The old Heavenly Dao was extinguished, grinding the world into ruins. Fragments of its laws scattered across the land, and a new order struggled to grow from the scorched earth.
In the wasteland, people can awaken their innate spiritual roots by knocking on the door of spiritual awakening at age seven. The path of cultivation spans from the Mortal Realm to the Tribulation Realm. Those who fail can still implant spiritual treasures or medicines as acquired spiritual roots. Their potential is capped, but at least they can fight for a chance to survive in the wasteland. Demonic beasts are much the same: those born with spiritual cores are innate spirit beasts, while those mutated by devouring spiritual treasures are acquired aberrant beasts. Hunting beasts for their cores and killing people for their treasures are the wasteland's hardest rules of survival.
At sixteen, Lin Qi awakened a gray-white spiritual root at the ceremony. Its attributes were unknown, colorless and devoid of spiritual energy. Even the altar's records had no match for it. For nine years, he had relied on the combat skills Uncle Zhou had drilled into him, one kick at a time, to make a living on the edge of the ruined city. He hunted hyena-toothed beasts, harvested spirit crystals, and traded them for spirit coins. Life was tight, but survivable.
The only strange thing was his busted spiritual root: it made a sound whenever there were lots of people around.
When it made a sound, it did offer advice. Sometimes it was so accurate it was terrifying, turning certain defeat into victory. Other times, it was so disastrous it could send someone straight to the grave. Lin Qi called it the "Idea King."
