My Imperial Advisor is ChatGPT

Chapter 58 The Invisible Poison Arrow and the Prime Minister Who Collided with the "Barrier&quo

Inside the replica "Kirin Palace" on Fusang Island, the air seemed to have solidified into lead.

Xiang Yu stood in the center of the hall, his "Breaking Formation" greatsword hanging at his side, a drop of blood, the blood of some unfortunate warrior, dripping from its tip. His gaze was fixed on the lead box placed on the table above the dragon throne not far away.

The box was open, and inside, a fist-sized stone emitted a faint green glow. The light wasn't dazzling, but it possessed an indescribable eeriness, like the eyes of a wolf staring at someone in the dark, or like the flickering will-o'-the-wisps in a mass grave.

"No...don't come any closer!"

Xu Fu, hiding behind the pillar, was now disheveled, his former image as a refined and otherworldly Taoist priest completely gone. He tightly gripped a jewel-encrusted but unsharpened dagger in his hand, his voice hoarse like that of an old duck being strangled.

"That's an ancient poisonous stone! It's a curse! Anyone who gets close will die from festering sores! I... I've already broken the seal! You will all perish with me!"

As Xu Fu shouted, he couldn't help but cough violently, his spittle containing obvious streaks of blood. Xiang Yu keenly noticed that the old swindler indeed had dark red ulcers on his hands and neck, and his hair was strangely sparse.

"A curse?" Xiang Yu snorted coldly, his double pupils slightly contracting.

As a seasoned warrior, he believed in swords and strength. He instinctively scoffed at such invisible and intangible "magic." But his years of battlefield experience told him that the stone was indeed dangerous.

The sense of danger didn't come from murderous intent, but from a tingling, numbing sensation on the skin.

"Playing tricks."

Xiang Yu did not rush forward, but looked around. He noticed a long wooden pole in the corner of the hall, used to support the curtains.

He strode over, ripped off the curtain, and picked up the two-zhang-long wooden pole.

"Since it's a poisonous stone, I'll just flick it away."

With a flick of his wrist, Xiang Yu sent the wooden pole, like a spear, precisely aimed at the lead box.

"No! That's a divine stone! Don't touch it!" Xu Fu screamed, trying to rush over to stop him.

"Get out of my way!"

Xiang Yu didn't even look at him, but with one hand holding the pole, he suddenly flicked it.

"call--"

The heavy lead box, along with the glowing stone inside, was skillfully flung into the air by Xiang Yu, tracing a green arc before crashing heavily onto the open space outside the main hall.

"Bang!"

The lead box fell to the ground, the lid flew off, and the stone rolled out, lying alone on the muddy ground, still emitting that eerie green light.

"Look, here comes the divine punishment!" Xiang Yu threw away the wooden pole, strode towards Xu Fu, and grabbed him by the collar like a chick.

"I wasn't struck by lightning, nor burned by fire. It seems even your god fears my blade."

Xu Fu slumped in Xiang Yu's arms, his eyes unfocused. He stared at the "divine stone" that had been tossed aside like trash. It was a treasure he had painstakingly unearthed after ten years of hard work and the deaths of hundreds of locals, the hope that it would grant him immortality, but now it had become like this.

"Why...why are you alright..." Xu Fu murmured to himself, "Could it really be...that only a true dragon emperor has antibodies?"

"Antibody my ass." Xiang Yu slapped him across the face to bring him to his senses. "Behave yourself. His Majesty is still waiting for you to come back and tell his stories in Xianyang."

Xiang Yu turned to Long Ju, who was standing at the palace gate, too afraid to enter, and shouted, "Pass on the order! No one is allowed to touch that glowing stone! Find a deep pit and bury it! Bury it deep! Put a large stone on top and write 'Beware of vicious dogs!'"

Although he didn't understand the principle, Xiang Yu felt that since this old swindler was so sick, that thing must be a scourge.

Burying it is the easiest way.

……

Xianyang, thousands of miles away.

The expansion project of the Epang Palace is still in full swing. However, today, the Epang Palace has a new sight that leaves everyone speechless.

It was a house made entirely of glass.

It wasn't the kind of cloudy glass, but rather a flat glass that the Shaofu had just developed, which, although still slightly greenish, was already transparent enough.

This "Crystal Palace" stands in the Imperial Garden, shimmering brilliantly in the sunlight, like a heavenly palace fallen to earth.

At this moment, Prime Minister Li Si was carrying a thick stack of memorials and hurrying towards the Crystal Palace. He had heard that His Majesty had recently become enamored with working here, saying that the good lighting made him feel good and even helped him get calcium.

Li Si had something on his mind. Although the national treasury had more money recently, there were even more places to spend it. The merchant caravans in the Western Regions needed escort, the fleet in the East China Sea needed supplies, and there was that money-devouring railway project—each one was raking in the cash. He needed to get the Emperor's approval as soon as possible.

"Your Majesty! I have an urgent report to submit!"

As Li Si shouted, he strode forward with incredible speed. He looked at the seemingly "open" gate in front of him and strode across without any suspicion.

"Thump—!!!"

A dull, loud thud echoed throughout the Imperial Garden.

Li Si felt stars flashing before his eyes, and his nose bridge throbbed with excruciating pain as if it were broken. He fell backward, scattering the memorials in his hands all over the ground.

"Ouch... my nose... Who? Who ambushed this old man?"

Li Si, clutching his bleeding nose, sat on the ground, staring blankly ahead.

There's clearly nothing in front of me! Just air? How can there be an invisible wall?

"Ha ha ha ha!"

A hearty laugh came from behind the "air".

Ying Zheng sat in the Crystal Palace, holding a teacup in his hand, laughing so hard he almost fell over.

"Li Si, Li Si, it's time to get your old eyesight checked."

Ying Zheng pressed a button on the table, and the spotless glass door slowly slid open.

"Come in. I already had someone put up a 'Caution: Glass' sign on the door. You left in such a hurry, who can you blame?"

Li Si scrambled to his feet, only then noticing that there was indeed a small paper cutout on the transparent glass, but he hadn't noticed it because of the reflection.

"Your Majesty..." Li Si wiped his nosebleed while touching the door in shock. "This...this is glass? How can it be made so smooth? So transparent? If I hadn't bumped into it, I would have thought it was hollow!"

"This is what you call 'the beauty of industry'." Ying Zheng was in a great mood. "Although Zhao Gao, that servant girl, isn't very good at chemistry, her glassmaking skills are getting better and better."

"Little G said this is called 'float glass.' You pour molten glass onto molten tin and let it spread out naturally. Glass made this way has no ripples and is as flat as a mirror."

Ying Zheng pointed to the glass dome above his head.

"With this, I plan to build a 'greenhouse' in winter. Even when it's snowing heavily, I will still be able to eat fresh cucumbers and chives."

Li Si was dumbfounded.

Using such priceless glass to build houses, just to grow cucumbers?

If the former nobles of the six states knew this, they would probably jump out of their coffins in anger and curse "tyrannical Qin".

But then Li Si thought again, what if this glass could be sold to those nobles...

"Your Majesty is wise!" Li Si, ignoring the pain in his nose, instantly sensed the money in the air, driven by his merchant instincts. "If this could be introduced to the common people, even just for windows, it would be incredibly profitable! Those wealthy merchants, just to show off, would definitely tear down all the paper windows in their homes and replace them with this!"

"Granted," Ying Zheng said calmly. "This matter will be handled by Liu Bang's 'Great Qin Building Materials Company.' As for the price... you are the prime minister, you decide. Anyway, I only need 30%."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Li Si picked up the memorial and went into the Crystal Palace. Although his nose still hurt, he was already plotting how to extract money from those wealthy merchants.

"Speak, what urgent matter is it?" Ying Zheng put away his smile and resumed his imperial majesty.

"Your Majesty, this is a message from the East Sea."

Li Si presented a secret report.

"General Xiang has already breached that fake city and captured Xu Fu alive. Moreover..." Li Si's expression turned somewhat strange, "General Xiang said that he discovered a kind of 'glowing poisonous stone' on the island."

"That old scoundrel Xu Fu seemed to want to take this stone down with him, but he ended up falling ill and dying first. General Xiang was afraid that the thing had evil energy, so he buried it."

Ying Zheng's hand suddenly stopped, and the teacup stopped in mid-air.

"A glowing stone? That makes people sick?"

He looked at the light screen in his mind.

"Little G, this sounds...so familiar?"

"Your Majesty, if I'm not mistaken, that's radioactive ore."

It could be natural uranium ore or radium ore.

[That old swindler Xu Fu probably mistook the heat and light generated by radiation for "spiritual energy," and slept with it every day, resulting in acute radiation sickness.]

[Xiang Yu was just a fool with good fortune. If he hadn't buried it and had taken that thing back to Xianyang, your entire court would probably have lost their heads.]

Ying Zheng felt a chill run down his spine.

The invisible killer.

More terrible than a plague, more merciless than swords.

"Buried?" Ying Zheng asked. "Buried deep?"

"General Xiang said that a deep pit was dug and a huge rock was placed on top of it."

"Not enough." Ying Zheng stood up and paced back and forth in the Crystal Palace. "That stuff will seep into the soil and the water. Xu Fu's island will probably be uninhabitable in the future."

"Send the order to Xiang Yu."

"Designate a ten-mile radius around the place where the stone was buried as a restricted area. Erect a monument and inscribe it with the words 'Land of Divine Punishment, those who enter will surely die.'"

"Also, lock up that old bastard Xu Fu in solitary confinement. Don't let him near my fleet. I'm afraid he's carrying... that invisible poison gas."

Although Li Si didn't understand anything about radiation, he was quite frightened by the Emperor's serious attitude.

"I... obey your order!"

"Oh, right." Ying Zheng seemed to remember something, his gaze turning westward. "How's Marcus doing teaching at the university lately?"

Li Si wiped away his cold sweat: "Your Majesty, that Roman... has been feeling a bit homesick lately."

"Homesickness?"

"Yes. He said that although the Qin Dynasty was good, with bathhouses and delicious food, he missed the gladiatorial games of Rome."

He said that although the men of Qin were strong, they were too gentle. He wanted to organize a competition so that everyone could...fight each other.

Ying Zheng raised an eyebrow.

"Gladiator combat?"

"That's interesting. My Qin Dynasty values ​​martial prowess, but in recent years we've been so focused on business and railway construction that our fighting spirit has indeed been worn down."

"Granted."

Ying Zheng walked to the glass wall and looked at the vibrant imperial garden outside.

"Build the 'Qin Arena' right outside Xianyang City."

"However, don't resort to the barbaric tricks of killing people and feeding them lions, like the Romans did. That's something only uncivilized people do."

"Let's do... 'Full Armor Combat'."

"Have the Imperial Household Department bring out all the new armor and weapons that are still in the experimental stage."

"Let Xiang Yu's 'security team,' Meng Tian's 'border guards,' and the students selected by Marcus go up and practice."

"I want to see whether the Roman phalanx is tougher or my Ironclad Cavalry is more formidable."

"Furthermore..." A shrewd businessman's eye flashed in Ying Zheng's eyes, "Could we sell tickets for this competition? Could we offer betting options?"

Li Si was taken aback, then gave a thumbs up.

"Your Majesty...you've turned even this Roman hobby into a business!"

……

Several months later, in the western suburbs of Xianyang.

A massive circular building rose from the ground. It wasn't as grand as the Roman Colosseum, but it was incredibly practical—it was constructed using the latest "volcanic ash cement," making it extremely sturdy.

Today is the opening ceremony of the "First Qin Martial Arts Tournament".

Crowds of people.

Not only were there ordinary people from Xianyang, but also merchants from the Western Regions, leaders of the Baiyue people, and even Xu Fu, who had just been escorted back to the capital, was specially allowed to be locked in an iron cage and placed in a corner of the stands for "observation".

By this time, Xu Fu was emaciated, his hair had fallen out, and his body was covered with festering sores. He huddled in the cage, looking at the bustling world outside that was unfamiliar to him, his eyes filled with fear and confusion.

"This...this is the Qin Dynasty?" Xu Fu muttered to himself, "That tyrant...actually created something like this?"

In the center of the stands, Ying Zheng sat high in the main seat.

He wasn't wearing a dragon robe, but rather a specially made Zhongshan suit that made him look exceptionally smart (a modified version recommended by Little G for ease of movement).

"Let's begin," Ying Zheng ordered calmly.

With a horn sound, the iron fence below the field slowly rose.

On the left is a group of Qin heavy infantrymen wearing plate armor and wielding long swords, led by Xiang Yu's deputy general, Long Ju.

On the right is a "Roman phalanx simulation team" trained by Marcus, armed with short swords and square shields.

"kill--!"

Without exchanging any pleasantries, the two sides clashed head-on.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The dull thud of the impact ignited the audience's passion.

The Roman phalanx's shield wall was indeed sturdy, pushing forward like a wall. But the Qin plate armor was even more formidable; Roman short swords could only slide off it.

"Change formation!" Long Qi roared.

The Qin soldiers suddenly scattered, each pulling out a weapon from behind their back...

Molotov cocktail?

No, it was a ceramic jar filled with lime powder.

"Throw!"

"Slap! Slap!"

White smoke instantly enveloped the Roman phalanx.

"Cough cough cough! Despicable! My eyes!" Marcus jumped up and down in anger from the audience. "This is cheating! This is a chemical weapon!"

Taking advantage of the enemy's confusion, the Qin army swarmed forward and used blunt-tipped longswords to take down their opponents one by one.

"The victor is—Qin!" the referee announced loudly.

The audience erupted in thunderous cheers.

"Long live the Qin Dynasty! Long live Your Majesty!"

Ying Zheng watched this scene without much excitement. He knew it was just a game.

Real war is a million times more brutal than this.

He turned to look at Xu Fu in the cage.

"Xu Fu, did you see clearly?"

Xu Fu raised his head, trembling.

"This is my Great Qin." Ying Zheng's voice was not loud, but it clearly reached Xu Fu's ears.

"I do not seek immortality, for I know it is vain."

"But my Great Qin will outlive me."

"How are those boys and girls you stole doing on that island?"

Xu Fu shed turbid tears.

"Your Majesty... This sinful subject... This sinful subject knows his mistake..."

"That island... is all about volcanoes and earthquakes. There are no immortals, only savages..."

"This sinful subject... wants to go home."

Looking at the frail old man, Ying Zheng's murderous intent suddenly faded.

Killing him would only dirty my hands.

Keeping him might be more useful.

"Want to go home?"

Ying Zheng smiled.

"Okay."

"Perfect timing, the Geography Department of Epang Palace University is short of a floor cleaner."

"Go there."

"Draw pictures and write books about what you've seen and experienced at sea over the years."

"If you write well, I'll reward you with a job. If you don't write well..."

Ying Zheng pointed to the arena that was still smoking.

"They're missing a live sparring partner there."

Xu Fu felt as if he had been granted a pardon and kowtowed frantically.

"Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!"

……

Just as Xianyang was immersed in the carnival of the competition, a fast horse galloped from the western post road.

The messenger rushed into the arena and rolled down in front of Ying Zheng.

"Your Majesty! Something terrible has happened in the Western Regions!"

"What is it?" Ying Zheng frowned slightly.

"Modu...Modu has declared himself emperor in the West!"

"The messenger said, panting."

"He allied with Dayuan, Kangju, and even a rebel army from Parthia."

"He established a behemoth called the 'Hun Khanate'."

"and……"

The messenger swallowed hard.

"He has sent you a challenge."

"A challenge?" Ying Zheng narrowed his eyes.

"Yes. He said... since the Great Qin likes to do business, then he will do the biggest business deal with you."

"He wants to exchange the heads of the thirty-six kingdoms of the Western Regions for your... head."

The entire room fell silent.

The cheers faded away.

Everyone looked at Ying Zheng.

Ying Zheng slowly stood up, his aura like a drawn sword soaring into the sky.

He took the challenge letter, didn't even look at it, and threw it directly into the brazier next to him.

Flames rose, illuminating his cold, stern face.

"it is good."

"very good."

"I have been waiting for this day for a long time."

"Xiang Yu!"

"Your subject is here!" Xiang Yu jumped down from the stands, his bones cracking with each step.

"Is your knife sharpened?"

"I'm already starving and thirsty!"

"Liu Bang!"

"Your subject is here!" Liu Bang also put away his playful smile.

"Have you saved enough money?"

"Enough! Enough to bury Maodun!"

Ying Zheng looked around, his voice rolling like thunder.

"Since he wants to go all in, then I'll go all in with him."

"Issue this order throughout the country!"

"Enter Level One Combat Readiness!"

"All factories, cease civilian production and focus entirely on arms manufacturing!"

"Prioritize troop transport on all railways!"

"I will turn every single cog in the machine into a bullet fired at the Xiongnu!"

"This time, I will personally lead the army!"

"Target—The Western Regions!"

The wind is surging.

The Qin Dynasty, a colossal beast that had just completed its industrial prototype, finally revealed its most ferocious fangs.

An ultimate showdown that will determine the fate of the world is about to erupt.