Chapter 169: Ancient Secrets

"Nonsense! If he didn't believe me, why would he kneel before me? Wait a minute..." Zu An suddenly realized. "You almost tricked me! What do you mean 'pretending'? I *am* Qin Shi Huang, Emperor Ying Zheng."

The mysterious woman: "..."

"You're really addicted to this act, aren't you?" The mysterious woman sneered. "Then do you know who *I* am?"

"You are..." Zu An was about to answer when he suddenly thought of something, and a hint of awkwardness appeared on his face. "You're my... wife? My Empress?"

The mysterious woman: "..."

"You're really getting into character! You know who I am, yet you still dare to spout such nonsense here!"

Zu An chuckled awkwardly, "I've only just recovered my memories, so I don't remember many things..."

"Shut up. I wouldn't fail to recognize my own husband. There's no need to try to fool me with the nonsense you told Zhang Han," the mysterious woman scoffed. "Besides, you didn't even manage to fool Zhang Han."

"What do you mean?" Zu An recalled her saying something similar earlier. *Did Zhang Han really see through me?*

"You made three mistakes in front of Zhang Han just now," the mysterious woman stated plainly. "First, Ying Zheng was ruthless, cruel, and ungenerous. If the real Ying Zheng had been resurrected and learned that Zhang Han had squandered the Qin's last main army, he would never have forgiven him so easily."

"I've just regained my memories, and my power is still weak. What's wrong with saying something conciliatory to temporarily stabilize the situation?" Zu An felt himself getting more and more into character.

"There's nothing wrong with temporarily placating him, but your methods are too naive. Also, your line about 'it being fate, beyond human power to reverse' clearly doesn't fit Ying Zheng's character. Ying Zheng considered his accomplishments to surpass the Three Sovereigns and his virtue to exceed the Five Emperors, believing he would live as long as heaven and earth, shining with the sun and moon. How could such a person submit to 'fate'?" The woman's voice was full of mockery.

Zu An fell silent. As an internet armchair critic, he might be good at commenting online, but impersonating the First Emperor in reality was bound to reveal flaws.

"Your second mistake was claiming the girl with braids was your friend in order to save her," the mysterious woman continued.

"What's wrong with that?" Zu An asked, puzzled.

"Ying Zheng was arrogant and wouldn't allow anyone to be his equal, much less have 'friends.' You could have called that girl a subordinate, a maid, or even a slave, and Zhang Han wouldn't have kept her. But you simply couldn't call her a friend," the mysterious woman explained.

Zu An recalled the situation. *No wonder Zhang Han's tone changed slightly then; even I noticed it.* Still, he asked persistently, "Hmph, I've been reborn, completely transformed. What's wrong with my character changing? Did he conclude I was an imposter based solely on these things?"

"Character isn't that easily changed. Besides, you made more than just those two mistakes. There was another, even more fatal one," the mysterious woman's ethereal voice said.

"What?" Zu An's heart jumped.

"You just mentioned being worried about those undead legions rushing out and disturbing me?" The mysterious woman's voice was laced with deep sarcasm.

"Is there a problem with that?" Zu An asked, looking confused.

The mysterious woman didn't answer directly but counter-questioned, "Do you know what those undead legions are?"

"Weren't they the vengeful spirits of the rebel armies from the Six Eastern States?" Zu An asked.

"Hahaha~ If you're going to pretend to be Ying Zheng, at least do it properly. Ying Zheng wouldn't easily believe other people's words," the mysterious woman let out a chilling laugh. "Those undead legions aren't the rebel armies of the Six Eastern States. They are the Great Qin Empire's last 200,000 main troops!"

"What!" Zu An's face suddenly changed color.

The mysterious woman's voice echoed distantly: "Back then, Zhang Han, as the Chief Minister of the Lesser Treasury, was originally in charge of the Lishan convicts building the imperial mausoleum. When chaos erupted across the land and beacon fires lit up everywhere, threatening Qin's very existence, he led the Lishan prisoners to decisively defeat various rebel armies. Later, the court continuously supplied him with reinforcements, and the main forces came into his hands.

"He was indeed very capable, making all the warlords helpless. He was on the verge of completely quelling the rebellion when one man suddenly appeared... In the Battle of Julu, he and Wang Li were soundly defeated by Xiang Yu, the Hegemon-King of Western Chu. Later, they were defeated again in the Battle of Zhangyu. Coupled with his discord with the powerful court official Zhao Gao, fearing execution, he defected to Xiang Yu, causing Qin's last 200,000 elite main troops to be completely massacred by Xiang Yu.

"Sealed beneath this pool are the spirits of those 200,000 Qin soldiers."

Zu An's face changed dramatically. *No wonder I noticed earlier that every one of those escaped undead intensely hated Zhang Han. So that was the reason.*

"Because those undead are Qin soldiers, they wouldn't disturb you?" Zu An pondered where he had made his mistake.

"No, because Ying Zheng wouldn't possibly worry about that," the mysterious woman replied.

Zu An: "???"

*What's with this? Can't she just say it all at once? I have to prod her every time; it's exhausting being the straight man.*

The woman's voice continued, "Do you know what Zhang Han was doing before he suppressed the rebel armies of various states?"

"Weren't you saying he was the Chief Minister of the Lesser Treasury, in charge of imperial mausoleum construction and such?" Zu An replied.

"No, to be precise, he wasn't building the Imperial Mausoleum, but rather the Empress's Mausoleum," the woman said with a sigh.

"Empress's Mausoleum?" Zu An was startled. "But later historical records have no mention of it, and there's even much debate about whether the First Emperor even had an Empress."

"That's because Ying Zheng eradicated all traces of my existence, just like he burned books and buried scholars," the woman said. "Since you know that history, you can probably guess my origins from my surname."

"You're a princess of Chu?" Zu An tentatively asked.

"Correct. I was from Chu. As Empress, many Chu nobles also held high positions in Qin. Initially, our interests aligned with Ying Zheng's. We helped him govern the country and even assisted in quelling the rebellions of Lao Ai and Cheng Jiao.

"Unfortunately, later, as Qin sought to unify the world and even conquer Chu, our conflicts became irreconcilable. My uncle, Lord Changping, Xiong Qi, had been in Qin for many years, even becoming Chancellor. But as a prince of the Chu royal family, his heart remained with his homeland. So, when Qin launched its first major offensive against Chu, he rebelled, causing the Qin army to suffer its greatest defeat since the conquest of the Six States.

"Ying Zheng was furious about this. On one hand, he mobilized the entire nation to gather 600,000 troops for Wang Jian to conquer Chu, and on the other, he thoroughly purged the power of the Chu foreign relatives within Qin. As a Chu princess, I was naturally the first target.

"Soon, I was deposed, and all Chu foreign relatives were executed. Even my son, Fusu, completely lost his right to succession because of his Chu bloodline and was banished to the frontier to build the Great Wall..."

Zu An was astonished, "Fusu is your son?"

"What, is there a problem with that?" The woman named Mi Li's voice turned cold.

"Of course not..." Zu An chuckled awkwardly, thinking, *The beautiful mature woman I fantasized about just became an aunt with a child. Kind of disillusioning.*

He suddenly understood. Historically, there was much debate about the mystery of Qin Shi Huang's succession. Many believed Fusu was the legitimate eldest son and should have inherited the throne, but Hu Hai, Li Si, and Zhao Gao conspired at Shaqiu, usurping the throne and then forcing Fusu to commit suicide.

What puzzled people was why Qin Shi Huang sent his eldest son Fusu to the distant frontier, away from the center of power. Some said it was to train Fusu and allow him to build good relations with the Meng family, familiarizing himself with the military system in preparation for his future succession. Others said it was essentially banishment. Both theories had their merits, and neither could fully convince the other.

Now he knew the reason: Fusu had lost his right to succession because of his mother's Chu lineage!

Mi Li stated coldly, "Ying Zheng deeply resented women because of his mother's affair with Lao Ai. Coupled with the devastating defeat against Chu, he utterly hated me. Even after deposing me as Empress, his hatred wasn't satisfied, so he specifically ordered Zhang Han to build this mausoleum to seal and suppress me, preventing me from returning to seek revenge someday. So, if you were truly Ying Zheng, how could you possibly worry about those 'rebels' disturbing me?"

Zu An finally understood where the problem lay. He couldn't help but curse inwardly, *As an outsider, how was I supposed to know your circle was so messy!*

"Uh, Auntie, wait a minute, I have a question..."

"What did you call me?!" A hint of anger entered Mi Li's voice.

Zu An thought, *You already have a child, so am I supposed to call you 'sister' instead of 'auntie'?* Of course, he was quick to adapt and immediately corrected himself: "Empress sister, as far as I know, historically, both Qin Shi Huang and Zhang Han were just ordinary people; they didn't possess any of these magical powers. But now, Zhang Han seems to be an undying zombie with incredible abilities, and you, sister, seem to have lived for thousands of years. I don't know if you're a ghost or what kind of being you are..."

"I want to know what happened to you all, how you came from Earth to this cultivation world, and where you learned all these abilities?"

Mi Li's tone held a hint of surprise: "Earth? I don't understand what you're saying. We've always been in this world. Our abilities are naturally self-cultivated. If Zhang Han didn't possess these skills, how could he have held the position of Chief Minister of the Lesser Treasury, one of the Nine Ministers, back then?

"As for Zhang Han's current monstrous appearance, it's because he cultivated some dark-attribute cultivation method, sacrificing his physical body to gain a certain degree of immortality."

Zu An listened, dumbfounded: "You've always been in this world?"

After receiving confirmation, he was utterly bewildered. So, this world also had the familiar dynasties from his previous life, and the historical progression wasn't much different. The only difference was that the individual power in these dynasties was almost superhumanly strong.

*A mythical version of a parallel world?*

Combining the information he had gathered since transmigrating to this world with Mi Li's words, he roughly deduced that a major event occurred in this world after the Qing Dynasty, leading to a break in civilization. It was only much, much later that civilization reappeared on the planet.

The new civilization included not only humans but also various other races. In the struggle for resources, different races soon engaged in chaotic warfare.

After thousands of years of chaotic conflict among the races, the Human Emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty finally led humanity to victory, driving the non-human races to the harsh, barren frontier lands.

As for the dynasties before the break in civilization, people in this current world collectively referred to them as the Ancient Era.

At this moment, Mi Li's voice interrupted his thoughts: "You have too many questions. You need to make a decision quickly. Once Zhang Han finishes suppressing those escaped undead legions, it will be the death of you and these two women."