All the heavens begin with the love in the courtyard.

"My dear minister, here are two elixirs of immortality. If I were to truly become immortal, I would be a truly lonely ruler. I am very pleased with your contribution of sending me these elixirs. Here, my dear minister, take this elixir of immortality, and from now on, you and I, as ruler and subject, will share the eternal glory of the Qin Dynasty!"

Li Si felt like a million grass mud horses were galloping through his mind, but his face showed a look of wild joy, and he dared not hesitate for a moment.

While silently thanking Qin Shi Huang and his ancestors for eighteen generations, he stepped forward, took the pills Qin Shi Huang handed him, and swallowed them in one gulp, pretending to be impatient.

At this point, he had no choice but to trust Zhao Gao's arrangements.

After swallowing the pill, Li Si had no reaction for a long time. He only felt a dry mouth and resisted the urge to drink water.

Qin Shi Huang stared at his face for a long time. Seeing that it seemed to be free of poison, he finally felt relieved, picked up a pill, and put it in his mouth.

After swallowing the pill, Qin Shi Huang felt nothing unusual for a while. He was still somewhat weak, but his mouth was dry. He quickly called out to Li Si.

"Has anything changed since you took this elixir of immortality?"

Li Si quickly replied that there was no.

Qin Shi Huang was somewhat puzzled. He felt a bit thirsty and quickly picked up the water jug ​​placed in front of his bed and gulped down a few mouthfuls.

After a few sips of water, Qin Shi Huang felt much better. Just as he put down the water jug, his expression suddenly changed, and a blush appeared on his pale face.

He clutched his throat, trying to shout something, but he couldn't utter a sound. In those few seconds, Qin Shi Huang's vision went black, and he collapsed onto the bed, motionless.

Li Si watched helplessly as Qin Shi Huang died suddenly before his eyes. His heart pounded, and a strange blush appeared on his face. Fortunately, he quickly regained his senses and knew it was time to proceed with the next step of his plan.

He rushed forward to check Qin Shi Huang's breathing, and found that there was no breath, so he was obviously dead. Li Si's outstretched hand trembled slightly, and then he quickly withdrew his hand.

He quickly covered Qin Shi Huang's body with the blanket, began to tidy himself up, and straightened the exposed head to the side, so that from the outside, it really looked like he was asleep.

He quickly stepped back and looked around. Only then did Li Si realize that all the eunuchs around him had just left, and now he was the only one left in the room.

Clearly, Zhao Gao had already arranged all of this. Li Shi felt relieved and quickly straightened his robes, put away the wooden box he had brought, and went out.

Upon reaching the door, Li Si indeed saw Zhao Gao standing there waiting. Zhao Gao glanced at the guards around him, but remained silent, giving Li Si a look.

Li Si understood immediately, coughed lightly, and left.

At this moment, outside the palace, Fusu and Yi Xiaochuan were stopped. The guard general said he would go and report to the emperor, and the two could only agree and wait for Qin Shi Huang's approval.

The general hurriedly went to Qin Shi Huang's bedroom to ask for instructions. However, the general could not go to the bedroom at will, so he could only report through Gao Yao.

Upon receiving this news, Gao Yao immediately agreed and returned to Qin Shi Huang's palace. A short while later, he came out and spoke to the general.

"His Majesty commands His Highness the Crown Prince and General Meng to come to the palace immediately!"

The general accepted the order and hurried back to report to the two men. Gao Yao watched the general go to deliver the message and a wicked smile appeared on his lips.

After a while, Fusu was helped over by Meng Yi. When Yi Xiaochuan saw Gao Yao at the door, his eyes were full of indifference. Although he guessed that the assassin from yesterday might have been sent by this man, neither of them said much when they arrived here.

Gao Yao remained expressionless and recited the instructions verbatim, stating that the emperor had ordered him to lead the two men inside.

Gao Yao led the two to Qin Shi Huang's palace, where they saw him lying on the bed as if he were fast asleep.

Gao Yao quickly made a shushing gesture, indicating that the two should stand outside the door and wait for the emperor to wake up.

Fusu and Meng Yi followed Gao Yao's instructions, standing at the door with their heads bowed, waiting for Qin Shi Huang to wake up from his bed.

Gao Yao glanced at the two eunuchs beside him, then at Yi Xiaochuan and Fusu, before slowly stepping aside.

Yi Xiaochuan and Fusu remained silent, waiting quietly, unaware of anything unusual.

Perhaps they could never believe that Gao Yao would be so audacious as to poison Qin Shi Huang.

Another half hour passed, and Fusu's face turned pale. He looked up at his father on the bed and a strong sense of unease suddenly arose in his heart. Then he looked at Yi Xiaochuan next to him.

Yi Xiaochuan was lost in thought when he was suddenly startled by Fusu's gaze. The two exchanged a glance, and although they did not speak, Yi Xiaochuan understood Fusu's meaning. His eyes then turned to Qin Shi Huang, who was not far away.

After staring at Qin Shi Huang's figure for a long time, Yi Xiaochuan finally realized something was wrong. The other party seemed to have been lying flat for more than an hour, but without making a sound. This was indeed a bit strange.

Yi Xiaochuan subconsciously turned around to look in the direction behind him, only to find that Gao Yao's figure had disappeared. A terrible thought immediately surfaced in his mind, and he trembled slightly. Then he slowly lifted his foot and walked towards the bed.

Yi Xiaochuan walked step by step toward Qin Shihuang's bed. When he finally got close, he looked at Qin Shihuang's pale face and his hands trembled slightly. Just as he was about to reach out to check the other's breath, suddenly, countless shouts rang out outside the palace.

Upon hearing the shout, Yi Xiaochuan immediately sensed something was wrong and quickly placed his hand on Qin Shihuang's nose, only to find that he was already dead.

At this moment, Yi Xiaochuan felt dizzy and his mind exploded. He finally realized that he had fallen into Gao Yao's trap and that everything was over.

Without thinking twice, Yi Xiaochuan called out to Fusu.

"Your Highness, this is a trap! His Majesty has been dead for a long time. We've been set up! Let's go, we must leave now!"

As he spoke, Yi Xiaochuan grabbed Fusu and rushed outside.

Fusu was completely stunned at this moment, too shocked to think, and his already injured body was now swaying precariously.

The two had not gone far when Gao Yao led a group of guards in. Gao Yao was stern and his face was flushed. He pointed at Yi Xiaochuan and Fusu and shouted.

"It's those two! His Majesty was poisoned to death by them! Seize them now!"

The guards rushed up to the two men and surrounded them. This was Qin Shi Huang's palace, not outside Xianyang City, so the two men had almost no chance of escaping.

Yi Xiaochuan supported Fusu, and the two looked at each other with expressions of despair. Yi Xiaochuan looked at Gao Yao, who was guarding outside, with anger in his eyes, staring at him intently.

Gao Yao stood outside the crowd, coldly watching Yi Xiaochuan. In this round, Gao Yao had won.

Without a doubt, Yi Xiaochuan and Fusu did not choose to resist. Both of them were injured and unable to resist, so they could only be escorted to the prison by the guards.

When Han Chunming arrived in Xianyang, Yi Xiaochuan and Fusu had already been taken to prison. Han Chunming was filled with mixed feelings and secretly realized that he had miscalculated.

Yes, the plot that was originally going smoothly has now been completely disrupted. He doesn't care about Yi Xiaochuan's life or death, but is concerned about those three elixirs of immortality.

The news coming from the palace is that the fake elixir of immortality brought back by Meng Yi and Fusu killed Qin Shi Huang, and the two have been imprisoned.

He knew very well that the elixir of immortality that Yi Xiaochuan brought back was definitely not poisonous; it was a genuine elixir of immortality, and there must be something fishy about it.

If Yi Xiaochuan was wronged, then there is only one person in the palace who could have orchestrated this, and that person would naturally be Gao Yao.

All the problems now fall on Gao Yao's shoulders. Now all we need to do is find Gao Yao and ask him about the elixir of immortality.

He had long considered those three elixirs of immortality as his own, and now his only worry was whether Gao Yao had already consumed them.

The elixir of immortality is indeed in Gao Yao's hands now. When Yi Xiaochuan was thrown into prison, all his belongings were confiscated, and the elixir of immortality naturally ended up in Gao Yao's possession.

Although he was curious about this thing, Gao Yao did not leave to eat it, for two reasons.

The first reason is that Gao Yao doesn't believe in any elixir of immortality, let alone pills of dubious origin.

The second reason is that he is too busy now and has no time to think about taking this elixir of immortality of unknown origin.

If this really is an elixir of immortality, there's no rush. Besides, there are three pills; he can find time to test them on others.

Gao Yao is too busy right now. Yi Xiaochuan and Fusu being imprisoned is just the beginning. The real show is about to begin.

After Qin Shi Huang's death, Li Si immediately produced a secret edict, announcing that Qin Shi Huang had left a will beforehand, the content of which was to pass the throne to Hu Hai.

In the past, this edict would certainly have been questioned, but now that Fusu has been imprisoned for regicide and Li Si has endorsed it, the edict has been passed with almost no opposition.

Hu Hai officially ascended the throne, becoming the Second Emperor of Qin. Hu Hai was a mentally challenged teenager, so naturally everything was controlled by Li Si and Gao Yao.

The first thing Hu Hai did after ascending the throne was, naturally, to hold a grand funeral for Qin Shi Huang.

When Qin Shi Huang died and a new emperor ascended the throne, it was like a change of dynasty. Countless people's fates began to change, and Gao Yao also began to take up the butcher's knife and start killing.

He first ordered Huhai to poison all twenty-odd of his brothers and sisters, and a large number of former princes and nobles were implicated. For a time, everyone in Xianyang Palace lived in fear.

After Li Si came to power, he did the same thing, starting to take action against the ministers in the court who opposed him, and Li Si completely seized power in the court and the country.

However, Meng Yi and Fu Su are still in prison. The reason why Gao Yao has not taken action against them is simple: their identities are too sensitive, and he has to proceed slowly.

Fusu was the crown prince, and Meng Yi was the commander-in-chief of the 300,000-strong Meng family army.

Once Hu Hai's throne is secure, the day of their deaths will be approaching. Gao Yao has already planned to slowly torture Yi Xiaochuan and make him experience the harsh realities of life.

Han Chunming had been observing all of this with a cold eye. With Qin Shi Huang's death, the Xianyang Palace was heavily guarded during this period, making it impossible to sneak in. Even if he had unparalleled martial arts skills, he was not confident that he could fight his way out of Xianyang City.

Moreover, he didn't know whether the elixir of immortality was actually with Gao Yao.

In the past few days, he had been investigating this matter and spent a lot of money. Finally, he was basically certain that the elixir of immortality was in Gao Yao's possession.

After Yi Xiaochuan and Fusu were arrested that day, and after they were searched, a eunuch witnessed Gao Yao taking a small wooden box from them.

Now that the real target has been identified, Han Chunming naturally set his sights on Gao Yao.

Gao Yao was indeed a cunning old fox. Although Han Chunming did not know the details, he was able to guess what had happened by calculating the events of that period.

However, none of this mattered to him. His only goal now was the elixir of immortality. Three more days passed in the blink of an eye, and Qin Shi Huang's coffin began to be transported to Mount Li. Hu Hai and the ministers from Xianyang Palace set off in a grand procession.

With the number of guards in Xianyang Palace reduced by more than half, Han Chunming immediately sensed an opportunity.

Chapter Thirty-Two: A Contest with Xiang Yu

Now that it's confirmed that the elixir of immortality is indeed in Gaoyao, the rest is easy.

Accommodation in Gaoyao is easy to find; there are currently two options: one inside the palace and one outside the palace but inside Xianyang city.

Gao Yao rarely left the palace, but he was still provided with a large mansion outside the palace, and he would occasionally leave the palace to stay in that mansion.

There are quite a few guards here, but it's much more relaxed compared to the palace.

Han Chunming guessed that Gao Yao probably wouldn't hide the elixir of immortality outside the palace, but given the choice between the two, he would definitely choose the easier one first.

A thorough search of a house cannot be easily found simply by infiltrating it.

There were twelve guards in the house. Han Chunming hardly needed to lift a finger. With a simple arrangement, the spies' team silently took care of them.

He then swaggered in to search, turning the mansion inside and out. After confirming there were no hidden compartments, he carefully examined the place for two hours and finally determined that the small wooden box containing the elixir of immortality was not in the mansion.

Since the small wooden box isn't in the mansion, we'll have to switch to hard mode and search for it in the palace.

In fact, with Han Chunming's skills, even if the Xianyang Palace was heavily guarded, he could still sneak in.

Infiltrating is not difficult; the difficulty lies in escaping unscathed without alerting others. This was naturally the reason why Han Chunming had not taken action earlier.

There are tens of thousands of soldiers guarding Xianyang Palace. If they are alerted, tens of thousands of soldiers from the military camp in the east of the city will come to surround and suppress them within half an hour.

If such a situation were to occur, unless one were a god, even a warrior capable of defeating ten thousand men could be worn down. This is not the vast northern grasslands, but the Qin state's Xianyang city, which has existed for hundreds of years.

If it were the old him, taking risks wouldn't have mattered, but now, his identity dictates that he can no longer act impulsively.

Fortunately, most of the palace's guards have now been transferred to Lishan outside the city, and the guards in Xianyang Palace are much less vigilant, which is why Han Chunming dared to take the risk.

With the help of bribed eunuchs, Han Chunming led four agile spies to successfully infiltrate the eunuch group and enter Xianyang Palace without any trouble.

Led by a eunuch, the group entered the Directorate of Ceremonial, where the eunuchs resided, without any problems.

Gao Yao held a high position, so his residence was naturally a large mansion. However, since he was just a palace eunuch, it couldn't compare to other palaces; it was just a simple courtyard.