The Great Dao numbers fifty, yet Heaven’s workings reveal forty-nine; one escapes the net.
Since Pangu split Heaven and Earth, clear and turbid forces have been divided, the Three Realms established, and yin and yang set in place. The Heavenly Dao governs the fates of all living beings: life and death, longevity and early death, wealth and poverty are all predestined. Trapped in the mortal world, ordinary people cannot see spirits or hear the underworld, and take them for nothing more than folk tales. Cultivators hide among bustling towns and remote mountains. Even a glimpse of Heaven’s secrets brings them under the Heavenly Dao’s control, and they dare not cross the line.
Yet there have always been variables in this world.
Some are born outside the book of fate, their destinies beyond the cycle of reincarnation. They are a thorn in the Heavenly Dao’s side, yet also the one and only glimmer of hope in this boundless world.
The story begins in a northern city built on coal and iron, with a child who is always looking down, clutching his schoolbag straps and afraid to meet anyone’s eyes. He grows up with eyes that can see yin and yang, enduring the scorn and wariness of those around him, never knowing that one day he will bear the weight of all Three Realms on his shoulders.
