In the twenty-seventh year of the Great Yin dynasty, the empire appears peaceful and prosperous, but beneath the surface, the emperor is gravely ill, the crown prince is under suspicion, the Prince of Zhenbei commands a powerful army, and Imperial Preceptor Xuanwei controls the court through the art of dragon veins. Shen Buzhou, a penniless tomb raider, and his childhood friend Tie Suanpan take on a shady grave-relocation job. They accidentally fall into the Heavenly Mausoleum of the previous dynasty. In a desperate situation, Shen swallows the first fragment of the Broken Dragon Seal, gaining the ability to hear the final words of a dynasty and briefly command its ghost soldiers.