The first emperor, in his older years, grew fearful of dying and letting his entire legacy be ruined by his decendants. So, he started taking a chemical that would later be known as gunpowder, believing it will "keep the flames of life burning inside of him." In other words he thought that it would make him immortal.

The reality was that it poisoned him, reacting to the gasses inside of him that produces dragon fire, slowly bloating him up. Let's say his qeust for immortality had...explosive results....