Chronicles of the Ashen Cauldron

In the Great Jin Dynasty’s 372nd year, the founding emperor melted down the Nine Tripods to cast the Ashen Cauldron and established an ancestral rule: every emperor must offer up his soul upon ascending the throne to preserve the dynasty. The people praise the emperors’ martyrdom and the eternal peace of the realm, but only the imperial family knows the truth: the Ashen Cauldron never consumes souls. It devours the emperor’s lifespan. The current Emperor Chengjin is only twenty years old, yet already withered and near death. During the Winter Solstice Soul-Burning Ceremony, Crown Prince Xiao Chengji goes mad while offering the sacrifice in his father’s place. He screams that there’s a ghost in the cauldron and is imprisoned in the Heaven-Piercing Tower. Crown Prince’s son Xiao Jintian was born with the ability to sense ash energy. He wants to obey his father’s dying wish and lie low, but cannot suppress his true nature and resolves to uncover the mystery. He meets Xie Mingzhu, daughter of the Grand Chancellor, who bears a mission to destroy the ruined cauldron and possesses a secret art for extinguishing ash. Together, they navigate the forces of the Ashen Cauldron Bureau, court nobles, and border warlords. The cauldron seals Taotie, and the ruler is its sacrifice. Should they feed themselves to the cauldron and preserve the dynasty’s false peace, or smash it and break the pact, ushering in a new world of chaos? Beneath the ashes, all beings are trapped. Only those who dare defy fate can stand without kneeling before the people.