Peace Beneath the Azure Sky: A New Era Begins in 1863

In 1863, the thirteenth year of the Guikai era of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Suzhou fell.

Prince Mu, Tan Shaoguang, lay unconscious with serious injuries, trapped with four hundred battered soldiers in a reed marsh. Qing forces blocked the way ahead, the route to Tianjing was cut off behind them, and their faith in the God Worshipping Society had collapsed. Thirty thousand brothers had shed their blood at Gusu. Those who remained knew only hunger, confusion, and despair.

When Tan Shaoguang opened his eyes, what he held was not only a heaven-sent magical treasure, but also a soul from the future: the soul of an ordinary man who had hauled bricks on construction sites, pondered blueprints for a new system late at night, and spent over twenty years memorizing just one text, the Huangting Scripture. He considered himself a "system architect" and deeply embraced the Chan School's principle that "all are welcome to learn." Now he was convinced that he was the one sent down by the Celestial Worthy to save all living beings.

From four hundred remnants in the reed marshes to a stronghold in the Tianmu Mountains; from a hierarchy of merit ranks sketched on a piece of indigo-dyed cloth to a revolution in governance that replaced "rule by men" with "divine judgment": he would build a realm without an emperor, governed by a "strategist." He would introduce a system of merit ranks that gave everyone a path to advancement. His banner proclaimed: "Drive out the barbarians and restore China; equalize land ownership and share in peace."

And in a higher dimension, the formless, featureless embodiment of the Great Way watched in silence. It saw a specter, the specter of the Great Harmony, struggling to break free from its high-dimensional cage.

"All the forces of the old world have united to drive out the specter of the Great Harmony. Let them form their alliance. This specter is no specter at all, but the rising sun."