Core inspiration: From an ant in a heap of trash to a Dao Lord who tramples the heavens and earth
Chen Jin (Jin means “ashes,” evoking someone reborn from the ashes and a hard-won rise from a lonely life) was abandoned at birth in a ruined city during a chaotic age. He survived his childhood by scavenging through garbage, scraping together leftovers, and fighting stray dogs for food. In winter, he huddled beside a broken temple's earthenware jar for warmth. He was always dressed in rags, his hands covered in cuts and chilblains. Even his name came from a half-broken wooden tablet he found, carved with the character “Jin.”
His life changed when, starving to death and beaten into a cripple by street thugs, he encountered the wandering Daoist Xuanjizi. The old Daoist was no sage with an ethereal air: he always had a wine gourd in hand, wore a patched and tattered robe, and seemed deranged, yet concealed a cultivation that reached the heavens. At a glance, he saw the undying Dao root in Chen Jin's bones and blood. An orphan of a chaotic age, hardened by every human hardship, with a soul and body as resilient as black iron, Chen Jin was a cultivation prodigy seen only once in ten thousand years. The old Daoist casually tossed him half a dry pancake and said, “Come with me. You’ll have food, and you can get revenge.” Then he took him as his final disciple.
