[Political Intrigue] [Alternate History] [High-IQ Power Fantasy] [Martial Arts] [Imperial Statecraft]
The emperor was close to death.
No one at court knew that the heir he had chosen for the throne was whiling away his days in the largest brothel in the capital.
Lin Yan, the notorious wastrel son of the Duke of Huguo's household, spent his days riding horses through the pleasure quarters and sleeping with courtesans. He was a dissolute playboy.
No one knew he was the late emperor's legitimate second son, hidden away for seventeen years, and the full brother of the current emperor.
Beneath the Dragon Throne, three great clans were entrenched in a tangled struggle, keeping imperial power in chains.
The emperor used his last breath to send Lin Yan into the army, dispatch him to the provinces, and watch him get dragged into the deadly snare of factional politics.
Everyone called the emperor foolish. Why did he set such store by a useless wastrel?
Only the emperor himself knew: he was sharpening his younger brother's claws, preparing the future emperor for the throne.
Lin Yan escaped death time and again, thinking he was simply lucky.
It was only much later that he learned that every hidden arrow aimed at him, every crisis meant to kill him, had been stopped by the dying emperor at his bedside, at the cost of what little life he had left.
When the order to reclaim the land was issued, the court and countryside were thrown into turmoil.
Only after ascending the throne did Lin Yan finally realize that from the day he was born, he had been the final piece set aside for the vast realm of Great Jing.
