A 21st-century engineer is reborn as a down-and-out prince. He uses scientific knowledge to strengthen his country, but is branded a practitioner of “demonic arts.” When enemy troops reach the capital, the entire court begs him to step in. He asks only, “Now, who is the demon?”
This is a tale of political intrigue about a prince who rises to power with modern knowledge. The main plot is clear: the protagonist, Shen Huai, is a modern civil engineer who transmigrates into the body of the ninth prince, placed under house arrest. To save himself, he uses cement, blast furnaces, and other “black technologies” far beyond their time to transform his fiefdom, making the country rich and its army strong. But his astonishing talent also earns him the hostility of the court, led by the Grand Preceptor, a caricatured conservative representing the old order, and he is denounced as a “demon.” In the end, he proves himself when the nation is in peril, but becomes caught in an ultimate struggle against imperial power.
