(Yesterday, when I wrote about He Zhan walking on the sea as though walking upside down in the sky, I remembered something Wang Xiaobo said: if He wore no clothes, wouldn't something dangle upside down? Only after a reader reminded me did I remember-he's a eunuch... I thought for ages and couldn't come up with a suitable chapter title. What a headache. Let's just leave it at this.)
The mountain breeze blew into the temple, a little chilly.
The Qin Emperor looked at Jing Jiu before him, his face deathly pale. He had calmed down somewhat by now, but still could not understand what was happening.
Chu had been destroyed more than thirty years ago. The world had even forgotten that fire in the imperial palace. Who could have imagined that this man was still alive, and had actually been hiding in the temple on Mount Buzhou!
The little temple was the Divine Envoy's residence. Apart from him, the sovereign of all under heaven qualified to claim the Tripod, no one could cross that threshold.
He stared into Jing Jiu's eyes and asked in utter disbelief, "What right do you have to be here!"
"I've been here all along," Jing Jiu said.
The Qin Emperor was furious. "Impossible! Over the years, I sent countless death warriors here, and not one returned to Xianyang. Why would the Divine Envoy make an exception for you!"
Only then did Jing Jiu learn where those fellows who occasionally disturbed his cultivation and peace had come from. "I killed them," he said.
The Qin Emperor froze again. Looking into his eyes, he asked uncertainly, "You killed them? Then where is the Divine Envoy?"
"There is no Divine Envoy here," Jing Jiu said.
Disbelief appeared on the Qin Emperor's face. He looked around the