The Tale of Buzhou

The Tale of Buzhou is a side story in Shu Xia Yuhu's Wilderness series, part of The Mountain Covenant, the first half of Mountains and Seas. The story continues the world of the Great Wilderness from In Search of the Gods and The Wilderness Chronicles: eleven years after the Battle of Banquan, the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan has vanished, his whereabouts and fate unknown; Lei Mu has been poisoned by gu sorcery with no cure; and the Flame Emperor, the White Emperor, and the Dragon Clan's King Who Calms the Sea are entrusted in the crisis with supporting the young lord Qingyang. Meanwhile, old nobles of the five clans seize the chance to obstruct the Twelve States plan, and the Dark Woman recruits old followers, stirring up rebellion everywhere in the name of restoring the rule of the Divine Emperor. Unlike earlier books in the series, this novel is told in first person, with Gonggong (Qiao Gonggong), son of Chiyou and Bingyi, as the protagonist. He wakes on the frozen plains of the North Sea, burdened by his family's blood feud and heavy expectations, determined to climb Kunlun and reclaim everything that is his, yet he repeatedly loses his way amid the ice and snow of the far north and a chase spanning thousands of miles north and south. The book revolves around his feelings and grievances with the serpent girl Luo Yun and with Xiangliu, moving through places such as the North Sea Pillar, Mount Buzhou, and the shaman valley of the southern frontier, and using images such as the Nüwa Flower, the Yin-Yang Herb, and the Formless Blade to write of two lifetimes of the Water God and three generations of entangled grudges, setting the struggle for power alongside the single word of love. It continues the author's ornate, emotionally charged storytelling style. The book has fourteen chapters plus an epilogue and runs about 430,000 characters.