The Eerie Flames of Chang'an

Chang’an blazes with lights as the farewell banquet for Abeno Nakamaro, the Japanese envoy returning home from Tang China, reaches its climax. The performance of “The King of Qin’s Victory Dance” abruptly stops: the delegation’s chief musician is found dead at the banquet, with only a wisp of strange fragrance and an extinguished bronze candlestick beside him. This is the first flare of the “Ghostly Flame.”

Within three days, the imperial horses mysteriously vanish, and a five-string pipa of purple sandalwood, inlaid with mother-of-pearl and gifted by the consort herself, disappears from under the noses of heavily armed guards. At every strange crime scene, the candles are out and the incense has burned away. Rumors sweep through the martial world, pointing toward Fanyang and the depths of the palace.

…What was stolen was no ordinary diplomatic gift. Hidden inside the pipa is the Kaiyuan Atlas of Prosperity, encoded in musical notation, dance scores, and artisans’ techniques: a “living” treasure carrying the soul of High Tang civilization. The mastermind intends to bury it forever beneath the sands of the Western Regions, snuffing out this spark of civilization before it can illuminate the future.

Qi Guan Jingxuan and Liu Mingsha travel west beyond Yang Pass. Under the gaze of the thousand Buddhas of Mogao Caves, they race against time and competing forces. As the apsaras in the murals seem to stir with the ancient melodies, and An Lushan’s iron cavalry begins beating the war drums at Yuyang, they must solve the ultimate riddle: How can a “living” civilization cross a sea of intrigue and flames of war to reach the place where it belongs?

This is a desperate pursuit unfolding beneath the ornate curtain of an empire’s final days. The ghostly flame illuminates more than strange crimes: it reveals the faint light of trust, the weight of civilization, and the eternal moment when humanity chooses what to protect at the edge of history’s precipice.