Chapter 460 - Father Loves You
Before Sun Ce made things worse, Zhou Yu slammed his head on the ground and begged, "Please give us a chance! We know that we were wrong! Let us work for you and redeem our mistakes!"
Dong Bai scoffed, "What can you redeem when there is nothing that you can contribute. Everything will soon convert to our husband’s system, and your past experience won’t even be useful anymore."
"We’ll kill Sun Fang for you!"
Everyone in the meet hall froze.
Sun Fang was one of Tong’s blacklisted individuals, who had a bounty of 100,000 gold. Anyone that could bring his head to Tong would be showered with statuses and wealth.
An offer from a close aide of Sun Fang was tempting. Even Dong Bai hesitated.
Without a solution, she asked Tong in the clan chat.
Dong Bai: "Tong, Zhou Yu said he wants to surrender to us, and he offers to kill Sun Fang for a redemption chance."
Tong: "And what are they doing over there in Liu Xie’s city?"
The matter was too suspicious. Had Sun Ce and Zhou Yu been sincere, they should have talked to him directly.
Then, the hotshot strategist voiced his thoughts.
Sima Yi: "Kill those bastards ASAP. They are attempting to instigate infighting between you and Liu Xie!"
Sima Yi: "It’s a conspiracy attempt to separate our forces into smaller factions like how Cao Cao did to the Yuan Clan’s descendants in the other world. His majesty’s successors are only her majesty and the prime consort ATM, so creating another faction will cause instability in our country."
Typically, all strategists refrained from getting involved when Tong and his wives were having a conversation, but Sima Yi was an exception. He sometimes inserted himself into the discussion if the topics included the big picture.
With Sima Yi’s lead, other advisors also gave their opinion.
Ju Shou: "Accept the offer, your majesty. Let them fight and watch them kill each other."
Xun You: "Kill them now might create enmity with his highness Sun Quan and consort Wu. Let them prove their worth for now and observe how sincere they are. As for Liu Xie’s issue, we can solve it together after the election.
Xun Yu: "I just talked to Cao Cao, Cheng Yu, and Guo Jia. They all said that we should hold Zhou Yu as a hostage and send Sun Ce back to Jianye to kill Sun Fang. Once Sun Fang is dead, we’ll kill the hostage and hunt down Sun Ce later since there won’t be a clan notification. Sun Quan and Wu Guotai won’t have a clue about this, and we can say that they were killed in the middle of the conflict between Sun Ce and Sun Fang."
Li Feihong: "100% Infighting move. Zhang Ji, Zhang Xiu, did these guys attempt to speak to Liu Xie?"
Zhang Ji: "They did."
Zhang Xiu: "Absolutely. General Taishi Ci almost fought with Sun Ce when they first arrived, but Zhou Yu tried to have a negotiation and talk to his highness."
Li Feihong: "That confirms it. Kill those bastards on the spot. Don’t believe in their offers."
Everyone had different thoughts about this handling.
Sima Yi and Li Feihong wanted both Zhou Yu and Sun Ce dead right away.
Xun You and Ju Shou were a bit more cautious, so they hoped for a wait-and-see policy.
Xun Yu had many brains with him in Xuchang, including the schemer Cao Cao. As a result, they were more thorough with their thoughts and plans.
But one piece of advice shocked all officers.
Jia Xu: "Easy. Kill Liu Xie, Zhou Yu, and Sun Ce."
Everyone: "WHAT!?"
It was blasphemy for requesting to kill Tong’s first prince.
Jia Xu: "Liu Xie has already obtained the other world’s memory, and his attitude has changed. We don’t need a risk factor in our clan. Take this chance and kill him along with the other threats."
Sima Yi: "ARE YOU NUTS!? LIU XIE IS OUR FUCKING FIRST PRINCE!!"
Although Sima Yi also had a cultivation method and gained the dream memory, he separated the two worlds from each other. He prioritized how he could use the past experience as guidance for this world.
Liu Xie was his friend in this life, and he was not happy about Jia Xu’s opinion.
Sima Yi: "I know that Liu Xie can be handy at times, but he has done nothing wrong!"
Liu Ye: "I disagree with Sir Jia’s suggestion. We can’t kill the first prince."
Zhang Ji: "Me too. I’m here from start to finish. His highness had been hiding from Sun Ce and Zhou Yu before they discovered him, so I don’t think he wants to rebel against his majesty."
Wei Yan: "I’m with Sima Yi in this case. He’s our friend, and I know that he’s a good guy."
All Liu Xie’s colleagues rebuked Jia Xu’s harsh advice. Though it might be effective for weeding out risk factors, killing an innocent for it was crossing the line.
Even Liu Xie was also shocked. Everyone seemed to forget that he was also in the clan chat.
Liu Xie: "Father, I haven’t agreed to their offer."
Even Jia Xu did not bother following up with his suggestion, many generals and officers chastised his idea. Some were even mad at this wicked strategist for being ruthless. As for the rest, they begged Tong not to agree with Jia Xu as they feared that Tong might favor this suggestion.
As everyone was panicked by Jia Xu’s vicious strategy, another newbie showed up.
Zhuge Liang: "All of you suck."
Everyone: "WHAT!?"
It was like pouring oil into the fire. Everyone was already in a bad mood, so getting trolled by a new upstart youngster like Zhuge Liang infuriated them.
Moreover, Zhuge Liang had not obtained a cultivation method. Everyone knew that he was still just a brat, not the legendary strategist in the other world.
None of them was aware that it was a psychological method to gain their attention.
And it was super effective!
Sima Yi: "Do you have any better idea, Mr. sleeping dragon?"
As a former nemesis, Sima Yi was curious about how Zhuge Liang could come up with a better idea.
Zhuge Liang: "We don’t need to kill anyone or keep anyone hostage. Send them home without accepting any of their offers. Let them prove their worth and bring us Sun Fang’s head first, then we’ll talk."
Sima Yi: "That’s it?"
Zhuge Liang: "That’s it. One move at a time."
Sima Yi: "That’s a disappointment. I thought you would have come up with a complex strategy."
Zhuge Liang: "Best strategies are something simple, user-friendly, executable, and unconditional. Complex ones that can’t be executed are as good as having none. Besides, conditional stratagems are easily thwarted when the chain-of-ploys are discovered. One of the processes is cut... Boom... the plan is ruined."
Sima Yi: "True."
Sima Yi could not refute that.
Sima Yi: "So, what do you think about the potential infighting between his highness and his majesty."
Now, Sima Yi was crossing the line. From his tone, it could be implied that Sima Yi was sure that Liu Xie would rebel against Tong.
Zhuge Liang: "What hasn’t happened, hasn’t happened. I see no rebellion in our ranks."
Sima Yi: "..."
The entire conversation was sidetracked by the advisors. Immediately, Tong concluded his policy and ended the argument before it escalated.
Tong: "Follow Zhuge Liang’s idea. Send them home and tell them to kill Sun Fang first. Without his head, I won’t accept their surrender. As for Liu Xie, he has done nothing wrong in this regard. No need to punish him anything."
Tong: "Liu Xie, you don’t have to worry about anything. Keep doing your job over there. Your father has your back."
Tong: "Remember, I was, and I am never your enemy. No matter if your sword is pointing at me, I still love you and will always love you."
.
After reading all the messages, Liu Xie’s emotion went through a roller coaster. He was mad by Jia Xu, who wanted to kill him. He feared of getting lynched by the strategists or killed by Tong because of Jia Xu’s idea. Then, he was relieved that Tong, Sima Yi, Liu Ye, Zhuge Liang, and Wei Yan were on his side.
Rereading Tong’s messages, Liu Xie felt guilty. As he never received fatherly love in the previous timeline, he did not know how to react with such kindness.
Uncontrollably, Liu Xie’s eyes brimmed with tears. He sniffed hard, swallowing all watery fluid in his nostrils back into his throat.
By instinct, Liu Xie looked at Sun Ce and Zhou Yu with red eyes. Since Tong expressed that he was not Liu Xie’s enemy, the prince questioned why he even planned or tried to wrestling Tong for the throne.
He looked at Dong Bai and Diaochan again. This time, his desire and lust dispersed.
’Did I just want my stepmothers as my wives!? What was I thinking!? Didn’t I have enlightenment that all women were the same when I was the emperor back then? Why do I have to bother trying to seize the throne when father is doing everything he could to end the civil war!?’
A change of heart usually occurred when one sobered from evil thoughts or when someone dear to them was supporting their fragile heart with love.
Sometimes, a simple sentence, [I love you], might stop someone from committing a grave mistake.
*FLASH*
Behind Liu Xie’s back, a soul emerged from him for the second time.
With two black wings, Liu Xie took another step to immortality as he became an official demon.
The soul behind Liu Xie was his former self in the other world. It was the soul of an emperor with golden robes.
Liu Xie and the soul gazed at Sun Ce and Zhou Yu, who were gobsmacked by the development.
"I’ve received an order from my father. You will have to prove your worth first by killing Sun Fang and bring his head to his majesty. Without Sun Fang’s head, we have nothing to talk about!"
Dong Bai and Diaochan were astonished by the change of Liu Xie’s character. At first, they thought that this prince was just a good-for-nothing ex-emperor, which was there to become Tong’s stepping stone. However, his attitude and charisma just now looked like a proper prince-in-training.
Sun Ce and Zhou Yu were shocked as well. From their experience in the other world, they thought that this former emperor was an incompetent idiot that could be easily manipulated.
Since their plan failed, Zhou Yu and Sun Ce bid farewell and retreated from Jibei.
Diaochan and Dong Bai also allowed them to leave since it was Tong’s order.
.
.
Zhou Yu and Sun Ce returned to Jianye in November. Their expression did not look well after they confronted the six-wing demoness in person.
"Bofu, we’ll lay low and focus on cultivating."
"I agree. Armies are not mattered now. I need at least six wings before I fight that woman!"
"No... You’ll need at least 8. If a six-wing demon can travel from Ye to Jibei in a flash, what about Lu Bu?"
"..."
The oppression of Lu Bu’s existence scared them from taking any more risky action. None of them was aware that it was Zhuge Liang’s false story since Lu Bu’s real strength was still in the six-wing tier.
Zhuge Liang’s hidden stratagem succeeded without anyone realizing it. The year ended without a war as the sleeping dragon had envisioned.
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