The Wilderness Grind

Gu Shi, a bonded apprentice at the Yun Gu Fang scrap shop, wagered ten years of his life for a chipped stone mill worth not a single coin. It doesn't create anything; it only transforms. Grind moldy pill residue and get spirit sand. Grind broken talismans and get living runes. Even a path to cultivation can be ground out of a pile of scrap. But the stone has an appetite: feed it too quickly and it steals the rhythm; when the moon is full, it feeds itself. The world is growing poorer, and spiritual treasures grow more expensive by the day. For the first time, he feels he is clutching something no one can afford to buy. As for the Falling Light Catastrophe three thousand years ago and the severed path to ascension, they both seem to be connected to this mill.