Zhong Lichen opens his eyes amid a sea of blood-red mist. Instead of the familiar archaeological camp, he sees a bronze door covered in strange symbols. It slowly swings open before him, like a summons to some ancient ritual, or an abyssal entrance opened by fate.
The secret realm has no maps and no rules, only a maze where death and desire intertwine. Every wall whispers, every fork in the path hides a trap, and the most deadly thing of all is the human heart. Zhong Lichen thinks he has simply wandered in by mistake, until he discovers that everyone who gets close to him dies in an impossible way. One is swallowed by their own shadow, another falls into an endless sleep in a dream, and yet another melts into a pool of scarlet water before his eyes.
Ruan Qinghuan, the woman in the blood-red qipao, first appears in a mirror. She smiles, but her eyes brim with an obsession that belongs to no earthly realm. “You’re mine,” she says, tracing the glass with her fingertip. Blood beads on its surface as if it were skin. She loves him, but she intends to bury the entire secret realm with him.
Bai Ye was once the friend Zhong Lichen trusted most. Now his name has become synonymous with betrayal. He lurks in the dark and lays traps in hidden chambers, all for the sake of claiming the fabled treasure for himself. But he doesn’t know that the secret realm never lets anyone get their way so easily.
Luo Li uses code and logic to build a sliver of order in this chaos, while Murong Xue cuts through the veil of truth with her sword. Who are they? Allies, or the beginning of another conspiracy?
