Zhu Xian 3: The Heavenly Dao of the Ashen Sea

In the chaotic final years of the Sui Dynasty, war flares everywhere, just as the cultivation sect Yellow Springs begins laying its snare. It employs a scheme of “raising Gu”: it massacres the families of children born with special constitutions, then wins their gratitude with its signature life-saving rations and lures them into its trap.

Lin Muyan and her younger brother, Lin Qianye, are among the victims of this plot. From the horrific massacre of their family to begging on the streets, from briefly finding warmth with a righteous couple to plunging back into the abyss, their lives are toyed with by an unseen hand. After years in Yellow Springs' living hell, they are forced to become cold-blooded fiends. But when they learn the truth, they turn against the natural order and slaughter their enemies.

Yet the end of their revenge proves to be another trap. Their companion Liu Jiangying appears delicate and charming, but she is in fact a reincarnator bearing the memories of nine lifetimes, ruthless and skilled at reading hearts. She exploits Lin Qianye's devotion and turns the siblings into puppets. Not only does she destroy the cultivation sect in which they had placed all their hopes, she also secures the throne of ultimate victor for herself.

Heaven and earth are the furnace, creation the artisan. As the prelude to the “Heavenly Realm Selection” sounds once more, a new wheel of fate begins to turn. Can the siblings escape this game manipulating all living beings? And is all of this merely the workings of capricious fate, or another, far larger design carried out with deliberate intent…