At eighteen, Lin Xiaoyao is a third-rate martial artist who makes his living keeping the peace at the docks in the county town. He has just one rule for life: stay alive and never let anyone get the better of you.
The scions of prestigious families tyrannize the common folk, while government laws keep the martial world in check. Hidden beneath it all is a three-hundred-year-old injustice involving the hundred schools of martial arts.
While others train to climb the Prodigy Rankings and fight over peerless weapons, he first weighs the pros and cons and counts his coins whenever trouble arises. He navigates the great families and deals with officials, content to make an honest living and keep the people of his small town safe. Without meaning to, he sets the entire martial world of the Nine Provinces in motion.
