Murong Bo and Jiumozhi were both badly wounded. Forcing themselves on through their injuries, they reached a hidden stronghold of the Murong family, only to find the place long since empty, its people gone.
Afterward he went to another liaison point to look for people, and found that there was not a soul there either...
He searched for a full month, and Murong Bo did not find a single member of the Murong family. He could not help but begin to doubt his whole life. "How is this possible? Can everyone in my Murong family have been hunted down to the last, without a single survivor left?
"Then what were all these years of endurance and scheming for?
"I endured for nearly thirty years, and did not even dare acknowledge my own son. Is all I get in return to be left utterly alone?
"It should not be so. It should not be so!!"
A bolt of lightning fell from the cloud-choked sky, struck a great tree not far from him, and split that towering tree in two.
Murong Bo shuddered. He jolted out of his frenzy and murmured to himself, "No. I must go tell Fu'er that Jiumozhi is also searching for the Heirloom Seal of the Realm, so Fu'er will not be caught unaware and fall to his secret plot!" With that he rallied his spirits and set off to find Murong Fu.
Meanwhile, Yelü Hongji, Emperor of Liao, had already arrived at the hunting grounds. He had driven out every commoner within a hundred li and, bow in hand, was galloping through the mountains, hunting to his heart's content.
He loosed an arrow. A sika deer dropped at once, thrashed twice, and then lay still.
Qin Zheng stepped forward, picked up the sika deer, and hurried back before Yelü Hongji. He cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty has shot this sika deer. It is precisely the omen of 'Qin has lost its deer, and all under heaven join the chase.' The day Your Majesty unifies the realm is not far off!"
Yelü Hongji laughed aloud. "My dear minister Qin speaks well. We are greatly pleased. We reward you with a hundred taels of gold, a hundred roots of ginseng, and a hundred bolts of silk!"
"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Qin Zheng straightened and looked at Yelü Hongji with a smile.
Not long before, Qin Zheng had come to Liao and pledged himself to Yelü Hongji, promising that when the emperor attacked Song he would raise troops in the Qinling Mountains and strike from within in concert. Yelü Hongji was overjoyed. On the spot he enfeoffed him as Prince of Qin and Military Commissioner of Liao's Southern Route, and brought him along for the autumn hunt.
Yelü Hongji looked up at the sky. The autumn air was clear and brisk, and he felt the whole realm already within his grasp. Seeing dust suddenly rising ahead, he said, his spirits soaring, "A herd of wild boars is coming up ahead. Warriors of the Khitan, follow Us and hunt them down!"
With that he took the lead on his horse and charged toward the rolling dust ahead.
A moment later he suddenly realized that not a single man behind him had followed. Slightly startled, he turned his head from horseback and saw that everyone behind him had stopped where they were, staring ahead in terror.
Yelü Hongji sensed that something was wrong and hastily turned to look forward again. He could not tell how many men and horses, armor all in order, were bursting out of the rolling dust and charging straight at him. In a panic he hauled on the reins and stopped. "Whoa—"
What was going on? Where had these troops come from?
While Yelü Hongji was still stunned, the troops bearing down had already swept past him and charged the imperial guards he had brought, to kill them.
In no time the whole autumn hunting ground was a chaos of toppled men and fallen horses. The imperial guards Yelü Hongji had brought were slaughtered to the last. Yelü Nielugu, Prince of the Southern Administration, was the one left before them, leading the rebels as they surrounded the emperor and Qin Zheng on every side.
Cold sweat poured down Yelü Hongji. He gave Qin Zheng beside him a long, deep look and said with an air of lofty righteousness, "Hero Qin, We can scarcely preserve Ourself now, and can no longer grant you noble rank or office.
"If you abandon Us for wealth and glory, We will not blame you!"
Qin Zheng drew a deep breath, cupped his hands with a face full of righteousness, and said, "Thank you for understanding, Your Majesty. Then I will not stand on ceremony with you!" With that he shot off in a flash to the other side's camp and turned a furious glare on Yelü Hongji.
Yelü Hongji was struck dumb where he stood. "..."
No. This was not right.
I was goading you! Do you understand goading or not? Get back here at once and lead me in cutting our way out!!
Yelü Nielugu, Prince of the Southern Administration of Liao, looked at Qin Zheng and pleaded, "Hero Qin, the matter is done. You can give me the antidote now, can't you?"
Qin Zheng looked blank. "What are you talking about?"
The moment the words left his mouth, a deputy general beside him swung his blade and cut off the Prince of the Southern Administration's head. With a solemn face he said, "Hero Qin, this humble officer caught a fish in the river. I split open its belly, and hidden inside was a brocade letter. Written upon it: Great Chu rises; Qin Zheng shall be king!"
At this a general dismounted and knelt. "Hero Qin, someone dug a stone stele out of the ground. Written upon it: He who replaces Liao shall be Qin Zheng!"
Qin Zheng wore a look of disbelief. "Ah, what is all this?"
With that he casually swung his blade and cut down a white snake on the spot.
Then A'Zi walked out from the crowd with a respectful face, a yellow robe in her hands. She draped it over Qin Zheng and said with concern, "Your Majesty, the weather has turned cold. You should put on another layer."
Qin Zheng, utterly at a loss, looked left and right and sighed helplessly. "Alas, you have truly brought suffering upon Us!"
Yelü Hongji was so furious his beard bristled and his eyes bulged. "..."
Could you be any more fake?
Never mind all the rest—how little time has even passed since the story of being draped in the yellow robe!!
After Qin Zheng refined a poison from the venomous insects drawn by the Divine Wood King Cauldron, he took A'Zi to Liao and poisoned every military officer taking part in the autumn hunt.
They tried every means and sought famous physicians everywhere, but none could undo the poison. They could only follow Qin Zheng's script and play out the scene now before them.
As for those unwilling to cooperate—Liao was rotten to the root. Men of backbone had either been pushed out of the center of power, or had long since been killed by them...
Without a shred of shame, the crowd performed the three kneelings and nine kowtows to Qin Zheng and on the spot acclaimed him Emperor of Chu.
Soon the news spread to every corner of the realm.
When Xiao Yuanshan heard it, his face was full of bewilderment: My wife is gone, my son cannot be found, and now even the country has fallen?
Murong Bo, for his part, looked incredulous: Someone has actually beaten me to the restoration of the kingdom? That cannot be right. Which royal house of Chu is surnamed Qin? And a northern country—how can it be called Chu?
At the same time, Li Qiushui also received the intelligence spread by the Beggar Gang. She flew into a fury, smashed the armrest of her chair to pieces with one palm, and roared, "Bastards, a true pack of bastards!
"They actually say I gave birth to the emperor of Western Xia? The little emperor is not yet ten years old. Did I bear him when I was seventy or eighty?!
"This must be a rumor spread by that Qin Zheng. Otherwise, why did a rumor like this appear the moment I ordered his arrest? Send out every warrior of the First-Rank Hall. You must seize him and bring him to me. This consort will have him put to death by a thousand cuts!!"
Just then a palace maid came in, her expression complicated. "Imperial Consort, Qin Zheng probably cannot be arrested. A spy we planted in Liao has just sent word: Qin Zheng has usurped the throne in Liao, ascended as emperor, named his state Chu, and changed the era name to Tianlong!"
Li Qiushui fell silent at once. "..."
No—how did he manage it? I sacrificed my charms and only became an imperial consort. Did Qin Zheng take the same path I did?
Chapter 40