Asking the Immortal of Mountains and Rivers

In the seventeenth year of Yongning under the Great Yan Dynasty, Pei Zhao, the commander of the northern border, received a secret edict and rushed back to the capital overnight. What awaited him was not a reward, but a charge of regicide and rebellion. The imperial city was besieged, his ironclad troops were annihilated, his young son was entrusted to others, and his wife was thrown into prison. He fell from the pinnacle of the court to the snowy wilderness of the northern wastes, where he fought demons with mortal flesh and was fortunate to meet the Cloud Sovereign, gaining the opportunity to cultivate qi. Entering the Tianheng Sect, rallying his old comrades, and secretly returning to the court, Pei Zhao stepped onto the path of immortality from being a wronged general. What he cultivated was never immortality, but to seek justice for the mortal world behind him. When Prince Jin's tyranny, demonic chaos across the land, and the chess master of the Heavenly Mechanism Hall revealed their fangs, he understood: the supreme realm of immortality is the ruthlessness of the Dao, but the mortal world's compassion is the path he chose. Enduring the suffering of the mortal world, he glimpsed the immortal Dao; comprehending the mysteries of yin and yang, he mastered the heavenly mechanism. The nine provinces are the chessboard, and all living beings are the pieces. Watch as he cuts his way out of the chessboard, severs the shackles of the heavenly mechanism, and restores clarity to the mortal world. — Description from novelcodex.org