In an age when deep devotion is mocked as being a simp and lasting love can't compete with someone who shows up out of nowhere, 28-year-old archaeology associate professor Lin Mo has long since closed off his heart. His mother forces him into a blind date, where he encounters the Shanghai socialite Wang Yan and her jaw-dropping list of exorbitant bride-price demands. A calm "I'm not worthy of you" and a glass of water offered to her are Lin Mo's final expressions of detachment and scorn toward this twisted world. He turns and boards a military vehicle, leaving behind the absurdities of city life and his parents' worries as he heads for the turning point of his fate: the summit of Kunlun.
Towering Kunlun has been frozen for ten thousand years. A mountain patrol team unexpectedly discovers the entrance to a gigantic ruin that has appeared out of thin air, as if an ancient sleeping beast has opened its eyes. The nation is shaken, and the world watches. Lin Mo, a leading expert in symbology, is urgently recruited into the most elite expedition team.
What they find deep inside the ruins overturns everything they know: a grotesque altar, its Taotie patterns pulsing with a savage aura; above, the twenty-eight lunar mansions and the constellations of the Four Divine Beasts shine brilliantly and slowly turn; on the stone walls, carvings of the twelve zodiac beasts look lifelike, an aura from the primordial age rushing toward them; on the floor, pathways of light weave together an eight-trigram formation and precise geometric arrays, forming a vast "apparatus." This is no known civilization! It is the remnant of a lost ancient world of immortal cultivation!
Half a year of arduous archaeological work follows, with every new discovery shaking the foundations of human history. When footage of the ruins and the research findings astonish the world, the internet erupts: the legends of immortal cultivation are real! Speculation that the Age of Dharma's Decline is ending spreads everywhere. But the instant Lin Mo touches the altar's ancient patterns, he feels something else: an invisible shudder from deep within the ruins that freezes his soul. The air stills, and the stars flash strangely!
