After the “Great Rift” incident of 2145, fragments of the moon formed the “Starfall Belt,” accidentally opening a passage between the [Cyber Heavenly Court] and the [Human Ghost Market]. The real world evolved into an era of “spirit-particle punk,” where three realms intertwined:
Neon Cultivation Realm: cultivators with brain-computer interfaces ride their swords through data torrents, while the Nine Great Tech Sects monopolize spirit-particle reactors, such as the mechanical sword bones of “Cyber Shu Mountain” and the talisman AI of “Quantum Mount Longhu.”
Cyber Heavenly Court: A cloud-based divine realm formed by uploading the consciousnesses of ancient immortals. It controls all things through the “Heavenly Law Algorithm” (the Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions are actually quantum AIs).
Human Ghost Market: A lawless wasteland where the unmodified live, and black markets trade in ancient magical artifacts and military-grade cybernetic implants.
Chu Zhao (female, 25): owner of an antique shop in the Ghost Market / wanted criminal of the Cyber Heavenly Court.
Special ability: “Golden Eyes of Treasure Appraisal,” which can analyze the source code of all things (actually fragments of the Hongmeng source code).
Hidden identity: the last unregistered inheritor of the “Earth Fiend Arts,” whose physical body can withstand quantum radiation.
Chu Zhao accidentally buys a mechanical Buddha head that can recite the Diamond Sutra, triggering the first awakening of her “Golden Eyes of Treasure Appraisal.”
A string of murders breaks out in the Ghost Market, with the victims’ brains covered in binary code from the Ksitigarbha Sutra.
Xuanji enters the Ghost Market to hunt down a traitor from his sect and is forced to team up with Chu Zhao. Together, they expose the “Buddha Bone Incense System” scam: the cyber-Buddhist sect is using brain-computer interfaces to collect the power of people’s prayers.
