This novel is the second series in Li Ximin’s classic “Tang Town Trilogy,” a work of magical realism.

Every person carries their own unique scent—so do love and fate.

This novel is a mysterious tale where scent takes center stage. A mysterious sorceress using poison magic threads through the entire story; love and destiny emit an eerie aroma; and for everyone involved, living becomes a cruel adventure.

Song Ke, an artist hired to paint portraits of the dead, arrives in Tang Town, only to find that people begin dying one after another. Behind the string of terrifying events, a strange woman appears and vanishes like a shadow—yet Song Ke falls passionately in love with her. Tang Town is drawn into a web of fate: many die from venomous spells, and others are tormented by illness, suffering a fate worse than death.

After surviving life and death on the battlefield, the burly warrior You Wuqiang returns to Tang Town, only to be targeted by the mysterious woman’s apprentice, whose unrequited love turns deadly—she decides to kill him with a poison curse.

Where will Tang Town’s fate lead? Faced with the threat of death, what kind of complex humanity will its people reveal?