115: I don't want to play anymore! The First Emperor flips the table, and Twilight of the Gods begins!
"Raise your head."
The First Emperor's voice was not loud, but it was like ten thousand years of profound ice, crashing into every corner of the hall.
Cicada Clothes's body stiffened.
She slowly looked up, meeting a pair of eyes burning with destructive flames.
In those eyes, the former strategic planning and imperial majesty were gone, replaced only by an abyss-like rage.
"Tell me, Cicada Clothes."
The First Emperor spoke one word at a time, each word sounding like fingernails scraping against a Xuan-iron throne.
"My 'honey trap,' my 'stratagem of dissension,' what were their results?"
"I sent you to observe the cracks, to amplify suspicion; what did you see?"
Cicada Clothes's heart was clutched by an invisible hand, almost stopping.
The final test had arrived.
In a flash of lightning, two scenes flashed through her mind.
One was the argument between Kuang Dao and Yi Chu Qi in the Heavenly Court channel, the monster alliance's confusion and powerlessness due to the rules.
The other was the overwhelming cheers in the channel after the Void Dragon appeared, the more tacit cooperation between Kuang Dao and Yi, and the alliance's cohesion, which became more indestructible than steel after a brief period of chaos.
Lying, embellishing the first scene, could temporarily appease the Emperor's wrath and prove her continued value.
But that false merit could not deceive the man named Heaven's Choice, nor could it deceive the next, more brutal war.
Telling the truth was like personally sprinkling a handful of salt onto the First Emperor's bleeding wound.
She stood on the edge of a cliff; ahead was a sea of fire, behind was an abyss.
Finally, Cicada Clothes clenched her fists, her cold fingernails digging deep into her palms, using the pain to gain a trace of resolute clarity.
"Reporting to Your Majesty."
Her voice was very soft, yet exceptionally clear.
"Your subject... saw cracks."
The raging fire in the First Emperor's eyes changed slightly for the first time.
"But that crack," Cicada Clothes's voice did not falter, "was mended by Heaven's Choice... the moment it appeared."
"His subordinates are indeed a group of 'demons and monsters,' each with their own sharp edges, incompatible with each other. But Heaven's Choice..."
Cicada Clothes paused, seemingly searching for the most precise word.
"Your Majesty, he is not like a monarch who rules with political maneuvering. He is more like the most brilliant 'craftsman.'"
"He polished everyone's 'sharp edges' into 'mortise and tenon joints' that fit perfectly, building a scattered group into a seemingly chaotic but infinitely possible strong fortress."
"Your Majesty, you tried to 'divide' them with rules."
Cicada Clothes looked up, directly at the Emperor on the throne, her voice trembling slightly.
"But he... he directly turned your rules into 'glue' that binds everyone together!"
"You are playing a game with a monarch, but your opponent, he is not playing chess at all."
"He is... setting the chessboard, changing the rules of the game!"
The moment her words fell, Cicada Clothes bowed deeply, pressing her forehead to the cold ground, awaiting the judgment that would decide life or death.
Inside the hall, a pin drop could be heard.
Li Si stared in shock at Cicada Clothes, prostrate on the ground; this woman dared to so directly dissect the most heart-wrenching essence of this crushing defeat!
A long time passed.
"Haha..."
"Hahahahahahaha!"
A low laugh came from the throne.
The laughter grew louder and wilder, filled with endless anger, unwillingness, and a hint of madness from being completely cornered!
"Good! What a 'setting the chessboard'! What a 'changing the rules of the game'!"
Boom!
The First Emperor suddenly stood up, and a terrifying aura soared into the sky, shaking the entire Xianyang Plain!
"I understand!"
His voice carried the enlightenment after a frenzy.
"I used mortal schemes to fathom a god's game! It was I who was wrong!"
"Doesn't he like to break the game? Doesn't he like to toy with rules?"
"Then I will no longer give him any rules!"
He suddenly turned to Li Si, the madness in his eyes like two stars about to burn out, emitting their final, most destructive light.
"Issue my decree!"
"On the third night, the hunt is canceled!"
"Announce to the world! I will sacrifice the Great Qin's national destiny to awaken what lies dormant beneath the Xianyang's earth veins..."
"—The [Twelve Golden Men · World-Suppressing Grand Array]!"
Upon hearing this, Li Si's face instantly turned ashen, his soul scattered, and his body trembled uncontrollably.
"Your Majesty! No! Absolutely not!"
He cried out in alarm, his voice sharp and mournful.
"The [Twelve Golden Men] are the ultimate trump card for suppressing the national destiny! Once awakened, the rules of the entire First Sequence Battlefield will be forcibly erased! At that time, there will be no peace, no order, only endless slaughter and destruction! That is... a sign of the apocalypse!"
"Apocalypse?"
The First Emperor laughed wildly, his imperial robe billowing, his long hair dancing.
"What I want is the apocalypse!"
"I want there to be no possibility of cunning on this land! No room for opportunism!"
"I want everyone to know that in the final chapter of this throne struggle, the only thing to rely on is not wisdom, not strategy!"
"But the purest, the most absolute... power!"
The First Emperor's gaze pierced through the hall, as if he already saw the figure seated in the Divine Bird Fortress.
"Heaven's Choice, don't you want to be a god?"
"Then I, for you..."
"Will unleash a true Ragnarok!"