On the night Wujian Bridge was closed, seven gifted young people heard the same voice: Beneath the mortal world lay a celestial land called Zhaoxu. Its heavenly gate had been sealed, waiting for the seven strings to resonate together. The gate was a zither, and opening it required offering up seven laws. If the strings resonated for three days, one of them would surely break. They wagered their pasts and pried open a door to their dreams: some stepped through, while others stayed behind in the doorway. To cross into immortality, a string must first be broken. In the end, what they had to cross was never the gate, but the self that refused to make peace with them. Someone must always keep the lamp burning, and someone must always be the first to set out on the road.
