In the Jade Empire, artisans who carve spiritual jade into cultivation tools hold immense power. When a young jade-carver discovers her work can trap living souls inside the stone, she faces an impossible choice: use her forbidden talent to save someone she loves, or destroy her own creations before the wrong people learn what they can do.
Su Yan learned to carve jade from her grandmother, who learned from hers. For generations, the women of her family have produced spiritual vessels — jade cups that purify water, jade pendants that calm the mind, jade swords that cut through qi. Honest craft for honest cultivators. But when Su Yan accidentally traps a dying butterfly inside a jade bead, she realizes her family's talent goes deeper than anyone knew. She can bind souls to stone. The Jade Bureau would execute her for such an ability — soul-binding is forbidden arts, punishable by death. But when her brother is killed in a sect dispute and his last breath escapes his body, Su Yan faces a choice no one should have to make: let his soul dissipate into nothing, or bind him to jade and commit a crime that could cost her everything.
This story is in development. Chapters will appear here once approved for publication.
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