A materials science PhD opened his eyes to find himself in the Qin dynasty, transmigrated into an obscure clerk in the Shaofu of Xianyang, whose name no one even remembered.
He had a useless spiritual root, a blocked dantian, and meridians as fine as a spiderweb.
The Hyperdimensional Library in his mind could reveal the nature of all things, yet he could not even reach the threshold of drawing qi into his body.
Ying Zheng was being drained to the brink of death by the alchemists’ poisonous pills. Meanwhile, Shen Jin uncovered a shocking secret among a pile of battered bamboo slips: the fragment depicting the one-legged flaming bird known as “Bifang” was no fire-quelling totem. It was a blueprint for an ancient aircraft capable of breaking through space.
He had an epiphany on the spot: How could the Classic of Mountains and Seas be mythology? It was obviously a lost military engineering manual!
And so, the Qin dynasty changed beyond recognition.
The Great Wall became a spirit-gathering formation, terracotta soldiers became battle legions, and the Yinglong immortal vessel soared into the sea of stars. Ying Zheng cultivated neither spiritual energy nor his dantian. Instead, he used the realm as a furnace and the nation’s fortune as its fire, forcibly forging a path to the heavens powered by the nation’s destiny.
“Your Majesty, the alchemists deceive you. I won’t.”
“What do you want?”
“A library, and a life.”
His life would be extended by the nation’s fortune. He would die when his time came.
Later, the out-of-control terracotta soldiers were called “Qiongqi,” the invaders from the sea of stars were called “Taotie,” and even the prehistoric ruins deep in the void bore strange-beast totems from the Classic of Mountains and Seas, along with Qin script serial numbers.
Standing at the bow of the ship, Shen Jin finally saw clearly: All myths were codes left for this era before the previous Immortal Qin fell.
Ying Zheng looked at him. “How much longer can that borrowed life of yours last?”
Shen Jin raised his eyes to the boundless sea of stars. “Long enough for me to help Your Majesty fight our way through this cycle.”
