The Snow-Fishing Saber on the Cold River

Winter, Year 17 of the Jinghe era. Heavy snow beyond Youdu Pass buried half the Great Wall. All 370 members of Su Mo's household, the greatest swordsman of the age, fell on the steps of the Northern Garrison General's residence. The court issued a wanted notice, claiming he had secretly colluded with the Northern Di and secretly drawn maps of the realm's defenses, intending to lead 100,000 cavalrymen against the pass. The nine great sects of the realm joined forces to eradicate evil, splitting the Su family's Snow-Fishing Saber into three pieces. Su Mo's head was hung from the walls of Yanjing for public display for three months, and even his bones were gnawed clean by wild dogs. No one knew that amid the chaos of that day, a wet nurse in a blue cotton jacket had carried the youngest Su child, still swaddled, and fled south through snow up to her knees, clutching half a burned sword manual and half a broken blade. Twenty years passed, and no one in the martial world spoke Su Mo's name anymore. Only an old fisherman by the Cold River would sometimes hum a tune no one understood when he got drunk: “Fish for snow, fish for snow, the Cold River will not break.”