Prologue

Prologue

The last emperor died more than a hundred years ago.

Later generations said it was Heaven's will to end a dynasty that had lost the Way. Beyond the Pass, the barbarian tribes who worshipped the Sa Cult drove straight for the Great Wall; within it, Henan lay buried under snow in the tenth month, locusts stripped Hubei bare, and crushing taxes and forced labor met famine on every road. The people traded their children to eat and split the bones for fuel; husbands sold their wives, fathers cast off their sons—a sight no man could bear to look upon.

Out of such times a hero was forged—

The Wrathful King rose in fury, and all the land was shaken!

As it is said:

Hatred for a tyrant's foul and reeking reign, The fires of revolt against cruel Qin lit once again. Blade and spear raised up to right the earth and sky, That in the world made new no soul should starve and die.

The Insurgent Army, raised from the heroes of the martial world, broke through the Capital. Next they faced the fierce barbarian tribes of the Sa Cult, and the last iron cavalry of the Great Wall, led by Grand General You Changbo.

In one great battle at Hongxia Pass, the Wrathful King, the Barbarian King, and You Changbo—three figures who tipped the balance of the age—all fell together. The Sa Cult worshippers withdrew beyond the Pass; the Loyalist Army, left without a head, scattered as warlords carved out their own domains, while the sects and gates of the martial world attached themselves to one master or another, forging alliances and counter-alliances. From that day strongholds rose on every hill, and across Shenzhou no dynasty ruled again.

Ten years on, the last of the warlords, Zuo Liangbi, was beset by the Four Great Houses on Mount Diancang and slain.

Twenty years after that, Gu Langya, master of the Qingcheng Sect, summoned the Nine Great Houses to the Kunlun Council and laid down the laws of the jianghu: whoever broke them, all the heroes together would destroy.

From then on, the martial world lived not within the martial world alone, but beneath the whole of heaven.