Chapter 453 One D to Rule Them All
Chapter 453 - One D to Rule Them All
Not only Liu Bei was playing tricks to the alliance, but Sun Ce and Zhou Yu also experienced the setback of not having a strong enough economy and a proper chain of supplies from their homeland. They secretly withdrew their forces back to Jianye, refusing to attack Beihai this year.
Moreover, they feared the god-of-war, Lu Bu, whom Cao Cao mentioned that he had 8 wings.
Upon return, both Sun Ce and Zhou Yu did nothing but cultivate, trying to get stronger before the next spring.
As for the domestic affair, they let Sun Fang and others take care of it. Moreover, they wanted Sun Fang to buy their men cultivation techniques, which angered the first son of Sun Jian.
'Bastards. You treated me like crap, and you want me to gain lifespans for the others? Do it yourself!'
Sun Fang also disregarded the internal affair and cultivated for himself.
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At Jianye, the situation was the opposite of Liu Bei's Chang'An.
Sun Fang, Sun Ce, and Zhou Yu completely disregarded the internal affair, leaving all jobs to Zhang Hong and Zhang Zhao.
The two Zhangs were not happy about this since their lords and the upstart strategist did not treat them fairly. Moreover, the recent mobilization was pointless as they did not even attack Beihai as planned.
As the two Zhangs cleaned up the messes that these young warlords made, they stumbled into a spy of Zhou Yu.
That spy revealed a piece of shocking information about their missing lady and the young lord, Sun Quan.
"Are you certain?" Asked Zhang Zhao.
"Y-Yes. Lady Wu and young master Sun are currently residing in Jiangxia. They're planning to move to Xiangyang to seek Lu Bu's protection, but they are being held hostages by Huang Zu."
"And this Huang Zu is our mole?"
"Yes, sir."
Zhang Zhao was interested in this development.
The two elder brothers were trying to fight Zhang Tong, but the 3rd son and their mother were attempting to switch sides. Moreover, all former Sun Jian's subordinates supported Wu Guotai's decision, while the young officers supported Sun Ce.
That was not all. It seemed that Sun Ce and Sun Fang wanted to kill each other, but none of them had made a move yet.
"Zigang, I think the Sun Clan will collapse if Sun Fang and Sun Ce continue to wage war against the emperor."
Zhang Hong nodded, "Agreed. This won't do. This is not something that we should get involved if they end up fighting for the clan head position, but I believe we already know which side we should join."
"Ha! You don't say."
A week later, the two Zhangs took their private army of 1,000 men along with their family and subordinates northwest, heading toward Jiangxia.
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Jiangxia City
Sun Quan always woke up at night as he kept having nightmares. He often dreamed that he was born as a girl and was killed by Sun Fang and Li Jing.
They were the memory of Hua Shi's before her death!
However, those were nothing comparing to Sun Jian's memory. The death experience was useful to Sun Quan as well.
The part that always plagued and tormented his mind was that the girl in his dream slept with Tong!
It was not a pleasant experience for a straight man to sleep with another man! This was the nightmare that Sun Quan always opened his eyes whenever the memory dream reached this part.
Every time he woke up, he could see a semi-transparent square for a few seconds before it disappeared, which displayed something about his skill.
[Immortal Yang Vein]
It was the perverted skill that Hua Shi should have had, but Sun Quan had it instead.
"What's this [Infinite Yang Seed] and [Regeneration]?"
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Meanwhile, the baby, Sun Shangxiang, often had a bad mood as she knew why her [Immortal Yang Vein] was missing.
A few days ago, in the middle of the night when everyone was sleeping, Lilim came to Sun Shangxiang's side to apologize to her.
"I'm sowwy!!"
"DAH!!" (YOU FUCKING RETARDED GODDESS!! I WANT MY SKILL BACK!!)
"Give me a few years… Say, 16-17 years? I can't inject a system skill into your soul while your body has not matured yet. Can you wait until then?"
"DAH!!" (BY THAT TIME, I WOULD HAVE DIED A HUNDRED TIMES BY DISEASES OR INJURIES!! DO YOU KNOW THE FATALITY RATE OF CHILDREN IN THIS ERA!?)
"Ugh, don't worry. I'll keep healing you in secret. Don't be mad. Abu Abu?"
"DAH!!" (DON'T ABU-ABU ME, YOU DUMB BITCH!! I'M NOT A CHILD!!)
Due to the incident when Sun Jian's soul was about to be devoured by Hua Shi, Lilim yanked a part of Hua Shi's soul along with Sun Jian's soul, which caused one of her skills to be missing.
Because of Lilim's intervention, Hua Shi, aka Sun Shangxiang at the moment, kept cursing at the goddess whenever she woke up.
Had it been other circumstances, Lilim would have ignored Sun Shangxiang as her complaint was irrelevant. However, Tong's family was getting stronger, and they had the potential to surpass her strength.
Furthermore, Lilim had long noticed that Li Feihong was hiding his power. He already had 10 wings in his grasp, and he could get to 12 in no time!
Lilim could abuse the system to get rid of Tong and Li Feihong at any time, but she learned a lot from observing them. Instead of killing everyone or messing with their lives, she wanted to win their favor, so they could be her partners in the future when her netherworld was completed.
She started by trying to win Sun Shangxiang's favor, but it seemed to fail.
"Dah!" (You know what? I have an idea. Contact Tong for me and tell him that I reincarnated. I want to be with him again!)
"Then, will you forgive me? Can we be friends?"
"Meh!" (Fine. We can be cool if you can really take me to Tong's side.)
"Hehe! No problem!"
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A day later
Ye City, the throne room
Without Xun Yu, Tong's slacking time was no more. He had to work for Xun Yu's parts and approved many documents from other divisions, which was his emperor's job.
Zhuge Liang replaced Xun Yu's duties. Unfortunately, he required time to learn about Tong's culture and government systems. At the moment, he attended one of Cai Yan's schools to learn about laws and the economy in Tong's affiliate cities.
While Tong was busy, a familiar John Cena's theme song echoed in his ears, stunned him.
The volume and the bass were too loud. Tong, who was covering his ears, was crying in pain.
All officers in the throne room could not hear or see what Tong could, so they thought that their emperor suffered from some kind of sickness.
"Call the physicians!"
Because of the uproar, news spread that Tong fell ill, and he was temporarily exempted from duties. Te Langpu, Lu Zhi, and Sima Fang were summoned to take over the jobs.
Tong was brought back to his room to rest later.
Wearing white clothes and lying on his bed, Tong stared at his system message screen with hatred.
Tong wanted to curse Lilim, but many of his officers and physicians were nearby, so he kept his mouth shut.
Still, Lilim continued to bug him.
Tong closed his eyes and took several deep breaths to calm down.
Several hours later, Tong was finally left alone to rest. No concubine entered Tong's room to service him as all physicians recommended that Tong needed rest.
"Stop trolling, Lilim. What do you want?"
Tong widened his eyes, surprised, "WHERE IS SHE!?"
"!!!"
Tong would have been a dumb man had he not learned about this name.
In history, she was one of Liu Bei's wife. It was recorded that Sun Shangxiang was an arrogant, spoiled princess as she was the only sister of the warlord, Sun Quan.
In 209, Sun Quan wedded her to Liu Bei for the alliance against Cao Cao. However, she caused many problems in Jing Province because of her personality to the point that Liu Bei dreaded her.
After Liu Bei mobilized his army to Yi Province, invading Liu Zhang, Sun Quan sent his men to retrieve her back home.
Sun Shangxiang was different in the 14th-century novel as she was portrayed to be smitten with Liu Bei in this version. Zhou Yu also baited Liu Bei using Sun Shangxiang, so he could kill the warlord, but Zhuge Liang and Guan Yu saved Liu Bei and his new wife, getting away in the process.
Now, Hua Shi replaced this historical figure, and her existence could stir trouble.
Lilim ended the transmission after she left the crucial messages.
After being stunned for a minute, Tong jumped up and put on his clothes. He spread his black wings and flew to the darkness sky.
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The next day, Jiangxia City
Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong managed to find Wu Guotai in Jiangxia with difficulties. However, they could finally convey their purpose.
"We would like to follow you and join the emperor. Also, we've brought our soldiers with us."
Wu Guotai was delighted upon seeing more followers. With more people, she felt more reassured, "Of course. We welcome on board. By the way, can you help us get out of this city? Huang Zu is trapping us in here."
"That's simple. Huang Zu is currently paying attention to only you and your subordinates, but he doesn't know us. We'll contact Lu Bu and Zhang He in Xiangyang for you."
"Thank you! Please do!"
As everyone was happy with the meeting, a voice came from outside.
"That won't be necessary. You can tell me what has happened here to me directly."
Everyone was shocked that a stranger was intruding in their courtyard, which was heavily protected by Huang Gai and others.
They looked at the newcomer. It was a young man in gold clothes as if he were an emperor.
Behind him, Huang Gai, Han Dang, Cheng Pu, Zhu Zhi followed after him. Instead of stopping the young man, they seemed respectful toward the person.
"Who are you!?" Zhang Zhao was cautious.
The man simply muttered, but his voice was clear, "Zhang Tong."
"Zhang…. WHAT!?"
It was Tong, who flew his ways from Ye over the night.
Wu Guotai glanced at Huang Gai and others. Upon seeing the lady's eyes, they nodded and confirmed that he was the authentic emperor of Han.
Wu Guotai, Zhang Zhao, and Zhang Hong knelt and kowtowed to Tong.
"We didn't know that his majesty would visit us. Please forgive us for not preparing for your arrival!"
"Eh, stand up. At ease, guys," Tong waved his hands and dismissed their formality. He looked at Wu Guotai, finding the right words to ask for her daughter, Sun Shangxiang.
Still, it was weird, no matter how Tong looked at it. Sun Shangxiang was just born last year, but he came here to propose her? It might cause some serious misunderstandings.
'What should I use as an excuse to invite them all to my domain?'
Improvising, Tong came up with a plan to invite them to his city on the spot.
"Wu Guotai…"
"Yes, your majesty."
"How old are you this year?"
Wu Guotai was surprised, "T-Thirty three, your majesty."
"Cool," Tong inspected her face and her feature. As Wu Guotai was protected as the lady of Sun Clan, she was the same as He Xing, a pretty woman.
Reminded of the passed He Xing, Tong felt guilty that he could not protect her. Looking at the widow in front of him, looking sad and nervous, he could not help but want to protect her as well.
Tong whispered something to Wu Guotai, who could not believe what she was hearing.
"Marry me."