In 210 BC, on the sand dune platform, the First Emperor fell seriously ill.
Seventy-two elixirs failed to keep him alive for one more day, and three thousand boys and girls failed to bring back the elixir from Penglai. Ying Zheng was lying on the imperial couch, feeling the mercury in his body corroding the bone marrow inch by inch - he had been a sorcerer for twelve years, and he was full of poison.
On the night when he thought he was going to die with regret, the sky tore into pieces.
Countless barrages flooded the screen from two thousand years later:
"Stop making elixirs! Lead and mercury poisoning!"
"Xu Fu is a liar! He took the boys and girls to Japan!"
"Change in Sand Dune! Zhao Gaolisi changed the imperial edict! There are only three years left in the Qin Dynasty!"
"Ying Zheng, wake up—immortality depends on science, not elixirs!"
Ying Zheng sat up from the bed, walked barefoot to the door of the palace, and looked up at the sky.
He asked a question that changed everything.
Three hundred years later, when Great Qin's interstellar fleet sailed out of the solar system, and when the flag of Chinese civilization was planted on the planet Centauri, the barrage of future generations collectively broke through the defense:
"What about the promised death of the second generation? How come we are the ones who die?!"
This is not only the story of Qin Shihuang, it is also a story of civilization changing destiny against nature. From immortality to the starry sky, from alchemists to science, from sand dunes to the Milky Way - Ying Zheng spent three thousand years to answer his original question:
"Can I live forever?"
"I don't want immortality. I want Chinese eternal life."
