The craftsman knelt on the ground, panting heavily.
He pointed outside the hall, his face flushed red.
“Your… Your Majesty!”
“The Ninth… Ninth Prince… his… his thing…”
He stammered, unable to describe the “monster” at all.
Ying Ziye jumped down from the steps and said for him:
“Father, my iron dragon is ready.”
……
On the western outskirts of Xianyang City.
Tens of thousands of civilians gathered like a black tide, surrounding a strange road that stretched from the city gate all the way to the horizon.
The road was made of two black iron rails.
Beneath the rails were massive wooden sleepers.
“What a waste!” an old farmer lamented painfully.
“So much fine iron—just used for a road? That could’ve made countless hoes!”
“Not just hoes!” a blacksmith beside him added. “That iron could’ve equipped the whole city with new armor!”
Among the crowd, the Imperial Censor Sun Kang had already changed into clean Confucian robes.
His face was still pale, but his eyes had regained their familiar arrogance.
He snorted at his disciples.
“Using iron as a road and forcing it upon the earth—this is defying Heaven itself.”
“This monstrous thing violates natural order. It will surely bring an earthquake from the earth dragon!”
“Just wait. Disaster will strike today!”
As soon as he finished speaking—
Clang clang clang…
A crisp bell sound rang from afar.
The imperial procession of Ying Zheng had arrived.
At the starting point of the railway stood a massive object covered in red cloth.
Three zhang tall, over ten zhang long.
Like a dormant black beast.
Behind it were twenty huge freight wagons, filled with mountain-like piles of stone.
Ying Ziye walked up with his short little legs.
Grand Minister Gongshu handed him a golden pair of ceremonial scissors.
Ying Ziye took them and cut the red ribbon blocking the track.
No sacrifice.
No prayers.
Snip.
The ribbon snapped.
He tossed the scissors aside and called out in a childish voice:
“Ignite it!”
Several bare-chested strongmen opened a furnace door on the beast’s body.
They shoveled chunks of black coal inside.
BOOM!
Thick black smoke shot out of the chimney straight into the sky.
Then—
A piercing, long, tearing whistle exploded across the land.
It wasn’t a cow’s roar.
Not a horse’s neigh.
It was a pure, overwhelming cry of power!
“Neighhh—!”
The warhorses of the imperial guard erupted in panic.
Their legs weakened instantly.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Hundreds of elite horses dropped to their knees in unison!
Their riders were thrown off balance, stumbling in chaos.
Tens of thousands of civilians fell silent.
All mockery and chatter disappeared.
Only the heavy breathing of the iron beast remained.
Sun Kang’s face went from arrogant red to pale fear in an instant.
His lips trembled—he couldn’t speak a single word.
“It… it moved!”
Someone shouted.
Everyone stared fixedly at the steel beast.
Its massive black wheels gave a creak—
And began to turn.
No ox.
No horse.
Tens of thousands of jin of steel and stone—
moved on their own.
Klang… Klang… Klang…
The rhythm grew faster.
From stumbling steps… to steady walking… to a full charge.
The sound of wheels striking rails became a booming war anthem.
Wang Li, grandson of Wang Jian, mounted on a black steed, watched with boiling blood.
He roared and raised his whip.
“What is this?!”
“Watch the speed of Great Qin’s cavalry!”
He kicked his horse forward.
The black steed shot out like a bolt of lightning.
Wang Li easily kept pace with the steel beast.
He even edged slightly ahead by the length of a horse’s head.
A proud smile appeared on his face.
He turned toward Ying Ziye inside the carriage and gave a thumbs-up—then flipped it downward.
Ying Ziye didn’t even look at him.
He simply said to the boiler workers in a flat tone:
“Add more fire.”
BOOM!!
Thicker black smoke erupted from the chimney.
The monster’s roar instantly turned violent.
Klang clang clang clang clang!!
Wang Li’s smile froze.
He watched helplessly as the steel beast—like a dragon breaking free of its chains—roared forward.
In an instant, it surged past him.
A wave of heat mixed with coal ash and steam slammed into his face.
His warhorse let out a frightened neigh, nearly throwing him off.
Wang Li sat frozen, pulling the reins tightly, staring at the rapidly disappearing black shadow.
And he wasn’t the only one stunned.
Tens of thousands of civilians stood motionless, mouths agape, watching the black dragon drag twenty wagons of giant stones along the rails into the distance.
The scene completely shattered their centuries-old understanding of the world.
“Report!”
A counting official stumbled and crawled before Ying Zheng.
His voice trembled with excitement.
“Your Majesty! Just now… just now the iron dragon pulled…”
“…two hundred thousand jin of stone in a single run!”
“That equals five hundred horse-drawn carts—over a thousand warhorses worth of power!”
“And… and Grand Craftsman Gongshu says… as long as there is enough black coal, it can keep running forever—day and night without rest!”
As soon as these words were spoken—
Silence fell across the entire field.
Everyone was struck dizzy by the terrifying numbers.
Li Si and the other officials quickly calculated the implications in their minds.
Their bodies began to tremble slightly.
This was not a monster.
This was a miracle.
Great Qin… was about to change heaven itself.
Rustle.
Inside a specially designed luxury carriage, Ying Zheng pushed open the window.
The fierce wind rushed in, making his black imperial robes flutter violently.
He did not sit.
He stood by the window, watching the rapidly retreating fields and mountains.
His body trembled slightly.
Not from fear.
But from excitement.
A bone-deep ecstasy of commanding the world.
He suddenly turned around.
Looking at Wang Jian and Meng Tian, who were equally shaken to their core.
He slapped the window frame and laughed loudly:
“Hahahaha!”
“Good! Truly the blood of Great Qin!”
His laughter slowly subsided.
His gaze turned razor-sharp.
“Did you see it?”
“This is not iron. Not fire.”
He pointed outside.
“This is my empire! A piercing arrow shot into the world by my hand!”
“With this, my armies can reach any border of Great Qin within a single day!”
“With this, grain from the northern frontier can reach Xianyang in three hours!”
He drew the Tai’a Sword from his waist and pointed it eastward.
His voice was like thunder.
“Before my iron dragon—all are mere chickens and dogs!”
“Pass down my decree!”
“Name this creation…”
“Black Dragon!”
Wang Jian and Meng Tian—two generals who had spent their lives on the battlefield—had tears faintly glimmering in their eyes.
They knelt heavily.
“May Your Majesty reign for ten thousand years! May Great Qin endure forever!”
……
The Black Dragon roared eastward along its brand-new iron track, carrying the ambitions of Great Qin.
From that day on—
Iron ore from the west and coal from the northern mountains flowed endlessly like a black river toward the eastern sea.
Three months later.
East Sea Commandery, secret shipyard.
Morning.
The sea mist had not yet dispersed.
A black shadow larger than a mountain slowly rose from the massive dock.
It was so enormous…
that it completely blocked the rising sun.
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