Locking Away the Netherworld

In the twenty-sixth year of the First Emperor of Qin, people from Wanqu arrived in spiral ships. These otherworldly visitors piloted starships said to be ten zhang long. They wore splendid clothes and could “use jue stones as lamps to illuminate the netherworld.” They presented the First Emperor with a piece of “celestial jade from beyond the stars,” claiming it could safeguard the nation’s destiny for ten thousand years. In exchange, Qin was to build a hiding place for the Wanqu survivors and their Xing Stones. To protect Qin’s destiny, the First Emperor promised to build their refuge beneath the underground palace of the Qin Mausoleum. That is why the Qin Mausoleum was dug so deep that it seemed bottomless, yet could not be pierced; it would not burn, and sounded hollow when struck, like the world itself! The celestial jade from beyond the stars was the jade later called the “Heirloom Seal” by Xu Fu. It was eventually made into the Imperial Seal of China. Few knew that the people of Wanqu were not immortals, but emissaries of a civilization from beyond the heavens. They warned the First Emperor that a higher-dimensional being called the “Soul Devourer” was drifting through the space beyond the stars. This interstellar predator, which fed on souls, was waiting for the right moment to break through the dimensional barrier locked by the celestial jade. The Heirloom Seal was needed to open the dimensional barrier. It was no earthly creation, but a dimensional lock left behind by an extraterrestrial civilization. The First Emperor followed the advice of the people of Wanqu: He forcefully unified the systems of weights and measures, put an end to the chaos of the Hundred Schools contending, and suppressed, destroyed, and purged certain corrupt cultures. The extraordinary figures who appeared throughout history: Jiang Ziya, who aided the Zhou in overthrowing the Shang; Huang Shigong, who taught military strategy to Zhang Liang; and Li Chunfeng, who foresaw the An Lushan Rebellion. “I have unified the Six Kingdoms. My empire shall endure for ten thousand generations.” “Your Majesty, do you know that eternity is not measured by the length of time, but by the passing of the torch?” Perhaps souls truly exist. Perhaps reincarnation exists too.