Night settled over Shen City, but Qin Wang Shan did not sleep.
Reports from scouts lay open across his desk. Outside, the city walls were still under repair, and patrol torches flickered along the streets. Reconstruction continued, yet danger was already moving closer.
The granary fire had not been an isolated incident.
Someone was testing him.
A knock sounded.
"Enter."
Lu Zheng stepped inside, travel dust still clinging to his cloak. His expression was grim.
"We caught one of them," he said quietly. "A man trying to leave through the western hills."
Qin Wang Shan's gaze sharpened. "Alive?"
"For now."
The prince stood. "Take me to him."
The prisoner sat bound in a storage chamber beneath the residence. His clothes were worn but not poor—proof he was no ordinary bandit.
The moment he saw Qin Wang Shan, fear flickered across his face.
"Who sent you?" the prince asked calmly.
Silence.
Lu Zheng stepped forward, hand on sword.
But Qin Wang Shan raised a hand, stopping him.
Instead, he crouched before the prisoner.
"You were paid to burn food meant for starving citizens," he said. "Do you know what happens when grain burns? Children die first."
The prisoner swallowed.
"I… I was only delivering messages…"
"To whom?"
Another hesitation. Then—
"Men from Wushen… merchants connected to court officials… They said Shen City must remain weak."
Lu Zheng's eyes narrowed.
So the capital was already interfering.
Qin Wang Shan stood slowly, mind racing.
His brothers—or the officials backing them—were moving early. They feared the rise of Shen City.
Good.
That meant they had noticed him.
"Release him outside the city tomorrow," Qin Wang Shan ordered.
Lu Zheng frowned. "Your Highness?"
"Let him carry a message back."
The prince's voice turned cold.
"Tell them Shen City is no longer a place to abandon. If they come again, they won't leave."
The prisoner nodded desperately.
Later, Qin Wang Shan stood alone atop the unfinished city wall.
The wind carried the scent of distant rain.
Lu Zheng joined him quietly.
"You're making powerful enemies," Lu Zheng said.
Qin Wang Shan smiled faintly.
"They made me an enemy the day they tried to kill me."
Silence stretched.
Then Lu Zheng asked, "What is your real plan, Your Highness?"
The prince looked toward the sleeping city.
In his past life, he had drifted without purpose.
Not this time.
"This city," he said softly, "will become strong enough that no empire can command it."
Lu Zheng studied him carefully.
"And if the empire tries to crush you?"
Qin Wang Shan's eyes hardened.
"Then we build something stronger."
Below them, lantern lights glowed across Shen City.
A forgotten place.
A future battlefield.
And the beginning of something far greater than anyone yet understood.
Far beyond the mountains, forces already stirred.
The storm was coming.
And Shen City would not kneel.