The Sword Chooses Its Master

(Prequel to Against Reason) Before heaven and earth were formed, the Three Thousand Great Ways kept the world in motion. But one day, the Dao... died. No one knew how the Dao had died. They only knew that from then on, there was no Dao in the world. Spring passed and autumn came. Time flowed on for countless years, and then the Dao came back to life. No one knew how the Dao had returned. They only knew that from then on, the Dao existed once more. Yet no cultivator could practice the Dao. Only a drunken old man, the sole survivor of the Dao's deadly calamity, said: The Dao is both born and dead. No one in the world today can cultivate the Dao. Everyone merely absorbs spiritual energy to advance their cultivation, but without the Dao, no one can attain eternal life. Another year passed through spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Word spread through the cultivation world that there were three thousand Dao swords, and whoever was chosen by a sword could seek eternal life. In an unknown time and place, a youth was trapped in a land of agony, enduring the torment of ten thousand ants gnawing at him. Though he was meant to be born with the Dao restored, his clan treated him as a pawn to be discarded. The noble families thought him easy prey, the dynasty regarded him as an insect, and even his own kin treated him like a dog. Just then, a sword chose its master. The wheels of fate would turn at last. In this age of witnesses, ten thousand swords would contend for supremacy!