The Bell and Drum Calamity

Beneath the Buddha's radiance in the prosperous Tang dynasty, the incense offerings at Chang'an's Ximing Temple conceal blood pacts. A Kaiyuan Tongbao coin embedded with a green-spider egg sets in motion a shocking conspiracy spanning four dynasties and three generations. The golden Buddha is the furnace, and the annals of history its fuel. Master Xuanming burns himself to suppress evil, while Wang Shaoyi's long saber breaks the deadlock. From the Huichang persecution of Buddhism to the Hongwu paper currency, every copper coin is an unfinished monument to history. When the Nuo-masked figure on Mount Zhongnan sounds the nine Brahma bells, the incense ledger spanning a thousand years finally opens to its last page: the Buddha seed is no Buddha. What has always been refined is the indomitable soul of history.