The Carver of the Naked Soul

In the Thousand-Face Sect, cultivation is the ultimate art of deception. Disciples forge “Phantasm Roots,” weaving ambient Qi into elaborate illusions, physical masks, and false realities to achieve immortality. Jin Yun is the sect’s greatest failure, born with a “Naked Soul”—a spiritual foundation absolutely incapable of projecting an aura, casting a spell, or telling a lie. Relegated to the sunless cellars to carve wooden training masks for his betters, he discovers the Chisel of the First Tree, an artifact that resonates with absolute, unvarnished truth. As a sentient, reality-devouring anomaly known as “The Grand Delusion” begins to consume the sect’s illusions and replace the cultivators with hollow phantoms, the boy who cannot lie must carve away the world’s deceptions to reveal the indestructible truth beneath.