Zhou Jiu'an collects protection money in the old district, and getting beaten up is part of his daily routine. After being cornered in an alley by a blond thug and beaten to the brink of death, the jade pendant he'd worn around his neck all his life shatters. When he wakes, there's a black mark on his chest.
When he closes his eyes, he can see a stele. Black stone, covered in cracks, with nine names carved into it. The first is Hua Tuo. An old man's voice comes from within the stele: “What number did you reach just now?”
Nine masters from nine lifetimes live inside his body. They awaken one by one, teaching him to see through bones, dismantle mechanisms, and overcome a hundred skills with sheer strength. The price is that every time one speaks, another crack deepens in the stele. Use them too much and it will crack; let the cracks spread too far and it will shatter.
Someone is looking for the stele. Mr. Bai smiles and says, “You choose. Whether you choose or not, the outcome is the same.” Shen Zheng has investigated for three years and found only one thing: before you, there was someone else, and he lasted three days at most.
The stele isn't his. But he has no intention of handing over what nine lifetimes have accumulated.
