The Azure Mandate Empire (青天命王朝 - Qīng Tiānmìng Wángcháo) sprawled across a land blessed by heaven and rich with earth's bounty. From its jade mountains to its fertile river plains, the empire was a tapestry of five provinces, each woven with a unique thread of purpose that sustained the whole.

  At its heart lay the Capital Province (中兴省 - Zhōngxīng Shěng), the political and cultural pulse of the empire. To the north, the Province of Northern Steel (北钢省 - Běi Gāng Shěng) produced the finest weapons and armor for the imperial army. The western Granary Province (粮仓省 - Liángcāng Shěng) was the nation's breadbasket, its fields feeding millions. To the east, the Province of Azure Silk (青绸省 - Qīng Chóu Shěng) was renowned for its master weavers and vibrant trade.

  And then there was the south—the Province of Cursed Earth (厄土省 - è Tǔ Shěng).

  Home to Liánhuā District, it was a land considered forsaken by heaven. Though lush with untouched forests and mineral wealth, a blight had festered here for generations. A strange curse, whispered about for seventy years, had skewed the balance of life, leading to a tragically low male birth rate and a population dominated by women. This desperation had festered into a different kind of resource—a brutal trade in human lives that the empire will fully ignored.

  Dominating the southern landscape of this cursed province was the Devil's Mountain, a vast, untamed wilderness that covered nearly half of the land. A natural fortress teeming with lethal predators and shrouded in myth, it remained unconquered, protected by its treacherous terrain and the legends of its reigning specter—the Mountain Devil. Its proximity to the sea made it a perfect, hidden gateway, one that had recently attracted a new kind of predator.

  They came not as conquerors with armies, but as businessmen with contracts. From the distant Albion Maritime Company of the Federated Isles of Veridia, they arrived at the southern ports with smiles and ledgers. Their public intention was trade and development, but their true purpose was a silent, calculated extraction—to exploit the province's desperate vulnerability and siphon its natural wealth, feeding an empire an ocean away.

  While these foreign serpents coiled themselves around the south, the old guard within the district—men like Captain Zhào and Scribe Wén—watched and waited. Theirs was a quieter war, fought not for riches, but for a vengeance five years in the making, a debt written in the ashes of a family lost to the district's relentless darkness.

  Thirty-two years ago, in Liánhuā District, a young boy was being bullied by four other children. "Hey, look at that guy—he doesn't have a mother. I heard she ran away with a rich man! [Hahaha!]" As the kids laughed, proud of their cruelty toward the four-year-old, his sister stormed over and punched the loudest one.

  "You little bastard," she snapped. "Do you even know who your mother is sleeping with? Do you know the truth, you brat? It's your mother who ran off with a rich man. Our mother died years ago!"

  Hearing the truth unveiled—the very lie he’d tried to pin on another—the bully’s face flushed with shame. The other children, who’d followed him to torment others, now turned and laughed at him.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  The boy who had been bullied was the future Captain Zhào. The girl who defended him was his big sister, Lin Wei.

  On their way home, Lin Wei said, "Zhào, you have to start standing up for yourself. Didn’t you say you wanted to be a soldier who protects the weak?"

  Zhào replied, "But, sister, I’m not strong like you. And Father will scold me if I get into a fight."

  Lin Wei smacked the back of his head. "You little brat, do you think soldiers are afraid of their fathers when it comes to defending what’s right? Standing up for the weak won’t bring you harm. Start training. Stand up against bullies like them."

  Zhào nodded.

  He had never seen his mother’s face—she died just after giving birth to him. From that day on, Lin Wei took care of him, and Zhào saw her as both sister and mother.

  Years passed. Lin Wei turned eighteen. Zhào trained diligently, aiming to earn a place in the district’s army.

  Eventually, Lin Wei married a man from another village. He seemed good and wealthy. They married and moved away.

  "Father, tell Zhào to practice and eat properly. And you—take care of yourself, too."

  Those were the last words Lin Wei spoke to her father, Wén.

  Though he didn’t want to let his daughter leave the village, he trusted and respected her decision.

  For two years, Lin Wei’s marriage was blessed. She even gave birth to a son—a miracle that overwrote the province’s seventy-year curse of low male births, and the twenty-year complete absence of them in her village.

  She and her husband lived in a large house and shared what seemed a healthy life and a happy marriage —until a new alcohol was introduced.

  Lin Wei’s husband became a selling partner alongside a man named Jiǔ Tù—the creator of a super-addictive liquor that eroded drinkers’ wills and (扭曲) twisted their behavior. Customers returned again and again, desperate for more. The business filled their coffers with fortune within just six months.

  One day, Jiǔ Tù said to Lin Wei’s husband, "Hey partner, why don’t you try our product? Check its quality yourself."

  He refused, but Jiǔ Tù forced him. Soon, he was addicted—and Jiǔ Tù seized his full share of the business, leaving him a hollow, craving wreck.

  At home, Lin Wei asked, "Honey, what happened? Why have you been drinking so much?"

  It was then that her happy life began to crumble.

  She endured the beatings and torture—all for her son.

  Twelve years later, on Lunar New Year’s Eve, Zhào and his father came to visit Lin Wei.

  Instead of a reunion, they found a pyre burning under a moonless night. Their eyes couldn't believe what they were witnessing and their hearts refused to believe that its not her house, but no matter how much they tried to not believe their eyes. It was the actual truth. Lin Wei's house was burning and radiating the heat and light in that moonless night...

  From that moment, father and son vowed to avenge their beloved daughter and sister. They began investigating what had turned a good man into a twisted alcoholic who tortured his wife and child. Zhào and Wén joined the magistrate’s office, intent on burning the corrupt district government to the ground.

  Now, at the port, Dr. Kaelen’s men awaited soldiers from the Federated Isles of Veridia.

  Meanwhile, Captain Zhào and his men arrived at the shipyard.

  "[Shhh] We’re here to save you. Just follow us."

  His words kindled hope in women who believed their lives would soon end. They had been bound and prepared for export—to be used as “comforting women” in Veridia.

  Working in tense silence for nearly an hour, Captain Zhào and his team freed them and led them to safety.

  Just as they finished, a ship from Veridia arrived—named The Predator.

  Watching it dock, Dr. Kaelen’s face glowed with a smile.

  Elsewhere in Liánhuā District, Dǔ Guǐ and his men moved out, hunting for the Crimson General—clueless about who, or what, he truly was.