Hua Ling, a Gu-tier disciple of the Duyue Temple, is aloof and tough-minded. She has earned her place in the temple through sheer skill, unaware that she is the abandoned child of the Hua family, cast aside nineteen years ago. Branded as a bringer of calamity because of her fate, she was considered a curse by the Hua family, who have spent years tracking her down in secret, intent on killing her.
She once depended on her senior brother, Jiang Luo, but his protection only became a burden. Then Jiang Luo vanished without explanation, leaving no trace. Four years later, after advancing to the Gu tier, Hua Ling is sent to infiltrate the Situ residence. There, fellow disciples join forces with the Situ family to betray her. Drugged with a muscle-relaxing powder, stripped of her inner power, and trapped in danger, she is saved by the mysterious Jiang Chaosheng. He reveals that the Duyue Temple’s forbidden Heart-Eating Gu has been planted inside her. Its eggs are embedded in her bloodline, and only the shared blood of a close blood relative can cure it. She has just four months left to live.
At the same time, the elders of the Duyue Temple covet her Gu cultivation manual, the Hua family’s nineteen-year plot closes in around her, and the Situ family still seeks revenge for old grudges. Surrounded by hostile forces, she is regarded by all as a pawn and prey, with danger lurking at every turn.
But Hua Ling has never bowed her head. Even with a strange Gu inside her, her inner power temporarily gone, and traps closing in from all sides, she keeps a clear mind and plots her way forward. As she investigates the truth behind Jiang Luo’s disappearance and faces the schemes of every faction, she fights alone to carve out a path to survival in this sprawling game of intrigue...
The story is divided into five main stages:
1. Bamboo Forest
2. Blazing Fire
3. Lost Shells
4. Bamboo Courtyard
5. Floating Life
