The Dragon Vein Atlas
When the dragon vein nears its end, the blind behold the light of heaven
[Core Mystery]
In the twelfth year of the Tianqi reign, the dragon vein teeters on the brink of collapse. Earthquakes split cities, drought demons run rampant, and Chen Guanxing, orphaned son of an official from the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, drifts through the streets. Though blind in both eyes, he possesses strange pupils: he cannot see the mortal world, but can perceive the flow of dragon qi. When golden qi flourishes, the nation prospers; when gray qi scatters, the land mourns. Wherever blood-red baleful qi gathers, disaster is sure to follow.
[A Deadly Game of Chess]
A prophecy about the Yellow River draws him into the game as a forced pawn of Zhu Jie, a warlord prince. With the “Celestial Compass” in his left hand, he cuts dragon veins and defies fate: he turns an enemy nation's golden qi into a locust plague, helping Zhu Jie expand his territory and seize supremacy; he steals an emperor's dragon vein to bring down rain, earning the people's worship as the “Blind Sage.” Each time he uses his power, a thread of frost-white spreads from the corner of his eye: the ashes of his burning lifespan. With his right hand, he supports Li Zhao, a princess in exile. Where her clothes are stained with blood, gray-black dragon qi surges: “Those who bear the dragon vein will have their bones become mountains and rivers.”
[A Bloodstained Choice]
When the truth tears everything apart, Zhu Jie turns out to have been an old friend of Chen's father, and the massacre of his family was meant only to conceal the secret that the dragon vein was dying. To avenge his enemies, he must drain the dragon vein from Li Zhao's body, unleashing thousands of miles of scorched earth to devour the people. To save the world, he must shatter the dragon vein and let her soul disperse across heaven and earth… Above the palace, Chen Guanxing holds the shattered Celestial Compass in his palm and makes his move against heaven: “If you want this wretched life, take it, but I want new mountains and rivers to rise from the ashes!”
[An Open-Ended Finale]
On the day the new emperor ascends the throne, the blind diviner leaves the capital on foot through the snow. As the wind passes over the rice fields, he hears an old friend humming an unfinished song. When he lowers his head, a golden ear of grain hangs heavy with dew like a tear, and a jade stone rests among its grains, warm as ever.
