DLERB -Chapter 116 What Kind of Horse Is Rome? Father Emperor, That’s Your Horse Ranch!

Ying Zheng looked at the pitch-black ceramic jar, then at his smug little son.

He asked:

“Rome?”

“What kind of horse is that?”

Ying Ziye answered with a perfectly serious expression.

“Reporting to Father Emperor, it’s not a kind of horse.”

“It’s a place.”

Ying Zheng immediately became interested.

“A place?”

“Yes. A very, very distant place, far to the west beyond the west.”

Ying Ziye gestured with his little hands.

“It’s said that place is filled everywhere with heavenly blood-sweating horses, even better than the horses of Dayuan.”

“The people there don’t farm. They only raise horses. The place is enormous—nothing but horse ranches everywhere.”

Ying Zheng’s eyes lit up.

“Nothing but horse ranches?”

He slammed a hand onto the hilt of his sword.

“Good!”

His voice carried an unquestionable霸气—an overwhelming imperial dominance.

“That place shall become my stable in the future!”

Ying Ziye struggled not to laugh and nodded vigorously.

“Father Emperor is wise!”

On the city wall, Meng Tian stared blankly at the utterly bizarre scene below.

What exactly was he seeing?

The Ninth Young Master had returned.

The Crown Prince Fusu had returned too.

And Wang Li, that rascal, was grinning like a weasel that had just stolen a chicken.

All eight hundred cavalrymen had come back.

Not one was missing.

Behind them stretched a dark sea of cattle and sheep, countless as clouds upon the grasslands.

There were also endless lines of prisoners.

And at the front of the procession—

the man being led by a rope around his neck like a dog…

was Tuman!

The Xiongnu Chanyu who had plagued Qin’s northern frontier for ten years!

Meng Tian rubbed his eyes hard.

He had prepared himself for a bloody battle.

A desperate siege defense.

Instead—

the gates were being opened to receive spoils of war?

He hurried down from the city wall to greet them.

Then his gaze landed upon Fusu.

The clean Confucian robe Fusu once wore had long vanished.

In its place was a tattered suit of leather armor stained everywhere with dried black blood.

His face was filthy.

Only his eyes remained terrifyingly bright.

“Your Highness, you…”

Meng Tian stepped forward, wanting to say something like you’ve suffered greatly.

But Fusu did not even look at him.

He pulled a rag from inside his boot.

Then, over and over again, he forcefully wiped the Qin sword in his hand.

The blade itself was covered in bloodstains that would never fully wash away.

“General Meng.”

Fusu did not raise his head.

“What is it?”

The voice was calm.

Yet it made Meng Tian’s back turn cold.

Was this still the gentle and refined Crown Prince who constantly preached benevolence, righteousness, and ritual law?

Those eyes—

they were clearly the eyes of the hungriest wolf upon the grasslands.

Meng Tian’s heart skipped violently.

The Crown Prince…

seemed to have grown crooked.

“Father!”

Ying Ziye’s voice interrupted Meng Tian’s thoughts.

He patted the black ceramic jar.

“Gold and cattle are trivial matters!”

“This thing I brought you is the real treasure!”

He shot Wang Li a meaningful glance.

Wang Li immediately understood, directing several soldiers to carry all the black ceramic jars onto an open patch of ground.

“Ninth Young Master, this stuff stinks and weighs a ton. What exactly is it?”

Wang Li pinched his nose with a look of disgust.

“You’ll know in a moment.”

Ying Ziye jumped off his horse and walked to one of the jars.

“Open it.”

“Pour it out.”

A soldier pulled out the wooden stopper, and a foul stench instantly spread through the air.

With obvious revulsion, he tilted the jar.

Black, sticky liquid spilled across the ground.

Ying Ziye took a torch from a nearby soldier.

Then casually tossed it toward the puddle of black liquid.

WHOOSH—!

A massive pillar of flame exploded upward.

The fire surged several meters high, billowing thick black smoke.

The scorching heat wave instantly changed everyone’s expressions.

“Quick! Put out the fire!”

Meng Tian shouted instinctively.

“Throw water on it!”

Several soldiers rushed over in panic carrying buckets.

Bucket after bucket of water was dumped onto the flames.

Then a bizarre scene unfolded.

The water not only failed to weaken the fire—

BOOM!

The flames became even larger!

The orange-yellow fire seemed almost alive, spreading outward along the flowing water.

“Ahhh!”

One soldier’s trouser leg caught fire. He screamed in terror and rolled frantically on the ground.

“Heavenly fire!”

“This is heavenly fire!”

All the Qin soldiers turned pale with fear, crying out as they stumbled backward.

They stared at the flames that could not be extinguished no matter what, their voices trembling.

“Devil… devil’s blood…”

The captive Tuman happened to witness the scene as well.

His terrified eyes widened like bronze bells.

“It’s divine punishment!”

“It’s the Wolf God’s curse!”

Like a madman, he broke free from the soldiers restraining him, dropped to his knees, and kowtowed wildly toward the flames.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

His forehead split open and bled, yet he paid it no mind.

He had completely broken down.

This was not a power that belonged to the mortal world.

Ying Zheng stood where he was.

He did not retreat.

He gazed at the blazing fire that only grew fiercer when water touched it.

Not only was he unafraid—

he laughed.

“Haha… HAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Throwing back his head, he roared with laughter so loudly it drowned out every other sound.

He kicked aside a terrified Xiongnu surrendering officer who had collapsed to the ground.

Then strode toward the flames.

Stretching out a hand, he felt the scorching heat.

“What devil’s blood?”

His voice exploded beside everyone’s ears like thunder.

“This is an auspicious omen!”

“It is Eternal Heaven blessing my Great Qin!”

He spun around suddenly and pointed toward the flames.

“Transmit my decree!”

“This object shall henceforth be called the ‘Divine Fire of Great Qin’!”

Every Qin soldier present stared at their emperor.

Stared at the man standing before the divine flames like a towering mountain.

The fear in their hearts was replaced by blazing fanaticism.

“Long live His Majesty!”

“Ten thousand years to Great Qin!”

Their earth-shaking cries soared into the heavens.

Ying Zheng was very satisfied.

He walked over to Ying Ziye and firmly patted his little shoulder.

“Good! Good son!”

Then he turned and issued another order.

“Tonight, within Shang Commandery, the entire army shall feast!”

“Unlimited cattle and sheep! Unlimited wine!”

“Reward the three armies!”

Cheers erupted once more.

Ying Zheng’s gaze then fell upon Tuman, who was still kowtowing desperately.

He walked over.

And nudged Tuman’s face lightly with the tip of his boot.

“Raise your head.”

Tuman trembled violently and dared not disobey.

Using the scabbard of the Tai’e Sword, Ying Zheng lifted his chin.

“I heard that you know how to dance?”

Tuman’s face instantly turned ashen gray.

Ying Zheng smiled.

“Excellent.”

“Tonight, you shall perform a dance to entertain my warriors.”

…

Deep within the grasslands.

The once-mighty Xiongnu royal court had become nothing but charred ruins.

A young man covered in wounds stood at the edge of the wasteland.

His name was Modu Chanyu.

Tuman’s son.

Because his father had distrusted him, he had been exiled far to the east.

And because of that—

he had escaped this catastrophic destruction.

Behind him stood several thousand newly gathered remnants of soldiers.

As well as weeping women and children who had lost husbands and sons.

Modu pulled an object from his robes.

It was half of a wolf skull, burned black by fire.

The sacred relic of the Xiongnu, which he had spent three days and three nights digging out from the altar ruins.

He raised the wolf skull high overhead.

Then suddenly turned around.

Facing the confused and despairing tribesmen behind him.

His voice was hoarse, yet carried a maddening kind of charisma.

“Tears cannot call back the souls of fallen warriors!”

“And weeping cannot wash away the hoofprints of the Qin!”

He pointed the half-burned wolf skull toward the sky.

“The Wolf God demands sacrifices!”

“Only enough blood can calm His wrath!”

“With their blood, we shall awaken the true Wolf God sleeping deep within the sacred mountain!”

Everyone stared at him with terrified eyes.

Modu smiled.

That smile looked even more savage than the demons haunting the ruins.

“Kill!”

He drew his curved blade.

And viciously slashed it toward the nearest Xiongnu woman, who was clutching her child and crying.

Blood splashed across his face.