Stars Fall into the Long River: Song of the North Wind

Shen Du, a hostage prince from the Northern Wastelands, was sent to Zhongzhou at the age of five and held there for ten years. Everyone called him a good-for-nothing. He had practiced archery for ten years, yet every arrow missed the target, never even grazing its edge. On the wedding night of the Ninth Prince, black-feathered arrows from the Iron Buddha pierced the palace walls, and blood stained the banquet. Blood welled from his fingertips. His star meridians awakened, and the secret he had kept hidden for ten years could no longer remain concealed. The Tianshu Pavilion wanted to seal him away and turn him into a weapon. The Iron Buddha wanted to take his star blood and refine it into power. His birth father, far away in the Northern Wastelands, had already marked him as a sacrificial offering to raise the battle banner. The whole world was forcing him to become the "chosen star scion" and follow the path laid out for him. But he refused. That night, he took an old blade and escaped through a secret passage out of Chengtian City, accompanied by Yueming, a fugitive slave missing a finger, and Yange, an orphan girl clutching a book. The world was scrambling for the power of the stars, seeking immortality and a seat among the gods. But he headed west, bound for the summit of the Western Ranges, to return the power abandoned by the gods to the sky. The wind comes from the north; I journey south. I break through mountains and cleave through waves. When I reach the end of the waters and the edge of the sky, I bid farewell to the northern wind and forge my own chapter.