The Pillar of Heaven collapses, giants curl up like ants, the words of sages become bloodthirsty fiends, and the dead crawl toward the world of the living. Yun Wujiu, the last orphan of the Guanzhong Kingdom, bears a Glass Heart within his chest. It can hear the sorrowful cries of all living things and glimpse the shadows of the Nine Hells. On the night his people were massacred, the Corpse Ancestor of the Nine Hells drove a Soul-Burning Heartfire into his heart. From then on, each heartbeat tore at his soul: he could hear the powerful chewing as they devoured people's fates, and see great scholars use the word “benevolence” to strangle remonstrating officials.
To save the world, he sets out on a bloodstained path. In the Three-Headed Kingdom, he becomes something more vile than a body snatcher; in the Kingdom of Gentlemen, he bears the label of “heretic” as he exposes the falsification of ancient texts; and when he seeks Yellow Springs soil from the Undying Clan, he awakens a tide of corpses beneath the moon.
Yet repairing the Pillar of Heaven requires eight supreme treasures, each one a foundation of civilization. Take the backbone of the Land of Giants, and mountains collapse; steal the flame of the Land of Fire-Haters, and the people lose their souls; dig up the root of the Flower of the Other Shore, and the rift in the underworld widens.
The Corpse Ancestor of the Nine Hells appears and laughs wildly. “You're only repeating my tragedy!” As his Glass Heart shatters, Yun Wujiu faces a choice: repair the Pillar of Heaven and live to become the next monster; shatter the eight directions and gamble on new life in the void; or burn himself away and restart the primordial world.
As the heartfire burns out, the Classic of Mountains and Seas transforms, its stars revolving. In the newborn mountains, every stele is engraved with writing, and a question echoes on the wind: “Does this world deserve your sacrifice?”
