The day my master found me, he said I was born with the bones of a Daoist, a perfect candidate for cultivation.
After eighteen years of hard training in the mountains, I mastered talismans, formations, alchemy, and swordsmanship.
On the eve of my descent from the mountain, my master stroked my head. "Disciple, remember: when you go down the mountain, beware of people, not ghosts."
I thought he was joking.
Until, on the first day, someone invited me to dinner and drugged my food;
On the second day, someone asked me to travel with them, then tried to kill me halfway there;
On the third day, I joined an organization called the Longevity Society and discovered that it specialized in tricking young Daoists into making pills...
using people as medicinal ingredients. The pills they made were said to prolong life.
In this city, someone is waiting for me to walk into a trap, someone is using me as bait to catch a bigger fish, and someone is wearing human skin while doing things more horrifying than any evil spirit.
They say my grandmaster disappeared sixty years ago, murdered by the founder of the Longevity Society.
They say my grandmaster never actually died, but has been hiding in the shadows for sixty years, waiting for the day he can take revenge.
They also say that I...
am the opportunity they've been waiting for.
My name is Zhang Jiuyang. I'm eighteen years old, and I just came down from Yunqi Mountain.
My master taught me Daoist arts for eighteen years, but he never taught me that...
the human heart is the most terrifying monster of all.
