From afar on the distant ridge, Han Fei and Zhang Liang had clocked them too—but stayed veiled, identities unknown. Then Li Haime's stirring turned the pot: a brawl erupted, fiercer than the prior clash. Two Unity of Heaven and Man powerhouses in the fray—everyone present, Bai Yifei included, mere half-step aspirants.
"What in the—?" Han Fei blinked, baffled. We all know you're lurking—but who are you? Now this: infighting? Self-sabotage, outing yourselves?
"Yin-Yang Eastern Sovereign; Luo Net's Veil the Sun; Farmers' Shennong Hall Zhu Jia; Mohist Shen; knight-errant Jing Ke." Zhang Liang parsed the forms mid-melee.
Downslope, prepping withdrawal, Blood-Clad Marquis Bai Yifei jolted—two Unity realms, unbidden? He barked orders: fortify defenses.
The instigator, Li Haime, had long whisked Xue Nu back within Xinzheng's walls.
"Master, this stunt's a death wish." Xue Nu eyed him, awed beyond words at the audacity.
"You—take notes. This is Daoist style. Never lift a finger yourself." Li Haime lectured.
Brawling? Tedious grind. As for reprisals? Heh—Daoists short on such schemes? Squat the peaks, chase immortality; got the guts? Storm Taiyi. Else, pipe down. Seven-eight years I vanish—you camping the base that long?
Learned it—prime Daoist: kill free, bury none.
Next dawn, Li Haime stirred to a Daoist missive—tidings in droves.
Prince and Red Lotus rescued; King Han fêted Ji Wuye, Han Fei, and Fourth Prince Han Yu.
Yin-Yang Eastern Sovereign, Luo Net Veil the Sun, Mohist Shen, Farmers' Shennong Hall Zhu Jia, knight-errant Jing Ke: pitched battle Xinzheng outskirts. Veil the Sun fled grievous; the four bore wounds each. Triad factions hunted Shu Mountain's Abyss Guard.
Scarce two days later: three shocks quaking the Seven Kingdoms.
Crown Prince drowns—blamed on Tian Ze.
Qin envoy slain in Han soil—confirmed Tian Ze's work.
Qin legions mass Han borders: surrender the assassin.
Han quaked, grass and cranes in flight. Lands dwindled; Qin at the gates? Pretext for invasion.
"Sect Leader—Qin's fresh envoy: rising star Li Si. Like Ninth Prince Han Fei, schooled under Little Sage Village's Xunzi—yet both tread Legalist paths." City steward Mo returned, latest dispatches in tow.
Li Haime nodded—Li Si here; wonder the fallout.
Li Si had arrived. As Qin envoy, he loomed over Han's court, silencing the hall—a great power's shadow. Unlike Tianxing's gambit, no wager with Han Fei.
"Senior Brother Han Fei—silver tongue as ever. But our envoy's death in Han lands? Undeniable fact. Han must bear the blame." Li Si fixed Han Fei level.
"Dare you bet?" Han Fei challenged.
Li Si ignored him. Post-Zheng's secrets: Qin's unreadied for Six-State swallow—slay Han now? Spark fresh Vertical Alliance. His mission crystalline: gnaw border holds for the feast—not Tianxing's dread-fail hunt for culprits. No stakes, no barbs from Han Fei.
"First: Deliver the assassin within five days. Second: King Han, with high minister rites, escort our envoy's remains home. Third: Cede five border cities to Qin. Fail one—Iron Riders claim them." Li Si's voice rang iron.
Han court erupted—defiance, jeers: Send your troops; we'll fight!
"Envoy demands the true killer in five—if sooner than that, does Qin yield five cities to Han?" Han Fei countered.
Li Si spared him a glance—no clash. Once, he'd amplify triumphs with wagers; now, Zheng's accord quelled futures' fret. Stepwise: devour Han piecemeal. His horizon: Six East, not this morsel.
"Five days' grace: a deadline, not barter for Ninth Prince's haggling. No terms from you—accept, or parley with Qin's cavalry! The latter? Five cities scarce the toll." Li Si chilled the dais.
"Envoy—withdraw; we deliberate." King An waved weary, dismissing him. Li Si bowed perfunctory, sleeve-flung, scepter in hand—departed.
"Speak—how to proceed?" King An's tone bit cold.
Prince dead, Qin envoy murdered, legions at our throat—all Tian Ze's mess. And he's abroad, stirring more? Ji Wuye, Han Fei—what use?
"My king—yield now, secure the frontier!" Ji Wuye conceded; self-fetch? Beyond five holds.
"Enough—known. Lands and rites: Chancellor Zhang's charge." King An yielded; stir Qin's blades? Cataclysm.
"Aye, my king." Zhang Kaidi stepped forth, commanded. Weak states, no diplomacy.
"Tian Ze—capture him! Ji Wuye, Han Fei: five days, results!" King An roared anew.
Ji Wuye and Han Fei bowed to the yoke.
From the palace, Han Fei sought Li Si first. Probes yielded: Li Si now Qin's county warden in the Court of Judicial Review—meteoric rise. Lü Buwei's man, yet surging unchecked. Today's poise? No failure-fear, no war's brink. For him—ever the puppet-master—a slip from control's grasp.
"Junior Brother!" Han Fei entered the Qin legation, Li Si in view.
"Senior Brother—as expected, swift to Minister of Justice." Li Si smiled, ushering him in.
"For Lü Buwei... or King Zheng?" Han Fei cut direct.
Many paths: Lü's eye, or Zheng's? A commoner's entrée to either? Baffling. Talent unveiled? Both would claim him—aye.
"I serve Qin!" Li Si met him even, unbowed.
"You've changed, Junior Brother." Han Fei sighed.
Daoist weave, this—pre-that, I read him clear. Post-Human Sect head's tutelage? Steady now, ambition shed. What words reshaped him so?
"All evolve: some refined, some tangled, some estranged from self. Is this not the Seven Kingdoms?" Li Si said.
"Junior Brother—deeply marked by Human Sect's Wuchenzi Uncle. Daoist bent in word and deed." Han Fei noted.
*"Cliff a thousand ren, desireless then rigid." Daoist canon writ. Late I grasped: wantlessness unveils the self unclouded." Li Si replied.
"What did Uncle Wuchenzi impart, to forge such shift?" Han Fei pressed.
"Once, all deemed me your inferior—Teacher too. I chafed, bitterly: born lesser? Swap cradles, I'd eclipse you." Li Si bared, heart still as glass.
Han Fei smiled rue—had fates swapped, he'd match or best me.
"Till Teacher said: your birth caps your heights; mine frees me farther, higher. My sight then? Shallow shallows—thence my lag, not blood." Li Si pressed.
"Teacher? You apprenticed under Uncle Wuchenzi?" Han Fei startled—and embraced it? What sway bent pride to fealty?
"Teacher took no pupil—my path demands no single school. Yet in Li Si's heart: teacher, benefactor. Two gifts birthed this Li Si." Li Si said, sigh laced with thanks.
"No guesswork—one: entrée to Zheng or Lü, with their regard."
Han Fei nodded—that explains failure's fearlessness. But the other?
"Aye—the first: Daoist Unity of Heaven and Man writ. By it, I gained audience with King Zheng and Chancellor Lü—earned their ear. Thus, Qin's webs unveiled: Legalist tomes amassed." Li Si confirmed.
"And the second—prized above even that Daoist seal?" Han Fei puzzled—what trumps a Unity token?
"A aim, a worldview to surpass yours." Li Si said.
He eyed Han Fei's shock—once, such awe from him? Glee. Now?
"Teacher spoke: your birth binds you to Han, your gaze to the Seven—so your 'Seven Heavens' your utmost; mine: ninety-nine. But Teacher unveiled: Seven too paltry. Mine spans no mere petty states, but an empire towering the world, dwarfing Grand Zhou—one to echo through ages eternal, vast as the void." Li Si's voice quickened—even now, the quake lingers, awe unbound.
"An empire mightier than Grand Zhou—eternal through generations?" Han Fei grasped—and fell mute. Birth's chain: I dream no such span.
"You think you grasp? You don't—yet. And this... I cannot share." Li Si said, a flicker of boast—but his and Zheng's alone; none else.
Post-Zheng: a mere Human Sect head's plate suffices entrée. Why squander a Unity writ?
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