DLERB -Chapter 135 The Court Is Frightened Half to Death by Ghosts, So I Turn Around and Catch Them as Pets

East Sea Commandery.

A once-bustling port where a thousand ships competed and voices filled the air was now completely deserted.

Fishing nets lay torn in corners like rotting seaweed.

In the salty, fishy sea wind, paper money burned for the dead drifted everywhere like ash.

Hundreds upon hundreds of fishermen knelt densely on the ground.

Facing the gray, mist-covered sea, they slammed their heads against the ground in frenzy.

Their foreheads were split open, blood mixing with mud, yet they felt nothing.

In the commandery governor’s residence.

Liu Bang, the Governor of the East Sea Commandery, was wiping sweat from his forehead again and again with a silk cloth.

The cloth was soaked—he wrung out water from it.

Yet sweat kept pouring out nonstop.

In front of him sat a man tied to a chair.

He was the only survivor of the recent sea voyage.

His hair was disheveled, his eyes unfocused, drool hanging from his mouth—completely mad.

“Ghosts! There are ghosts!”

He suddenly struggled, banging the chair violently.

“There was green fire on the sea!”

“The ships! Their ships had no sails! No sails!!”

“They ran faster than our fully-sailed ships! Against the wind!”

Governor Liu Bang’s hand trembled, and the silk cloth fell to the ground.

“What… what was on those ships?”

The fisherman stopped shouting.

Then he began to laugh.

A strange, choking laugh like a rooster having its throat squeezed.

“Water monkeys…”

“All three-zhang tall water monkeys…”

“They climbed onto our ships… they bit and ate everyone!”

“Aah!”

He screamed again, eyes bulging as if they were about to fall out.

The news spread like a plague.

At the secret shipbuilding base along the coast—

Clang!

A Mohist craftsman threw down his heavy hammer.

Eyes red, he roared at the Qin soldiers overseeing them.

“I’m done!”

“I’m not doing this anymore! There are ghosts in the sea! Whoever wants to build ships, let them!”

“I’m going home!”

One person’s collapse ignited everyone’s fear.

“Home!”

“We’re not building anymore!”

“Let us go!”

Hundreds of craftsmen threw down their tools and rushed madly toward the Qin military blockade.

The situation completely spiraled out of control.

In Xianyang Palace, the great hall.

The atmosphere was heavy and suffocating.

The newly appointed Confucian scholar, Doctor Kong An, stepped out holding his tablet.

“Your Majesty!”

His voice was not loud, but every word was sharp.

“The ghost ships of the East Sea are a heavenly punishment!”

“Your Majesty intends to send steel monsters across the seas—such ingenious yet unnatural creations defy Heaven and offend the gods!”

Kong An stood tall, his face showing a kind of pathological fanaticism.

“The Sea God is enraged and has brought disaster! This is a warning!”

“This minister begs Your Majesty to burn the demonic iron ships, dismiss all craftsmen, and follow the ancient sage-kings—rule with benevolence and restore rest to the people!”

“Otherwise, heavenly punishment will descend, and Great Qin will be in danger!”

Ying Zheng sat on the dragon throne, silent.

He simply looked at Kong An.

At this man who believed himself to be the embodiment of heavenly principle.

Slowly, he reached out and picked up a white jade paperweight from the desk.

Kong An continued speaking.

“Your Majesty, if you do not heed my words…”

Whoosh—

A sharp tearing sound through the air.

The heavy jade paperweight flew past Kong An’s scalp, cutting off several strands of hair.

Boom!!!

It slammed into a dragon pillar several zhang behind him.

The entire pillar exploded on impact.

Stone fragments flew everywhere.

Kong An froze in place, his legs shaking uncontrollably like chaff.

A stream of warmth spread down his trousers.

Clang!

The Tai’a Sword was drawn, its cry like a dragon’s roar.

Ying Zheng stood up, pointing the sword toward the east.

“The Sea God?”

His voice carried no warmth at all.

“I, who received the Mandate of Heaven, am the sovereign of mankind.”

“What right does it have to be called a god?”

“I would like to see whether its head is harder—or my sword is sharper!”

The majesty of the Human Emperor pressed down so heavily that all officials struggled to breathe.

In the corner of the hall—

Ying Ziye was crouched on the ground, building a tall tower out of smoothed bamboo slips.

It was already half a person high.

When he heard the words “three-zhang water monkeys,” his hand trembled.

Crash.

The bamboo-slip tower collapsed.

Ying Ziye wrinkled his nose slightly, looking a bit displeased.

He picked up a bamboo slip that had fallen by his feet.

Then he walked with his short legs to the massive world map in the center of the hall.

On tiptoe, he used the bamboo slip to firmly point at a small island east of the sea on the far edge of the map.

“Father Emperor.”

His voice was soft and childish, carrying a lazy, just-woken-up tone.

“These aren’t ghosts.”

“They’re just a bunch of underdeveloped short people from that island in the east.”

One sentence.

The chilling atmosphere in the hall was instantly dispelled.

Li Si froze.

Wang Jian froze.

Everyone looked at the map… then at the child who wasn’t even as tall as the map itself.

Ying Ziye yawned widely.

He casually called toward the empty palace entrance.

“Qinglong.”

A black-robed figure silently appeared in the center of the hall.

It was Qinglong, commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

He knelt on one knee, head lowered.

“I am here.”

Ying Ziye casually tossed the bamboo slip aside.

“Take your men to the East Sea.”

“Catch a few of those so-called ‘water monkeys’ alive for me.”

He rubbed his eyes.

“Father Emperor’s imperial garden is missing a few climbing decorations anyway.”

Qinglong did not ask why.

Nor did he ask how.

He simply lowered his head.

“Understood.”

The figure vanished the moment the words fell.

Outside Xianyang Palace—

Eight hundred members of the Embroidered Uniform Guard in black flying-fish uniforms had already assembled.

Each one had been baptized by the golden rain of national fortune.

They stood like mountains.

Yet their blood energy burned like furnaces, distorting the air around them.

Qinglong appeared at the front of the formation.

He gave no complicated orders.

Only one word.

“Move.”

No horses.

No carriages.

Eight hundred black figures stepped forward at the same time.

They began to run.

Faster and faster.

Until they became a surging black tide, sweeping down the official road toward the rising sun.

East Sea Commandery.

Secret shipyard.

Night.

So dark you could not see your hand in front of your face.

Thick fog rolled in from the sea, carrying bone-chilling dampness.

Several Mohist disciples, forced by Qin soldiers to guard materials, huddled in a corner trembling.

“Wuu… wuuu…”

A faint, intermittent crying sound drifted out from deep within the fog.

Like a woman weeping.

Piercing. Miserable.

“W-who is crying?” a young craftsman asked shakily.

No one answered.

The crying grew closer.

From within the fog—

Several black ships with tattered white sails drifted in like ghosts, silently docking.

Green flames burned on their prows.

In the fog, they looked like pairs of ghostly eyes.

“Squeak… squeak!”

Accompanied by ear-piercing, grating cries, countless short black figures crawled down from the ships.

They were only about three chi tall, moving on all fours, their speed inhumanly fast.

The Qin guards tried to raise their crossbows.

But their legs had turned to jelly.

Their hands shook so badly they could not even pull the trigger.

Thud.

Some collapsed directly onto the ground, their trousers soaked.

Helplessly, they watched the “water monkeys” rush into the shipyard.

One shadow moved fastest.

Its target was clear—the warehouse storing the most valuable refined steel.

It leapt up, landing in front of the warehouse door.

It raised a strange curved short blade and swung it down toward the gate.

Just before the blade touched the wooden door—

It froze.

The blade hung in mid-air.

A blood-stained blade tip had already pierced through its back, emerging from its chest, stopping just in front of its eyes.

A voice colder than a winter night whispered beside its ear:

“Who… sent you here?”