Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor: Chapters 19–25

“Because I knew there was no other way of getting you out of America. You clearly weren’t going to cooperate without an incentive. Without a personal stake in this mission.”

“You don’t think I’ve kept up with feminist discourse?”

Zack backed against the bedroom window, the words stinging like successive slaps to his face.

Yes, the Yellow Emperor may have sent those spirits, but they all had legitimate grievances against Qin Shi Huang.

Back in Shanghai, Simon had transferred five thousand Chinese yuan to Zack’s e-wallet and showed him how to pay people by scanning QR codes. That was supposedly how everyone paid for everything in China nowadays. Cash was practically obsolete.

Zack made an indignant noise. “Did you think I was that selfish? None of you even explained the mission to me before taking my mom!”

He was strong and powerful. And he had to admit, it felt good, having the ability to get people to do whatever he wanted. Life was so much easier. He could see the appeal.

“For you to help us thwart Qin Shi Huang’s plans,” she spilled out in one breath.

“I’m afraid I didn’t know that particular detail. It sounds heinous. I’m truly sorry. I am not omniscient, you see. But I expected the emperors would show their true colors sooner than later.”

Ten years ago, we assisted the Chinese police in capturing a group they claimed were dangerous extremists by tracing and blocking their methods of communication.

And the fact that the Chu people held Fusu in such high regard suggests his mother might’ve been a Chu princess. There’s no surviving record of this, but the people back then would’ve remembered the lavish wedding.

Jason made an incredulous gesture.

There’s no record of any woman in Qin Shi Huang’s harem. It all points to them having been systematically erased.

The inkling I get is that this lost queen of Qin eventually sided with her homeland of Chu and contributed to the rebellion that destroyed Qin Shi Huang’s first invading army.

An uneasy feeling drew taut in Zack.

Spectral fingers slid between his own.

Lines of eunuchs in tall hats and handmaidens with their hair gathered up in bundles shuffled under canopied walkways in the distance, but their movements left trails through the air.

As shouts chased him, he hiked up his robe skirts and leapt over the tall wooden threshold lining the bottom of the doorway.

Firelight glistened on the dark surface, from hundreds—maybe thousands—of oil lamps flickering through the chamber on extravagant bronze trees.

Ghostly white smoke gusted from their flames, weaving into the smell of incense in the chilly air.

It took a long time to tamp down his terror of having no control over his own body.

Jason gazed at it wistfully, then turned to Explosion Guy and said something in Mandarin while pointing at the wall.

“We’re not his lackeys!” Melissa shouted, hidden among the mountains.
“I thought my people had them locked up until this was over.”

Without waiting for Zack to finish, Fusu shouted, “Tang Taizong and Wu Zetian, I command you to relinquish your weapons and come out to face me!”

All right, yes, I am a vain, tyrannical megalomaniac! But I am also one who cares deeply for China. I can be both!

"Rogue spirits are dangerous. Demons are dangerous. You have no idea of the consequences of loosening that portal!”

You couldn’t fathom the idea of sharing power with anyone. You were so utterly confident that you could find the key to immortality and reign forever!

“Everything I did was to destroy the old ways, destroy the old powers, and usher China into a new era. But Qin was an old power as well. The final clinging one. There was a reason we only lasted fifteen years longer than the other Warring States. We represented something that only hindered the progress of the new world."

Jason grabbed Zack’s shoulder and intoned, “O Yellow Emperor, ancestor of the Chinese people, give your humble servants strength to weaken this blockage of the natural gate between the mortal and spirit realms!”

Do you want to live in a world full of entities with power beyond your imagination?

A plume of black qi lurched out of Qin Shi Huang’s chest, spiraling up.

The severed-limb ache inside Zack told him it wasn’t a trick. Wasn’t manipulation. Qin Shi Huang was really gone.

Shock turning to horror turning to revelation, Zack surged through the stunned lapse in Fusu’s consciousness and fought for control of his body.

With one culminating burst of effort, Zack expelled Fusu’s spirit from his body.

Yellow constructs of gnarly myth creatures morphed out of the spirit winds, connected to the book by thin tendrils, like a whole Mythrealm roster come to life.

Zack held up the dwindling seal, heart aching with guilt at how he hadn’t been immune to being corrupted by it.

When the memory storm finally slowed down, Zack found himself in a dim bedchamber lit by sparse oil lamps.

The clay soldiers scraped and creaked to life, brandishing their weapons.

Zack had spent so much of his life looking up to idols, trying to become someone different from himself, but they had all turned out to be shams with much bigger messes going on in the background than their glorious images suggested.

Simon nodded with a solemnity like he was going off to war.