The Last Record of Cold River

In the final years of the Great Shuo dynasty, the Northern Di cavalry watches the northern frontier like a tiger stalking its prey. Regional warlords carve up the land, and the realm falls into turmoil. Long ago, the Perfected Lord Xuanyue left behind the peerless martial arts manual, The Record of Rivers and Mountains Returning to the Origin. Fearing that it might fall into the hands of the ambitious, he tore the book into several fragments and scattered them across the land. In the martial world, seven renowned masters each hold sway over their own territory. Some seek the fragments, some protect the people, and some pursue grand ambitions amid the chaos. Each has their own designs.

Shen Yan, a youth from Qingshi Village, was the son of a humble fishing and farming family. One night, disaster struck and the entire village was destroyed. As his father lay dying, he gave Shen Yan half of a wooden token and one final piece of advice: Martial arts are not for fighting over treasures or seeking revenge, but for protecting others. Carrying the burden of a blood feud, Shen Yan ventures into the vast martial world with the token. Along the way, he meets Su Qingwu, a girl from an island, and the two travel together.

The Shuo River stretches for thousands of miles, from the lonely islands of the East Sea to the deserts of the Western Regions, from the miasma-ridden mountains of the southern frontier to the northern grasslands. As they journey onward, masters from every faction, martial sects, warlord-trained fighters, and Northern Di spies appear one after another, all pursuing the fragments of the Record of Returning to the Origin. Shen Yan navigates the company of the seven renowned masters, witnesses the hypocrisy of prestigious clans, glimpses the ambitions of warlords, and sees the suffering of common folk driven from their homes by the chaos.

Personal vengeance and the fate of the realm are intertwined, as martial arts and morality are weighed against each other. As the scattered fragments gradually come together, the young man will ultimately face a choice: Is peerless martial arts a blade for revenge, or a responsibility to protect the world?