The Imperial Kin

Royal Blood is an alternate-history political intrigue novel by Gao Yue, following his Tang Dynasty Trilogy (The Marquis of Ten Thousand Households of the Great Tang, Illustrious Houses, and All Under Heaven). Serialized on Qidian from 2011 to 2012, the completed work spans 472 chapters and roughly 1.39 million Chinese characters. The story unfolds in the fictional Darning dynasty. On the fifth day of the first lunar month in the twenty-ninth year of the Zhenye reign, Empress Yang dies of illness, and a storm over imperial succession erupts. Consort Shen's faction presses to grant the twelve-year-old Prince of Chu an early princely establishment and to seize the governorship of Donghai Commandery, a vital fiscal region. The crown prince, the Prince of Qi, the Prince of Zhao, and other factions scheme against one another, and a five-way struggle for the heir apparent takes shape. The protagonist, Huangfu Wujin, is a low-born son of the distinguished Huangfu clan whose parentage is shrouded in mystery. Carrying the experience and temperament of ten years in the business world from a previous life, he presents himself as a leisurely man indifferent to fame and profit. Amid the vortex of princely rivalry, court maneuvering, and clan infighting, he navigates by wit, employing commercial tactics and political stratagems to unravel the mystery of his identity and is drawn ever deeper into the dynasty's power struggles. Beginning in the bustling commercial hub of Weiyang County in Donghai Commandery, the novel unfolds layer upon layer—clan councils, the imperial examinations, scandals within the commandery prince's household, the Tiger Tally case, and the Plum Blossom Guard—painting a panoramic portrait of individual fates adrift amid the rise and fall of a dynasty.