In 1935, Zhang Qishan, leader of the foremost of Changsha’s Nine Gates, received a bronze box engraved with the Nine Gates’ secret markings. Inside was a blood-written message: "When the Nine Gates gather, the truth shall be revealed in blood." The box led to the sudden death of Er Yuehong’s wife, whose dying mutterings hinted at the mystery of "Gui Xu." When the heads of the Nine Gates gathered, they discovered that the Gate of Gui Xu, sealed by their ancestors, was awakening. Blood markings had appeared on every one of them, marking them as sacrifices. Japanese agents lurked in the shadows, and a traitor was hidden within the Nine Gates. A fated showdown over the secrets of immortality and a terrifying corruption was about to begin.
**The Nine Gates and the Star Tea Chronicles**
The fates of the Nine Gates in Republican-era China become entwined with those of interstellar tea children. When fragments of the Bronze Gate run wild through time and space, a half-blood from the Tea Planet returns with Ma Yue’s ultimate plan, guiding Zhang Qishan, Er Yuehong, and the others of the Nine Gates as they awaken to the truth: they are all "living keys" capable of saving civilization. From the flames of the War of Resistance to an interstellar tribunal, suffering is brewed into healing tea, and the dying words, "After the bitterest taste comes sweetness," are finally fulfilled at a tea gathering two hundred years later.
