A record of vengeance, with endless blood shed by the nameless;
A summons for renowned heroes, with the clash of blades never ceasing.
Thirteen years ago, Cuiyu Mountain in Shu was wiped out overnight. The killer was nameless and formless, leaving behind only a single Wraith Notice.
Thirteen years later, the Three Great Clans of Hebei were all destroyed in one night, and ghosts once again haunted the martial world.
Wen Yanci was ordered to descend the mountain and investigate.
The Wraiths vanished with the flames of war. Now, the only ones said to be impossible to find, even by gods or ghosts, are one tower and one person.
The Soul-Severing Tower, Shen Qingbie.
They say the tower opens only for the living dead. Anyone alive who enters must have come from the underworld. No one has seen Shen Qingbie's true face in ten years. Some say she is hideously ugly and wears a ghost mask every day; others say she has the face of Guanyin but the heart of a serpent.
Beneath the rumors, one person sits alone in the tower, leaning against the railing and drinking by herself.
"The Frost-Cleaving Sword of Nanhuai." The red-clad woman wore a bold, carefree expression. "Why have you come?"
Wen Yanci replied, "The truth."
"The truth from thirteen years ago."
The world had been in turmoil for decades, and fallen leaves by the ravine had seen many an autumn. One day, a mountain recluse came carrying a sword, and suddenly the old waves of river and sea fell still.
One-on-one romance: a free-spirited female demon and a straight-laced young sect leader, with multiple secret identities;
An alternate setting with no real-life inspiration. Don't map the place names or characters onto the real world. The final book in the Mo Ling trilogy, but you can read it without having read the earlier books;
Slow-burn, plot-focused story, happy ending.
Theme: Hope endures after hardship.
