The Gilder of Weeping Wood

In a world where cultivators draw power from the “Life-Aura” of a divine, world-spanning tree, Lian Hua is a pariah. Born with a “Withering Touch,” his spirit drains life from any plant he touches, making him an accursed presence in the Verdant Sect. As a charcoal burner, he can only interact with the Tree’s deadwood. He discovers a petrified root deep in a blighted grove that contains not life, but the Tree’s ancient, crystallized grief. As a sentient, life-consuming decay called “The Grey Blight” begins to infect the World-Tree, Lian Hua, the boy who brings only death, must learn to channel the Tree’s own sorrow to gild its dying branches and find life in what has been forsaken.