Variables in the Ruins Realm

Shen Yubai opens his eyes from a deep sleep and falls into a purgatory of ruins woven from obsession. Here, the iron law of a seven-day cycle reigns: break a rule and you are instantly erased, your memories wiped clean. Those who fail remain trapped forever in an endless cycle of life and death. Human-shaped phantoms lurk among the crowds, deadly traps are hidden in cold, rigid rules, and suspicion between people is far more dangerous than the monsters.

Shen Yubai is the only anomaly in the Ruins Realm who retains fragments of memories from previous cycles. Together with Su Qinghe and Lu Ye, he braves Chinese urban-legend scenarios and navigates the forces fighting over the cycles. The Keepers of the Ruins and the Erosion Lords wage a secret struggle, while the endless cycles are part of a vast conspiracy to harvest the obsessions of all living beings. When the fates of the twelve zodiac signs converge at the Zeroing Tower on a rainy night, and a Ruins spirit wearing his own face emerges, Shen Yubai leads his companions in tearing through layer upon layer of lies. With nothing but mortal flesh and blood, they boldly defy a predetermined fate that commands countless lives.