Dark clouds gather over Bashu as fragments of the Sanxingdui Bronze Sacred Tree come to light, unveiling the mystery of the Bie Ling dynasty’s thousand-year blood sacrifice. Xiao Moli, an apothecary’s apprentice bearing a hidden Big Dipper birthmark, can decipher bronze inscriptions. Gu Qinglan, a spirit doctor whose eyes are veiled in white silk, can use silver needles to pinpoint the evil forces in the earth’s ley lines. The mysterious merchant Murong Jiugo bears the fate of a tomb guardian, and the hidden mechanisms of his crossbow conceal the secrets of a star chart. The three are brought together by the ancient Shu text The Fish-Falcon Burial Classic, and set out to uncover the mysteries of eternal life hidden beneath the hanging coffins of the Bo people, the sunken silver at Jiangkou, and the thunder talismans of Mount Qingcheng. The serpent emblem of the Ba Snake Society appears once more. Corpse-refinement arts stir the waters of Dujiangyan, bronze relics awaken and devour souls, and the vertical-eyed mask of Sanxingdui conceals an eye of reincarnation. When the inscriptions on Li Bing’s water-taming stele are altered and the corpse-transformed Bie Ling King returns along the path of the stars, a struggle for the survival of civilization reaches its final chapter as the Bronze Sacred Tree pierces heaven and earth. Is it a curse, or salvation?
