Modern Daoist scholar Su Yan is transported into the past, to 227 BCE. He enters a prison in Xianyang and uses Qin law to defend himself and win his release, only to become entangled in Ying Zheng's plans for an empire of immortal cultivation. He knows that the Qin dynasty will fall after just two generations, yet every intervention he makes triggers even deeper karmic repercussions. On the night at Sand Dune, Ying Zheng stakes his life to prove the way of the Human Emperor and shatters the chains of Heaven's law. As he dies, he leaves only one command: “Keep watch over the world for me.” For the next two thousand years, Su Yan and a handful of those close to him disappear into the currents of history, secretly upholding the tradition of “Guarding the Hidden Archive.” They take no part in the rise and fall of dynasties and never swim against the tide of history. They simply light a lamp in the darkest places and pull a few drowning people from the floodwaters. He remembers the name of every person he failed to save. Those names weigh more than any scripture.
