The Sword Hidden in the Cold River

In the 372nd year of the Dajing era, the martial world had rotted to the core. The prestigious orthodox sects formed cliques for personal gain, while demonic cults and heretical sects upheld honor and conscience. The imperial court’s Martial Suppression Bureau slaughtered heroes and subdued the Dao. Aristocratic clans and sects monopolized martial arts, leaving the common people of the realm with no chance to practice them for their entire lives. Lin Jiang, an orphan from the ferry crossing at Hanjiang, was born with severed meridians and a crippled body. Unable to circulate true qi, he was condemned to a lifetime without martial arts. He lived at the very bottom of the martial world, seeing heroes use their strength to bully others, the hypocrisy of the righteous, right and wrong turned upside down, and human lives treated like grass. At fifteen, a wrongful massacre at the ferry crossing made him see the truth at last: The martial world has no right or wrong, only strength and weakness. The human world has no justice, only life and death. On the brink of death, he awakened the ancestral fragment, the Hanjiang Hidden Sword Art. His severed meridians were not a defect. They had been locked by the Martial Suppression Bureau. Others cultivated true qi, techniques, and the legacy of their sects. He alone drew breath from the river and concealed a sword in wind and snow, nurturing the heart of his martial path with the warmth and coldness of the human world. Others practiced martial arts to fight for fame and fortune in the martial world. He practiced the sword to shatter the injustice of the world. The common folk can’t practice martial arts? Then I’ll cleave open the barriers to the martial path. The righteous rule the land? Then I’ll expose a century of hypocrisy. The imperial court suppresses heroes? Then with one sword over the frigid Hanjiang, I’ll quell every weapon under heaven. The youth keeps his sword hidden and walks alone through a chaotic martial world. From a nobody at the ferry crossing to a force that stirs the balance between black and white. From being known by no one to making his sword command the mountains and rivers. I, Lin Jiang, entered the world not to become a god or attain immortality, but to ensure that no one dies unjustly on this cold river again.