A restless high school student named Li Cu finds his world upended after a chance encounter with a deranged stranger leaves him scarred with mysterious carvings etched onto his back. Unwittingly drawn into an ancient intrigue, he is whisked away against his will by the enigmatic Wu Xie ,a seasoned explorer with a shadowed past, into the harsh, shifting sands of the Badain Jaran Desert. Within their company is an eclectic mix: hardened mercenaries led by the determined Su Nan, the ambitious Boss Ma who desperately seeks the secret to eternal life, a documentary crew craving the next headline, and others whose true motives remain concealed beneath layers of mistrust and necessity. Each journeyer’s eye is set on the forbidden city of Gutong Jing, a lost place rumored to be rich with treasures and peril, and the marks on Li Cu’s back may be the map to its secrets.