In the seventeenth year of the Republic of China, warlords battled for power, the land lay shattered, and the world was littered with dry bones.
Eight-year-old Chen Gousheng watched with his own eyes as his entire village was slaughtered. His parents died horribly before him. He hid in a dry well for three days, surviving on sheer will to live and becoming the village’s sole survivor.
For four years, he wandered from place to place, fleeing with his aunt. Just when he thought they had finally found somewhere safe to settle, a devastating flood took away his only remaining family member, leaving him a helpless, lonely soul adrift in the waters.
At the very moment he let go and resolved to die, a flute melody pierced the wind and rain. The Daoist Master Xuanzhen came striding across the water and pulled him from the endless darkness.
At Xuanzhen Temple, he left his lowly name behind and was given a new one: Chen Wang. He would look for a ray of light in these troubled times, and hold on to hope even in the direst straits.
He followed his master in breathing exercises and cultivation, learning to draw talismans and practice magic. The boy who once could only tremble at the bottom of a well grew into a Daoist disciple who could discern yin from yang and wield talismans. But he did not know that their meeting had never been a coincidence.
The most evil Celestial Fiend, sealed by the founder of the Xuanzhen Sect three hundred years ago, was about to break free. The fires of war, natural disasters, and restless spirits were all gathering strength for its return, and the mortal world was on the brink of becoming a hellscape. And this boy, who had crawled out of a pile of corpses and survived against all odds, was the only one capable of finding the “source of pure yang energy” that could destroy the fiend.
When his master led him down the mountain and back to his homeland, the road ahead was beset by countless sinister spirits and ghosts, the unfathomable abyss of a world in turmoil, and a deadly fate bound to a three-hundred-year cycle.
People said that in troubled times, the Dao vanished and ghosts and gods kept to themselves.
But Chen Wang would stand firm with a talisman in hand, defy fate with his mortal body, and hold up a lamp in the darkness!
