Da Qin: Conquer all heavens and all realms

"Yes, Earth." Xuanyuan Hao's voice was filled with endless reminiscence. "The Ancient Divine Court is not some alien place. Our ancestors, like yours, all came from that blue planet."

Ying Zheng was silent. He looked at the picture quietly, looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar continent in the picture.

"In your era, we called it the 'Age of Mythology,'" Xuanyuan Hao continued. "We were the people of that era who mastered extraordinary powers, ultimately breaking through Earth's gravity and ascending into the starry sky. We called ourselves 'Gods' and established this Divine Court, which has been passed down throughout the Milky Way for countless years."

"And you, the ones who stayed on Earth, chose a different path. You didn't pursue individual transcendental power. Instead, you established a unified nation. You used laws to govern the people and institutions to unleash their potential. Ultimately, you too set out on the journey to the stars."

"So, we are of the same origin, from the same clan. You, Ying Zheng, the genes of our 'God Clan' also flow deep in your blood. Those you conquer today are your 'compatriots' who have been lost for billions of years."

The hall fell into deathly silence.

Li Si, Meng Tian and other accompanying ministers were already stunned and their minds were blank.

They conquered countless civilizations and destroyed countless countries, but never imagined that one day they would encounter such an "enemy".

A huge wave of turmoil was set off in Ying Zheng's heart.

He dedicated his life to conquering the heavens and establishing the everlasting Qin Empire. He regarded all foreign races as worthless and all resistance as traitors. His Qin Law was the sole criterion for judging all things.

But now, someone told him that what he was about to judge were his own “roots”?

Those "Ancient Divine Court" that he regarded as gods and demons, and as aliens, were actually descendants of Earthlings just like him?

This shocked him more than any powerful enemy, and even... made him feel a little confused.

What was the purpose of his journey? To let the glory of the Great Qin shine throughout the universe.

But if this glory will eventually shine on one's "compatriots", and in a destructive way, then does this glory still have any meaning?

What is the purpose of his laws? To establish absolute order. But if this order is used to judge his own "people," is this law still fair?

"I... don't believe it." After a long while, Ying Zheng finally squeezed out these three words from between his teeth. His voice was a little hoarse, but his eyes became firm again.

This is not a retreat, but an instinctive questioning and re-examination of the emperor when faced with a truth that subverts his cognition.

"Believe it or not, it doesn't matter." Xuanyuan Hao sighed. "This is the truth. We are the Earthlings who have chosen the 'Tao.' You are the Earthlings who have chosen the 'Instrument.' We pursue individual eternity, you pursue collective immortality. We are on the path to God, you are on the path to the Emperor. Now, God and Emperor have finally met again beneath the starry sky."

"But our era has ended. Our 'Tao' has decayed in comfort, stagnated in eternity. We are no longer the race we once were, full of the spirit of exploration. We have become 'corrupted gods' guarding our own little piece of land. Your arrival may be... a kind of divine will. A final judgment on us 'outcasts.'"

After Xuanyuan Hao finished speaking, he slowly stood up and bowed deeply to Ying Zheng.

"Emperor Ying Zheng, the Ancient Divine Court, will not surrender. Our dignity as 'gods' does not allow us to kneel before anyone. But we will not fight either, for we do not wish to slaughter our 'compatriots'."

"I, Xuanyuan Hao, am willing to sacrifice the throne of the Divine Emperor, as well as all the classics, techniques, and technologies passed down by the Ancient Divine Court. I only ask that you treat the people of the Divine Court kindly. They are innocent, they are just... Earthlings who have taken the wrong path."

After he finished speaking, the aura on his body began to rise rapidly, and then, with a resolute gesture, he exploded!

An energy powerful enough to destroy the entire galaxy exploded in the Pantheon!

However, this energy strangely stopped when it came within a foot of Ying Zheng's body.

Ying Zheng stretched out a hand, as if holding up a miniature sun. The destructive energy flowed wildly in his palm, but could not break free from his restraints.

Finally, this energy was slowly compressed and absorbed by him, becoming a part of his own strength.

Xuanyuan Hao, the last Divine Emperor of the Ancient Divine Court, ended his own life and an era in the most tragic way.

Ying Zheng stood there for a long time without moving.

Xuanyuan Hao's words echoed repeatedly in his mind.

"The meeting between God and Emperor..."

"The Earthlings who chose the 'Tao' and the Earthlings who chose the 'Instrument'..."

"Compatriots..."

He slowly raised his head and looked at the frightened people of the "God Clan" outside the hall.

For the first time, he discovered that their faces were somewhat similar to those of the Qin people on Earth.

There was dead silence above the ruins of the ancient divine court.

Xuanyuan Hao, the ancient Immortal Emperor, used up the last bit of his spiritual power to imprint a truth that had been buried for billions of years into Ying Zheng's sea of ​​consciousness.

There is no grand cosmic evolution, no epic war of gods.

There were only three sentences, cold, cruel, yet extremely clear.

The first sentence: The universe you live in was originally a corner of "Hongmeng". It was shattered by the ancient war between gods and became a place of exile.

Ying Zheng's pupils shrank. Broken, exiled.

Those two words were like two heavy hammers, hammering down on his worldview. The myriad worlds he had conquered, the solar system he had been so proud of, were now nothing more than abandoned wreckage.

Those "realm masters" he conquered were nothing more than slightly larger maggots on the wreckage.

Second sentence: The spiritual energy of heaven and earth is not exhausted, but imprisoned by "shackles." The ancient immortals did not fall, but failed to "escape" and were exiled to the turbulence of time and space.

"boom!"

A thunderclap seemed to explode in Ying Zheng's mind! The exhaustion of spiritual energy was a universal law he had always known.

But the truth is, this world has been trapped in an invisible cage since its birth!

The so-called "death of the spirits of heaven and earth" was the result of the rules of the cage. Those powerful ancient immortals hadn't vanished; they had attempted to break free from this cage, seeking a wider world, but had failed, been exiled, and had all traces of their existence erased.

They were not defeated by the heavenly tribulation, but by the "jailer".

The third sentence: The earth beneath your feet is the "lock core" of this cage. And you, Ying Zheng, are the only mortal who has touched the "keyhole" in billions of years.

Lock cylinder... lock hole...

Ying Zheng trembled all over, looked down at his hands, then suddenly looked up at the gray sky that seemed endless.

He finally understood.

Why him? Why Earth? Why can the laws of the Qin Dynasty be enforced unimpeded across the universe?

Because the earth is the core of the entire broken universe and the hub of that huge cage.

The Great Qin, born on the earth, inherited the most original power of "order" of this land.

He, Ying Zheng, takes "law" as his way and "order" as his sword. His actions, inadvertently, are in line with the way to open this "lock core"!

He conquered the heavens and collected luck, not to strengthen himself, but to... unlock!

The luck contributed by those realm masters he defeated and the people he conquered is, in essence, the purest "order energy" in this cage.

He, Ying Zheng, is the key that collects these energies and injects them into the "keyhole"!

"Hahahahaha..."

Ying Zheng suddenly burst into laughter, his laughter filled with endless sadness and wildness.

It turns out that he is not a conqueror, he is just a chosen... locksmith!

What he thought was his grand ambition might just be an interesting experiment in the eyes of beings in higher dimensions, a signal that the cage was about to be opened.

Who are the real "jailers"? Are they the "Five Emperors" who created this prison? Or is it someone else?

Why did they designate this place as a place of exile? And who were these exiled criminals?

Countless questions flooded his mind, but at this moment, Ying Zheng's heart was clearer than ever before.

The truth is enough.

He no longer thought about the illusory Hongmeng universe, nor did he count the endless levels of the universe.

Those are too far away.

There is only one thing he needs to do now.

Break this lock completely!

He slowly stopped laughing, and his eyes became extremely sharp, as if they could pierce through the hypocrisy of this world.

He turned around and declared word for word to the Qin soldiers standing solemnly behind him in an unprecedented voice that resounded throughout the heavens:

"Preach my will!"

"From this day forward, the Qin Dynasty's path of conquest will change!"

"The goal is no longer the myriad worlds!"

"The target is—the sky!"

"I want all the heavens and myriad worlds to be free from constraints!"

"I want the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to return to the primitive times!"

"I want this cage to be free of distinctions, inside and outside!"

"I will take you to see the real... starry sky outside this cage!"

Although the soldiers did not fully understand it, the Emperor's will that broke through everything ignited the wildest fighting spirit in their blood.

"Breaking the sky! Breaking the sky! Breaking the sky!"