Original work on Tomato Novel, an imaginative premise. [No System, no rebirth, no brainless plot, not a power fantasy. Enter with caution if any of that bothers you.] Worldbuilding
- The Heaven-Rending Era: A mysterious force tears open the Nine Heavens sky screen. The ink-colored substance flowing through the rifts is called Heavenly Marrow. After devouring twelve immortal sects, it forms the Twelve Strange Domains.
- Strange Cultivation: Cultivators awaken strange meridians by devouring crystals of Heavenly Marrow. But each breakthrough brings a trial that corrodes the heart. Those who fail become faceless, empty beings.
- The Gu Path Mutates: Traditional Gu insects mutate after being contaminated by Heavenly Marrow. Night-Crying Gu can devour memories, Blood-Robe Gu can weave the skin of the living, and the most dangerous Heart-Eroding Gu can rewrite a cultivator’s fate.
- The Life-Lamp Rite: When establishing their foundations, cultivators must light their natal soul lamps. The color of the flame foretells whether their path will be auspicious or ill-fated, but no one knows that these lamps are actually the Heavenly Eye, watching over all living beings.
Synopsis
A Strange Play on a Rainy Night: Lu Zhao, a boy born under the fate of the Red-Eyed Child, witnesses a living shadow-puppet show at a stage in a desolate village. To survive, he swallows a Five Plagues Gu contaminated by Heavenly Marrow, becoming an aberration with both strange meridians and Gu insects.
Trial in the Mirror Abyss: Lu Zhao is forced to enter the most dangerous selection trial among the Twelve Strange Domains, the Mirror Abyss. There, he discovers that every trial participant was deliberately raised by their sect to serve as a replacement lamp. The treasure they seek in the Bronze Mirror Palace is actually a bronze life-lamp figure suppressing the first generation of strange cultivators.
A Shocking Change in the Painted Skin: When Lu Zhao touches the bronze figure, the Gu insects in his body resonate with his strange meridians. The Blood-Robe Gu suddenly runs wild, turning his skin into the “Formless Diagram,” which records ancient secrets, while the Night-Crying Gu devours his memories of what it means to be human. The Heavenly Dao is strange, the Gu insects are abnormal, and the world is sick. The sun did not rise...
