In the 34th year of Jingyou (1898), the Shanghai concession is a place where prosperity and darkness coexist.
Chen Zimo, a comprador for Jardine Matheson, moves between Chinese and foreign circles, handling the cutthroat intrigues of the business world.
Then he touches a broken sword that should have remained dormant, and hears a sigh that has crossed a thousand years.
The Outer World: He is a smooth, professional comprador and a revolutionary spy working for Song Jiaoren.
The Inner World: He is an awakened novice of the Antiquities Society, wielding the famed weapon Rainbow Shatter.
In the undercurrents, the mysterious Holy Word Society plunders national treasures with abandon, while the imperial court’s Bureau of the Supernatural draws up registers and keeps a close watch.
Beyond the layers of fog lies the truth about his father’s death, or perhaps the fate of the national treasures amid a time of upheaval.
“I have seen the way of the sword, unbending even in death, and I have seen the tides of this age surge like a flood. My name is Chen Zimo. Here in Shanghai, I examine objects, and I examine people.”
