The Ink-Song Book Blade

During the Qingli era of the Northern Song, Fan Zhongyan's reforms have failed, and the struggle between the old and new factions at court grows ever fiercer. The northwestern armies battle Western Xia year after year, while supply shipments and intelligence are repeatedly intercepted by hidden agents. No one in the martial world knows that the people truly shaping the course of the war are not the famous generals with their spears, but a group of "ink artisans" forgotten by the world. They possess movable-type printing, just invented by Bi Sheng, but are now being watched by both court factions, Western Xia spies, and the mysterious martial-world organization known as the "Wordkill Battalion." Movable type can print more than books: it can produce forged military orders, altered tax and grain ledgers, and even mass-produce propaganda capable of shaking the realm.

Mo Shi, the protagonist, was Bi Sheng's personal disciple and the sole inheritor of movable-type printing. But in a single night, his family was massacred, every movable-type block was burned, and his revered master Bi Sheng's fate became unknown.