[From an ant to master of the world with a wave of his hand!]
In the fifth year of the Tianqi reign, I, Chen Mo, am a discarded pawn in the Great Ming Ministry of Works.
My daily job is to feel the gunpowder and check its color.
Until I discover that someone has cursed the gunpowder at the Wang Gong Factory!
A shade darker, and the dampness increases by a fraction.
The Great Ming’s guns will all explode on the battlefield!
The eunuch faction calls me suicidal; the upright officials laugh at me as a madman.
The White Lotus cultists even see me as the final sacrifice needed to summon “Maitreya’s descent.”
Only that Jin Yiwei thug named Zhao Wuwang throws an arm around my shoulders:
“Brother Mo, this time we’re taking on a job that could get nine generations of our families executed.”
But I see the truth.
Later Jin spies, a sacrificial cult, powerful men embroiled in factional strife…
They are all waiting for a feast, an explosion fueled by the lives of a million people in the capital!
On the sixth day of the fifth month, heaven and earth will split apart.
When the mushroom cloud rises and clothes fly across the whole city
I will raise a torch and walk into hell.
Either I put out this world-consuming fire with my own hands,
or I become the final tolling of the death knell at the end of the world!
[Underdog’s rise + historical mystery + espionage thriller + post-apocalyptic survival]
