[What you've taken in isn't an antique, but four hundred years of cause and effect.]
Deep in the Yin Ruins, the bronze mirror that A Ning, the new owner of the “Ancient Mirror Studio,” was forced to accept concealed the vengeful remnant of a shaman sacrificed during the Wanli reign.
The mirror's surface began to seep black blood, reflecting a pair of identical figures.
Paper talismans shaped like crickets transformed into a gu array of human teeth.
Her master, missing for over a month, suddenly returned with a red-cord gu.
The Folk Customs Bureau's investigation into soul-devouring moss, the old woman's trap involving a shroud that steals years of life at the market, twelve bronze mirrors bubbling in a pool of blood... Every clue pointed to the [Ancient Tombs of Southern Yunnan].
And the cicada shell at A Ning's temple reminded her: [Your role in this Nuo ritual spanning the worlds of the living and the dead was written four hundred years ago.]
