Sometimes you're just a boy who is the Duke of Ning but really you're the illegitimate son of the Imperial Grand Tutor and the previous emperor's favorite concubine. Then you find out the Grand Tutor used to be the sect leader of the Blood Lotus Cult and he exsanguinated  your mother to make the blood lotus bloom. So you hide yourself in a secret mountain-top enclave of lady assassins and wait to take your revenge and one day you find yourself in a plague-riddled city and there's a scuffle among army factions vying for power and you fall down a well with none other than the Imperial Tutor and when you confront him he has the audacity to lie to your face about killing your mom so you're pretty much forced into a showdown.

Oh and while you're at the mountain-top enclave of lady assassins you fall in love with an obnoxiously cheerful pollyanna who insisted on becoming an assassin despite the fact that she cries about it every time she has to kill someone so you help her out by implanting her with bugs that give her superpowers and teaching her all your coolest secret sword moves. Unfortunately she doesn't reciprocate your feelings even after you tell her your tragic backstory including the part where the Blood Lotus Cult made your Gramma into a zombie and strung her up by her hair in a giant underground tomb complex so she can guard a box of medicine for all eternity.

So you finally confront the Grand Tutor in a big cave and kill him in a very anti-climactic way and then show up late for his funeral wearing bright green like a boss. Who cares if the cheerful girl doesn't love you? You're in charge of the whole dang army now and you're gonna squash her jumped-up boyfriend who thinks that being related to the previous dynasty's emperor is gonna get him somewhere. Or maybe you'll just sit back and laugh because you know the City Master and the Torture Chamber Master implanted him with anti-s3x bugs so let's see how that relationship works for you now little miss cheerful. Lol. (spoilers)