A sudden anomaly strikes the Celestial Secrets Pavilion in Luoyang. The oracle Mo Xuanming glimpses an apocalyptic omen: “Mars devours the Purple Forbidden Enclosure.” While repairing the Bamboo Annals, the literary prodigy Jiang Ci finds the ink vortex beneath his brush sucking every book out of the library. The nine strings of Zhong Wushe's Nine Heavens zither snap, searing a chaotic formation diagram into existence. The three discover that the threads of time and space have snapped: Qin Dynasty terracotta warriors and the soaring eaves of Tang palaces overlap in the skies above Luoyang, while chaotic black mist pours from a fissure on Mount Li. Someone is rewriting three thousand years of Chinese history.
To restore the system of the River Map and the Luo Writing, the three set out on a perilous journey:
