"It is time to change the players in this chess game." She cast the final Lodestone Master Key into the melting furnace. Amidst the swirling smoke, the *Xuanji New Strategy* was being transcribed by craftsmen—the elaborate fire-wax seals of the Ministry of Works were being abolished, replaced by the Lodestone Master Key, and all poisoned weapons were being dismantled to be forged into plows and seed drills.
As the first improved waterwheel began to turn along the Canal, the Minister of Works’ head was hung from the banner pole of the Armillary Firm.
A fine Grain Rain drizzle soaked the newly plowed lodestone test fields. Shen Xitang traced her fingers over the tender shoots of the improved rice variety. Suddenly, the lodestone thickness gauge buried beneath the ridge issued a warning—boxes of Pyrostone Crystal were buried thirty feet down, their surfaces still bearing the un-faded fire-wax seal of the Ministry of Works.
Chapter 42