In year 414 of the Xin dynasty, the realm is split into three warring factions. Pan Qilin, known as Zephyr, is the strategist for the honorable warlordess Xin Ren. When Zephyr is forced to infiltrate an enemy camp, she sabotages them and secretly works to gain allies for Ren, all while trying to outmaneuver the enemy strategist, Crow. Then she begins to learn more about her own mysterious past. This book by Joan He was published in October 2022, and takes inspiration from Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
This book contains examples of:
- Altar Diplomacy: To secure an alliance, Xin Ren and Sikou Dun are arranged to be married.
- Anti-Hero: Zephyr cares only that Ren wins the war. To achieve this, she is willing to betray whoever she needs to and arrange the deaths of her own allies.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Lotus, a warrior who loves nothing more than drinking and fighting. She consistently gets on the nerves of the calm strategist Zephyr.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Miasma punishes a traitorous servant by steaming her to death.
- Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: Cicada is officially allied with Ren. But she used a false flag operation to attack Ren's army and is actually allied with Miasma. But she's actually secretly planning to betray Miasma in revenge for her sister Cricket's death, and is working with Miasma's strategist Crow to do so.
- Dumb Muscle: Lotus is an excellent fighter, but she can't read and never quite understands any of Zephyr's elaborate plans.
- Fake Defector: Zephyr pretends to defect to Miasma, but she is actually still loyal to Ren and continues to secretly help Ren from within Miasma's camp.
- False Flag Operation: Cicada's soldiers attack Ren's army using Miasma's arrows, making Ren think Cicada is still on her side.
- Genghis Gambit: Zephyr gets the warlord Cicada to ally with Ren against Miasma by telling her that Miasma's army views Cicada as the biggest threat to their rule. Of course, this only happens after Zephyr convinces Miasma that Cicada is the biggest threat to her rule.
- Gideon Ploy: This strategy is referred to as Beget Something from Nothing, and Zephyr uses it to make Miasma think Ren's army is bigger than it actually is.
- God in Human Form: Zephyr used to be a god and was punished by being sent to the human world in Qilin's body without her powers or memories.
- Honor Before Reason: Ren is a very honorable person. She refuses to betray and overthrow her relative, even though it is a key part of Zephyr's plan to win the war. This leads to Zephyr arranging a coup behind her back.
- Insufferable Genius: Zephyr is Xin Ren's highly intelligent strategist and is far from the humblest person in her employ."Some say the heavens dictate the rise and fall of empires. Clearly, those peasants have never met me."
- The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: When Zephyr is in Lotus' body, she has some thoughts that are more similar to Lotus' personality than Zephyr's own. She impulsively challenges Sikou Dun to a fistfight and is horrified afterwards, knowing that she would never have done that as Qilin.
- Possessing a Dead Body: After Qilin is killed, Zephyr possesses Lotus' brain-dead body to continue helping Ren.
- Self-Defense Ruse: When Sikou Hai plans a coup on Ren's behalf, Zephyr realizes that appearing to betray a family member might jeopardize Ren's public favor. So she manipulates Sikou Dun into attacking Sikou Hai first, to make it seem like Ren's soldiers are only reacting to his aggression.
- The Strategist: The book focuses on Zephyr, who works as a strategist for Xin Ren. There are also other prominent strategist characters, such as Miasma's strategist Crow and Cicada's strategist November.
- Sworn Brothers: Xin Ren, Gao Yun, and Huang Lianzi are swornsisters, having made an oath to fight beside each other years before the story begins.
- The Unfavorite: Sikou Hai's parents favored his older brother Sikou Dun, something which helps fuel Sikou Hai's desire to start a coup.
- Weather Manipulation: Zephyr is able to affect the weather to an extent thanks to her latent divine powers.
- Wedding Smashers: On the day of Sikou Dun and Xin Ren's wedding, a coup led by Sikou Hai and Zephyr is carried out in a bloody battle.
