Feng shui is not mysticism, but the user interface for an ancient, advanced civilization's "Planetary Environment Adjustment System."
Wang Jian, a restorer of ancient buildings, has a rare constitution known as "Empty Meridians": he has no "qi" of his own, yet he is the perfect decoder, able to see the source code behind every feng shui arrangement. When he takes on the restoration of a century-old haunted building in Jiangcheng, he discovers that the entire structure is a living "feng shui pump" that devours the city's literary fortune and wealth.
Shen Qingwu is the young keeper of the classics for the ancient, orderly faction known as the "Orderkeepers." She possesses an AI database containing half of the Dragon-Shaking Classic. She believes mysticism can be explained through technology, yet becomes fatally dependent on the unquantifiable "chaotic fortune" within Wang Jian.
As their investigation deepens, a hidden rule of the world comes to light: "qi" is a programmable microscopic particle, and the real battlefield lies between three-dimensional reality and the multidimensional "qi meridian space." Earth is both a prison and an incubator. The "key" buried a century ago by the feng shui master Lin Jiuyuan, who sacrificed his soul, is about to open the way to either the civilization's rebirth and ascension, or its total annihilation.
The Wallbreakers want to extract the earth's ley lines by force and open a higher-dimensional passage, while the Orderkeepers uphold the ancient protocols and seek gradual balance. Wang Jian, Shen Qingwu, and Xuange, a wanderer of unknown origins whose muscle memory is engraved with lost secret arts, are forced into a deadly contest over "prisoners" and "jailers," and the different ways to break out.
From a living building to an underground maze, from man-made gods to reflections of other dimensions, they must uncover the truth behind a century-old scheme and make a choice that will determine the survival of all civilization at the ultimate intersection of science and mysticism.
