The Karmic Ascendant

Kael Ashford was the Iron Veil's most efficient killer by sixteen. Raised in the Ashenmere — a walled-off wasteland for the condemned — he knew nothing but contracts, body counts, and survival.Then a failed operation burns his cover, kills his father, and awakens something ancient: a golden script called the Ledger that reads moral weight instead of cultivation rank. Every genuine act of mercy makes him stronger. Every cruelty diminishes him. It doesn't negotiate.Now hiding in the Jade Sovereignty as an alchemist's apprentice, Kael must navigate sect politics, institutional conspiracies, and a power system that punishes him for being exactly what he was trained to be.