In 2219 CE Luoyang, a city patched together after the great cataclysm, the half-human, half–fox spirit Yinhe moves through their most recent incarnation. The city is watched over by No. 1, an artificial intelligence housed in a giant brain, which entertains and monitors all the inhabitants of the city, both human and chimerical. But No. 1 is starting to behave erratically and the power of the Spirit Supreme Assembly, with its demand for pure bloodlines, is growing.