Shin, Ka Ryo Ten, King Ei Sei and Towards the Mountain People...

Jizhong along with the remaining soldiers kept following the stream in order to locate Changwenjun who fell from the cliff earlier during the battle.

After three hours of constantly moving in the direction of the flow while keeping an eye out to locate Changwenjun and any enemy soldiers who might ambush them , the group was finally able to locate someone near the side of the stream which cut through the forest.

When they got nearer while being fully on the alert, they were able to identify Changwenjun who seemed to be coughing some water while holding his head. Bi upon seeing this immediately jumped off his horse to approach him while ordering others to maintain vigilance.

Changwenjun : "We immediately need to set off for the rendezvous point. With the fast and bold actions of the enemy the King might be in danger." said Changwenjun extremely solemnly while being helped by Bi to gather himself up.

Bi: "Okay Lord. I will get a horse prepared for you." After this Bi immediately asked for a horse to be prepared for Changwenjun while asking them to be ready to depart soon. Meanwhile the soldiers that were heavily injured were patched up properly as if the injuries were left unattended it could result in permanent damage and could even result in death. When every thing was set they immediately went towards the Heibei village which was one of the rendezvous point Changwenjun had prepared earlier.

After riding the horses for several hours they finally crossed the Tai bridge and in another one and a half hour the Heibei village was in sight. But as they appeared near the village a strong smell of blood assaulted their nose and the image that followed completely shocked them.

There were corpses strewn everywhere as the whole village was slaughtered. Watching this the entire group picked up their pace as they reached the small cottage at the intersection of the two streams. They saw the corpse of a Zhuxiong near the cottage while the cottage itself was empty. Zhuxiongs were personal assassins under Sei Kyou and they were regarded as extremely efficient and deadly, so finding a corpse of one here made them realize that the king's situation to be very perilous.

As the blood on the corpse was not entirely cold , they speculated that the inhabitants of the cottage must have left only around and hour before at most after dealing with the assassin . When searching the perimeter of the village for any survivors they found few soldiers in Qin uniform who were from the rebel army and quickly dealt with.

From them they were able to obtain the information that this army were indeed the ones who slaughtered the entire village on the order of their captain, who at the moment was following the trail of their target with the help of a weird assassin from the south.

This trail lead them to the forest region behind the village near the mountains which Changwenjun informed them was in the direction of the final rendezvous place : Duke Mu's Mountain manner. They understood the urgency of the situation so the immediately left for the place.

They had to abandon their horses as the horses were already very tired and it was difficult to use them for mobility inside the forest. Changwenjun lead the group in the general direction of the manner while following the tracks of the rebel soldiers before them. It was already dawn while they were moving through the forest, as they have to be constantly vigilant for not alerting the enemy soldiers and they were already both mentally and physically exhausted, slowing their pace.

It was already late in the morning when they heard noises ahead indicating human presence. When the group carefully approached the noise they saw enemy soldiers ahead making their way downhill.

So the group immediately got in position and started throwing their spears at the unsuspecting enemy soldiers. Their captain was made victim of Changwenjun's throw and was clearly pierced through his abdomen. Jizhong also fired the arrows which he had collected from the Heibei village that were still usable.

Due to this sudden and unexpected attack and the captain being taken out in the beginning the rest of the enemies were taken care off with little struggle by Changewenjun's group. After making sure that no survivors were left alive, the group soon resumed its journey down the mountain towards the Mansion.

It was only at high noon that a clearing in the forest surrounded by the mountains came into the view. Noises of metal clashing were heard as they got closer, so they quickly approached the place while still on alert for finding more enemy soldiers ahead.

When they arrived near the mansion , they saw a rough looking boy in battered clothing holding a sword in front of an injured man on the ground who was small in height and donned weird clothes. They immediately judged that this must be the southern assassin who was tracking the king earlier. As the assassin got ready with his blow gun and aimed at the boy standing across the rough looking boy, Changwenjun immediately attacked him with his glaive slicing him open.

After that the assassin fell lifelessly on the ground and his body was moved to the outerside of the clearing. Changwenjun immediately went on his knees to salute the king and asked for forgiveness for being unable to keep the king safe. The soldiers too paid their respects to the king and arranged places in the garden itself to rest from all the fatigue they were experiencing.

The rough looking boy is Shin whose appearance matched the young Shin from the manga, he is around fifteen years old now. The King Ei Sei looked elegant and refined even in the plain clothes he wore with an aura of authority and regality about him. There is also a little child in conspicuous clothes which seemed to be made of straws who was looking around with a curious gaze whom Jizhong assumed to be Ka Ryo Ten.

Everyone started settling in, they dressed the minor wounds they had received earlier in the confrontation and cleaned themselves of the grime and dirt that had collected on their bodies. Karyoten also provided the soldiers with rice balls to satiate their hunger. Shin started making ruckus asking about Piao's death, which made Jiizhong realize that Piao didn't survive and died after handing Shin the map to reach Heibei village. He felt bad for him but there was nothing he could do at this point.

Bi then informed Shin how Piao bravely took charge of the army when Changwenjun fell off the cliff and the morale hit rock bottom on their side as well as how he bravely lead the charge to create enough distraction for them to successfully escape the encirclement. Shin who heard about his friend's heroic display on the battlefield once again reignited the flame of their childhood dream to be a great general under the heavens.

Ei Sei , Bi , Changwenjun and Shin moved inside the mansion to discuss their next course of action and the rest of the soldiers along with Jizhong began to relax. They have been constantly moving and fighting for two days which has exhausted them completely.

Jizhong too immediately dozed off after slumping in the garden only to be woken up by a frantic Karyoten who ran inside the meeting room and started asking whether Chancellor Lu Shi's army won't arrive to help them and that the Chancellor himself is waiting for Ei Sei's death. Due to the loud discussion in the meeting room even the soldiers outside were able to hear this piece of information.

The severity of the situation finally started settling in with everyone present. They realized that there is practically no one remaining who can provide assistance to the King to cull Sei Kyou's rebellion.

The discussion continued for some more time when after some time Changwenjun emerged with Bi and informed the soilders to rest for the day and prepare for tomorrow as they have decided to visit the Mountain King's castle in the mountain people's territory to ask for his help and establish an alliance with them.

This decision left the soldiers a little doubtful internally because even though they will not actively disrespect the mountain people they were subconsciously brought up to believe that they are better than the mountain people and that the mountain tribes were barbaric in nature but they did not express their dissatisfaction to this as they have complete faith in the King's and Lord Changwenjun's decision making ability.

Jizhong was not much deterred by this as he was already expecting this to happen, so after he had sufficient rest he borrowed some tools from the mansion and started collecting suitable wood to make fairly usable arrows for himself. The other soldiers were also a lot more respectful towards Jizhong after seeing his performance throughout this time. Many other new recruits who were similarly brought to the battlefield with him were not able to keep up with the pressure and perished there.

Finally at the break of dawn on the next day they started heading through the forest towards the mountain recesses deep within which the Mountain King's castle is most likely located.