As a boy, Chu Mo finds a black jade sword on the Sword-Burial Cliff. In the bloody autumn rain, he awakens an ancient sword spirit bloodline: the Netherworld Sword Embryo, capable of making every sword submit. He enters the world of cultivation carrying the mystery left behind by a “ghost messenger,” unaware that the sword in his hand is the key to uncovering his own origins. He is both a mortal who wields a sword to slay ghosts and the son of King Yama, lost in the human world, with the purest power of reincarnation from the Netherworld flowing through his veins.
His clash-turned-friendship with fire-element sword cultivator Xiao Zhan, the demonic-sect identity hidden beneath thunder-element sword cultivator Leng Xuan’s mask, and the mysterious past of wind-element swordsmith Ye Guzhou bind the four together through life-and-death trials at the Ten Thousand Swords Tournament, aboard a ghost ship in the Netherworld, and in King Yama’s palace. They seal their alliance in blood and etch the vow “We’ll be brothers again in our next lives” into their very bones. His childhood friend Su Yurou stands by his side with the Saintess’s silver bracelet in hand, but at the River of Forgetfulness she takes a remnant of the Ghost Emperor’s soul for him. From then on, clarity never returns to her eyes. She is the one he must protect for the rest of his life, and also the sacrifice chosen by the Netherworld.
From tempering his body and bones to mastering reincarnation, Chu Mo fights his way through eighty-one realms of cultivation: the fire spirit pearl Xiao Zhan presses into his hand before falling; the thunder tribulation that tears them apart when Leng Xuan’s identity is exposed; the Godslaying Sword Ye Guzhou forges by burning away his own lifespan; and the final look Su Yurou gives him as she is possessed... When the seal of the Netherworld breaks and evil spirits feast on the human world, he takes up his sword as a brush and his blood as ink, rewriting the fates of his brothers and beloved in the Book of Reincarnation.
Here you’ll find the fiery banter of “I, Xiao Zhan, admit you’re the strongest,” as well as the exquisite romance of “planting a field of red spider lilies by the River of Forgetfulness.” There are fierce sword techniques used to face three grand elders alone, and the bloodline’s tremor when he reunites with King Yama. The nine-realm cultivation system is one of a kind
