Chapter 396

Qing Dynasty, Capital.

Gu Shanhe stepped out of the light gate, his feet treading on the cracked street, the doors and windows of the shops on both sides tightly shut.

The cloth banners under the eaves were lifted and dropped by the wind, their edges stained with dark brown, dried traces.

There was no one on the street, no sound.

From afar came a low, dragging sound of footsteps, as if many people were walking at the same time, but the rhythm of their walking was uneven, some fast and some slow.

Ying Zheng hovered in mid-air on his sword, looking down.

The first figure appeared at the corner at the end of the street, then a second, then a third.

Their gait was not the posture of normal people; their knees did not bend, and they walked like wooden stakes being pushed forward, each step landing with a dull thud.

The one in the very front stopped and tilted its head; its eyeballs were gray-white, as if covered by a layer of gray film.

It saw the nine people suspended in mid-air and opened its mouth, but there was no sound, only a dry, hoarse, static-filled airflow from its throat.

More zombies surged from the depths of the alleys, their movements uniform, as if pulled by the same string, all raising their heads in unison.

Zhu Yuanzhang was the first to strike.

He pressed his palm downward, and a crimson fireball condensed from his palm, larger than any he had thrown at the Xiongnu.

He glanced at the dense figures in the streets below and, without hesitation, released the fireball, which fell toward the street.

Before it hit the ground, Zhu Yuanzhang clenched his fist in the air, and the fireball exploded in mid-air into hundreds of tiny fire lines, precisely covering the entire street.

But the zombies were still moving.

Severed limbs continued to crawl after hitting the ground, and more surged up from behind.

Gu Shanhe stood where he was, his gaze passing over the figures of the zombies toward the direction of the imperial palace.

He raised his hand and made a grasping motion in the air, and a slender figure was gripped by an invisible force from within the imperial cabinet and soared into the air.

It was dragged through layers of dilapidated palace walls, across most of the capital, and pulled before Gu Shanhe.

Empress Dowager Cixi.

Her face was gray-blue, and there was a layer of extremely fine dark red veins on the surface of her skin, spreading from the corners of her eyes to both sides like a spider web.

Her lips were purple-black, her pupils had scattered into a gray-white, and she emitted meaningless, low, hoarse whimpers from her mouth.

Gu Shanhe did not look at her again, and with a light push of his palm—

Her body stopped in mid-air, then disintegrated silently like ash blown away by the wind.

He then exchanged a vial of potion from the system store; it was completely transparent, like a tube of clear water.

Gu Shanhe stepped to the outside of the city, to the side of a relatively clean river.

He pulled out the stopper, and when the potion touched the river water, the surface of the water shimmered with a faint white light, which quickly spread until the entire stretch of the river was glowing.

Gu Shanhe controlled the river water to rise into the sky, turning it into extremely fine rain that sprinkled evenly over the city.

After the rain fell, the footsteps on the street stopped.

Those gray-white eyeballs were shedding their film layer by layer, returning to their normal color.

Someone supported themselves against a wall and slowly stood up, looking down at their hands, touching their own face, and asking the person next to them in a hoarse voice: "What happened to me?"

In the following days, Gu Shanhe established a space-time tunnel, and the nine emperors each mobilized fifty thousand troops and management personnel from their respective dynasties.

The talent and troops from the nine dynasties were stationed on the outskirts of the capital.

Gu Shanhe promulgated new laws, abolished the kowtow ritual, and established deliberative institutions at all levels.

When overseas forces saw the armies of nine dynasties lined up along the coastline, with the leaders flying through the sky on swords, they quickly submitted letters of surrender.

After everything was over, Gu Shanhe led the nine emperors through the final light gate.

On the other side of the gate was the outskirts of the modern world, where the silhouettes of overpasses and signal towers could be seen in the distance.

A truck drove past on the highway, and the sound of its horn carried from afar.

Ten people stood by the side of the road; the wind blew, carrying the scent of diesel and asphalt.

Liu Bang looked around and spoke: "This is the place you were talking about?"

"We're here."

Gu Shanhe said, "First, I'll get you some identification, then I'll take you to see the tombs."

Zhu Di's movements paused: "Whose tombs?"

"Yours."

The nine emperors stood by the side of the road with various expressions, and for a moment, no one took the first step.

Gu Shanhe had the system arrange a sufficiently spacious business van and drove the nine emperors onto the highway.

The first stop was Xi'an.

The entrance to the Terracotta Army pit was crowded with tourists, and the tour guide was holding a small flag and explaining:

"The burial pits of the First Emperor of Qin's mausoleum; three pits have been excavated so far, and thousands of pottery figures have been unearthed..."

Before she could finish her sentence, she followed the tourists' gaze and turned her head, seeing nine people wearing dragon robes standing by the pit.

One of them, a middle-aged man in a black dragon robe, was looking down at the pottery figures in the pit—

He was looking very intently, as if counting his own soldiers.

The tour guide was stunned for a moment, thinking they were actors from some film crew, so she didn't pay much attention.

Ying Zheng walked along the viewing path for more than half a circle, his pace neither fast nor slow, but he stopped every time he reached a new position.

His gaze swept across the faces of the pottery figures arranged in a square formation one by one.

It was unknown what he was thinking.

Liu Bang's own tomb was in another location; when Gu Shanhe took them there, there were fewer tourists at the entrance than at the Terracotta Army.

Liu Bang stood under an old pine tree, looked at the burial mound from afar, and then turned to Gu Shanhe and said: "I want to go up and take a look."

"You can't go up; it's protected as a cultural relic."

"Then is my coffin still inside?"

"It should be."

Liu Che stood behind Liu Bang and said in a low voice: "High Ancestor, your tomb is smaller than mine."

Liu Bang turned his head and glanced at him: "Has yours been dug up yet?"

Liu Che did not answer.

Zhao Kuangyin stood on the outermost edge of the crowd, not pushing forward.

He looked at those burial mounds in the distance, those cultural relics protected by glass covers.

And those tourists holding up their phones to take pictures; he was silent for a long time, then said: "Quite good. Someone still remembers."

Zhu Yuanzhang stood beside him, both hands behind his back, also looking in the same direction.

He said nothing, but he stood there for a long time; when the wind blew, he did not move, and his waist and back were straighter than when he arrived.

Over the next half month, Gu Shanhe took them to the Five Great Mountains.

They did not take the cable car; the nine emperors were already used to riding swords, but Gu Shanhe insisted that they walk the steps once.

Ying Zheng walked in the very front, his pace steady, and he did not stop to rest halfway.

Liu Bang walked a few steps behind him; because he had practiced for many years, he had adapted to the changes in the mountain road under his feet and did not need to catch his breath halfway.

Liu Xiu walked very steadily, and Li Shimin walked while looking at the vegetation on both sides, occasionally asking what kind of tree something was.

Zhu Di walked in the middle-back, his attention distracted for a moment by the moss in the cracks of the bluestone slabs, then he withdrew it and caught up with the group.

Zhao Kuangyin and Yang Jian walked side by side, occasionally stopping to look at the villages and highways at the foot of the mountain.

Zhu Yuanzhang was last; he did not look at the scenery, but kept looking at the road.

When they reached the summit, the wind rushed toward them, blowing so hard that one could hardly open their eyes.

The nine emperors stood in a row at the highest point, looking at the layered mountain shadows, highways, and villages in the distance.

Half a year later, the nine emperors successively bid farewell to Gu Shanhe.

When Ying Zheng left, he didn't say much, only: "Come visit the Qin Dynasty when you have time."

Then he mounted his sword and ascended, passing through the light gate Gu Shanhe had opened.

When Liu Bang left, he patted Gu Shanhe on the shoulder:

"I still have to continue building roads when I get back."

Li Shimin was the last to leave; he stood in front of the light gate for a while, then stepped inside.

The light gate closed.

Gu Shanhe stood in the courtyard, watched the lingering afterglow on the horizon for a while, dragged a bamboo chair out of the room, placed it under the eaves, and sat down.

The setting sun slanted down from the edge of the roof, leaving a thin dividing line on the bamboo strips of the chair back.

He leaned his head back against the chair, and the bamboo chair gave a slight creak.

The wind passed through the courtyard, ringing the string of wind chimes hanging under the eaves once, then stopped.

In the days that followed.

Every once in a while, Gu Shanhe would go to their dynasties to play for ten days or half a month.

Every once in a while, the nine emperors would take their families to the modern era.

Gu Shanhe's villa also became a common meeting point for the nine dynasties.

In the spring, Ying Zheng came to see the peach blossoms; in the summer, Li Shimin came to eat watermelon; in the autumn, Zhao Kuangyin came to drink tea; in the winter, Zhu Yuanzhang came to have hot pot.

The others also appeared at irregular intervals, bringing local specialties and endless fine wine.

The full text ends here!

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