This is the story of a mysterious archaeological expedition spanning ten years. Ten years ago, Lu Jingyan, a leading scholar of pre-Qin history, led a team in an emergency excavation of the “Tomb of the Zhou King” at Mount Mang. But at a crucial stage, he vanished without a trace. All that remained at the site was half of a bronze gu vessel engraved with the words “bone within the gu,” a pool of blood, and a cryptic message: “When the three gates open, the blood gu will ring. Neither human nor ghost, it is the ‘Guardian.’”
Ten years later, Lu Jingyan’s son, Lu Wei, finds a fragment of a bronze gu vessel in an antique shop that is connected to his father’s disappearance. When he decides to take it, a mysterious scar-faced man and his companions try to stop him. After a series of perilous chases, Lu Wei discovers that the new fragment fits perfectly with the half his father left behind. Inside the vessel, he also finds a yellowed silk manuscript documenting the secrets of an ancient tomb, along with a mysterious invitation from deep within Mount Mang.
Determined to uncover the truth behind his father’s disappearance, Lu Wei heads to Mount Mang with his former classmate Zhou Manwen. Along the way, they encounter the scar-faced man and learn that his father also took part in the archaeological expedition years ago and died there. The three enter a mysterious tomb, where they face one danger after another: bone-corroding insects, eerie murals, moving finger bones, and a gigantic serpentine monster. A fragment of Lu Jingyan’s diary found in the tomb reveals a terrifying secret hidden within: the tomb guardians are “neither dead nor alive, using bone for bodies and blood for sustenance.” The bronze gu vessel seems to be the key to solving the mystery, yet it conceals even more unknown clues.
As they delve deeper, they discover that they are falling step by step into a trap carefully laid more than two thousand years ago, with mysterious forces and unknown entities behind the scenes controlling everything
