The Nine Netherworlds Prison is an eternal cage forged by the ancient Celestial Prison Clan, built to contain the most dangerous criminals in the Three Realms. Falsely accused of murdering his master, Chu Ye is thrown into this prison of endless night with his profound meridians shattered. There, he awakens the forbidden “Nine Tribulations Prison Body.” With every kind of prison power he devours, he takes another step away from being human.
In this prison, the strong prey on the weak, and four Prison Venerables divide the territory among themselves. When the chains of the Iceheart Venerable’s frozen prison pierce Chu Ye’s spine, she discovers that his blood congeals into secret script long lost to the Celestial Prison Clan. As corrosive ooze seeps through the cracks in a bronze door, an even more terrifying truth emerges: the entire Profound Prison is a testing ground for the Ark of Civilization project, and every prisoner is a failed specimen from one of the first eight cycles.
When a solar flare tears through the dimensions of reality, Chu Ye awakens in three worlds at once:
The fantasy world: He devours the power of the Nine Prisons, and his body becomes a walking bronze door.
The real world: His body on a hospital bed is being injected with a golden liquid by an unknown presence.
The quantum world: A civilization of observers bares its fangs, ready to reap other civilizations.
“The key of judgment is both door and lock.” The Iceheart Venerable’s warning as she fades away points to a chance at survival more cruel than death. When the true form of the Prison Radiance reaches through the door, Chu Ye must choose: become the Prison Venerable of a new world, or put an end to this cycle experiment that has lasted three thousand years?
