A Humble Mortal Makes His Way in the World

An ordinary village boy digs up a wild yam and finds an all-iron hatchet. It looks like an ordinary tool, yet it can chop through magical treasures of any grade. After eating one yam, he discovers that it can cleanse and strengthen his body and improve the quality of his Metal spiritual root. By chance, he joins a small local martial sect and becomes an outer disciple. From there, he embarks on the long road of cultivation. The Great Wu Empire is beset by internal strife and external threats, teetering on the brink of collapse. When two major sects clash, Ye Fan flees his sect. Recruited from his village, he joins the border army and becomes an archer stationed at a beacon tower eighty li from the frontier city.

Everyone is deceitful, danger lurks everywhere, and affection is as flimsy as paper. A steadfast will and a sharp mind are all he can rely on. In this remote corner of the empire, Ye Fan vigorously develops infrastructure and military strength, raising troops at a breakneck pace. He also takes up profitable businesses like brewing wine, making ice, and refining salt, all of them tied to political interests. The winds of change rise once more. Iron resolve, tender affection, smoke from a thousand miles of battlefields, and the neighing of countless warhorses! This is the Great Wu Dynasty: a turbulent age of prosperity, where loyal ministers are persecuted and chaos is about to erupt. Either you become someone else's blade, or you take up a sharp blade of your own. One thought can change the heavens and the earth.