Princess of Tulin

Thirty thousand years ago, the Yuanmou Earth Forest was a vast, desolate wilderness. A modern Yi girl named Ayi Duo fell through a crack in time and space during an earthquake, landing among the primitive tribes of Yuanmou, who lived on raw flesh and blood and stood on the brink of extinction. She cast off the trappings of civilization and drew on what scraps of modern knowledge she could remember, along with a thousand years of Yi customs, to save lives, make fire, reclaim the land, and build homes and tools in the face of despair. At their first Huashan Festival, they hailed her as the "Goddess of the Earth Forest."

From teaching them to make fire to introducing a ten-month calendar, from the blade-pole trial to an alliance of a hundred tribes, she brought together the festivals of Yunnan's many peoples: the ever-burning torches, the heart-cleansing Water-Splashing Festival, the contest of finery, and the rites honoring the dragon and revering the heavens. She led the ancient people from chaos toward order and coexistence. She guided the Yuanmou people out of their secluded valley to build cities, uniting the ancestors of the Pu, Miao, Dai, Jingpo, and other peoples of the southwest. With the light of civilization, she illuminated the wilderness and laid the beginnings of a community with a shared human destiny on this ancient land.

Yet she was no god without desires. Apu, the hunter as steadfast as a mountain, protected her with his life, his love restrained yet burning hot. Luo Bo, the proud and brilliant prince of the Pu, challenged her ideals and entrusted his life to her, until they stood shoulder to shoulder as "Guardians of Civilization." A Qi, the "shadow" from the future, was consumed by obsession and met his ruin, becoming her deepest regret and, at last, a source of reconciliation. Amid the survival of her people, choices about civilization, and the struggle between love and hate, she grew through heartbreak and found understanding through loss.

After seven years of opening new lands, the Yuanmou legacy took root in the southwest. A thousand years later, the Earth Forest ruins became a sacred mountain to the Yi people. In the end, Ayi Duo used her very flesh and blood to forge the first cornerstone of ancient civilization in China's southwest. This is a story of self-rescue, enlightenment, and endurance. When a modern soul falls into the ancient past, she chooses not to return, but to make love her flame and illuminate the long night of eternity.