Also known as The Splendor of Great Yan.
The realm is crumbling amid chaos, with warfires raging everywhere. In the final years of the Great Wilderness, human lives are worth no more than weeds.
[Note: The opening chapters take a while to set the stage, but the pace takes off from Chapter 16. Readers short on time can start there.]
Su Yan is a penniless scholar fleeing famine. He spends half his life wandering the countryside in a chaotic age, learning practical skills in procuring grain, resettling the people, and assessing the land.
He has no godlike powers, nor foreknowledge of the future. All he has are a keen, unsentimental eye and a practical strategy for governing.
Corpses litter the land, and chaos reigns in every direction.
With nothing to his name, he joins Yan Chi, a patient and ambitious warlord, and enters the perilous game of life and death as his advisor.
First secure a foothold to protect themselves, then build strength to contend for the realm.
Strengthen the defenses, settle the refugees, survey the land, and stockpile provisions. Every effort is made to lay a solid foundation for future conquest.
The ruler and his advisor work in perfect accord, advancing one careful step at a time. They deliberately rein in the urge to expand too quickly, watching as the rival powers fight and exhaust one another.
Only when the realm is torn apart and the balance of power shifts do they finally march into the fray.
They sweep through Wu and Yue, seize the lands along the great river, pacify the south, and launch a northern campaign into the Central Plains.
Amidst the warfires and mountains of bones, they usher in the glorious age of Great Yan.
