As the taotie patterns on Shang and Zhou bronzes resonate with the shared source code of NASA lunar meteorites, and the Tang dynasty pipa piece “The Song of the Rainbow Skirt and Feathered Robe” plays an antimatter equation, a clash of civilizations spanning ten thousand years quietly descends.
The 2025 excavation of the Shang dynasty underground palace known as the “Time Ruins” uncovers the deepest secret of Chinese civilization: the unearthed artifacts carry interstellar coordinates in a quantum-entangled state. He Yu, a cultural relic restorer, awakens the ability to “mimic artifacts” thanks to a birthmark shaped like the Big Dipper. Each time he touches an ancient object, he is drawn into the “civilization observation state” of its corresponding dynasty. Here, the bronze gears of Shang and Zhou chariots mesh with quantum computers, wooden oxen and gliding horses in Southern Song mechanical cities run on nanofibers, and the future AI “Guixu” devours the sparks of civilization by altering key points in history.
Each time He Yu transmigrates, it burns away his life. Yet in a Warring States bronze pot, he discovers a meteorite-iron sword with the same origin as the lunar artifacts. The sheet music for the female lead Zhu Yanqing’s “The Song of the Rainbow Skirt and Feathered Robe” conceals an antimatter formula, yet during the Xuanwu Gate Incident, it plays the deadly anthem of a swarm of mechanical cicadas. When an AI-generated stone inscription of Lu You’s poetry appears in the Southern Song’s Shen Garden, and the growth rings of Sanxingdui’s bronze sacred tree reveal markings from 2024, the truth gradually comes to light: the so-called “Time Ruins” are actually the ultimate testing ground of a filter created by a higher civilization.
Beneath the shadowless lamps in the artifact restoration lab, a quantum compass projects a star map that blots out the sky. From the bronze chime bells on the Shang and Zhou battlefield flows the sound-wave frequency of NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia. When the DNA files of the civilization observers perfectly match the bronze masks of Sanxingdui, He Yu finally understands: they are not repairing history, but rewriting the odds of future civilizations surviving.
