[The flame of civilization never dies; one stroke can reshape three thousand worlds]
A sandstorm at the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang tears apart the fate of Wu Yang, a fifteen-year-old novice monk. When he draws the Yi’an Sword, flowing with Song lyrics, from the mural The Deer King Jataka, the nine-colored deer’s pupils become etched in his eyes forever. This is the Star Abyss Eye, which can glimpse the origin of time and space, and the flame of civilization buried for a thousand years by the various schools of thought.
Six legendary women emerge from the shattered murals: Li Qingzhao, who wields poetry like a sword; Gongsun Daniang, who devours the heavens behind a Nuo mask; Cai Wenji, whose zither shatters time and space... They are “concept incarnations,” forgotten by the river of history, each guarding one of Huaxia’s most dangerous intellectual treasures. Wu Yang gradually discovers that every time he swings his sword to rewrite reality, a little more of the murals in the Dunhuang caves flakes away; a section of Zhuque Avenue in the prosperous Tang capital vanishes into thin air; and a corner of the Rainbow Bridge from the Northern Song dims in the star chart. It turns out that all of Huaxia civilization has been sealed inside 129,600 scrolls known as The Timeless Realm’s Painted World.
[Cultivation means stealing fire; seeking the Dao means defying Heaven]
When Wu Yang comprehends the seven heaven-defying Dao traditions:
- He summons an army with ink splashed from A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains
- He freezes time with the notes of Guangling San
- He forges conceptual weapons with The Exploitation of the Works of Nature
- He dances through the void with The Song of Rainbow Skirts and Feathered Robes
He must face the cruelest truth: the women he loves are all “civilizational maladies” severed from the sages of the various schools; the magnificent Chang’an of the prosperous Tang is no more than a mirage reflected by the Star Abyss Eye. And when he cleaves through the mists of Guixu with his Green Lotus sword aura, the one waiting for him is none other than his middle-aged self, seated in Kun
