1. The false auspicious omen of the Wu Zhou era: The empress promotes peonies as auspicious flowers heralding a golden age, using plants to stabilize the nation's fortunes. In truth, a century of bloodshed in the imperial city, violent ambition, and the grievances of souls wronged within the palace have all been absorbed by the plants. Any tree or flower tainted by evil can become a haunting menace.
2. The peonies as vessels for spirits: The peonies of Luoyang are no ordinary flowers. They are vessels that harbor wronged souls, obsessions, and sinister energy. When the flowers bloom, they conceal souls; when they fall, they release resentment; their roots bind the evil.
3. The core rules of Chinese supernatural folklore: Demons arise from human deeds, and hauntings are born from human thoughts. No demon is evil by nature. Every strange occurrence stems from the human pursuit of power and wealth, obsession, and slaughter. When people's hearts are pure, demons and hauntings vanish.
4. The heroine's fate: Cao Yuanyue was born able to sense the yin within plants. She can hear the spirits of flowers and see sinister entities. Her fate is bound to every peony demon in Luoyang. She is the only human vessel capable of restraining, empathizing with, and resolving the spirits within the flowers, but she may also be possessed by a demon flower.
Mystery Structure
1. Surface-level mystery, the characters' fate: Can the father and daughter survive these turbulent times?
2. Mid-level mystery, the truth behind the case: Who is the mastermind behind the supernatural assassination?
3. Deep mystery, the hidden folds of history: Wu Zetian's unresolved feelings in her final years and Princess Taiping's ambition.
This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.
