The Son of Heaven of Zhou entrusted King Yu's Nine Tripods to Luo State, entrusting the Zhou State's Mandate of Heaven to Luo State.
There was no concealing this news. Like winds blowing in every direction, it spread through the States at tremendous speed.
The first to receive word were naturally Han State and Wei State, for the route from Luoyi to Zhao City passed through both.
The enormous procession and King Yu's Nine Tripods, constantly gleaming and plainly extraordinary at a glance, were impossible to conceal.
Desire could overwhelm even the clearest head. King Dang of Qin had paid with his life over a single royal tripod of Yong Province.
Faced with all nine royal tripods, how could the kings of Wei and Han possibly remain rational?
One tripod could not symbolize the Mandate of Heaven, but what about nine?
The Nine Tripods, unmoved for a thousand years, had left Luoyi. If they could obtain the Nine Tripods, would that not mean obtaining the Mandate of Heaven?
If Heaven favored them, allowing them to be invincible in battle and unstoppable in siege like King Wu and the Sage King, they might yet defeat mighty Qin in war.
Who could then say that I was not the lord of all under Heaven?
On the border between Han and Wei.
Banners snapped in the wind amid a biting chill, and the keen menace of blades, spears, swords, and halberds pierced the clouds.
Countless troops stood arrayed in a dark mass, their weapons reflecting a cold white gleam, like clouds gathering boundless thunder to tear apart everything between heaven and earth.
The kings of Han and Wei had personally led their armies here. They gazed at King Yu's Nine Tripods from afar, their eyes filled with desire, greed, and a kind of