The Mortal World on the Blade

The vast Wildlands Continent is home to a multitude of rival races. Humans, Artificers, Demons, and Monsters divide the lands, their powers locked in endless conflict. Humans cultivate spiritual energy and excel at formations and alchemy. Demons nourish their demonic energy through slaughter; they are powerful as individuals, but reproduce with difficulty. Monsters temper their bodies and reproduce rapidly, but are born with limited intelligence. Artificers follow the Great Dao of Laws alone, forming alliances with humans and demons through contracts. Their own people are divided into three factions: those allied with humans, those allied with demons, and the neutral independents. Ji Qiye was born as a living ore, a mindless newborn, no more than an unshaped stone. Starting in a village at the bottom of society, he was molded by mortal rules into an ordinary kitchen knife: obedient, lowly, and at the mercy of others. Unwilling to settle for mediocrity, he grew rebellious and yearned to transform. Again and again, he was schemed against and betrayed, beaten down and crushed until his pride was ground away. Driven by vengeance, he became a vicious blade, leaving slaughter in his wake, ruthless and arrogant. He broke the laws of Heaven and Earth and was cast into the endless abyss. After countless trials had worn him down, a benefactor enlightened him and reforged him. Returning from the abyss, he reclaimed his true nature and kept himself in check through constant reflection. He moved among the myriad races' schemes, discerning how to wield the laws of Heaven and Earth. Then, as war between the races engulfed the Wildlands and flames of conflict rose everywhere, he took up ten thousand blades and gathered allies. With strategy, strength, and magnanimity, he led his people to break free of their fate as pawns and charge toward the pinnacle of transcendence. Upon a single blade, the human world is reflected. Humans are the knife and chopping board, and I am the meat? In this life, I shall be the blade.