At the news, all the soldiers and civilians of Qin fell into wild jubilation. On their road to sweeping the world clean and uniting all beneath heaven, their only concern was Zhao-or, more precisely, Eunuch He alone. But the Qin Emperor did not believe the news at all, convinced it had to be a conspiracy. Eunuch He's foundations in Zhao were so deep, his methods no less formidable than the emperor's own. He had just installed another child as the new sovereign and was at the very height of his glory. How could he suddenly abandon everything and simply disappear?
Countless spies and experts were dispatched from Xianyang City to seek news of Eunuch He throughout the world, but they found nothing. Besides the Qin Emperor, many other powers tried to locate Eunuch He, or take over the political and military legacy he had left behind-at the very least, to establish whether he was alive or dead. But they found no clues either.
Eunuch He had simply vanished, just like Jing Jiu.
Even when great men departed, the sun would rise as usual. Time continued to pass, and several more years went by in a blink. Forty-two years had now passed since the Dao contest began.
Under the empress dowager's rule, Zhao suffered no upheavals, but neither could it be as powerful as it had once been. Its edge gradually dulled, and it could no longer contend with Qin for supremacy.
As one waned, the other waxed. Having digested and absorbed Chu's national strength, Qin grew even more powerful, its iron cavalry invincible wherever it rode.
One morning, as the sun rose, the Qin Emperor got out of bed and walked to the window. Smelling the burning lacquer drifting in from outside the palace, he frowned slightly.
To prepare for