The Hidden Trail: Tracking the Nine Maps

Qin Yuan never imagined that the half ginkgo leaf his grandfather left behind on his deathbed would drag him into a mystery spanning a thousand years.

The leaf, with gold foil hidden in its veins, points not only to the snow of Kunlun Ruins and the grievances of Cloud Cavern, but also to fragments of the Nine Cauldrons Map scattered across the land. Legend says that gathering all nine pieces will open the Gate of Rebirth, bringing the dead back to life and restoring flesh to bare bones. This is the obsessive fixation of Professor Chen and three generations of his family, as well as the reason Qin Yuan has no choice but to embark on a perilous journey.

When Fatty’s explosives thunder across Changbai Mountain, Qin Yuan glimpses Lin Wanqiu’s blue cotton shirt beyond the bronze gate. In the bloodied ley line of Zhongnan Mountain, the Mirror of Mountain-Suppression reveals not only the livid faces of the living dead, but also the tangled three-generation feud between the Qin, Zhao, and Chen families. The oracle bone fragment in the Hu family child’s hands is burning hot, and the character for “gu” inscribed on it is slowly gnawing away at everyone’s fate with the sinister power of the reincarnation art.

From the stone coffin of the King of Dian to the waterlogged corpses of Liangzhu, from the mother gu in Lady Fu Hao’s tomb to the mirror’s reflection in Zhongnan’s ley line, they pursue fragments, crack mechanisms, and battle vengeful spirits, as well as the dark schemes hidden in the folds of history. The long-running antagonist’s serpent-scale mark follows them like a shadow. Fatty’s laughter, Wanqiu’s tears, and the child’s fear all become the sharpest blades in this game of hide-and-seek.

The nine pieces will eventually be gathered, and the bronze gate will open once more. But who will be standing behind it then: an old friend reborn through bloodshed, or their own self consumed by obsession?

In this deadly game, where life and death are the stakes, no one who enters can escape unscathed.