The Nine-Thousand-Year-Old in the City

You know medicine? You can heal people, ghosts, and heavenly gods.

You know martial arts? The Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms, the Dugu Nine Swords, the Seventy-Two Transformations... Er, I made that last one up.

He established the Inner Court and took the Eastern and Western Courts under his wing. A ruthless despot with countless tricks, he was granted imperial edicts bearing equal rank to the emperor. Known as the Ninth Thousand-Year-Old, he stood below only one person and above everyone else.

But how could such a formidable man possibly have been... The next ten thousand words are omitted. Read the novel to find out.