The legend of Ling

No one knows where she came from—only that she was found on the plank of a merchant ship on a beautiful spring night. Ling Xuchen, famed admiral and defender of the Eastern Fleet against the pirates of the Emerald Coast, took her in without hesitation. To him, she was his daughter from the very beginning. To the people, a sign from heaven. Zhen Ling, as he named her, grew up among sailors and strategists—and at just eight years old, she began eradicating pirate nests alongside her father. By nineteen, she was a feared name among outlaws—brave, clever, and loyal. Her best friend and bodyguard, Shen Jing’an, was her closest confidant—more brother than warrior. But on the day the pirates strike back, everything changes. A merciless attack. The death of her father. The defeat of the imperial fleet. Zhen is captured—along with Shen Jing’an—and taken deep into the enemy’s heart. And the man who holds their fate wears a mask of shadows and a heart of ice.