Jiang Yelan, a seventeen-year-old blacksmith from Qingshi Village, has an old scar on her right arm, left there by her father before he died. He promised to tell her what it meant someday, but he died on Blackwind Ridge and never came back.
The night demon wolves attacked the village, one bit into the old scar, cracking open what had been sealed for seven years. A tiger-head marking emerged from beneath the wound and branded itself into her flesh. Along with it came a sword manual that poured straight into her mind: the Tiger Mountain God’s Mountain-Splitting Strike.
The mountain patrol arrived at dawn. The scar-faced leader recognized her as Jiang Chengwu’s daughter. He told her demon flesh could be eaten, demon bones could be sold, and someone at Old Chai’s shop in Wangyuan Town would take her father’s name. Then he left, with a hide pouch and a few words behind.
Jiang Yelan locked the smithy and headed east.
Two days on the road. Wangyuan Town. Old Chai’s shop. She was going to find someone and get an answer:
What exactly was this tiger-head marking?
Others cultivated through meditation and enlightenment. She slayed demons, and the demons left their marks.
Every demon she killed lived on her body.
