During the Republic of China, Suzhou apprentice Shen Zhaoming awakened to the "Thousand-faced Book" that could copy the abilities of others, but suffered backlash, and bronze lines appeared all over his body; Su Wanyue, an orphan from the Nanjing government agency, was riddled with diseased bones. When the moon was full, his bones exuded blue star sand, which resonated with thousand-year-old cultural relics.
The two met because of the fragment of the "Pisces Jade Pendant" and were involved in the conspiracy of the "Time Eclipse" - this force that controls machinery and star sand is destroying the ten bronze keys in the south of the Yangtze River and cutting off the connection between the "Ruins of Time" and modern civilization. Shixu is an ancient "mobile hard drive" that stores the sparks of civilization from Liangzhu to quantum computers.
Shen Zhaoming's Thousand Faces Book and Su Wanyue's sick bones are the key to awakening the Ten Keys. They traveled to the gardens of Suzhou, the Qinhuai River in Nanjing, and Taihu Lake in Wuxi. Under the siege of mechanical gardeners and the Bronze Army, they uncovered the secrets of the Tang and Song Dynasties: ruins leaked thousands of years ago, and ancestors used bronze keys to seal the star sand in exchange for the survival of civilization.
Now, Time Eclipse wants to reignite the war in Star Sand. Shen Zhaoming and Su Wanyue must collect the ten keys, use the "twin keys" to merge their bloodline missions, and use the fire of civilization to illuminate the future in the end when they return to ruins...
This is a reverse journey that spans thousands of years. Two young people chosen by fate, using bones as guides and keys as blades, protect the most authentic appearance of civilization in the collision of star sand and machinery.
