The Geomancer's Prison of Heaven

On the day blood pearls temper the bones, the bronze chains claim the soul.

Qing Yang, a mine slave in the Eastern Wilderness, must hand over ten Yin Fiend Pearls each month, each refined with his own blood. When he discovers that the pearls are bringing back a Corpse-Transcending Immortal who should have been reduced to body and soul alike three hundred years ago, bronze-colored veins have already spread from the broken slave brand at his collarbone.

This world is bound by three shackles:

Mortals mine ore to feed immortals; cultivators refine pills to feed the heavens; and the Geomancer lineage bears a curse that condemns the Mu family to serve as coffins for all eternity. Every time you break through to a new realm, you help a higher civilization complete another “harvest.”

Dark cultivation fantasy + time-loop prisoner + Lovecraftian elements

From a blood-tax prisoner at the very bottom of the mine to a Shepherd of Heaven behind the colossal bronze gates, Qing Yang discovers across countless cycles that so-called ascension is nothing more than a seasonal delicacy on the dining table of higher-dimensional beings.

The ultimate paradox of the ordinary cultivator:

If all this power that reaches the heavens is just bait carefully prepared by those who feed on me, would you dare chew up your own golden core and become a thorn in Heaven’s stomach that can never be digested?