Xuan-Yuan Sword 4: The Black Dragon Dances as the Storm Rages

Late Qin Dynasty. Shui Jing, an orphaned girl from the fallen state of Zhao, watches her companions in the House of Mo — a Mohist clan actively opposing Qin's expansion — be slaughtered by mechanical constructs built using the Jiguan technique. She eventually allies with Ji Liang, the future resistance hero later known as Zhang Liang, who acquires and deciphers the legendary Scroll of Heaven; and Ji Peng, a talking bird king who fights from within a humanoid Jiguan body. Together they oppose both the Qin Empire and a mysterious purple-skinned adviser — the original Vessel Spirit — who intends to absorb the mortal world into a pocket utopia called the Realm in the Clouds. Along the way, Ji Peng is revealed to be the bird belonging to Mo clan leader-consort Fu Ziche, who had been sealed in ice after a prior battle with the Vessel Spirit. The group reconciles with the Spirit, rescues Fu Ziche, and then confronts the actual catastrophe: Black Fire, an ancient weapon from the Shu Kingdom discovered by engineer Qi using purple crystals, which can manifest as a black dragon of nearly unlimited destructive force. All nine portions of Black Fire active simultaneously achieve exponential power far beyond any single portion alone. Qi, having seized control of Mo leader Lady Wenjin — who was herself created with Black Fire — unleashes the dragon in an attempt to merge the mortal world with the underworld and thereby eliminate death entirely. The trio must stop the dragon, stop Qi, and dismantle his vision of a deathless world, all at once.