A gust of spring breeze blows, the branches swing happily, and the young leaves tremble randomly with the branches.
It’s another planting season.
Another hard work.
The refreshed Ying Zheng gently hugged Hu Yu in his arms, and his breathing gradually calmed down.
After his enthusiasm cooled down little by little, Ying Zheng finally remembered what he wanted to say.
"Hu Yu, I have a question for you." Ying Zheng said gently.
"Yeah." Hu Yu, whose face was still rosy, seemed too lazy to say a few more words, or he was still immersed in his feelings and didn't want to return to his senses.
"If, I mean if." Ying Zheng hesitated briefly and said, "I want to choose one of the two young masters to be sent to another country to be a hostage. What do you think?"
Hu Yu turned over and his eyes suddenly became sharp: "Your Majesty, will you make an alliance with Xiang Yan today?"
Seeing Hu Yu's flashing eyes, Ying Zheng said with a smile: "Look, why are you nervous? Xiang Yan proposed to take Nan Su and Fu Su back to Chu State, but I refused."
Hu Yu then breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I was shocked, I thought the king had sent Hu Hai away."
Looking at Hu Yu's swollen and red cheeks, Ying Zheng couldn't help but ask: "How are you sure that you are sending Hu Hai out?"
"It's not obvious." Hu Yu raised his lips and said, "The king is discussing things with Xiang Yan of Chu State today, and Sister Nansu is the princess of Chu State. If Fusu is sent to Chu State, country, it can only be said that he is going back to visit his grandfather, not as a proton. Besides, such a proton is of no use to the Chu State. Not only will it not be able to restrain the Qin Dynasty, but it will lose the opportunity to compete for the crown prince."
Ying Zheng sat up, looked at Hu Yu with a very strange look, and said in surprise: "You are so knowledgeable?"
"After following the king for a long time, I naturally have to think about more things. Besides, there is really nothing else to do in this palace all day long." Hu Yu said.
Ying Zheng nodded slightly and said slowly: "You are right. That Xiang Yan said that is just a pretense. If Nan Su really goes back, it will not be easy to come back. I will pay for it then." A bigger price. Therefore, I will not let mother and son leave Xianyang even half a step."
Hu Yu asked with some confusion: "This is strange. Didn't the king take his concubine back to the State of Zhao a while ago, so why is he so concerned about his sister returning to the State of Chu?"
Ying Zheng sighed softly and said, "Of course you are different."
"For one thing, our ancestors once imprisoned King Huai of Chu until his death. This matter has always been a matter of concern to the Chu State, so all subsequent Qin kings have not entered the territory of Chu."
"Secondly, on the surface, Chu State came here for the affairs of the Western Chu Army, but the fundamental reason is not because Bai Qi captured their Ying capital. Over the years, they have always changed their demands. , and this time is the best opportunity for Chu State."
"So, once Nansu returns to Chu with Fusu, the King of Chu will probably use this as an excuse to force me to return Yingcheng. Perhaps, he had already planned this when he sent Nansu to choose his concubine. .”
Hu Yu opened his mouth wide and said in surprise: "Huh? I didn't expect that the mystery here is so deep."
Ying Zheng nodded and said: "Perhaps, for several generations, the Chu Kingdom has married several beautiful princesses from the clan into the Qin Dynasty for this purpose."
Hu Yu: "..."
"Okay, don't think about it anymore. I can only talk about these things to you." Ying Zheng said, "Don't ever talk about these things to Nan Su."
"Yeah!" Hu Yu nodded vigorously.
Ying Zheng hesitated for a moment, but in the end he did not reveal the agreement with Xiang Yan.
Early the next morning, Xiang Yan came to say goodbye, and then returned to Chu State proudly with two thousand flying crossbows.
Ying Zheng ordered Meng Tian to take part of the Meng family army to Lishan Mountain first, and repair the official road in advance so that the large troops behind could move quickly.
News also came back from Mengwu, saying that the planning for northwestern Longxi has been completed and is waiting for Solin and others to move here.
Ying Zheng was overjoyed and wrote a reply to Meng Wu, asking him to continue.
He stayed in Longxi until everyone in Yiqu settled down and then returned to Xianyang.
Three more days later, Ying Zheng reorganized the government affairs, and then took the Meng Jiajun and Jing Jiaban on the road to Lishan again.
But this time, Ying Zheng brought a large amount of food, grass and baggage, and it seemed that he was going to stay there permanently.
The official road was very smooth, and there was no obstruction along the way. It seemed that Meng Tian had been repairing it very carefully in front.
The group of people marched for a whole day and once again arrived at the foot of Lishan Mountain, they saw that Meng Tian's troops had already set up checkpoints.
After adjusting the queue, the Meng family army marched into the hinterland of Lishan Mountain.
The appearance of the Divine Weapon Secret Chamber has not changed much, except that there is less snow, more tender grass, less desolation, and a lot more vitality.
Ying Zheng ordered his people to clean the secret room and let the army set up camp in the original place.
The forbidden area has always been guarded, and now, it's finally time to hand over.
After everything was settled, Ying Zheng took Li Si toward the cave without caring about rest.
"Your Majesty is so eager, but you want to see Yaizhen?" Li Si asked in a low voice.
"That's right." Ying Zheng nodded and said, "It's almost summer now. According to the date we previously expected, it has been postponed for a few days. I don't know if the two seniors will argue with each other."
"The Sword Comes"
"Probably not." Li Si said quite firmly, "They all know that the king has big things to do."
"Well, I hope so." After Li Si said this, Ying Zheng felt much more relaxed.
When they arrived at the cave, Ying Zheng stepped directly into the door, but Li Si looked at the stone wall on the side, smiled slightly, and then followed Ying Zheng into the cave entrance.
The mist in the cave was much thicker than before. Before walking far, I felt that my sight was blocked, as if I was in a fairyland.
Ying Zheng slowed down and continued walking along the familiar path.
The sound of the underground river flowing could be heard in my ears, but it seemed to be a few times faster than before.
Continuing forward, the mist became thicker, and when I stretched out my hand, I could only see a rough outline.
Ying Zheng stopped and asked softly: "Sir, how should we go ahead?"
However, no one responded.
"Sir?" Ying Zheng became alert and looked back.
However, Li Si was not seen.
Li Si was clearly beside him, and no matter how thick the fog was, he could still see his outline.
"Sir, where are you?" Ying Zheng became a little anxious and cautiously walked towards the direction he came from.
Still no one responded.
Ying Zheng panicked, and a sense of crisis suddenly emerged. He squatted down unconsciously and listened carefully to what was going on around him.
His vision is severely obstructed, his companions disappear for no reason, and he is already in a very dangerous situation. In such a situation, anyone will feel instinctive fear.
However, Ying Zheng only took a few breaths of fright before calming down little by little.
wrong!
Li Si was so skilled that even if he was in danger, he would never fail to shout.
And even if there was a power that could make Li Si disappear instantly, there would definitely be no sound or anything strange.
The only possibility is that Li Si discovered something was wrong and followed him quietly.
That's not right. With Li Si's cautious character, he would never throw himself into such an environment.
what is going on?
Although he calmed down, Ying Zheng still didn't understand what was going on.
While he was concentrating, Ying Zheng tripped on something unknown and fell to the ground with a thud.
Ying Zheng sat up and looked towards the direction where he tripped, but the lower he looked, the thicker the mist seemed, and he couldn't see anything clearly.
"Sir, is that you?" Ying Zheng crawled and explored there.
However, I didn't touch anything.
This is weird, I tripped over but couldn't touch anything.
Ying Zheng half-crouched
, groping forward little by little.
At this time, a series of noises suddenly sounded not far away.
Rustling... rustling...
This voice... sounded familiar, as if I had heard it somewhere.
Without any time to think, Ying Zheng groped in that direction.
After walking about a foot away, I suddenly felt a blast of hot air blowing in my face, with a faint fishy smell, like the breathing of an alien animal.
"Senior Yaizhen, is that you?"
Ying Zheng moved a few more steps in the direction of the hot air.
"Senior Xi? Where are you?"
There seemed to be something vaguely shaking in the direction where the hot air came from.
Ying Zheng stretched out his hand to test, and slowly moved his fingers there.
Slowly, slowly...
Finally, Ying Zheng's finger touched that unknown thing.
It's smooth to the touch, yet hard as bone.
Ying Zheng stretched out his other hand, only to find that the thing in front of him seemed to be a cone-shaped bone-like thing. When he touched it upwards, he found that the lower end was very sharp.
What's this?
While he was thinking about it, this thing flew out of his hand and flew to an unknown place.
There was another rustling sound in front of me.
Ying Zheng remembered that the sound was caused by Zhu Jiuyou moving his body and rubbing against the ground.
So what I touched just now was...
Zhu Jiuyou’s fangs?
Ying Zheng stood up and was about to ask, but he tripped and fell to the ground again.
Before Ying Zheng could get up, a bloody mouth appeared dimly in front of his eyes. The fishy smell exhaled from its mouth blew away the mist in front of him, and the blood-red tongue swayed in front of Ying Zheng's eyes. There was still a drop of saliva dripping down, and it landed on Ying Zheng's forehead.
"Senior Zhu Jiuyou!" Ying Zheng shouted at the critical moment.
The big snake stopped for a moment, and then left a distance of about ten feet from Ying Zheng.
"Hiss... do you recognize me?" came the serpent's dull voice.
Ying Zheng quickly got up, patted the dirt on his body, and said, "Don't you know me, senior?"
"Your breath is very unfamiliar." Orochi said, "However, since you know my name, then sit on the tip of my tail, go to a place without fog, and let me take a look at you."
As soon as the voice fell, a huge snake's tail had already been thrown at Ying Zheng's feet.
Ying Zheng leaned down, touched the snake's tail, and rode on it.
The snake's tail moved. Ying Zheng staggered and hurriedly fell on top of the snake's tail.
After twisting and turning, I don’t know how far I walked, the fog gradually faded, and the scene in front of me gradually became clearer.
After passing a cave entrance, the light became brighter and the fog disappeared.
Ying Zheng looked around and saw that he had come to an open area, so he turned over and jumped off the snake's tail.
The big snake made a half circle and turned back.
A man and a beast were three feet apart and looked at each other.
Seeing the big snake opposite, Ying Zheng couldn't help but be startled.
Although this big snake also has only one eye, its body is much larger than the one Ying Zheng has seen, and its skin is not pure black, but slightly green.
"Senior...but Zhu Jiuyou?" Ying Zheng asked cautiously.
"Yes, I am exactly this year." Zhu Jiuyou said, "Who are you?"
Ying Zheng said in confusion: "I haven't seen my senior for only a year. I'm sure senior won't forget it."
"Say your name!" Zhu Jiuyou said coldly.
"I'm Ying Zheng." Ying Zheng raised his head and said.
"Hiss..." Zhu Jiuyou made a sound of spitting out a message, "Sure enough, it's you, King Qin."
Ying Zheng seemed to understand something: "Could it be that the senior is not the Zhu Jiuyou from before?"
"Hiss..." Zhu Jiuyou said, "Yes, the one before is Ben Sui's sister. It is currently incubating eggs in Jiu You, and this place will be taken over by Ben Sui from now on."
