Immortal Qin was taking action.
Burning books.
The classics of the Schools of Thought, Confucian scriptures, historical records of the various states... anything visible on the surface was thrown into Blazing Flames. The inferno soared into the sky, Black Smoke blotted out the sun, and everything was burned in a single night.
Burying Confucian scholars.
Anyone who criticized Qin Zheng, secretly colluded with the External Paths, or recklessly discussed the Imperial Dao—whether disciples of sages or Daoist Masters and Confucian scholars—was imprisoned in the human race's dungeons, then secretly buried alive outside Xianyang City.
Everything was being arranged in secret by Zhao Gao.
Ying Zheng neither supported nor opposed it. In any case... he had not openly ordered any of it. Zhao Gao was working hard to take the blame; a petty man truly knew his place.
Ying Zheng stood atop the walls of Xianyang Palace, gazing at the surging sea of blood below and the flames filling the sky. His heart remained utterly unmoved:
Today, I burn books to burn away the pedantic old ways!
Today, I bury scholars to bury the treacherous evils that throw the nation into chaos!
Once I sweep away every heterodox path and unite Human Race Fortune,
When the Twelve Golden Figures emerge and the Dutian Divine Fiends reappear,
This Earth Immortal Realm, this Primordial World—I shall become their sole master!
Seeing the Human Emperor's expression twist constantly between arrogance and coldness, Zhao Gao thought to himself, This Human Emperor's inner drama is a little too elaborate.
Zhongnan Mountain, the Purple Mansion—the Daoist Sect's new inheritance ground, the Little Ancestral Court.
Taishang sat within the residence, his expression indifferent.
"Immortal Qin has tampered with the Cultural Vein and disrupted the Order of Heaven and Earth. This is already a sign of its own destruction."