A city boy has his soul mistakenly seized by the Black and White Impermanence. The boy bargains with the King of Hell, who compensates him with reincarnation, a postnatal-grade spirit treasure, the Azurewood Gourd, which produces a drop of spiritual liquid each day, a martial arts technique called the Dragon-Tiger Heaven-Subduing Art, which can make its practitioner an immortal once mastered, and three Dragon-Tiger Pills, each of which increases his strength by 18,000 jin. But his reincarnation goes awry, and he is reborn as a soldier in Fanyang Commandery on the twelfth day of the twelfth month of the fourteenth year of the Tianbao era of the Tang Dynasty, December 2, 755, according to the official historical record. This story combines an urban transmigration, an unexpected encounter in the underworld, and the chaotic era of the Tang Dynasty, creating plenty of dramatic conflict and room for growth. Following the boy’s journey, it shows him relying on the spirit treasure, martial arts technique, and pills bestowed by the underworld to struggle for survival and build his strength amid the chaos, eventually rising beyond the fate of a foot soldier and founding a mighty empire of his own.
