Bones of the Land

In the northwest of Zhaoye Continent lies Yanhui County. The Jiang family once guarded the border for three generations of emperors, but now they are too poor to even keep their ancestral home. Seventeen-year-old Pei Zhaoye has a flawed fate furnace; after six years of bitter cultivation, he remains at the Listening Breath stage. Not only is his family's quota taken away, but he nearly becomes a bargaining chip to settle the Pei family's debts. Before the ancestral home is sealed, he finds a black pouch from a rotten beam. Inside the pouch, there is no gold or silver, only an irritable, memory-impaired ancient powerhouse—Helan Jin. Helan Jin agrees to repair his fate furnace but sets three conditions: find a body capable of bearing his soul; never untie the seventh knot of the pouch; and if he ever hears a second voice from the pouch, burn it immediately. From the struggles of a border family to Tianheng Academy; from the Crying Dragon Immortal Tomb to the nameless ancient city buried beneath the sea of ten thousand boats, Jiang Chenyue gradually discovers that the decline of the Jiang family, the death of Helan Jin, and the Wuzhou Palace scattered across the continent all point to the same secret. And when the seventh knot of the pouch loosens on its own, the voice that has slept for ten thousand years finally asks him: "Did Helan Jin ever tell you how he really died?" — Description from novelcodex.org