In the state of Qin, in the capital of Xianyang, the soaring domes of the palace appeared majestic and dazzling beneath the sunlight. Amid the coiling stone pillars of the hall, the figure seated upon the throne slowly opened his eyes.
His hair was bound beneath a tall ceremonial crown with bead curtains. King Zheng of Qin, dressed in black ceremonial robes embroidered with a dark bird in flight, gazed at the bamboo slips on the desk before him.
"The great disaster in Chu, Donghua, Taiyi..." Every word written there concerned what had happened in the lands of Chu some time ago.
As the ruler of the strongest state under heaven, Ying Zheng had undoubtedly already learned the full sequence of events.
That was why the letter written on silk had appeared.
That was why, at this moment, the King of Qin sat high within the palace hall.
"Zhao Gao. Has the letter been delivered?" Ying Zheng raised his eyes and questioned the figure below the steps.
"Reporting to my king, the letter has been delivered into Xu Fu's hands!" Zhao Gao bowed as he answered.
With a sudden sweep, long robes rose. The King of Qin abruptly stood, sleeves fluttering, and the sword hanging at the ruler's waist flashed from its sheath, blooming with a cold, thunderous light.
With a ringing slash, the desk shattered and the floor split apart.
"This sword is sharp enough."
"My Qin sword is sharp enough."
"But I wonder what bearing the sword of Donghua, that immortal-god, might possess?"
The corners of Ying Zheng's mouth lifted into a rather expectant smile. "Pass down my order."
"From this day onward, Great Qin shall hang lanterns at all times and gather solar essence to pave the road into Qin—"
"To show Great Qin's sincerity."
"And to welcome—"
"An Immortal Lord into Qin!"
...
In the ninth year of the First Emperor, he ordered solar essence gathered to pave the road, hung lanterns for ten days, and awaited Donghua's entry into Qin.
—Annals of the First Emperor.
...
At the same time, the wind ceased and the rain stopped, though accumulated water still flowed across the streets, gathering into tiny streams. On the streets of Yan, Jing Ke, swaying unsteadily and reeking of wine, tugged at Rovi's sleeve without the slightest concern that his scale and power far surpassed her own. "Though Your Excellency is an Emperor-Lord of the immortal path, when it comes to the affairs of the mortal world, you definitely don't know as much as I do!"
"Don't be fooled by the fact that I haven't even reached the immortal realm. If we're talking friends across the Divine Land, I, Jing Ke, am famously well connected... hic..."
The actions of this young swordswoman, drunk from head to toe, made Yu Mei-ren's pretty face darken and her delicate brows furrow. "What a rude person..."
Even I haven't gotten that close to him!
Rovi himself, however, did not mind at all.
Whether as a god or an immortal, Rovi had never felt that he himself stood so far above anyone else. Or rather, having seen beings countless times more powerful than himself, he had never truly distanced himself from the teeming masses of this world.
So he merely laughed aloud. "Then you'll have to show me."
"Show you? Of course I'll show you!" Jing Ke let out a breath, her crimson lips pouting.
Carefree and unrestrained—perhaps it was precisely because she possessed this courage, as if she had seen through worldly affairs, that she would later be capable of that magnificent feat: Jing Ke's attempt to assassinate the King of Qin.
One had to know that in this era, when the Age of Gods had yet to fully recede, the lord of the Nine Provinces of Huaxia, destined to unite the six states and the eight wilds, would absolutely not rank below an Emperor-Lord—
Jing Ke tugged Rovi forward.
But Rovi suddenly felt his other sleeve being caught as well. He glanced sideways and met a pair of crimson eyes.
"You there, walk slower!" Yu Mei-ren snorted. "Rushing around like that, where is your grace?"
"Do I even have to teach you something like this? How annoying..."
She fussed and grumbled, all just to find an excuse for herself.
"Hahaha! What use is grace? Better a mouthful of wine in your belly!" Jing Ke laughed loudly.
"When it comes to wine, I've seen far more than you. Have you ever smelled the very first fine brew of Du Kang's wine?"
"Oh?" Jing Ke's attention was immediately drawn. "Du Kang? The wine god who brewed under Xuanyuan? You've even drunk an ancient divine brew like that? As expected of the maidservant fairy-child attending an Immortal Lord..."
Maidservant? Fairy-child?
Yu Mei-ren: "???"
"You're the fairy-child! You're the maidservant!"
Ignoring the inexplicable exchange between the two, Rovi was being pulled by both sleeves, yet he seemed more like a person dragging along two "children." One was soft and beautiful with a trace of stubbornness, the other dashing and filled with heroic spirit. Naturally, the two drew attention from the people along the street.
But Rovi's existence, conversely, drew even more attention...
"We have been awaiting the Immortal Lord's arrival!"
The voice that rang out ahead abruptly cut off Yu Mei-ren and Jing Ke's words. Yu Mei-ren raised an eyebrow, her face showing disdain, while Jing Ke smiled. "Elder Master Huangshi, you came too?"
"If I heard that Immortal Lord Donghua had arrived, how could this old man not come?" It seemed that although Rovi and Jing Ke had met by chance, Jing Ke had already sent word in secret to those participating in the "grand gathering of the Divine Land."
"Immortal Lord, this old man is..."
"A successor of Fuxi's inheritance, a Daoist descended from the line of Tianqi Supreme Jiang Shang." Facing Master Huangshi's solemn salute, Rovi merely nodded. "I have long heard of your name."
This moment was different from the scene before, when he and Xunzi had bowed to each other across the sea. He had been an Emperor-Lord then too, but also a descendant. At that time, there had been no issue with exchanging bows. Now was different.
He was "Taiyi." He was "Donghua."
The person before him was a Daoist successor.
Their identities were different, and the difference in status went without saying.
Master Huangshi could not receive a returned salute from him.
"To know heaven and earth with a single thought—as expected of an Immortal Lord." Master Huangshi cheerfully stroked his long beard. Judging from his appearance, he seemed merely to be a kindly old man.
"Please, come inside!"
"For an Immortal Lord to honor us with his presence is something unprecedented since the end of Shang."
"Come, come, come!"
Jing Ke walked ahead first, and at the end of the street, mist rose. Layer upon layer, the mist gathered. One step forward, and it was as if they had entered another world.
As if.
Or rather, that was exactly what had happened.
With a single step, the scenery of the street behind them abruptly vanished, and everything around them was occupied by a landscape of clear waters and green mountains.
Within a single step, a world away though close at hand.
In the terminology of Atlantis civilization, this was "space-folding technology." In the terminology of Western magecraft, it was a "Reality Marble."
And in Eastern terminology...
"Hm? This place is actually a grotto-heaven? And an ancient one left from antiquity!?" Yu Mei-ren spoke in unconscious astonishment. Having not set foot in the mortal world for a long time, the Foundations maintained by these Divine Land cultivators—whose highest realm, after the ancient immortals and gods departed, was only the immortal realm—seemed somewhat beyond her expectations...
Master Huangshi chuckled. "As expected of the Immortal Lord's maidservant fairy-child. You truly are experienced and knowledgeable."
Yu Mei-ren stopped talking.
She very much did not want to talk.
But though she fell silent, another voice rang out. "We have inherited much of our ancestors' glory. Unfortunately, we ourselves failed to strive and could not carry it forward."
Radiance swept like a horsetail whisk, and a figure stepped out from within.
He said, "Now that the Age of Gods is about to pass, in order to preserve the inheritance of Mystery, we have no choice but to gather here."
"With the inheritances we each bear, we shall gather a boundless spiral, form a stable and mysterious 'Foundation,' and establish the Spiral Observatory."
"If the Immortal Lord is willing to assist us, we would be endlessly grateful. If you are unwilling, we still humbly ask that you observe."
Without question, this was a grand gathering opened for the sake of continuing their inheritance. The Western world had its Foundation, one the King of Magecraft, Solomon, had forged with the aid of Rovi as "Yahweh."
The East, naturally, ought to have a different "Foundation" of its own.
The slender man bowed in salute. "I am a successor of the Mohists. Greetings, Immortal Lord Donghua!"
A powerfully built old man strode forward. "A successor of the Agriculturalists greets the Immortal Lord!"
"A successor of the Military School greets the Immortal Lord!"
"..."
One after another, most of them were successors of the Hundred Schools.
The so-called "grand gathering of the Divine Land" Jing Ke spoke of was, in the end, a conference of the Hundred Schools.
After all, most of the Hundred Schools inherited from ancient sages and ancestral gods. Daoism inherited from Fuxi; though the founder of the Agriculturalists had originally come from the Mohists, he continued and inherited Shennong's thought; the Military School could be traced back to Xuanyuan Huangdi; Confucianism revered the Duke of Zhou, and the Duke of Zhou had developed the trigrams, making him one of Fuxi's successors...
These were also the most essential people still remaining in the Divine Land today.
Of course, there were exceptions.
For example, the knight-errant Jing Ke. She belonged to no school, living freely and carelessly, yet she could still be counted among them due to her character and martial skill.
For example, Rovi, who had been pulled over unexpectedly—Donghua Dijun, the immortal-god who now held the highest authority in the Divine Land.
And for example...
"Is everyone finally here? You kept me waiting so long I fell asleep!"
A clear voice came from above. The trees on either side of this grotto-heaven, covered in leafy shade, swayed as a figure leapt down from the branches and landed before them.
Long hair scattered as she descended, setting off a slender figure. The pale gauze and silk dress she wore outlined tall curves, and her falling hair covered half her face. Her left eye shone with a magnificent color, bells fastened at her ears chiming faintly. Her features could be called exquisite, but they carried a somewhat unruly, arrogant air.
"Lord Wuzhiqi, apologies for making you wait." Master Huangshi spoke with great respect. "But we were waiting for an honored guest..."
"An honored guest indeed. And one whose honor is beyond words." Before Master Huangshi could finish, the white-haired woman looked toward Rovi, and then toward Yu Mei-ren at his side.
"And he even brought an old acquaintance. Wouldn't you say, Immortal Yu?"
"I was wondering who it was. So it's you, you stinking monkey." Clearly, Yu Mei-ren knew her.
The woman called Wuzhiqi smiled as well. "Still the same temper. Not changed in the slightest."
"Have you found yourself a master?"
"You're the one who found a master—you wild she-monkey!"
"Wild monkeys don't have masters."
"..."
"Now then—" Wuzhiqi, having ended the quarrel, turned her gaze toward the person whose honor was truly beyond words. "Donghua Dijun, who suddenly appeared only after the immortals and gods departed. I have long heard your great name... Hm, not that long. Even counting generously, it has only been a few days."
"As for Your Excellency, I truly have long heard your name. Wuzhiqi, the monster who once overturned rivers and seas across the Divine Land." The water god of the Huai River in ancient times, the Age of Gods monster who had stirred up enormous waves when Great Yu was taming the floods—of course Rovi knew her.
She was both water god and demonic beast.
One of the ancient demon-gods, the embodiment of flood disasters.
Listening to Rovi's words, Wuzhiqi instead showed a rather nostalgic expression. "Overturning rivers and seas... I really do miss those days."
"Unfortunately, I played too hard and was suppressed by Emperor Yu. Even now, I can only move around outside with an avatar."
What appeared here was indeed an avatar of the water god and monster named Wuzhiqi. It was a pure, nimble vessel constructed directly through her connection to the planet as an immortal—the manifestation of a "yang spirit."
Her true body was still suppressed beneath the Huai River by the power Great Yu had left behind, unable to break free.
That was why she had not been able to participate in the Battle of Investiture, and naturally could not, like the other immortals and gods, transcend the stars and reach the universe.
Like Yu Mei-ren, who had slept all this time and stood only as a bystander, Wuzhiqi was one of the few ancient immortals and gods who remained in the Divine Land.
And now, she had appeared as one of the important figures in this grand gathering.
Invited here.
As one of the main bodies of the "Foundation."
"But where did you come from? Among the gods of antiquity, I never heard your name—Donghua Dijun."
Her mind restless as a monkey and her nature unruly, Wuzhiqi's true body, as one of the ancient gods, was extremely powerful. She had also seen the primordial supreme beings of the Divine Land in the past, and so she did not act respectfully toward Rovi like the others. Instead, she was filled with curiosity, and even a faint challenge.
The white-haired woman simply strode up to Rovi and looked him up and down...
Leaning slightly forward, rising onto her toes, she pushed out her full chest and lifted a finger to tilt up his chin. "Hm!?"
Do the "demon-gods" of the Divine Land all like doing this?
Tamamo-no-Mae earlier had done the same...
"You monkey..." Yu Mei-ren, off to the side, could not help growing irritable.
Wuzhiqi paid it no mind at all. "Though I can do nothing to you, you could not beat me back then, and even if I only have an avatar now, you still cannot beat me. So do not waste your effort, Immortal Yu."
Yu Mei-ren glared furiously and was just about to strike.
Expressionless, Rovi... tapped the "chaos" in his mind.
CLANG!
Wuzhiqi's mind rang and shook.
That sound reverberated like a great bell, carrying countless invisible whispers with it, and it left the ancient water god and demon-god frozen in a daze.
In her muddled state, she seemed to see endless disorder, madness, inversion, chaos... Boundless whispers exploded beside her ears.
"Can you speak properly now?" Rovi said. This could only count as a small lesson, more or less. After all, Wuzhiqi could only be said to have offended him, not to have made herself an enemy.
It was just that...
"May I fuck thy mother!?"
Wuzhiqi abruptly let loose a stream of fragrant profanity.
"..."
I only wanted to clear your head, not teach you... And what is this classical Chinese nonsense!? Did it evolve?
Fortunately, Wuzhiqi did indeed calm down in that moment. "Hoo... The mind-monkey and intention-horse are indeed hard to control. No wonder Emperor Yu told me back then that only after subduing the mind-monkey could I break the seal and emerge—"
The nature of an ape had always been a serious problem for Wuzhiqi.
The provocative behavior just now had not been something she herself wanted to do.
It was simply hard to change her nature.
However...
"Donghua Dijun's ability seems able to help me accomplish that?" Wuzhiqi looked at Rovi, her eyes shining.
Yu Mei-ren finally could not stop herself from stepping in front of Rovi. "Enough!"
"Hahaha, how lively!" Jing Ke grinned off to the side, wearing the expression of someone delighted to watch the commotion grow.
---
T/N: may i fuck thy mother
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