Lin Xuan, a 32-year-old researcher of ancient texts, died in his rented apartment.
When he opened his eyes again, he had become the young lord of the Qingshi Domain in another world.
The old man keeping vigil over his body saw him come back from the dead. Instead of rejoicing, he asked in fear:
“How... is another one alive?”
Before Lin Xuan could figure out what that meant, he had to face a far more immediate crisis: the domain had only 83 people left, along with 12 battered soldiers. Their food would last less than a month, the city walls were on the verge of collapse, and everyone was waiting to flee.
Even stranger, half their stored grain had vanished without a trace, imperial soldiers had infiltrated the domain in secret, the beasts in the mountains were fleeing en masse, and a gigantic azure divine bird was searching for him. The fragment of the Classic of Mountains and Seas that had appeared on his person belonged to an era that had vanished 3,000 years ago.
The people of this world called the strange beasts demons and monsters. They hunted them down, sealed them away, and wrote them into a history steeped in fear.
Lin Xuan gradually discovered that the Classic of Mountains and Seas recorded their appearances and abilities, but not their true names.
Qingluan was no pet, the nine-tailed fox was no enchantress, and Xiangliu was no mere monster that brought floods. They had families, civilizations, and love, and they remembered a war that human history had buried.
Starting from a ruined city of just 83 people, Lin Xuan would bring humans and strange beasts back to the same table.
But as the falsified history was gradually restored, he had to answer a far more dangerous question:
If both humans and strange beasts had committed unforgivable sins, did they still have the right to forge an alliance anew?
