Defying the Dust, Burning the Heavens

Chen Che was a cultivation prodigy, unmatched in the Qingyun Sect for a century. He established his foundation at sixteen and was expected to reach the “Spirit Infant” realm, a level unseen in the sect for a thousand years. But on the eve of the sect’s grand ceremony, his most trusted senior brother conspired with outside enemies to ambush him. His dantian was shattered, his cultivation ruined, and he was falsely branded a traitor who had colluded with the enemy before being thrown into the perilous “Spirit Burial Abyss.”

Everyone thought he was as good as dead, but an ancient remnant soul awoke at the bottom of the abyss. “Want to live? Want revenge?” the remnant soul echoed in his mind. “I will teach you the Ember Path Art. Use your broken body as a furnace and your rage as its fire, and you can burn away the cultivation of all under heaven and rebuild your foundation. The price is... with every step forward, your soul will burn a little more. One day, you may lose your mind completely.”

Three years later, a ragged young man emerged from the depths of the Spirit Burial Abyss. His gaze was calm, yet black flames that devoured everything could blaze in his palm. The genius he once was had become a thing of the past. Now Chen Che lived for only three things:

Tear off the traitors’ masks of hypocrisy and make them suffer every pain he had endured.

Uncover the larger conspiracy behind the ambush, and find out why the outside enemies had singled him out.

And, on this dead-end path that burns his soul, forge an “Ember Path” of his own, so that no one across the heavens and myriad realms will ever again dare look down on a “good-for-nothing” who rises against the odds.

When black flames burn away Qingyun and his broken body tramples the heavens, the world will finally understand: a so-called good-for-nothing is merely a flame not yet kindled, and what seems like utter despair is the beginning of defying heaven.