The Legend of Searching for Qin, Vol. 114

The comic adaptation of The Legend of Searching for Qin is based on Huang Yi's time-travel wuxia novel of the same name. It was written and illustrated by Liao Fucheng, later with Zhou Sheng joining the creative team, and was serialized weekly from 1997, running to 199 issues in total. It is a quintessential hard-edged full-color Hong Kong comic. The story follows Xiang Shaolong, an elite special forces operative from the 21st century, who is hurled by an accident during a time-travel experiment into the state of Zhao, one year before Qin Yingzheng's accession to the throne. To return to the future, he relies on modern knowledge and special forces combat skills to establish himself in Zhao, becoming entangled in the intrigues of Lian Jin, Zhao Mu, and others, while tracing the whereabouts of the imprisoned Qin royal grandson Yingzheng and trying to rescue Zhu Ji and her son Yingzheng from Zhao back to Qin. As the plot advances, Xiang Shaolong discovers that the "Yingzheng" he himself helped install is in fact Zhao Pan, a prince of Zhao, and he is thus forced to maneuver repeatedly among Lü Buwei, Lao Ai, Li Si, and the later ambitious young King of Qin. This volume is the 114th issue of the series, at the midpoint of the whole work, in a transitional stage where the Zhao and Qin threads intertwine and the protagonist shifts from escape to nation-building. Lacking a verifiable table of contents for this single issue, the specific plot of this volume is not described; reading the series in order is recommended for a complete narrative arc.