Twenty years after the spiritual qi revival, humanity still hadn't reached its promised utopia.
Spiritual roots had become the sole measure for ranking people into tiers.
The Awakened lorded it over everyone else, monopolizing and siphoning off spiritual qi, while the “Dust Folk,” born without spiritual roots, struggled to survive in the barren shadows.
At his awakening ceremony, Lin Fan was declared a “spiritual energy reject,” condemning him to life among the lowest of the Dust Folk. His hopes were shattered, the medicine his sister needed to survive was out of reach, and the powerful began to trample him underfoot.
Just as he plunged into the abyss, he glimpsed another truth about the world:
Spiritual qi might be the greatest lie and poison of this age.
He couldn't absorb spiritual qi, but he could devour the emotions boiling within the world:
Anger was his fuel;
Fear was his blade;
Despair was the power that would burn everything to the ground;
And love and protection were the only coordinates that kept him from losing his way on this path of slaughter.
As the titans of the spiritual-energy conglomerates looked down upon the masses, and ancient clans manipulated fate, Lin Fan raised his head from the dust and declared to the entire world:
“Your arrogance, your fear, everything you despise... will all become my power to defy fate and strike down Heaven.”