Geologist Xu Shu ventures deep into the mountains to verify her ancestors' written records, but a collapse in the earth's crust sends her plunging into an underground ruin.
There are no legendary immortal mountains or divine wonders here, only a complete underground world built by the hands of ancient people. Intricate piping, cultivated plants, and ever-flowing arrays of ruin energy overturn everything humanity knows about history.
In this isolated secret realm, a docile white-scaled beast keeps her company, while a figure who has been dormant for countless ages hides among the trees.
He was born in the ruins and has guarded them ever since, watching the rise and fall of the ages with cold indifference. But when she breaks through the rift and arrives, the first ripple in ten thousand years stirs in his heart.
No one on the surface believes in her determination. Beneath the earth, only he understands what she seeks.
Separated by layers of rock and ten thousand years, she crosses over on a ray of daylight. One brief human encounter, and at last she finds her place in the ruins.
Theme: This story follows Xu Shu, a geologist who believes in modern science and is determined to fulfill her ancestors' wishes. When a collapse in the earth's crust sends her underground by accident, she enters a prehistoric secret realm absent from the history books, home to an advanced civilization. This lost ancient society possesses technology far beyond that of the modern world, as well as a unique closed-loop ecosystem and a system of ruin energy. It has also achieved a distinctive order in which humans and ancient mythical beasts have lived together for ages. When modern empirical knowledge collides with an advanced prehistoric civilization, Xu Shu continually challenges her established beliefs and seeks the historical truth erased by time. Along the way, she meets the guardian of the ruins, who has stood alone for countless ages. One comes from the world of the present, the other remains devoted to the remnants of antiquity. Bridging the divide of time, they heal and save each other as they explore and remain by one another's side. Their story becomes a fated love spanning past and present, and explores the diversity of civilizations, the limitless nature of knowledge, and the way a heartfelt determination can eventually find an answer.
