Guardian of the Ruins: Return to the Ruins

The ancient shamanic art of "inviting gods through masks and controlling qi through spells" passed down through the ages, branching into dozens of hidden lineages: traditional medicine, divination, spirit-walking, feng shui, corpse driving, spirit-mediumship, Gu magic, talismans, Lu Ban craft, paper effigies, and more. Each lineage has its own unique skills and ancestral rules. They usually answer to no one but themselves, competing only during the annual rites. The Lin family is the most fallen of them all, yet its members are unusual "Guardians of the Visage," entrusted with the "Primordial Visage" from the dawn of creation. The young protagonist can don different masks to perform different feats: Nuo masks drive away evil, shaman masks commune with spirits, Tibetan opera protector masks suppress malevolent forces, Sichuan opera masks transform in countless ways, and Fangxiangshi masks guard tombs. Others spend a lifetime mastering their unique skills, but he can wield them temporarily with a single mask. His inheritance is formidable, his starting point is utterly wretched, and the contrast couldn't be sharper. When the "Ruin" awakens, the "Mystic" on which all the world's inheritances depend begins to be swallowed back into nothingness: needles miss their mark, divinations fail, the yin roads collapse, dragon veins dry up, spirits are drained, and talismanic arts cease to work. It doesn't feed on any single lineage. It devours incense offerings, souls, fate, and the rules themselves. Strange rules begin to spread, and "Faceless Men" are merely one symptom it leaves behind. After a thousand years of infighting, the great clans have no choice but to join forces once more to seal the Ruin. The old shops of Jiangnan, Guizhou and Hunan, the Northeast, Tibet, Sichuan and Chongqing, the Central Plains, and Kunlun: the map gradually unfolds as the clans' grudges and secrets come to light. A cast of characters intertwines, including a cold-faced physician, a young diviner, a Gu sorceress, and a celestial spirit medium. They stand together, misunderstand one another, make sacrifices, and share feelings too complicated to name. This is the story of a good-for-nothing boy who travels the world wielding myriad visages, searching for his own path amid ancient inheritances, strange tales, and the human heart.