Ying Ziye looked at his father.
He did not answer.
Instead, he simply raised his hand and lightly tapped on the rotating blue sphere.
A landmass surrounded by blue oceans was enlarged.
“Father, please look.”
“This place is called Rome.”
“Its territory is no weaker than Great Qin.”
He tapped another region.
“This is called the Maurya Empire.”
“Its population is several times that of Great Qin.”
His finger slowly moved across the sphere, passing over vast stretches of yellow and green.
“There are many such nations on this ‘planet.’”
“We are only one of them.”
Ying Ziye’s voice was calm.
But every word struck like a hammer against the hearts of everyone in the Qilin Hall.
Zhou Ke knelt on the ground, completely stunned.
Just moments ago, he was risking his life to remonstrate over three thousand jin of bronze and five hundred jin of steel.
But now…
He looked at the glowing sphere, at the countless lands upon it.
Suddenly, he felt like a joke.
A complete, ignorant, ridiculous joke.
Li Si’s jade tablet had long fallen to the ground, yet he did not even notice.
He only stared fixedly at the land Ying Ziye called “Rome.”
He remembered Chunyu Yue, who had just been executed, and the report about Rome.
So it was not madness.
It was merely the tip of the iceberg.
Ying Zheng’s body swayed slightly.
He grabbed the dragon pillar beside him to steady himself.
He had spent his life in conquest, unifying the Six States, believing himself to be the ruler of all under heaven.
And yet.
Beyond “all under heaven,” there was an even greater world.
“Ha…”
“Hahahahaha…”
Ying Zheng suddenly laughed.
His laughter carried neither joy nor anger.
He released the pillar and stepped down step by step.
He no longer looked at the sphere.
He walked up to Ying Ziye.
“Good.”
“Truly a world beyond the world!”
Ying Ziye said nothing.
He simply gestured toward the hall entrance again.
“Bring it in!”
That same command again.
Unquestionable. Absolute.
Heavy footsteps echoed once more.
This time, sixteen imperial guards entered, carrying an enormous roll of beast hide into the hall.
“Crash—”
The hide was unfurled across the entire floor of the hall.
It was a map.
A map unlike anything anyone had ever seen.
There was no “round heaven, square earth.”
Only countless strangely shaped continents, wrapped in vast blue oceans.
Ying Ziye drew his sword.
With the scabbard, he pointed at a familiar region on the map and struck it heavily.
“This is Great Qin!”
Then his scabbard swept outward.
Across mountains, plains, and unknown lands, until it circled the entire map.
“And here!”
His voice suddenly rose, echoing through the entire hall.
“Will be the future territory of Great Qin!”
Boom!
If the earlier glowing sphere was a divine revelation—an unknown that inspired fear—
Then this map on the ground was ambition itself.
A desire within reach, burning hot enough to make one’s blood boil.
“Crazy…”
A civil official muttered weakly, collapsing onto the ground.
“He’s truly insane…”
But this time, no one echoed him.
Wang Jian stood there, his weathered face flushed red.
He stared at the enormous map, his body trembling with excitement.
He had fought his entire life.
He once thought unifying the Six States was the end.
But today, this young man told him—
It was only the beginning.
“Thud!”
Wang Jian, the veteran general of countless campaigns, dropped to his knees.
He bowed heavily toward the throne—toward Ying Zheng, and also toward Ying Ziye.
“This old minister!”
His voice was no longer aged, but burning with warlike fervor.
“Is willing to die for His Majesty, for the Crown Prince, for Great Qin!”
“Die beyond the borders!”
“Die beyond the borders!”
Those four words struck like thunder.
“Thud!”
Meng Tian followed and knelt down as well.
“Your servant, Meng Tian, is willing to expand Great Qin’s frontiers!”
“Thud! Thud! Thud!”
Inside the grand hall, all the armed generals dropped to their knees in unison at this moment.
“We are willing to expand Great Qin’s borders and territories. Even death will not deter us!”
A roar like a tidal wave nearly lifted the roof of the Qilin Hall.
The civil officials, collapsed on the ground, were swept by this overwhelming momentum, each of them turning ashen.
They looked at those generals who seemed almost mad.
And they understood.
A completely new era—one they could not even imagine—had arrived.
Li Si stood there, his body rigid.
After a moment, he slowly knelt as well.
“Your servant, Li Si, is willing to plan new territories for Your Majesty and establish laws for all nations!”
He was a pragmatist.
Since he could not stop it, he would join it instead.
He would add wheels called “law” to this mad war chariot that was about to charge into the world.
Ying Zheng looked down below.
At the kneeling civil and military officials.
At the wildly outrageous world map.
He burst into laughter once more.
This time, it was a heartfelt, unrestrained, exhilarating laugh.
“Good! Good! Good!”
He said “good” three times.
He walked down the final step, came to Ying Ziye’s side, and grabbed his arm, pulling him to stand beside him.
Father and son stood side by side.
Together, they looked down upon the “world” beneath their feet.
Ying Zheng unfastened the imperial sword he had worn his entire life.
He drew it; the blade shimmered like flowing water.
Then he placed this sword—symbol of the supreme authority of Great Qin—into Ying Ziye’s hands.
“You showed me a world.”
Ying Zheng patted his son’s shoulder, his strength heavy.
“Now, I give you this sword.”
“Go forth and conquer a world for me!”
……
……
Xianyang, thirty years later.
By the Wei River, a city named “Tianji City” rose from the ground.
Towering chimneys pierced the clouds, spewing white steam.
Massive gears and connecting rods turned tirelessly at the city’s center, providing endless power to the entire metropolis.
Inside the city.
Atop a vast glazed tower, an elderly man with white hair and beard was reporting loudly to a smooth mirror-like wall.
“Your Majesty! Crown Prince!”
The old man was Wang Li, grandson of Wang Jian.
He wore strange metallic armor, and behind him lay ruins and shattered walls.
“The last rebel force of the Western Continent has been completely eliminated!”
“The Western Qin Governorate has been rebuilt upon the ruins of ancient Rome!”
In the mirror, two figures appeared.
Ying Zheng and Ying Ziye.
They looked almost unchanged from thirty years ago.
Ying Zheng nodded.
“Good.”
The image shifted.
A frozen, icy land appeared in the mirror.
A middle-aged general in armor stood atop a colossal steel beast.
“I report to Your Majesty and the Crown Prince!”
“Exploration of the Northern Continent is complete. We have established ‘Wangshu City’ as the Northern Protectorate!”
“This land is bitterly cold, but its mineral wealth is enough to build ten more Tianji Cities!”
The image shifted again.
On an endless blue ocean, a massive fleet of steel ships sailed through wind and waves.
On the lead flagship, a young man raised a compass high.
“The New Continent route has been confirmed!”
“The Black Water Dragon Banner of Great Qin will be planted in every corner of the world!”
……
……
Summit of Mount Tai.
A sky-piercing observation platform, even more magnificent than the Epang Palace, rose into the heavens.
Ying Zheng and Ying Ziye stood side by side at the railing.
Beneath their feet stretched layers of clouds.
Below the clouds, countless envoys from all over the world knelt densely like ants.
In the sky.
Massive steel vessels, like flying birds, traversed back and forth, leaving long white trails.
They departed from Xianyang, flying to Rome, to Wangshu, to the New Continent.
Carrying the language, laws, and armies of Great Qin to every corner of the world.
Ying Zheng looked at it all.
He had lived for a very long time.
So long that he thought he would no longer feel any emotion.
Yet at this moment, he still could not help but ask:
“Ziye.”
“Has all under heaven become Qin’s?”
Ying Ziye did not answer.
He raised his hand.
Beyond the sea of clouds beneath them, beyond the flying ships in the sky.
He pointed toward the deep blue night sky, studded with countless stars.
“Father.”
His voice was calm and distant.
“The world… is ours now.”
“But our journey has only just begun.”
(The End)
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