After hearing Guo Kai utter that astonishing statement — that for the sake of wealth and status he was also willing to imitate Lord Longyang and walk the same path the other had walked, except that he did not have Lord Longyang’s good fortune of being born with a beautiful appearance that made people feel pity at first sight, and that for money there was nothing he would not do — Li Si, on that very day, felt his scalp go numb with dread and took leave of Guo Kai to return to Qin. He did not even follow up on the major matter of who would ultimately be appointed as the commander of the five-state vertical alliance attacking Qin, fearing that if he stayed with this person any longer, even the bottom line of his own moral integrity would completely disappear.
In any case, once he returned to Qin, he would naturally be able to find out who this important position had fallen to.
However, although the King of Zhao was incompetent and foolish— incompetent and muddleheaded — and Guo Kai, now the number one favored minister before the King of Zhao, was so easily bought and could thus influence the King of Zhao’s decisions, this matter was truly beyond description. It was enough to anger patriotic loyal ministers who had ended up serving such a ruler to death, then anger them back to life, and then anger them to death again. But it had to be said that with such a ruler as the King of Zhao, for Qin, for the King of Qin, and for himself who was planning on behalf of Qin, this was truly a piece of good fortune worthy of setting up a grand banquet.
Li Si thought to himself that in the past he had only heard that the current King of Zhao was soft-eared and easily led by others, but now that he had personally come to cause such a scene in Zhao, he discovered that the rumors were far too kind — they made him sound far better than he really was.
But even so, this could be considered a fulfillment of Qin’s great enterprise, adding bricks and tiles to the dream that Qin’s kings and ancestors had been striving toward together for generations.
— Zhao would certainly perish at the hands of the current King of Zhao, Zhao Yan. And the one who would destroy Zhao would naturally be the lord he served: the King of Qin, Ying Zheng.
At present, the originally strongly recommended commander of the five-state alliance army, Lian Po, could not endure the humiliation and threw down his armor and left on the spot. Having lost this seasoned general, the alliance army, which was already a loose collection of forces, had its strength reduced by another three-tenths. With the bravery of the Qin army, they would certainly be able to beat these rabble troops into constant retreat, with their teeth scattered all over the ground.
— Among the generals of Zhao, the leading state of this alliance, the only ones who could really make Qin regard them with some extra attention were the long-renowned Lian Po and the currently rising Li Mu.
But even so, that would only mean that if these two led the army, Qin’s casualties would be greater — not that Qin would be defeated.
What’s more, this time these two had no chance to take part in the battlefield of the alliance attacking Qin.
Lian Po had now been driven away by the King of Zhao, and when the matter of the King of Zhao publicly humiliating Lian Po spread to the borders of Zhao, when Li Mu learned of it, he too would certainly feel chilled at heart.
— Lian Po, as an old general who had rendered outstanding military service for Zhao, ended up being treated like this. How could this not chill the hearts of Zhao’s soldiers, who were full of passion and loyalty?
When the rabbit dies, the fox mourns; when an object is hurt, others of its kind grieve. That is exactly the principle.
As for the other states, it is true that these countries’ struggles were not without capable people to lead troops into battle. For example, Wei had Lord Xinling, who had only a few years ago led troops to defeat Qin and whose fame shook the world.
But unfortunately, although there was such an outstanding talent as Lord Xinling, Wei was still like mud that could not be molded into a wall, unable to become strong.
Or, more accurately speaking, it should be said that the King of Wei was mud that could not be molded into a wall — a typical example of “when the cunning rabbit dies, the hunting dog is cooked.” Back when Wei was attacked, the King of Wei begged Lord Xinling, who was long residing in Zhao, to return to save the state, appointed him as Supreme General, and only after Qin had been repelled did he turn his face and deny him, fearing that Lord Xinling, who was originally his brother and from the same royal clan, would seize the throne. He therefore stripped him of his military authority, causing Lord Xinling to become completely disheartened toward the King of Wei, spending his days indulging in wine and women, drowning his sorrows in alcohol.
And now that several years had passed, even a once brave and extraordinary general, after indulging in wine and pleasure for several years, would have become ruined.
Or take Chu as another example: actually, Chu currently had Xiang Yan, who was of roughly the same generation as Wang Jian — a new-generation general of the Xiang clan, who had served as generals for Chu for generations. His reputation was also very good, and without doubt he would be an excellent general. But unfortunately, his peer was the even more outstanding Wang Jian.
As for Han and Yan, by comparison they appeared rather ordinary. At first mention, without thinking carefully, it was truly hard to name any outstanding generals.
Sitting in the carriage returning to Qin, Li Si calculated in his mind the military strength of the five allied states, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt that these five were committing a massive act of self-destruction, walking further and further down the road to seeking their own death.
Liyang.
These past two days, because “Great Qin” was temporarily closed for upgrades and players could not log in, with fewer of those players who would chatter excitedly at everything and always marvel, “The wisdom of the ancient working people is really amazing!”, the entire Liyang was much quieter than usual when they were around.
However, although the players were not present, all the various ongoing work in Liyang — such as firing bricks, building houses, repairing roads, and so on — had not stopped at all because of their absence. At most, with those “heavenly soldiers and generals” who had “immortal bodies” not around, the workers at the brick kilns had become extra cautious in their work, because if a major accident were to happen now, there would no longer be countless lives to shield them from disaster.
Taking advantage of this period when the server was closed, Li Xi also had the Liyang Magistrate arrange several new sites she wanted, so that when the players returned they could directly “move in with their bags” and start work immediately.
— She had always cherished her little labor force.
Looking at the several coordinates submitted by the Liyang Magistrate for factory construction for the players and asking whether she was satisfied, Li Xi only glanced at them briefly and then told him to go ahead and confirm them as the new locations for the players to “wreck,” because the Liyang Magistrate was always very reliable in handling affairs.
【But, host, wouldn’t it be too fast to directly build a printing factory now?】 After seeing the Liyang Magistrate leave, the system could not help but suddenly ask, 【Didn’t we say we would start from the economy first? How did we suddenly jump to the cultural level?】
After all, in the pre-Qin period, books and cultural content were extremely precious. At this time, “books” were transmitted on bamboo slips carved with characters, and once a printing factory was established, books would become easily widespread, allowing ordinary commoners to have the opportunity to read. At the same time, this would also harm the interests of certain upper-class “noble people.”
— How could those lowly commoners be the same as they, who were born noble?
“Fast?” Li Xi first asked in return, then said, “Actually, it’s not too fast. Right now we’re just bringing printing along with papermaking. For a short while, we won’t yet be printing books for widespread distribution. After all, my current plan is to first use paper to make a profit off the nobles of the six states. If every citizen of Qin could have it in circulation right away, what would I use to fleece those wealthy, gullible nobles?”
“And moreover, the seven states of the world have not yet been unified. Scripts, measurements, weights, currency — all these things differ from state to state. Some things truly are not suitable to be done yet.”
Compared to culture, which satisfies spiritual needs, the current Qin was more suited to first develop agriculture, farming, and stockpiling grain to meet material needs.
“So,” Li Xi summarized, “at least for about the next year, there will not be large-scale printing of cultural books.”
The system understood Li Xi’s meaning, but at the same time, it then had a new question, and so it asked in confusion, 【But if that’s the case, then it seems like whether we do printing now or not makes no difference?】
Li Xi said, “Did you forget that movable type printing requires a lot of preliminary preparation?”
Compared to carving characters, which requires a long construction period, allows no margin for error, and becomes useless after a certain number of uses and can no longer be applied, movable type printing, which corrects many of these shortcomings, requires more in the initial investment and preparation work. In a certain sense, it takes even longer than directly making carved blocks, but this point precisely fits 0 Qin’s current situation.
At present, it was still impossible to achieve everything at once, to leap in a single day to the level of universal unity and universal literacy that would only be reached thousands of years later. Improving living standards was the true priority, and precisely because of this, there was enough time during this period to carry out the preliminary preparation for movable type printing and to manufacture individual types.
And according to her thinking, the first batch of movable types to be produced would take Qin law as a reference, first firing all the characters in Qin law, so that the people could be educated about the law.
Naturally, the people born in Qin had grown up on this land, and after a hundred years of the laws of Shang Yang being in effect, they naturally knew what was written in them — after all, it was well known that Qin law was harsh; if you did not memorize the law, you might unknowingly violate it. Therefore, on this point, for fear that they might one day be taken away by the authorities, the households of common people were very conscious.
So Li Xi printing Qin law first was naturally not for the people of her own state to read, but to prepare it for those people who would soon become “Qin people” and live in the “new territories of Qin,” those who were currently still citizens of the six states.
Especially since now Zhao, Wei, Chu, Han, and Yan were going to organize a joint army to attack Qin. Once these five states were beaten back by Wang Jian and Meng Tian and suffered defeat, as defeated states they would inevitably have to cede territory, pay indemnities, and hand over cities to Qin, the victor.
— Otherwise, you came so arrogantly to step on Qin’s face, and I don’t狠狠地 hit back to vent my anger — would that be appropriate?
Hearing Li Xi say this, the system immediately went “Oh,” and said, 【I understand again!】
And hearing that very essence-filled “again,” Li Xi could not help but fall silent once more.
Then she suddenly asked, “Have the new one hundred players been selected?”
【They’ve been selected, but… there’s been a bit of a problem again…】 the system answered hesitantly.
Li Xi: ?
Seeing Li Xi express her confusion, the system decisively switched the forum page to her.
Just as everything on the Liyang side was proceeding in an orderly manner, the players’ game forum completely exploded.
The overwhelming majority of posts were all scolding “Great Qin,” but this time the scolding was indeed different from the initial over-the-top marketing promotion — instead, it was more the kind of scolding done as a meme.
And the cause of this system “flip” this time was —
【I’m broken, brothers, did you all see the official’s latest update that “cannot be said”? I’ve never seen such an outrageous game — it’s actually openly mocking players??】
Damn it!! Never did I imagine that I would encounter such a dog-shit piece of copywriting, actually publicly insulting and mocking us in the last sentence of the game announcement, saying we will never be able to get Brother Zheng? Does anyone know which province the headquarters of this broken game is in? I’m about to buy a plane ticket right now to go to the head office and fight it out face-to-face with the copywriter! Oh, and marketing too — if I don’t beat these dogs to death, count me as losing!!!
Looking at the hot post pinned at the top of the forum, even though she herself was a black-hearted boss to the core, Li Xi still could not help but fall silent for a moment. After all…
She complained, “Although I really do treat all of them as tool people, you could at least pretend.”
【Host, I’m sorry QAQ】
Looking at the system immediately starting to cry and apologize at lightning speed, Li Xi raised her hand and rubbed her temples. But the useless system dropping the ball was not something that had happened for only a day or two; she had seen it countless times and had developed a bit of tolerance, so she casually said, “It’s fine, it’s not really a problem.”
Compared to its previous incidents, this really was just a small thing. It wouldn’t have any real impact — players might curse, but their desire to play would not change.
Then Li Xi said again, “If there’s nothing else wrong, in a couple of days you can just open the game channel normally.”
【Okay, host! No problem, host! This time there definitely won’t be any more problems, host!】
As for the system’s triple “host,” Li Xi directly chose to selectively filter it out. The useless system had never not said this before — and what was the result? There had never been a time when at least some problem did not occur.
Anyway, this kind of thing was not particularly important, so she could not be bothered to dwell on it.
Compared to that, what she cared about now was…
Li Xi said, “Give me the seeds.”
“I already told you the requirements before. I want high-yield, cold-resistant, drought-resistant seeds that can be directly planted on wasteland, that can grow smoothly even in the roughest environments, and that the following year can produce many seeds at the same time. Today, produce them for me.”
As her words fell, Li Xi directly returned to her room, changed into that luxurious yet inevitably heavy sacrificial ceremonial dress, and at the same time altered her makeup to give her an ethereal, sacred appearance.
Seeing Li Xi’s actions, the system knew that its host was preparing to go to the altar to perform the act of communicating with heaven and requesting the “descent of divine seeds.”
But the system was still making a last struggle, cautiously trying to bargain, 【Host, can you first just give me two kinds? The kind of seeds you’re asking for are very expensive even in our interstellar world — they will cost the system a lot of energy QAQ. And there are still few players coming in, so what can be provided from the outside world is still limited…】
Li Xi only said lightly, “If you handle this matter properly and make me happy, at the end of the year I’ll consider opening three thousand slots.”
【！！！】
Li Xi could feel the system’s emotions surge in an instant. Ignoring its expressions of loyalty in her mind, Li Xi walked out of the residence with elegant, refined steps, went straight to the altar, and under the gaze of the surrounding common people, walked step by step toward the top of the altar.
These days the players were not around, and the streets were much more desolate, but there were still many people. And humans were always social animals, drawn to rare things, so when they saw the usually approachable “Divine Maiden” appear in the same sacrificial attire she had worn when summoning those “Heavenly Soldiers and Generals,” dressed so grandly, they were naturally attracted and, by instinct, followed her to the altar.
As soon as she stepped onto the highest point of the altar, Li Xi could not be bothered to continue pretending, because the altar was built extremely high. Unless someone could invent binoculars, there was no way for those below to see what was happening on top.
So she said to the system, “Alright, transform them.”
With her words, in the next second various large and small packages appeared before her — clearly the grain seeds she had specified.
The system introduced them to her, 【The black bag is potatoes, the gray one is corn…】
Under the system’s introduction, her beautiful peach blossom eyes quickly swept over the area, then Li Xi slightly frowned and simply said, “Not enough. Bring some more.”
【QAQ】
Hearing this sentence, the system almost reflexively began performing its crying routine. But this time, no matter how much it cried, Li Xi could not be bothered to pay attention. She said, “I rarely bother to dress myself up properly, and I specifically came to the altar to pray, walking beautifully and impressively, and you want me to go back with just this little bit of stuff — do you think that’s appropriate?”
If she only wanted such a small amount of seeds, why would she need to come specially to the altar? After all, last time, when she got that now ridiculously fat white pig to give to the system, she had simply performed that “turning nothing into a pig” trick directly in her own residence.
So under Li Xi’s scolding, the system could only wipe away its tears and go all out, covering more than half of the altar.
— By now, it was also clear about what kind of person its host was. Since she had already spoken to this extent, it naturally understood what kind of effect Li Xi wanted.
After getting everything done, the system dejectedly said, 【Host, I only have enough energy left now to summon three thousand people.】
“Mm.” Li Xi responded and casually praised, “Good job.”
Then she asked, “Can you make these seeds float and drift down?”
Hearing this question from Li Xi, the system emitted a long-unheard electrical crackle, clearly stunned by the question.
Seeing this reaction, Li Xi knew she could not rely on the system again. She could not help but shake her head, and then —
Watching as the girl in sacrificial robes turned around, all the bags containing extremely high-yield grain seeds on the ground floated up, suspended in midair, and moved forward following Li Xi’s steps.
The system could not help but be shocked, its mechanical voice stuttering several times, 【H-host?】
Seeing this, Li Xi’s reaction was even stranger than its own. She said, “What are you surprised about? Isn’t this just 3S-level mental power controlling objects? When I told Brother Zheng those things before, didn’t I already reveal that I, like you, come from the interstellar world?”
After all, in proper modern times, human trafficking was not a thing, and those so-called stories of geniuses being sold by their parents to wealthy people did not happen. And she had never admitted that she was a modern world college entrance exam student. Moreover… modern times also did not seem to have mandatory talent tests at a certain age, did they?
But now that she was in the Warring States period, her 3S mental power could only finally be used to do small things like controlling objects. There were still limits, and she could easily accidentally cause mental exhaustion.
In the system’s stunned silence, Li Xi controlled these high-yield grain seeds packaged in bags, resumed an expression that seemed both emotionless and yet as if embracing all beings, and slowly walked down the altar.
Looking at the common people who were left speechless by this shocking scene, she said to the Liyang Magistrate, who had rushed over after hearing that Li Xi was in full ceremonial dress and that something major seemed to be happening, “Heaven blesses Qin and has sent down these grain seeds with extremely high yield. Please, sir, send people to plant them in the coming days. By winter, they can be harvested.”
When she said this, Li Xi deliberately slowed her speech, like a gentle flowing stream, making people feel calm and peaceful.
Then she gently smiled and added, “Divine seeds are different from ordinary crops. They only need to be planted on wasteland to grow naturally.”
And as her words fell, those floating bags of grain seeds gradually descended from top to bottom and landed on the ground.
Thinking of what Li Xi had just said, the Liyang Magistrate tried his best to restrain his heart, which was pounding uncontrollably, and respectfully said to the young girl before him, who was not even half his age, “Please rest assured, Divine Maiden.”
Xianyang.
Since the Dowager Empress Xia went to Zhiyang, the Dowager Empress Huayang went to Yongcheng, and all the traitors who attempted to rebel were completely eliminated, Ying Zheng’s mood had been very good during this period.
Even though Qin was currently facing the major event of the five-state alliance attacking Qin, this did not affect him at all.
Li Si, who had gone to Zhao, had already returned for some time, and Ying Zheng was very satisfied with the effect of Guo Kai, whom Li Si had bribed, slandering before the King of Zhao.
As for the five-state alliance matter? There was really nothing much to say. The allied army had already set out, and the war between the two sides had already begun.
The commander of this alliance was not unfamiliar to Qin — on the contrary, he was precisely the Wei state’s Lord Xinling, Wei Wuji, who had inflicted a major defeat on Qin a few years ago.
Upon hearing this news, Ying Zheng immediately laughed, because he truly had not expected the kings of Zhao, Wei, Chu, Han, and Yan to personally deliver to Qin such an opportunity to wash away the humiliation of several years ago.
Indeed, ordinary soldiers, when facing the general who had once defeated their state, might develop a shadow in their hearts, feel fear, and thus be weaker in fighting spirit.
— A fairly typical example of this was during the reign of King Zhaoxiang decades earlier, when all the states under heaven, upon hearing the name of Qin general Bai Qi, were all afraid.
But the Qin army was different.
The Qin army, which implemented the system of awarding military merit, rejoiced at hearing of battle, and when encountering strength… would only become stronger.
What’s more, he had heard that Wei Wuji had not only spent his days drowning his sorrows in alcohol in recent years, but had also been bedridden with illness.
Under such circumstances, on what basis did he think he could defeat Qin again?
His narrow phoenix eyes, gleaming with a chilling light, gazed at the chessboard before him. Ying Zheng raised his hand and devoured all the white pieces on the board, leaving only the black pieces he held. The young king in black robes lifted the corners of his lips into a faint, shallow smile,
— His ambition to conquer and annex the entire realm — swallow and annex the world — was already clearly revealed.
However, as the saying goes, when things reach an extreme, they reverse. Perhaps it was because Ying Zheng’s mood had been too good during this period that someone had to come and block him a little, adding a bit of displeasure.
Within the Qin palace at present, the only person who dared to provoke Ying Zheng and make him unhappy was, when all was said and done, just one person —
— the Dowager Empress, Zhao Ji.
On this day, Zhao Ji, who had not come to see Ying Zheng for a long time, suddenly appeared before him. At first, Ying Zheng felt somewhat startled, not knowing why his mother, who had long forgotten him, had suddenly taken the trouble to come see him. But after hearing Zhao Ji speak, the young man’s expression immediately darkened.
Because she said, “Zheng’er, Lao Ai by my side has served me very well. I want to reward him with a noble title.”