Deep in Rust Alley in Binhai City stands a run-down blacksmith shop.
Its owner, Ao Jin, carries the bloodline of an ancient dragon clan and can summon the source flame of the dragon to temper weapons. The blades he forges shimmer with star patterns, sharp enough to cleave the wind; the swords he casts have dragon scales for bones and thunder in their edges. Every weapon is made by his own hands.
But he never seeks fame. He doesn't dare to.
Deep within his bloodline, a ferocious beast roars ceaselessly, straining to break free of its shackles. If he uses the dragon flame too much, he loses control and partially transforms into a dragon, becoming a monster that knows only how to kill. He keeps to the ordinary world, trading his hammerwork for rare spiritual materials, all in search of the faintest chance to suppress his rampaging bloodline.
Then a blade called Starshatter turns up at an underground auction, drawing a mysterious rogue cultivator, Lin Feng, to his shop with the damaged spiritual treasure Azure Nether in hand, asking him to reforge it.
Repairing a spiritual treasure requires Star Tears, Earthcore Flame Iron, Ten-Thousand-Year Thunderstruck Wood... Each is an exorbitantly expensive treasure, and each will attract covetous eyes. Black-market vipers, corporate leviathans, the "Cleaners" who specialize in hunting those with unusual bloodlines, and even the government's Abnormal Objects Administration all turn their attention to the light that burns through the night in Rust Alley.
All he wanted was to quietly work at the forge and silently fight the curse of his bloodline.
But when they put a blade to his throat...
A dragon's reverse scales are not to be touched. Those who do will be reduced to ashes.
