Song Jiang — known throughout the outlaw world as the Timely Rain — was not the strongest of the 108 Stars. He was not the fastest, nor the most skilled with weapons.

He was the most loyal.

As chief clerk of Yuncheng County, he had used his position to warn local outlaws of impending raids. His network of informants stretched across the province, and every bandit who operated in the region owed him a debt.

When his own death warrant was issued, it was the outlaws who saved him.

"The Timely Rain falls on all who need it," his men would later say. "And all who receive it owe him a life."

He was the moral center of Liangshan — the star around which the other 107 bodies of the constellation revolved. Without him, the outlaws would have been a rabble. With him, they became an army.

And in his heart burned a single, unquenchable hope: that the Emperor would one day pardon them all. It was this hope that would ultimately destroy everything.