In the shadowy side of a city where ancient traditions intertwine with modern civilization, eighteen-year-old orphan Fang Yuan accidentally awakens the ancient forbidden relic, the Compendium of All Spirits, and is forced into a god-slaying war spanning a thousand years. Those who walk the Paths wield extraordinary powers bestowed by the Star Gods: Abundance heals, the Hunt tracks, and Erudition deduces... Yet in the end, they are all destined to become sacrifices for the gods' resurrection.
Fang Yuan bears the rare Path of Nihility. He can devour the power of every Star God, making him the key to breaking the deadlock for the Lingshu Pavilion. When he discovers that his childhood friend Han Ling carries a relic of an Envoy of Harmony, and that the roots of the Jianmu are eating away at Lin Feng's heart, with time running out, the truth behind the mass disappearance of newborns in 1998 gradually comes to light: in the god-slaying battle twenty years ago, the Abundance Star God infused its source into the bodies of infants, and Fang Yuan is the most unusual “living seal” of all.
Now, a Southern Song copper coffin has awakened beneath the Yangtze River, the remaining branches of the Jianmu are growing wildly in an ancient tomb, and an army of living corpses controlled by the Star Gods has returned. Fang Yuan must master the Chaos Totem and uncover the god-slaying key that the Envoy of Harmony's mother buried with her life, amid the bronze formation of the Archaeological Research Institute and the treacherous undercurrents of the Path Academy. When the armillary sphere reveals the horrifying truth of countless eyes opening beneath the Jialing River, a final battle over fate, sacrifice, and betrayal is quietly approaching amid the Star Gods' whispers...
