The ancestral home bears a fragment of an old seal, inscribed with eight characters: “The land endures, its legacy passed down through the ages.” Lu Changqing, a graduate student in history, discovers a broken bronze seal among his ancestors’ belongings. From then on, he is thrown into one pivotal moment after another in history. He witnesses the First Emperor of Qin standardize the written script, Han armies march beyond the frontier, the lights of the glorious Tang, and the flames of the An Lushan Rebellion. He sees Song scholars preserve their cultural legacy and the sea run red at Yashan; Ming coastal defenses deploy firearms, and late Qing officials open their eyes to the wider world. He sees the smoke rise at Humen, warships sink in the First Sino-Japanese War, the cries of the May Fourth Movement, and the blood and sacrifice of the resistance against Japan.
He does not go back to become an emperor or steal the glory of heroes. All he can do is protect a bamboo manuscript, save a group of children, deliver a letter of intelligence, move a box of archives, or carry a name that should have vanished into the future.
The course of history cannot easily be changed, but the sparks kindled by ordinary people can be kept alive. When the Ninefold Shattered Lands Seal is finally restored, Lu Changqing understands at last: the land has never been defended by a single transmigrator, but by countless people who burned themselves into flames in the darkness.
His task is to make sure they are remembered.
