The so-called Dragon Carriage was a carriage drawn by six fine horses. Its body was inlaid with gold, silver, and jade, and carved with dragon and phoenix motifs, displaying the dignity and lavish grandeur of an Emperor.
This Emperor, renowned throughout the history of the Eastern world, sat within it.
As he passed the two sisters, the First Emperor did not continue looking at them.
In fact, he had only glanced at them for a few seconds before withdrawing his gaze. He had not paid them any further attention.
That could not help but create an illusion—had he actually failed to notice the sisters?
No, it was certain that he had noticed them. He simply did not consider them worth much concern.
It would have been one thing if they were ordinary people, but they were Valkyries. They had even crossed time and space to observe this era, yet they had received only that much attention?
Either he truly had not discovered them, but neither sister thought that was possible.
Or he was simply unconcerned and did not take them seriously. That seemed somewhat possible.
There was another possibility. The First Emperor believed he possessed enough strength to afford them only that much attention. He was confident they could cause him no trouble at all and were not on the same level as him—whether in status or strength.
That was why the First Emperor did not regard them as any significant threat.
The only ones qualified to be the First Emperor's opponents were the famous generals and rulers of the destroyed Six Nations.
No, that was wrong. Those qualified to be his opponents were—gods!
Brunhilde's pupils contracted. She found the black-armored force guarding the First Emperor, their faces completely concealed, somewhat strange. Their marching footsteps were far too heavy.
If it were merely due to the weight of their armor, that would have been understandable. Yet it did not look like it was only the armor's weight. The people inside were heavy as well.
How should she put it? They gave her the feeling that these Black-Armored Soldiers were not human.
Not human?
Brunhilde thought of Xiang Yu's situation, and her expression changed.
Could this entire force of Black-Armored Soldiers be like that?
How had they been created in this era? It was far too bizarre.
Did the Immortal Gods of this Eastern world interfere with the Human World to such an extent?
The sisters then followed alongside the procession. Most of Xianyang City's citizens moved with them, heading toward the city gates.
When they arrived at the gates and looked out at the vast grounds beyond, the sisters could not help but freeze slightly.
The grounds that should have been spacious were now occupied by a vast and imposing army—the Qin Dynasty's Hundred Battles Army.
This nation-destroying army, which had shed blood across countless battlefields and killed untold numbers of people, radiated such a chilling, murderous aura that it seemed to have passed through the barrier of time and space, making the two sisters feel cold.
And with such a grand scene before them, were they preparing to march to war?
That did not seem right either. At this point in time, had the First Emperor not already completed his great unification? There should have been nowhere left to fight.
She had chosen the point in time when the First Emperor established the imperial system. That was correct, wasn't it?
After checking with the Akasha System, it was indeed correct.
So this grand spectacle should merely be a ceremonial military parade.
And for such an event, it was not only the residents of Xianyang City who had come to watch. Merchants, retainers, and aristocratic clans from all over the country had gathered as well.
Naturally, Brunhilde also spotted a few traveling merchants from distant countries not under this Emperor's rule.
"Big sister!"
Lantigreese had noticed something.
"Mm."
Brunhilde nodded. Of course, she had also noticed certain people with ulterior motives mixed into the huge crowd.
These people were most likely sent in by unwilling nobles from the destroyed Six Nations.
Just look at how tense they were. They were clearly afraid of being discovered, yet they also looked as though they were preparing to do something major.
Upon closer inspection, some of their sleeves seemed to conceal something.
Suddenly, as the crowd shifted, someone accidentally bumped into one of them, causing a cold gleaming blade to flash from his sleeve.
The man hurriedly pulled his sleeve down to cover it, then only relaxed after noticing that the nearby citizens had not seen it.
So their goal was to assassinate the First Emperor?
That was utterly pointless. Could they not see the army right here?
Moreover, the First Emperor had Black-Armored Soldiers at his side who were suspected to be artificial humans. Attacking him would be nothing more than moths flying into a flame.
So these people were not here to assassinate the First Emperor?
Assassinating the First Emperor was probably part of their mission, but it was not their primary goal. If an opportunity arose, they would certainly try to kill him.
Their true purpose was to disrupt today's grand ceremony.
But how would they disrupt it? By creating panic!
And how would they create panic?
Very simply—by slaughtering the innocent citizens who had come to watch and setting off terror among them.
Once panic spread, the massive crowd would lose all reason and scatter in chaos, making it difficult for the First Emperor's soldiers to intervene and eliminate them.
They wanted the First Emperor to lose face before the entire world!
This was the revenge of the old nobles of the Six Nations!
Amid a Crowd of living dead?
His gaze fell upon the dense, orderly rows of figures, each radiating a murderous aura.
These people were the killing machines under the tyrant Ying Zheng.
From the time the tyrant Ying Zheng began waging war against the Six Nations until now, these people had brutally taken countless lives across the Six Nations.
Watching this seemingly emotionless army of slaughter, some malicious people hidden among the citizens could not help swallowing.
If they truly caused a disturbance, could they really escape unscathed?
They had the illusion that if they truly started a riot and launched an assassination attempt, this merciless legion of slaughter might ignore the surrounding citizens and charge straight at them.
Better to kill a thousand by mistake than let even one escape.
The more they thought about it, the more likely it seemed that such a thing could happen. That tyrant might truly have issued such an order.
So were they really doing the right thing? Dragging innocent citizens into bloodshed as well?
No, they were not wrong.
Most of the citizens here were subjects of Qin, not subjects of the Six Nations. What did their deaths have to do with them?
Besides, where did Qin's soldiers come from? Were they not conscripted from Qin's own citizens?
How could Qin's soldiers have such abundant resources to fight? Were those resources not supported by Qin's citizens from behind the scenes?
Without the resources provided by Qin's citizens, how could Qin's soldiers have fought the Six Nations?
Therefore, everyone in Qin who had destroyed the Six Nations, from the king down to ordinary citizens, was an executioner.
So if the coming riot dragged these people into bloodshed, they were not innocent. They deserved it.
After thinking this, the hearts of those who had wavered became firm once more.
Hm?
By chance, they also spotted citizens who were not from Qin. They appeared to be people from the Six Nations.
Could these people share the same aspirations? Were they also here to cooperate with them and launch an attack on the tyrant today?
Looking closer, that was not the case. They seemed to be nothing more than ordinary citizens.
But if chaos broke out, those people who had not participated would clearly be implicated as well.
Given the practices of violent Qin, those who had not originally been Qin citizens would be treated even more ruthlessly.
Was it right for them to implicate innocent people like that?
No, those people deserved to die too.
As long as they were citizens who still remembered the Six Nations, as long as they still carried national hatred and family grudges in their hearts, they should join their cause.
Rather than doing business here, making a living here, abandoning their former identities, and choosing to join Qin.
If that was the case, then they deserved to die. They were traitors and cowards.
His gaze fell upon a figure once more—a man dressed in luxurious black robes who had just stepped down from a carriage and was walking toward the platform where he would inspect the army.
It was this deeply sinful tyrant who had destroyed the Six Nations, shattered countless families, and condemned innumerable people to live in Hell.
If this tyrant had not started the war, he would not have been separated from his wife and forced to join the army.
After surviving the battlefield and returning to his hometown, his homeland had been reduced to ruin.
The house where they had once lived together had already become a charred heap of wreckage.
What caused him the deepest agony was discovering two corpses amid those ruins, one large and one small.
Who else could they have been? They were his wife and child.
And the culprit behind all of it was this tyrant, who stood upon countless corpses.
Thus, overwhelming rage and hatred made him unable to resist the urge to leap forward and kill the tyrant.
Then, the words of a strategist suddenly echoed in his mind, calming him down.
At this distance, even if he rushed forward, it would be useless. He could never get close to the tyrant, and he would only disrupt the plan.
Endure a little longer. The time had not yet come.
Suddenly, his body stiffened slightly, because the people around him were all looking at him.
Had he been exposed?
However, those looking at him did not keep their eyes on him for long. They turned back toward the tyrant, making him breathe a sigh of relief.
Perhaps his fury toward the tyrant had caused his emotions to show too clearly, drawing their attention.
Yet for some reason, an inexplicable chill ran through his heart.
He felt that the citizens around him, who had also come to watch this military parade, were somehow wrong. There was something strange about them.
Could these citizens actually be soldiers in disguise?
At that thought, his heart jolted. It was not impossible.
When they started the riot, one careless mistake could result in being killed by the seemingly ordinary "citizens" beside them.
The thought made him anxious. He had to inform his other companions of this possibility.
However, there were far too many participants in today's operation, and they were spread out over a wide area. He could not notify them all, only those nearest to him.
But there was another problem: he had no way of knowing who among those closest to him was an ally.
It was not that he had no companions at all. Rather, they had been scattered too widely, so that if someone betrayed them and identified the others, they would not all be wiped out in one sweep.
Naturally, the companions he knew were all from Yan State as well.
As for participants from the other states, they did not know them either, also to prevent everyone from being captured in one go.
All he could do was hope that the other operatives had thought of this too and would pay closer attention to the ordinary citizens around them, determining whether they were truly ordinary people or soldiers in disguise.
His gaze fell upon the tyrant once more. Standing atop the platform, the man gently raised a hand and pressed it down. In an instant, the entire venue fell silent.
It would have been understandable if it were the army, but for even the citizens in the audience to be so synchronized was truly frightening.
The cruel monarch on the platform also swept his gaze over the commoners.
When that gaze fell in his direction, he, an assassin, felt an unprecedented pressure beneath it.
He had the illusion that he was facing the might of Heaven itself. For an instant, he was so intimidated that he did not dare breathe, as if his heart had stopped beating.
After the gaze passed over him, his tightly strained nerves suddenly relaxed, and he nearly collapsed limply onto the ground.
At the same time, his clothes were instantly soaked through with cold sweat.
Steady yourself. Do not panic. Breathe normally. Do not act too strangely and make the people around you suspicious.
Thus, the assassin once again paid attention to the citizens around him, only to discover that not a single person was watching him.
Before you continue