A thousand zhang beneath the sea, dark currents surge.
The stability of the East Sea Dragonfolk's territory has never been a divine miracle. It is maintained by countless Gu Masters in countless workshops, driving living Gu and using their true essence day and night to sustain underwater furnaces.
One day, Wu Chuan wakes to find himself as Lan Chuan, a newly attached Dragonfolk at the bottom of the Green Reef who has only recently transformed into a dragon and can barely control his long tail.
Here, ranks are rigid, and the weak are prey to the strong.
Mortals tread barefoot through mud, while Gu Masters command the myriad phenomena. A Rank One Gu Master drives Shell-Grinding Gu in a filthy trench to scrape away old spots; a Rank Four Gu Master rides a Stone-Settling Turtle on a high platform to suppress the sea's eye.
Scions of great clans have mortal Gu prepared for them by their elders as soon as they open their apertures. He, on the other hand, has nothing at all, with only six primeval stones to his name.
Buying Gu is a hurdle. Raising Gu is a bottomless pit.
Worse still, deep in his sea of consciousness hangs The Afterword of Time, a scroll that devours true essence. When he opens its first page, he sees an eerie Laba family feast, with his entire clan frozen in place and himself seated at the very end of the table.
The Dragon Ancestor's Chronicle says: When you meet a stubborn rock, don't charge straight at it. Retreat and find a way through the crevices.
Without the protection of a great clan, he will go to the foul-smelling lamp-shell workshop, learn to identify gaps by sound, and save up his first primeval stones and stores of Mineral Salt Gu. Without ready-made weapons, he will start by catching a wild Rank One Shaking Scale Gu that feeds on pig iron beneath a lamp pedestal in a hidden channel, then use Drilling Sand Gu to set down roots and establish his position!
Raise Gu, refine Gu, use Gu. Watch as a rootless, penniless newly attached Dragonfolk carefully calculates every move and advances step by step through this lightless deep sea, carving out a way to survive before fate's grand feast comes to an end!
