In the Age of Dharma Decline, spiritual energy has withered, and cultivation grows more difficult with every step. Spiritual-root aptitude has become the measure of everything.
Zhao Chen, from Qingshi Town in the western frontier, is branded as having a "useless spiritual root" because he still cannot draw qi into his body at sixteen. He becomes a laughingstock throughout town. His father has been missing for three years, leaving behind only a dormant piece of ancient jade and a cryptic instruction.
When a steward from the Qingfeng Sect arrives with an oppressive demand for "tribute," and the fists of the town bully shatter the last of Zhao Chen's dignity, the ancient jade suddenly awakens. A mysterious art called the Spirit Devouring Art bursts open in his mind. It can devour the spiritual energy of others and refine the spiritual essence of all things for his own use!
The shackles of his useless spiritual root are broken. Zhao Chen rises step by step amid mockery and pursuit, only to discover that the jade conceals a greater secret: the withering of spiritual energy is no natural phenomenon, but the lingering effect of an ancient Heavenly Dao seal. His father's disappearance is closely tied to the legendary Three Keys, said to be capable of tearing the seal apart. And the very Spirit Devouring Art that lets him turn his fate around is regarded by the great powers as the "source of the world's destruction."
From his humble struggle in Qingshi Town to secret-realm expeditions spanning the four domains, from the cunning power plays of sects to life-and-death choices that decide the rise and fall of entire races, Zhao Chen wields the power to devour spirits and uncovers one ancient secret after another, caught between being cursed as a "useless nobody" and hailed as the "savior."
As the shadow of the world-ending demon god seeps through cracks in the seal, and the laws of Heaven and the desires of the human heart weave into a tangled web, he must ultimately face a final choice: become the key that breaks the seal and perish with the world, or carve out an unprecedented path against fate and let the withered spiritual energy flourish anew in his hands?
