Upright Ximen Qing

The most solemn redemption in history—on the day Ximen Qing takes hold of the Dragon Scale Lock, the fate of the Great Song Dynasty hangs by a single thread of his will. In his herbal pharmacy, he refines not just medicine, but corrupt officials with a single palm of power. Using the purple robes of first-rank ministers as fuel and the brittle bones of third-rank sycophants as kindling, he prescribes a grand remedy for a dynasty teetering on the brink of the Jingkang Catastrophe. In this cauldron brew, the lavish fortunes of Bianjing are built of seven parts blood from the people and three parts extracted marrow. As for the bloodstained walls of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun—how many stones are carved with the unavenged grief of the Yang generals, and how many with the kneeling bones of Shi Jingtang? When the golden-hoofed Jurchen troops thunder toward the border, ten thousand medicinal puppets stand arrayed along the Yellow River. Need the shame of Jingkang ever be avenged? When Ximen Qing crushes the skulls of every corrupt court official and strides into the Chuigong Hall, Emperor Zhao Ji turns pale and trembles: "Sir... what is it that you intend?" Ximen Qing smiles, fingers tracing the Dragon Scale Lock, and replies: "Your Majesty, come now—drink this bowl of medicine..."