Xuan-Yuan Sword 3: The Scar of the Sky

About

The main character is a young man named Chen Jingchou (陳靖仇, meaning "To pacify the northern foes and to avenge Chen."), the only royal descendant remaining from the decimated Chen Dynasty. The final attempt for counterattack from the Chen family happened several years before Chen Jingchou was born, when the tens-of-thousands-strong remnants of Chen forces were single-handedly wiped out by a 10-year-old Sui child, Yang Tuo (楊拓) (later known as Yuwen Tuo 宇文拓), a student of Yang Su. Having lived under the reign of those who destroyed his kingdom, Chen Jingchou had been educated by his mentor, Chen Fu (陳輔), to pursue a life of vengeance and of reviving his kingdom. The first step of their journey to restore Chen was to acquire the Mirror of Kunlun, one of the Ten Great Ancient Artifacts.[2] The ancient monstrosity Taotie was released from a mirror that was revealed to be a fake. In order to protect Jingchou, Fu trapped himself with Taotie using a potent Silk of Ice spell, and instructed Jingchou to embark at once to find a way to save him, as well as finding information concerning other Artifacts. As he set out on his journey, Jingchou summoned an elemental spirit familiar given to him by his master to accompany him on his journeys. Jingchou later was later joined by Yu Xiaoxue (于小雪), a white haired girl showing unusual healing magic potential, the honorable half Göktürks-blooded hero Zhang Lie (張烈)[3] and Zhang's young sister-in-law Tuoba Yu'er (拓拔玉兒) of the Tuoba tribe, which kept the Shennong Ding for generations and was subject to indiscriminate slaughter by the Sui emperor's troops. During their expedition in collecting the Artifacts, they encountered several Blood Rituals of Ten Thousand Souls, rites conducted by Grand Preceptor Yuwen Tuo which involved the killing of ten thousand souls to gather their essences into a single Blood Pearl. The party attempted to intervene with the rituals, but Yuwen Tuo proved to be too formidable a foe. Thus they adopted the strategy of subterfuge, hampering his every effort to collect the Blood Pearls without direct confrontations, and was even helped in secret by a young princess named Dugu Ningke (獨孤寧珂), who held tremendous political power due to her relation with her uncle, the emperor, and protested Yuwen's actions. Eventually, their plan failed, and Yu Xiaoxue was held as a hostage by Tuo in exchange for the Artifacts that Jingchou's party had collected, namely the Shennong Ding, the Seal of Kongtong, the Pangu Axe, the Nüwa Stone, and the Kunlun Mirror. Jingchou complied, yet Tuo discarded the Stone and the mirror as fakes, proclaiming that he himself was actually the human avatar of the Kunlun Mirror. Surprisingly, Yu Xiaoxue refused to leave with Jingchou, stating that she intended to stay and help Tuo's project, and seemingly betrays his trust by repelling his attack on Yuwen's plans wielding the Xuan-Yuan Sword. Losing all hope, Jingchou gave up his quest and opted to travel with his similarly disheartened mentor. Ningke, who was actually a demon general dispatched from the western pantheon of Hell, was displeased with this turn of events. She infiltrated China by possessing the original Princess Dugu who died of illness, and arrived in anticipation of what was calculated to be the time a comet named Crimson Piercer (Chi Guan - 赤貫) would pass through the sky, opening a rift in the divine protective barrier of the Chinese lands and allowing an opportunity for demons from the West to invade. Tuo learned of the implications of the passage of the comet, and set out to collect five of the Artifacts in order to seal the rift the comet would cause in the Barrier of the Ninth Heaven in the firmament above Shenzhou. However, several of the five Artifacts required for the Ritual of Mending were nowhere to be found. Ningke proposed that he substitute these with Blood Pearls along with the construction of a Tower of Babel, and a Pentagram ritual formation. In order to save the Chinese world, using his power, his riches and his relation with the Emperor Yang, Tuo managed to accomplish these despite his moral misgivings. In the process, Tuo also discovered that Xiaoxue was actually the avatar of the Stone of Nüwa, as Artifacts resonate with each other when in close proximity. Consequently, he told her of his plan and convinced her to help him, leading to misunderstandings between her and Jingchou. Ningke could not allow the Ritual to be abandoned and manipulated Jingchou through treachery by murdering Yu'er, who learned the truth behind the situation after going to the Grand Preceptor Residence in secret in an attempt to reconcile Xiaoxue and Jingchou, and framing Xiaoxue and Tuo. Fueled by anger and grief, Jingchou's party managed to reach the top of the Tower of Babel, where they were beaten once again by Tuo. Ningke suddenly appeared in the confusion and seized Xiaoxue as hostage to divert Tuo's attention. Jingchou took the opportunity and severed Tuo's arm. Ningke then revealed her true demon form, imprisoning Tuo with magic. Unable to mend the sky, the Chinese world fell under Satan's rule of death and destruction. Days later, under the instruction of the now immortal He Ran and Gu Yuesheng (last seen in Xuan-Yuan Sword 2), Jingchou's group, which now also includes a young Li Shimin successfully retrieved the Artifacts from Ningke's handmaidens in the bloodied world, and returned to the Tower. They defeated Ningke with her full unrestricted power, and rescued Tuo. Having the Artifacts at hand, Jingchou and company invoked the Ritual of Reversal (which is also named the Ritual of Loss, 失卻之陣) at the top of Tower of Babel, which, utilizing the power of Tuo as the avatar the Mirror of Kunlun at the ritual formation's center, reversed time and brought the party back to the moment prior to the passing of Chi Guan. The group invoked the Ritual of Trespass (also called the Ritual of Babel), sending them above the sky, and arrived at Chi Guan itself. Coming across the Heavenly Maiden White Jade Ring (天女白玉輪), an eight trigrams formation used by the deities Fuxi and Nüwa to revive their deceased daughter in ancient times, Jingchou had the choice to bring Yu'er back to life at the cost of expending a great deal of Xiaoxue's power. At the heart of the meteor, where the party prepared to cast the Ritual of Sealing, which caused the non-artifact casters to lose their most precious memories or ideals (with Zhang Lie losing his ambition of unifying the lands, Li Shimin losing his love for his family, and Jingchou losing his memories of Yu'er or his master depending on the ending), Ningke, then still alive and ignorant of the recent events Jingchou and his companions experienced, appeared and attempted to continue her deception, but a fight ensued, and Ningke was vanquished. The party decided to grant her final wishes: to be returned to her homeland, and to become free to love whom she loves. Gu stated that was impossible due to her demonic nature, and placed her soul into the Fuxi Qin (伏羲琴), which Yuwen Tuo brought with him on his self-imposed exile to the west, Ningke's homeland, after the events of the game for her soul to be cleansed eventually. Chen Fu witnessed what appeared to be Jingchou assisting in the machinations of Yuwen Tuo, their sworn enemy. Ningke exploited this before heading to Chi Guan by giving Chen Fu the Fruit of Satan, a demonic object that grants power in exchange for sanity, deceiving him into battling against his student. Chen Fu soon arrived at the heart of Chi Guan with the intent to destroy it. Jingchou's group was left with no choice but to kill Chen Fu to save the world.