The Soul-Quelling Bell and the Blood of Generals

Lin Ye, a history student at Nancheng University, worries about making rent every day, until he picks up a bronze bell for fifty yuan at an antique market.

While delivering food after midnight, he comes across a procession of ghost soldiers on the road. Yet the shadowless warriors shrink away from the bell in his pocket. Their one-eyed commander calls it the “Soul-Suppressing Bell” and points him toward an apartment block in a demolition zone. An old man there has been waiting for him for fifty years.

The fiery mark on the old man's wrist is identical to the birthmark on Lin Ye's collarbone. He tells Lin Ye that his grandfather was the director of the Soul-Suppressing Bureau during the Republic of China era. Before dying in battle, he left a final instruction: when the Ghost Gate opens again, the bell's bearer must awaken the martial spirits of the sleeping famed generals and suppress the hundreds of ghosts that have escaped.

Before the old man can finish speaking, a ravenous shadow seeps out of the corner. Lin Ye blurts out, “Fengxian!” As the bell's light bursts forth, a silver-armored general appears with a halberd in hand. The Fangtian halberd cleaves through more than just the sinister energy: it also shatters the ordinary life Lin Ye has known for twenty years.

But as the old man falls unconscious, an unfamiliar text message arrives on his phone: “He isn't human.”

What lies hidden at the former site of the Soul-Suppressing Bureau? Why has the truth about his grandfather's death been concealed? Are the sleeping martial spirits loyal or treacherous?

Only when Lin Ye grips the burning-hot Soul-Suppressing Bell does he understand that some callings in one's blood are never a choice. He must either become the last line of defense for the living world, or fall into eternal night alongside the hundreds of ghosts.

The famed generals from his textbooks are waiting for him to summon them, so they can fight another deadly battle across a thousand years.