Chapter 505 Gathering of Legends
Even though Tong had warned them that changes were coming, this was too sudden.
Diaochan stopped cultivating and ordered everyone right away.
Diaochan: "Put me as the clan leader. I’ll take it over."
Cao Cao: "What about his majesty? Why did he leave?"
Diaochan: "Reread the logs. He is trapping Lilim at the moment, so we only have 10 years to overcome the difference in strength."
Cao Cao: "We? Shouldn’t it be you?"
Zhuge Liang: "Please don’t feint ignorance, Wei Chancellor. We’ve learned that Lilim got Guan Yu, Lu Bu, and might have enslaved our emperor. Sun Ce is also working for her. We should start preparing for another war with the goddess faction now."
Te Langpu: "By the way, what about the battle at Zhongshan and Nanpi? What’s the result?"
Sima Yi: "I’ve sent Zhao Yun and Wei Yan to subjugate the local resistances. I’m waiting for their result."
Sima Yi: "Also, I have a weird feeling that I forgot something very important. Is there something happening to Zhang Min recently?"
Dong Bai: "Aside from being rescued by Lu Bu, Zhang Min is fine."
Sima Yi: "Is that all? Nothing happened to her?"
Dong Bai: "Do you want something to happen to her or what?"
Sima Yi: "Nothing. Just asking."
Diaochan: "..."
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= At Diaochan’s room =
Diaochan was swift. Even though she was cultivating, she still paid attention to all changes and reacted to it.
But now, Diaochan frowned as she looked at the wiggling karmic snakes on the floor. These things attempted to invade her body, but they were repelled by her karma law’s resistance from her 8 wings.
’Aren’t these memory snakes?’
Behind Diaochan, eight black wings fluttered, but they had red lines on them. The breakthrough was successful, but her foundation was still unstable.
Fortunately, the constitution of 8-wing immortal could self-heal faster. From now on, she did not have to worry about relapsing soul injuries.
Still, the brainwashing karma snakes alarmed Diaochan. The only one who could use this technique was a 10-wing immortal or someone with a higher cultivation base.
’Lilim must have done something, or this is Tong’s work.’
Medusa closed her eyes and concentrated on healing and reinforcing her foundation. Once she recovered, she planned to head west toward her mother’s homeland to solve her bloodline karma.
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While Tong was bargaining with Lilim, the situation at Zhongshan progressed.
Song Qian and Chen Wu flew above Zhongshan’s airspace. By the order of Zhou Yu and Sun Ce, they were supposed to be here and secure Wang Yun, Zhen Yi, and their family. However, the recent system messages told them that Sun Fang and Zhou Yu were dead, so they hesitated if they should continue fighting.
"Brother Song, do you think we should look for those old men?"
Chen Wu grumbled, "Let’s just snatch the city gold and return to Jianye. Zhang Tong has appeared, and we’re at risk of being hunted down."
"Right. Man, Zhou Yu in this world sucks. He was smarter in the other world."
"Can’t help it. He’s blind with rage. Zhang Tong stole his wife after all."
"By the way, what are we going to report to Sun Ce if we return empty-handed?"
"Just tell him that Zhen Yi and Wang Yun are dead or captured. Or we can make up a story that we fought Zhang Tong and survived. Then, we can get a bit of credit for standing against a stronger cultivator."
"Good idea. Let’s rob this city and go home."
Both men landed inside the government building area as they beelined toward the treasury.
As they had expected, Zhongshan City’s treasury stored many treasures, supplies, and gold nuggets inside. However, gold chests were lacking as Zhen Yi had taken most of them with him.
Still, Song Qian and Chen Wu took one chest each. They left the building and soared to the sky right away.
On their way, out of the city, two angels chased after them from behind.
"FBI, FREEZE!!"
Strange words came from the angel with white clothes, which confused Song Qian and Chen Wu.
"Dafuq? Speak a human’s language, fool!"
They turned around and prepared to engage in combat.
When Song Qian and Chen Wu noticed that the two pursuers had the same 4-wing strength, their face turned solemn. Both of them began thinking.
Since they were carrying a gold chest, they were not in the best condition to fight in aerial combat. On the other hand, two angels came with their weapons.
"Let’s bail."
"Yeah."
Song Qian and Chen Wu turned tail and flew away. They also separated, so the pursuers could not catch both of them at once.
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The pursuers, Zhao Yun and Wei Yan, looked at each other.
"Should we chase?"
Zhao Yun shook his head, "Leave them. Our speed is similar, so it will just be a wild goose chase. No pun intended."
"..."
Zhao Yun and Wei Yan, who were ordered to find Zhen Yi and Wang Yun, ran into Chen Wu and Song Qian. As the four men had the same strength and it would be risky to fight them head-on, Zhao Yun and Wei Yan retreated and reported the matter to Sima Yi.
"We’ve run into two angels in the city. Strategist Sima, what’s our next move?"
Sima Yi’s face grimaced as he was still confused about the recent changes of the clan and his weird feeling about his memory. His instinct cried that he lost something important, but he could not remember.
Though distracted, he could still focus on the matter at hand.
"Did you fight with them?"
"No. They ran away as soon as we noticed them."
"How about the citizens and the local troops? Are they hostile?"
"No. They simply mistook us as gods and prostrated to us."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"..."
Sima Yi shook his head in disappointment, "How dullard. Tell the men to enter the city. Find Wang Yun and Zhen Yi if you can. If they have escaped, capture their family and their subordinates."
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The White Horse Legion entered the city without facing resistance from the local army. Fortunately, Sun Ce and Sun Fang could not gain control over the local policemen and Zhen Yi’s men.
Upon entering Zhen Yi’s resident, Sima Yi and Zhao Yun found Wang Yun, who had already tied himself and surrendered. No family member of Wang Yun was in sight.
"Just you?" Sima Yi frowned, "Where are Zhen Yi and his family?"
Wang Yun bitterly smiled, "They ran away south."
"Why don’t you escape, then?"
"There is no point in escaping. My timing was bad. My luck was bad. Everything was against me."
Sima Yi and Zhao Yun pitied him. This man did well in the other timeline, but his ambitious dragged him down.
"I understand that you want to gain a higher noble tier. But what’s the point? Aren’t you satisfied with the commandery governor position? No one can do anything to you since you’re the father of the prime consort. Why rebelling?"
Wang Yun snickered, "When you have tasted the absolute power of controlling the court and the royalties, can you give them up?"
"... Silly old fool. Your previous authority in the other world belongs to the young Liu Xie, but you only borrowed it from him for a short moment. If you desire power, you have to earn it with your brain and your hands. Instead of abusing your connection, you could have proved your worth by developing your commandery and gain Zhang Tong’s trust."
"But I’m Diaochan’s father!"
"Authority through connection breeds corruption. You can only obtain authority yourself, or your heart will be spoiled rotten. This is your mistake, senior Wang."
Wang Yun scoffed, "Hah! Hypocrite! You’re the one to talk! Don’t you think everyone didn’t know that you’re pursuing the first princess for authority! Everyone can see that you’re more corrupted than the rest of us!"
Zhao Yun, Hu Che-er, and Wei Yan, who was tagging along with Sima Yi, glanced at the strategist as they knew why Wang Yun said that. They, too, agreed with Wang Yun’s criticism.
Instead of getting angry, Sima Yi sneered, "I’ve been raising my status and noble tier through my hard work, but you didn’t. I had proven my worth in the other timeline and this world, but you had barely done anything worthwhile. Everywhere that I went, I made sure that the local population is well-fed and prosper, but you have done shit! You’re in the position to criticize my love life and my dream, retard sloth!"
Sima Yi didn’t bother arguing with Wang Yun. He turned around and left the residence. As for Wang Yun, he continued to curse Sima Yi as an ingrate traitor and spat various profanity.
Hu Che-er had enough of Wang Yun. He drew his sword and swung it to cut this old man’s neck.
"Tsk!"
The sword in Hu Che-er’s hand could not harm Wang Yun as it stopped 2 centimeters before it could reach Wang Yun’s neck.
Sima Yi stopped his feet. He also got a similar message that Hu Che-er attempted to kill Wang Yun.
"Use your men to execute this fool. We can’t harm each other directly."
Hu Che-Er nodded and dragged Wang Yun away.
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30 Minutes after the White Horse Legion entered Zhongshan, a system message announced that Wang Yun had been killed by an unknown person.
Before anyone could make a fuss, Sima Yi reported his deed.
Sima Yi: "We’ve captured Wang Yun and executed him on the spot. Sorry that we can’t kill him directly."
Diaochan: "Good job."
Sima Yi: "Are you fine with it? He’s your father."
Diaochan: "He’s no longer my father when he asked Zhen Yi to join his rebellion."
Sima Yi: "Alright. Have it your way. By the way, can I propose a southern campaign in advance? I believe we need to prepare a force to annihilate Sun Ce’s remnants in Jianye soon. Also, I don’t trust Liu Biao."
Diaochan: "We’ll deal with the current issues of newly awakening immortals among the citizens first. As for the campaign, save it for the next year. Gan Ning should have finished constructing warships for the campaign by then."
Sima Yi: "Understood. By the way, can’t you just fly south and assassinate Sun Ce?"
Dong Bai: "We’re running out of time, Zhongda. She only has 10 years to cultivate 10 wings and match Lilim’s strength. Getting to 8 wings is easy but 10 wings can take forever. The shortest record in the Netherworld was 8 years and a half, so we can’t waste our time now. We’ll use our other immortals to get rid of this threat instead."
Sima Yi: "What about Li Feihong, Dian Wei, and you, your majesty? I heard that you have 6-7 wings."
Dong Bai: "We’re facing a self-detonation risk factor. Assassination plan might be too risky if Sun Ce has prepared many soldiers that can self-detonate."
Diaochan: "I’ve used my vision to spy on Jianye’s people. I can confirm that many immortals are lurking in that city. From the intel from Lu Xun and Lu Meng, Lu Su and the Zhu family are still there. I’ve also spotted a gathering of a wild sect with at least 500 cultivators around Jianye. Since Sun Ce is Lilim’s subordinate, they might have other trump cards other than self-detonation."
Sima Yi: "I see."
As the three were having a serious conversation about the southern campaign, Cao Cao invited more of his subordinates into the clan chat.
Cao Cao: "Please brief about the current conflict and all forces to my men. I’ve invited all of them into the clan now."
Dong Bai: "Wait a sec, how the hell did you invite them!? I thought only otherworlders like me and Diaochan can use the invite option!"
Cao Cao: "Clan level 3? Hasn’t it been upgraded? I just explored the system a bit. It seems that there’s no limit for the invitation now."
Dong Bai: "..."
Cao Cao: "Anyway, we’ve gotten ourselves the most fucking dream-team that I, in the other timeline, would have vomited blood from being jealous. Kongming, Zhongda, Fengxiao, you three motherfuckers should work together and come up with a battle policy and stratagems to invade Wu! Old coots, Jia Xu, Xun Yu, Cheng Yu, you guys too!"
Zhuge Liang: "..."
Guo Jia: "..."
Sima Yi: "..."
Not only Cao Cao’s subordinates entered Tong’s clan, but the former Sun clan members also joined as Dong Bai rushed to invite them after she had realized that the limitation was gone.
Cao Cao: "Oh great, more hotshots entering the league."
Sun Quan: "Hello. We can finally speak, Wei Chancellor."
Cao Cao: "Hey, you brat. Good fight in the other world. Too bad we both kicked the bucket before it resolved."
Sun Quan: "Same. Good fight. Too bad my descendants are morons."
Cao Cao: "Likewise. We also lost to those ingrates Sima! A pity that bastard Liu Bei is too stupid to join us. Or else, it would have been the hell of a party."
Sun Quan: "Haha. I know."
Li Feihong: "..."
Without Tong realizing it, his former clan expanded and all members who Tong had postponed inviting now joined the clan.