Awakening Day

Awakening Day is the first modern-day fantasy novel by Tang Que (real name Dai Fei) and the opening volume of the five-book Awakening Day series. The story begins with an ordinary college student named Feng Si, whose unremarkable campus life is disrupted when he is drawn into a series of bizarre and dangerous incidents. He meets a group of people who call themselves "Guardians" and is forced to rethink the hidden history of the world. As the Guardians and other factions contend over ancient powers, Feng Si searches for his true identity while edging closer to the truth that an ancient demon king is about to "awaken." The novel weaves scattered historical fragments—the Battle of Zhuolu, the medieval European witch persecutions, strange tales from Samarkand, the treasure hunt of the Heavenly Master of Longhu Mountain, and the mystery of Zhang Xianzhong in the late Ming dynasty—into a multi-threaded narrative, building a secret system in which a fantastical premise intersects with the real world: the so-called "Worm Trace," a domain ability unique to each Guardian. The author continues his signature humorous, bantering tone and suspenseful plotting, telling the story of "ordinary people pushed to the threshold of history" from an antiheroic perspective. The pace is brisk and the puzzles unfold layer by layer, making it an ideal entry point to the series.