As cultivators across the entire cultivation world become stuck at the Nascent Soul stage, unable to advance, and ascending becomes a distant legend, the invisible shackles laid down by the Heavenly Dao bind every cultivator in place.
Wang Ye is a convicted criminal sentenced to guard the Nether Abyss. But in a ruin deliberately arranged for him, he obtains an artifact belonging to the Fighting Saint Buddha. With its help, he gradually touches the barriers beyond the cultivation world and realizes that being trapped at the Nascent Soul stage is no natural law. It is a prison carefully engineered by human hands.
From the cryptic prophecies in ruined ancient texts to the ancient remnant souls deep within secret realms, he follows every clue and digs deeper, step by step. He discovers that the top Nascent Soul cultivators revered as "Heaven's chosen" are actually the shackles' wardens, while the great figures of past ages, said to have "passed away in meditation," all tried to smash through that barrier with their lives.
As the truth is peeled away layer by layer, Wang Ye stands before everyone, holding half of a shattered fragment of the Heavenly Dao. "Either sit in meditation at the Nascent Soul stage for a thousand years, or join me and punch a hole in the heavens!"
This is a thorny path of unraveling mysteries, and a rebellion that wagers the fate of every cultivator. From searching for the scattered "Fragments of the Dao" across the realms to joining forces with oppressed demonic cultivators, Wang Ye will lead a group of Nascent Soul cultivators who have been "kept in captivity" to carve out a path to ascension for mortals, right under the Heavenly Dao's nose.
