The Lin family has an unwanted son named Lin Zhan.
At the third level of Body Tempering, he ranks dead last in the clan. His mother is gravely ill, the Zhao family has cut off her medicine, and she has only fourteen days left.
Everyone thinks he’ll go crawling to them.
And he does get down on his knees, beside a monster’s corpse, to dig out its core.
On the outskirts of the Black Forest, a Golden-Eyed Beast at the ninth level of Body Tempering stands six minor realms above him. It’s a weapon unleashed by the Zhao family, made to deal with people like him who “don’t know their place.”
Armed with a single dull knife and an old jade pendant left by his father, he somehow manages to take the beast’s life.
The Zhao family expects him to die in the forest and disappear without a trace, never to be spoken of again. But the next morning, he walks out covered in blood, a beast core tucked against his chest, along with a Zhao family token that should never have been found on a monster.
Now that’s a problem.
Some secrets, once picked up by the wrong person, can never be buried again.
From that day on, Lin Zhan is no longer just the useless wretch who takes a beating without fighting back. He begins to scheme and lay plans, using the third-level Body Tempering cultivation everyone looks down on to topple the Zhao family’s game, one step at a time.
The jade pendant his father left behind holds a secret, but a secret won’t shield him from a blade. There is only one reason he can survive: someone is waiting for him to come home.
Fourteen days. The countdown begins.
