In the seventeenth year of Chengping, a corpse missing its right foot drifted down the Luo River.
Xie Zhao, a sword-bearing envoy of the Supreme Council, examined the body with a shrimp bun in his mouth, only to find a wisp of indigo cold flame lodged between its bones.
That night, ghost fire erupted at the funeral home. The corpse burned to ashes, leaving behind only half of a jade pendant fragment engraved with the characters “Zhaozhao.”
The name of the condemned minister’s son in the Red Pill Case fifteen years ago shared the same bloodline as Xie Zhao.
To uncover the truth, Xie Zhao was forced to travel with Xiao Wuhuo, the master of the Linglong Pavilion.
A deadly chill gleamed in the cinnabar mole at the corner of his eye. Puppet strings wrapped around his wrist, entangled with countless lives. His dark cloak carried the scent of snow lotus and incense.
Yet when the cold flame devoured Xie Zhao’s heart, he refused to give him the only antidote he would ever have. “Xie Zhao, I decide whether you live or die.”
A corpse in the Luo River, bloodstained puppets, yin-yang tea worms...
An old case revealed a shocking conspiracy from the Wude era.
When the jade pendant was pieced together, the silver bell at Xie Zhao’s waist resonated with the poison markings on Xiao Wuhuo’s body.
Only then did he learn that the two of them were always destined to walk different paths to the same end, their story already written in the celestial chart.
“Cold flames burn away all corruption beneath heaven. Only the sun and moon of Zhaozhao cannot be deceived.”
Crossing a thousand snowbound mountains alone, sharing a boat and a lamp in the drizzle.
Theme: Historical mystery
