7 Rescue Team and The Mountain Kingdom

After returning back to the clearing everyone contemplates the next step while Shin goes to the side and starts rambling to Karyoten that the king shouldn't have sought out an alliance with the mountain people.

Suddenly Changwenjun walks up to him and attacks him out of nowhere , Shin parries the sword attack with his own sword all the while shouting at Changwenjun about him going senile. After some effort Shin kicks his knee and Changwenjun dis balances and is no longer able to fight. This is due to his tiredness from the constant hiking but it is also an indicative of his old age and hence shows his inability to help his king further from this point on and act as his sword.

Changwenjun too finally accepts this and requests Shin to follow the king. Shin also says that he had already planned on following the king from the beginning and was just waiting for him to get a head start. Jizhong already had a feeling that this was going to happen so he too was prepared to follow after the king into the mountains as he is among the ones who are most fit to continue forward.

Changwenjun also asks for forgiveness for Piao and says that he had thoroughly miscalculated the enemy's offensive which resulted in his loss. After this Shin, Karyoten , Bi and Jizhong start trekking again on the treacherous mountain path. Sometime later due to continuous climbing Bi is sweating profusely and Shin again starts his taunts on the nobles and the rich . Bi has to shed down his heavy armor to keep up with the group and conserve his stamina as he was wearing a heavy armor unlike Jizhong who only wore light armor so that he can handle the bow more deftly.

Some distance away from this group of four, mountain people who were sent to escort the king of Qin to the mountain king have already noticed them following after and unaware to them, are already making preparations to handle them.

Night descends and the Jizhong's group takes shelter in a small clearing surrounded by trees and ignite the fire. After eating some dry food they sat around the fire discuss how to infiltrate and rescue the king.

Bi : "The way the mountain people are dressed and their wild nature , the standard of living would not be that high. May be they live in wooden shacks or cottages conglomerated together, like a large country village , as such it shouldn't be very difficult to infiltrate. "

Jizhong : "I have a feeling that it wouldn't be as simple as that. Maybe we should first discreetly observe their settlement and then devise a way enter without being suspected."

Shin : "We will just steal some masks and put them on and we will blend right in."

Ten : "How can we help Zheng with only the four of us?"

As they were further discussing their plans, there is a slight rustling of leaves and without anyone of the noticing they find themselves surrounded on all side by at least twenty warriors no less.

The group of four knew they have been caught unprepared as they really underestimated the vigilance and the intimate knowledge of the surroundings that these mountain people possessed , as such offering any resistance would not only be futile but also counterproductive to their cause.

But Shin still tried to resist in accordance to his nature and Jizhong too could only sigh and fire his at the assailants , only to try to incapacitate and impediment them and avoid fatally injuring them lest he make the situation even more grim.

Shin and Bi are unable to keep fighting with the hordes of warriors and are disarmed quickly enough, Shin who's still not willing to give up is roughed up a little by them and Jizhong too is almost out of arrows so after seeing Shin's state he puts his bow down and surrenders along with Karyoten and Bi.

After some time Shin too reluctantly surrendered , after confiscating their weapons all their hands were tied up using a single long rope and they were made to follow the mountain people in a straight column.

Jizhong's group is disconcerted by their situation but Bi kept comforting them by virtue of the fact that they weren't already disposed off , probably means that they would be brought before the king and then they may even have an opportunity to rescue Zheng.

They continued climbing to a higher and higher altitude and along with the rising height they couldn't keep away the anxiety from their hearts as although they knew that the mountain kingdom is situated in the cliffs , they didn't speculate it would be at this much height, at one point Shin even suspected them to be taking them away to throw them off the cliff.

Soon a marvelous scene unfolded before their eyes. There is a cacophony of noises made by the birds flying and howling of the wind which soothes the mind. They saw that at this height there were many houses and various other establishments built on the flat steps cut from various adjoining mountains as well as the cavities dug in the cliffs.

On the central mountain there is an enormous castle built who's beauty is accentuated by the esoteric environment and the fog surrounding the cliffs. The light from the morning sun makes the whole kingdom seem shimmering and ethereal as through the heaven kingdom itself has descended on earth. All the previous speculations they held about the mountain kingdom being a big village with thatched huts were completely shattered.

Even in this perilous situation they couldn't help admiring the beauty of their surroundings. Jizhong feels that this may be the most beautiful sight he has ever seen in person ,both lives combined. Bi too had been absolutely stumped at this gratifying sight. Not to mention his previous opinion of mountain people being wild and brash , he is forced to reconsider their level of development as these people have the knowledge and technology capable building something of this scale.

There were various wooden hanging bridges connecting the mountains as a way of transporting between them. They were led on one such bridge and were slowly made to approach a mountain on the side with a cavity fitted with wooden bars which is used to detain criminals.

The mood of this group of four became even gloomier while being locked in the prison as now this rescue mission seemed like an insurmountable task. How would they find out where the king is being kept in this maze of houses ? How were they to move without being detected ? How were they going to take the king and runaway from this maze ? These were some of the questions they didn't have the answer for at this moment.

Anyone would be left stumped at the scale of the kingdom and the sheer number of establishments in these mountain ranges. If each of these cavities and houses are inhabited then there are tens of thousands of people here in the minimum. Jizhong doesn't remember these things from the manga as it has been a long time ago since he read it but he suspected that even if he did remember it he would still be left dumbfounded after seeing it in the real life.

Shin, Karyoten and even Jizhong tested the toughness of the wood used for the prison bars in their own unique ways but came to the same conclusion that they were unnaturally tough. Night descends in this way and they were still unable to find any solution to their predicament.

Jizhong had managed to slip away an intact arrow head which he is using slowly to get rid of his restraints. But it would still require some time as the ropes are very thick and strong and also because he doing this very discreetly as he doesn't want to be found out by their captors and more importantly he doesn't want to alert Shin and Ten of this resource as he knew that with their personality it is basically impossible for them to keep hush. Then they would certainly be restrained again , the arrow head snatched and may be he would be roughed up a little as well to be taught a lesson.

Dead in the night they could hear noises approaching the cell and its source became clear soon after. Some mountain warriors were approaching their cells while discussing something among themselves. From their demeanor it is clear that they are up to nothing good , seeing them Jizhong too hastened cutting the ropes binding him. All these warriors have their weapons on the ready some of them even have nocked arrows pointing at them , the situation was becoming less optimistic by the second.

Unexpectedly the huge mountain warrior wielding a mace arrived at this time and fought and scared them off before Jizhong's group got injured. He was the same warrior who was punched by Shin and his mask was also slightly broken due to this. Bajio arrived at this point and informed them that the people who tried to attack them earlier have various grievances towards the flatlanders due to the various harms inflicted on them or their family members by the flatlander population. He also informed that the huge warrior who protected them just now is called Tajif and he is following the mountain king's order in protecting them and it is also meant as a form of respect towards Shin who was able to damage his mask.

Bajio also informed them that they would be judged by the mountain king tomorrow along with Zheng to decide their fates. After informing them he walked away with Tajif. Now they can only wait for tomorrow to take any action. So they decided to get some rest while taking turns guarding.