My name is Xiao Heng. I was born in a small village deep in the mountains, beneath a strange light that fell from the sky. My grandfather named me with hopes that I would possess great spiritual gifts. One summer, when I was seven, I encountered a red-clad vengeful ghost in the outhouse. She bound me with her rancor, and an old Taoist priest bluntly told me that my fate was tied to the Spirit Abyss, my yang fire was weak, and I would not live to see ten. Only later did I learn that the ghost was my own elder sister, whom my grandparents had buried alive as a newborn. She had died filled with hatred, become a ghost, and returned to the Xiao family to claim their lives.
To stay alive, I was forced to leave home and grow out my hair to ward off calamity, taking refuge with my uncle and growing up in fear and unease. Years later, I returned to my hometown, where one strange incident followed another: an eerie scarecrow, a madwoman who painted with human bones, and the hidden secrets of the mountain village all came to light. To fight evil and settle the blood debt of fate, I joined Baiyun Temple to study Taoism. I trained relentlessly in the Golden Light Mantra, astral energy, the steps of the Big Dipper, and peachwood swordsmanship. Through one perilous trial after another, I set out on the path of subduing spirits, vowing to use my own body to hold back the ghosts and rewrite the fate that had doomed me to die young.
