Chapter 1: Plum Blossoms Battle at Jinchuan

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The ninth month of the five hundred and eighty-eighth year of the Yuxing era. The northwestern reaches of the Tianyu Empire. Jinchuan City.

Tall and imposing walls rose from the Jinchuan grasslands. What had once been a vast and prosperous steppe, thick with merchant caravans, had become a battlefield, scarred in every direction by the ravages of war.

Silkweed moss, resembling strands of kelp yet rooted to the earth, spread wildly across the ground, drinking deep from the blood and flesh it found there, feasting upon the corpses of tens of thousands of rebel soldiers whose bones had long since been laid bare.

Crows clamored for the abundance of rotting flesh, their blood-stained beaks tearing at chunks of meat. Yet there was far more carrion than birds to consume it, and in their greed the wretched creatures fell upon one another in a writhing, shrieking mass.

Then, without warning, a sound like rolling thunder came from the east.

The crows scattered in every direction.

Across the earth, a great water dragon ran wild — the floodwaters of the Hai River surged like a rampaging leviathan toward Jinchuan City, unstoppable and absolute.

Jinchuan City, already encircled by the magnificent armies of Tianyu, flew a battle banner bearing the character "Bo" from its walls, the flag trembling uncertainly in the autumn wind.

"Report, Commander — the embankment at the Hai River outside the city has been breached. Water is entering the city."

"All forces, take to the boats and enter the city! Capture Bo Bai alive! Heaven bless Tianyu!"

"Fight! Fight! Fight!"

"Elder Brother, let us make swift work of this!"

Amid the earth-shaking battle cries, a young general stepped forward.

He wore a suit of gleaming jade-colored rhinoceros-hide armor, and at his waist hung a jade-colored sword. The blade, evidently wrought from fine jade-stone, had been sharpened along both edges.

This was no ornamental weapon.

The recurve bow slung at his hip was already drawn taut with readiness.

This man was Dai Longmei, fifth and youngest brother of the commanding general Dai Rusong.

His face shone like a bright star. His jade-colored eyes were sharp as a hawk's, and the proud arch of his nose lent his brow an air of martial spirit. At nine feet tall, with a physique as powerful as a mountain bear, he cut an imposing figure even among the seasoned veterans of the Tianyu army.

"Let your little brother lead the vanguard into the city. Together with Brother Bo, we shall break the enemy and lay that wolf-clan traitor utterly to waste."

Before Dai Longmei stood a powerfully built general, his beard thick and curling, clad in a crisp suit of rhinoceros-hide armor, his expression one of warm satisfaction.

This was Dai Rusong — the supreme commander of the pacification campaign, the Western Expedition's Commander-in-Chief, and eldest son of Liao Prince Dai Chenglong.

Dai Rusong had intended to keep this fifth brother, whom he cherished above all others, close to his side as a personal guard. He had always favored this brother dearly.

But seeing the fierce and eager light in the young man's eyes—

Dai Rusong laughed out loud.

"Very well, very well! Fifth Brother shall lead the First Household Guard Battalion into the city! Follow your Brother Bo and break the enemy!"

Dai Longmei smiled lightly and accepted the order with pleasure, turning to go. Yet the composed Dai Rusong called after him once more:

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"Mei — remember."

"Capture Bo Bai alive!"

"Understood, this officer obeys!"

Dai Longmei strode down from the command platform with vigorous steps.

The men of the First Household Guard Battalion were already drawn up in formation, awaiting orders.

More than a thousand tall warriors stood in solemn silence.

They stood like a wall of iron, their rhinoceros-hide armor bearing dragon-scale markings that caught the light. Each man's shoulder guards were adorned with jade-green dragon heads — for in the Tianyu Empire, the deep green of jade was the symbol of the imperial house, the color of greatness and noble honor.

Bronze helms upon their heads, eighty-stone recurve bows at their hips, four-foot jade blades at their sides — a formation of a thousand men, impenetrable as bronze walls and iron ramparts.

The gleaming, brilliantly-armored Liaodong household guards stood out sharply even among the ranked frontier troops of Jinyuan and Longright assembled beside them.

"First Battalion, hear my order!"

"We hear and obey!"

The thunderous cry rang out, shaking all who stood near.

"Board the boats with me, enter the city, and break through the enemy's lines!"

"Break through! Break through! Break through!"

The household battalion advanced in perfect order and boarded the vessels.

As the great warriors passed by the ordinary frontier soldiers, curiosity and awe slowly gave way to whispered murmurs.

"Say, how is it that these Liao men's household guards are so ferocious? I heard that a few days ago, during the assault on the outer fortifications around Jinchuan, thirty Liaodong household guards charged into that old traitor Bo Bai's camp and cut down over two hundred fierce wolf-men."

"Heavens above — those jade blades just slashing and hacking through the formation, and the wolf-clan heads just tumbling to the ground one after another. And the officer leading them was the first one to tear down the rebel banner. Those Longright men didn't even get a chance to join in."

"I'll tell you, I actually watched these fellows fight. Every single one of them is a master of the bow. You know the technique of shooting at five paces? That lot never stopped loosing arrows — using them like hailstones. Even when they were five or six paces from the enemy line, still shooting!"

"Lord above — imagine it. An eighty-pound recurve bow sending arrows into your face, five or six shots in a row. No matter how fierce those wolf-clan pups are, they can't withstand a volley like that. And then when the blades come out — can ordinary leather armor hold against that?"

"Well, these gentlemen are wearing rhinoceros-hide armor, twenty pounds of it, made from the finest woolly rhinoceros hides out of Liaodong. The wolf-clan arrows can't pierce it."

"Is it really that remarkable?"

"I swear it on my life — I saw it with my own eyes. Those gentlemen in that armor just charged and charged, and not one of them was shot dead!"

"They're like a pack of monsters."

"Exactly. Frightening just to look at."

"Right, but I heard from a relative who'd been to Liaodong that these household guards are all orphans who appeared out of nowhere on the Liaodong tundra. And my uncle said that all of them, they don't have a—"

"Hush, hush! Watch your mouth. You want these gentlemen to overhear you? How many lives do you think you have?"

"Oh — yes, yes, of course..."

As they made their way to the docks, these strange murmurs drifted to Dai Longmei's ears.

"Zhu, people are saying the men of our household battalion have no seed. Tell me — are they right or wrong?"

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The tall warrior at Dai Longmei's side immediately bellowed his reply:

"Which bastard said that? Step out and fight me one on one — my bow's been hungry for a good meal!"

This armored warrior, standing nine feet tall, bore no resemblance to an ordinary household guard.

He had the head of a wolf — fearsome and unmistakable — with a coat of long white fur, every bit the image of one of the northern wolf-clan. Ordinary frontier soldiers were deeply unnerved by the sight of him.

But to the Dai family and the Liaodong army, the name of Long Zhu — "Zhu the Wolf Lord" — had long since become a legend.

Though he was a wolf-clan warrior raised by Liao Prince Dai Chenglong, Long Zhu had been steeped in the culture of the Tianyu Empire from childhood. Having witnessed with his own eyes the savagery and cruelty of the wolf-clan, he had come to believe with unshakeable conviction that the principle the jade-people upheld — "protect the borders, keep the people safe, let the realm know peace" — was right and true.

And so he had turned his back upon his own kind, choosing instead to fight shoulder to shoulder with the sons of the prince who had once saved his life, and with the Liaodong household guards who had become his brothers.

He and Dai Longmei had long since forged a bond sealed in blood.

Long Zhu's fierce retort left the small soldiers with nothing to say.

"Whether we have seed or not — we'll settle that inside Jinchuan City."

Dai Longmei turned abruptly and seized a frontier soldier by the shoulder.

"Isn't that right, little brother?"

"Yes — yes, sir, you are absolutely right, sir."

Watching the soldier tremble with anxious deference, Dai Longmei smiled.

Then with a single leap he was aboard the war boat, his right hand resting on the recurve bow at his hip. He turned and waved confidently up at his elder brother on the command platform.

The war boats set off at once, carrying their band of valiant men toward Jinchuan City.

Sixteen years of age, dashing and full of spirit, an unrivaled archer, galloping a thousand li in the finest years of his life — our protagonist, one might say, has taken the stage and begun his role!

And yet — look closely, dear reader. Upon Dai Longmei's back, there stirred a faint and barely perceptible breath of qi, rising from somewhere deep within him. That qi seemed to take the shape of a jade dragon, roaring toward the direction of Jinchuan City.

Elder brother Dai Rusong seemed to catch a glimpse of this strange change in his brother, but the vision was gone in an instant, and from such a distance he could not be certain of what he had seen.

"That Mei of ours — older in years, yet his spirit burns hotter than ever."

"Hah. He truly is our family's jade dragon."