Timeline: The story of Blood River takes place 3 years after the Demon Sect's eastern campaign in Dashing Youth and 9 years before the golden coffin incident in Blood of Youth. Therefore, during Blood River, Wuxin is approximately 8 years old, and Xiao Se is around 12.
The novel author mentioned that while writing The Blood of Youth, he became very fond of the “villainous” assassin Su Mu Yu from the Dark River organization, so later he wrote Blood River as a standalone story for him. However, he didn’t expect his characters to develop free soul that they seemed to “decide their own fates.” He admitted that he regretted giving Su Mu Yu and Su Chang He a sad ending too early in The Blood of Youth, and therefore suggested readers treat Blood River as a parallel timeline. Gong Jun also mentioned in a livestream that, in his opinion, this story is an independent narrative and should NOT be directly connected to The Blood of Youth. SMY and SCH are closest brothers forever.
1. Who’s the mastermind behind Anhe (Blood River)?
It's Shadow Sect , secret guards from the imperial family. The leader of Shadow Sect has a daughter (Yi Wen Jun) and a disciple (Luo Qing Yang). Blood River is a branch of Shadow Sect , responsible for carrying out assassination missions on certain martial artists and government officials for Shadow Sect .
Three hundred years ago, when the Northern Li Dynasty was first founded, the ancestor of imperial Xiao clan accepted the proposal of the sixth founding hero, Yi Shuihan, and established Shadow Sect in the imperial city of Tianqi — a hidden organization that safeguarded the Xiao royal family from the shadows.
If Shadow Sect is the shadow protecting the emperor and Tianqi City, then Anhe is the shadow that cleared all obstacles across the land for the emperor.
However, in order to maintain its reputation as a righteous sect, Shadow Sect deliberately severed all public ties with Anhe. No one in the martial world knows that Anhe works for Shadow Sect . Even the members of Anhe are unaware of this connection. Only the Shadow Sect leader and the head of Anhe know the truth.
The Shadow Sect leader appointed three people (known as the Three Officers of the Soul Hall) to issue missions to Anhe. If the mission comes from Shadow Sect itself, it cannot be refused under any circumstances.
Anhe is divided into three families — the Su family, the Mu family, and the Xie family. Among them, one person is chosen as the Head of Anhe, who commands all three families. However, even the Head ultimately follows orders from the Soul Hall.
Over the years, the three Anhe families suffered heavy losses from constant assassinations, and eventually lacked manpower. To replenish their ranks, Anhe began selecting talented children from the outside world, bringing them back to train in martial arts. These children were called Nameless Ones. Only after passing Anhe’s rigorous tests could they join one of the three families. Su Mu yu and Su Chang he were both Nameless Ones who later joined the Su family within Anhe.
Shadow Sect keeps detailed records of every Anhe member’s identity and the assassination missions they take. If Anhe ever disobeyed Shadow Sect ’s orders, Shadow Sect could expose this information to the martial world, causing other sects to seek revenge against Anhe. Many Nameless Ones had family members outside before joining Anhe — if Shadow Sect leaked their identities, those families would be in danger, and Anhe would be powerless to protect them.
In Ep 1, the Shadow Sect leader assigned a secret mission to the Head of Anhe. He was ordered to assassinate the second elder of the Tang Clan. (In reality, this was to weaken the power of Prince Langya (Xiao Ruo Feng), since the Shadow Sect leader was competing with him for influence.) Yi Wenjun was a royal concubine, and the Shadow Sect leader has a high position, giving him some political power in court.
However, Prince Langya’s influence had grown far too strong — he controlled a large number of martial forces The Shadow Sect leader wanted to bring him down so that, when the Emperor later needed the support of martial sects, he would have to rely on Shadow Sect alone.
In the Tang Clan, Tang Lianyue served as the Xuanwu Envoy, usually staying in Tianqi City to protect Prince Langya’s safety. The second elder of the Tang Clan was close to Tang Lianyue — if he were killed, Tang Lianyue would surely seek revenge. This would reduce the number of guards protecting Prince Langya, giving Shadow Sect an opportunity to strike against him.
2. Why did the Shadow Sect want to kill Prince Langya?
Prince Langya, Xiao Ruofeng, was the late emperor’s favorite son. His master was Li Chang sheng, the strongest martial artist in the world. Xiao Ruofeng himself was also a formidable fighter, commanding the largest army in Beili, and in the martial world, the lord of Snow Moon City, Baili Dongjun, was his junior brother. In other words, he held great power both in court and in the martial world.
According to the late emperor’s decree, the throne was supposed to pass to Prince Langya. But instead, Prince Langya destroyed the decree and gave the throne to his elder brother — the current Emperor Mingde.
The two were full brothers, close since childhood. Emperor Mingde was ambitious and longed for power, while Prince Langya preferred the freedom of the martial world and didn’t care for the throne. To strengthen his influence, Emperor Mingde married the daughter of the Shadow Sect ’s leader, forming a political alliance.
Prince Langya later founded the Imperial Inner Guard and recruited four powerful martial artists to serve as the Four Guardians of Tianqi:
Li Xinyue from Sword Tomb,
Tang Lianyue from Tang Sect,
Sikong Changfeng from Snow Moon City,
Ji Ruofeng from Baixiao Hall.
The Four Guardians were righteous and unmatched in martial skill. Meanwhile, Luo Qingyang, the strongest warrior of the Shadow Sect , had fallen out with the Sect Leader and left.
As a result, the Shadow Sect ’s power weakened and began to clash with the Four Guardians, whose duties overlapped with theirs.
However, the Shadow Sect reported directly to the emperor, while the Four Guardians answered only to Prince Langya. Since even the emperor couldn’t command them, he began to resent Prince Langya’s growing influence.
Sensing this, the Shadow Sect bet on the emperor’s desire to eliminate Prince Langya, and decided to act first.
3. Su Chang He’s Tragic Childhood and His Revenge Plan
Su Chang He was born in a Miao Ethnic mountain village called Sacred Fire Village. Many years ago, the eunuch Zhuo Qing was sent there under imperial orders to retrieve a sacred item — the Fire Dragon Ganoderma. The villagers refused to hand it over, so he slaughtered the entire village.
SCH carried his gravely injured younger brother on his back and fled. To help him escape from Zhuo Qing’s pursuit, his brother told SCH to put him down and run alone. With tears streaming down his face, SCH obeyed — and this became a wound in his heart that never healed.
Left alone, SCH wandered as a homeless beggar. Along the way, he met a small beggar who looked like his younger brother. He took the child in as his new little brother, projecting all his grief and longing onto him. That child would later become Su Chang Li.
As a young beggar, SCH was often bullied and starved. In order to survive, he had no choice but to steal money from travelers. Unfortunately, one time the person he happened to steal from was a Dark River assassin. The assassin caught him and intended to cut off his hand.
At that moment, Su Mu Yu — who had already joined Dark River — happened to be nearby. To save SCH, he claimed that the boy was a good seedling for martial arts and suggested recruiting him into Dark River. And so, SCH joined and was forced to undergo its brutal training. Because of this incident, SMY always felt somewhat guilty toward SCH and cared for him like a younger brother.
Growing up this way taught SCH that only by becoming strong could he protect himself and those he loved. He never forgot the face of Zhuo Qing, the eunuch who destroyed his village.
When he first had dinner with the Crown Prince and Zhuo Qing, he was already testing Zhuo Qing’s martial arts level. That’s why he knew that his Yama Palm must reach Level 9, so that he would be able to defeat Zhuo Qing.
He needed time to go into seclusion to break through, so of course he had to buy himself time. That’s why he negotiated cooperation with both the Prince of Langya and the Crown Prince, and even sold the news about the poisoning of the Prince of Langya to the Crown Prince — all for the purpose of making the two of them fight each other first. He didn’t want Dark River to become anyone’s pawn.
It was only because an accident occurred during Bai He Huai’s visit that the Crown Prince’s side still made a move against SMY. Even though Su Chang He was furious, he still had to continue to pretend to cooperate with the Crown Prince to prevent them from continuing to hunt down the people of Dark River.
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