After the ancient emperor Zhuanxu severed the connection between Heaven and Earth, he attained immortality and became a ghost of history, wandering through the endless ages. Cold and selfish, he regarded ordinary people as ants and hid from the world solely to preserve himself. That changed in a modern city, when an accident exposed his immortal identity. The mysterious Longevity Pavilion sent a heavily armed force to hunt him down. Forced into the maelstrom, Zhuanxu took Lin Yue, a reporter who had been caught up in the incident, hostage. Amid a hail of bullets, he opened an ancient bronze chest, and memories came flooding back in reverse, like a rising tide. From the book burnings and executions of scholars in the Qin dynasty to the An Lushan Rebellion in the prosperous Tang, from a strange ship in the deep seas of the Ming dynasty to life-and-death choices amid the fires of war in the Republic of China, Zhuanxu endured countless betrayals and losses. Little by little, he realized that immortality was a punishment, not a blessing. When the Longevity Pavilion attempted to break the seal that had severed Heaven and Earth and unleash ancient demons to rule the modern world, Zhuanxu faced his ultimate choice: remain a selfish bystander, or awaken as a sage emperor who would fight for all humanity? In the end, he severed his attachment to eternal life and used his mortal body to stand against an apocalypse, completing his transformation from a selfish emperor into a benevolent sage.
