The First War Under Heaven

Five thousand years ago, in the primeval heartland of what would one day be called China, three great powers vied for dominion beneath heaven. Yan Di, the Flame Emperor - also known as Shennong, "the Divine Farmer" - ruled with benevolence, having tamed the wild grasses into grain and taught his people to till the soil; every tribe of the Central Plain looked to him as their common lord. Xuanyuan, the Yellow Emperor, built armies and laws among the hills of Youxiong, the Bear Clan, forging a rising power in the west. And in the marshlands of the south, Chiyou, lord of the Nine Li, bronze-browed and iron-skulled, forged eighty-one wicked axes drenched in blood sacrifice, and swore to conquer the Central Plain and rule it alone.
When the armies of the Nine Li came, they burned Shennong's granaries and broke Xuanyuan's forces in battle after battle, until the two old rivals were driven into alliance at Youxiong Mountain. Upon the wild plain of Zhuolu, the fate of a civilization would be decided. The Mysterious Maiden of the Ninth Heaven delivered a sacred text; the steward Fenghou built a chariot that always pointed south; the warrior-maiden Nüba burned her own body to burn away a poisoned mist; the dragon-general Yinglong, the one-armed hero Limu, and the elemental lords Gonggong and Zhurong each worked their own wonders. At the last, Chiyou fell upon the field, and the Middle Kingdom was born anew. This is a heroic epic of the dawn of Chinese civilization - and a grave, sweeping song of ambition and its price.