In the Great Yan Dynasty, martial arts flourish. Warriors build their strength on vital energy and blood, temper their muscles, bones, and skin, open a sea of Qi in their dantian, and refine their true essence. The realms are sharply defined: Body Tempering, Qi Condensation, Meridian Opening, Core Formation, Divine Transformation, Void Cavern, and beyond, the legendary Martial Saint and Martial Emperor. Powerful warriors can move mountains and fill seas, pluck stars and seize the moon, and live for an extraordinary length of time.
Lin Xuan is seventeen, a collateral member of the Lin family. Born with “stagnant essence meridians,” he cannot properly refine or circulate true essence. The family regards him as a “martial waste,” and he is shunned and bullied. The only person he cares about is his younger sister, Lin Xiaoyu, who has no one but him.
Lin Xuan is no true waste. He possesses an extraordinarily rare talent that is almost impossible to detect: using himself as a medium, he can forcibly “resonate” with other people's martial insights, the paths their vital energy and blood take through their bodies, and even their near-death experiences. But this resonance is a double-edged sword: he passively suffers all the other person's pain, impacts, and emotions, placing an immense burden on his body and mind. The slightest misstep could make him collapse. The insights he gains are also chaotic and disordered, requiring exceptional comprehension to sort through and absorb.
His younger sister, Lin Xiaoyu, suffers from a strange condition called “Cold Marrow Invading the Meridians,” and needs the exceedingly precious “Crimson Sun Vermilion Fruit” to stay alive. The family considers this fruit a strategic resource, available only to clan prodigies or those who have rendered great service. To save his sister, Lin Xuan must break through the shackles of his “waste” constitution and struggle to survive in a merciless martial world. Using “Martial Resonance,” the double-edged sword he wields, he will embark on a thorn-strewn path to strength.
