Embers in the Wasteland

Shen Yu lives by a four-character motto: “None of my business.”

All he wants is to stay with his mute uncle and younger sister, living off the fat of the land until he dies.

Then a strange dream appears, and a ghost named He Changsheng clings to him like a shadow.

Everything changes.

At the same time, his sister Shen Yue vanishes without a trace.

When he sees her again, she’s at the heart of the Myriad Spider Cavern.

The bodies of countless double-headed turbid spiders lie piled high. The monsters, each with two heads, seem to leave their piercing cries hanging in the air.

His sister and a beggar are covered in blood, their faces disfigured by the turbid energy that has already consumed them. They can barely breathe.

He Changsheng tells him, “They won’t last much longer. The double-headed turbid spiders may not be very strong, but once the turbid energy enters your body, death is certain.”

Looking at his sister’s lifeless face, Shen Yu is overcome with panic.

He isn’t afraid of dying. He just… doesn’t want to lose his sister.

For the slimmest chance of survival, he resolutely sets off for the Southern Frontier with these two “burdens.”

A group of poison cultivators lives there. Perhaps their use of poison to counter poison can keep Shen Yue and the beggar alive.

It’s a desperate gamble.

But what he doesn’t know is that everyone present, including himself, is a piece on the board: three people and one ghost.

And they aren’t the only pieces at this gambling table. Nor is Shen Yue’s life the only stake in this game.