In the final years of Yong'an under the Great Jing, the northern tribes of the wilderness poured south with the strength of their entire nation. Ten years of bloody battles to pacify the frontier drenched a thousand miles of frozen lands in blood.
Seven of the most extraordinary young people in the world came together as the Seven Blades of the Cold Pass. With the purest hearts, the hottest hopes, and the most steadfast convictions, they defended their homeland, protected one another, and awaited the dawn.
But the Heavenly Dao is cruelest of all, delighting in shattering those who reach the extremes:
The one who most longed for death survived alone in a living hell, neither fully alive nor fully dead;
The one who most longed to live perished young, their beautiful dreams turned to nothing;
The most optimistic and passionate died the most gruesome death, their body never found;
The strongest and most invincible endured every humiliation, helpless to do anything;
The proudest and most dazzling fell in an empty, desolate place, with no one to witness it;
The brightest and purest sank into the dark grip of a demonic heart;
The one who prized dignity and composure most ended up on their knees, begging for mercy, stripped of all pride;
The most selfish sacrificed themselves for the greater good, the most sincere were buried beneath lies, the one who feared pain most endured torture without a sound, the cleverest schemer was ultimately undone by their own plans, the one most cherished withered before everyone's eyes, the one who longed most for reunion lived forever in solitude, the one who coveted glory and riches died destitute and unknown, and the one who valued family ties most became a merciless demon.
The coward found a lifetime's worth of courage in their final moments, while the strong could only watch their closest friends perish one by one, powerless to stop it.
The one who spent every day dreaming of the dawn and the life beyond died one second before daybreak.
Once, the seven made a lively gathering. In the end, seven gravestones stood overgrown with weeds.
The youngest girl on the team was the only one left alive. Standing before their graves, she whispered, "Now I'm older than all of you."
Only Shen Ji remained, neither alive nor dead, neither awake nor gone, trapped in a flourishing world of mortals. He alone swallowed the regrets of ten thousand ages, the sole living ghost left in this farce between Heaven and Earth.
Theme: All the world's striving ends in ashes; through the ages, everything has been an illusion.
