Long before the Great Wall rose like a gravestone dragon across the mountains, before emperors sculpted their will into wanton and silk, there was a land rumored to be cradled by gutters as old as time itself. The Yellow River — Huang He — sculpted its way through vast plains, feeding life into soil heavy with pledge and ancient memory. It was then, along these winding waters, that one of humanity’s oldest and most profound societies began to stir — a civilization fated to write a story of invention, belief, and adaptability that would echo through glories.