The mountain guardian’s severed finger was burning hot.
On the third day after my father vanished into the Old Road, he left behind three fingers and a message: “Don’t come looking for me.” Everyone said the marrow vein had chosen the mountain guardian, and that he wouldn’t live past forty. My father was forty-two this year. He had bought those extra two years with his life.
On the first day I entered the Old Road, the ancient substance melted beneath my palm. The genius of White Deer Academy said I was unworthy. The young master of Redflame Valley wanted to fight me to the death. The Netherworld Lady of Black Abyss Manor fished with a chain of bones, while Mr. Heng of the Central Hall kept quiet about the price of activating the five artifacts.
But I only want to know one thing:
Why is the cocoon at the heart of the Bone Nest empty?
What did my father see before the marrow vein took him away?
Who is the person waiting for me in the Second Bone Nest, who has waited for three hundred years?
I am the fourth generation of the Heaven-Mending Stone bloodline, the new mountain guardian chosen by these mountains.
They say the marrow vein chose me. But I only want to bring my father home.
Even if he said, “Don’t come.”
I really know how to eat people and I can't stop.