Planned length: around 200,000 characters.
Tian Boyang's old sect crippled his dantian and threw him into a mass grave to feed the wolves.
When he crawled out, he was clutching a battered cauldron.
The cauldron's body was cracked, one of its legs was missing a corner, and it was so rusty it looked like a burial object just dug out of a grave. Its first words were: "You're about to die. Perfect, you can be my nourishment."
Tian Boyang spat out a mouthful of blood and grinned. "You keep me alive, and I'll make sure you eat your fill."
That night, a wisp of green energy rose from the cauldron and slipped into his shattered dantian.
Three months later, the old sect sent people down the mountain to wipe out the survivors.
They found Tian Boyang crouched by a campfire, stewing meat in the battered cauldron. The cauldron was very unhappy, because it was cooking a demon beast's leg bone, not a cultivator's Golden Core.
"The sect leader says you have to die."
Tian Boyang lifted the lid, and green energy billowed out.
"Perfect," he said. "I've been wanting to see how our sect leader looks in this pot."
One battered cauldron. One crippled man.
The beginning of chaos across the land.
