In 2077, mechanical koi carps swam in the neon tubes of Shanhai City, and a gene editing company transformed the nine-tailed fox into a "cyber spiritual pet" that could show off cuteness on live broadcasts. Taotie was stuffed into a garbage treatment plant as a "living shredder"—when the genes of the alien beasts in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" became tradable data commodities, humans finally opened Pandora's cyberbox with their own hands.
Ye Zhiqiu, the youngest special agent of the Alien Beast Bureau, has a "Taotie module" embedded in his left eye that can see through gene chains. His daily job is to put "data seals" on out-of-control mythical creatures. It wasn't until a fire broke out in the Zhulong Bar that he discovered the fingerprints of his mentor Shen Wei in the charred mechanical remains - the mechanical cybernetic man who always said "data is eternal life" actually used the "Shan Hai Jing Code" to build a virtual divine realm on the dark web, using human consciousness as data feed to feed alien beasts.
