The game is the first to be presented in 3D, both in environment and in combat. The story starts with an orphaned girl from the late Zhao state, Shui Jing (水鏡) and her senior disciple-sister, Qu Xian (屈嫻) on the top of a mountain with their seniors from the House of Mo, a Mohist clan actively opposing the tyranny of Qin and its leader, who is often accompanied by a mysterious purple-skinned adviser (later revealed to be the original Vessel Spirit on an ideological mission to create an unified utopia by absorbing the mortal world into the universe created by the Spirit - "Realm in the Clouds"). Qu Xian witnessed her companions being murdered by giant mechanical constructs created with the Jiguan technique. Later, Shui Jing meets with Ji Liang (姬良) (later known as Zhang Liang 張良), a well-educated young man from the annihilated Han state who can utilize the Scroll of Heaven (Tian Shu 天書) in battles after obtaining and deciphering it in an early escapade with Shui Jing, and Ji Peng (疾鵬), a humorous talking bird king who employs a humanoid Jiguan body in battle.