CHINA , 1237 A.D.

Genghis Khan is dead, but the Mongolians, led by his son, continue their assault on the Central Plains. A new generation of martial artists has emerged to face this threat, foremost among them Guo Jing and his wife Lotus Huang. And a new danger stalks the land, with all the fury of a woman scorned – Blithe Li, the Red Serpent Celestial.

It is an encounter with this pitiless foe that reunites Guo Jing with Penance, the son of his treacherous sworn brother, Yang Kang. He resolves to lift the boy from a life of vagrancy and initiate him into the martial world.

Placed under the care of the Quanzhen Sect at their temple in the Zhongnan Mountains, Penance stumbles across the mysterious history behind this most respected martial school. What he uncovers sends him on a journey that will force him to come to terms with his father's past and the secrets of his own heart.

Translated from the Chinese by Gigi Chang