When the Sky Had Not Yet Fallen

Cuiying has spent her entire life in the Naturalist Sect of Daoists; a small and isolated community, but safe and filled with comfort. However, as fate might have it, an unexpected assault on her home turf results in the temple she was raised in for years being burned to the ground, and her adoptive family's lives lost and buried in the ruins, leaving her with no choice but to flee for her life with nothing but a small Qiankun pouch and her favoured gùn - along with the help of a reticent and taciturn cultivator who seems to know a thing or two about the individuals who sieged the Naturalist Sect.

Shi Lei is a member of the Jade Dragon Society, a fellowship of cultivators who come together from all walks of life - to find a place to call home, as most of them are outcasts, come from harsh backgrounds, or both. Upon discovering that the same individuals who doomed him to four years of hell are on the move once more, Shi Lei pursues them for days - until he comes across the ashes and debris of what once was a temple, and a young girl who seems to be the sole survivor of the assault.

As Cuiying gets to know the disciples of the Jade Dragon Society - which includes a Daoist monk from the Westward Winds Pagoda, a half-mó detective, and a mute cultivator who dabbles in ink - she and her newfound companions embark on perilous quests which take them to the tallest of mountains and the deepest of oceans. And eventually, Cuiying will also learn that everyone around her has secrets buried deep within - from her new masters to her new teammates - but nothing will prepare her for the truth behind the fall of the Naturalist Sect...