Unsouled by Will Wight - Book summary

Information Requested: Unsouled Recap

Unsouled begins with Wei Shi Lindon starting the spiritual origin test that all kids do in sacred valley when he's about 7 years old.

"Wei Shi Lindon! - Stretch forth your hand and let your spirit be known."

The spiritual origin test is supposed to determine whether he is a Striker, or an Enforcer etc, which it turns out doesn't matter however we will not find out about that for a long time. Anyway, he sticks his hand in the bowl and…. nothing happens.

"He is empty. Unsouled." 

No magic. Bound to spend his life, weak like baby…  queue sad trombone.

The whole world works on this magical martial arts called “Sacred Arts” but because our boy Lindon here is determined to be “Unsouled,” he will not be allowed to train at all, ever, in any way… do not pass go, do not collect $200, your whole life you will be weak like baby. Still, this does not stop Lindon from taking the test again every 6 months, each time, with a more elaborate attempt at cheating. And obviously, he fails every time.

By the time the story really starts moving, he’s 15 years old. Quick side note: at this point, Lindon is built the way The Rock was when he was 15. So Lindon is “Unsouled”, lower than low, treated like dirt. In his attempts to get stronger and pass the test, he tries to get a magic spirit fruit to help him , but in the process his cousin screws things up for him. Eventually, Lindon DOES get the fruit, but he breaks his arm in the process. 

When he comes home, feeling triumphant with his fruit, his own family is like: “Yo, nice spirit fruit. We'll take that. Thanks.” 

And he's like: “Wait a minute. I got it. Can I have it?”

And HIS OWN parents are like: “No, you're unsouled, and therefore you suuuuck.” 

Lindon is like: “Wow, that sucks, thanks MOM AND DAD! You know what? You’re both old and broken, give half to my sister who might become somebody someday, but I’m taking some too.” 

And so he is able to get half of it with his sister. However, he’s still in trouble with the elders over the whole thing because of the cousin and the elder says:  “Yo, you’re still unsouled and you still suck. In fact, you suck SO MUCH because you're unsouled that if another clan was out there and they ran into you while you were trying to get the spirit fruit, and they accidentally killed you, a weak unsouled baby, I would have to apologize to THEM for their inconvenience because you suuuuuuuuuuuuck. Actually, it’s good that you didn’t get dead, BUT you did embarrass your cousin along the way. This is why you now have to duel your cousin… in a week’s time.” 

Lindon is bound to lose because he is not nearly as advanced as his cousin. So, what is going to do, you ask? He has got to find out how he could possibly survive. He hasn't been allowed to train at any point in his life since he is unsouled, even though he's 15. He hasn't been able to do anything at all, but somewhere in his clan’s archives he finds a scroll and it teaches him this path of twin stars, which will turn his Mana Bar into two separate, but less useful Mana Bars.

But that's not what is interesting to Lindon. What IS interesting to him is a technique called “The Empty Palm.” If he can land it right on his opponent’s core - which by the way is where they store their magic energy bar right in their abdomen area - if he can nail their core with the Empty Palm, it ruins their Mana Bar for a while. They can't do “magic fu” at all (It is actually called Sacred Arts, but I like Magic Fu). 

So he tries to learn how to do this by practicing on his sister. At first he is unable do it. But he has to because the duel is coming up! And eventually he gets it right and he is super excited that works really well. So then he goes to the tournament and instead of fighting his cousin, he challenges a much stronger person - an Iron - and he successfully lands the Empty Palm because the other person wasn’t expecting it. Immediately after, Lindon is like: “We’re cool, right? Please don't kill me!” and he surrenders.

Out of nowhere this magic being comes down whose name doesn't matter and he's like: “Yo, y'all dead.”  So.. that's sucks. 

Lindon knows he'll get wrecked but tries to stop this guy anyway. Obviously, it does not work. 

But then a magic angel comes down. Her name is Surreal and she's like:  *record scratch*  “Yo, you're all back alive.”  So that's great. 

She rewinds the events and then makes the magic bad guy disappear. She acknowledges that Lindon tried to beat the bad guy knowing that he would not succeed because, of course, he’s Unsouled, still weak (like baby). But he tried! So she’s like: “Yo, you're kind of brave even though you’re weak like baby. Come with me.” 

And she shows him other parts of the world and people, that are WAY more powerful than he even thought possible. She also shows him that his whole home area, Sacred valley, is going to be ruined, clobbered, DESTROYED~! 

Fortunately, he has an opportunity to save it. She tells him about Yerin, the disciple of the Sword Sage and that if he gets together with her at the Heavens Glory School (here in Sacred Valley), they can leave Sacred Valley and he can start getting stronger where he maybe someday… might be able to save his home IF he advances and gets strong enough. Lindon accepts and through more trickery and such, he sneaks his way to Heaven’s Glory School. He finds out where Yerin is, and… uh oh…. He finds out the school is trying to kill her and take her treasures because that's what people do in this world.

But! He gets there first! He goes to her and he's like: “Yo, I know this is crazy but I saw a magic space angel that healed everyone and it would be really cool if we got out of here together. By the way, creepy belt but you do you.” 

And Yerin was like:  “You're right, that does sound crazy.”

And he's like: “No. Look at this marble. She gave it to me.” 

Then Yerin, the disciple, says: “You're still crazy, but bleed me dry, we SHOULD work together.”

And so they fight their way out and in the process. Yerin absorbs her former master's remnant and becomes gold level with a shiny new sword arm. Lindon splits his mana bar into two so that an attacker doesn’t ruin his magic core and then they get out of Sacred Valley and…. 

The End

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