Blood River

Blood River (暗河, Anhe) is the realm's most feared assassin organization, run jointly by three clans: Su (苏), Mu (慕) and Xie (谢). It can strike down imperial relatives at court and break great sects in the wider martial world. Its head, the patriarch, is poisoned during a mission to kill a senior member of the Tang Sect (唐门), and the three clans immediately begin to move toward the top seat. The Sleeping Dragon Sword (眠龙剑), the guild's symbol of authority, is what they are after.

Su Muyu commands the Spider Shadow (蛛影) unit, which answers directly to the patriarch, and he is known by the codename Kui (傀, "puppet"). He and his unit escort the dying leader on the road to a cure, and old comrades from his own clan, including the elder Su Zhe (苏喆, played by Qiao Zhenyu 乔振宇) and his friend Su Changhe (苏昌河, played by Chang Huasen 常华森), stand in the way. Along the way he meets the healer Bai Hehuai (白鹤淮) of the Valley of the Medicine King (药王谷).

The series is set in a martial-arts world (江湖, jianghu, "rivers and lakes") of courts, sects and clans.

It is adapted from the novel An He Zhuan by Zhou Munan (周木楠), who also served as chief screenwriter. It is the third screen adaptation from his "young jianghu" (少年江湖) universe, after Shao Nian Ge Xing (少年歌行, "song of youth") and Shao Nian Bai Ma Zui Chun Feng (少年白马醉春风, "the white horse youth drunk in the spring breeze").

Yin Tao (尹涛) directed. Blood River premiered on Youku on October 20, 2025, with a simultaneous Netflix release.

The title is the name of the guild, the "dark river" in which its assassins work.