Shan Hu is a warrior who is renown of his mastery in martial arts and good manner. In fact he had a good reputation for being one of the great warriors of justice in The Kingdom of Dawn, which is his homeland. This had earned him fame as well as respect from the people of the kingdom. It also however, had earned him the wrath and scorn of his enemies, who worked tirelessly to get rid of him, who is a thorn in their flesh.
Many of them had failed in the effort to exterminate him, worst of all, this has added the tally of enemies vanquished by Shan Hu. It further bolstered his reputation among his peers of justice as they push forward with their efforts to protect peace and prosperity in their homeland. Soon, his enemies had managed to make a breakthrough. One of his elusive nemesis, a bandit lord Hei Gou had managed to procure a deadly poison, which is stolen from one of the deadliest poison masters known in their time.
Poison master Lao Tu, known for his erratic and bizarre brew of deadly death potions, is a poison master who is feared by many. What made him earned a fearsome reputation was not the speed of the poisons to take effect, nor the stealth attribute of his poisons. It is the suffering experienced by his victims, which drives terror into the hearts of many who had witnessed his works. However, he is a man who have no interest in killing the masses with his poison. All he wanted to do, is to create the best poison that kills quickly and at the same time, leaves the body of its victims in good condition.
To accomplish this goal, Lao Tu had decided to live a life in seclusion in order obtain the peace he needs to complete his work. As time passed, he still did not manage to acquire the desired results. However, the time he spent working has rewarded him with a wast collection to poisons he had in his keeping. Too many to the point, where storing them properly has rather become a hassle for Lao Tu. As his aging body no longer able to keep up with the work load of house keeping. His poison lab was rather in a state of neglect. This had allowed Hei Gou's underlings to steal a vial with little notice from the elderly poison master.
With an unknown deadly poison in their possession, they hatch a plan to poison Shan Hu's meal at one of the inn's which he frequently visit. The poison will be served in his favorite pork and salted fish stew. It is a dish has strong taste, which will conceal the poison from being detected. Shan Hu's fate was sealed on that very day he arrived at the inn for dinner. As usual, he would order his regular dinner from his favorite inn. It is quickly served, as he is a regular customer at that inn. Those bandits rejoiced upon seeing him consume the whole dish quickly. Their celebration was cut short where he did not show any signs of poisoning to them.
In the fit of rage, Hei Gou interrogated his underling who stole the poison from Lao Tu. Begging for mercy, the underling stated he may have stolen a slow acting poison, which is the reason why Shan Hu did not show any signs of poisoning after consuming the dish. Hei Gou was still enraged after listening the his underling's explanation. He ordered another underling to spy on his enemy, at the same time, have the poor underling who made the blunder to be stabbed with a long needle every 2 hours. The punishment will continue as long as he does not receive any report of his enemy to be under the effect of the poison or dead.
After 12 hours, the poison started to act upon Shan Hu. During a regular sparring routine with other warriors, he experience severe spasms and convulsions which causes him to collapse in front of everyone. Everyone panicked seeing him twitching around like a fish trying to live on land and their local physician have no idea on are the cause of his condition. Fearing for his life, they took him to be examined by the best known physician of the land, named Pai Yao.
Pai Yao had diagnosed the caused to be a type poison used by man hater assassins. It is a slow acting poison, which is designed to antagonized men with sexual agony before killing them. The poison was designed to torment men who view women no other as sex object or breeding tools. Upon death, the victim will create a gruesome death scene which are full of gore and mutilation, mainly at the genitals and some other parts of the body which are caused by the spasms and convulsions trigger by the poison. This poison however, will not affect women, as it is specifically created to kill men.
Pai Yao also stated that at the moment, there are no antidote as the Order of Ash Lotus, the man hater organization who manufacture the poison are made up of only women. This negates the need to produce large quantities antidote if they happen to poison themselves accidentally. As there is limited time left for Shan Hu to live. Pai Yao decided the use the ultimate treatment known only to him and several of his peer to save his patient's life. Before the treatment begins, he informed Shan Hu about the treatment procedures and the outcome of the treatment to allow him to make a choice to either die with the pride of a warrior, or live with the trials and tribulations ahead of as a woman.
Giving same thought for a few moment, Shan Hu decided to live, so that he could get his revenge on those who had did that to him. With the consent provided by his patient, Pai Yao begin the preparations to save his patient's life. Using a combination of acupuncture and Qi Gong treatment, which is known as the Palm of Change. Pai Yao will trigger the required bodily changes that are needed by Shan Hu in order to survive, thus transforming him into a her.
Once the cue to was given to begin the treatment to Pai Yao, which is a nod from Shan Hu, he immediately poked several of Shan Hu's acupuncture points in rapid succession. Charging up his inner force at the palm of his dominant hand, which is his left hand. Pai Yao channeled his Qi Gong at his patient, causing his body begin to morph. With every pulse of energy channel from Pai Yao, Shan Hu begin to change, from well built frame to a slender frame, from masculine facial feature to feminine facial features, some realignment of the bones to from a male structure to a female structure and finally the rearrangement of all bodily mass from a male to be a female with all female physical attributes, which are the bust (Category B), hips (matching with bust and waist to make an hour glass figure) and the genitals to confirm her new gender.
The only things that remained the same are her hair, height and combat abilities. Seeing that the treatment is finally completed, Pai Yao asks his wife to come and attend his patient who is now a beautiful warrior woman. He then excused himself, as he is exhausted from curing his patient. Before retiring for the day, he summoned one of his trusted servants to inform the news that Shan Hu did not survive the treatment. Upon death, his body vanished into the thin air, leaving only his clothes and some human dust.
The news was heard with lots of skepticism from many, as Shan Hu is a strong warrior. But with the display of his clothing and the dust that he "left" behind when he vanish. Many soon accepted the bad news. This news however brought the bandit lord with joy, as one of his biggest thorn have been removed. At the funeral, many wept as Shan Hu "died" at a very young age and leaving behind no heirs for his legacy. Among the crowd, there is a woman who looked relatively like him. When asked, she states that both him and her are not related and her name is Tian Ying.
After the funeral has ended, Tian Ying set out to find out who had attempted to murder her and cause her to have a miserable life and losing everything that she ever have before in life.
