Beyond the Mysterious Qi
A bizarre massacre wipes out an entire household, shattering the peaceful life of Chen Luo, a criminal investigator in the capital. The victims' faces are serene, yet dark golden threads remain inside their bodies, made of a substance unknown to science. Daoist patterns of the legendary qi appear on their fingertips. A note in a yellowed copy of the Zhuangzi reads: "The seven apertures are complete. Only the Mysterious is missing."
A mysterious phone call drags him into a secret society of cultivators that has endured for three thousand years. The dormant Mysterious Qi within him begins to awaken, forcing Chen Luo onto the perilous path of opening his seven apertures one by one. The orthodox Daoist sects led by Taiyi Temple, the radical qi-refining faction centered around the Ninth Heaven Laboratory, and the followers of the Guixu Cult, who believe that "qi is original sin," close in from every side. Then he discovers that he is the vessel chosen by fate to inherit an ancient legacy.
The talisman bricks of Wanchun Pavilion on Jingshan Hill, the hidden stele in the Imperial Vault of Heaven at the Temple of Heaven, the bronze lamp in the Hall of the Wheel of the Law at Yonghe Temple... Each site points toward the same ultimate prophecy: when all seven apertures open and the chamber of qi is filled, he must choose between protecting the Mysterious Qi and annihilating everything. Will he become a god who saves all living beings, or a demon who ushers in the Age of the End of the Law with his own hands?
Modern criminal investigation meets the mysteries of a thousand years of Daoist arts, while golden spirals under the scientific microscope reveal the outlines of ancient talismans. In this struggle spanning past and present, the sharpest weapon may not be qi, but the stubborn resolve of an ordinary person who refuses to bow to fate.
