The bronze cannons at the Dangan Island shipwreck graveyard glinted with green rust, and Shen Xitang’s black boots ground against the charred edges of the *Record of Maritime Firearms*. Xiao Heng’s Xiuchun Saber cleaved through the barrel of a Persian bronze cannon, and rolls of the *Secret Orders of the Xerxes Expedition* burst open in the sea breeze. Beneath the Achaemenid Empire lion crest on the edge of the parchment, a cuneiform inscription revealed: "Supervised by the Susa Court, 25th Year of Yongli." Between the clauses, the seal of the Mu Mansion and the emblem of the Persian Immortals overlapped like a spider’s web.
"Lord Thousand-Householder, look at these rifling grooves," she said, her fingertips brushing the spiral patterns on the inner wall of the copper tube. "This 'Seven Stars in Conjunction' carving technique was created by Qi Jiguang during the Jiajing era to defeat Mongol heavy cavalry. How could it be mixed with the secret copper-tempering arts of the Persian Imperial Guard?"
A battle cry erupted from the hidden reef. Thirty descendants of the Immortals, clad in golden scale armor, leaped from the waves. The snowflake patterns on their Persian scimitars were identical to those on the armor-piercing blades used by Li Rusong during the bloody battle of Pyongyang in the Wanli era. Shen Xitang’s silver silk shredded a scabbard, revealing a scrap of the *Persian Secret Dossier*—beside an official document reading "Annual tribute of fifty tiger-crouching canno…
Chapter 170