Summary

In Chapter 1, narrator and protagonist Xingyin describes the Pure Light Palace, the only place she has ever lived as an immortal being. This palace is on the moon, and surrounded by an osmanthus forest full of glittering lights. Her mother has never told Xingyin who her father is, but she reads a hidden book in the palace and she discovers it is Houyi, the famous mortal archer of legend.

In Chapter 2, Xingyin becomes more and more tempted to seek out the mysterious glittering lights in the osmanthus forest, despite promising her mother she would never go–her mother has warned her since childhood that the lights are “too dangerous” (9). Xingyin goes anyways one night and touches the trees.

As soon as Xingyin returns to the palace, she senses “a strange energy” of “immortal auras” (10). Her mother tells her that the Celestial...