Wei Tao, a swordsman of the Iron Eagle Division of the Black Ice Terrace, was on night watch in the classified archives when a silent blade pierced his heart.
He should have died.
But at dawn, he opened his eyes.
The killer thought the job was done, his superiors thought they had cleaned up every trace, and everyone was waiting for news of his death.
They had no idea that a soul from another world had moved into that cooling corpse.
They knew even less that he had awakened alongside a stone platform called the Black Jade Tablet.
The Black Jade Tablet was an instrument of judgment.
It recorded sins, commanded jailers, judged corrupt officials, and decided life and death.
Beginning with the blade through his heart in the classified archives, Wei Tao followed the ironclad evidence of embezzlement, uncovering the tangled web of crimes at the heart of the Black Ice Terrace, layer by layer.
Each case he judged made him stronger. Each criminal he locked away gave him another armored jailer to command.
When he finally stood at the summit of that pyramid of power and looked back, everyone realized too late:
The young man they had treated as a sacrificial pawn was no pawn at all. He was the one moving the pieces.
“The Black Ice Terrace judges the crime before it kills the criminal.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, who’s first?”
