The Cangxuan Realm, a place where obsessions never fade.
The dead do not naturally relinquish their obsessions. Instead, their remnant souls wander, taking possession of the living, warping their surroundings, and gathering calamity. The only ones who can fight them are Record Keepers, who wield cardbooks.
Shen Yuan was once an outer disciple of the Tianheng Sect. His ability to bear obsessions was rated low-grade, and he made no progress in three years at the sect. After the sect reformed its ranks, he was dismissed as a “good-for-nothing.” On the day he was driven out, the steward Zhou Li left five claw marks on his left hand with a card:
“The Tianheng Sect has no place for good-for-nothings.”
He fell into a dark cavern in a mass grave and touched a cardbook black as ink. It opened to a first page as empty as an abyss.
An ancient voice sounded in his mind: “We who bear obsessions have waited long enough.”
From then on, he could guide the remnant souls of the obsessed into cards.
His first card came from the remnant soul of a blacksmith who had spent thirty years in the mass grave. His obsession: a blade he had never finished forging. Shen Yuan completed its tempering, and Old Iron shielded him from bandits. A Gray Card unleashed the power of a White Card.
The second, the third... Behind every card was an unfinished story. He listened to each obsession and fulfilled it, making his cards surge from a third of their full strength all the way to the peak:
A Supreme Reprise, recreating the soul's most powerful strike in life and crushing opponents of a higher level.
Others used cards to “summon muscle.” He used them to share life and death. Other people's cards were tools. His were comrades.
From the mass grave to the mountain peak, from Gray Cards to forbidden ones: the good-for-nothing who was cast aside would make the entire Cangxuan Realm remember his name.
But one question remained unanswered: by pulling those souls out of the cycle of reincarnation, was he giving them a home, or locking them in a prison?
