The Phoenix’s Path to Glory

The feudal lords vie for power, and the world is in turmoil.

He is the most tempestuous and legendary ruler in the histories of Jin: patient and calculating, ruthless and decisive.

When he watched that massacre with cold eyes, he was only an eight-year-old boy.

She is the illegitimate daughter of a century-old clan, bullied and mistreated.

Legend has it that her mother was exceptionally gifted and peerlessly beautiful, yet brought her home after having an affair during a sacrificial rite.

In the official histories,

he spent nineteen years exiled in a foreign land. When he finally returned, he seized power in an instant. “In an age of chaos, survival is all that matters. Only victory and defeat count. What place is there for right and wrong?”

She has a heart of crystal, lays intricate schemes, tames strange beasts, and crafts mystic talismans. With the man who looks down on all beneath heaven, she fights to the death.

Yet secret histories tell a different story, for once he broke into the Temple of Heaven alone.

The figure hidden behind the swirling incense smoke looked down at him and spoke in a cool voice, without sorrow or joy: “I can raise you to the clouds, and I can send you to hell.”