Never Fail the Emperor's Trust

After uniting the six kingdoms and bringing all under Heaven beneath his rule, the First Emperor sought to glorify his achievements by gathering auspicious omens far and wide. As it happened, a baby girl was born in the home of Xu Wang, magistrate of Wencheng County. A Wen Wang Eight Trigrams jade bi in her mouth attracted the covetous attention of a pair of sorcerer-physicians, Huang Bagua and Chimei Xian. Their attempt to steal the sacred jade under cover of night failed, so they joined forces with the governor of Henei Commandery to report the omen to Xianyang Palace. On hearing the news, the First Emperor dispatched Qili Ji, a great scholar from the Commandant's Office, on a secret mission to investigate the auspicious sign in Wencheng. There he chanced upon Hou Gong. To escape the threats and temptations of anti-Qin rebels such as Guan Qing and the Chu princess Shui Furong, the two agreed to protect Xu Fu on her journey west to Xianyang three years later. When the First Emperor met Xu Fu, who possessed extraordinary gifts, and saw the Wen Wang Eight Trigrams jade bi, he bestowed a hundred yi of gold and ordered Xu Wang to seek out renowned teachers for her. Grateful for the emperor's favor, Xu Wang changed her name to Xu Mofu. Later, the First Emperor secretly sent Pei Chang and Pei Yue, father and son, to Wencheng on a covert mission to protect the auspicious omen. A few years later, the First Emperor's old illness returned. He also witnessed a series of strange portents: five planets aligned, meteorites fell from the sky, and his demon-subduing, evil-banishing beast-patterned jade bi, which had gone missing, was recovered. Astonished, he summoned Mofu to the palace. Little did he know that Mofu, who could see through the world, pretended to be ill and left Wencheng to seek out Huang Shigong with the Pei father and son. But halfway there, the First Emperor died at Sand Hill, and the Peis disappeared without a trace. Left alone and without support, Mofu endured a siege by anti-Qin rebels, fell into the schemes of Zhao Gao's henchmen Zhao Cheng and Yan Yue as well as the pair of sorcerer-physicians, and was eventually captured by the Three Heroes of Qi. Fortunately, beneath Mount Gucheng, Huang Shigong learned what had happened to Wencheng's auspicious omen and secretly devised a plan to rescue Mofu. To follow the course of events, Mofu changed her name back to Xu Fu and traveled the world with Huang Shigong, devoting herself to the study of physiognomy…