Tianmen Agreement: Rootless City

This is an era in which cultivation has become the infrastructure of civilization. Sects can be listed on the market, spiritual roots can be graded, longevity can be insured and mortgaged; boundary rail trains pass through nine regions, and hospitals, schools, climate arrays and the northern boundary wall are all connected to the same public spiritual network. Nineteen-year-old Zhou Jiming is a maintenance apprentice in the lower part of Tianheng City. The system determined that he had "no spiritual roots and no account." His injuries, work, and even his existence itself could not be fully recognized. In order to raise treatment expenses for his sister who suffered from spiritual erosion, he entered the Jiuxiao Sect's listing project, but in an accident, he discovered a black agreement under the audit layer and a "Xuan Skeleton No. 0" That had never been included in any asset list. As the investigation deepens, Zhou Jiming gradually realizes that the so-called talent may not be completely determined by fate; those contracts that no one really understands but are regarded as "voluntary" are deducting money from the future lifespan of countless ordinary people. However, when sects, aristocratic families, co-governing associations, financial markets and public services are tightly bound by the same order, uncovering the truth does not mean that the city will be saved. Hospitals may shut down, boundary rails may fall, and boundary walls may fall—the old system hid sacrifices and indeed maintained the lives of hundreds of millions of people. Zhou Jiming had to answer a question that was more difficult than ascension: If every miracle requires someone to pay a price, then should the power to decide who can practice and who must sacrifice be given to a few strong people, or should it be given to all those who bear the price? Ascension is not a gift, but a tax that civilization pays toward eternal life.