The sea mist dispersed.
A black steel behemoth lay quietly inside the massive dry dock.
It was too big.
Over a hundred meters long.
As tall as a city wall.
Not a single wooden plank on its hull—only dark, cold iron armor that shimmered with a faint metallic glow.
Dense rivets covered its body like the scales of a ferocious beast.
On both sides were enormous iron wheels resembling waterwheels.
A chimney thicker than a palace pillar pierced straight into the sky.
Ying Zheng stood on the high platform, staring at this monster.
Behind him, Wang Jian, Meng Tian, and Li Si were all speechless.
Tens of thousands of craftsmen, soldiers, and civilians surrounded the area.
Everyone’s breathing felt tightly constricted.
“A demon vessel…”
“It’s just a lump of iron! How could it possibly float?”
An elderly man with white hair and beard slowly stepped forward from the crowd.
He was the most famous shipwright in Donghai Commandery—Master Lu.
He had built ships his entire life.
“Your Majesty!” Master Lu fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face as he faced the platform.
“Iron sinks in water—this is the law of nature!”
“To build a ship of iron defies heaven itself! It will surely anger the Sea God and bring catastrophic disaster!”
“Your Majesty must reconsider! This monster must not be allowed to touch water!”
His words echoed the fears of all the shipbuilders.
A wave of agreement rose instantly.
“Yes! Master Lu is right!”
“How can iron possibly float?”
Ying Ziye didn’t respond.
He looked at the chaos below while calmly licking a candy figure in his hand, as if he hadn’t heard anything.
Then he casually waved.
“Open the gate.”
His voice was soft and childlike, yet absolute.
“Open the gates! Release the water!”
Gongshu Clan roared an order.
“Open the gates!”
“Release the water!”
Rumble—
The massive wooden floodgate slowly opened.
Turbid seawater surged in like a wild beast breaking free.
The water level rose steadily.
Covering the dock floor.
Then the lower hull of the colossal ship.
Everyone held their breath, staring fixedly at the steel monster.
Master Lu muttered under his breath:
“Sink… hurry up and sink…”
“S-sink…”
Half the draft of the vessel was submerged.
The hundreds-of-millions-jin steel monster still did not move.
It was like a mountain welded to the seabed.
Snickers appeared in the crowd.
“See? I told you it wouldn’t work!”
“So much iron wasted for nothing!”
Just then—
Creak…
A grating metallic sound echoed from beneath the water.
The beast seemed to… shift slightly.
Very faint.
But everyone saw it.
Then—
Splash!
As the final surge of water poured in, the dock was completely filled.
The massive steel beast—carrying everyone’s doubts and ridicule—
shook violently in the water.
Then—
slowly, steadily—
it rose.
It floated.
Silence.
The entire coastline fell into dead silence.
Tens of thousands of voices vanished in an instant.
Only the wind and waves remained.
Master Lu’s face drained completely of color.
He stared at the floating steel mountain, mouth agape.
“No… impossible…”
“Iron… is floating…”
Thud.
The old shipwright collapsed backward, fainting on the spot.
The crowd exploded.
“My heavens!”
“It’s floating! It’s really floating!”
“A miracle! This is a miracle!”
Fear turned into frenzy.
Doubt became worship.
On the high platform, Ying Ziye casually tossed away the candy stick.
Then he waved again.
“Fire it up.”
“Woo—”
A deep, muffled roar came from within the belly of the giant beast.
The enormous chimney began spewing thick black smoke, coiling upward like a black dragon baring its claws.
“BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!”
The massive iron wheels on both sides of the vessel slowly began to turn.
At first, they moved sluggishly, grinding with overwhelming force against the sea, producing thunderous roars.
Then they accelerated—faster and faster!
“Clank! Clank! Clank!”
The giant beast broke through the waves and steamed out of the dock.
“So fast!”
General Zhou Bo of the naval forces sucked in a cold breath as he watched the ship’s speed.
“Order! Have the ‘Chasing Wind’ ship pursue it!”
The Chasing Wind was the fastest three-masted warship in the Qin navy.
At the command, it immediately unfurled full sails, catching the strongest wind like an arrow released from a bow, chasing after it.
Soon, it caught up to the steel behemoth.
The sailors on board erupted into triumphant cheers.
However—
“Add more fire.”
Ying Ziye’s calm voice rang out.
“BOOM!!”
The chimney of the steel giant erupted with even more violent black smoke.
The rotation of its iron wheels instantly doubled.
It surged forward like a dragon fully enraged.
In an instant—
it left the proud Chasing Wind far behind.
The sailors aboard stared in stunned silence at the receding black silhouette.
Their ship didn’t feel like it was sailing anymore.
It felt like it was standing still.
“This… this isn’t a ship…”
General Zhou Bo’s lips trembled.
“This is a god of the sea!”
The giant vessel circled once and returned to the harbor.
Ying Ziye pointed toward a massive reef in the distance.
“Blow up that eyesore.”
The reef was called “Ghost Sorrow Reef.”
Countless fishing boats had been wrecked there in the fog.
“Understood!”
Gongshu Clan roared excitedly.
A section of the ship’s bow opened.
A strange mechanical arm—assembled from gears and springs—slowly rose.
Strong men loaded a millstone-sized stone projectile into it.
“FIRE!”
BOOM!
A thunderous blast.
The stone projectile shot out like a meteor, carving a perfect arc through the sky.
One second later—
BOOM!!!
Ghost Sorrow Reef was struck by an earth-shattering explosion.
Not cracked.
Not shattered.
It was obliterated into dust by an unstoppable force.
Only a massive whirlpool remained on the sea surface.
Ghost Sorrow Reef was erased from existence.
Ying Zheng’s eyes narrowed sharply.
He stared at the whirlpool, his body trembling slightly with overwhelming excitement.
“Board the ship!”
He descended from the platform and, surrounded by attendants, stepped onto the steel behemoth.
He placed his hand on the cold iron armor.
He felt the pulsing force beneath his feet, like the beating of a heart.
He realized he was not standing on a ship—
but on the world itself.
He walked to the bow, facing the salty sea wind.
His black imperial robes fluttered violently.
He drew the Tai’a Sword from his waist.
Pointing it toward the ocean!
“Good!”
“What a dragon of Great Qin!”
His voice drowned out the roar of the waves.
“Issue my decree!”
“This vessel shall be named—”
“‘Ancestral Dragon Ship’!”
He turned to the generals on deck.
“With this, all seas under heaven shall become inland waters of Great Qin!”
Wang Jian and Meng Tian both knelt, eyes glistening with tears.
“My sword is finally complete; it must be tested.”
Ying Zheng’s gaze turned toward the endless east.
“Ziye, tell me—who shall we use to consecrate the flag?”
Ying Ziye spread out a sea chart on the deck.
His fair finger pointed to a long, worm-like island at the far eastern edge of the map.
“Father,” he said with a pure, innocent smile.
“I heard that place produces silver.”
“And Xu Fu calls himself the Heavenly Emperor there… shouldn’t we go teach him how to write the word ‘death’?”
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