The nine provinces of Great Qian rely on the flowing, circulating dragon veins to sustain all living things. Gu Guanmai, a provincial geological vein observer, discovers during a mining accident involving two rival cities that dragon veins are dynamic circulation systems, not mineral deposits to be plundered at will. Together with surveyor Ye Xiaotang, he takes on Gongsun Luechuan, leader of the Northern Frontier Resource Alliance, and his centralized extraction model. Starting with pressure relief at individual points, the two build a distributed network of geological veins spanning all nine provinces. Facing a crisis threatening the Ancestral Dragon Vein, they set out to reshape the entire system of geological resource extraction and early warning.