by Chang Sheng (Author)
A beautiful queen rules her country with an iron fist. Unmarried and without an heir, she adopts orphans as a way to prove that even commoners can reign as kings. Yet, as the years progress, she shows no sign of aging. Only one man knows the dark secret to her eternal youth: Oldman, a bearded magician the queen has locked in her darkest dungeon. One night, Oldman steps through the bars of his prison and disappears before the queen's very eyes. Enraged, she sends her army after him in a desperate campaign to keep her secret hidden.
Staging his escape, Oldman appears to step through the bars of his cell and vanish as if by magic, cleverly misleading the guards. He rescues a neighboring prisoner, an outlaw sword maiden who has had her arms and legs amputated. Upon taking her to a brilliant doctor who fits her with mechanical limbs, Oldman and the sword maiden vow to take revenge on the queen that wronged them, all the while evading the queen's army as she launches a desperate campaign to keep her secret hidden.
The story concludes with the queen personally leading her army to pursue Oldman and his companions. She sees them as a serious threat to her reign and their defiance is an act of war. Oldman is tired of running, he and his comrades have devised a plan to defeat the queen once and for all; but it must come at a sacrifice.