The Phantom Tribulation

In the turbulent martial world, a legend has long been passed down: A sinister star descends, the Phantom Realm of Poluo reappears in the mortal world, and the Hero's Tomb is once again exposed to the light of day. The world falls into chaos. At midnight on the first day of the first lunar month in the seventh year of the Tianbao era of the Great Tang, three eerie planets suddenly appeared in the dim, lightless sky, radiating countless rays of red light that illuminated the entire firmament in an instant. A moment later, the three stars converged and became one, then plummeted suddenly from the horizon. In an age of peace and prosperity, such an uncanny celestial phenomenon appeared without warning, giving rise to all kinds of speculation among the people, with no consensus in sight. In the fourth month of that same year, Geluofeng, king of Nanzhao, raised an army against Yaozhou and killed Zhang Qiantuo, the governor-general. Xianyu Zhongtong led an army of eighty thousand to invade Nanzhao. Three years later, Sulüshili, king of Bolü, led an army of a hundred and fifty thousand across the Congling Mountains and the Yarkand River, advancing on the Shule Protectorate. Longyou Circuit was in urgent danger, and Feng Changqing was appointed in a crisis to lead an expedition against Bolü. Two years after that, An Lushan, who held the three military governorships of Fanyang, Pinglu, and Hedong, raised an army of a hundred and fifty thousand, claiming it numbered two hundred thousand. He launched his rebellion from Fanyang, setting in motion the An Lushan Rebellion, which plunged the realm into eight years of turmoil. For a time, the flourishing Great Tang stood on the brink of collapse. The people were plunged into misery, and countless lives were destroyed.