Xiang takes his final breath on the cold floor of the family ancestral hall as raging flames devour the Lu family's century-old legacy. In his previous life, he was obsessed with the craft of ink-making, yet naively believed that “good wine needs no bush.” He entrusted the family's secret techniques for refining top-grade tung oil into soot, along with its distribution channels, without reservation to the seemingly mild-mannered Cheng family of Huizhou and his cousin Xiong Yurou, who was also his lover. In return, his techniques were stolen, his channels seized, and his family falsely accused of “cutting corners” and offending the emperor. The whole family was sentenced to death. When he opens his eyes again, Lu Xiang has returned to three years before the family crisis first emerged. At this time, the three great Huizhou families, Cheng, Fang, and Wang, are eyeing Hubei's tung-oil-producing regions, backed by their connections to the imperial court and their financial clout. Meanwhile, the local Zhou and Li families, seeking their patronage, have secretly joined forces with the Huizhou merchants to set a trap under the guise of a marriage alliance, intending to seize the Lu family's ancestral oil mills and forests. Carrying memories of blood and fire from his previous life, he has a clear goal this time: to carve out a way to survive in this brutal game of power, money, and skill. The climb is destined to be lonely, and every time he breaks through a crisis, it comes at a new cost. When he finally stands before the emperor at the “Tribute Ink Grand Contest,” what he presents is not only the world's finest “Purple Jade Glow” soot, but also an entirely new tribute-ink supply network led by the Lu family of Hubei. Yet Lu Xiang knows that becoming a “top-grade tribute-ink supplier” is only the beginning. His struggle against the ultimate mastermind controlling everything from within the imperial palace has only just begun.
