Chapter 872: The Book
Mi Li’s brow rose. “Who the hell is playing the ghost right now?” A blast of strength rushed out as she swung her sleeves. The coffin’s cover was sent flying with a loud noise. It spun in the air several times before crashing into the ground.
Zu An thought to himself, This woman really is violent! She destroyed this person’s coffin as soon as she became unhappy!
Bi Linglong’s eyes shone brightly. She felt great admiration for Mi Li’s way of doing things. Would she ever be able to settle her grudges like this?
Mi Li floated over, and Zu An and Bi Linglong quickly followed behind her. They saw a ‘living’ corpse inside the coffin. It was a middle-aged man dressed in green robes and a tall hat. His attire perfectly matched the mural on the wall.
“It was you after all!” Mi Li exclaimed, surprised. As soon as she spoke, the lifelike and well-preserved body inside began to disappear, quickly turning into scattered ashes. Only a pile of withered bones remained.
Bi Linglong was a little scared and subconsciously moved a bit closer to Zu An.
Zu An thought to himself that these coffins were special after all. They could keep the flesh inside intact, but once the coffin was opened and the interior made contact with air, the body would immediately wither away.
“Master, who was that?” he asked out of curiosity. He could understand it if Fu Su’s body had been preserved all this time because he was the crown prince, someone with extraordinary status, but why had this man experienced the same thing?
“Do you remember what I told you before, about those who enthusiastically sought out immortality for Ying Zheng?” Mi Li asked. She continued, “He’s one of them, Lu Sheng.”
She pointed at the mural and explained, “I already had my guesses when I saw the paintings. The first portrays the story of Lu Sheng pleading with Xianmen. Xianmen was a legendary ancient daoist immortal who was connected to the Immortal Sect. That was why Ying Zheng regarded Lu Sheng highly.
“But unfortunately, he didn’t find the elixir of immortality. He used up a ton of manpower and resources and ended up finding ‘the Book’. It was rumored to have been written by an immortal, granting one the ability to know the past and future.
“Ying Zheng asked him what the future of the Qin Empire was. Lu Sheng obtained a single verse from The Book: ‘Death and destruction awaits Qin’s people.’ When Ying Zheng heard that, he thought that the cause might be the northern nomadic Huns, so he sent a great army of three hundred thousand north to build the Great Wall.”
Zu An thought to himself, So that was what happened! Unfortunately, heaven’s plans supersede those of man. The ones who brought about the Qin Empire’s downfall weren't the Huns, but rather his successor Hu Hai.
Bi Linglong looked at the diagrams with curiosity and asked, “What happened afterward?”
Mi Li replied, “I already told you. For the sake of finding the elixir of immortality, Ying Zheng was able to sacrifice anything. But that only made Lu Sheng more and more scared, because after his years of searching, he already knew that such an elixir simply didn’t exist. However, if he couldn't find it, he would be punished severely by Ying Zheng, so he secretly fled. Ying Zheng was furious when he learned of that. He thought he had treated Lu Sheng extremely well, and yet the man still betrayed him. As such, he searched the world and investigated every sorcerer to see if any of them were close to Lu Sheng. Several hundred were rounded up in total, and all of them were buried alive.”
Zu An was horrified. “Isn’t that ‘burning the books and burying the Confucian scholars alive’?”
“Confucian scholars?” Mi Li frowned. “Confucian beliefs hadn’t fully matured yet at that time. What would that have to do with them?”
Zu An suddenly realized that the dynasties of later generations had likely exaggerated the first emperor’s infamy to promote themselves.
A voice suddenly spoke from behind them. “Who would’ve thought that I would still be able to meet the emperor again after so many years…”
Zu An turned round and stared at the mural. The voice was coming from its direction. A strand of light vaguely appeared over the image of a sorcerer. It was as if a semi-transparent person were about to come out of the mural.
Mi Li was also surprised. “Hm? You were able to survive until now too?”
A semi-transparent person came out of the wall soon afterward. Then, his image in the painting disappeared. He said, “This is but a fragment of my soul that was sealed here. I’ve only awakened after sensing the arrival of destined individuals, and will soon fade away. How can this be considered living?” The figure was naturally Lu Sheng, but his tone was rather somber.
However, he suddenly looked at Mi Li with burning eyes and asked, “Empress, why are you still alive? Could it be that there really is an elixir of immortality?”
Mi Li replied indifferently, “How can this world have such a thing? The reason I’m still alive is due to various coincidences. It’s impossible to replicate.” She clearly didn’t wish to talk about her experiences in detail.
Not only did Lu Sheng not feel disappointment when he heard her reply, he instead sighed in relief. “No wonder, no wonder… Looks like my analysis wasn’t wrong all these years.”
“What happened back then? Why would you hide yourself in this mural like this?” Mi Li couldn't help but ask. With her sharp eyes, she could obviously tell that he wasn’t lying. He might have been able to last a few more years if he remained dormant in that painting, but that option had been gone as soon as he chose to wake up.
Lu Sheng gave the painting a look. He sighed and said, “Everyone believed that I successfully escaped in the past, and that ended up wronging the lives of hundreds of sorcerers. But how could they have known that I was never able to escape, but was captured instead?”
“You were captured? What do you mean?” Mi Li was confused, as that didn’t seem to match her memories.
Lu Sheng shook his head. “I’m now only a fragment of my soul; many of my memories are missing. I can’t remember what happened.”
Mi Li and Zu An were both speechless. This guy had put on that huge performance and built it up so much, but he didn’t have anything to say at the most crucial part.
Lu Sheng also knew that his words were hard to believe. He slowly continued, “Your highness knows that I obtained the Book back then, right? I was able to discern a bit of the future through it. It told me that no matter what I did, I was going to die.
“I really couldn’t understand why, with my cultivation back then, I would leave the world prematurely. But the Book is never wrong, so I decided to separate a strand of my soul as a precaution and to see what exactly happened.”
“Then what happened? Did Ying Zheng kill you himself?” Mi Li asked. In her opinion, that was the most likely possibility.
Lu Sheng shook his head. “Even though I found out the truth back then, I’ve already forgotten it.”
Zu An was stunned. Mi Li laughed coldly and retorted, “Are you making a fool out of me?”
Lu Sheng sighed. “Even though I don’t know why I don’t remember, I can deduce that since I found out the truth but don’t remember it, there must be some kind of defensive mechanism in play. My body decisively chose to forget about those things, or else my soul fragment wouldn’t be able to survive. However, I can still recall a feeling of extreme shock and fear. Something that could make my past self feel such emotions would definitely have been something big.”
Mi Li frowned. “Since you don’t even dare to remember it, what meaning is there left in struggling to keep this soul fragment alive?”
Lu Sheng said, “This soul fragment’s purpose was to wait for a destined one to reveal the entire truth of the past, and also to get revenge for my original body. Just now, I sensed the aura of the destined one.” He looked straight at Zu An after speaking.
Zu An said with a sneer, “Do you think I’m three? How am I this ‘destined one’?”
Lu Sheng replied, “Did you forget The Book I mentioned? I’m capable of limited foresight. It told me that you were precisely the destined one.”
Zu An shook his head. “Why the hell should I help you just because you said I was this destined one? It’s already obvious that your affairs are dangerous, so why should I get involved?”
Lu Sheng revealed a mysterious and strange smile. “That isn’t something for you to decide. You’re already inside the trial.”