The protagonist, Chen Ji, was exiled to the wild land of southwest China and awakened a rural sociology research database for later generations. This database did not directly give him force or wealth, but provided him with countless case models of the history of ancient China's land system, ethnic sociology, grassroots governance models, agricultural economy and tax system, as well as methodologies on how to conduct the most scientific and least radical "field investigation" and "acreage statistics". Starting from an unaccompanied Yi Cheng of a barbaric village, he used this perspective that understood "land and local people" better than any official in the Ming Dynasty to help the local chieftains sort out the chaotic mountain and forest property, mediate long-standing feuds, and by the way implemented a prototype of a "meridian law" that would not only allow the court to collect taxes and grains, but also make the local people's burdens reasonable, and leave sufficient benefits to the chieftains. His knowledge is his talisman and cutting edge in the darkest and most marginal corners of the Ming Empire.
