“Draft the decree!”
Those two words were like two mountains crushing down upon Li Si, making it hard for him to breathe.
Kneeling on the floor, his entire body trembled.
For the first time, the robes of the Prime Minister felt unbearably heavy.
Ying Zheng no longer looked at him.
He turned and walked back to the enormous sand table.
That was no mere sand table.
It was his world.
He was not walking.
He was inspecting it.
Like a tiger starved for far too long, surveying its hunting grounds.
Inside Zhangtai Palace, the silence was terrifying.
Collapsed on the floor, Li Si could clearly hear his own heartbeat.
Thump.
Thump.
Each beat sounded like a drum calling for his death.
He wanted to speak.
Wanted to remonstrate.
Wanted to tell His Majesty that all of this was madness.
But his throat felt as though an invisible hand had seized it, preventing even the slightest sound from escaping.
Ying Zheng’s hand descended upon the sand table.
His fingers were long and powerful.
Starting from the westernmost edge of Great Qin’s territory, his fingertip slowly traced farther westward.
That finger resembled a sword carving out new lands.
As though it intended to brand the entire world with the mark of Great Qin.
His finger passed over one unfamiliar mountain range after another.
“Mountains?”
Ying Zheng let out a faint chuckle.
“Before the iron cavalry of Great Qin, there are no mountains.”
“There are only roads.”
His finger continued forward.
Crossing vast deserts.
“Sand?”
“My soldiers will trample it into solid earth.”
Li Si knelt on the ground, staring upward at the scene.
His face was paler than that of a corpse.
At last, he regained his voice.
“Y-Your Majesty…”
His voice was hoarse, pleading.
“Beyond the Western Regions lies only savage wilderness… barren mountains and foul waters…”
“The people of Great Qin should not go to such places…”
Ying Zheng’s finger stopped.
He did not turn around.
“Savage wilderness?”
he repeated.
“Prime Minister, you are mistaken.”
His finger struck heavily upon the route stretching across the continent.
“This is not wilderness.”
“This is a road.”
“A road paved with gold and silk!”
Ying Zheng suddenly turned around.
He looked at Li Si, his face burning with fervor.
“From this day onward!”
“This road shall be called the ‘Silk Road’!”
“The iron cavalry of Great Qin shall ride westward upon this road!”
“Any who dare block our way—their skulls shall become wine cups for the warriors of Great Qin!”
Li Si was completely stunned.
The Silk Road?
Such a beautiful name.
Yet when spoken by His Majesty, it carried the scent of blood.
At that moment—
Ying Ziye, who had been crouching silently nearby, suddenly spoke.
“Father Emperor.”
“Roads are not paved with silk.”
He raised his head, his face expressionless.
“They are paved with iron and blood.”
A single sentence.
And the temperature in the hall seemed to drop several degrees.
Li Si shuddered.
Looking at that eight-year-old child, he felt as though he were staring at a monster wearing human skin.
When Ying Zheng heard this, not only was he not displeased—he burst into loud laughter.
“Well said!”
“As expected of my son!”
After laughing, his gaze once again fell upon the sand table.
This time—
his hand rested upon the boundless blue representing the sea.
“Prime Minister,”
Ying Zheng’s voice became low and eerie.
“Are you afraid of the sea?”
Li Si’s entire body stiffened.
“I… I would not dare…”
“It is only that since ancient times, those who venture to sea face death nine times out of ten…”
“Beyond the Eastern Sea lies Guixu—the realm of the Dragon King…”
“The Dragon King?”
Ying Zheng laughed.
His laughter was filled with imperial arrogance and contempt.
“In this world, there is only one king!”
“And that king is me!”
“If he is a dragon, then he shall coil before me!”
“And if he dares stir up storms and waves…”
Ying Zheng’s voice suddenly turned cold.
“I would not mind tasting the flesh of dragons and phoenixes myself!”
His finger traced a route across the vast blue sea—
a route stretching from Donghai Commandery all the way to the distant west.
Its destination—
the red-marked land called Rome.
“Look.”
Ying Zheng pointed at the sea route.
“Over there, they are exhausting the strength of their entire nation to forge one thousand of the sharpest weapons for me.”
“Over there, they are emptying their treasury to prepare endless mountains of gold for me.”
“They really are wonderful people.”
His voice carried the playful cruelty of a cat toying with a mouse.
“So this route is not a road to death.”
“Prime Minister.”
Ying Zheng spoke each word slowly and clearly.
“This is a road to wealth!”
“From this day onward, it shall be called the ‘Golden Sea Route’!”
“The tower fleets of Great Qin shall sail along this route and reclaim everything that rightfully belongs to Qin!”
Boom!
Li Si felt his mind explode.
The Silk Road.
The Golden Sea Route.
Madness.
His Majesty had gone mad.
The Ninth Young Master had gone mad as well.
These two intended to drag the entire world into their madness!
Li Si still wanted to persuade him otherwise.
“Your Majesty…”
“Li Si!”
Ying Zheng suddenly barked out his name.
The voice thundered like a heavenly clap, making the entire hall tremble.
Every word Li Si wished to say was instantly forced back down his throat.
He saw—
Ying Zheng straighten his body.
At that moment, the restored First Emperor radiated such overwhelming authority that even the sun and moon seemed dim beside him.
He was no longer the father joking around with his son.
He was the ruler of the world.
The one and only emperor.
Ying Zheng’s gaze swept over Li Si, swept over the sand table—
and finally settled upon Ying Ziye.
That gaze no longer contained indulgent affection.
It was examination.
Command.
Entrustment.
“Prime Minister, draft the decree!”
Ying Zheng’s voice echoed through Zhangtai Palace.
Every word sounded as though forged from iron and warhorses.
Li Si jolted violently and scrambled to his feet in panic, assuming the posture of receiving an imperial command.
“Y-Your servant is here!”
Ying Zheng slowly raised one finger.
And pointed directly—
at his ninth son, only eight years old.
“I appoint you, Ying Ziye!”
His voice was not loud.
Yet Li Si’s heart convulsed violently.
“To the position of Grand Marshal for the Western Campaign!”
Six words.
Li Si’s mind went blank.
He thought he had misheard.
Thought he was hallucinating.
An eight-year-old child—
Grand Marshal of the Western Campaign?
Commander of the empire’s armies?
What kind of joke was this?!
And yet—
what came next terrified him even more.
Ying Zheng’s voice rang out again, carrying absolute and unquestionable authority.
“Wang Jian and Meng Tian shall serve as deputy marshals!”
“They shall assist the Grand Marshal in conquering the world!”
BOOM!
Li Si felt as though another heavenly thunderbolt had crashed directly onto his skull.
He could no longer remain standing.
His legs gave out completely, and his entire body fell backward stiffly onto the floor.
It was over.
Truly over.
The two supreme gods of war of the empire—
made deputies to an eight-year-old child?
The moment this decree spread, the entire court and military would erupt into chaos!
Ying Zheng did not even glance at the unconscious Li Si.
He only looked at Ying Ziye.
At that childish face—
so young, yet so terrifyingly calm.
“Ziye!”
“I grant you the finest iron cavalry of Great Qin!”
“I grant you the mightiest fleet of Great Qin!”
“I grant you the authority to mobilize every resource within the empire!”
Ying Zheng spread his arms wide, as though embracing the entire world.
His voice transformed into a final imperial decree that echoed endlessly throughout Zhangtai Palace.
“The army shall divide into two paths!”
“The land armies shall crush every kingdom that dares call itself sovereign!”
“The sea fleets shall reclaim my weapons—along with their gold and their lands!”
In Ying Zheng’s eyes burned flames fierce enough to devour the eight wildernesses and swallow the six directions whole.
And to his son, only eight years old, he issued the command that would alter the fate of the world itself.
“I want every land touched by the sun and moon, every place reached by rivers and seas…”
“…to become Qin territory!”
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