My name is Li Siping. I was born at the hour of the Tiger on the fourth day of the fourth lunar month, in a courtyard deep in the mountains. It was an hour when yin energy naturally gathered, in a place where three yin forces converged, a land of ill omen.
I was frail from birth and came close to dying several times. I only just survived thanks to a wandering Daoist priest, who gave me a new name to change my fate and used a peachwood effigy in my place to ward off disaster.
The courtyard walls collapsed for no reason. Our loyal dog died protecting its master. One after another, my relatives were plagued by nightmares and fled in panic. The once-lively courtyard gradually became a desolate, haunted house.
I thought that if I kept my life steady, I would stay safe. I never knew that from the moment I was born, I had been drawn into a sinister fate a century in the making, with no way to escape...
