A Phoenix Forged From Broken Bones

On the snowiest day in Longzhong, Lu Jiuyao died in the mouths of refugees. Starving mad, they tore at her flesh and limbs...

She was the only daughter of a family of military commanders, a disciple of Master Qingyun, skilled with sword and spear, talismans and medicine, music and painting. She was the finest young woman in all of Longzhong.

That day, the Crown Prince led the army to war, and the entire Marquis's household was lost in the swirling dust of Hanyang Pass. Lu Jiuyao sacrificed half her face and risked her life to get him back to the capital, because he had promised that once he ascended the throne, she would be Empress, mother to all under heaven.

But later, the emperor reveled in song and dance night after night, lost in the pleasures of the inner chambers, while she was banished to the Cold Palace. Alone with a solitary lamp and the desolate autumn wind, she watched her last shreds of sanity erode.

Every member of the Lu Ping Marquis household, a family of military men, had been nothing more than a stepping stone on his path to power. All he said was, "Lu Jiuyao, have you ever seen an empress from any dynasty who was an ugly monster?"

When she opened her eyes again, she had been reborn to the time when she and Chu Yu had just become engaged. Only then did she discover that the mad prince of the Mad Prince's manor, the one who killed and drank blood, had been visiting her chambers every night, whispering sweet nothings with her.

In her previous life, she had backed the wrong horse.

In this life, she wouldn't marry the Crown Prince. She would marry the mad prince...