Eighteen years after the founding of the Great Qian, imperial power is weak. The six great aristocratic clans, Cui, Lu, Zheng, Wang, Wei, and Xue, control the salt and iron trades, education, official appointments, and wealth. Social classes are rigid, and the poor have no hope of rising.
Chu Heng, the down-on-his-luck young master of a tavern in North City, is seen by the world as a lowborn nobody. In truth, he is the only surviving descendant of the former dynasty's hidden crown prince, erased from the imperial genealogy and abandoned in North City.
After transmigrating, he binds himself to the two-way [Rebel Scion Who Topples the Clans] System. He gets Imperial Points by getting the emperor to lose his composure, and Clan-Slaying Points by undermining the aristocratic clans and making them lose money. The points can be exchanged for modern technology in every field: brewing, salt production, chemical engineering, movable type printing, and weapons upgrades. His knowledge lets him crush the ancient nobility with an overwhelming advantage.
The Cui family bullies the common people? His new-style clear liquor monopolizes the high-end alcohol market. The clans manipulate salt prices? He pledges to mass-produce affordable refined salt. Prince Jing pretends to be virtuous, seeks the throne, and clings to the clans? Chu Heng turns around and digs up evidence of his treason.
Emperor Xiao Hongyao watches from the sidelines, trying to maintain a balance of power. He wants to use Chu Heng? Chu Heng is sharp-tongued and cunning, and turns the balance between ruler and subject to his own advantage. Four great noble houses pledge their allegiance, while Princess Xiao Chongwan falls for him and stays by his side. From his humble beginnings as a commoner, Chu Heng breaks the clans' thousand-year monopoly on privilege, protects the people, and builds a golden age for Great Qian in which even the lowborn can rise.
