Republican Era: The Clay Figurine Zhang's Cultivation Chronicles

The Republic of China era: the worst of times, and the best of times.

A hundred trades have fallen into decline, and a hundred industries are waiting to rise again.

Warlords carve up the land, foreign powers run rampant, the foreign concessions indulge in luxury, and every kind of skill flourishes in the underworld.

Zhang Xu, a video game modeling artist, transmigrates to the City God Temple in Shanghai a hundred years in the past, where he becomes a clay figurine maker.

Here, a craft is not just a means of survival, but a path to great power.

The Jinmen school reads faces, discerning life and death at a glance.

The Pimen school sells medicine, making the fake real.

The Caimen school performs magic, creating worlds within their sleeves.

The Guamen school teaches martial arts, forging the body into a saint.

The Pingmen school tells stories, making words come true.

The Tuanmen school performs comic dialogue, hiding daggers in laughter.

The Diaomen school makes paper figures, cutting paper into soldiers.

The Liumen school produces famous opera performers, invoking the divine through makeup and costume.

The eight great schools of the underworld each have their own special skills, yet none can easily make a name for itself.

But amid the bustle of the foreign concessions, Zhang Xu uses clay as his medium to take Chinese culture abroad a hundred years early, forging a path to save the nation through commerce.