Set against the historical backdrop of the An Lushan Rebellion, from the thirteenth year of Tianbao to the second year of Zhide, this story unfolds as a tragic epic. Xiao Jin, an orphan of a military family, bears a false accusation of treason and wields the Anxi Army’s secret art, the Vast Sea Formation-Breaking Blade. Li Yu, a chivalrous member of the imperial clan, is driven by compassion and travels far and wide to save the world with his medical and swordsmanship skills. Shi Chen, an ascetic monk from Shaolin, possesses the sect’s supreme inner arts, yet is forced to break his vows and take life. The three meet in the Gobi Desert and are plunged into the whirlpool of court factionalism, rebel warlords, and a fracturing martial world. A mastermind manipulates the board, using Yang Guozhong and An Lushan to inflame tensions and deliberately ignite chaos, hoping to shatter the decaying power of the aristocratic clans and the imperial throne. The righteous factions of Shaolin, the Beggars’ Sect, and Valley of Ten Thousand Blossoms turn on one another, while the Demonic Cult, the Yinshan Ghost Sect, and the warlords’ martial pavilions align themselves with the rebels. The lines between good and evil become hopelessly blurred. Tong Pass falls, the Mawei Mutiny erupts, and the struggle between righteousness and evil grinds on as the land lies in ruins. In the end, Xiao Jin dies for his country at Yanmen Pass, his name never cleared; Li Yu’s efforts to save the world come to nothing, and he disappears into seclusion on Mount Zhongnan; Shi Chen’s faith is shattered, and he shuts himself away in an ancient temple. No one finds a happy ending. Their tragic fate lays bare how chivalry cannot save a declining age, and how all living beings are merely pieces on the board of their times.
