Steam Pillars Pierce the Heavens Welcoming the Dragon Carriage, Old Grudges in the Deep Abyss Pit the Zhao Clan

"Your Majesty, Handan City is near!"

When Ying Zheng's inspection procession reached a point thirty li outside Handan, a court attendant scouting ahead galloped back with his report.

Everyone looked in the direction he pointed and indeed saw a gray-black city wall standing upon the distant horizon, its ramparts stretching endlessly like a crouching dragon.

Yet even more striking were the countless streams of white vapor shooting skyward from atop the walls and within the city.

That white vapor was utterly unlike ordinary cooking smoke. Cooking smoke was thin and scattered, blown apart by the wind.

This vapor, however, was thick as pillars and dense as a forest. It shimmered with a lustrous sheen beneath the sun, rising several zhang into the sky before slowly dispersing. From time to time, it was mixed with muffled rumbles, as though some colossal beast were breathing within the city.

"What is that?"

Someone in the procession could not help crying out softly. "Could there be a fire in the city? How could smoke columns be so perfectly orderly?"

"It looks rather like steam from hot springs, but where would Handan get so many hot springs?"

Amid the murmurs, the curtain of the Golden Root Chariot was gently lifted. Ying Zheng's gaze settled upon that expanse of surging white vapor, his brows lifting slightly.

He had seen the chimneys of Xianyang Palace and the cooking smoke from military stoves, yet he had never seen vapor on such a scale. It was as though the entire city were "breathing," each exhalation and inhalation carrying immense force.

"Zhao Cheng,"

Ying Zheng turned his head toward Zhao Cheng at his side, his tone holding a trace of inquiry. "Could that white vapor above the city be cooking smoke?"

Zhao Cheng reined in his horse, his dark-red cloak