On the continent of Noah, everyone learns one ironclad truth from the day they are born: talent may open the door to destiny, but it is no guarantee of success in life.
A thousand years ago, a cataclysm known as the Calamity of Dawn tore open the heavens, unleashing both ancient order and chaos upon the mortal world. Since then, all living things have been able to resonate with magic, and an invisible bridge has formed between the souls of humans and beasts.
There are seven Awakening Towers across the continent. Whenever the new moon rises, an eerie blue light wells up from within them, summoning sixteen-year-old youths to undergo their talent awakenings.
In a remote border town called Morning Breeze, a boy named Lin Yi could forge weapons comparable to mid-grade magical artifacts by the age of twelve, and had crossed the Blackthorn Forest alone by fourteen.
Everyone in town said the boy was a born Awakened One.
At last, the day of his awakening arrived. A silver-glimmering rune appeared in Lin Yi's palm: Celestial Calculus, an exceedingly rare divination talent that could instantly calculate the paths and costs of all things.
Everyone thought the boy would now embark on a smooth road to the heavens, but fate has never been fond of straightforward gifts.
That night, a deep dragon's roar sounded outside town. A wounded young silver dragon fell from the sky, crashing into the granary in the south.
The townspeople wanted to drive away, or even slaughter, the giant beast they saw as an omen of disaster. Lin Yi quietly approached it and discovered an ancient sealing talisman nailed to its wing. Engraved on it were the words “Sacrificial Pact.” Someone had traded the dragon for an unspeakable secret…
Okay, first one, pretty good