Archaeology professor Lu Jiuyuan is, on the surface, an academic world's sharp-tongued genius. In secret, however, he is the sole heir to the Heavenly Official Sect, lost to history for a thousand years.
During an excavation at Sanxingdui, he is forced into a struggle over the Heavenly Official Order. This bronze token, etched with a star map from beyond the Earth, is closely linked to both a family curse and a global crisis in which the planet's ley lines are collapsing. From ghost ships in the South China Sea's Ruins of Guixu to time loops in the Kunlun Ruins, he joins forces with Bai Xiaoman, a Miaojiang witch, and Chen Sanxiao, a money-grubbing broker, to form an “abnormal archaeology team.” They use modified Luoyang shovels to disarm mechanisms and electromagnetic pulses to fight corpse puppets. As scientific methods clash with ancient arts, they uncover the world-ending truth behind the First Emperor of Qin's underground palace and the “Nine Tripods Reunited as One.”
Meanwhile, Qi Xuanqing, leader of the mastermind group known as the Blackwater Qilin, has already extended the reach of his immortality experiments into the Earth's core... As the global magnetic field reverses and alien remains awaken, Lu Jiuyuan must wager the bloodline of the Heavenly Officials in the ultimate showdown between a giant bronze coffin and the Gate of Guixu. Will he choose to become the world's savior, or a sacrifice buried alongside civilization?
