The cracking of the ice in Lake Baikal gradually subsided and the prehistoric spaceship that had surfaced became a silent steel island providing the grandest backdrop to Liu Xun. Gazing at this miracle, the remaining northern barbarians — including the Dingling, the Jiankun and the small reindeer-riding tribes — completely lost the courage to resist.
The remnants of the Dingling were scattered by the Han army's snowstorm. They led their towering reindeer and knelt in a sea of white amidst the swirling snow. In their culture, only a true god could awaken the 'mountains' that had slumbered for millennia and command their will. "System, activate 'Divine Power and Awe, All People's Hearts Turn to You'."
[System Command]: 'Consumes 50,000 points of national fortune.' Psychological suggestion: Through the low-frequency resonance emitted by the spaceship, induce a strong sense of belonging in the audience.'
Language synchronisation: Broadcast the 'Great Han North Sea Peace Decree' to all tribes. Liu Xun stood on the spaceship's elevator platform, looking down at the swarm of reindeer cavalry below.
He launched his 'Top Performance: Harvester and Saviour of Civilisation', his voice booming like thunder across the icy plains through the spaceship's amplification system. 'Those who submit to me will enjoy steaming hot soup and the "Fire of Investigation", which will ensure your people never freeze or starve. Those who defy me will find the ice of the North Sea to be their eternal tomb!'
Liu Xun publicly announced the establishment of the 'North Sea Province', a meticulously crafted modern colonial and administrative system, not merely an empty title.
Resource Integration: He established a 'Collective Reindeer Breeding Base', transforming the scattered livestock industry of the north into an industrialised leather and meat processing chain.
Transportation Hub: Construction of a prototype 'electromagnetic levitation track' traversing the permafrost, centred on the North Sea and connecting Chang'an with the far north.
Educational indoctrination: We are establishing 'Introduction Schools' in Dingling settlements, where the first lesson is teaching these 'barbarian' youths how to read Chinese characters and understand electricity.
Liu Xun did not abolish the original reindeer cavalry. Instead, he used the system to 'modify' them. He ordered Gongshu Qi to develop a lightweight exoskeleton for the reindeer. This mechanical structure greatly enhanced the reindeer's endurance and load-bearing capacity, making them more mobile than any existing fuel-powered vehicle in extremely cold terrain.
'From now on, this "North Sea Reindeer Mobile Army" will be my sharpest dagger in the polar regions,' said Liu Xun, looking at the reindeer cavalry equipped with rotary machine guns and infrared night vision devices, a satisfied smile on his face.
At the moment the North Sea Province was officially established, the system displayed an unprecedented purple interface:
[System Prompt]: Due to the host successfully establishing a stable regime at the most extreme geographical coordinates on Earth, crustal stability has been achieved.
Core Reward: Access to the control room inside the prehistoric spaceship.
Hidden Discovery: The spaceship log shows that this is not a crashed spaceship, but an observation station called 'The Seeder', whose final instruction was 'Wait for the return of the Han bloodline'.[System Prompt]: 'Due to the host's successful establishment of a stable regime at the most extreme geographical coordinates on Earth, crustal stability has been achieved. The core reward is access to the control room inside the prehistoric spaceship. A hidden discovery has been made: the spaceship logs show that this is not a crashed spaceship, but an observation station called 'The Seeder', the last instruction of which was 'Waiting for the return of the Han imperial bloodline'."
Liu Xun's pupils contracted slightly. He turned to look at the slowly opening hatch behind him, shimmering with geometric blue light, and wondered: Is the so-called 'Han imperial bloodline' a historical coincidence or a genetically preordained phenomenon spanning dimensions?
That evening, bonfires stretched for miles along the shores of Beihai Lake. The newly arrived inhabitants of Beihai sang and danced, shouting, 'Long live the Emperor of the Great Han!'
Meanwhile, Liu Xun sat alone by the stone tablet by the lake (where Su Wu had once herded sheep), clutching a transparent chip that he had taken from inside the spaceship.
'Gongshu Qi, tell me: did I subdue these tribes to give them a way to survive, or to gather the last batch of fuel for my cosmos?' Gongshu Qi stood respectfully to one side, looking at the Beihai base which had already achieved initial industrialisation. He said excitedly, 'Your Majesty, the happiness of mortals is insignificant; the ultimate goal is the eternity of the Han Dynasty.'
Liu Xun remained silent. He looked up at the spaceship, which had begun to heat up and emit blue ion streams. Earth's role had indeed been played out. However, behind that hatch lay a truth that even he, the 'actor', found chilling.
Following the establishment of the Beihai Province, the iron hooves of the Han army completely trampled the frozen soil of the far north. However, the Great Han Empire's energy demands increased exponentially due to large-scale industrialisation and the impending interstellar expedition. Coal from Guanzhong and well fires from Sichuan alone could no longer satisfy Liu Xun's ambitions.
Standing in the temporary command post at the Beihai base, Liu Xun lightly tapped his finger in the air, activating the system's 'All-Dimensional Mineral Exploration Plugin'.
System Command: Consume 100,000 points of National Fortune.
Scanning area: Far North Siberian Shield (Heartland of the Great Han, Beihai Province).
Detection result: A super-large open-pit coal mine belt (Kansk-Achinsk level) has been discovered.
Attributes: [low sulfur content], [high calorific value], [shallow burial]
Estimated reserves: Sufficient to support the current Great Han industrial system at full power for 1,200 years.
A red shadow, winding like a black dragon, appeared on the screen — the 'black gold' that nature had buried for Liu Xun hundreds of millions of years ago. 'Gongshu Qi, take your "earth-shaking machine" and come with me to collect coal.' Liu Xun personally arrived at the mining site. When the first layer of frozen soil was ripped away by a high-energy plasma cutter to reveal a continuous, glossy black seam of high-quality coal, the experts present held their breath.
'Your Majesty, this is truly a gift from heaven!' Gongshu Qi trembled as he held up a lump of coal. 'We don't need to dig deep. We can just peel off the surface layer and load it directly onto the carts. With this coal, our steam turbines and steel furnaces will never run out of fuel!'
Liu Xun activated his 'Acting Skills: The Pioneer Chosen by Heaven'. Casually tossing the coal into the experimental furnace beside him, he watched the blazing blue flames rise instantly. Smiling coldly, he said, "This isn't a gift from heaven, but my deserved spoils."
In order to transport this enormous energy to Chang'an, Liu Xun launched the 'Infrastructure Maniac: Steel Corridor Project'.
Heavy-haul Railway: Using the 'high-strength, cold-resistant alloy rails' unlocked by the system, he constructed a double-track, electrified, heavy-haul railway connecting Beihai and Guanzhong.
Mine Mouth Power Plant: Build a large-scale 'steam turbine power generation cluster' directly at the edge of the coal mine. Use the cold lake water of Beihai for cooling and transmit electricity continuously to the south via high-voltage lines.
[System Prompt]
[Industrialisation Progress]: Increased by 45% (overcoming the energy shortage bottleneck).
[National Economic Index]: A significant decrease in energy costs has stabilised prices in the Han Dynasty, thereby improving people's satisfaction.
[Achievement]: [Black Gold Godfather]: The massive open-pit mine began operating, and for the first time, industrial smoke tinged the northern sky with a grey hue.
To those uncivilised northern tribes, this was 'the breath of demons', but to Liu Xun, it was the most beautiful sign of civilisation's progress. Standing atop a hundred-metre-high excavator and overlooking the swarm of bustling machines below, he realised that his "vast universe" blueprint finally had the most solid fuel support. Just as mineral development reached its peak, a flashing red warning message suddenly appeared on the system interface.
[Deep Warning] The host has extracted too much energy from the Earth's crust. It has been detected that the super-large coal mine in the north contains more than just carbon."Abnormal Signal: Due to the large-scale uncovering of the coal seam, the dormant 'remnants of an ancient civilisation' beneath are showing signs of awakening due to rising temperatures." Liu Xun's cigarette glowed and dimmed in the wind. Looking at the cheering miners below, he realised that, amid the frenzy of Han dynasty industrialisation, he might personally have unearthed the world's most terrifying 'Pandora's box'.
As the deafening roar of the coal-mining machinery in Beihai Province filled the air, the last vestige of resistance in the far north disappeared completely at dawn, shrouded in smoke and snow.
Having witnessed the Han army's ski-blitzkrieg tactics and the massive, mountain-like open-pit excavators, the last remaining branch of the Jiankun tribe, once known as the 'Unfrozen Souls', finally recognised reality: they were not fighting an ordinary army, but a super-civilisation devouring nature and reshaping the rules of the world.
On the edge of the far north, before the Jiankun tribe's altar,
The last Jiankun shaman discarded the bone staff that symbolised power. His eyes, which had once tried to glimpse the stars, were now fixed in terror ahead. Before him stood not a vast army, but three enormous 'Xuanwu-style all-environment tracked vehicles', with Liu Xun standing on top of them, draped in a pure white down cloak.
'System, activate "Mythical Descent: Civilization Deterrence."
[System Command]: 'National Fortune Value' consumed 30,000 points.
[Visual Synchronisation]: The holographic projection behind the 'chariot' intertwines in mid-air to form a dragon in flight.
[Psychological Deterrence]: The 'infrasonic deterrent' is powerful enough to interfere with the brains of lower beings.
'I gave you a choice,' said Liu Xun's voice, amplified and colder than the icy plains. 'Either merge into the Han Dynasty's stellar blueprint and become its mining subjects, or take your mythology and vanish completely beneath the permafrost.'
As the shaman slowly knelt, the last red light representing the 'resistance forces' on the map finally disappeared, and the last unruly blind spot on Earth was completely erased.
[System Notification] Global Territorial Unification Progress: 100%
[All Nations Submit] Achievement Completed: The host obtains the unique title of 'Lord of Earth'.
Civilisation Enhancement: The speed of global resource integration increased by 200%, and the Han Dynasty standard became the only physical constant worldwide.
On the system panel, Liu Xun saw that the progress bar representing 'chaos' had reached zero and been replaced by a cold, perfect, unified ring. With the disappearance of the last tribe, the vast open-pit coal mines in the far north posed no longer posed a threat.
Liu Xun ordered that tens of thousands of surrendered barbarian warriors be incorporated into the 'North Sea Construction Corps'. Instead of wielding stone axes, they now wore sturdy work clothes and operated massive stone crushers. Large quantities of coal were transported to Chang'an via the newly laid 'Trans-Siberian Railway'. The Han Dynasty's steel production doubled again within a few months, and electricity, which had previously been expensive, became as cheap as air. That evening, the twelve members of the Longevity Council gathered at the North Sea command headquarters.
Gongshu Qi pointed to the faintly visible ancient ruins deep within the coal mine and said, 'Your Majesty, now that the Earth has settled, our gaze should not be limited to the surface. The alien energy hidden beneath those veins is the key to opening the 'Star Gate'."
Liu Xun activated his 'Acting Skills: Absolutely Rational Dictator'. He swirled the clear wine glass in his hand and gazed at the ever-burning mine lights outside the window. 'The rule on the surface is over. Next, I will bury the gears of 'Investigation of Things' beneath every inch of Han Dynasty land. I will transform this planet itself into a colossal mothership.'
Just as Liu Xun was enjoying the pinnacle of power, large-scale coal mining in the far north caused a bizarre shift in deep geothermal activity, triggering a High-Risk Warning. 'The host is forcibly unifying the world, erasing the diversity of civilisations.'
The 'Space-Time Balance Protocol' triggered a negative feedback response when it detected that the low-temperature shackles originally used to restrict 'Ancient Biological Weapons' had completely melted at the deepest point of the Beihai Coal Mine (5,000 metres underground).
An ancient life form, codenamed 'Gold Eaters', was climbing upwards along the coal mine pipes. Liu Xun watched as a miner was suddenly dragged away by silver tentacles emerging from the darkness. The smile on his face gradually froze. 'All nations have submitted, but it seems that this world itself doesn't want me to have peace.'
At the edge of the North Sea Province, the polar night had not yet lifted. Before the Jiankun tribe's final altar, tens of thousands of barbarian warriors held their breath. Their worldview was being reshaped in a devastating way.
Liu Xun knew that slaughter alone could acquire land, but that only a 'miracle' could provide him with the eternal labour force of this frozen land. He was about to stage the grandest 'personal show' of his imperial career there.
'System, activate the "Atmospheric Ionisation Control Device", coordinates: above my head, radius five li.'
[System Command]: 'National Fortune Value' consumed 120,000 points.
[Visual Presentation]: 'Excite oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the atmosphere through high-frequency microwaves.'
[Visual Enhancement]: 'Seven-Colour Holographic Rendering' + 'Golden Dragon Totem Overlay'.
Suddenly, without warning, the originally pitch-black and deathly silent far northern night sky distorted, and dazzling green and purple lights descended like light silk. At the centre of this light, a golden dragon, composed of intense light and measuring a hundred zhang in length, was slowly coiling.
The barbarian shamans screamed in terror; they had never witnessed such a rhythmic and powerful miracle before. Liu Xun stood at the centre of a specially made 'high-energy thermonuclear ray generator', disguised as an 'altar'. He removed his down jacket, revealing a thin black tunic, and walked barefoot into the snowstorm.
'What is he doing? He's courting death!' the barbarian general whispered. The temperature had reached -60°C; an ordinary person would freeze into an ice sculpture after standing there for even a moment. However, as Liu Xun took a step, his 'Longevity Thermal Cycle', combined with the system's external plugin, instantly activated. The system plugin was 'Domain Control: Absolute Heat Source'.
Manifestation: Snowflakes within a hundred-metre radius sublimated directly into water vapour in mid-air.
[Atmosphere Loading]: 'Hymn Audio Matrix' (projecting a solemn reverberation from high-altitude satellites). In the eyes of the barbarians, the frozen ground beneath Liu Xun's feet was melting rapidly, even sprouting tender green grass ('fast-growing catalytic seeds' planted by the system beforehand). [System Plugin]: 'Domain Control – Absolute Heat Source'.
[Symptom Format]: 'Snowflakes within a 100-metre radius sublimate directly into water vapour in mid-air.'
[Atmosphere Loading]: 'Hymn Audio Matrix' (utilising a high-altitude satellite to project solemn reverberation).
[System plugin]: 'The Emperor's Judgement: Lies are Truth'.
[Symptom Format]: 'Liu Xun slowly raised his right hand, a ball of incandescent light condensing at his fingertips — the "Plasma Fireball Beam".'
He slowly raised his right hand and a ball of incandescent light condensed at his fingertips — that was the 'Plasma Fireball Beam'. "I am the sun," he said, activating "Top-Tier Acting: Divine Might Like a Prison'. His voice, simulated by the system, was no longer the vibration of human vocal cords, but a whisper from the depths of the universe carrying an irresistible sense of destiny.
'You have struggled in darkness for ten thousand years; now I bestow upon you light. You have wailed in hunger and cold; now I bestow upon you warmth.'
With a casual gesture, the iceberg blocking his path silently vaporised and collapsed under the precise strike of the 'Orbital High-Energy Laser'.
At that moment, tens of thousands of barbarians fell to the ground in unison, their foreheads buried deep in the snow. No longer were they warriors; now they were Liu Xun's most fervent believers.
The miracle had ended, but his rule had only just begun.
Liu Xun withdrew his light, donned his embroidered dragon cloak again and looked down upon these trembling souls. His eyes held no divine mercy, only the cold calculation of a movie star. 'Since I am the sun, then my words are divine pronouncements.'
'Go to the depths of the North Sea and dig up the "essence of earthly fire" (coal) for me. This is your way of atoning, and the only path to eternal warmth.' "
[System Prompt]:
Regional Faith Unification Rate: 100% (title 'Eternal Sun God' gained).
[Labour Obedience]: Max (Due to deification, the production accident rate has been reduced by 90%).
Reward obtained: Complete blueprint for primary nuclear fission technology (energy branch triggered due to the Sun God's symbolic significance).
When Liu Xun returned to the mothership, Gongshu Qi knelt down in worship: 'Your Majesty, your acting skills... no, your miracles are worthy of eternal praise.'
However, Liu Xun stared at a newly appeared line of red text on the system panel:
[System Warning]: Host excessively harvesting faith.
Current status: Deification Poisoning, Negative Impact: Due to the simultaneous prayers of tens of thousands of people, the host's brain is receiving a massive amount of mental garbage. If this is not cleaned up in the spaceship's core as soon as possible, the host's humanity will be completely consumed by the persona of the 'Sun God' within three chapters.' Liu Xun rubbed his temples as if he could hear the fanatical whispers of tens of thousands of people in his ears. He sneered. 'Acting to the point that you're mutating yourself — how interesting. Gongshuqi, speed up the mining process. I want to see what kind of antidote is hidden underground.'
As the snowstorm in Beihai Province gradually dissipated, Liu Xun issued a shocking edict to the artisans and veteran generals of the entire Han Empire: he ordered an immediate halt to the construction of the northern border wall and the demolition of the existing Great Wall passes. In the traditional understanding of the Han dynasty, the Great Wall had always been seen as the dividing line between civilisation and barbarism. However, now, standing at the porthole of this ancient spaceship, Liu Xun looked down at a planet completely dominated by Han official script and gold coins, and declared the end of this era.
"Your Majesty, you mustn't!" An elderly general accompanying him knelt in the snow, tears streaming down his face. 'The Great Wall is the nation's bulwark, blocking the barbarians and protecting against the sandstorms. Although we have now subdued the Dingling, if anything happens to the northern frontier..."
Liu Xun turned his head; the lingering white light in his eyes from the 'divine poisoning' had not yet completely dissipated. He activated his 'Top-Tier Performance: Overlord Beyond His Time", his voice carrying weight: 'The Great Wall? That's merely a collar the weak put around their necks for security." With a wave of his hand, a massive holographic map unfolded across the icy plains.
[System Command] Load the 'Great Han Global Resource Distribution Map'.
The red lines of the Great Wall were erased and replaced with a dense network of 'heavy-haul railways' and 'wireless power transmission paths'.
[Logic Restructuring] Transform the 'defensive boundary' into an 'expansionary artery'.'As far as the eye can see, this is all Han territory. Since there are no more foreign lands in this world, what use are these wasteful stone walls that burden the people?' Liu Xun walked onto the ruins of the Great Wall and casually picked up a cold brick. With a slight squeeze of his fingertips, he crushed it into powder.
'We built walls before because we weren't fast enough; we didn't fight far enough,' he said, pointing to the 'Yinglong-class airships' patrolling the horizon. 'Now, my fleet can cross the vast ocean in an hour, and my machine guns can decide life and death a thousand paces away. Instead of building walls, we should build roads. I want any unrest in any corner of the world to be quelled in the time it takes me to finish a bowl of sunflower soup.'
As the decree 'No more walls' spread globally, the administrative efficiency of the Han dynasty increased dramatically.
[System notification: The host has proactively broken down the physical barrier of the 'Chinese–Barbarian distinction', increasing civilisation evolution by 1,500 points.]
[Global Compliance]: Due to the removal of borders, the integration of various races has accelerated and the probability of civil war has decreased to 0.1%.
Unlock reward: Prototype of Planetary Defence System (no longer defending land, but beginning to defend space).
Liu Xun discovered that, by dismantling the wall in his heart, he had also opened up the system's scope. Resources that were previously limited to ground defence now flow entirely to the deeply buried 'Genius Reactor'. Liu Xun ordered the remaining bricks and stones from the dismantling of the Great Wall to be transported to the North Sea Coal Mine, where they would be used to construct a massive 'Polar Space Launch Centre'.Watching Gongshu Qi's busy figure, he said calmly, "Leave the ancient bricks engraved with 'The Moon of Qin, the Pass of Han' in the launch tower's foundation. I want our ancestors to know that their descendants no longer need these stones for protection. We will carry on their legacy and conquer that wilderness, which has no walls or air."
Although the world was nominally unified and national borders had been abolished, a crisis was quietly erupting in Liu Xun's mind:
[System Red Warning]: Host consciousness forcibly bound to the 'Global Unified Will'.
Due to the absence of external enemies, the host's brain had begun to evolve 'imaginary enemies'.
[Status] Divine Erosion Level: 60%.
Side effect: Liu Xun began to frequently hallucinate. He saw his deceased opponents, such as Huo Guang and the Xiongnu Chanyu, whispering to him in the void and trying to pull him into the abyss of nothingness.
Liu Xun gripped the hilt of the plasma sword at his waist tightly, his knuckles turning white from the force. 'Building walls is to defend against people; tearing down walls is to become a god,' he muttered to himself, a hint of madness flashing in his eyes. 'System, since there are no more enemies on Earth, start the "Stargate Project". I need opponents who can keep me grounded."