In the third millennium after the Great Silence, humanity’s last interstellar city-state, New Firmament, survives thanks to the deciphered core of an ancient alien ruin, the Star-Skeleton Core. Unbeknownst to them, sealed deep within the core is the Void Code, powerful enough to devour entire star systems. During an accident, Lin Ye, a young ruin codebreaker, triggers an anomaly in the core and awakens Echo, a dormant alien consciousness. He also uncovers the astonishing secrets behind the origin of human civilization and the cycle of interstellar extinction. As the Void Code spreads, ruins across the galaxy spiral out of control, while ancient star hunters, endangered alien allies, and human rebels coveting the core all converge. Lin Ye must form a symbiotic bond with Echo and struggle between the survival of civilization and the limits of his own moral principles as he deciphers the Star-Skeleton code. In the end, he will uncover the Star-Skeleton Core’s ultimate purpose: to guide civilization’s ascension, or to write the final chapter for a dying universe?
