Chapter 7: Shattering Worldviews, the World Map Reopens Ambitions

The humming of the oxygen concentrator gradually smoothed out.

The little girl's breathing became completely steady, and her cheeks showed a healthy, faint flush.

Lin Xuan removed the silicone tube behind her ear and turned off the machine's power.

After the tube was pulled out, the little girl touched her own chin.

That life-threatening feeling of suffocation stuck in her trachea dispersed, and with it, her fear of this strange environment also faded considerably.

"Feeling better?" Lin Xuan pulled a chair over and sat down.

The little girl nodded: "Lin Xuan, when... when can I return home?"

"I don't know." Lin Xuan answered very bluntly.

The little girl lowered her eyelids, and her eye sockets began to redden again.

The despair upon learning the future fate of the Great Tang, and the isolation of being in a foreign world, would at any moment crush this four-year-old child once more.

Lin Xuan stood up and walked toward the walk-in closet attached to the master bedroom.

She couldn't be left idle.

When a person is in extreme sorrow, as long as the brain starts working, the emotions will be forcibly suppressed.

He dug out a hard cardboard box half a meter square. Carrying the box, he walked back to the bedside and placed it on the carpet.

Clatter.

The box tilted. Over a thousand colorful cardboard fragments poured out, piling up into a small mountain.

The little girl was attracted by the sound and poked her head to look at the carpet.

"What is this thing?"

"A puzzle." Lin Xuan sat cross-legged on the carpet, casually fiddling with a few fragments, "Since you're idle anyway, come help. Put these broken pieces together into one whole picture."

The little girl hesitated for a moment, then lifted the quilt.

She was wearing an elaborate ruqun; she slid off the bed clumsily and, imitating Lin Xuan, knelt and sat at the edge of the carpet.

She picked up a fragment printed with blue water ripples and examined it from left to right.

One big person and one small person lay on the carpet.

Lin Xuan was responsible for finding the right-angled edge fragments to build the frame.

The little girl followed his guidance, filling in the colored blocks in the middle.

Time passed.

One hour later, Lin Xuan pressed the final fragment into the empty space in the center.

Click.

A huge World Map, nearly two meters in length and width, lay completely flat before the two of them.

Vast stretches of azure blue intertwined with yellow-green patches of land, creating an extremely strong visual impact.

The little girl propped her hands on the carpet and looked down at this map.

"What does this painting depict?"

Lin Xuan extended his index finger and pointed to a position on the eastern side of the Asian plate on the map.

"This is Chang'an."

The little girl's eyes instantly widened, her gaze focusing along Lin Xuan's finger.

Lin Xuan's finger began to move.

It swept north across Yin Mountain, west across Gaochang in the Western Regions, south to encircle Lingnan, and finally east to enclose the Liaodong Peninsula.

"This area is the territory of your Great Tang at its peak."

Lin Xuan drew a circle with his finger, "Roughly over twelve million square kilometers; quite large."

The little girl was stunned.

She raised her head, looked at Lin Xuan, then lowered her head again to look at the map.

The territory of the Great Tang indeed occupied a considerable area on this map.

But if one looked at the entire map, that yellow area accounted for less than one-tenth.

"The rest of the places..." The little girl pointed to the vast stretches of land and the boundless blue around it, "Where are they?"

"The blue is the sea; you probably haven't seen it in your entire life." Lin Xuan's fingertip slid to the left, "Here, Tianzhu, the place where your Tang Dynasty monks went to retrieve scriptures."

His finger continued sliding left, crossing over oceans and land.

"Here is Europe, here is Africa."

Lin Xuan stretched his arm out, crossing the entire Pacific Ocean, and pointed to the two huge landmasses on the far right of the map.

"North America, South America."

"Right now, this place is all inhabited by primitives; vast stretches of fertile land where whatever you plant grows, not even a proper country exists."

The little girl's breathing grew heavy.

Since childhood, she had listened to her Imperial Father and court officials discuss state affairs. In her cognition, the Great Tang was the center of the world. Beyond the Four Seas lay only barbarous wastelands, barren lands, the edges of heaven and earth.

But now, this map told her that the Great Tang was merely secluded in a corner.

Above the Sky Screen, the huge World Map was reflected in the firmaments of all past and present dynasties.

The entire Huaxia historical timeline.

Every emperor, minister, scholar, and literati who looked up felt a heavy hammer crash down in their minds.

The "View of the World" constructed over thousands of years shattered into dust in this very moment.

Great Qin, Xianyang Palace.

Ying Zheng stood on the high platform, the jade tassels on his crown shaking violently.

His gaze swept past the borders of Great Qin, past the steppes of the Xiongnu, looking toward the farthest west, the most distant places.

"The world... this is the true world."

Ying Zheng's Adam's apple bobbed; his voice was dry, yet carried a suppressed, extreme frenzy.

He had unified the six states, believing he had already trampled all the land beneath his feet.

He had even begun building the Great Wall, intending to enclose Great Qin's realm and resist the barbarians from the north.

But the Sky Screen told him that the foundation he had spent half his life building was, on this map called "Earth," merely a single grain of millet.

"Summon Li Si! Summon Wang Jian! Summon Meng Tian!"

Ying Zheng drew the Tai'e Sword, pointing it at the heavens, his dragon robe billowing in the night wind.

"Stop building the Great Wall! Summon the great army for me!"

"What are the six states? The world still holds such vast territories! Great Qin's Black Water Dragon Flag must be planted all over those places called Europe and America!"

Great Han, Weiyang Palace.

Liu Che threw his head back and laughed, his laughter shaking the great hall.

"Excellent! What a vast world!"

"Zhang Qian explored the Western Regions, and I made him Bowang Marquis."

"If anyone can conquer that American continent for me, I will make him a Different-Surname King!"

"Wei Qing! Huo Qubing!"

The twin generals of Great Han knelt on one knee, their eyes equally fiery.

Great Tang, Taiji Palace.

Li Shimin neither laughed nor raged.

He stood before the great hall's entrance like a statue.

Those crisscrossing coastlines, those boundless lands, were like keys, one after another, unlocking the shackles of the dead end that had locked his heart.

Previously, Lin Xuan had spoiled the tragic drama of the Li family princes killing each other in their struggle for the throne.

Li Shimin's heart ached as if twisted, yet he had no solution.

There is only one throne, yet there is a crowd of princes.

This was a dead end.

But now, the dead end was broken.

Li Shimin suddenly turned his head to look at Zhangsun Wuji, Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui, and the other high officials.

"Gentlemen, do you see clearly?"

"This world is boundless."

Fang Xuanling took a deep breath, bowed, and said, "I see clearly. Beyond Great Tang, there is another world."

"Chengqian, Qingque (Li Tai), Li Ke... they are all my blood, all possessing the spirit of Taizong."

"The reason they fight to the death over the position of Crown Prince is because they believe Great Tang is everything."

Two fierce fires ignited in Li Shimin's eyes.

That was the sharp edge of the Tiance General who once commanded ten thousand armies.

"Since they have abundant energy with nowhere to vent it,"

"I will give them troops! I will give them warships!"

"Tell them: whoever conquers that land called Europe, I will make him the emperor there!"

"Whoever conquers Tianzhu, Tianzhu shall be his fiefdom!"

Zhangsun Wuji's legs went weak, and he fell to his knees.

He was completely awed by the Emperor's strategic vision that could swallow mountains and rivers.

Transforming the bloody internal consumption of the succession struggle into a violent momentum for external expansion. Establishing fiefs overseas, creating several more Great Tangs!

"Ministry of Works! Painters!" Li Shimin roared, "Within three days, copy the Complete Map of All Nations from the Sky Screen for me, without missing a single stroke!"

"Draw one waterway wrong, miss one island, and you shall be executed without mercy!"

Inside a modern master bedroom.

The little girl was still lying on the map.

She reached out and touched the American continent.

"Lin Xuan, how far are these places?"

"Very far. Even with the carriages of your Great Tang, you would walk a lifetime and never arrive."

Lin Xuan answered.

The little girl frowned and posed a fatal question: "Since the seas separate them, if one walks to the edge of heaven and earth, won't one fall into an abyss?"

Lin Xuan smiled.

"Who told you heaven and earth have an edge?"

"The ancient texts all say: Heaven is round like an open umbrella, and the earth is square like a chessboard," the little girl answered with righteous confidence.

"That is because they had little knowledge and made it up blindly."

Lin Xuan stood up and walked to the desk.

He took down a Globe, walked back to the carpet, and placed the Globe in the center of the map.

"This is the true shape of the world." Lin Xuan nudged the Globe, and the sphere spun rapidly around its axis.

The little girl was startled and shrank back.

"A sphere?" The little girl could not believe it. "If the earth is spherical, then those living at the bottom of the sphere, wouldn't they be upside down, falling into the void?"

"Gravity holds them; they won't fall."

"Explaining this is too complex; I'll tell you when you're a bit older." Lin Xuan walked toward the door. "First, let me show you something most intuitive."

He pressed the wall switch.

The main bedroom's ceiling light went out instantly.

The room plunged into darkness, with only faint streetlight filtering in through the window.

The little girl gasped and clutched the white goose tightly.

"Don't be afraid."

Lin Xuan took out his Mobile Phone and turned on the flashlight.

The LED white light flared, dispelling the darkness.

Holding the Mobile Phone, he squatted beside the Globe.

The beam struck the sphere straight on.

"Watch closely."

Half the sphere was illuminated by white light; the other half was hidden in dark shadow.

"This beam is the Sun."

Lin Xuan extended his other hand and slowly rotated the Globe.

As it turned, the landmasses and oceans on the sphere sequentially entered the lit area, then sequentially sank into the dark area.

"Earth rotates on its own. The side the Sun shines on is daytime."

"Turn it over; the side facing away from the Sun is night."

Lin Xuan pointed to the boundary between light and dark. "This is dawn and dusk. Do you understand?"

Light and shadow shifted.

The grand law of the Sun and Moon alternating was demonstrated by Lin Xuan to perfection within a square inch, using just a sphere and a glowing small square.

The little girl's mouth hung open as she watched Chang'an rotate on the Globe.

She watched it light up, then watched it dim.

The cognition of a round sky and a square Earth was utterly shattered.

Great Tang, Bureau of Astronomy.

The Armillary Sphere used for observing stars was knocked over.

Director Li Chunfeng fell to the ground.

The dead ends in calendar calculations and solar and lunar eclipse predictions that had tangled his mind for decades...

... became instantly unobstructed as the Globe turned.

"Earth is round... Earth is round!"

Li Chunfeng howled like a madman, tearing at his own hair with both hands.

He scrambled up, rushed to a pile of bamboo slips and counting rods stacked like a mountain, and swept them all to the ground in one motion.

"It's all wrong! The old Algorithms are all wrong!"

"The Sun hasn't set; we have turned away!"

The astrologers around him trembled all over.

"Bring paper and pen!"

Li Chunfeng's eyes were bloodshot as he grabbed a brush. "Recalculate the Dayan Calendar, using the theory of a round Earth as the basis, and recalculate the solar and lunar eclipses."

The entire Bureau of Astronomy fell into unprecedented frenzy.

This was not merely a great geographical discovery; it was a dimensional reduction of the entire universe's operational laws for popular education.