Where Could He Hide?

"Search! Even if we have to dig three feet into the ground, we must find him. I want to see where this King Zhou can hide."

Upon entering King Zhou's palace, they found it empty. Jiang Ziya immediately mobilized several of his trusted men to search for it.

"Reporting to the commander, we have captured a maid who is not quite dead yet."

After searching, the trusted men found no trace of King Zhou, but instead found a half-dead maidservant and brought her back to Jiang Ziya's side.

It turned out that before leaving, King Zhou thought he had to leave some clues for Jiang Ziya to find him, so he found a palace maid who had just entered the palace, made her look like she was on the verge of death, and hid her in his palace.

He also told the maid that if she wanted to live, she should reveal her whereabouts so that she would not be killed by the army brought by Jiang Ziya.

King Zhou then left with his confidants.

"My lord, please don't kill me! Please don't kill me! I know where King Zhou is!"

The maid was already crying with fear when she was caught, and when she was brought before Jiang Ziya, she was so frightened that she knelt down and kowtowed repeatedly, begging for mercy.

"Don't be afraid, I won't hurt you. You just need to tell me where King Zhou is, and I'll let you go."

Jiang Ziya helped the maid up and spoke to her gently.

"My lord, King Zhou built a secret passage in this palace that leads directly to the King Zhou -Star-Picking Tower. He escaped through this passage."

The maidservant, her voice trembling, recounted King Zhou's whereabouts.

"Tell me, how did you find out about this secret passage?"

One of Jiang Ziya's confidants drew his sword and held it to the maid's neck, frightening her so much that she knelt down again.

"When King Zhou left, in order to avoid revealing his whereabouts, he sent his trusted men to take the people here away or to silence them."

"After being chased down by one of King Zhou's confidants, I stabbed him with a sword. He thought I was dead, so he called for the other confidants of King Zhou who had successfully hunted me down."

The maid trembled uncontrollably after a sword was pressed against her neck, but in order to save her life, she forced herself to explain to them.

"Then I overheard their conversation. One of them asked where the passage led, and the one chasing me said it led to the Star-Picking Tower. Mission accomplished, let's hurry, we still have to follow King Zhou."

"After they left, I struggled to hide, trying to escape, but you still found me in the end."

The maid, trembling, recounted how she had discovered the secret passage.

"Now lead us to this secret passage, and my men will heal your wounds and release you."

Jiang Ziya helped the maid up again and told her his request.

"Good."

The maidservant trembled as she agreed, then stood up unsteadily and led Jiang Ziya and several of his confidants toward the location of the secret passage.

A few minutes later, the maid led Jiang Ziya and his confidants to the secret passage.

"My lord, this is the place. This is the secret passage built by King Zhou. May I leave now?"

After the maid brought Jiang Ziya and the others there, she asked if she could leave.

Jiang Ziya waved for her to leave, then led a few of his trusted men into the secret passage to continue their pursuit of King Zhou.

After a period of trekking, Jiang Ziya and his confidants finally arrived at the exit of the secret passage.

No one would have imagined that the hollow of an ancient tree would be the end of this secret passage.

After exiting the secret passage, the Star-Picking Tower could be faintly seen.

Jiang Ziya immediately led several of his trusted followers to that location.

When King Zhou fled here with his confidants, he deliberately spread the word, causing Jiang Ziya's army to send a portion of its forces to pursue and kill them here.

Jiang Ziya arrived shortly afterward.

At this time, King Zhou was surrounded by Jiang Ziya's army on the Star-Picking Tower. However, he had already transferred his confidants away. Only three people remained on the Star-Picking Tower: King Zhou, Daji, and Shen Gongbao.

"If King Zhou wants to live, he should surrender quickly and then come with me to apologize to King Wu and beg for his forgiveness. That way, you can also live out your remaining years."

Having reached the point of King Zhou, Jiang Ziya sought to use King Zhou to increase his own merits.

"You think you can capture me alive and hand me over to that brat Ji Chang, so that I can spend the rest of my life as his Ji Chang, barely surviving?"

"Let me tell you, don't even think about it. The one who will defeat me is neither you, Jiang Ziya, nor that brat Ji Chang, but that so-called Heavenly Dao."

"I accept that Heavenly Dao severed the Karmic Luck my Yin Shang dynasty and supported your Xiqi, but you will never make me surrender."

With that, King Zhou threw down the torch in his hand and set the entire Star-Picking Tower ablaze. Then, King Zhou, along with Daji, jumped off the tower and died in a fit of rage.

All of this was seen by Jiang Ziya.

However, the truth is that at the moment King Zhou jumped down with Daji, Shen Gongbao appeared from the side, threw out two corpses that looked extremely similar to King Daji and King Zhou, then put them into his cave treasures and left, heading to the new world mentioned by the Cult Master Tongtian.

As soon as they saw King Zhou jump down, Jiang Ziya's soldiers shouted excitedly.

"We won! We finally won! Victory belongs to us!"

"Finally, I can go home."

Seeing this, Jiang Ziya ordered the army to retreat, leaving behind a group of his trusted followers to wait with him there.

The fire at Star-Picking Tower burned for three days and three nights, until finally the Star-Picking Tower was reduced to ashes.

Upon seeing this, Jiang Ziya immediately ordered his trusted men to rush into the ruins of the Star-Picking Tower to search for the bodies of King Zhou and Daji.

"You'll definitely find it!"

Jiang Ziya silently prayed to himself, for he certainly did not want King Zhou to live.

"Reporting to the commander, we have found two bodies, but their shapes are unrecognizable."

After a thorough search, several of his confidants reported the results to Jiang Ziya.

"Good, it's good that he's dead."

Jiang Ziya didn't care whether the two corpses were truly King Zhou and Daji's; he only needed two corpses to appear inside the Star-Picking Tower to be enough to answer to Ji Chang.

Whether King Zhou actually died or not is no longer important. As long as he knows when to back down and doesn't reappear, he can live out the rest of his life in peace.

Go, take the corpses of King Zhou and Daji to see King Wu, King Wu he will surely reward you handsomely.

Upon hearing that there would be a reward, Jiang Ziya's confidants disregarded whether the bodies were truly those of King Zhou and Daji. They immediately found a rag, wrapped the bodies in it, and hurried back with them.

After several days and nights of tireless travel, Jiang Ziya, along with a few trusted followers, finally arrived at Ji Chang's palace.

"Look, isn't that Commander Jiang?"

At this moment, one of the soldiers guarding the city gate spoke to another soldier with excellent eyesight.

"It is indeed Commander Jiang."

The soldier looked closely, then said with certainty.

"I'll stay here and guard it. Go quickly and inform the King."