The year is 2026, the Year of the Fire Horse.
A strange copy of a county gazetteer arrives at Wushan Residence in Hangzhou. It records an uncanny event: "Once every sixty years, the inscription on the stele comes alive, and anyone who sees it loses their voice." Following the clues, Wu Xie and the others reach a barren mountain in the northwest, where they encounter an "interstitial stele" that is neither stone nor jade, red grass burning like charcoal, and a group of mysterious "geologists" wearing white rubber masks.
"The stele is a gate. Once every sixty years, it loosens when fire is strong and yin energy is at its peak." Zhang Qiling brings a fragment called "Trace," a remnant of a gate from the past, and perhaps a key. Yet the leader of the masked group looks exactly like Chen Pi A Si, who died long ago. Their aim is not to steal treasure, but to plug the fissure with a brutal "living sacrifice" and forcibly "heal" the gate.
As midnight approaches, fragments of time and shadows of the past, trapped inside the gate, begin to seep out. The inscription writhes, the fissure slowly opens, and something within peers out. This time, they must face not only uncanny physical traps and treacherous human hearts, but also an invisible, intangible "abnormal state itself," powerful enough to warp the mind.
When the moonlight of the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the Year of the Fire Horse illuminates the cliff known as "Ghost's Return," the gears of an ancient cycle mesh once more. Should they stop the blood sacrifice and close the gate, or risk using "Trace" to explore the truth beyond it? Or is the "interstitial stele" waiting for someone who was destined to set foot here all along...
