The Distant Gate of Heaven

During the Southern Song dynasty, the empire was weakening, and the jianghu was in turmoil.

Many martial artists gathered around Jiangsu and Zhejiang. What had once been a land of gentle Jiangnan speech became a place of flashing blades and swords after an unexpected upheaval. To the north stood Shenxiao Palace, neither wholly righteous nor wholly evil, directly under the imperial court and tasked with keeping watch over the martial world, earning the disdain of jianghu folk. To the south lay the Chu Sect, atop Heaven's Gate Peak. Rumor had it that immortals lived there, and it was where people's hopes rested.

The force leading the martial world across the land was Peacock Manor in Jiangling. The Chen clan, whose crest was a riot of peacock feathers, had been renowned in the martial world for hundreds of years. In this age of chaos, they seemed to proclaim that none could rival them.

While writing this, I listened to