In the autumn of the 377th year of the Great Yan calendar, a blood moon hangs overhead, and a prophecy passed down for three hundred years suddenly comes true: "The imperial throne stands empty, and the imperial mausoleum opens of its own accord."
Chu Guanlan, Deputy Director of the Bureau of Astronomy, is ordered to investigate strange phenomena on Mount Jiuyi. At a pass on Broken Dragon Cliff, he runs into the mysterious Shen Bodu. The armillary sphere’s pointer turns to a mark that should not exist, and the Heaven-Peering Jade grows hot in Chu Guanlan’s palm. At last, the ancestral instructions guarded by seven generations of the Chu family begin to reveal their secrets: the imperial throne is no mausoleum, but an altar spanning three thousand years. Not one person who has sat upon it has ever walked away alive.
Shen Bodu’s master was the sole exception in three thousand years, yet before his death he left behind three instructions: the entrance lies at the foot of Broken Dragon Cliff; someone is inside the tomb; and the imperial throne must not be destroyed. The jade carved with the character "Du" is not meant to open the throne, but to seal it shut.
The imperial throne is a shackle. Sitting upon it lets one glimpse three thousand years into the future, at the cost of sacrificing oneself. Shen Bodu’s task is not to sit on it, but to seal it. What he doesn’t know is that as one door closes, another, far greater door is opening. In the imperial game of chess that has lasted three thousand years, which piece is he? Chu Guanlan, the Faceless Pavilion, the mausoleum-guarding bloodline, and the brother who faked his death are all heading toward the same end. What awaits them beyond it?
