The Sons' Uprising
In the vast empire of Daqian, Prince Jing cultivated a carefully crafted reputation as the court's most useless royal—a wastrel who cared only for wine, women, gambling, and excess. Behind his mask of indolence lay a dangerous secret: he wasn't born in this world.
Thrust backward through time from modern China, Prince Jing quickly realized his precarious position. The Emperor, his supposed father, watched him with suspicious eyes. The Crown Prince saw him as a potential rival. The cunning Prime Minister plotted his downfall. Even the legendary Imperial Swordsman had marked him for death.
When the daughter of the realm's most respected scholar publicly broke their engagement, declaring him unworthy, it should have been his final humiliation.
Instead, it became his turning point.
Working from the shadows, Prince Jing built three pillars of power: the Shadow Guards, an elite force of loyal operatives trained in modern combat techniques; the Celestial Trading Company, a merchant empire that soon rivaled the royal treasury; and the Zhuerle Foundation, which won him the people's hearts by providing medicine and food to the suffering masses.
As his influence grew, so did the danger. Palace spies circled closer. Assassination attempts multiplied. His enemies united against the threat he posed to the established order.
When the final betrayal came, Prince Jing shed his facade completely. Armed with knowledge from the future and the loyalty of those he'd helped, he marched into the Hall of Supreme Harmony to confront the man who sat upon the Dragon Throne.
"Father," he said, raising a weapon the likes of which this world had never seen, "your time has ended. I'll take your throne—and build a better empire than you ever could."
