found him, he had just crushed a boxing champion's collarbone with his bare feet in Mandalay.
At the previous Ghost Arena, Donghuang team captain Zhao Beiwang had his spine snapped vertebra by vertebra by Feng Strauss of the Golden Eagle Group. Still conscious as they carried him out, he said one thing: "Find someone from the Lu family."
Now Lu Zheng has arrived. He brings the iron chain his grandfather left behind, the old wounds he earned in the boxing rings, and two teammates personally chosen by Zhao Beiwang: an heir to Bajiquan and a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt. Three men, no substitutes. The Ghost Arena's rule is simple: fight until everyone is down.
