The morning mist still clung to Qinglian Mountain when Ye Yao formed a hand seal and summoned a wisp of green smoke. The Wood Art, “Mao,” spread like vines, sensing the restless spiritual energy on the edge of the city. An orphan raised by the old Daoist Ye Shihai, Ye Yao had mastered the Five Elements Arts for sealing the strange beasts of the Classic of Mountains and Seas, yet preferred to live in seclusion in the mountains. That changed when Lin Shuting, a new recruit at the Folk Culture Museum, knocked on the temple door with news of a series of “anomalous incidents” in Wanxiang City.
Lin Shuting firmly believed in science and dismissed Ye Yao as a charlatan peddling superstition. But when she saw the white mist in his hand turn into a sword and black smoke into ropes, she watched as the Metal Art, “Forge,” and the Water Art, “Kun,” intertwined to seal a rampaging beast inside a stone figurine in his palm. Everything she thought she knew was turned upside down: the strange beasts from the Classic of Mountains and Seas were real, spirits bound to ancient objects or to nature itself. Now urban expansion and drastic environmental changes were driving them into a frenzy.
With every mission, Ye Yao found himself reflecting more deeply. He had met the gentle Wenyao fish, which only wanted to return to its nest, and the fearsome Heju, disturbed by developers. Zhang Tianshao, director of the Folk Culture Museum; veterinarian Deng Qifeng; and relic restorer Song Feier gradually became his allies. Yet the same question always lingered: when bulldozers flatten forests and neon lights swallow the stars and moon, how can the balance between humans and strange beasts be restored?
Meanwhile, in the shadows, real estate projects owned by Wanxiang City's richest man, Deng Tian, were quietly altering the earth's ley lines, awakening more strange beasts…
