The dragon soul awakens

For every nation, its ancestor symbols were undoubtedly its most precious possessions.

Stealing another nation's symbol was tantamount to cutting off its chance to rise.

No nation in the world could ever tolerate such a thing.

At that moment, across more than two hundred nations worldwide,

whether they were inheritors, Awakened, or ordinary citizens,

they all saw Su Chen as a vile thief who had stolen Sakura's symbol.

And all of Huaxia had become the target of condemnation.

The person who hated Su Chen most at that moment was undoubtedly Noda Shino.

The Eight-Character Divine Seal was Sakura's symbol.

Surely, he should have been the one to receive its ancestor's inheritance.

Yet Su Chen had actually activated the symbol right in front of him.

This was an outrageous insult!

At that moment, Noda Shino wanted nothing more than to skin Su Chen alive.

But a sliver of hope still remained in his heart.

Although the Eight-Character Divine Seal had been activated and the ancestor phantom had appeared, the inheritance had yet to descend.

There was still a chance to turn things around!

If he killed Su Chen, he could still become Ying Zheng's inheritor!

No matter what, Noda Shino would never let Su Chen leave Sakura alive!

His opponent was alone, while Sakura had him and tens of thousands of Awakened.

To Noda Shino, killing Su Chen was a sure thing.

But just as they closed in, another commotion suddenly erupted among the spectators.

Hundreds upon hundreds of people suddenly surged forward, breaking through the police cordon and charging out of the crowd.

And they were not the only ones.

More people kept pouring in from outside the airport.

Their eyes were bloodshot and their teeth clenched. They charged heedless of the batons in the Sakura police officers' hands, refusing to stop even when their heads were split and blood streamed down their faces.

"Protect Su Chen!"

"Bring our ancestor home!"

"Don't be afraid, Su Chen! We descendants of the Qin Family are here to help you!"

"Charge! Even if we die, we'll die before our ancestor!"

Shouts erupted throughout the crowd.

Those at the very front leaped forward, tackling the Sakura police officers blocking their way.

More descendants of the Qin Family flooded into the airport like a tide, rushing toward the runway.

Surprise filled Su Chen's eyes at the sight.

When he heard the words "descendants of the Qin Family," his whole body trembled, and his eyes reddened.

He was not, in fact, someone who took reckless risks.

He also knew full well what he meant to Huaxia.

He had his own grounds for confidence in daring to come to Sakura alone.

He still remembered what Dayu had told him.

His arrival in this world had been no accident.

Huaxia's ancestors had burned their remnant souls to send him here.

Having gone to such lengths, Huaxia's ancestors would not let harm come to him so easily.

As long as he awakened Ying Zheng,

this ancestral dragon of Huaxia, this peerless emperor, would surely keep him safe.

Before the mighty power of an ancestor, even the strongest inheritors and the greatest number of Awakened

were like stars beneath the blazing sun, unable to shine at all.

But although Su Chen had planned everything, he had never expected the Qin Family's descendants to gather in Sakura of their own accord.

Now, in a foreign land, facing Noda Shino's murderous fury and Sakura's enraged Awakened,

the Qin Clan members showed not a trace of fear, charging forward one after another.

They wanted to protect Su Chen. They wanted to bring their ancestor symbol home!

Perhaps, to others,

the Qin Family's descendants were marching to their deaths, hopelessly overestimating themselves.

But to act even knowing the odds were impossible-

was that not precisely why Huaxia had stood unbroken for thousands of years and steadily risen?

Valiant men of ancient Qin, together we face our nation's peril!

Valiant men of ancient Qin, reclaim our rivers and mountains!

Until our blood runs dry, even in death, we shall not cease fighting!

For a moment, those familiar lyrics welled up in Su Chen's heart.

How closely these fearless descendants of the Qin Family resembled the elite soldiers of the Qin Army a thousand years ago!

No!

They were the same people all along!

The same blood flowed through their veins!

They were all people of Qin!

"Baka!"

Noda Shino turned to look at the crowd pouring in and surrounding them, his expression growing even more furious.

"A bunch of ordinary people dare come to Sakura to throw their lives away!"

"Kill them! Kill them all!"

"Kill every last one of these people from Huaxia! Don't let a single one escape!"

Savage light flared in the eyes of Sakura's Awakened. Gripping katanas formed from awakening power, they swung wildly at the charging Qin Clan members.

"Let's see who dares!"

Su Chen's eyes blazed with fury as an immense surge of inheritance power burst from him.

The golden inheritance power split into hundreds of streams, crashing outward like waves.

More than a hundred Sakura Awakened who were swinging their blades suddenly felt a tremendous force strike them. An instant later, they were hurled backward.

Noda Shino snorted coldly and thrust both hands forward.

Shit-yellow inheritance power surged out as well, meeting Su Chen's power.

Hiss, hiss, hiss...

The yellow and golden forces collided, producing a shriek like metal scraping against metal.

Within a single breath, both streams of inheritance power had worn each other down to nothing.

Although they seemed evenly matched,

Noda Shino's expression changed.

Others could not tell, but he could.

The inheritance power he had released was nearly twice as much as Su Chen's.

Yet both had dissipated at the same time.

That could only mean Su Chen's inheritance power was far purer than his own.

Still, although Noda Shino was somewhat surprised, he did not panic.

They were in Sakura. Even if Su Chen was stronger than him, he had absolutely no chance of winning.

"Keep killing!"

"You can stop us once, but can you stop us a second time? A third?"

"Before you die, I'll make you watch these people from Huaxia get hacked to pieces!"

"I'll show the whole world that you, Huaxia's inheritor, can't even protect your own people!"

As the Sakura Awakened raised their slaughtering blades again,

Su Chen gave an angry snort, and his inheritance power surged out once more.

This time, however, it did not block Sakura's Awakened. Instead, it stretched into a ring, pushing the Qin Family's descendants approaching from every direction far away.

"It's true that I can't protect these descendants of the Qin Family!"

"But their ancestor can!"

With that, Su Chen turned his gaze toward Ying Zheng's phantom nearby.

Ever since being summoned, the phantom had kept his eyes closed, motionless as a statue.

But Su Chen had expected this all along.

The ancestor phantoms awakened by every nation had been just like this.

Only in Huaxia, only Dayu, had ever opened his eyes and even personally intervened.

If Dayu could do it, the First Emperor of Qin surely could too!

Su Chen's expression turned solemn, and he cried out.

"I united the six kingdoms and brought all beneath heaven under one rule!"

"I built the Great Wall to anchor the dragon veins of the Nine Provinces, defend my Great Qin, and protect my realm."

"In the name of the First Emperor, I hereby swear!"

"While I live, I shall defend our lands and expand our borders, crush the barbarians on all sides, and lay the foundations for my Great Qin to endure for ten thousand generations!"

"When I die, I shall become a dragon soul and bless my Huaxia, that it may never decline!"

"Let the sun and moon bear witness to this oath, let heaven and earth attest to it, and let immortals, demons, ghosts, and gods all hear it!"

At those words, Su Chen's aura surged once more. Amplified by his inheritance power, his voice thundered deafeningly.

"Your Majesty! This is the oath you carved upon the stone tablet in your mausoleum!"

"This is the promise you made to Huaxia's realm and to your descendants!"

"Now!"

"The descendants of the Qin Clan face the blades of a foreign people!"

"The proof of Huaxia's legitimate imperial succession has been claimed as another nation's possession!"

"Every foreign nation believes you are an ancestor of the Japanese and regards us as thieves!"

"This junior bows and begs the First Emperor's dragon soul to awaken!"

"Bless our Huaxia!"

"Keep your descendants safe!"