Lin Yin, the youngest specially appointed consultant at the provincial public security department, has two secrets:
First, he is a top forensic pathologist who uses science to make the dead speak.
Second, he is the last heir to a family of Nuo exorcists, and the final taboo of his family is sealed in the palm of his left hand.
When “living corpses” appear in an ancient border town and traces of something inhuman are found at the scenes of a string of murders, he ventures alone into the mist. The forensic report points to toxins and delusions, but whispers from his Nuo mask tell him otherwise: these are corpse-puppet gu, a lost art.
Science is his shield; the occult is his blade.
And the truth lies in the gray abyss between them.
Ancient Nuo masks resurface, and the shadow of “Moon-Eater” spreads through cities and countryside alike. Miaojiang gu practitioners, Maoshan apostates, and Northeast Chinese spirit mediums… forces from every side are drawn into the vortex. Forced to break seal after seal, Lin Yin must face the bloody past behind his family’s destruction, as well as a top-secret plan buried for decades: “Nuo Mask.”
When the ultimate curse is awakened, the boundary between science and the occult blurs completely.
He must choose: burn away every taboo with Nuo magic, or find a third way on the brink of humanity’s abyss?
This is a story of uncovering the truth with fingerprints and Nuo masks alike.
Shh, don’t look back: that devouring shadow has never been far away.
