During the Xuanhe era of the Great Sheng dynasty, a demon star appeared, and the Gate of Heaven was about to open.
Bai Jiu is the seventh-generation successor of Wufu Temple. He cultivates fate, not qi: his body holds not a trace of the qi of heaven and earth. Instead, he follows an ancient tradition that uses his destiny as a guide and his blood as ink. His master took on the karmic burden for him at the cost of his own life, leaving him only three things before he died: a sword that sees through illusions, a book called The Record of Strange Demons, and the words, “Even demons can be friends.”
At the age of eighty-two, Bai Jiu rescues a seven-year-old girl from the ruins. Sleeping within her is the demon lord’s mystic yin blood, the key to opening the Gate of Heaven. He names her “Little Sparrow,” then takes her across all eighteen circuits of Great Sheng, slaying demons, treating the sick, selling talismans, and repaying a tea bill he has owed for years.
Deep within the Lingtai Bureau, someone has spent decades laying plans for a dream of ascension, waiting for the demon star to return. Along the border, the aftershocks of the seal shaken when the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun were reclaimed continue to spread through the darkness. And the white-haired swordsman who never speaks is advancing toward the Gate of Heaven, step by step, not to become an immortal, but to let more people live.
The human world has its own way, and a sword can cut through illusion.
Interesting.