As Cthulhu’s fog swallows New York and the Star-Spawn knock at Tokyo Bay, the ancient order of Eastern and Western mythology totters under the encroaching chaos of the Cthulhu Mythos. Lin Shen, a young archaeology student, accidentally finds a fragment of the artifact with which the Yellow Emperor sealed Chaos: a bronze mirror adorned with Taotie patterns. From then on, he is swept into a battle for survival spanning the realms of humans, gods, and ghosts.
He becomes the disciple of a reclusive Daoist, learning to channel qi through tai chi and drive away evil spirits with talismans. Amid the anguished cries of the spirit guardians of the Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an, he catches his first glimpse of the truth behind the interwoven myths. In search of the other half of the Xuanhuang Mirror, he ventures into an underwater lair beneath the River Thames in London, joining forces with British demon hunters to fight the Deep Ones. Amid the Star Color anomaly at the Louvre in Paris, he hears the resonance between Egyptian funerary cords and the Daoist traditions of China.
As the crisis escalates, he discovers that Hell is divided into two layers. The Western Hell of Original Sin, ruled by Lucifer, is being infiltrated by the Cthulhu Mythos, while the Eastern Hell of Reincarnation, governed by the Great Emperor of Fengdu, is also under attack by corrupted souls. Only by uniting the orders of both realms can they withstand Azathoth’s chaotic whispers.
From a young Daoist to the “Resonator of Order” who wields the Xuanhuang Mirror, Lin Shen gradually awakens the power of the Five Emperors with help from the Greek Aegis, Japanese shikigami, and Native American totems. When angels of Hell fight alongside Eastern underworld soldiers, and the Holy Grail resonates with the Taiji diagram, this battle for the world’s survival will prove that chaos is terrifying, but there will always be someone willing to become a torch and protect the light of order.
