Synopsis
The war-mongering kingdom of Cai has begun to stir once again, the long held peace brought to the brink by a widespread drought. Now, the neighbouring kingdoms of Wei and Shen must ally together to deal with the Cai or see the flames of war spread over both nations once again.
Wu Ying is brought into the negotiations for his reputation and strength, but the former farmer and now Head of the Wandering Gatherers is a fish out of water in these political waters. More and more, he wonders where morality and practicality end as he watches the maneuverings of those in power, all while the hungering maw of the Cai kingdom and its powerful king watch over the squabble.
Between kingdoms and cultivators and the demands of an all consuming dao, can there be a peace that isn’t won at the end of a blade?
Review
So, we get to the penultimate book in this fantastic series and this takes solid and firm steps towards a potentially shattering events in the final book.
After navigating through the political unrest caused by his return to Verdant Green Waters sect, Wu Ying seems to have settled into a modicum of normality supported by his Senior Sister Fa Yuan, his beloved Yang Mu and best friend Tou He. He’s busy settling up and training his Gatherers into a division that will help both the students and the sect, and spends time integrating his wind body into his fighting style all the while making plans to step into full immortality. But then knowing Wu Ying, trouble is always around the corner and so is it here. The neighboring kingdom of Cai has been rattling the borders with both the Wei and Shen kingdoms and a peace summit has been arranged. A blatant assassination attempt right at the introductions signals the start of a landslide into chaos as the stake grow incredible higher with the life and death of not just the participants but entire kingdoms with not even the heavens spared.
Those who have followed the series will have noted the time skips over the past couple of books and it is the same here. The earlier series of his wandering adventures is now balanced by the need to consolidate his benefits. The author does a great job providing the right amount of time skip to not bore us with minutiae while maintaining the thread of his progress smoothly. The court politics is done superbly as we get to see the a plethora of feints, counter feints and intrigue across the board. The suspense keeps building as the hidden players come to light. Despite my best attempts at trying to predict the plot, I was still surprised by not just the climax but also the aftermath. The pacing is spot on as the first quarter sets the scene, the next half fleshes it out and builds the platform for the epic final quarter.
Having gotten this in Kindle, I really appreciated the clickable superscripts providing definition and context to the Chinese terms used throughout.
Overall, a fitting penultimate addition to the series. I clearly have no idea on how the dominoes have fallen given this book’s events and eagerly awaiting the next in series. Not just this book, but the entire series is a must read for anyone looking for an authentic progression/cultivation fantasy.
Highly recommended.
Leave a Reply