Thirteen Talismans

By the Queen Mother Pool on Mount Tai, the orphan Lu Chen, caretaker of a temple, lives with the lotus spirit Yao Ji. On the night the Jade Register of the Fengshan Rite rises from the water, the old temple master reveals Lu Chen's origins before dying: he is descended from Sun Wu, the Sage of War, and carries ancient blood that commands the armies of the Three Realms. To protect him, Yao Ji gives up all her cultivation and becomes a withered lotus. The thirteen chapters of The Art of War become thirteen military talismans scattered across the land of Qi and Lu. Carrying the Jade Register, Lu Chen sets out to find them and gathers companions along the way: the brave, guileless Daoist Shi Dali; the morally ambiguous strategist Shen Qingya; the magnanimous merchant Yan Chixiao; the Guigu heir Yi Tianxing; and the wandering swordsman Helan Xiao. The swordswoman Gongsun Yan, the fated woman Jiang Yueming, and the two celebrated beauties of the Shuyu Poetry House, Su Yunshang and Su Wanqing, join them, each bound by destiny and loyalty. Zhao Wujiu, a descendant of the Zhao clan that performed the Fengshan Rite, plans to sacrifice the thirteen talismans to open the Gate of Guixu and unleash the ancient demon Xuanming to devour the Three Realms. Driven by jealousy, Xiao Hansheng falls into the half-demon path, while Duan Wujiu uses a scheme of sowing discord to tear the brothers apart. Shen Qingya betrays the group three times and returns three times, ultimately stealing the heart of Guixu with his broken body. His flesh and bones are shattered, and the final military talisman appears from the ashes: he himself was the last piece in a strategy laid by the bloodline of warriors a thousand years ago. The thirteen talismans gather atop Mount Tai, and the light of the Fengshan Rite bridges heaven and earth. Xuanming is annihilated, and Guixu is sealed forever. A new lotus quietly blooms in the Queen Mother Pool. A master of war stands on ground where defeat is impossible. This time, he won.