In the final years of the Ming dynasty, corrupt officials held sway, the court was incompetent, and the people suffered. The martial world, too, was awash in bloodshed as factions fought over a saber called Zhan Yue and a secret manual titled The Zhan Yue Saber Manual. Legend had it that the saber and the manual contained not only martial arts secrets, but also a vast treasure. Whoever obtained them could command the martial world and unite the land. The martial world was thrown into chaos, with the great sects eyeing one another suspiciously and fighting among themselves. But what none of them expected was that the treasures they were fighting over were part of an elaborate trap set by the imperial court to suppress and eliminate forces that threatened its rule. More astonishing still, the plot was not the court's doing at all, but the work of a powerful eunuch named Wei Zhong. He had plotted to usurp the throne and staged this tragedy in the martial world to that end.
