Souls Preserved in Ancient Murals, Returning Along the Silk Road

Shen Yan was born able to hear the thousand-year-old stories sealed inside ancient objects. During an archaeological expedition to the Tuyugou Grottoes, he brushes the dust from a damaged Tang dynasty mural, and a woman in the painting, asleep for thirteen hundred years, quietly opens her eyes. A thousand grottoes hold a thousand souls. The longing of countless women sent west in political marriages, wives of frontier soldiers, and merchants who traveled far away was sealed in the pigments on the rock walls. The eyes and brows in the murals were deliberately gouged out. This was no damage, but an ancient seal. A perfectly preserved white jade cup from the flourishing Tang dynasty lies in a man-made sealed grotto, showing him the way forward. Meanwhile, a mysterious Obliterator follows in the footsteps of one grotto after another. He does not seek to take the power of these obsessions. He wants only to erase every age-old longing that no one has ever heard, so that all waiting will fall silent forever. Each grotto holds an old story; each painting, a parting. Shen Yan and his assistant Su Wan travel the Silk Road through the Gobi, listening to the joys and sorrows hidden in murals and ancient artifacts, and fulfilling the wishes of those separated for a thousand years. Amid the fierce winds and shifting sands, they protect the countless lingering souls along the Silk Road. Theme: Hear the stories held by ancient artifacts, protect longings that have endured for a thousand years, and cherish every sincere bond in this world.