One morning, Ye He wakes up as a gaunt, six-year-old beggar in the Spirit Hall orphanage.
Her hungry stomach and the draft leaking through the roof tell her: “Either seize power, or rot in the mud.”
When the Frostflame Dragonbone Spear awakens, tearing through the flesh of her palm
Its icy blue edge freezes the morning light, its dark-gold flame markings scorch the dusk. Wherever its point is aimed lies the graveyard Spirit Hall has prepared for five hundred “geniuses.”
“The Golden Generation will take only three. Those who survive advance; the dead pave the way.”
The rules, spoken from the shadows of the Papal Palace, turn the children’s cries into the sound of blades being sharpened in the dead of night.
Ye He once wanted nothing more than a full meal, but amid the slaughter, she tastes the sickening sweetness of brain matter.
Dragging her ice-and-fire spear, she steps across three hundred corpses. The blood-ice gathered around its tassel is burned to ash by its flames.
“Congratulations. You are now the new generation’s ‘Temple Spearbearer.’”
The powerful figure on the high seat smiles and nods, blind to the magma frozen beneath her eyes
> So divine authority is nothing more than turning orphans into weapons.
> So-called destiny is marked with injustice from the moment we are born!
When the cold spear pierces the heart of the last competitor, Ye He comes to a revelation in the pool of blood:
In this world where people devour one another, if you want to protect a piece of bread, you must first overturn the table!
“If the rules are destined to crush ordinary people...”
She slashes the golden-brick floor of Spirit Hall with her spear, and ice and fire consume the edge of the divine statue’s robe.
“...then I will remake the rules.”
“If divine authority devours people, I will slay the gods and feed the people!”
The blurb can’t do it justice. Please read the full story.
