In the R Empire, a brutal world ruled by qi cultivation and dark magic, fifteen-year-old Dren has always been the Nightveil Clan’s shame, a slow-minded, dull orphan treated as little more than trash by his own relatives. Mocked, ignored, and isolated since birth after his parents mysteriously died, Dren lived in a constant mental fog, unable to learn, speak properly, or even feel the full sting of the cruelty around him.

Everything changes when the clan reluctantly sends him into the dangerous Beast Valley for the traditional spirit-beast taming rite. Deep in the valley, something strange happens. The fog in his mind shatters, his thoughts become sharp and clear for the first time, and a cold, ancient voice named Vion awakens inside him, claiming to have been sealed in his body for years.

Now fully aware of how badly he has been treated, Dren returns to the clan hiding his transformation. He pretends to still be the useless idiot everyone expects while secretly training under Vion’s harsh guidance, awakening powerful warlock abilities tied to the Nightveil Clan’s forbidden dark arts.

As Dren grows stronger, he begins uncovering buried secrets: his parents’ deaths were no accident, the clan elders hide dark truths, and Vion himself has his own hidden motives for helping him rise.

Surrounded by clan politics, rivalries with the other three great clans (Duskblade, Jadebrew, and Shadowbolt), and the constant threat of war, Dren must decide his path, quiet revenge against those who scorned him, the pursuit of truth about his past, or something far greater.

With an arrogant ancient entity in his head, untapped potential in his veins, and enemies on every side, the former outcast begins a slow, calculated climb from the bottom. The clan that threw him away is about to learn what happens when trash awakens.