Chronicles of the Stormy Chenxia Dynasty

Amid the blood and fire of dynastic change, the clash between cinnabar's poisonous fumes and reform enforced by iron laws lifts the bloodstained veil on the schemes of three successive dynasties.

Emperor Yuanxing dies suddenly after taking elixirs, while Emperor Longchang becomes obsessed with alchemy. The "dream of immortality" shared by two emperors ends as an absurd footnote amid piles of bones. When Prince Bao Liu Si trudges through the snow into the capital, the soles of his boots crush not only the paper cuttings proclaiming "May the Emperor live ten thousand years" at Chengtian Gate, but also the deeply rooted cancers of the aristocratic clans. The secret edict hidden by Han Ji in the alchemy chamber, declaring "the younger brother succeeds the elder brother"; the Yu family's land surveys soaked in the people's blood; and the opium bricks concealed aboard Wei Mang's grain ships are gradually brought to light by the reformers' abacuses and blades.

The three Zhong brothers expose the truth amid the Criminal Court's prison and the maelstrom of court politics: Zhong Jiasan uses the abacus to dissect corruption, Zhong Jian protects the people with a broken sword, and Zhong Qinxin puts his conscience to the test against the law. The elixir furnace in Xuanxiao Palace burns the bones of commoners; beneath the Ironblood Alliance's insignia lies a secret pact with the enemy; even the Imperial College students' blood-written petition to "purge the court of treacherous ministers" is nothing more than a puppet show manipulated by powerful officials. When Liu Si slams the "New Bao Sheng Code" onto the imperial desk, when Liu Yuan's Wolf Cavalry crushes the Chile conspiracy, and when Zhong Qinshan inscribes "govern through clear laws and uphold moral education" with his abacus in the alchemy chamber, this battle of reform, sparked by "elixir poison" and wielding "iron laws" as its blade, will at last compose a desolate epic of "forging the cauldron in blood and proving the Way with one's heart" in a deadly contest between emperor and ministers.

Schemes are a furnace that burns away a century of delusion; iron laws are blades that cut through layers of mist. Watch as a poor scholar of the abacus, a war god of the northern frontier, and an imperial strategist strive amid poisonous elixirs and bloodshed to forge a new balance for this broken land. Though the road ahead is lined with thorns, they will let a ray of genuine light shine upon the celestial realm of Chenxia.