A Hand That Overturned Heaven and Earth

West of the city, Ten-Mile Shop.

The Divine Machine Battalion's garrison was like a festering sore forgotten in the wilderness.

The broken camp gate creaked in the cold wind. Several rusted red-clothed cannons lay carelessly abandoned in the mud, their muzzles filled with melted snow.

A few muffled coughs and shouts from gambling drifted out of the barracks.

There was none of the grim killing aura of border troops here, only the decaying air of people waiting to die.

Ji Ye rode a black horse and stopped outside the camp gate. He had no attendants behind him, only the Ageless Sword that never left his side.

"C-Commander, sir?"

The gate guard was a seasoned old soldier. At the sight of the Tiger Tally at Ji Ye's waist, he jolted in fright, nearly dropping the spear in his hand.

A man's name was like a tree's shadow.

The sword stroke at the Qin residence last night had already spread throughout the army. Everyone knew this newly arrived lord was a ruthless man who dared draw a blade against Qin Wuji's face.

"Open the gate."

Ji Ye spoke blandly.

The camp gate opened.

Ji Ye rode inside.

Several hundred men stood scattered across the drill ground. They looked at Ji Ye with respect, fear, and, more than anything else, the numbness of people looking at a dead man.

The Divine Machine Battalion was a pit for the dead.

No matter who became commander, he would eventually die.

"Commander, the Divine Machine Battalion has one thousand two hundred men on the roster. Present... three hundred and forty-six."

The deputy commander was a gaunt middle-aged man named Sun Bingyi. He lowered his head, his voice lacking confidence. "The rest... some died of illness, some ran away, and others... were seconded by the Qin family to the supply camp."

Ghost salaries.

Bled dry.

This was the "great army" Qin Muzhi had prepared for Ji Ye.

More than three hundred old, weak, sick, and disabled men, along with a few broken cannons that could not even fire, were supposed to defend Luoyan Pass with the Barbarian vanguard closing in?

This was not war. This was a funeral procession.

Sun Bingyi secretly watched Ji Ye, waiting for the young commander to fly into a rage or sink into despair.

But Ji Ye did neither.

He dismounted and walked up to one of the red-clothed cannons, reaching out to touch its icy barrel.

The rough texture of rust came through his fingertips.

"It's rusted."

Ji Ye spoke softly.

"Y-Yes..." Sun Bingyi wiped away his sweat. "The Imperial Court's funding has never arrived. The gunpowder got damp, the cannon barrels burst..."

"I meant the men."

Ji Ye turned around, his gaze like a blade as it swept over the more than three hundred numb faces.

"A cannon can be polished when it rusts. When a man rusts, he can only be buried."

The entire field fell deathly silent.

No one dared speak. No one even dared breathe too loudly. The aura enhanced by [Martial Arts Through Divinity] pressed down so hard that these veteran soldiers could scarcely catch their breath.

"But it doesn't matter."

Ji Ye brushed the rust from his hands.

"Because I never expected to rely on you lot to fight."

Sun Bingyi froze. Not rely on us? Then rely on whom?

Just then.

The earth trembled faintly.

From afar came the dull, steady sound of hoofbeats.

It was not the thunderous rumble of ten thousand troops, but the uniquely oppressive rhythm of an elite cavalry force.

Everyone instinctively looked outside the camp gate.

A black formation appeared on the horizon.

Five hundred riders.

Every one of them rode black horses and wore black armor and black cloaks.

They carried no banners and made no unnecessary sound. Their faces bore the marks of wind and frost, yet their eyes shone with a frightening brightness. They were the eyes of men who had seen blood, killed people, and rolled through heaps of corpses more than once.

At the center of the formation were several dozen heavy carts, their wheels carving deep tracks through the frozen earth.

That was money.

It was also grain.

More than that, it was the foundation Ji Ye needed to establish himself in this world.

At the front rode a broad, resolute man. A thick-backed Wild Goose Feather Saber was slung across his back. Though his left leg limped slightly, he sat astride his horse as steady as Mount Tai.

Wang Meng.

The man who had followed Ji Ye in Black Stone County to slaughter their way through the Black Tiger Gang, then headed south with forty thousand taels of silver and countless medicinal herbs under Ji Ye's guidance.

"Hyah—"

Wang Meng pulled his reins, and his warhorse reared up.

He leaped from the saddle in one clean, decisive motion.

Behind him, five hundred "Local Militia" from Black Stone County—or rather, private soldiers personally trained by Ji Ye—dismounted in unison.

Clatter!

The sound of armor plates colliding rang out with perfect uniformity, making the veteran soldiers of the Divine Machine Battalion tremble inwardly.

Wang Meng strode toward Ji Ye.

He dropped to one knee and raised his clasped fists above his head.

His voice rang out like colliding gold and stone:

"Black Stone's old troops have assembled by order!"

"Five hundred brothers await the commander's orders!"

Behind him, the five hundred men roared as one:

"Awaiting orders!!"

The rolling wave of sound scattered the deathly stagnation that had hung over the Divine Machine Battalion for years.

Sun Bingyi's mouth hung open as he looked at this army of tigers and wolves that had descended from the sky, then at the dozens of carts laden with supplies. His mind went blank.

W-Where had this private army come from?

Where had such resources come from?

Ji Ye looked at Wang Meng and at those familiar faces.

Two years of lying low. Two years of preparation.

The idle chess piece he had casually placed two years ago had finally become the most crucial "heavenly center" in this game.

"You're here."

Ji Ye reached out and helped Wang Meng up.

"Was the road smooth?"

"Not smooth." Wang Meng grinned, flashing white teeth. A wrinkle carved by wind and frost had appeared at the corner of his eye. "We killed several bands of blind bandits and dodged the Qin family's inspections a few times. But knowing that you were waiting in the capital, sir, made the road go smoothly enough."

"Thanks for the effort."

Ji Ye patted Wang Meng's shoulder.

"Fall in."

"Yes!"

Wang Meng rose and stood half a step behind Ji Ye, just as he had back at the Black Stone County yamen.

Ji Ye turned around and faced the three hundred veteran soldiers of the Divine Machine Battalion again.

This time, he was no longer looking at dead men. He was looking at pigs and sheep waiting for slaughter.

"Deputy Commander Sun."

"H-Here!" Sun Bingyi shuddered and hurriedly stepped forward.

"Open those crates."

Ji Ye pointed at the carts Wang Meng had brought.

Bang!

The crate lids were pried open.

Dazzling gold light spilled out.

Neatly arranged gold bars, silver ingots, bundles of refined iron arrowheads, and crates of premium gunpowder.

Their radiance was brighter than the sun in the sky, making everyone squint.

Ji Ye casually picked up a silver ingot and squeezed hard, leaving deep fingerprints in it.

"From today onward, the Divine Machine Battalion belongs to Ji."

"Those willing to stay will receive ten taels as settlement money and follow me to eat meat. Those who want to leave can take two taels for travel expenses and get lost."

"But let me make this ugly truth clear first."

Ji Ye's voice abruptly turned cold, like the wind of deep winter, cutting to the bone like a knife.

"Take my money, and your lives belong to me."

"At Luoyan Pass, whoever dares take half a step back..."

Clang!

The Ageless Sword slid halfway from its sheath.

A bleak, murderous aura of death instantly blanketed the entire field.

"Execute."

Clang.

The last silver ingot fell into an old soldier's hand.

The old soldier's hand trembled—not from the cold, but from its weight. Ten taels of silver was wealth he could not save even after selling his life for five years.

Among the three hundred Divine Machine Battalion veterans, not a single one left.

Not because of loyalty, but greed.

Ji Ye offered too much. So much that they felt even if they went to die, their lives would have been sold for a worthy price.

"Wang Meng."

Ji Ye stood atop the command platform, his eyes sweeping over the force of eight hundred men: five hundred fierce Black Stone veterans and three hundred Divine Machine old soldiers.

Their numbers were small, but they were only seeds.

"Drag all those rusted cannons away and melt them down."

Ji Ye pointed at the clumsy red-clothed cannons.

Sun Bingyi was horrified. "Commander! That's the Divine Machine Battalion's entire foundation! If we melt the cannons, what will we use to defend Luoyan Pass? Chew them with our teeth?"

"Foundation?"

Ji Ye walked to a large iron pot and grabbed a handful of the black gunpowder that had just been transported in.

It was coarse, damp, and gray, like a handful of rotten mud.

"This is garbage."

Ji Ye opened his hand and let the black powder spill down.

"The saltpeter hasn't been purified, the sulfur has too many impurities, and the charcoal was made from wet wood. Stuff this into a cannon, and aside from blowing up your own people, it would struggle just to make a sound."

He turned around, his gaze flashing like lightning as it swept across the dozens of carts Wang Meng had brought.

"Unload those carts of good liquor."

"And the eggs. I want every last egg white."

"Set up the sieves and stone mills."

Sun Bingyi and the veteran soldiers stared at one another. What was this supposed to be? Cooking?

But Wang Meng's men moved swiftly. Before long, the drill ground had turned into a workshop.

Ji Ye stood before a stone mill.

[Martial Arts Through Divinity] fully activated.

Microscopic Control.

Within his perception, every saltpeter crystal and every grain of sulfur's purity was laid bare.

"Grind."

Ji Ye gave the order.

The stone mills turned, pulverizing the raw materials into the finest powder.

"Wash the saltpeter with liquor. Remove the impurities."

"Mix it with egg whites and form granules."

"If there's too much water, pour it out."

"If the heat isn't enough, dry it again."

"If the grains are too large, sieve them again."

An hour later.

A pile of gunpowder with a glossy black sheen, its granules even as millet seeds, lay before Ji Ye.

It was no longer that gray, hazy powder, but a crystalline substance that exuded danger.

Granulated gunpowder.

It solved the problems of burn rate and separation, and was more than three times as powerful as powdered gunpowder.

"Try it."

Ji Ye picked up an iron tube dismantled from a ruined cannon, one end sealed shut.

He grabbed a handful of granular gunpowder, packed it tightly inside, then inserted a thumb-sized lead ball.

There was no complicated ignition mechanism, only a simple fuse.

"Watch closely."

Ji Ye set the iron tube on a massive rock and aimed it at a tattered military banner a hundred paces away.

He lit it.

The fuse hissed as it burned, especially piercing in the deathly silent drill ground.

"Boom—!!!"

The explosion was brief and violent.

Unlike the dull "thump" of a red-clad cannon, this was a shriek that tore through the air.

A hundred paces away.

The banner and its pole shattered in an instant.

A deep, bowl-sized crater had appeared in the earthen wall behind the pole, dust billowing everywhere.

The entire field fell silent.

Sun Bingyi's mouth hung open, his jaw nearly dropping to the ground.

Such a tiny tube? Such a small amount of powder?

And it had this kind of power?

Ji Ye put down the scorching iron tube and blew away the lingering blue smoke.

"This is the principle."

He looked at the soldiers staring in stunned disbelief.

"Melt down all the iron and forge it into tubes like this. Long, straight, and hard."

"When we reach Luoyan Pass, I want the Barbarians' Wolf Cavalry to understand..."

A cold curve lifted at the corner of Ji Ye's mouth.

"The times have changed."

The sun sank in the west, its dying glow red as blood.

It dyed the Divine Machine Battalion's dilapidated camp in a wash of scarlet.

Ji Ye stood alone atop the highest point of the gate, the Sword of No Longevity strapped across his back as he gazed south toward Capital City.

The lights there had already come on, its prosperity resembling a grand illusion.

"Sir."

Wang Meng climbed the platform and stopped half a step behind Ji Ye, his voice low.

"The Qin family has cut off our grain supply, the imperial house is watching from the sidelines, and the Barbarian army is pressing upon the border. Luoyan Pass... is a dead end."

He paused, lifting his head, his eyes filled with worry.

"Two years ago, in Black Stone County, you said we had to break free and go somewhere higher. But now that we've finally gained a foothold in Capital City, if we go there... and fall, wouldn't the efforts of these past two years all flow east with the water?"

Ji Ye did not turn around.

The wind whipped up his azure robe with a hunting rustle. In his hand, he toyed with the Tiger Tally that symbolized command, his thumb stroking its icy patterns.

"Flow east with the water?"

Ji Ye gave a soft laugh and turned around.

His gaze passed over Wang Meng, over the eight hundred hardened soldiers ready to depart, and landed on the distant north.

"Wang Meng, do you still remember what I said when I left Black Stone County two years ago?"

Wang Meng froze. That snowy, wind-lashed morning instantly surfaced in his mind.

—"Trapped in the shallows, one is nothing but a loach."

—"Only by becoming a dragon can one ride the clouds and command the rain."

"I dare not forget," Wang Meng said, lowering his head.

"Exactly."

Ji Ye nodded, the light in his eyes fiercer than the setting sun behind him.

"Back then, I left because I was weak. Barbarian cavalry lay before me, Qin Wuji's sword behind me. I was only a loach that could be crushed at any time. Other than fleeing, I had no choice."

He slowly raised a hand, pointing at himself before pointing at the land beneath his feet.

"But now, it is different."

"These past two years, I have traveled throughout Great Liang, seen every trick this jianghu has to offer, and felt out the very bones of this imperial court."

"My sword has been sharpened."

"My men are assembled."

"My path has been understood."

"I have scales now, and claws as well."

Ji Ye's voice was not raised, yet it carried a suffocating calm and weight. It was the stillness before mountains collapsed, the retreating tide before a tsunami arrived.

"Qin Muzhi thinks Luoyan Pass is my grave. He believes I am an abandoned pawn driven into a corner by him."

"Xiao Hongxiu thinks this is the fiery pit before the Dragon Gate where I will leap, and she wants to see whether I can burn myself into a golden body amid the flames."

"The Emperor thinks I am a lone minister with no foundation, that I can only rely on imperial power and become an obedient blade."

Ji Ye's gaze was still as water, yet deep as an abyss.

"They all think they are the ones playing chess."

"They all think that I, Ji Ye, can only move across their chessboard according to the squares they have drawn."

"But..."

Ji Ye withdrew his hand and lightly flicked the hilt of the Sword of No Longevity.

The broken sword hummed, like the low roar of a dragon.

"What if the chessboard is overturned?"

"Luoyan Pass is a land of death, but it is also a land of life."

"I will use Barbarian blood to feed the sword in my hand."

"I will use the Qin family's schemes to forge my own army's soul."

"I will borrow the imperial house's righteous cause to swallow the authority of this world."

He extended his hand and viciously clenched it in the empty air.

As though he had seized the golden dragon of fortune circling above Capital City, then crushed it to pieces in his grip.

"When man gives rise to killing intent, heaven and earth turn upside down."

"I will be the one... who turns the heavens over."

The evening wind brushed past his hair, billowing his thin azure robe like a banner.

The final ray of the setting sun fell upon his shoulders, as if gilding him in blood-colored golden armor.

Looking at the figure before him, Wang Meng felt in a daze that it was no longer a man, but a sharp sword about to sever the shackles of this chaotic age—a hidden dragon gathering strength in the abyss, ready to soar into the sky at any moment.

The final thread of doubt in his heart was burned to ashes by that towering spirit, replaced by blood boiling like molten lava.

Ji Ye withdrew the hand he had extended toward the void and slowly gripped the hilt of the Sword of No Longevity at his waist.

The motion was light, yet it was as though he had grasped the lifeline of the entire world.

"Wang Meng."

"Here!"

"Pass down the order. The entire army moves out."

Ji Ye swung himself onto his horse, his movement smooth as drifting clouds and flowing water. He pulled the reins taut and cast one final glance at the prosperous yet decaying Capital City behind him.

"Two years ago, I said that when I returned, the rules of this world would have to change."

"Now..."

"The time has come."

"Hyah!"

The black horse whinnied, its four hooves flying as they kicked up dust across the ground.

Ji Ye took the lead, charging into the boundless night.

Behind him, eight hundred hardened soldiers followed in silence, like a black flood bursting through a broken dike.

This journey would see dragons battle in the wilderness.

This journey would change the board of the world.

At the same time.

Qin Manor, study.

Qin Muzhi held a teacup, listening to the wind and snow beyond the window, a satisfied smile on his lips.

"He has left?"

"He has. He took several hundred beaten remnants and a few carts of junk out of the city," the old steward replied with a bow.

"Good."

Qin Muzhi blew away the tea froth. "The dead are what put people most at ease. Have the arrangements at Luoyan Pass been made?"

"They have. The provisions will be delayed by an accident, and the reinforcements will lose their way. He will not last three days."

"Three days..." Qin Muzhi took a sip of tea. "That is enough. Send a letter to Wuji and tell him to recover from his wounds in peace. This whetstone has shattered."

At the same time.

Grand Princess's Manor, Tingxue Tower.

Xiao Hongxiu stood atop the tower, watching that troop disappear into the wind and snow.

"Your Highness, are we truly letting him go to his death?" the man in black asked quietly. "That is a fine sword."

"A sword can only be called a divine weapon after it has been burned in fire and tempered in blood."

Xiao Hongxiu drew her cloak closer around herself, her eyes deep and unfathomable.

"If he returns alive, I will dare hand half of Great Liang's military authority to him."

"If he does not return..."

She reached out and caught a falling snowflake.

The snowflake melted in her palm, becoming a pool of icy water.

"Then let him not return."

Night deepened over Capital City.

Songs and dancing concealed the movements within the military camp west of the city.

No one knew that a force of only eight hundred men had silently broken camp under cover of night and headed north.

They took away all the gunpowder, all hope, and the final sliver of national fortune belonging to the Great Liang Dynasty.

When that dark black carriage vanished at the end of the official road.

A shooting star tore through the long night sky and fell toward the north.

The Ziwei Star had stirred; the Sha Po Lang configuration had formed.

The evil dragon lurking in the abyss had opened its eyes.