At the tallest flagpole of the harbor,
a huge glass vat swayed gently in the sea wind.
Half of the whale oil inside had already burned away.
Xu Fu was still alive.
His hair had been completely burned off, his scalp blackened and charred.
His entire body looked like pickled meat soaked in oil, giving off a foul stench.
Ying Ziye looked up at him for a moment.
He stretched out his small hand and yawned.
“Take him down,” Ying Ziye said to the Qin soldiers beside him.
“He’s been in the sun too long. He’s dried out. Not useful anymore.”
The soldiers froze for a moment.
Then immediately obeyed.
Chains rattled loudly.
The glass vat was slowly lowered.
Two soldiers opened the lid.
A wave of stench hit them in the face.
Without expression, they reached in.
Like pulling out a dead fish, they dragged Xu Fu out of the oil.
“Thud.”
Xu Fu was thrown to the ground.
His entire body was limp, his bones feeling soft and useless.
His skin, soaked in whale oil, had turned pale and wrinkled.
He lay there, gasping heavily.
“Wa… water… water…”
His throat sounded like a broken bellows.
Ying Ziye walked up to him.
He squatted down, studying the mud-like face.
“Want water?”
Xu Fu nodded desperately.
Ying Ziye smiled.
He tilted his chin toward a soldier.
A bucket was brought over.
“Splash.”
A full bucket of seawater was poured over Xu Fu from head to toe.
“Cough! Cough cough cough!”
Xu Fu choked violently on the salty water.
But like a starving dog, he still crawled on the ground, desperately licking the wet sand.
Not far away, Qin Shi Huang and Meng Tian stood watching in silence.
They said nothing.
Ying Ziye waited until Xu Fu caught his breath.
Only then did he speak slowly.
“I ask. You answer.”
“Answer well, and you get clean water and white rice.”
His voice was soft and childish.
“If you answer poorly…”
He pointed at the glass vat.
“Oil. Unlimited.”
Xu Fu’s body trembled violently.
He buried his head on the ground, afraid to look at Ying Ziye’s face.
“I… I will answer! I’ll tell everything!”
“Good.”
Ying Ziye clapped his hands.
“You’ve sailed for so many years. Besides this island of monkeys, have you been anywhere else?”
Xu Fu froze.
He had expected questions about immortals or elixirs.
He had prepared countless lies.
But not this question.
“Speak.”
Ying Ziye’s voice turned cold.
Xu Fu jerked.
He didn’t dare lie.
“No… no…”
he stammered.
“The fleet was too small. We couldn’t go far.”
“Oh?”
Ying Ziye dragged the tone.
“Then have you seen any strange ships, or strange people?”
Xu Fu trembled again.
Something came to his mind.
Extreme fear appeared on his face.
“Yes… yes!”
he screamed.
“I saw them! Demons! Sea demons!”
Qin Shi Huang and Meng Tian stepped closer.
“Demons?”
Meng Tian frowned.
“What did they look like?”
“Golden hair! Blue eyes!”
Xu Fu’s voice shook as he recalled it.
“Their noses were high, their skin white like corpses!”
“They spoke like birds chirping—completely incomprehensible!”
All Qin soldiers present looked confused.
What was this?
Foreign barbarians?
Qin Shi Huang also looked at Ying Ziye.
Ying Ziye remained calm, as if he had already expected it.
He casually picked up a tree branch.
On the damp sand, he drew a rough outline.
A huge landmass.
And a boot-shaped peninsula.
“They came from here.”
He tapped the “boot” with the branch.
No one understood.
“Ziye, what is this?” Qin Shi Huang asked.
“The world.”
Ying Ziye replied.
He pointed to one part of the drawing.
“This is Great Qin.”
Then he pointed to the far end.
“This is where they came from.”
“A nation called ‘Rome.’”
Rome?
Everyone heard this name for the first time.
“Years ago, their fleet got lost and drifted near here,” Xu Fu quickly added.
“Their ships were huge, but damaged. Most of the crew died.”
“We… we killed the survivors and took their belongings.”
“And the things?” Ying Ziye asked.
Xu Fu pointed toward the mountain temple.
“They’re all… inside there.”
Meng Tian immediately sent men to search.
Soon,
soldiers returned carrying several boxes.
When the boxes were opened,
inside were torn pieces of fabric, a few rusted iron tools,
and some strangely shaped clay jars.
Qin Shi Huang picked up a piece of cloth.
The texture was rough.
Inferior to Qin hemp cloth.
He shook his head.
“Barbarian goods.”
“Father Emperor, the real treasure is behind this.”
Ying Ziye said as he took out a roll of parchment from his chest.
He slowly unfolded it on the ground.
It was a real, extremely detailed map.
Mountains, rivers, oceans, continents—
everything was clearly marked.
On this massive map, Great Qin occupied only a corner in the east.
Far in the west,
on a vast stretch of land, a large red circle was drawn.
Inside it were two characters:
“Rome.”
Qin Shi Huang’s breathing stopped.
He bent down.
His fingers brushed across that unfamiliar land.
The size of that territory… appeared not much smaller than Great Qin itself.
He had always believed the world was only the former Six States, the grasslands, and the Baiyue regions.
But this map told him otherwise.
The world was this vast.
His hands clenched into fists.
Knuckles turned white.
A flame he had never felt before burned inside him.
It was not rage.
It was desire.
The most primal, most insane desire for land belonging to a sovereign of all ages.
“Ha… hahaha…”
Qin Shi Huang let out a low laugh.
The laughter grew louder and louder,
until it turned into a thunderous roar echoing through the sky.
“Good!”
“Good! Rome!”
“What a vast world!”
He suddenly turned toward Ying Ziye.
“Ziye! My son!”
“Is this map real?”
“Of course.”
Ying Ziye nodded.
“I wouldn’t dare deceive anyone, least of all you, Father Emperor.”
At that moment,
Xu Fu suddenly remembered something like a lifeline.
He struggled in his soaked, oil-stained clothing and reached deep inside.
After fumbling for a long time,
he pulled something out.
He raised it high.
“Your Majesty! A token! I have their token!”
It was a golden coin.
Qinglong stepped forward, took it, and handed it to Ying Ziye.
Ying Ziye examined it.
One side showed a profile of a man.
The other side showed a she-wolf nursing two infants.
He flicked the coin lightly.
“Clang.”
A clear sound.
“Using the enemy’s money to buy the enemy’s life…”
Ying Ziye grinned.
“This is a profitable deal.”
He tossed the coin to Qin Shi Huang.
Qin Shi Huang caught it.
He looked at the unfamiliar face engraved on it.
“Is this also a king?”
“Not yet,” Ying Ziye said.
“But soon he will be.”
“They, like us, also want to conquer the world.”
Qin Shi Huang tightened his grip on the coin.
His gaze returned to the massive world map.
His eyes fell on the vast land and oceans between Great Qin and Rome.
“Pass my decree!”
Qin Shi Huang’s voice thundered like lightning.
“This island shall be renamed ‘Dongying’!”
“It shall become my Great Qin’s eastern naval base and silver treasury!”
“Order General Meng Tian to leave thirty thousand troops to garrison it!”
“Yes!”
Meng Tian knelt on one knee.
“Pass my decree!”
Qin Shi Huang’s voice rang out again.
“Order the Imperial Workshop, under Gongshu Chou, to gather all fine timber and craftsmen of Dongying!”
“Build ships!”
He pointed toward the west.
“Build ocean-going vessels capable of crossing storms and vast seas!”
“I want one hundred ships! One thousand ships!”
The entire army burned with excitement.
They all knelt in unison.
“Great Qin for ten thousand years! His Majesty for ten thousand years!”
The roar shook heaven and earth.
Only Xu Fu lay collapsed on the ground.
He stared at the world map, and at the emperor filled with ambition.
He knew he was finished.
This man had found something far more intoxicating than immortality.
“…Then what about me?”
Xu Fu used all his strength to shout.
Ying Ziye turned back and looked at him.
That gaze was like looking at a used tool.
“You?”
Ying Ziye smiled.
A pure, harmless smile.
“I keep my word. I won’t kill you.”
He pointed toward the shimmering silver mountain.
“The mine at my big brother’s place just happens to be short of an accountant.”
“You’ll go there.”
His voice was light.
“You’ve heard his rules.”
“Whenever the silver you personally dig equals the value of your life…”
“…that’s when you can rest.”
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