When the blood moon beneath Mount Tai revealed a bronze compass, Lin Chen finally learned that he had transmigrated into the Great Tang as a “Doctor of Investigation” at the Imperial College. He had planned to keep a low profile and focus on research, but he was unexpectedly drawn into the undercurrents of imperial power and aristocratic clans. Penicillin saved Empress Zhangsun’s life, but also drew the murderous attention of the Cui clan of Boling.
Newly arrived in Chang'an, he was a lone piece on the board, pushed by the System into the eye of a reformist storm. Firearms had yet to be forged, and cement roads had yet to link north and south, but the court was already rife with turmoil. Lin Chen tried to use technology as a shield, only to be ensnared by one scheme after another from the great clans: poisoning, slander, and attacks on his principles. They closed in at every turn. Princess Changle, Li Lizhi, glimpsed the lonely gravity in his eyes beneath a star chart, while Qin Qiong cut his own arm to save someone by the Wei River. It all shook Lin Chen out of his shell of rational self-interest.
After three years of upheaval, Lin Chen finally built a steel furnace and founded the Institute of Investigation, but was forced to ignite the power of steam with his own hands, a forbidden force from a thousand years in the future. The price was the System’s backlash, Changle’s imprisonment, and Qin Qiong’s hair turning white.
As the gears of civilization begin to turn backward, what should humanity choose? Submit to the chains of fate, or use technology to break free? In this Great Tang, where prosperity and chaos intertwine, a storm over faith, freedom, and the future is quietly brewing.
