"E-E-E-E-E-E-E-Earth!?"
Ye Ting's words immediately left Alaya stunned.
It was no wonder. After all, Ye Ting was not talking about just any place, but humanity's homeworld and the birthplace of the Qin Empire—Earth.
It would be as laughable as the Han dynasty granting Guanzhong to a prince who was not the crown prince, the Tang dynasty bestowing Luoyang, or the Ming dynasty granting Jinling.
That was Earth.
Although more than sixty percent of the Qin Empire's population now lived beyond Earth, and the ringworld had even been designated as the future Qin Empire's primary place of residence.
Although Qin's capital was no longer Xianyang, no longer located on Earth. It had been replaced by Afang Palace, a massive mobile space fortress.
Earth's status within Qin was self-evident.
No matter how far Qin's conquest of the stars and seas progressed, Earth's status as Qin's—and humanity's—homeworld would never change. Its connection was like that between the Old World and the New World after the Age of Exploration—no, even closer than that.
To Qin people living beyond Earth, their ancestors came from Earth, their culture came from Earth, and their way of life came from Earth. Even the settlements they established on alien worlds had to have their environments and ecosystems transformed to look identical to Earth's—whether they lived on Triton or on the ringworld, the animals, plants, and even microorganisms around them all originated from Earth, merely modified to a certain degree for different planetary environments.
It was foreseeable that no matter which corner of the universe humanity's fleets reached, Earth would forever leave a deep, unchangeable mark upon them.
Now that Ye Ting had actually said he would hand the entirety of Earth over to her, it was only natural for Alaya to be so shocked—and even delighted.
"Hand Earth over