Liu Mubai, a scholar from a poor family, fled the social entanglements surrounding the prefectural examinations and traveled alone to the abandoned Yunqi Academy, deep in the Kuaiji Mountains, to study in seclusion. He had hoped to find a quiet mountain retreat where he could hone his learning, but instead stumbled upon a secret buried for a thousand years: this academy was the seal’s central hub, keeping a demonic abyss contained. A thousand years ago, a great Confucian scholar used his life’s cultivation to imprison the demons at the bottom of the abyss. The peony spirit A Rao and the winter plum spirit Xue Shu had guarded the place for generations, waiting for the prophesied keeper of the seal. Liu Mubai was the only pure-hearted scholar from a humble family across three cycles of reincarnation, and his righteous, noble spirit was the best force for suppressing the demons.
The demons at the bottom of the abyss were cunning, never relying on brute force alone. They wove illusions to torment people’s hearts, magnifying greed, jealousy, and despair. They exploited mortals’ avarice and conflicts among the people to gather vengeful spirits, and laid traps to drive a wedge between the protagonists and the two spirits. Liu Mubai had no supernatural powers or magic. He fought alongside A Rao and Xue Shu, relying solely on a scholar’s sense of right and wrong. They had to resist the blood tide of demonic energy underground while protecting the mortals living below the mountain. They came to understand that vanquishing demons meant more than maintaining the seal in the earth’s veins: it also meant protecting the hearts and minds of all living beings.
After enduring the chaos of vengeful spirits and a series of sinister traps, the seal finally shattered, and the demons’ true forms emerged. In the final battle, A Rao burned her life essence to create an opening for victory. The demons’ core soul was destroyed by a single sword strike imbued with righteous energy, and the thousand-year calamity finally ended. Peace returned to the land, but the spirits were gravely wounded, and their fated story had not reached its end. Liu Mubai stayed on at Yunqi, guarding the mountain, studying, and teaching the villagers as he waited quietly for the spirit flowers to bloom again. This is a long mountain tale of the supernatural, about righteousness, fate, the human heart, and protection.
