Gu Chang'an has spent ten years in the Qingxiao Sect, yet his cultivation has remained at the first level of Qi Refining. Everyone laughs at him, saying his useless roots leave him no hope. Then someone schemes to have him guard the sect's forbidden shrine. When a malevolent shadow breaks free, he kindles the soul-lamp in his sea of consciousness between life and death, embarking on the long-severed path of soul cultivation.
Only then does he understand: it is not his talent that has sealed his sea of qi, but the “Soul-Binding Qi-Sealing Curse.” It is both a trap and a price. As long as the curse remains, his physical body can never advance, but his soul cultivation can progress a thousand miles in a day. From then on, he remains a Qi Refining good-for-nothing in public, while secretly using his soul-lamp as his heart and his soul domain as his boundary to suppress evil spirits, protect souls, and pierce the gloom.
As the realm's evil spirits stir and night falls across the Nine Provinces, the sects compete for power only to protect themselves. Gu Chang'an, however, is determined to preserve the lights of humanity: with a Qi Refining body, he bears the soul, and with the light of one domain, he keeps countless homes alight.
