“How does one achieve immortality?”
Qin Shi Huang’s voice was very soft.
Wang Jian stopped stroking his thigh.
Li Si, who had just straightened his back, quietly bent down again.
Everyone’s breathing stopped.
They were waiting for an answer.
An answer that would decide the future of Great Qin—and even the fate of all of them.
Ying Ziye raised his head.
Those pure, innocent eyes looked at his father.
He did not answer immediately.
Silence.
A suffocating silence.
Qin Shi Huang’s heart slowly rose to his throat.
He was afraid.
Afraid to hear the word “no.”
Just as he was about to ask again—
Ying Ziye finally spoke.
In a soft, childish voice, yet every word carried immense weight.
“Father.”
“There is a way to achieve immortality.”
Boom!
It was as if a thunderclap exploded inside Qin Shi Huang’s mind.
There is!
There really is!
His decades of pursuit, his decades of longing—all received confirmation at this very moment!
A surge of wild joy rushed straight to his head.
He almost laughed out loud uncontrollably.
However—
Ying Ziye’s next sentence was like a basin of ice water, extinguishing all his flames.
“But…”
A hint of difficulty appeared on the little boy’s face.
“Father… you can’t afford it.”
The joy on Qin Shi Huang’s face froze.
Can’t afford it?
What did he just hear?
Who was he?
He was the First Emperor of Qin! The ruler of the world!
Is there anything in all under heaven that he cannot afford?
“What did you say?”
Qin Shi Huang’s voice sank.
The temperature around them seemed to drop back to freezing point.
Wang Jian and Li Si both tensed up.
Little Prince… you mustn’t speak carelessly!
Yet Ying Ziye seemed completely unfazed by his father’s anger.
He simply tilted his little head and repeated seriously.
“I said, Father cannot afford it.”
“Because… it is too expensive.”
Qin Shi Huang let out a cold, furious laugh.
“Expensive?”
“I possess the lands of the four seas, the wealth of the world! What could possibly be too expensive for me?”
“Speak!”
“An immortal life… what price does it require!”
“Even if I must pierce a hole in the heavens themselves, I will patch it up for you!”
Ying Ziye looked at him.
He shook his head.
“Father, this price cannot be measured with gold.”
He did not explain further.
Instead, he turned around and called out in a crisp, childlike voice to the man behind him.
“Uncle Qinglong.”
“Bring the ‘big treasure’ I prepared for Father.”
“Yes.”
Qinglong bowed in acknowledgement and turned to walk deeper into the workshop.
Moments later.
He and three other Jinyiwei carried out a massive square object wrapped entirely in black cloth.
Thud.
It was placed heavily on the ground, producing a dull impact.
Everyone’s eyes locked onto the black covering.
What is this?
Qin Shi Huang frowned.
He could feel it—within this object, there seemed to be a power that made even his heart tighten slightly.
Ying Ziye walked up to it.
He stretched out his small hands and grabbed the edge of the black cloth.
Then—
He yanked it open.
Whoosh—
The cloth slid away.
Its true form was revealed.
A massive wooden board.
Upon it was mounted an enormous map made of some kind of beast skin, stretching wide beyond expectation.
It depicted mountains, rivers, lands, and seas, painted with different colored dyes.
The detail was unprecedented. The complexity of color and lines, unseen before in this world.
“…This… is a territorial map?”
Li Si was the first to speak.
But something was wrong.
He, as the Chancellor of Great Qin, knew the empire’s maps inside and out.
The land of the Nine Provinces, its mountains and veins—he knew them all by heart.
Yet this map… ninety-nine percent of it showed places he had never heard of, never seen.
Vast, connected continents.
Endless deep-blue waters even larger than land itself.
What… exactly was this?
Qin Shi Huang had also noticed the anomaly.
He stepped forward, one step at a time.
His towering figure cast a shadow over the enormous map.
His gaze swept across it rapidly.
Suddenly—
His pupils froze.
He saw it.
In the eastern corner of the map.
A familiar outline.
One that looked like a rooster poised to crow.
That was…
Great Qin!
He found Xianyang! He found the Great Wall! He found the Eastern Sea!
But…
Why was it so small?
So small… it looked like an insignificant patch.
On this vast, boundless map, the territory of Great Qin only occupied a tiny, negligible corner!
Qin Shi Huang’s towering body swayed slightly.
He reached out his hand.
That hand, which once held a sword that swept across the Six Directions and had never trembled before—
At this moment, it shook like a leaf in the wind.
He gently touched the small area labeled “Great Qin” on the map.
Then, slowly, his finger moved outward.
Across vast grasslands.
Across continuous snow-capped mountains.
Across endless deserts.
Finally, it stopped at a vast blue ocean—larger than the entire territory of Great Qin dozens of times over.
His face turned pale.
An unprecedented shock and emptiness, rising from the depths of his soul, swept over him completely.
He suddenly looked up at Ying Ziye.
His voice was hoarse and dry.
“What… is this?”
Ying Ziye looked up at him.
“Father.”
“The immortals say this is called the ‘world.’”
“Our Great Qin… is only a very, very small part of it.”
The world…
Qin Shi Huang repeated this unfamiliar word in his mind.
He felt his understanding—his decades of pride, knowledge, and certainty—beginning to collapse inch by inch.
“The immortals also said…”
Ying Ziye’s voice continued.
It carried an ethereal tone that did not belong to a child.
“A frog in a well believes the sky is only as big as the well’s opening.”
“It will never know how vast the sky outside truly is.”
“A person’s lifespan is tied to the ‘Mandate of Heaven’ they bear.”
“You, Father, are the Son of Heaven of Great Qin. Therefore, your mandate is only as large as Great Qin itself.”
Ying Ziye raised his small hand and drew a circle over the tiny territory on the map.
“So small a mandate—how could it possibly carry the words ‘immortality’?”
“The elixirs you sent men to the seas to seek, the pills refined in your alchemy furnaces—all of it is a lesser path.”
“Like a frog at the bottom of a well, trying to touch the sky. How laughable.”
“The immortals say there is only one true path to immortality.”
Ying Ziye paused.
He looked up at Qin Shi Huang, who was already completely stunned.
Then, word by word, he declared the only path:
“Forge immortality through national fortune!”
Qin Shi Huang’s body stiffened violently.
“National fortune?”
“Yes.”
Ying Ziye slapped his small hand firmly onto the massive world map.
“The immortals say your lifespan is tightly bound to the fortune of Great Qin.”
“The more territory Great Qin conquers in this world, the more your lifespan increases.”
“The more people in this world submit to Great Qin, the stronger your body becomes.”
“As long as the black-water dragon banners of Great Qin are planted in every corner of this world…”
“As long as every person in this world reads Qin script and follows Qin law—”
“That Father’s achievements will surpass the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, and your Mandate of Heaven will become equal to this entire world!”
“At that time…”
Ying Ziye’s voice suddenly rose in pitch!
“Why still seek immortals?”
“You will be the god of the mortal world!”
“Your lifespan will endure as long as the nation stands, and last as long as the world exists!”
BOOM!!
It was as if a primal, world-creating lightning bolt split open all the chaos in Qin Shi Huang’s mind!
So that was it!
So that was it!
Immortality was not something to be begged for!
It was something to be conquered!
Everything he had done before—was wrong!
Utterly, absurdly wrong!
What Xu Fu, what Lu Sheng—all of them were liars!
The true path to immortality had been right before his eyes all along!
Right on this map!
The confusion and shock in Qin Shi Huang’s eyes vanished in an instant.
What replaced it—
Was fire.
A raging, mad, incandescent imperial flame capable of burning the entire world!
He understood!
He finally understood!
“Hahaha… HAHAHAHAHA!!”
Qin Shi Huang suddenly threw his head back and laughed.
That laughter carried years of suppressed desire, and the ecstasy of finally finding direction!
“I understand!!”
He shoved Li Si and Wang Jian aside.
Clang—
He drew the Son of Heaven’s sword from his waist!
The blade pointed straight at the massive world map!
Not at any single place.
But at everything beyond Great Qin.
“Pass down my imperial decree!!”
From today onward, Great Qin enters highest wartime readiness!
Wang Jian! Meng Yi! You have three years to expand the army to one million!
Li Si! Fill Hangu Pass with grain! Move weapons to the borders!
Qin Shi Huang’s eyes were terrifyingly red.
A crimson hue born of endless desire and frenzy.
He thrust the sword tip heavily into the map!
A dull thud echoed out.
“All lands under the sun and all waters where rivers flow…”
“All shall become Qin territory!!”
His voice was no longer mere shouting.
It had become a declaration of war against heaven itself—staking everything on a single gamble.
“I!”
“Will use this vast empire to exchange for my ten thousand years of life!”
“Ten thousand years!”
“Endless ten thousand years!!!”
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