Fists in the Wasteland

On the night the stars fell, a spiritual tide descended from the sky, and ferocious beasts devoured a third of the cities. The survivors built a three-ring system of order in Dongzhou: the inner ring was for elite clans and academies, the outer ring for factories and mining districts, and the Gray Zone... The Gray Zone was a human wall against the beast tide, a place for people denied both rations and any chance of survival. Chen Jin was born on Ninth Street in the Gray Zone. The day his rations were cut, his little sister's fever wouldn't break. He staked his mother's military tag, borrowed an iron spear, and broke into the wilderness in the dead of night. That night, he bit through the throat of his first ferocious beast and awakened something slumbering in his bloodline: [Beast Devourer]. Devour beast blood, seize beast cores, and kill with every step. But there was a price: a backlash of ferocity, ruptured meridians, and a limit to his bloodline's potential. He had no idea that this bloodline began with the other half of a key left to him by his mother, who died in the line of duty thirty years ago. From the dead end of the Gray Zone to the academy's grand tournament stage; from the beast tide of the northern wastes to the abyssal entrance of the forbidden zone; from defending a single wall alone to pressing a seal across the entire planet, he fights his way upward for one reason: to protect the light behind him.