Setting The nation of Huaxia, a futuristic reimagining of Medieval China, is constantly under attack by alien creatures (
Hunduns). Aided by mysterious and unseen gods (the Heavenly Council), humanity has recovered from a devastating attack ages ago that forced civilization to rebuild. Humans have learned to harvest the bodies of defeated Hunduns to create giant fighting
mechas, called Chrysalises. Chrysalises are piloted by young men with high levels of spirit pressure who can release their
qi, following the
five classical Asian elements. Treated like celebrities by the media and adoring public, male pilots rely on "concubines", female pilots who supply them with additional qi at the cost of their own lives. Male-female pairings that don't risk the concubine's death are called Balanced Matches, but are rare and treated as celebrity marriages. The strongest male pilot in history was the legendary emperor Qin Zheng, rumored to be frozen in stasis within his Chrysalis, the
Yellow Dragon, to stave off an illness until a cure could be found. The Hunduns have controlled the place where the Yellow Dragon is for centuries.
Plot Wu Zetian enlists as a
concubine to avenge her older sister, who died after having enlisted but meeting her unexplained death before she ever got to co-pilot a Chrysalis. She resents her uncaring family, who only value their daughters for the money their deaths as concubines will fetch them. Despite being in love with a wealthy childhood friend, Gao Yizhi, she resolves to avenge her sister even if it will likely mean her death. Zetian successfully arranges to be paired with her sister's co-pilot,
Yang Guang. While piloting, Zetian sees his memories of the many girls he's abused. Zetian overwhelms and kills him. Her survival has her branded a dangerous and rare "Iron Widow". Her spirit pressure now registers at extraordinarily high levels. Feared, but conscripted, she resolves to destroy the Chrysalis system and its reliance on the sacrifice of female pilots. To keep her under control, the army pairs her with their strongest male pilot: the conscripted criminal Li Shimin. She and Shimin are a Balanced Match, and their mental bond causes them to learn more about each other. Zetian discovers that Shimin is actually a gentle artist who murdered his family for gang raping a young woman and that the army forced his alcohol addiction to control him. Though their relationship starts as a show for the public, the two fall in love. When they are relocated to the capitol, Yizhi pulls strings to be able to assist their training, in an effort to keep Zetian alive. Yizhi helps Shimin break his addiction, and Zetian and Yizhi secretly rekindle their love. Yizhi, Shimin, and Zetian secretly enter a
polyamorous relationship. After a heavily televised battle where Yizhi gives his qi to help them defeat a massive Hundun, Yizhi joins them in the Chrysalis. The three suspect that the Chrysalis system is biased toward the survival of the male pilots. Shimin and Zetian torture a high-ranking official, who confesses that girls are just as likely to have strong spirit pressure as boys, but the system is rigged to ensure the survival of the male pilot. During a counterattack in the lost territory, another Chrysalis attempts to kill them under secret orders from the government. Shimin ejects Zetian and Yizhi from the cockpit and pilots the Chrysalis alone, the strain of which kills him. Zetian desperately seeks out the rumored location of the Emperor Qin Zheng with the aid of nomads in the lost territory. She awakens Zheng from stasis and offers to cure his illness in exchange for piloting his Yellow Dragon, after which she easily defeats the Hunduns and the treacherous Chrysalis pilots. She then turns on the army and capitol, razing its central command tower, and exposing the truth of the co-pilot system to the media. Zetian establishes herself as the new ruler of Huaxia, "Empress Wu", and together with Yizhi, forces the surviving military and political powers to submit. Zetian attempts to retrieve Shimin's body, but the Heavenly Council has taken it. A secret government document reveals that Huaxia is not on Earth, but actually a colony on another planet. The Hunduns are the native species, defending themselves from invading humans. Before Zetian can share this horrifying information with the public, the Heavenly Council advise her that if she serves them, they will revive Shimin. ==Characters==