Yun Xiao, a young Taoist priest at Qingxu Temple, spends his days helping villagers find their chickens and fighting with his junior brother Qingfeng over sweet rice cakes. Then a series of upheavals shatters the peace: a bamboo rat spirit stealing bamboo strips, a wolf spirit wreaking havoc in the wheat fields, evil spirits robbing disaster-relief grain... From teasing little demons to confronting the Blood Fiend Cult’s schemes, he gradually discovers that the Heart-Cleansing Jade around his neck holds the story of his parents’ battle against rogue cultivators.
His peachwood sword can cut through demonic miasma and protect all living beings, but it can’t sever the bonds tying him to others: Master Xuanchen’s fifty-year-old secret, his junior brother Qingfeng risking his life to protect him, and the warmth hidden in everyday life, from Grandpa Ma’s fragrant bamboo strips and Doctor Zhang’s warming medicinal soup to the half-piece of hardtack cradled by a refugee...
When the Blood Fiend Cult’s shadow falls over Lockdemon Cliff, and his parents’ old case intertwines with the bewitching specters of the Hundred Arts Tower, Yun Xiao finally understands: cultivation is about more than the clash of swords and blades against demons. It is also about protecting the warmth within your heart: the blood and fire of safeguarding the grain, the trust that lets you break a formation, and the reassuring certainty behind the lights in every home: “I’m here, so you’ll be safe.”
This is a story about growing up, full of laughter and tears, swordplay and tenderness. Follow two boys on the cusp of adulthood, a peachwood sword, and a piece of Heart-Cleansing Jade as they find their own path in a world shared by humans, demons, and ghosts.
