Xu Qing had led a life in which he was no stranger to slaughter. In fact, it had been an instinct from childhood on. He lived in a world in which the weak were the prey of the strong, and he had encountered many, many instances of evil and brutality. If he wanted to keep on living....2

Then he had to resort to slaughter. Wipe out the evildoer, and the result was safety for oneself.0

The slums. The scavenger basecamp. Seven Blood Eyes. Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Sea-Sealing County. Moonrite Region. The imperial capital of humankind. Firemoon territory.... That was the path he had walked. He wasn’t even sure of how many people he had killed. And he had long since stopped using that bamboo slip.19

Perhaps it was only the cold wind formed by the bodies of the dead that remembered how many had fallen to him. And that wind was now blowing across the sea where Xu Qing was.0

The wind was a dark current moving along the seafloor. It contained no sound, only death. For example, as the violet moon rose, its moonlight became a host of sharp blades that, by the time anyone noticed them, would have their weaknesses exposed to them. And then that person would die.0

The six surviving dao protectors...8