This imaginative novel blends modern urban life, fantasy, science fiction, and Lovecraftian horror. It is set in a modern city that seems peaceful on the surface, while its “boundaries” are growing ever more fragile. As the “membrane” that keeps reality stable weakens, “otherworldly visitors” from different dimensions or ancient eras begin to infiltrate the world and make their moves. These include the Serpent Den, which worships the “Sacred Eye,” and the “Rusting Gears,” who fuse biology with machinery. Supernatural “anomalies” occur with increasing frequency. Secret local groups such as the “Observers” and the “Silent Court,” along with the government’s “Purge Sequence,” each take action to monitor, maintain, or eliminate the threats. The protagonist, Cheng Wang, is in fact an ancient “God of War” who disappeared long ago and whose power has lain dormant. For unknown reasons, he has “returned” and gone undercover in Beishi as a construction worker. Carrying a mysterious fragment of bronze, he is drawn into the struggle among various factions for “source-matter creations,” such as “seeds” imbued with rules. Torn between the ordinary wish to save for a down payment and the grand mission of confronting the world’s “structural changes,” he gradually uncovers the truth behind his return and the approaching dawn of “spiritual qi revival” and “the invasion of myriad worlds.”
