The Edict of No Escape

[Passionate, unrestrained, fiercely protective ghost general x patient, calculating, sickly beauty of a powerful minister] (gentle top x devoted bottom) [A love that transcends death]

[Older man x disciple x equally matched, devoted to each other x political intrigue + xianxia, set in the same world as She Tian]

The day the young general Lu Xingzhou's soul was forged into an evil puppet, snow fell in the sixth month.

In the capital, Yanjing, music and celebration filled the ten-mile main street.

The little disciple Si Du, whom Lu Xingzhou had protected with his life all his life, was marrying the most noble princess of Great Yan.

That day, Lu Xingzhou's former subordinates carried his coffin out of the capital and gathered his remains.

Meanwhile, the young man who had repeatedly professed his love for him was celebrating in all his finery on the seventh day after his death.

Lu Xingzhou died without ever understanding why.

He had once been the most revered God of War in the Great Yan dynasty, commander of the Lu Army, a legendary general.

In the eighteenth year of Jingrui, the Hu and Jie tribes invaded in force and took city after city. The court stayed safely out of the fighting, while the Duke of Dingguo's entire loyal family was accused of colluding with the enemy and trapped in a besieged city.

Lu Xingzhou rode a thousand miles to the capital and pleaded with his own blood, only to be openly ambushed and left for dead in the wilderness.

His loyalty to his sovereign and country, along with the body that bore his final words, were shattered.

He swore a blood oath to overthrow the dynasty. Those responsible for his family's destruction would pay a thousandfold.

That did not include Si Du.

Everyone in the world called Si Du a mad dog, a treacherous minister, and an ungrateful wretch raised by Lu Xingzhou. Even his former subordinates wanted to devour him alive.

After three years of seeing everything that had happened, Lu Xingzhou could hardly blame them for believing it.

As he traveled south in search of his former subordinates, he would hear a soul-summoning song in the dead of night, as if it came from somewhere far, far away.

Soft and gentle, repeated again and again, hoarse and full of grief.

Until, in a small town in Lingnan, he followed the song up a desolate mountain.

A man in crimson robes knelt before an unmarked tomb, calling out for a soul until he was hoarse and coughing blood.

He said he missed Lu Xingzhou and the wind that carried his name. At last, after Lu Xingzhou's death, he had gone completely mad, tearing away his obedient mask and revealing the wickedness within.

"I hate you, I hate you... But could you walk a little slower on the road to the underworld and wait for me? Once I've killed the one sitting on the throne, I'll come join you."

Lu Xingzhou: All right! If I hadn't come back from the dead, this little kitten would have turned the world upside down!

But Lu Xingzhou was still terribly upset.

How had his obedient little disciple turned into such a possessive, unhinged black-hearted dumpling?

Si Du's life began in schemes and was spent in lies.

He approached Lu Xingzhou on his master's orders, intending only to use him.

But the young general's clumsy yet ardent heart, and the tender, gentle indulgence he showed him time after time, completely drowned him.

The day Lu Xingzhou died, Si Du rode a thousand miles to bring him a pardon token, only to find his body drenched in blood.

From then on, the gentlemanly principles his teacher had taught him, and the years of hard study that earned him the title of third-place graduate, no longer mattered.

He joined his enemy, married a princess, and took on a reputation for infamy, becoming the most vicious and ruthless minister at court.

Everyone called him ungrateful. Only he knew the truth:

He was waiting for someone.

If he couldn't wait for him, he would kill all his enemies, then join him in the underworld.

Once he had been drawn in, he would never let go.

He thought his entire life had been built on lies.

Only his love for Lu Xingzhou was true, as was his willingness to overthrow this filthy world for him.

He was willing to imprison himself within an invisible boundary, standing at the cliff's edge between sin and slaughter, and light a lamp called home for the wrongfully dead soul who had crossed the Nine Hells.

Until that soul, having crossed the endless darkness, came to him beneath the moon. A broad, rough hand gently brushed the corner of his eye.

"...Si Du, Si Du. What am I supposed to do with you?"

He smiled.

"You promised that when the bodhi flowers bloomed, you would sit with me and listen to the rain. Can we keep that promise now, Master?"

At last, he reclaimed his mortal world from the depths of hell.

And at last, his mortal world gave him back a full moon.

[Extra Scene]

On the night they reunited, Si Du was drinking alone by the grave. He drank until he vomited blood, but still wouldn't stop. Then cold fingers closed around his wrist.

He looked up and met those light amber, peach-blossom eyes he'd admired for half his life.

Lu Xingzhou pulled him roughly into his cold embrace and rasped, "The little kitten's gotten bold. You even dared to marry a 'shiniang,' huh?"

Si Du trembled all over, tears streaming down his face.

Then he heard the man chuckle beside his ear, every word ringing with conviction:

"If righteousness wrongs you, I'll help you tear it apart!"

"If the world wrongs you, I'll help you overthrow it!"

[Reading Guide]

1. Both leads are strong and devoted only to each other. Older-man pairing, with the general as the top. He is nonhuman for part of the story. The minister is the bottom.

2. Si Du's marriage to the princess is a sham. He had secretly substituted someone else for her.

3. Set in the same world as She Tian, in the Mortal Realm, one of the three lower realms. It worships the gods of the three upper realms. Cangqi cultivators may also come to the Mortal Realm to gather the power of faith.

4. The political intrigue plot may fall apart. Readers who demand historical accuracy, beware.

5. Please give the story a bookmark and leave a comment, everyone!

Guiding Principle: He once promised the world its most passionate winds. From then on, he would come and go as he pleased, and love and hate as he wished.