Chapter 571: Pacify the World!

Outside the Eastern Capital, great armies had gathered, crimson Fire Qilin-patterned banners snapping in the wind, encircling this capital of the State of Ying completely; the strongest war generals beneath the heavens had nearly all assembled, the momentum overwhelming, and the Ying capital was certain to fall.

Yet they did not press the assault, but withdrew five hundred paces.

And in the very center between the Ying capital and the army, some five hundred paces apart, a simple platform had been set up; the great banner was planted beside it, like a great parasol, like rolling, descending clouds. Qin Huang rode forth on a divine steed and sat calmly on one side of the platform.

Ying Emperor Jiang Gao sat opposite, seated before the capital of the great State of Ying.

Jiang Gao set the imperial seal beside him, then took out two cups and poured the wine from this pot into them; the liquid was the color of amber light. Jiang Gao looked at the fine wine in the cup and said: "More than ten years ago, Your Majesty was still only thirteen years old."

"Back then the old Chen still stood, Jiangzhou City of Southern Chen, the misty rain still made for fine scenery, intoxicating beyond measure. I had already been Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace for quite some time, and Your Majesty was still a Guard of the Golden Wu of Chen, holding the title of Founding County Baron — quite a rising star."

"Back then I still wished to recruit you, but unfortunately, because of Yuan, we never truly got to have a proper chat. Before that great sacrificial matter in Chen, I remember, I still hoped I could share a cup of wine with you."

Li Guanyi looked at the Jiang Gao before him.

He looked at the old acquaintance before him.

Could they be called friends? It seemed they were never that close.

Looking through the twelve years from their first meeting to now, the frequency and duration of Li Guanyi and Jiang Gao's meetings were not particularly long.

And if counted from when Li Guanyi truly set foot upon the world at fourteen, between them there were only a few meetings: when they went to Zhongzhou City on the imperial hunt, when they entered Ying's border pass, and when they went to rescue Yuan's mother.

During the time in the Western Regions, they had also briefly been together.

Over more than ten years, they were mostly separated, with few conversations and even fewer letters.

Yet if one said they were not friends —

That absolutely could not be said either.

Sometimes, the relationship between people has no particularly direct connection to stance or time spent together. Li Guanyi picked up the cup; the aura of a martial legend had already surpassed the physique of former hegemons, his qi and blood vigorous and domineering.

But the most crucial thing was that he knew what kind of person Jiang Gao was.

In Li Guanyi's eyes there was compassion.

Jiang Gao raised his cup, his gaze on Qin Huang: "I said before that I truly hoped for a time when the world would be at peace, when the four corners need no longer campaign, when you and I could be friends, in a bamboo grove with clear winds. When that time comes, I'll just be a Mr. who teaches, and you can come find me, and we'll drink."

"In recent years, I had thought that this promised cup of wine would be you pouring it before my grave, but I never expected it would be in such a posture…"

Jiang Gao's eyes shifted, looking at the not-so-distant Fire Qilin army, the crimson banners and great standards setting the heavens and earth ablaze. Li Guanyi said: "The affairs of the world change; how could people like you and I see them through completely?"

Li Guanyi said: "Gao Xiang once begged me to spare your life."

Jiang Gao looked at Li Guanyi and said: "Will you let me go?"

Li Guanyi answered: "In this campaign alone, the dead and wounded of my army and the State of Ying exceed four hundred thousand; and if counted from the autumn of the eleventh year of Tianqi until now, the number of dead and wounded can no longer be tallied."

"The fresh blood of countless people has flowed across the land; the earth has already been stained red."

"The dead, wounded, and sacrifices are already more than enough."

"Li Guanyi hopes that Jiang Gao can be himself properly."

Jiang Gao said: "But—!"

He gazed at Li Guanyi and said softly: "In this battle the dead and wounded exceed four hundred thousand; among the million-strong army of my great State of Ying, the dead number more than two hundred thousand, the wounded beyond count, fresh blood flowing across the ground, swords and blades broken and falling into the Jianghe, to be washed and refined by the annals of a thousand autumns."

"Under such circumstances—"

Li Guanyi said: "Do you wish to live?"

Jiang Gao said: "Jiang Gao wishes to live."

"But the Ying Emperor cannot live."

Jiang Gao held the wine; in his eyes were reflected his own gaze. He looked at the friend, the old acquaintance, the confidant, the enemy before him, and in a friend's tone spoke the cruel words of history, saying:

"But the Qin Huang, the Qin Huang who bears the world on his shoulders, should not permit the Ying Emperor to live."

Jiang Gao said softly: "This, I know, and you know it too."

"If Jiang Gao does not die, then there will always be those with ambition."

"Perhaps Jiang Gao surrendering to Qin Huang could represent an era of peace broad enough to allow a former emperor to become a commoner, but Jiang Gao is not such a person; I too have what may be called a proud backbone."

"Is life and death truly the most important thing?"

"Could it be that with Father, the Grand Tutor, General Yuwen, He Ruo, Chancellor Wei and the others all gone, I should remain here alive? Qin Huang, Your Majesty, grant the State of Ying, and me, a dignified ending."

"An age opened with blades and spears must be done with brio."

"Just as back then, between you and me — let us drink to peace!"

Li Guanyi closed his eyes.

Qin Huang slowly nodded.

"Let us drink."

He offered the toast.

Jiang Gao smiled, rose, swept his sleeves, held the cup in both hands, bowed deeply, then tipped his head back and drained the cup. The fierce wine passed his throat, and suddenly the imperial seal slammed down; Jiang Gao's hand gripped a weapon.

It was the sovereign sword of the State of Ying, and in a fierce stance it thrust toward Qin Huang's heart.

"Your Majesty!!"

"Lord, be careful!!"

The many famed generals within the Fire Qilin army all reacted in an instant, gripping their weapons; the sound of arms was grim and biting. That sword struck Li Guanyi's armor; Jiang Gao's gaze rested on Li Guanyi, and the emotion in his eyes carried an earnest plea.

At the same time, Qin Huang's blade also pierced through Jiang Gao's body.

Fresh blood dyed the azure-dragon-patterned sleeves, setting the Fire Qilin's crimson ablaze.

Yet the two of them seemed more like a friend's final embrace. Qin Huang's jade hairpin bound his hair; he did not look at this enemy, this friend of his, only gazed calmly ahead. Jiang Gao could not stand steady and staggered forward.

His palm pressed on Qin Huang's shoulder, fresh blood spilling ceaselessly from his mouth; in a daze he said:

"I didn't expect it, Li Guanyi."

"The wine of peace I invited you to drink turns out to be my own blood in the end."

It was the blood of a sovereign.

And yet it was also the blood that ended the age of chaos.

In this age, there were too many heroes, too many warlords, and too many ambitions—only the blood of the final kingdom's monarch could forever seal away this chaotic age and its ambitions.

Jiang Gao's face was pale, yet his eyes grew ever darker; blood continuously dripped from his lips. Tears clung to his corners, yet he whispered softly: "Still, I truly worry for you, Li Guanyi. Your nature is too bound by loyalty and righteousness."

"You've reached this position without a teacher, without kin, without parents—and at the end, you must kill me yourself… I'm sorry…"

"You will become the true Emperor—may you never grow so cold, so tearless. The path ahead is yours to walk: kill your friends, kill your enemies, become an Emperor who has lost everything—do not yield."

"Li Guanyi."

Qin Huang stood there. The Fire Qilin soldiers, having witnessed their Emperor slay the Ying Emperor, knew nothing of the resolve in that cup of wine, nothing of their final conversation, nothing that this third drinking pact had led only to this cup.

They knew not that this truly final cup was the Ying Emperor's blood.

Drink this cup.

And truly forge an age of peace.

The Fire Qilin soldiers rejoiced only—rejoiced at their Emperor's divine might, rejoiced at Qin Huang's unmatched achievements, rejoiced that the age of peace was finally coming. They raised their banners, standards, and weapons, shouting, "Long live Qin Huang!"

Amidst the roar of celebration, the age of peace was about to begin; the wild joy of ten thousand troops seemed to dye the entire heavens and earth into an ocean of delight—yet at its very center, there remained a profound solitude.

The Ying Emperor's eyes slowly lost their light.

His hand rested upon Qin Huang's civil-military battle robe, slowly sliding downward. His voice had long grown too faint to hear: "Thank you… for granting me this."

"Create a good age of peace."

"I will watch over you… from below."

He said: "My friend."

Jiang Gao's gaze dimmed. His arm draped over Qin Huang's shoulder, like a final embrace before parting from a dear companion.

Then he died.

As Qin Huang's final enemy in this chaotic age.

In the hundreds of years of this chaos, the final twenty years saw heroes rise in abundance.

The Ying Emperor, Chen Huang, Tian Kehan, Shenwu, the Divine General.

Qin Huang rose from obscurity, maneuvered across the land, clashed with every opponent of this age—and finally, by personally killing Jiang Gao, ended the centuries-long division and restored unity.

In the Ying Palace, Jiang Cai gazed at the sky, listening to the cheers carried on the wind. The Disciple of the Vertical and Horizontal School lowered her eyes, sat quietly, and spoke without personal liking or aversion:

"Truly, the opening note of the age of peace."

"With Wu Gong to open the world—to establish a righteous state, unquestionably—this is the true 'Peace Before Qin Huang's Break the Formation Melody.'"

"All sing the Break the Formation Melody; all share the age of peace."

Jiang Cai hummed the rhythm, calmly drank a cup of wine. The deadly poison spread through her breath. She remained seated, slowly closing her eyes, thinking of regret—that the Vertical and Horizontal School was a school of opportunism, unable to quell chaos like the Military School.

Her final thought was of her childhood, after being bullied and crying, when that noble general taught her Wu Gong—her breath slowly faded.

Wei Yiwen had already died a month ago, his body spent, his lamp extinguished by grave illness.

Jiang Cai, following Wei Yiwen's final plea, killed He Ruo, the Empress and wife of Jiang Yuan.

She took the Fei poison and ended her own life.

When the Fire Qilin soldiers pushed open the palace gates, the female official still sat there, calm, spine straight, expression serene, bearing the final aura of dignity. Po Jun saw Jiang Cai's corpse and said nothing.

Only silence. That youthful wager, that contest of victory and defeat, had finally ended in death. The passing of an old friend—this was, for Qin Huang, the pacification of the realm and Central Plains; for Wei Yiwen and Jiang Cai, it was the fall of the homeland they were born in and raised in.

In the winter of the fourth year of Qin Huang, after the death of the Ying Emperor Jiang Gao, the endless clouds above the heavens broke into rain, which fell upon the cold mortal world as great white snowflakes, covering the Eastern Ducheng, a city with over three hundred years of history.

The massive palace gates, crimson red with dark gold door nails, required fifteen strongmen on each side to open.

As the gates opened, scraping against the ground, they emitted a slow, heavy sound. The noise echoed through the gate passage, overlapping on both sides, becoming solemn and reverent.

Qin Huang, clad in armor and battle robe, rode his divine steed through the palace's main gate.

The hooves struck the palace's flat ground, producing a quiet, crisp sound. Here stood the final enemy of the battlefield—Li Guanyi climbed the steps upward. Amidst the blinding snow, all things seemed hazy.

The Ying state had fallen. Looking all around, no opponent remained.

Li Guanyi walked slowly through the blinding snow, alone in this white world. He felt an indescribable quiet and loneliness, and an ineffable sense of unreality.

He did not know where his body was, nor who he was.

He took step after step. The snow beside him was swept up by the wind, seeming to take the form of a young apothecary, walking beside him. Li Guanyi looked at his thirteen-year-old self.

Dressed in faded, washed-out clothes, smiling as he ran forward. The smile on his face faded, replaced by the figure of a guest minister in deep blue robes, walking forward with laughter. The deep blue robes transformed into armor.

Armor gleamed, jade belt around waist, golden crown binding hair—Great Chen's Gold Guard.

Around the Gold Guard were Ye Bu Yi, Zhou Liu's camp, the thirty-six Gold Guard Captains, laughing as they walked forward, flames igniting—then the wandering martial artist in plain clothes, radiant and spirited—until finally, step by step—

The sleeves fluttered in the wind, transforming into a crimson battle robe like roaring flame.

Armor scarred a hundred times, traversing every battlefield, enduring countless wars—finally, the enemy was overcome here.

Qin Huang stood there.

When he closed his eyes, the swirling snow seemed to leave his body behind; all directions fell silent. Yet in Qin Huang's ears, voices echoed—roars, shouts, countless sounds, coming and going in turn.

Figures appeared—as if in memory, as if in the snowstorm.

"My ancestor, Zu Wenyuan. Young friend, thank you for your aid before…"

"My name is Wang Tong."

"Hahaha, old man Siming—would you like to be my disciple? Huh?"

"If not, you can be my teacher instead!"

"This is the rule."

"Long life, long life!"

"I am Jiang Yuan." "I am Ye Bu Yi!"

"... This is our destined pact."

"This prince…"

"My chief guest minister…"

"I am the foremost man of the past five hundred years."

"Chen Wenmian" "Hahahaha, my dear nephew!"

"Guanyi…" "Brother Li."

"I am Changwen."

"General Chen, Lu Youxian, was wholly loyal and steadfast in his principles, sacrificing himself for righteousness and forgetting his own life; he was indeed a worthy minister of the Chen dynasty…"

"Divine Might General Yuwen Lie!"

"God of War, Jiang Su!"

"Divine Martial Wang Chen Fubi, heroic and far-seeing, a peerless age — he did not need to borrow the Red Emperor's praise, nor take leisure to assume the emperor's assembly; his clan and kin divided the realm, wielded might and grew overbearing, deposed the emperor and set up his own lord, turning heaven and reversing the sun…"

Li Guanyi lowered his eyes, as if one familiar figure after another appeared, still in the prime of their glory — brows raised, fierce heroic spirit, you coming, I going, blades and swords clashing, countless voices ringing in his ears.

Suddenly—

Li Guanyi raised his hand, gripped his sword, and thrust it violently down toward the ground.

The dark-gold broadsword formed from Jiuli Bingzhu had its tip pressed against the earth, giving off a low, murderous hum. The thousand-year wind and snow were vast; the Pharmacist ran forward, transforming into a wandering knight, a guest retainer, a Jinwu Guard, a wandering legion's leader, Qin Wu Hou, Qin Wang.

The last Qin Huang opened his eyes.

Every voice, every figure, vanished without a trace!

Only the realm before his eyes remained.

Only this body, fierce and bright.

To be the first beneath heaven.

【At fourteen, he raised the banner of war; at twenty-five, he brought peace to all.】

———《Historical Records · Annals, Chapter One》