In the 25th century, humanity’s wave of interstellar colonization brings it into contact with a cosmic taboo. When linguist Lin Yu deciphers silicon-based inscriptions on Crystal Diamond Star, discovering oracle bone script from the Shang dynasty carved into them, the entire galaxy suddenly faces a countdown to dimensional collapse. The planet, blanketed in crystal forests, turns out to be a colossal tombstone left behind by a highly advanced civilization five hundred million years ago. Every crystal pillar on its surface seals the remains of a civilization that has been “formatted,” while the key to breaking the cycle lies buried in human DNA.
Space Captain Han Yue witnesses his own death, just twenty-four hours away, in a temporal maelstrom. The crystal patterns appearing on his wrist become quantum entangled with the oracle bone script swirling in Lin Yu’s eyes. As the expedition ventures deeper into the silicon-based ruins, they find that their oxygen gauges are forever stuck at 72 hours, diamond veins are growing beneath the crew’s skin, and the corpse of a twentieth-century astronaut frozen in the ice is clutching an interstellar federation ID card bearing everyone’s name.
A battle to defend civilization across time and space erupts amid fractured memories. The truth of the universe, revealed by a gaseous civilization, is chilling: Earth was the sole survivor of the last dimensional collapse. The memories of an ancient war flashing through Lin Yu’s mind point them toward the lost artifact known as the Nine Tripods. It may be the button that reboots the entire universe, or the coffin that will bury human civilization.
When the sound of a pipe organ rings out across the galaxy once more from Crystal Diamond Star, Lin Yu must make a choice before her flesh crystallizes: trust the legend recorded in the oracle bone script, that “the Nine Tripods will save the world,” or destroy the temporal anchor that has trapped the entire universe in a curse of endless cycles? And the death Han Yue foresaw: is it an inevitable end, or the last chance to reverse cause and effect?
