In the third year of the Jian Ning era of the Eastern Han, strange things began happening among the desolate tombs of Mount Mang on the outskirts of Luoyang. Woodcutters vanished, rumors spread of madness, and the shadow of the “Red Coffin Vengeful Ghost” loomed over the land. Jia Xu, an officer of the Imperial Bodyguards, was ordered to investigate the tomb. There, he uncovered a shocking secret spanning both the Western and Eastern Han dynasties: the red coffin held no body, only a piece of dark jade engraved with the character “Yin” and the dried bones of a young woman bearing a soul-nurturing spell.
She was Lady Zhao, favorite consort of Liu He, the deposed emperor of the Western Han. Sentenced to death over a witchcraft case, she had been subjected to a secret bone-binding ritual. Her own skeleton became the focal point of a formation suppressing the countless wronged souls in the tomb. A century later, the formation stirred and vengeful ghosts escaped. Tomb robbers were not the only cause: the turmoil also sprang from power struggles in Luoyang’s court. A faction of eunuchs had joined forces with former officials of the Western Han, hoping to overthrow the regime with the ghosts’ power. Meanwhile, a blue-black curse silently spread across Jia Xu’s palm, drawing him into a game of “collusion between the living and the dead.”
From the ancient tombs of Mount Mang to the palace depths of Luoyang, from the secrets of witchcraft to bloody court power struggles, Jia Xu carried half a copy of the Record of Yin Bones. He faced one uncanny peril after another, from strangling ghosts and stone figures that devoured people to the whispers of vengeful spirits, while navigating the power struggles among eunuchs, imperial in-laws, and upright officials. Gradually, he discovered that his ancestors had been guardians of the imperial mausoleums, and that the curse on Lady Zhao’s bones had long been bound to his bloodline.
When Liu He’s vengeful spirit broke free of its seal and Luoyang became a living hell, the truth of history emerged layer by layer: the hidden circumstances behind the fall of the Western Han, the Eastern Han imperial family’s deception, and the injustice of the witchcraft case. Jia Xu had to choose between “saving himself” and “saving the world,” between “personal affection” and “the greater good.” Would he sacrifice himself to the formation, inherit his ancestor’s duty, and become a half-human, half-ghost guardian of the Yin Mausoleum
