Story Premise
A fated bond between master and disciple, begun amid snow and ice, ends in the agony of having bones ripped out. Twenty-two years ago, Su Yunli, the youngest elder of the Qingyun Sect, found an abandoned baby in a blizzard. Twenty-two years later, she drove her sword into the chest of the disciple she had cherished as her own child.
Key Events
A Snowy Night: Su Yunli, a Nascent Soul sword cultivator, discovers a dying abandoned baby beneath Soulbreak Cliff on her way home from vanquishing demons. Faced with a naturally gifted Dao body possessing the “Supreme Bone,” a rarity unseen in the cultivation world for ten thousand years, and the undercurrents within her sect, she resolutely takes the baby home and names him Luo Chen.
Ten Years Together: On Purple Cloud Peak, the cool and reserved master and her sincere disciple grow up side by side. From a toddler learning to speak to a youth forming his Golden Core, the light of the Supreme Bone illuminates their path of cultivation, but also casts shadows of jealousy and suspicion.
Dark Currents: The arrival of her junior fellow disciple Lin Hao, an ancient book of unknown origin, bone fragments deep beneath the earth's ley lines... A string of “coincidences” pushes Su Luochen onto the judgment stand as the “Demon Lord reborn.” Rumors become blades, and evidence is woven into a net.
The Moment the Bone Is Ripped Out: Faced with pressure from the sect and so-called “irrefutable proof,” Su Yunli personally unleashes the “Sword of Severed Ties.” As the Supreme Bone is torn from his body, twenty-two years of master-disciple affection and all the young man's faith shatter together in a pool of blood in the main hall atop Purple Cloud Peak.
The Last Warmth in the Snow: Su Luochen opens his hollow eyes in a sealed chamber, his cultivation foundation utterly destroyed. The ashes of a black talisman in Lin Hao's hand point to an even darker conspiracy. Ten thousand miles away, a mysterious stone statue whispers, “The Supreme Bone has fallen... The Phantom Beast Star appears.”
