[Xianxia, fantasy, youth literature, mystery, martial arts, new wuxia] In a hidden corner of the land of Jiuzhou, Dong'an Town in northern Yuezhou, a mysterious visitor known as “Old Cao” arrives. Near an abandoned mining area, he builds a small courtyard far from the towns and lives in seclusion. Seventeen years later, “Old Cao” suddenly dies, yet a “person” flies out from this place and unleashes a bloody storm across Jiuzhou. In Nanhuai City, capital of the Tang Kingdom of Wanzhou, four corpses with bizarre causes of death are discovered. On the night they are taken to the morgue, the four bodies are stolen by an unidentified but immensely powerful “person,” leaving behind only a “severed palm.” Soon afterward, the Feather-clan wanderer Yun Zhan escorts the human princess Shi Qiutong to Nanhuai City, where he happens upon a murder case. A giant-clan apothecary has been killed with a single punch. Yun Zhan pursues the murderer, only to discover that it is his foster father, who has been dead for twenty years. As the investigation deepens, the truth grows increasingly elusive: the century-old unsolved tragedy known as the Sorrow of Xiayang, in which Tiangqu and Chenyue suffered devastating losses; the assassin organization Bloodfeather Society, drawn into the affair; mysterious artificers and puppets; and the mystery of Yun Zhan's origins all gradually come to light.
