Seven hundred years ago, a divine lamp fell from the heavens into the Sea of Ashes, and from that day on, the "Night Tide" came to the mortal world. When it rises, the dead knock at people's doors, forgotten sins come back to life, and towns must rely on "Everlasting Lamps" to drive away the supernatural horrors.
The young Xu Zhaoye was born into a clan of lamp guardians branded as criminals. Ten years ago, his father disappeared in a lamp disaster and was condemned as a traitor by the world. Xu Zhaoye guards a dilapidated lamp tower in a remote border town, making a living by lighting soul lamps for the dead. Then one night, the town's Everlasting Lamp went out. His father, dead for ten years, came home carrying a black lamp and said, "Don't trust the lamps in the sky."
From that moment on, Xu Zhaoye is swept into a vast whirlpool of secrets: the divine lamp's fall into the sea, hidden truths of the dynasty, the extermination of the lamp guardians, and the revival of a divine corpse deep within the Sea of Ashes. Along the way, he meets Wen Shuang, a sword cultivator cold as snow; the smiling, scheming prince Xie Linchuan; the girl A Luo, who bears the blood of demons; and a host of people carrying their own wounds.
At first, he thinks he must clear his father's name. Later, he discovers that his father was no traitor, and the lamp guardians were no criminal clan. The ones who truly betrayed humanity are those who sit high above the clouds, raising darkness in the name of light.
