The Xuan Sea is no body of water. It is a colossal beast coiled above the Six Continents, and each time it breathes, it erases an entire generation’s memories.
Shi Xuanling guards the sea, and himself. At fifteen, the sea killed him, and he came reborn, biting down on fire.
His shoulders bear his father’s blood, a fire whale burns in his chest, and chains etched into his fate bind one end to “fear” while the other reaches into the abyss.
The bells of the Eastern Abyss Sect ring. The inner courtyard, the Scripture Pavilion, and half a volume of Return to the Void open in turn, yet they also open one debt-ridden crack after another: “joy,” “anger,” “taste,” and “pain.”
The eye at the bottom of the well, the egg from an ancient age, the deal with the reverse shadow... Every victory is another IOU the Xuan Sea writes inside him.
When the fireboat is built and the Nine Lanterns Plan comes into view, the boy finally realizes that what they call “turning back the tide” is simply dragging the Six Continents, soon to be swallowed by the sea, into his own chest before it can happen.
The first volume spans two hundred chapters, telling how he uses bone for a sail and blood for fire, writing from the first stroke of “fear” to the final stroke of “slay myself.”
When the sea retreats, no boy remains on the shore, only an empty, burning shell. It is the wick he leaves behind for the world, and the first bad debt the Xuan Sea records in his name.
Novel subject matter, newcomers