With a bang, a pitch-black object suddenly came smashing down at her head. Fortunately, Qing Xia was quick with her hands and eyes – even though she was seriously injured, she still managed to dodge in time when danger struck.

A large black rat shattered into pieces on the ground, its organs spilling out everywhere. Even though Qing Xia wasn’t afraid, she immediately felt nauseated and sick. Her gaze couldn’t help but shoot out sharply, pointing directly at the perpetrator.

“Ah!” Several disheveled women were immediately shocked, looking at Qing Xia with terrified eyes. Seeing that she showed no fear and had a fierce look in her eyes, they suddenly cried out and ran like madwomen toward a small room on the other side, then nimbly opened the window and looked out in fear.

Qing Xia frowned slightly. These people looked anything but normal – more like mentally ill people who had been stimulated.

“Hey! What place is this?”

“Ah!” Hearing Qing Xia speak, they cried out even louder, slammed the window shut with a bang, and hid themselves.

Qing Xia became even more puzzled. She walked to the main door and pulled hard, only to discover that the door had been nailed shut tightly from the outside. Her confusion grew deeper – had she been kidnapped?

With great effort, she climbed over the wall and jumped out, accidentally tearing open the wound on her back. Qing Xia winced in pain. Forget it – her body was already covered in major and minor injuries everywhere. She had long since ruined Zhuang Qing Xia’s delicate skin.

Walking around to the front door, she saw a dilapidated sign nailed above it with three elegant characters: “Baiding Hall.”

It was quite an elegant name. Did this mean everyone imprisoned inside were commoners?

Best not to meddle in other people’s affairs – escape first and talk later. Fortunately, this area was remote with no guards. Qing Xia reached her hand around her shoulder to cover the wound on her back, walking forward slowly but cautiously.

In the evening, Chu Li didn’t eat much but drank a lot of wine instead.

All the Southern Chu servants knew that the Chu Emperor’s alcohol tolerance had always been excellent. Especially in recent years, he could drink a thousand cups without getting drunk and had few rivals. But tonight, after just a few cups, the Chu Emperor was drunk. Though he remained calm and didn’t lose his composure, from his eyes, the palace maids and servants could clearly see that their Great Emperor was intoxicated.

The Great Emperor was in a bad mood tonight – everyone needed to serve carefully.

The message was passed among the servants through various gestures and coded signals. Under the lamplight, the Chu Emperor drank cup after cup, his expression calm, but his eyes revealed slight desolation – so deep and thick, layer upon layer, like ocean waves.

Suddenly, Chu Li stood up and said in a deep voice: “Qin Yu, bring my cloak.”

A palace maid with gentle features quickly brought out a black brocade cloak embroidered with gold and draped it over Chu Li’s shoulders, calling out loudly: “His Majesty is going out – prepare the imperial procession!”

“No need,” Chu Li said in a deep voice. “I’m just taking a casual walk by myself. You don’t need to follow.”

“Your Majesty, how can that be? Eastern Qi assassins came just a few days ago, and this is after all the Qi Kingdom’s palace…”

Chu Li’s gaze immediately turned cold. The palace maid fell to her knees with a thud, quickly saying: “This servant deserves death. Your Majesty, please spare my life.”

The great hall was completely silent without a sound. After an unknown amount of time, when Qin Yu raised her head, she saw the room full of kneeling servants, but their emperor had vanished without a trace.

The wind outside was strong, swirling everywhere, filling the air with the fragrance of flowering trees.

Qing Xia had been walking for a long time but still hadn’t found a way out. Due to her previous serious injuries, excessive blood loss, and not having had a drop of water for a day and night, her strength was severely depleted. Reaching a secluded corridor area, she finally couldn’t hold on anymore. Supporting herself against a pillar, she slowly sat down leaning against the corridor railing.

She clearly knew that without knowing the route, it would be very difficult to get out of this enormous mansion.

It seemed she should capture someone to ask for directions.

A gust of wind suddenly blew over, immediately extinguishing the palace lanterns in the corners. Chu Li, dressed in a black cloak with his dark hair flying, walked with upright bearing through the vast Ronghua Palace.

Even with his eyes closed, he could find his way out of this place. Once upon a time, it was here that he had spent the most miserable ten years of his life, bullied and beaten by others, living with difficulty like a dog without dignity. He had once sworn that someday he would return to this place, burn it down with fire, and trample all those who had bullied him underfoot, making them kneel on the ground and beg him for mercy.

Now he had finally achieved this – he had eliminated Eastern Qi, eliminated the former masters of this place, become the lord of this continent, turned this country into his vassal, and taken away everything they had once possessed. But why was he so unhappy? He felt no joy whatsoever, and instead was filled completely with heavy sorrow.

Since when had he banished the word “sorrow” from the dictionary of his life?

Sorrow, sadness, vulnerability, tears – these were emotions that only weak people would have. After experiencing so much, he thought he had become strong enough. But why did he still have this deeply detested emotion tearing at his heart so agonizingly?

At the corner ahead, there was a water vat. When he was nine years old, playing hide-and-seek with the little eunuchs, he had hidden in that water vat with her. They hadn’t expected the vat to be too deep for them to climb out. The powerless hostage prince was forgotten just like that – they stayed in the water vat for an entire night before being rescued by Teacher Zhuang the next day.

Chu Li walked a few steps and indeed saw that enormous water vat.

The height that had once seemed insurmountable now only reached his waist. So in the blink of an eye, he had already grown this tall.

A sudden gust of wind blew up yellow sand that struck Chu Li’s face. He sniffed carefully and seemed to smell the scent of the desert – like the rolling yellow sand from beyond the western border passes, that thick and coarse smell.

So he still missed it after all?

The man in the darkness raised his head and laughed softly, as if mocking himself.

That woman who had wandered all her life, controlled by fate, never having a single day of happiness – had she really just disappeared like that into the rolling yellow sand, buried by dust? He seemed to see again that resolute face of the pale woman outside Xianyang City, see her lonely and desolate slender figure, see that broken sword lying resolutely between them like an unbridgeable chasm, separating them to opposite poles. He was on this end, yet had not the slightest courage or qualification to reach out and stop her from returning to that man’s side.

Perhaps he really should have stopped her. If he had, she wouldn’t have followed him to Pengyang City, wouldn’t have pursued him heartbroken, and wouldn’t have finally disappeared in the vast desert.

Those regrets he didn’t want to acknowledge finally crawled up into his heart like venomous snakes.

Admit it – you are still fundamentally a coward. Even now that you possess thousands of miles of mountains and rivers, you still cannot prevent yourself from falling into that place of eternal damnation, trampling all your pride and self-respect underfoot, letting others trample on them.

He suddenly remembered Qin Zhiyan’s final words. He had turned back to look at the man with his back to him, smiling with casual ease as he said slowly: “Actually, you should be the one who understands me best.”

He had always been so dismissive, but at this moment he suddenly understood what kind of powerless feeling that was – the oppression of the heart, the tearing of nerves, the helplessness of having the will but not the strength, only able to watch Mount Tai collapse before you.

He walked slowly forward, aimlessly, just blindly walking. Since ascending to the throne, it had been a long time since he had indulged himself like this – not thinking about the floods in the south, not thinking about the border wars, not thinking about the situation among the kingdoms, not thinking about the undercurrents in court, just walking forward in solitude, walking indifferently.

The wind grew stronger. With a whoosh, all the lights along the entire corridor were extinguished.

“Ah!” A low, soft cry suddenly rang out. Chu Li frowned and stopped in his tracks.

The moon was half-covered by dark clouds, even its light was dim. In the darkness, Chu Li could only see a thin figure sitting against the corridor railing, legs drawn up, beautiful hair flowing, white clothes fluttering like a ghost at midnight.

Once upon a time, also here, a child in rags with a bloodied face had been running madly through the corridor. That girl in a pink little jacket had suddenly jumped down from the railing, stood in front of him, pointed at his nose and shouted: “Hey! What happened to you!”

Years roared past, traversing life and death. Heaven’s hand played chaotically on fate’s chessboard, grinning with an eerie smile.

After several cycles of wandering, the people of destiny finally stood once again at life’s starting point.

“Who’s there?” A clear, low voice suddenly rang out, like a white morning glory blooming at midnight.

Chu Li’s sword-holding hand immediately trembled, his brow locked tight as he stepped forward two paces in disbelief. But the white-clothed woman who had been sitting on the railing suddenly jumped down fiercely, moving with agile skill as she stepped forward rapidly. With a swoosh, a dagger was drawn from its sheath, flashing with cold brilliance in the dark night as it thrust toward the man’s throat.

Dark clouds moved forward, immediately covering the moon completely. Darkness shrouded the entire earth.

“Who’s over there?” A soldier’s voice suddenly rang out, followed immediately by the sound of chaotic, hurried footsteps.

The woman’s wrist was grasped firmly in the man’s palm. She frowned and used a small grappling technique to counter-grip the man’s hand, pulling him back to a corner and leaping together into that enormous water vat.

She covered the man’s mouth with one hand, the dagger pressed against his throat as she said coldly: “Make a sound and I’ll kill you.”

“Who’s there?” The soldiers walked over hurriedly, looked left and right but saw no one.

“Chief, there’s nobody here.”

“Search around more,” the leader said in a deep voice. “We just killed a batch a few days ago – can’t be careless.”