In Bianliang, Northern Song Dynasty, mechanical gears spark with blood. Shen Tan of the Court of Judicial Review and the prodigy Zhong Ji are drawn into a murderous plot woven from technology and history.
The Water-Powered Armillary Sphere, deadly zither strings, and a magnifying glass of polished crystal: each bizarre case involves a technological trap and cold, hard evidence. Fragments of cold-forged armor, the ashes of a cinnabar plum, and blood-red dates silently recount the Yuanyou factional struggle, the bloody battle at Pingxia City, and the bitter legacy of the Hehuang region.
Shen Tan relies on instinct honed by his father’s teachings, while Zhong Ji stays alert through technical expertise. Together, they confront vast political power: hidden arrows in the court, murder lurking beneath the cover of the gearwheels, tattooed battle signals, and the blood and tears of a nameless stone stele. Law and technology alike become battlefields.
They are not merely pursuing killers. Errors in the water-powered armillary’s readings, shifts in the magnetic needle: every precise calculation strikes at a scar in history. Conquests, factional strife, exile: all are preserved in broken bronze figurines, bloodstained tattoos, and worn movable type.
Amid the cold gleam of escapement mechanisms and the recoil of the divine-arm crossbow, they tear open the embroidered splendor of Dongjing and decipher the code engraved in blood, tears, and metal. As gears mesh and history grinds everything beneath it, can the bloody truth illuminate the abyss? The Book of Ashen Shadows: Astronomical Calculations
