The Star Gate has opened. The continent trembles.Fifty prodigies from across the land gather to enter the Celestial Star Temple—a secret realm that awakens once every ten thousand years. Within its ancient halls lie supreme legacies, lost inheritances, and the power to reshape the world.Kael Voss, a nameless rogue cultivator who clawed his way from F-rank obscurity, stands among them. Mocked and dismissed, he enters the temple not for glory, but to survive—and to uncover th...

Betrayed by his closest friend and lover, Kael Voss dies a brutal death on the dark altar of the Black Forest. His family's legacy is shattered, and the Star Core fragment is ripped from his chest by the man he trusted most.Then the Ascendant System binds to his soul.Kael awakens the day before his sixteenth birthday—back when he was still mocked as the "useless waste" of House Voss, and the man who killed him still wore th...

Kael Voss survived betrayal and death. Reborn with the Ascendant System, he has already reclaimed six of the seven Star Core fragments. But the Shadow Council is closing in, and the capital has fallen under the iron grip of Morgrave Black—a usurper with dark ambitions.To stop the Council's "Harvest Plan"—a scheme to awaken a Paragon-level evil that could devour the entire continent—Kael must find the seventh fragment and fuse the Star Core Heart. That means infiltrating the Council...

Shield Tunnel Engineering: From Theory to Practice is a key technique that offers one of the most important ways to build tunnels in fast, relatively safe, and ecologically friendly ways. The book presents state-of-the-art solutions for engineers working within the field of shield tunnelling technology for railways. It includes expertise from major projects in shield tunnel construction for high-speed rail, subways and other major projects. In particular, it presents a series of advances i...

Tens of thousands of epitaphs, or funerary biographies, survive from imperial China. Engraved on stone and placed in a grave, they typically focus on the deceased’s biography and exemplary words and deeds, expressing the survivors’ longing for the dead. These epitaphs provide glimpses of the lives of women, men who did not leave a mark politically, and children—people who are not well documented in more conventional sources such as dynastic histories and local gazetteers.This antho...

This book constitutes the proceedings of the satellite workshops held around the 21st International Conference on Applied Cryptography and Network Security, ACNS 2023, held in Kyoto, Japan, in June 2023.The 34 full papers and 13 poster papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 76 submissions. They stem from the following workshops:· 1st ACNS Workshop on Automated Methods and Data-driven Techniques in Symmetric-key Cryptanalysis (ADSC 2023)

This collection addresses the pressing needs for sustainable technologies with reduced energy consumption and environmental pollutions and the development and application of alternative sustainable energy to maintain a green environment and efficient and long-lasting energy supply. Contributors represent both industry and academia and focus on new and efficient energy technologies including innovative ore beneficiation, smelting technologies, and recycling and waste heat recovery, as well ...

This collection addresses the need for sustainable technologies with reduced energy consumption and pollutants and the development and application of alternative sustainable energy to maintain a green environment and energy supply. Contributions focus on energy-efficient technologies including innovative ore beneficiation, smelting technologies, and recycling and waste heat recovery, as well as emerging novel energy technologies. Papers also cover various technological aspects of sustainab...

This engaging Cambridge Companion introduces readers to the richness, complexity and diversity of one of the most important periods in Chinese history: the Song dynasty, 960–1279 CE. Bringing together leading scholars from Asia, Europe, and the United States, it provides an overview of key institutions, political, economic and military history, while also delving into the everyday lived experience of medieval China. Together, the authors create a vividly detailed and intimate portrayal of ...

This book constitutes the proceedings of the satellite workshops held around the 18th International Conference on Applied Cryptography and Network Security, ACNS 2020, in Rome, Italy, in October 2020.The 31 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 65 submissions. They stem from the following workshops:AIBlock 2020:Second International Workshop on Application Intelligence and Blockchain SecurityAIHWS 2020:First Internati...

Step into Chinese history through the accounts of those who lived itPersonal accounts help us understand notions of self, interpersonal relations, and historical events. Chinese Autobiographical Writing contains full translations of works by fifty individuals that illuminate the history and conventions of writing about oneself in the Chinese tradition. From poetry, letters, and diaries to statements in legal proceedings, these engaging and readable works d...

Introduction to Renewable Energy Manufacturing Weilong Cong, Meng Zhang, Xiaoxu Song, Bradley Kramer, Timothy Deines, Z.J. Pei, Jahangir Emrani, Zhichao Li, Joe Stuart, and Wangping Sun; Edited by Meng Zhang