In this world, the Book of Fate determines how long everyone lives. Only those whose names appear in its pages are truly alive.
One rainy night, the rogue cultivator Tao Zhiyu stumbles upon an ambush on a deserted road. The turbid qi in his body surges, bringing him to the brink of self-destruction. By chance, he glimpses the years of life floating above everyone's heads, while there is nothing above his own. The blade an assassin swings at him dissolves in midair, and overnight he earns the name “Blade Swallower.”
Strange events soon follow. No register or travel permit can record his name. Anyone who tries to write it down suffers a backlash from the Book of Fate. The local branch of the Celestial Surveillance Bureau hunts him down and tries to read his name from the book, only to meet repeated resistance and backlash.
Tao Zhiyu and his brother Tang Wenxing flee to Black Mountain, home of the Hidden Sect, only to find a consortium surrounding the mountain and cutting off their food supplies. Tao can see the years of life people have left, and can take or return them. Those near him can resist the erosion of turbid qi, but doing so steadily drains his own life.
Every faction is watching him. The Celestial Surveillance Bureau wants to seal him away, the consortium plans to dissect him, and the reformists are waiting for a chance to recruit him. Who left the empty space that suddenly appeared in the Book of Fate? He must shatter this thousand-year-old false law that monopolizes life spans, cultivation techniques, and the power to erase names.
