The Heaven of All Spirits

Jiang Yan underwent a spiritual aptitude test at the Jiang family estate. Three times, the testing stone stayed dark.

The clan declared him spiritually ungifted and demoted him to menial labor. He didn't argue. Only he knew that the black stone, cold for sixteen years, had just grown warm, and that the crack in the testing stone was seeping blood.

Sixteen years ago, his mother had emerged from the depths of a lake no outsider could reach, carrying this stone in her arms.

Sixteen years later, an old servant died in the herb garden. The lamp burned all night, leaving behind one sentence: The door is open. Swallow whatever you must.

Jiang Yan left the Jiang family with the stone tucked away, following the ferry route along the Sea of Herbs, picking up discarded remnants of medicine and taking on the filthy ailments others couldn't avoid. Gradually, he discovered that...

The spiritual energy he swallowed didn't simply vanish.

The karma he suppressed took root at the bottom of his apertures, forming a thread.

And behind the door beneath the sea, a voice had been waiting for him for a long time.

"Mother said not to come back."

"I'm back."