Pei Qi is a frail young gentleman, afflicted with the “Owl Egg” curse. Though he possesses god-tier insight that can see through every illusion, he has only three months to live. When an assassin in a shadow play exposes a glimpse of the “Faced Owl’s” plot, supposedly driven by the vengeful spirit of a wronged soul from the previous dynasty, Pei Qi has no choice but to drag his failing body into a deadly game threatening Chang’an itself. He leads his bodyguard Lu Lingfeng, the gifted scholar Xijun, and the heroine Yingtao into the fray. From optical tricks in shadow plays to psychological battles before a divine stone and a hallucinogenic maze in the imperial garden, Pei Qi pays for every revelation by coughing up blood as he slowly tears away his enemies’ disguises. A missing eunuch, a second uncle who has sided with the villains, and a biological uncle masquerading as the imperial preceptor: family feuds and national enmity intertwine into a tangled web. And the Faced Owl’s ultimate plan is to bury Chang’an beneath the ruins of a gunpowder explosion. In the final three months of his life, the frail Pei Qi must use his wits to wage a final battle against fate and keep the lights of Chang’an burning forever.
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