My hotel is full of emperors throughout history.

The gunfire continued.

Above the mound, a hail of bullets rained down, hurling mud, gravel, and bits of grass into the air and pelting them.

They lay prone on the ground, not daring to lift their heads, and could only desperately crawl deeper into the mound, huddling behind the thin earthen wall.

They didn't know how much time had passed—perhaps only a dozen breaths, but to them it felt like an eternity.

The gunfire finally stopped.

Above the mound, all was deathly silent.

Only the mournful sound of the wind and sand, and the faint buzzing in the distance.

Zhang Liang slowly raised his head, his whole body trembling like a leaf.

His ears were still ringing, he couldn't hear anything, his mouth was open, he was panting heavily, and cold sweat soaked his whole body.

"Stop...stopped?"

he murmured.

The strongman also collapsed beside him, breathing heavily and unable to speak.

Did they survive?

They... survived?

A surge of overwhelming joy at surviving a calamity welled up in Zhang Liang's heart, but that joy hadn't yet spread—

A piercingly sharp whistling sound tore through the sky!

The sound was so close, so fierce, like the shriek of death, coming straight toward the mound where they were hiding!

Zhang Liang subconsciously looked up—

A blazing flash of fire, trailing a long tail of flame, streaked past.

What is that?!

Before he could even think, the flames had already struck the top of the mound!

"boom----!!!!!!"

Crashed!

A blinding fireball exploded above the mound, and the scorching heat wave, carrying soil, gravel, and grass clippings, swept down like a tsunami.

Zhang Liang was violently thrown over by the huge shockwave and slammed into the earthen wall behind him, with only a sharp whistling sound in his ears.

He barely opened his eyes and saw a scene he would never forget—

The top of the entire mound was forcibly cut off by a large section.

That spot, where they used to peek out from their hiding place, has now become a huge, charred, smoke-filled gap.

Countless pebbles and dirt rained down, some hitting the strongman on the back, causing him to groan repeatedly!

Zhang Liang: ? ? ? ? ? ?

Zhang Liang looked at the spot where they had just been lying.

If the firelight were just a little closer...

If they hadn't desperately climbed in just now...

hiss~!

He slowly turned his head and looked at the strongman.

The towering man slumped beside him, trembling all over, his eyes wide open.

Zhang Liang tried to get up, but found that one of his legs was bleeding profusely. Only then did he realize that his leg was injured, and he couldn't help but complain.

"What the hell is this thing...? It wasn't here before!!!"

"Perhaps it's... something that was recently developed... who knows?"

The big man muttered to himself.

He turned his head and found Zhang Liang looking at him with a strange expression.

"What's wrong?"

The big man was somewhat puzzled.

Zhang Liang remained silent.

He stared intently at the strongman, making the strongman feel uneasy.

"Young master?"

The strongman called out again, waving his large, rough hand in front of Zhang Liang.

"Are you alright? Were you hit by that thing? Have you lost your mind?"

Zhang Liang finally reacted.

"You just said... 'This was only recently developed'?"

The strongman blinked.

"Ah? Yes, young master just said that these things didn't exist before, and I've never seen them before. They must be newly made. Then... then that's not right, is it?"

Zhang Liang didn't speak; he simply continued to stare at the strongman.

The strongman felt uneasy under the stare and subconsciously touched his face: "Is there something on my face?"

"No," Zhang Liang's voice remained low and somber. "I just suddenly remembered something."

"What is it?"

"We're hiding behind this mound, being chased and blasted by those iron lumps... and then you're telling me these things might be 'recently developed' by the Qin army?"

The strongman nodded blankly.

"Yeah, what else?"

Zhang Liang took a deep breath.

"Have you ever considered this—how long has it been since Qin conquered the six states? In such a short time, they managed to create something like this? If the people of Qin were truly that powerful, why was there no trace of them when they conquered the six states before?"

"Even if we don't say we can hit it from a great distance, it would be easy to use something this powerful to attack a city, right?"

The strongman scratched his head.

"Well... that must mean it hadn't been built yet back then."

"So why was it built now?"

"This...how would I know?" the strongman said innocently. "Why are you asking these questions, young master? Our priority is to escape!"

Zhang Liang remained motionless.

He sat there in the riverbed, covered in mud, but his gaze seemed to pierce through the weeds and see something far away.

"Rikishi."

He suddenly spoke.

"what?"

"You're saying, if this kind of thing existed when the Qin army conquered the state of Han..."

The strongman was stunned for a moment.

"How many days can South Korea hold out?"

The strongman opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Zhang Liang continued speaking to himself.

"The capital of Han, Xinzheng, had city walls that were three zhang high and two zhang thick, with numerous arrow towers, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack. When the Qin army besieged Xinzheng, it took them three whole months and countless deaths before they finally broke through the city."

He paused, his gaze drifting towards the convoy in the distance, a hint of bitterness in his voice:

"But what if there were those fire-breathing pipes, those flames falling from the sky... three months?"

He shook his head, a mocking smile playing on his lips.

"It won't even last three days."

"City walls?" he scoffed softly. "What are city walls compared to that thing?"

The strongman listened in a daze, not knowing what to say.

"And then there's the State of Wei, the vast and populous States of Chu and Zhao..."

He turned his head sharply and stared at the strongman.

"But if the Qin army had this back then, would they have needed to besiege the city? Would they have needed to flood it? Would they have needed an army of 600,000?"

"Just drive those metal lumps over there, a few of those fireballs and the city wall will be gone. A few rows of those fire-breathing pipes and the enemy will be wiped out."

"Six kingdoms? Heh."

He suddenly laughed, but his laughter was full of bitterness.

"Don't even mention a hundred years, I estimate we could wipe out the six kingdoms in a year! And a large portion of that was used for travel."

The strongman was completely dumbfounded.

He scratched his head, trying to understand the meaning of Zhang Liang's words, but his brain was clearly not up to the task.

"Then...then what you mean, young master..." he asked cautiously, "this thing wasn't just made recently?"

Zhang Liang remained silent.

He just stared into the distance, his eyes growing increasingly deep.

"Not recently..."

he murmured.

"When was that? If it existed before, why wasn't it used when the six kingdoms were conquered? If it only happened recently, then..."

He suddenly stopped.

The strongman waited for a long time, but nothing came of it. Finally, he couldn't help but ask, "What?"

Zhang Liang slowly turned his head and looked at the strongman.

"Rikishi."

"what?"

"You tell me, is there... anything like that in this world...?"

He carefully considered his words, his brow furrowed.

"Someone like... who can know what will happen in the future?"

The strongman blinked, looking puzzled.

"What about the future? Are you referring to divination, young master?"

"It's not divination," Zhang Liang shook his head. "Divination is guessing, it's calculation. I'm talking about...seeing it with my own eyes."

The strongman was completely bewildered.

"To see what happens next with your own eyes? That...that's impossible. Humans aren't gods."

"immortal……"

Zhang Liang remained silent.

The big man looked at Zhang Liang and became even more anxious.

"Young master, shouldn't we run away?"

Zhang Liang remained silent for a while, then sighed and limped to his feet.

"We're not running anymore! We can't outrun that thing..."

Zhang Liang lowered his head and began to straighten his clothes.

The coarse linen garment was tattered beyond recognition, riddled with holes and stained with mud and blood.

He patted the dirt off with his hands, trying to get rid of it, but the dirtier he patted, the dirtier it became, so he finally gave up.

He raised his hand again and tidied his disheveled hair.

His hair was long gone, with a few tangled strands hanging down his side, stuck together in clumps by sweat and blood.

But he still insisted on keeping his hair neat.

Finally, he stood up with a limp and straightened his back.

The strongman was stunned.

"Young master... what are you doing?"

Zhang Liang glanced down at him and smiled faintly.

"Get yourself together. You can't go to see people like this."

"To see someone? Who?"

Zhang Liang looked up at the hillside, where several Qin soldiers were already standing, holding something that looked like a fire poker and slowly approaching them.

Zhang Liang's expression remained unchanged, and he uttered two words.

"Ying Zheng!"