In a chaotic era of famine, human lives are as cheap as grass. Ye Bai, an adopted son who suffered endless humiliation, was forced to marry the rumored 'disfigured evil ghost' Su Wan'er to block a calamity for his brother, only to be kicked out on his wedding night. Yet once the veil was lifted, the bride was not only breathtakingly beautiful, but also bound to him in a pact of life-and-death companionship. Armed with a manual of fist techniques and half a pharmacopeia, the husband and wife carved out a living path in a man-eating world. Facing the frame-ups of greedy gentry, the vicious plots of his adoptive parents, and the successive death-traps of a hundred roving bandits, Ye Bai rallied refugees to build the Nine Dragons Fortress, using peerless archery and overbearing fist force to utterly suppress and slaughter all incoming enemies in a pool of blood.