Shen Xitang’s fingertips traced the Minister’s seal embedded within the sulfur crystal; the tangled-branch patterns along the edge of the seal glowed a dull red in the morning light.
Xiao Jingming used a Miao saber to pry open the honeycomb structure of the crystal. The powder dislodged by the blade tip revealed the characters "Autumn, the Seventh Year of Yonghe" on the lodestone plate—the exact date of the final river defense inspection conducted by Shen Wenzhong before he was demoted.
"Your father must have discovered something back then." Xiao Jingming aligned the Improved Armillary Sphere with the master map of the Canal, and the instrument’s arm suddenly pointed toward an abandoned mine upstream of Cangzhou Post Station.
Chapter 48