Stars Above the Fields, Slowly Finding Their Way Home

When heaven and earth first took shape, the stars came into being. Three supreme Star Spirits governed all things: Chen ruled the stars, Yuan ruled chaos, and Su ruled time. Eight thousand years ago, Yuan awoke. Black energy surged like a tide, devouring the Star Spirits and corrupting the Time Clan. The world teetered on the brink of ruin. Su reversed the river of time and sealed herself at its source; Chen used his own body as a seal to imprison Yuan at the Gate of Heaven. Before they parted, he condensed all his power into seven fragments and scattered them across the mortal world. He glanced back and said only, “Wait for me to return.” The North Star shifted, and Ziwei dimmed. The Imperial Star waned, and chaos loomed over the world. Eight thousand years later, on Mount Beimang, the young stargazer Mo Chen rescued Shuang Jiang, a Time Clan woman covered in blood. She looked at him with tenderness and sorrow. He wasn't the one she had waited for, and yet he was. Within him dwelled one of the fragments Chen had left behind. Seven star fragments lie scattered across the mortal world. The river flows on: where will those who return find their way? Mo Chen descended the mountain with the fragment and traveled south with Yun Tang, daughter of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau's director. Starving villagers in deserted hamlets, broken temples beneath dying stars, and relentless pursuit by the Black Wind Stronghold followed them like shadows. He didn't know that the light within him would ultimately lead him deep into the Gate of Heaven, to an eight-thousand-year reunion. She had waited her whole life for her beloved, while he had never met the old friend who awaited him. But the moment they reunite will be the moment they part forever. The stars on the road are the way home, and a journey back to a place one can never return to.