Chapter 1: One Man, One Bird, One Blade

In Yunzhou City of the Great Liang Empire, a midsummer shower came and went in a flash, leaving behind muddy streets and scattered pear blossoms. Amidst the bustling noise of the post-rain streets, a convoy slowly approached. Leading them was a young man in a black robe, a large black bird perched on his shoulder. With a resolute gaze, he led thirteen martial artists clad in straw raincoats and bamboo hats, sabers hanging at their waists.

"Steamed buns!"

"Candied hawthorns for sale!"

Amidst the cries of the street vendors, passersby cast curious glances at this group, which carried a rare air of the martial world.

The young man stopped outside the Zhenyuan Escort Agency. Two escorts stood before the grand entrance, which was framed by yellow wood and blue roof tiles. One of them stepped forward and asked, "Who goes there?"

"Ye Jingtang," the young man replied.

"I've never heard of you. Are you here to commission an escort, or..."

"To challenge your hall," the young man answered simply.

The street fell silent instantly. Passersby gathered around.

"What's going on?"

"A challenge! Such a scene is truly rare in the capital..."

Seeing the young man's hostile intent, the two escorts' faces darkened.

"This is the capital. Private brawling is strictly forbidden," one escort said. "Our proprietor is a law-abiding businessman. We don't accept challenges. If you have a grievance with him, you can beat the drum at the magistrate's court to seek justice..."

The onlookers began to boo.

"Bah!"

"And you call yourselves martial artists? Someone has come to challenge you, and you tell them to report to the authorities? How pathetic!"

The young man unfastened the saber from his waist, tossed it to a follower behind him, and said empty-handed, "Call your chief escort out. One fight, and I will leave."

One of the escorts tried to slip away to report to the officials, but the young man's followers blocked him.

Seven or eight men rushed out from behind the agency's gates, holding sabers and spears, their faces filled with rage. From deep within the compound came a booming voice:

"Boy, it's fine to be young and impetuous, but you'd better keep your eyes open..."

Everyone looked over to see a burly man in a rich brocade robe walking out from the main hall of the courtyard. His calloused right hand spun two iron walnuts. Seeing him, the escorts at the gate quickly called out, "Master Chen, this kid is here to cause trouble."

The onlookers grew excited, murmuring among themselves.

"Even Chen Biao has come out."

"Will this handsome lad be beaten to death?"

"No one dares to kill in the capital. At most, he'll spit blood."

"He's so handsome, it would be a pity to see him spit blood..."

Suddenly, with a sharp whistle of wind, the young man leaped over the high gates of the agency like a soaring eagle and landed in the courtyard. Startled, Chen Biao instinctively threw his two iron walnuts, but the young man swept them aside with a flick of his sleeve. Before Chen Biao could react, a hand gripped his throat.

*Thud!*

Chen Biao was pinned against a pillar behind him, knocking loose several black tiles from the eaves. The tiles shattered on the ground. The dozen or so escorts in the courtyard shuddered, their eyes filled with terror.

Chen Biao's face went pale with fright, and he cried out hastily, "Young hero, wait! I'm just a chief escort. If you have a grudge, go to the proprietor. Don't take it out on me!"

Holding Chen Biao by the throat, the young man tilted his head toward an old swordsman outside. "His name is Yang Chao. From now on, he is the chief escort, and you are the second-in-command. Understood?"

Chen Biao was utterly baffled, but with his throat gripped, he dared not argue. He could only spread his hands. "Young hero, we are a legitimate business that pays commercial taxes on time, not some lawless martial arts dock. If the proprietor doesn't agree, I can't make the decision even if you beat me to death!"

"My father is Shao Yuanfeng, the younger brother of your proprietor. He ordered me to deliver the family estate to you. From now on, these men belong to the Zhenyuan Escort Agency. If they are mistreated, I will hold you personally responsible."

Chen Biao froze. He sized up the black-robed youth, asking in disbelief, "You're the Second Master's son?! Why is your surname Ye?"

The young man did not answer. He pulled out a stack of official banknotes, each worth a hundred taels, slapped them against Chen Biao's chest, and turned to leave.

Outside the gate, the neighbors were stunned. They whispered to one another:

"What superb martial arts..."

"Is this the young master of the Shao family?"

"It sounds like it... The Shao family did have a second son, but that was twenty or thirty years ago..."

The twelve escort riders who had followed him had complicated expressions. Yang Chao, their leader, handed the saber back to the young man as he walked out. He advised, "Young Master, why must you do this? The old master loved to talk nonsense when drunk; you didn't have to take it seriously. Now that you've left with nothing, where can you go?"

"The martial world," the young man replied.

He took the saber, returned it to his waist, and let his pet bird perch on his shoulder. He looked at the morning sun on the horizon and took a soft breath. Though he appeared carefree, a trace of bewilderment flashed in his clear eyes—a feeling that though the world was vast, there was no place to call home.

Ye Jingtang had lived in this era of the Great Liang for eighteen years.

His memories began to return when he was two or three years old. He had grown up in an escort agency in a small border town of Great Liang, an orphan picked up by the agency's owner, Shao Yuanfeng, during an escort mission. Shao Yuanfeng named him Ye Jingtang and adopted him.

In his youth, Shao Yuanfeng had been injured in a fight. He remained unmarried and childless all his life, showing an extreme "concern" for his adopted son's upbringing—corporal punishment three times a day, doubled on holidays. He had forcefully beaten Ye Jingtang, who had once dreamed of becoming famous by copying poetry, brewing alcohol, and making soap, into the agency's top fighter.

Last month, Shao Yuanfeng drank excessively and passed away at the table after a night of heavy drinking.

While sorting through his adoptive father's belongings, Ye Jingtang found a letter.

It was a letter Shao Yuanfeng had written in advance to prepare for the unexpected. It mentioned three things:

First, Shao Yuanfeng was no ordinary man; he had once been a renowned expert in the martial world. He had planned to teach Ye Jingtang a peerless saber technique once the boy came of age, depending on his character. However, since Ye Jingtang was reading this letter, it meant they lacked the fate for it. As his adoptive father, Shao Yuanfeng hoped he would cultivate his own saber arts and seek out the person who had injured him to take revenge.

Whether Shao Yuanfeng was truly an expert no longer mattered. Ye Jingtang believed that avenging his father was only natural, so he had no objections to this.

Perhaps worried that Ye Jingtang would have nowhere to learn advanced martial arts, Shao Yuanfeng revealed a secret as the second point—when the previous dynasty fell, his master had taken advantage of the chaos to slip into the imperial palace and steal a fragment of the *Scroll of the Dragon's Roar*.

Rumor had it that the *Scroll of the Dragon's Roar* was a supreme manual containing nine mystical arts. Mastering even one would allow a person to surpass ordinary mortals, while mastering all nine would grant immortality and ascension to godhood.

However, due to the fierce battles at the time, his master could not carry it out of the palace. Instead, he buried it under a ginkgo tree in the inner palace. Shao Yuanfeng hoped that if Ye Jingtang ever had the chance, he would enter the palace to retrieve it.

Reading this, Ye Jingtang felt utterly helpless.

From the description, the *Scroll of the Dragon's Roar* seemed to be the "cheat code" or "system" he had spent eighteen years waiting for.

Naturally, he desired such a unique treasure. But it was hidden in the inner palace of the imperial city. How was he, a grown man, supposed to retrieve it? Was he expected to castrate himself and sneak in as a eunuch?

Did he have to castrate himself just to practice this martial art?

This task was practically impossible for Ye Jingtang. But the final matter in the letter had an even greater impact on him:

Shao Yuanfeng had left home at a young age and never returned, feeling he had failed his parents. He commanded Ye Jingtang to sell the escort agency's assets and send all the proceeds to the Shao family in the capital, leaving nothing for Ye Jingtang.

Had he not seen the letter with his own eyes, Ye Jingtang would not even have known that his lonely adoptive father had family.

Though they shared no blood, Shao Yuanfeng had rescued him and raised him to adulthood. It was an immense debt of gratitude, one that Ye Jingtang had not yet had the chance to repay.

Anyone else might have ignored the letter, since no one else knew of it.

But Ye Jingtang was different. His past life was gone. In this world, Shao Yuanfeng was his only family. Even without blood ties, the man had saved him and raised him.

In the end, this orphan who grew up in a border town agency followed his adoptive father's final wishes. He sold the agency and brought the twelve escorts willing to follow him, along with their families, to the capital of Great Liang. As a grown man, he could not live under someone else's roof. Now that he had settled his adoptive father's old subordinates and handed the family estate over to the Shao family, Ye Jingtang had bid a complete farewell to his past. He was now a penniless, drifting wanderer of the martial world.

Leading his black horse, he walked aimlessly through the bustling crowd along the street, somewhat lost in thought. But after only a few steps, two sharp clacks sounded beside him. A wooden rod supporting a second-floor window fell, rolling to his feet. He looked up toward the window and saw a charming, voluptuous silhouette come into view...