Zhao Kuo nodded. "Of course I know: the Qin general Wang He!"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk—"
Verdant Green Maiden shook her head. "Wrong!"
"Wrong?"
Zhao Kuo furrowed his brow. "What did I get wrong?"
Verdant Green Maiden hopped down and said to Zhao Kuo, "The one fighting you isn't Wang He at all. His surname is Bai!"
"Bai..."
Zhao Kuo froze. Then his pupils contracted as he realized what Verdant Green Maiden meant!
Among the Qin generals, there was only one man surnamed Bai who could make Verdant Green Maiden speak so gravely—and who could command hundreds of thousands of Qin troops!
Zhao Kuo murmured, "Lord Wu'an, Bai Qi?"
Verdant Green Maiden snapped her fingers. "That's right. It's him, Bai Qi! From now on, you can call him the Man-Slayer."
"It's actually him..."
"It really is him..."
"All these days, I haven't received a single scrap of news!"
Zhao Kuo was a little flustered, but quickly forced himself to calm down. He looked at Verdant Green Maiden and asked with a frown, "Verdant Green Maiden, how did you find out? You were trapped here with me. Who told you such classified information?"
"I know everything."
Verdant Green Maiden waggled her finger, then asked, "Well? Are you scared out of your wits?"
Zhao Kuo drew a deep breath and said resolutely, "Of course not! Even if our opponent is Bai Qi, I won't back down!"
"This battle will decide whether Great Zhao lives or dies!"
"But... you won't break through."
Verdant Green Maiden looked at Zhao Kuo's solemn expression and spoke slowly. "Well? Why don't you beg me? If you do, I might be willing to get you out of here. But I can't do anything for these Zhao troops. There are too many of them."
"Verdant Green Maiden... you're not human, are you?"
Zhao Kuo looked at Verdant Green Maiden. After hesitating for a moment, he asked the question.
It sounded like an insult, but Verdant Green Maiden simply nodded. "That's right. I'm not. How did you know?"
"We've known each other for years. I've grown weathered and haggard, but you're still as radiant as ever. It's hard not to have my suspicions. Besides, you can remain perfectly composed among a million troops. That's not something an ordinary woman could do!"
Zhao Kuo looked at Verdant Green Maiden and suddenly asked, "If you can get me out, that proves you're remarkably capable. What if I asked you to kill Bai Qi?"
Verdant Green Maiden shook her head. "I won't."
"Even you can't kill Bai Qi?"
Seeing Verdant Green Maiden shake her head, Zhao Kuo's pupils contracted. Could Bai Qi really be a God of Slaughter sent down by Heaven?
It wasn't that Verdant Green Maiden couldn't kill him. She simply didn't want to!
The Major Trend beneath Heaven was already gathering around Qin. Verdant Green Maiden could see Auspicious Fortune, and after this battle, not a single rival would be able to withstand Qin's fortune! All she needed was for that fortune to gather—why disturb it herself?
Besides, she had tried to change history before.
Verdant Green Maiden fell silent. Zhao Kuo did too. He said nothing more to her and went to discuss countermeasures with the other Zhao generals.
On the forty-fifth night of the Zhao army's encirclement.
By then, apart from the living, there was nothing left in the Zhao camp that could be eaten!
Not the horses, nor the bodies of dead Zhao soldiers.
Zhao Kuo's face was frighteningly pale. He sat opposite Verdant Green Maiden before a campfire, its light reflected on their faces. Their expressions were entirely different. Verdant Green Maiden looked as she always did, her cheeks rosy; the Zhao army's lack of food had not affected her in the slightest.
"Verdant Green Maiden, what exactly can you do...?"
Zhao Kuo looked at Verdant Green Maiden and asked softly. He no longer had much strength to speak.
Seeing him like this, Verdant Green Maiden sighed quietly and beckoned to the sky. Hong Luan flew down and dropped a small pheasant in front of her.
"A divine bird?"
Zhao Kuo's pupils contracted.
He stared at Hong Luan's blue-green wings, astonished. "A blue-green bird..."
He had never seen a Qing Niao with plumage of that color. He soon realized something and murmured, "I've heard that legend. When the Zhou Heavenly Son traveled west to Kunlun Mountain to meet the Queen Mother of the West, it was a Qing Niao that showed him the way! Is it the legendary divine bird?"
"Mm."
Verdant Green Maiden nodded.
Zhao Kuo looked at Verdant Green Maiden. "Then you..."
"Me? I'm Verdant Green Maiden."
Verdant Green Maiden pointed at herself and grinned. She cleaned the pheasant, then roasted it.
"To be honest, it's only because this place is far from your soldiers that I dare roast a chicken here. If the smell draws them over, we'll be in trouble!"
One or two would have been fine, but there were four hundred thousand of them!
Verdant Green Maiden wasn't capable of conjuring enough food for them all. Letting them see her eat would only make them miserable.
Zhao Kuo watched the roasted chicken sizzle and drip with fat, then swallowed. Verdant Green Maiden generously shared some with him.
Zhao Kuo thanked Verdant Green Maiden. "Tomorrow, I'm going to lead the troops in a breakout!"
"Too late," Verdant Green Maiden said as she ate.
With the Zhao troops starving like this, how could they possibly break through the encirclement of Qin's five or six hundred thousand soldiers? And no one knew how many able-bodied men over the age of fifteen there were in the commanderies of Hedong and Henei.
Zhao Kuo knew this too, but he had no other choice!
"Perhaps the history books of later generations will record me, Zhao Kuo, as a sinner for all time!"
Zhao Kuo raised his head to the night sky and sighed.
"But you've already done well enough. You just weren't as good as Bai Qi! For more than forty days, the Zhao troops haven't mutinied or defected, and their ranks have remained intact. That's better than most people could have managed!"
Verdant Green Maiden dusted off her hands and said, "You were simply unlucky enough to run into Bai Qi."
"Luck..."
Zhao Kuo chuckled softly at her words.
The next day, Zhao Kuo led his troops into battle!
He divided the four hundred thousand Zhao troops into four waves and sent them charging one after another. But the famished Zhao troops were no match for the Qin army. After Zhao Kuo died in the chaos of battle, the remaining Zhao troops were left leaderless and could only surrender to Qin!
Many people died on the battlefield at Changping.
Verdant Green Maiden dragged Zhao Kuo's corpse away. Hong Luan let out a long cry and soared into the sky. The Qin army tried to stop her, but she left many of them crippled.
The news of a woman in green dragging away the Zhao commander's body quickly reached Bai Qi's ears.
Bai Qi rode over, bringing countless Qin soldiers with him, and blocked Verdant Green Maiden's way.
"Is that Zhao Kuo's body?"
Bai Qi's gaze fell on Zhao Kuo behind Verdant Green Maiden. He knitted his brows and asked.
Verdant Green Maiden nodded, then waved a hand. "Move aside. I'm taking him back to bury him, and I'm in a hurry."
"Impudent!"
Someone roared.
Verdant Green Maiden's gaze turned cold. She kicked a pebble at her feet.
The pebble instantly pierced the man's right shoulder. His armor couldn't stop it, and his bones and flesh shattered! Blood poured from the wound as he clutched his shoulder in agony.
The inhuman display made Bai Qi's expression turn grave. He raised a hand to hold back the others behind him, dismounted, and cupped his hands toward Verdant Green Maiden.
"I am Bai Qi, Lord Wu'an of Qin. May I ask the young lady's name?"
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