King Ying Che of Qin

"Do you have enough Class A merit points?" "Yes, I do." "Then you can sign up," Chen Chong said. "But whether you pass the evaluation and get accepted in the end depends entirely on you." "Understood!" Xu Yao felt the blood surging through his veins. This might very well be his first step out of the mountain village. "The third matter." Chen Chong's tone turned heavy. "Trouble broke out over at the Black Mountain Fifth Mountain Guard Brigade… A mountain demon escaped. They've been hunting it down all this time, and now the dust has settled. It's time to bring the matter to a close. The county issued an order: aside from the necessary personnel on duty, everyone from every brigade must arrive at the Fifth Mountain Guard Compound before mid-Si hour three days from now to witness the disciplinary execution and uphold the law!" Xu Yao's heart stirred. *The Fifth Brigade? I think I've heard that name before…* Instantly, the faces of Liu Zhen and the others darkened, each showing expressions of resistance. Buck Teeth raised his hand. "Can I take leave tomorrow? My kid has a fever, and I need to…" "Denied!" Chen Chong rejected him flatly, his face cold. "Even if your own soul is due in the Underworld at noon three days from now, as long as you aren't in the squad staying behind on guard duty, you must appear at the Fifth Mountain Guard Compound to witness the execution at mid-Si hour, and you aren't allowed to close your eyes for a single moment! That is an absolute order!" The burly men all hung their heads, their faces full of reluctance. Witness what? Witness the mountain patrolmen who made a blunder get punished and have their heads chopped off. Yet, was such a blunder something they wanted to make? Could they control how the vast, sprawling mountains spawned mountain and wood demons?! Still, rules were rules. Make a blunder, and you faced punishment; there was no chance of being let off lightly. Spared under the executioner's blade once took only a single sentence, but that sentence would make it impossible to command obedience ever again! This was an iron law of Great Qin! Even though they had not yet gone to witness the execution, a feeling of sorrow for their fallen peers was already rising within them. Xu Yao had no desire to watch a decapitation either, so he cleared his throat and said, "Brigade Captain, Uncle Chen, I'm not an official Demon Suppression Warrior yet. Shouldn't I stay behind on guard duty?" "Don't call me Uncle Chen. It wouldn't do you any good even if you called me Ancestor Chen." Chen Chong turned to glance at him and said calmly, "Besides, even if everyone else in our brigade could skip it, you'd still be the first in line to attend! You're about to take the Demon Suppression Warrior assessment. Both before and after you pass it, whenever there's an execution to witness, you must go!" "Watch how heads just like yours are lopped off! See how their families live after those heads roll! Carve it into your heart, engrave it into your marrow, and let it jolt your soul, so you'll never dare make the same mistake in the future!" "That is an indispensable lesson!" Xu Yao lowered his head. "The fourth piece of news still concerns us," Chen Chong said heavily. "The specialized demon-suppression branches of the Seven Kingdoms sent simultaneous transmissions across the mortal realm. Word came down from our Great Qin Mountain and River Prison headquarters that demonic qi has surged violently in the Demon Domain recently, breaching the Blue Sky seal and scattering vast amounts of demonic qi. They suspect a powerful demon has escaped and descended upon the mortal realm." Everyone's faces turned as dark as charcoal. A flash of terror flitted through their eyes. As veteran mountain patrolmen, they knew exactly what this meant. "The demonic qi drifts high in the air, scattering in wisps and strands across the entire continent. No one can predict where it will fall. In other words, over this year and next, there will be far more mountain and wood demons than before. In particular, this surge of demonic qi carries an icy attribute, so we must watch out for the spawning and nurturing of snow demons this winter." The moment those words were spoken, everyone felt as if they had plunged into an ice cave, chills running down their spines. Snow demons? Didn't that mean when heavy snow sealed the mountains… they would still have to go out and risk their lives? Liu Zhen, Buck Teeth, and several others with short fuses blurted out simultaneously, "Fuck!" Their outbursts earned a displeased glare from Chen Chong. "So even when winter comes, we cannot slack off like we used to." Chen Chong continued, "Finally, the fifth matter doesn't concern our Mountain Guard Brigade much, but it concerns our Great Qin." "On the border battlefield, the three states of Zhao, Han, and Wei suddenly formed an alliance and launched a three-pronged counteroffensive. Our army was defeated. Quemen was lost, Muye fell into rout, Yecheng was breached, Wangcheng fell, and Yuguan was overrun. Commander Wang retreated to hold Yanzhou. Now the three nations are pressing outside Yanzhou, launching fierce, relentless assaults, and the situation is critical. If Yanzhou falls, Hangu is next. Once Hangu falls, there are no more natural barriers all the way to the royal capital." "The military has issued a draft, and a national war is on the verge of erupting. Therefore, if an outbreak of mountain or wood demons occurs, the military households who could assist us in the past won't be able to help." When Chen Chong spoke these words, his face was graver than ever. The breathing of the other men turned ragged, their eyes filled with deep anxiety. "We stopped being soldiers long ago," Chen Chong forced a small smile. "Those things have nothing to do with us. All we need to do is be aware of it, give up any thought of relying on military households if trouble arises, and do our own jobs well." "Yes, Captain!" … The royal capital of Great Qin. The imperial palace. The royal study. Dressed comfortably in black robes, King Ying Che of Qin sat upright in a chair, gazing up at a map that covered an entire wall before him. Eunuchs attended to him respectfully at the side. No one knew when it had started, but for a very long time now, His Majesty had grown fond of looking at maps. Moreover, he didn't study maps of Great Qin's territory, nor did he look at maps of the Seven Kingdoms' geopolitical landscape; he looked at even vaster maps. There were so many places on those maps that the attendants had never even heard of them. Often, he would stare for hours on end, then issue orders sending people to survey and sketch the terrain of a specific location on the map, gradually filling in the details. Now, the king's palace was piled high with maps from various regions and records of local customs and geography. Furthermore, an enormous open ground had been set aside specifically to recreate that map to scale, with mountains and rivers rendered in painstaking detail. However, only a select few were permitted to enter that place. "Reporting to Your Majesty, the Great General requests an audience." "Let him in." Before long, a burly, powerfully built Great General arrived. Seeing the King of Qin studying the map, he stood to the side to join him, his expression heavy. The King of Qin pressed his finger against a character for 'Ruins' on the map. After pondering for a long time, he finally turned around, his expression serene. A smile appeared on his face as he looked at the burly general in black: "Why such a heavy expression? It was merely a defeat. Victory and defeat are commonplace in warfare; there is no need to take it to heart." A trace of frustration and grievance appeared on the black-robed general's face. "Following this battle, the court and the commoners are shaken. Now people are even… even starting to agitate, attempting to jointly petition for Lord Bai to return to the army and take command. That kind of talk is growing louder and louder…" The frustration and indignation on the black-robed general's face were almost overflowing. "I… I, Wang Jian, am still here! Why would we need to call upon the Seventh Lord… I want to go to the front lines myself and turn the tide! I came specifically to request Your Majesty's command." "Denied," the King of Qin refused flatly. Wang Jian's face grew even more crestfallen. The King of Qin smiled faintly. "Besides, I was the one who had the rumor spread that Bai Qi would take command of the army again." Wang Jian looked up, his expression contorted. "Your Majesty! Aren't you afraid that if the Seventh Lord takes the field, he'll slaughter everyone under heaven…" "I merely wanted to send my greetings to the kings of Zhao, Han, Wei, and Chu, and give them a fright," the King of Qin said with a smile. "Rest easy. With you around, I am completely at ease regarding the military. Bai Qi will not be leaving." A glimmer of brightness instantly returned to Wang Jian's square face. For a moment, he was overjoyed, yet he also felt a slight awkwardness. Coughing, he explained in a low voice, "To be honest, I hold the utmost admiration for the Seventh Lord, but for a trivial matter like this, there is truly no need to trouble his venerable self… Ahem…" "There is no need for you to mobilize either," the King of Qin said with a laugh. "You, Wang Jian, are the nation-guarding sword of Great Qin, the Sword of Royal Authority. Just as Bai Qi cannot be moved lightly, naturally, neither can you. However… Wang Jian, you know my temperament. I refuse to suffer a loss. It's fine for us to hit others, but they cannot hit us! Whoever strikes us, we must strike back!" He paced slowly to the table, pressing his finger down on the map of the Seven Kingdoms, directly over the position of Quemen. In a flat tone, he said, "Have the Ministry of War dispatch thirty thousand troops as reinforcements. As for which general you appoint to lead them, I won't interfere. Just deliver a single message to Wang He for me: however he lost that place, that's exactly how he is to take it back! If he fails to reclaim it, he shouldn't ever dream of setting foot in a military camp again in this lifetime!" "If enemy forces press upon Hangu, I will have to bow my head once. Tell Wang He that I, Ying Che, do not wish to bow my head!" He spoke in an even, calm voice, yet Wang Jian, standing right before him, clearly felt an overwhelming aura capable of glaring down the world and swallowing the universe sweep over him, leaving him momentarily breathless. With a sharp snap, he stood ramrod straight. "Understood!" "Go." Wang Jian acknowledged the order, held his head high, and strode out. The King of Qin clasped his hands behind his back and gazed at the map, his eyes deep and unmoving. After a long silence, he said, "…Prepare my carriage for Mountain and River Prison."