The Long Lamp of Peace [Sequel]

During the Chongning era of the Northern Song, the struggle between the reformists and conservatives had yet to subside, and turmoil was stirring once more across the martial world. The court issued the "Order to Lay Down Arms," confiscating weapons throughout the realm while secretly plotting to weaken the regional governors. Shu Tong, a maker of iron balance scales, was swept into the storm because of his family's ancestral bronze scale, and formed a bond of life and death with Su Ningshuang, a spy from Western Xia. Amid court intrigue and martial-world vendettas, the two followed the clues to uncover the truth, only to discover that the "Order to Lay Down Arms" was tied to a century-old secret involving the military governor of the Guiyi Army at the end of the Tang dynasty.

Using the bronze scale as his weapon, Shu Tong grasped the "Swordless Sword Technique"; Su Ningshuang carried the "Nine Steps of the Hu Xuan Dance," and concealed the bloodline of a bearer of the lamp. From Rainbow Bridge in Bianjing to the Sutra Cave of Dunhuang, hidden weapons disguised as abacus beads and coded star charts intertwined, while the brittle crack of bronze shimmered alongside the light refracted off ice. When the Redflame Sect's fire-pearl abacus clashed with the tortoise-knobbed secret letter, the Ziwei star chart would finally reveal the truth: the so-called laying down of arms was not meant to end the fighting, but to kindle an undying flame that would illuminate the land...