Every ancient building is a prison.
Chen Yuan, a young architectural restoration specialist, discovered in the Year of the Fire Horse that the Buddhas of the Yungang Grottoes were “fading.” A sealed notebook led him to a hidden identity: he was descended from the “Keepers of the Archives.” What he was forced to inherit was not a craft, but a seal that had lasted a thousand years. Why does the Hanging Temple hover in midair? Why are the mortise-and-tenon joints of the Yingxian Wooden Pagoda coming apart on their own? Behind the marvels of ancient architecture, the ancestors used wood and stone as prisons to contain “beings” that should never have existed.
Now the prison gates are about to open. International forces covet the power of the seal, and an ancient prophecy has begun its countdown. Before the full moon of the Lantern Festival, Chen Yuan must learn how to make the Buddha “close its eyes” and complete one final act of protection in the rifts between history and reality.
Wood and stone are silent, but the secrets of heaven are about to spill.
