In the Alps, the last remnants of the old era lingered in the form of the 'Gods' Pass', the last stronghold of the Roman Empire. Built upon natural defences and carved deep into the mountains, it was guarded by tens of thousands of elite warriors.
Standing before the holographic sand table in the command centre, Liu Xun traced the defensive line with his fingertips. It was said to be 'impassable even by birds', and a cold smile played on his lips.
'Your Majesty,' said Gongshu Qi, handing over a scroll titled An Introduction to Explosive Mechanics, 'the stones used in these passes are quarried from massive granite formations deep in the mountains, over ten feet thick. Traditional catapults cannot even leave a mark on them.'
'But to the Great Han engineers, they are nothing more than a taller stack of building blocks.'
Liu Xun activated Supreme Demolisher: Physical Collapse. The moment he gave the order, the First Engineering Regiment of the Great Han no longer carried ladders and grappling hooks. Instead, jet-black TNT explosives and precisely calculated time-delay detonators hung from their waists. [System Armament Module: Modern Demolition Tactics]
Core Supplies: Nitroglycerine stabiliser, directional demolition moulding charges.
Dimensional Reduction Point: Rather than a direct assault on the city walls, the aim was the complete elimination of physical support.
Slogan: With enough explosives, even mountains will bow down.
Hiding behind the crenellations, the Roman assassins frantically poured boiling oil and molten gold downwards, mocking the Han army's 'cowardice', while the Han soldiers moved in and out of the tunnel entrance a hundred metres away like busy groundhogs.
'First charging point, detonate!' With Liu Xun's brief order via walkie-talkie, the earth groaned.
There were no earth-shattering battle cries; only a deep tremor. The foundations of the enormous pass, known as the 'Shield of God', suddenly erupted to reveal a dragon made of earth, standing tens of metres high. Rather than collapsing outwards, the city walls sank straight into the ground like a skeletonless giant. The Roman general witnessed this scene unfold before his eyes. There was no infantry charge through the breach in the collapsed city wall. Instead, Han Dynasty engineers pushing makeshift, backpack-mounted, high-pressure flamethrowers slowly entered the ruins. Facing the heavily armoured Roman soldiers who were stubbornly resisting from their loopholes, the engineers simply pressed the handles of their flamethrowers. With a 'whoosh', a thirty-metre-long, orange-red flamethrower shot through the gap into the bunker, instantly sucking the oxygen out of the sealed space. The 1,300°C temperature melted the exquisite armour directly onto the Roman soldiers' skin. This tactic was extremely efficient, displaying a chilling mechanical ruthlessness. The thirty-metre-long, orange-red flamethrower shot through the gap into the bunker, instantly sucking out the oxygen from the sealed space. The 1,300°C temperature melted the Roman soldiers' exquisite armour directly onto their skin. This tactic was extremely efficient, carrying a chilling, mechanical ruthlessness.
After each pass, the Han Dynasty engineering regiment did not stop, but continued its advance.
[Rapid Access] — Using pneumatic quarry bulldozers to clear a path directly through the ruins;
[Logistics Takeover] Using hydraulic jacks to forcibly pry open collapsed tunnels.
[Peak of Humiliation]: at a pass that the Romans had held for ten years, the Han army built a wide makeshift asphalt road in just three hours.
When the Han army's subsequent diesel-powered military trucks, fully loaded with supplies, roared over these former 'natural barriers', the surviving Roman nobles realised that the rules of war they had depended on for survival were merely 'obstacle-clearing projects' in the eyes of the Han army.
Seeing his iron gates being sliced open like paper by sappers using oxy-acetylene torches, the commander of the last pass chose to commit suicide in despair.
[System Announcement] Achievement Completed: Global Obstacle Clearance – Complete Unification
Judgement: There are no organised barriers of old civilisations remaining on the Earth's surface.
Unlocked rewards: Basic Spaceship Life Support System and Titanium Alloy Smelting Technology (Full Set).
The system has notified: 'Lord Liu, the game on Earth is over. The prehistoric monitoring station on the far side of the Moon has detected infrasound waves generated by the global explosion and is adjusting the polarisation direction of the 'Orbital Laser'." Stepping onto the scorched Roman banner, Liu Xun looked up at the faintly visible moon in the daylight and calmly told the engineering corps commander, who was packing up the demolition equipment:
'The foundation is in place. Gongshuqi, load those explosives into the rockets. Since the Correctors want to play big, let's go to the Moon and give them a 'directional mega-explosion'."
As the Han engineers' explosions echoed through the Alps, Rome ceased to be a monolithic city. Liu Xun knew that charred ruins were far less valuable than a complete industrial base. So he abandoned the roaring tanks and activated his most lethal weapon: a masterclass in political manipulation.
In the Roman council chamber, candlelight flickered as the formerly arrogant senators sat together. Cheap incense filled the air, but it could not mask their inner fear.
'Caesar has gone mad! He wants us to die like barbarians in the alleyways!' The old senator Cicero's hands trembled as he looked at the thin, ink-scented 'Special Han Documents' in his hands — the 'Draft Plan for Asset Preservation under the Great Han Rule', personally drafted by Liu Xun.
[System Strategy Module: Interest Binding]
Bait: Recognise the Senate's private land ownership in the 'Great Han Provinces' and provide the first batch of shares in the 'Great Han United Bank'.
Acting Enhancement: Liu Xun publicly addressed the Senate via radio, his tone filled with sorrow: 'I do not wish to see thousand-year-old stone sculptures destroyed by cannon fire, nor do I wish to see the bloodline of Rome cut off by prejudice.' Liu Xun's image as a 'guardian of civilisation', displayed on the radio, gave the already wavering elite class their only hope of preserving their wealth.
Internal strife erupted on a stormy night. Just as Caesar was preparing to order the detonation of the 'Greek fire' jars buried beneath the city, which would destroy the entire city, his most trusted Praetorian Guard commander, Marius, betrayed him. Marius had been bribed by agents of the Han Dynasty with a high-quality steel repeating pistol and a box of Han Dynasty gold coins.
'Dictator, your gods have forsaken you! But Lord Liu's flour and penicillin are real!' The coup ended in just one hour. Caesar was placed under house arrest in the same dungeon as his political enemies. The Senate drafted the 'Unconditional Submission of Rome' overnight and dispatched a 'concessionary force' of twelve senators to kneel before the Han vanguard's tracks.
The clock of Chang'an struck midnight amidst the ranks of the Han army.
Without any artillery fire or machine gun barrages, Liu Xun donned a majestic, black, dragon-patterned robe and personally drove the open-top 'Dragon Soaring' diesel-powered parade vehicle. He was escorted by thousands of neatly dressed, uniformly marching Praetorian Guards as he slowly drove into Rome.
[A Humiliating Triumph] The streets of Rome were lined with trembling civilians.
[Ultimate Bribery] Han soldiers advanced in formation, scattering 'high-energy sweets' and 'Han Yuan vouchers', produced during the Han dynasty, among the crowd.
[Peak Acting]: Liu Xun stopped on the steps of the Pantheon and helped a white-haired Roman senator to his feet. He then whispered into a radio microphone: 'From this day forward, there are no slaves here, only subjects of the Han Dynasty.' As the black dragon flag replaced the tattered eagle flag and was raised to the top of Rome's tallest tower, the system notification sounded exceptionally clear:
[System Announcement]: Achievement Completed:
Conquering Without a Fight: Global Administrative Unification
Judgement: The Roman Empire has officially dissolved as a political entity and its European provinces have been incorporated into the household registration system of the Han Dynasty.
Unlock rewards: Basic Social Credit Point System and Large-Scale Population Mobilisation Mechanism.
System warning: Lord Liu, the conflicts on Earth have subsided. The prehistoric monitoring station on the far side of the Moon has detected a widespread unification of human consciousness and has locked onto Chang'an.
Liu Xun stood on the Senate terrace, looking down at the now docile city, but his gaze was fixed on the sky. 'Gongshu Qi, instruct the city's factories to start producing liquid hydrogen stabilisers for rockets. Since these surrendered senators want to survive, they must bring forth all their gold and silver to construct a mighty Han battleship capable of shattering the moon.'
At the Chang'an Aerospace Command Centre, a vast array of water-cooled vacuum tubes hummed deeply. In the first month after the Han Dynasty unified the world, gold and copper mines, as well as precision workshops, were dismantled and transformed into the silver sphere now suspended atop the launch pad: the 'Xuntian-1 Reconnaissance Satellite'.
With his hands behind his back, Liu Xun stood before the main control screen, his eyes as calm as a deep pool. He knew the time had come to unveil this façade.
'Three, two, one… Detonation!' With the roar of the improved liquid oxygen–kerosene engine, the rocket shattered the dawn silence in Chang'an. No longer a blindly flying firework, it was a sharp blade carrying an 'infrared attitude sensor' and a 'film transmission scanning system', piercing the depths of the sky.
[System real-time monitoring: satellite enters orbit]
Orbital altitude: 380,000 km (target: lateral drift at Lagrange point L1)
Payload: [Super-Magnification Refractive Lens] and [High-Sensitivity Electrolytic Signal Transmitter], developed by the Great Han Academy of Sciences.
Dimensional Reduction Operation: Using the lunar gravity slingshot, the satellite changed its orbit forcibly, passing over the far side of the Moon. In the silence of the vacuum, the satellite completed an elegant flip. As it passed the terminator on the far side of the Moon, the dark Earth suddenly revealed an outline full of industrial beauty when viewed through an infrared sensor.
'Quick! Capture the signal! Activate arc scanning and development!' Gongshuqi pounded frantically on the typewriter. On the huge photosensitive screen, a blurry but stunning image slowly appeared: first just a few white dots, then a dense honeycomb structure.
The image gradually cleared. In the crater basin on the far side of the Moon, a silver-grey building complex stretched for hundreds of miles. It was not a temple or a palace, but an automated, cutting-edge factory.
[A Shocking Discovery] Countless massive pipes draw a faint blue fluorescence directly from the void — what the system identifies as 'planetary consciousness energy'.
Whenever Earth's civilisation reaches a critical juncture, the factory releases disruptive pulses (known as "divine punishment"), causing civilisation to regress. The emitted 'despair energy' is absorbed by the factory.
In the rubble surrounding the factory, satellites captured images that appear to show the wreckage of a spaceship from a previous civilisation. They were carelessly discarded like rotting fish bones.
The command centre was deathly silent. The Han generals, who had once considered themselves to be at the pinnacle of humanity, and the Roman senators who had surrendered, now felt as if they had fallen into an ice cave. In the eyes of the 'Correctors', their pride in war, glory and history was nothing more than crops to be periodically harvested. 'Your Majesty, shall we surrender to them?' Gongshu Qi's voice trembled.
Liu Xun stared intently at the massive energy harvesting tower, which emitted a ghostly blue light. He suddenly laughed. "Surrender? No.' He activated Supreme Raider: Civilization Awakening, turned around and addressed all global radio channels. 'My people, see clearly! Those so-called 'gods' are nothing but thieves hiding in the shadows, stealing the fruits of our civilisation! Since they treat Earth like a pasture, I hereby declare that the first space mining zone of the Great Han Empire will be located on the far side of the Moon!'
[System Settlement] Achievement completed: Truth Revealed – Initial Awakening of the Cosmic Jungle
Judgement: Human civilisation officially begins the 'Anti-Harvest Resistance'.
Ultimate rewards unlocked: Nuclear Thermal Rocket Engine Technology Model, Orbital Electromagnetic Projector Design Blueprint
Liu Xun slammed his fist on the control panel, his eyes burning with destructive madness. 'Gongshu Qi, order all departments to dismantle those monuments and transport the steel to Jiuquan. Before the thieves discover the satellites, hang Great Han's nuclear warheads from their roof beams!"
At the turn of the millennium, time and space became utterly distorted. The Apennine Mountains, which were once guarded by Roman legions, now echoed with a rhythm that sent shivers down the spines of people across the entire peninsula. The Han Empire's most elite "Black-Armoured Heavy Cavalry" were charging at full speed along Rome's smooth, mirror-like roads.
In the morning mist over the Po River plain, the remaining Roman soldiers in the watchtowers rubbed their eyes. Instead of the chariots of the gods, they saw a rolling, black, raging torrent. The Han cavalry were no longer the basic nomadic warriors they had once been; now, they were equipped with full-body horse armour forged from high-strength carbon steel. The knights gripped long steel lances fitted with high-frequency vibrating blades.
Thump, thump, thump, thump! The rhythmic clatter of hooves on ancient Roman cobblestones reverberated through the valleys as if the entire Italian peninsula were trembling beneath the iron hooves of the Han.
"Irony indeed! Pompey's prized transportation network has now become a blood vessel through which the Han army pierces the heart of Rome." Liu Xun sat comfortably in a command jeep, which was powered by a twin-turbocharged internal combustion engine and was cruising alongside the cavalry column.
[System Real-Time Speed Measurement: Blitzkrieg Mode] Average Speed: Cavalry: 45 km/h; Mechanised Logistics: 80 km/h.
Target distance: Core Area of Rome – 120 km
Remaining:
Judgement: The Roman phalanx's mobilisation speed is only 1/15th that of the Han army, and the interception success rate is 0.01%.
The Roman militia attempting to defend the passes were unable to draw their bows in time as they were precisely targeted by the passing Han cavalry, who were armed with semi-automatic crossbows.The landowners along the route observed this spectacle from their terraces. They saw a uniformly disciplined and breathtakingly orderly industrialised army, rather than barbaric raiders. The Han cavalry's helmet visors gleamed with a cold light and their cloaks billowed through the air like torn silk. At that moment, the West's dream of being the 'centre of the world' was completely shattered. Their proud stone buildings, aqueducts and laws seemed fragile and transient in the face of the iron will of the Han dynasty.
Liu Xun pressed the broadcast switch on the command vehicle. Through the newly erected, high-powered radio megaphones along the route, he issued an ultimatum to the inhabitants of the Apennine Peninsula in a mixture of Chinese and Latin characters: 'Inhabitants of the Apennines, sheath your swords. The iron hooves of the Han are not for destruction, but for construction. Those who submit will receive eternal light (electricity); those who resist will be plunged into eternal fire (thermite bombs).'
Before his voice faded, the Shenji Battalion's reconnaissance hot air balloons flying overhead dropped countless colourful leaflets depicting the prosperous city of Chang'an, the capital of the Han dynasty.
As the last rays of the setting sun illuminated the Tiber River, Liu Xun stood on top of a hill. The vast, ancient and bleak city of Rome was clearly visible in the distance. His riding boots crushed the two-hundred-year-old milestone.
[System Settlement] Achievement Completed: [Deep into the Heartland – Dominator of the Apennines].
Unlocked rewards: Basic Rubber Synthesis Technology, Internal Combustion Engine, Tyre Industrial Solution.
System Reminder: Lord Liu, the monitoring station on the far side of the moon has detected you. Its internal civilisation self-destruct programme has entered a 24-hour countdown.
Liu Xun glanced at the pale moon in the sky with a cold look, then turned around and waved to the cavalry general behind him. 'No encampment tonight. All troops, charge! I want to be sitting in the Senate chairs drinking 'Chang'an Special Supply Red Tea' before dawn tomorrow."
On the northern outskirts of Rome, where gladiators once shed their blood on the battlefield, stood a desolate, empty space. The armies of the two civilisations had retreated like the tide.
As the blood-red sun set, it shattered the outline of the Apennine Peninsula. Caesar staggered down from his chariot. His once-glorious purple toga, a symbol of supreme honour, was now tattered and stained with blood. In his hand was the ancient Roman short sword, said to have been tempered by the god of war.
'Liu Xun, you destroyed my empire with your fire-breathing steel and flying silks! You are a despicable actor! You used 'civilisation' and 'benevolence' as masks, but you are more greedy than the most barbaric of the Germans!" Caesar roared like a trapped beast, his eyes bloodshot.
The Han imperial guards were about to strike him down when Liu Xun slowly raised his right hand. 'Step back.' His voice was not loud, but it carried an undeniable authority, as if gravity itself had sunk. He slowly stepped out of the jeep and casually tore off the black military overcoat that had symbolised his 'modern commander' persona, revealing a suit of dark gold, dragon-scale-inlaid metal armour underneath. His affability, humility and agility as a 'transmigrator' vanished instantly, replaced by an unfathomable, supreme imperial aura transcending two thousand years of time.
[System notification: 'Imperial Aura – Lonely Ruler' activated.]
Effect: Within a radius of 100 metres, non-Han subjects experience a 300% increase in knee pressure.
Perception: In Caesar's eyes, Liu Xun's figure appeared infinitely taller, as if a colossal black dragon devouring stars were emerging behind him. 'Caesar, you speak of "despicable"?' Liu Xun approached step by step; each step sounded like a heartbeat, pounding out the rhythm of Rome. He didn't draw his sword, merely standing with his hands behind his back. His pure, domineering aura froze the surrounding sandstorm.
'Your proud empire is built on the bones of slaves, and the gods you worship are nothing more than bait cast by the "Revisers". I bring electricity, medicine and food to this land, not out of mercy, but because, in my eyes, only one will can prevail on this planet."
Liu Xun looked down at Caesar, his gaze as cold as if he were looking at an obsolete cog in a machine. 'I act like a movie star to ensure a smooth transition for civilisation. I display my domineering presence to show you that I am destiny itself.'
'Ah—!' Caesar could not bear this spiritual suppression and swung his sword at Liu Xun frantically. Liu Xun did not move, merely flicking his index finger. The sheathed Ding Qin sword shattered upon impact with the ancient Roman short sword. Caesar was sent flying and crashed heavily into the stone milestone.
Liu Xun towered over him, his voice like thunder from the heavens: 'Your sword is for conquering land; my sword is for severing destiny. You lose at the end of dimensions.'
Caesar looked at Liu Xun; the sheer domineering aura rendered him utterly powerless to resist and forced him to lower his proud head, trembling. With the fall of this Western king, the last glimmer of the old era had vanished completely.
[System Announcement] Achievement Completed: [King vs. King – Ultimate Suppression]
Judgement: Western imperial consciousness completely stripped away; global will unification progress: 100%.
Unlocked rewards: Preliminary Core Energy Extraction Plan and Lunar Base Construction Blueprint: Guanghan Palace.
System Warning: Due to the complete unification of Earth's will, Lord Liu, the prehistoric monitoring station on the far side of the moon has determined that the 'experimental subject is out of control' and has initiated the preheating of the 'World-Destroying Neutron Stream Cannon'.
Liu Xun looked up at the sky, his domineering aura transforming into a fighting spirit defying the heavens. Turning to Gongshu Qi, he ordered, "Now that the matter on the ground is settled, let the whole world see the Great Han banner planted on the moon's eyeball. Issue my decree: all rockets, target the far side of the moon and open fire!"