In the final years of the Yaoning era, the Heavenly Dao cracked apart and demonic disasters erupted everywhere.
Villages vanished from the map without a sound. Countless living people were registered as dead by the authorities and sent to underground demonic lairs, where they were turned into "human vessels" for the demons to descend into the world.
After the Lingxiao Sect was destroyed, twenty-three-year-old Shen Yan descended the mountain alone with a broken spear. On the run, he gradually encountered five others who, like him, had no home.
Lin Ye could see through demonic aura. Su Jin carried the burden of her family's massacre. Shi Meng refused to yield, even when it meant death. Wen Ci was skilled at plotting and solving cases. And A He, despite losing his bow and arrows, still dared to stand between danger and everyone else.
Six people who had once been complete strangers became siblings through one life-or-death escape after another.
They had no illustrious origins, and they were no lofty children of destiny. Facing pursuit by sects, encirclement by the authorities, schemes from powerful families, and demons lurking among humankind, the only ones they could rely on were each other, along with the cold spear in Shen Yan's hand, which sometimes carried the lingering warmth of an old friend.
Starting with the rescue of a dyehouse on the verge of being burned down, they gathered refugees, saved living witnesses, and built up their power, gradually tearing open the Yaoning Dynasty's darkest secrets.
But Shen Yan gradually discovered that the destruction of the Lingxiao Sect had not been an accident. His name had already been written on the demons' list of "Priority Live Captures" before the sect was destroyed.
And in the deepest reaches of the world, a door capable of allowing the demons to descend completely was slowly opening.
Someone told him:
The true door must never be opened.
