Emperor Wu of Han once heard the Queen Mother of the West speak of the great seas in the eight directions, where lay Zuzhou, Yingzhou, Xuanzhou, Yanzhou, Changzhou, Yuanzhou, Liuzhou, Shengzhou, Fenglinzhou, Jukuozhou, Canghai, Fangzhang, Fusang, Penglai, and Kunlun. These were places rarely reached by human feet, and so he wrote down the names of all their wonders.
---- Eastern Han, Dongfang Shuo, Records of the Ten Continents
Note: The first ten chapters have been revised.
Everyone knows Penglai, right? Yes, that immortal island. It really exists.
One day, a swirling black hole suddenly appeared in the Dark Sea surrounding Penglai.
The black hole in the Dark Sea kept expanding, gradually swallowing the islands.
The immortals said that a demon god had emerged from the black hole and would bring calamity to all the islands of the inner sea...
This is not a romance-focused story. The leads' relationship is just a seasoning, sweeter than traditional wuxia but not as sweet as a romance novel...
This is a suspenseful fantasy that takes its logic and imaginative worldbuilding seriously...
The main plot follows the crisis of the black hole in the Dark Sea, with the major villain lurking throughout.
The subplots are made up of interconnected standalone cases, across four volumes:
1. The murder of a young woman at an immortal herb workshop
2. The Shengzhou ship crew's deadly mutiny
3. The palace scandal in the Chu King's court
4. The death of Old Wen
5. The mystery of the hat belonging to King Xichuan
6. The strange obsession of Yuanzhou's Crown Princess
Clues from each case point back to the main plot.
Theme: This novel builds a fantasy world based on Dongfang Shuo's Records of the Ten Continents, and explores aesthetic judgments of truth and falsehood, kindness and evil, and beauty and ugliness.
