Qiu Yunzheng is a brilliant but impoverished history student at a prestigious university in the capital. Orphaned and lacking social connections, she has spent three years enduring the obsessive harassment of Wang Wende, a wealthy and manipulative young man who uses his family's influence to sabotage her academic and professional future. As graduation approaches, Wang Wende colludes with teaching assistants to block her application to the archaeology research department and threatens her with severe consequences unless she agrees to be his girlfriend. Simultaneously, Qiu Yunzheng loses her tutoring job due to Wang Wende's interference and receives notice that she must vacate her rented apartment within a week. Facing total ruin and with no viable options left, she is approached by an extraterrestrial entity known as System 288, which offers her a lifeline in exchange for completing archaeological missions.
The System binds with Qiu Yunzheng and issues an immediate mission: to locate and develop the tomb of a Spring and Autumn period monarch. The System provides a map indicating the tomb's location in a remote, desolate area on the outskirts of the capital. Although Qiu Yunzheng is initially terrified by the illegal nature of tomb excavation and the danger posed by Wang Wende's thugs, she decides to proceed, hoping to use the discovery to gain leverage and official protection. She travels to the designated site and begins digging, successfully uncovering the outer rammed earth wall of an imperial mausoleum. However, before she can contact authorities, she is ambushed and subdued by Gu Hanfeng, a high-ranking military officer with exceptional combat skills and a formidable, intimidating presence.
Gu Hanfeng takes Qiu Yunzheng into military custody, suspecting her of being a tomb raider or a spy. During interrogation, he quickly deduces that she is bound to a supernatural system, noting her strange behavior and the inability of lie detection equipment to penetrate her silence regarding the System's existence. Recognizing the potential strategic value of her knowledge and the unique nature of her binding, Gu Hanfeng and his commander, Yang Jianshe, decide to cooperate with her rather than imprison her. They verify her claims and determine that she poses no threat to national security. Instead, they leverage her System to conduct a state-sanctioned excavation of the tomb, which is located near a sensitive military zone.
The expedition team, consisting of Gu Hanfeng, Qiu Yunzheng, and Professor Bai Lishen, enters the tomb. Guided by the System's maps and warnings, they navigate through sacrificial pits filled with human and animal remains, neutralize ancient poison traps and mechanical defenses, and eventually reach the main burial chamber. There, they discover that the tomb belongs to King Ping of Zhou, a historical figure traditionally depicted as a weak puppet emperor. The inscriptions reveal a different reality: King Ping was a cunning strategist who maintained power for fifty-one years through political manipulation and balance of power, secretly constructing this lavish tomb to conceal his true legacy and wealth from rival states. The tomb also contains the remains of hundreds of loyal followers who committed suicide to accompany him, preserving the secret of his burial site. Qiu Yunzheng, now integrated into this high-stakes archaeological and military operation, must continue to navigate her dangerous relationship with Wang Wende while managing her volatile partnership with the naive System 288 and the stern, dangerous Gu Hanfeng.
