The Ten Great Treasures

Xia Mu spent half his life trying to escape his grandfather’s shadow. His grandfather, Xia Yuzhong, had once been a notorious tomb raider in the region. He was convicted for looting and selling cultural relics, leaving behind only a fragmentary tomb-survey journal filled with cryptic notes about mountains and rivers. Years later, the National Cultural Heritage Administration’s Special Group Three for Ancient Relics and Sites came knocking, inviting Xia Mu out of retirement to serve as a specially appointed geomantic consultant. Official histories are vague, while local gazetteers conceal cryptic clues. Ten Chinese national treasures, lost for a thousand years: the Nine Tripods of China, the Imperial Seal, the Marquis of Sui’s Pearl, the original Orchid Pavilion Preface… Hidden in ancient karst caves, submerged ruins in Chu territory, and secret niches deep inside mountains, the danger has never come from people. It comes from the mountains and rivers themselves, asleep for a thousand years.