Shen Lu is a modern-day restorer of ancient books. While sorting damaged manuscripts in an old library, he is sucked through a crack in the final page by a gust of wind and into a parallel universe, a world where the Classic of Mountains and Seas is real.
He lands with nothing but a torn page in his hand. It burns in his palm and unfolds into a living fragmentary record. The System activates: capture strange beasts to increase your cultivation. Each beast captured leaves a mark on the record and increases his strength. But the rules are cruel: every beast he captures comes with a flaw he must bear. Xingxing brings "no one believes what you say," Chushu brings "no one stops to listen," Boyi brings "you cannot turn back," and Gudiao brings "the sound of a baby crying." With each flaw he takes on, one character in his name fades.
His name is Shen Lu. Three characters. The System's homepage has a "Name Preserved" field that reads: Shen · Lu · ? He has never been able to remember the third character.
Collect all five books, and the rift will open, revealing a way home. But the final page of the fragmentary record bears a line of faded writing in handwriting identical to his own: "The recorder remembers."
A thousand years ago, another "Shen Lu" came here. The fragmentary record in his hands is both the key to his way home and the ending he wrote for himself.
