Verdant Green Maiden asked, "What are you planning to do?"
Liu Ji glanced back at Lu Wan and the others, lined up behind him, and wore a helpless expression. "The emperor's dead, and the court has conscripted us to build his mausoleum on Mount Li. They need too many men. There's no helping it—we'll have to go ourselves!"
"Wait..."
Verdant Green Maiden shook her head. "No, you don't have to go! Just wait a little while. The court's decree will arrive soon. The new emperor will ascend the throne and proclaim a General Amnesty. All your labor service will be exempted."
"Really?"
Liu Ji's eyes lit up.
Verdant Green Maiden nodded. "Trust me!"
Hearing that, Liu Ji thumped his chest. "You're my brother. If I don't trust you, who can I trust?"
With that, he sent everyone who had gathered back home.
But as time went by, no decree arrived from the court. Instead, one wave of recruiters after another showed up to hurry them along. At first, Verdant Green Maiden could still drive them away, but the longer it went on, the more helpless she felt.
"No, it's been months already. The decree from Xianyang should have spread throughout the land by now!"
Verdant Green Maiden furrowed her brow, unable to understand why people were still coming to press them into service.
Liu Ji stood before her, looking awkward too.
"Brother Verdant Green Maiden, we can't wait any longer! If we really miss the deadline, Xiao He and I will both be charged. How about this? I'll take the men and set out first. If a General Amnesty is truly proclaimed, we'll definitely come back."
Leaving those words behind, Liu Ji led his men off.
At the entrance to Pei County,
Verdant Green Maiden watched them go.
"Hong Luan... Go to Xianyang and ask Fusu whether he listened to me or not!"
Hong Luan felt that Verdant Green Maiden wasn't in the right state of mind.
In the past, Verdant Green Maiden had tried to dissuade Bao Si, Pang Juan, Zhao Kuo, and the others, but when they wouldn't listen, she'd simply taken it as the inevitable course of history and paid it little mind.
Ever since she learned that Heaven was forcibly correcting history, she seemed to have developed a stubborn urge to fight against Heaven.
Snake Girl was stubborn to the bone.
"Can you manage on your own?"
Verdant Green Maiden reassured Hong Luan. After Hong Luan flew off toward Xianyang, she packed her things and followed Liu Ji's group.
She followed them from a distance, never joining their party.
Liu Ji saw her, but at her instruction, he pretended not to.
After traveling for a long while, they heard that more and more laborers were being conscripted. Construction of the imperial mausoleum and Afang Palace continued unabated, and the conditions were growing harsher by the day.
Worse still, word came that anyone who missed the deadline would be executed!
But the Qin Law clearly didn't say that.
As they neared Mangdang Mountain, heavy rain began to fall.
Rain pattered onto Verdant Green Maiden's shoulders. The mountain path was rugged and difficult to traverse.
With the deadline fast approaching, some people began blaming her.
"If not for her, how could we have missed the deadline!"
"If they punish us for this, we'll all be executed! Big brother..."
Lu Wan, Fan Kuai, and the others were growing anxious.
Liu Ji looked up at Verdant Green Maiden, standing on a distant mountaintop and watching them. He steeled himself and said, "Since it's come to this, everyone can go their own way! I, Liu Ji, am surely going to be executed this time. I don't want to die!"
"Those willing to trust me, come with me!"
"If you don't trust me, then this is where we part ways! Go find your own way to survive, everyone!"
Lu Wan, Fan Kuai, and the others naturally chose to follow Liu Ji.
Nearly everyone chose to follow Liu Ji. The old rogue's charisma was plain to see: even as an outlaw, he still had so many people at his side.
All those years wandering the streets and lanes hadn't been for nothing.
Liu Ji's group stayed on Mangdang Mountain for several months, until winter arrived. Verdant Green Maiden felt more and more powerless.
Hong Luan had been gone for months and still hadn't returned.
When news came from the north that Chen Sheng and Wu Guang had rebelled and proclaimed themselves Zhang Chu, someone suggested that Liu Ji raise the banner of rebellion too and overthrow the Violent Qin.
Liu Ji was persuaded. He wasted no time, planning to lead his men off the mountain and fight their way back to Pei County.
But at the mountain pass, Verdant Green Maiden stood quietly in their way.
"Brother Verdant Green Maiden, what are you..."
Liu Ji looked at her blocking the road alone, hesitating.
Verdant Green Maiden gazed at him, sorrow in her eyes. "Stay on Mangdang Mountain. Food, drink, clothes, gold, silver—whatever you need, I'll bring it to you. There's just one thing: don't go out! Don't leave Mangdang Mountain."
"Hey, you woman! You've kept us cooped up in these mountains for months, and now you won't even let us leave. What are you up to?"
Fan Kuai was the first to lose his temper. He raised the knife in his hand and pointed it at Verdant Green Maiden.
Verdant Green Maiden's pupils narrowed as she glared at Fan Kuai.
Liu Ji spread his hands, his expression helpless. "Brother Verdant Green Maiden, it's not that I don't want to listen to you, but look at all this..."
Hundreds of young men stood around him, all looking to him for direction.
Even if he agreed, his brothers wouldn't.
Seeing this, Verdant Green Maiden's hair began to flutter. She lifted her gaze to the sky.
"Damn Heaven!"
After shouting those three words, she looked back at Liu Ji. Now, her eyes held nothing but ferocity.
Dark clouds blanketed the sky, and snow began to fall.
The snowflakes weren't like ordinary snow. Instead, they gathered around Verdant Green Maiden and gradually swirled together, forming a snow-colored giant snake several times larger than normal.
Verdant Green Maiden lowered her eyes, her brown-green, slit-pupiled gaze filled with inscrutable emotion.
There was once a Qing Xiao Jade Maiden who descended to the Mortal Realm in autumn, charged with bringing down frost and snow.
Ever since Qin officially established the Qing Xiao Jade Maiden Temple, Verdant Green Maiden had gradually felt herself gaining extraordinary powers. In a haze, she could sense those who worshipped before her temple. The winter winds and snow now had a master.
And her mind, naturally, was affected by the fortune of Qin as well.
Liu Ji and the others stared in shock.
They'd called Verdant Green Maiden an Immortal Aunt—and she really was one?
How could an ordinary person possess such powers?
"Liu Ji! Get past me, and you can go wherever you want in this world!"
Verdant Green Maiden roared.
Behind her, the spirit snake formed from frost and snow opened its eyes. The enormous white snake opened its jaws and lunged at Liu Ji and the others.
"Mercy! What is that thing?"
Someone cried out.
Liu Ji was naturally panicking too. When had a rogue from Pei County like him ever seen anything like this?
But so many people were watching from behind. How could he show fear?
If he did, how could he lead them?
Liu Ji clenched his teeth, shut his eyes, drew the sword in his hand, and swung at the snow-colored giant snake charging toward him!
His strike shattered the giant snake, but frost and snow quickly gathered again, restoring it.
Like a real snake, it coiled around the hundreds of men. The bone-chilling snow clung to their skin, and they all shivered. Verdant Green Maiden leapt into the air and landed atop the white snake's head.
From on high, she looked down at Liu Ji and the others.
"Liu Ji, will you agree or not?"
Verdant Green Maiden asked.
Liu Ji clenched his teeth and was just about to answer when the sky changed again.
The heavens were black with rolling thunderclouds.
A flash of white light streaked across the sky, and the cold vanished in an instant. When Liu Ji and his group came to their senses and opened their eyes, they saw—
Verdant Green Maiden and the snow-colored giant snake had both disappeared.
"Big brother, you're incredible! Even that Immortal Aunt's magic couldn't do a thing to you!"
Lu Wan was the first to shout.
His cry naturally made everyone credit Liu Ji with the entire victory.
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