Five hundred years ago, Xu Yiqing was a fearsome general of Northern Qi who dominated the battlefield. During the chaotic final years of the Yuan dynasty, he openly defied the underworld’s “rules and regulations” and was imprisoned in the boiling-oil inferno. When King Qin Guang Zhong Li laid down a contract for life and death, with the restoration of shattered soul lamps and the easing of humanity’s grievances as performance targets, this rebellious underworld “laborer” was forced to possess the body of a severely antisocial high school student in the 21st century.
The body’s original owner was a contradiction: obsessed with history but enrolled in science classes. With his parents working on the front lines of the pandemic response, he had withdrawn into himself. Even worse, his soul lamp had already been shattered by heavenly lightning, and the lingering dark nightmare was waiting for a chance to devour all of space and time.
Xu Yiqing must not only face the hellish countdown to the gaokao, with 365 days to go, but also team up with Yun Yun, a warrior who has lived in his body for five hundred years. A cool, silver-haired strategist wielding a black umbrella, she once witnessed the Liuzhen Rebellion and the bloody battle at Mangshan, but was struck down by heavenly punishment for trying to stop a massacre at the end of the Yuan dynasty.
When the Cold Abyss Sword shatters a mirrored illusion and the Dark Mystery Umbrella stirs the dark currents of qi, the two souls cast aside by the tides of history seem to embark on the most absurd redemption of all, in a world where Douyin test-prep videos intertwine with the Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government.
And the ultimate mission left by King Qin Guang is pushing their fates toward an even grander game of strategy!
“History, as they say, is nothing more than a performance report written by the victors.” When Xu Yiqing writes those words in an essay for his monthly exam, Yun Yun’s Dark Mystery Umbrella sweeps past the shop window. The blood still wet on its canopy came from the time-traveling poacher they killed just last night, someone who had tried to rewrite the historical record of the pandemic response...
