ATPnovel Chapter 80: Return to Shangjun
Chapter 80: Return to Shangjun
quiet!
The main hall was eerily silent!
Without urging him, Zhao Gao simply watched Hu Hai struggle quietly.
That gaze was like an invisible thread, tightly binding Hu Hai's limbs and bones, his heart, and every struggling nerve in his body.
It tightened more and more, making it suffocating.
"Boom—"
The rain grew louder, pattering against the palace rooftops.
After a long while, Hu Hai slowly raised his head, all the struggle in his eyes fading away. Only a trace of confusion remained, along with a naked glimmer of greed.
It was a yearning for supreme power, a surrender to the instinct for survival, and a flame that had been ignited in the depths of human nature.
Hu Hai's lips moved, and he uttered only one word in a low voice, "Agreed!"
With that single word, the fate of the Qin Dynasty was sealed.
Zhao Gao bowed his head, a flash of wild joy crossing his eyes, before he quickly composed himself and resumed his respectful eunuch demeanor.
He knew that this crucial first step had been successfully completed. After tonight, all the conspiracies could be slowly unleashed.
The cold sand still howled outside the window, and the night was as deep as a prison.
Meanwhile, on the other side...
On their way from Zhifu to Shangjun, Zou Yun and his party missed the pavilions and could only light a bonfire by the roadside to dispel the chill of late autumn.
Beside the campfire, Wei Shuqing was struggling to chew on a hard piece of dried meat.
Feng Zhixue stared blankly at the flickering flames, Zheng Ze added firewood to the fire with branches, while Meng Xuande gazed intently westward.
"Clatter".
Suddenly, a soft sound broke the brief silence.
Zou Yun, who had been sitting silently by the fire, suddenly changed his expression, and the dried meat in his hand slipped and fell to the ground.
"A Grand Master?!"
Startled by the commotion, Wei Shuqing looked up in confusion.
He reacted quickly, bending down to pick up the piece of dried meat covered in mud and sand, wiping it casually with his palm, and then stuffing it into his mouth without a care.
While eating, he mumbled, "It's such a waste to lose the jerky, we can wipe it off and still eat it... What's wrong with you, Jun?"
"Oh?! It's nothing."
Zou Yun snapped back to his senses, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes.
But he quickly covered it up, raising his hand to give a long, feigned yawn.
"I'm just... a little sleepy, I'll go lie down in the car for a while."
After saying that, before anyone could ask any more questions, he stood up nimbly and walked straight to the car parked to the side.
Beside the fire, Wei Shuqing chewed on dried meat.
Feng Zhixue, Zheng Ze, and Meng Xuande looked at each other, their expressions all strange, but none of them spoke first.
"Crackling...crackling..."
In the wilderness, only the sound of burning damp firewood remained.
"Speaking of which..."
After a long silence, Feng Zhixue finally couldn't help but whisper.
"Is it really appropriate for us to take the travel permit issued by Master Xu before his departure and head to Shangjun without authorization?"
"This...this is defying an imperial decree!"
He looked worried, clearly feeling very uneasy about this operation.
"Oh."
Zheng Ze let out a short, mocking laugh.
"Feng Jun, why bring this up now? Even Meng Jun has tacitly agreed to this, and we have already left Zhifu and have been wandering in this desolate wilderness for nearly ten days."
"What's done is done; what's the use of saying such things now?"
"That brat..."
Feng Zhixue cursed inwardly, extremely dissatisfied with Zheng Ze's disrespect.
Immediately, he glanced at Meng Xuande, who had been silent, and lowered his voice even further.
"Do you all believe the prediction made by the Grand Master that day, that Prince Fusu and General Meng might face a great calamity? Is this truly believable?"
Feng Zhixue licked his dry, chapped lips, a bitter expression on his face.
"It's not that I don't believe in the Grand Master's supernatural powers, but... but the problem is, if His Majesty finds out that we dared to secretly go to see Prince Fusu... the consequences..."
He shook his head, not daring to continue, but the unspoken meaning in his words was quite clear.
"have no idea."
Meng Xuande finally spoke, his voice low and deep.
He gazed at the flickering flames, a hidden current surging in the depths of his eyes.
"I don't want to know. I only know that His Majesty's original order to me was to stay by his side at all times and protect the Grand Master. That's all."
"This is to save your father, and the imperial heir whose fate is inextricably linked to the Meng clan. You would naturally be more than happy to do so..."
Feng Zhixue couldn't help but complain in his heart.
"But we must all bear this immense responsibility and risk together!"
But looking at the worried Meng Xuande, Feng Zhixue forced a smile, but ultimately swallowed back the complaints that were on the tip of his tongue.
"well......"
All words ultimately amount to nothing more than a sigh.
Inside the car, Zou Yun leaned against the side wall, his eyes fixed on the panel in front of him.
A brand new dialog box suddenly popped up on the panel.
[Detected that the person associated with the Destiny has died; successfully acquired 4 units of Origin Value.]
[Original Value: Within the consumption range, words can become law.]
"The chosen one...is dead?!"
"Could it be Ying Zheng? Has he already died at Shatai?!" Zou Yun murmured.
Because he was in a hurry, he didn't know the exact time. So when he heard the news, even though he was prepared, Zou Yun was still a little surprised.
But after the initial surprise came a surge of immense urgency.
"Time! There should be enough time!"
According to astrological information, Fusu was forced to commit suicide by Zhao Gao's envoy in late July.
Therefore, they set off ahead of time, hoping to reach Shangjun before Ying Zheng fell ill and was unable to attend to them.
"But......"
A sense of anxiety welled up in Zou Yun's heart.
"How long exactly did this take? Five days? Seven days? Or... ten days?"
Damn it! I can't remember the key details!
Zou Yun suddenly looked up, his gaze piercing through the wooden plank and landing in the distant west.
"Fusu, this time you really need to listen to Meng Tian's advice!"
-----------------
More than ten days later.
When the familiar gate of the Fushi Prefectural Governor's Mansion finally came into view again.
Zou Yun was almost moved to tears.
God knows how difficult the second half of their journey was!
As if plagued by misfortune, the perfectly good bridge collapsed as soon as they crossed it.
Upon reaching the valley, a sudden mudslide swept down, nearly burying them and their horses.
The most outrageous thing was that a blizzard suddenly struck halfway through the journey.
The snowflakes, as big as goose feathers, instantly blocked the mountain, trapping them in the desolate wilderness for two whole days.
There were many other minor issues as well; in short, the journey was full of hardships.
Now that they had finally arrived at their destination, everyone visibly breathed a sigh of relief.
Thanks to the travel document that Xu Fu had issued before he "fled," Zou Yun and his group were able to enter the prefect's mansion relatively smoothly.
However, the moment they stepped into the mansion gate...
Everyone sensed that the atmosphere in the mansion was quite subtle.
Inside the mansion, everything seemed to be running normally. The county officials were still bent over their desks, processing the documents in their hands.
The armored soldiers, holding long spears, patrolled meticulously along the predetermined route.
On the surface, everything appears orderly.
But beneath this apparent normalcy lies a suffocating numbness and bewilderment.