Chang'an Star Chronicle

A string of bizarre cases in Chang’an, known as “burning people into glass,” leaves victims instantly incinerated by intense heat, with only glasslike crystals and strange symbols behind. Shen Lang, an evaluator at the Court of Judicial Review, relies on his photographic memory and absolute attention to detail, effectively serving as a “walking case file,” to tease out the clues from minute details such as the glass’s composition and the victims’ daily routines. Meanwhile, Yue Yue, a female official of the Bureau of Astronomy, is observing the night sky when she sees the Ziwei enclosure, representing the emperor and the fate of the realm, dimming. Several ominous stars form a deadly pattern called “Greedy Wolf Devours the Sun.” Their positions point to places that eerily overlap with the crime scenes and the course of the Tang dynasty’s dragon veins.

The two meet through the overlap between the case files and the star charts. Initially suspicious of each other, they are forced to work together. They discover that the murders are not isolated crimes. A mysterious organization called Guixu is using blood sacrifices and feng shui to systematically damage the nodes of the Tang dynasty’s national fortune, hoping to plunge the realm into turmoil and overthrow the Li dynasty. Shen Lang’s “microscopic eye” uncovers specific plots and mechanisms, while Yue Yue’s “cosmic vision” interprets the flow of fate and energy behind them. Working from the inside and outside, the pair navigate treacherous court politics, including the covert interference of Li Linfu and An Lushan’s factions, as well as bizarre occult arts of the martial world. In the end, they uncover a shocking secret linking Guixu to a hidden chapter of the previous dynasty’s history and Yue Yue’s unusual family background, and together thwart the astral killing scheme meant to make the High Tang “fall” before its time.