Chapter 127

A must: eat more, drink more, eat well, and drink well.

Everyone breathed a long sigh of relief.

…………

"Ziyi, is that Li Miao really that formidable?" Liu Xie still held a skeptical attitude toward the fact that Li Miao could fight Taishi Ci to a standstill. Who was Taishi Ci? He was a figure who could go toe-to-toe with the Little Conqueror of Jiangdong, fighting fiercely until the sun and moon lost their luster. How could he possibly fight Li Miao to a draw?

"General, the enemy general possesses formidable martial prowess. However, within three hundred bouts, I will surely leave a wound on him; within five hundred bouts, I will certainly behead him." Taishi Ci knew Li Miao was powerful, but Li Miao had shortcomings, namely a lack of boldness and imposing aura. Li Miao had never bathed in blood, and naturally, he could not emit the unique regal and domineering aura that Taishi Ci possessed.

"Three hundred, five hundred?" Liu Xie was speechless. It seemed he had never heard of anyone fighting for three hundred bouts without a victor being decided, and coming from such a conservative estimation by Taishi Ci, it went without saying that this Li Miao was unimaginably monstrous.

"General, should we still bring Li Miao to Lujiang?" Taishi Ci hoped Li Miao would come. If Li Miao went, the two of them could spar all day long. For Taishi Ci, who was undefeated across the realm and felt the profound loneliness and solitude of a hero, this was truly good news.

"Naturally. But since our imposing auras match in single combat, persuading Li Miao to surrender will probably not be simple," Liu Xie frowned and said.

"Why not send an emissary?" Taishi Ci asked an idiotic question. Liu Xie gave a bitter smile. Li Miao was the big boss in Jiangting, but once he reached Lujiang, he would be a subordinate to Liu Xun. Their status and position would instantly be worlds apart. Who would be so idle as to willingly become someone else's underling?

On second thought, Liu Xie realized that this wretched little place of Jiangting was indeed far too small. Forget it, he might as well treat a dead horse as a live one. Liu Xie thought if trying that didn't work, they would just fight again.

Having made up his mind, Liu Xie summoned everyone to discuss the matter before his tent and finalized how the negotiations should proceed. There were certain things Li Miao would definitely ask about. Although Lujiang had initiatively torn off its mask to do this, they still needed to save some face. In the end, Liu Xie decided to order the emissary to make veiled insinuations regarding Sun Ce of Jiangdong.

To get the jade seal and capture Li Miao—everyone would be happy.

By the time everyone finished their discussion, night had already fallen.

Liu Xie dispatched a strategist who had old ties with Li Yin, heading straight for Jiangting.

…………

Li Miao's sudden fainting spell, just like the previous one, dazzled everyone's eyes. First, a Dragon-Transforming Spear danced a golden dragon into existence on the battlefield, and then he maintained a completely expressionless face outside, managing to endure the internal qi disruption all the way until he reached Jiangting before passing out. As expected of a supreme boss level figure—remaining completely unfazed in the face of any peril.

Because they had immunity from the previous episode, Li Miao did not remain unconscious for as long this time. Li Miao already vaguely felt that perhaps his camera-like function wasn't all that bad, because he sensed that maybe he now possessed Taishi Ci's combat prowess even without scanning him.

In other words, this martial prowess was cumulative, and the duration of unconsciousness was caused by how much it had increased compared to the previous baseline; the more fiercely his martial prowess grew, the longer the unconsciousness would last.

"Mother of god!"

Sensing these changes, Li Miao felt the world was truly magical. This antiquated, bullshit fifty-cent gadget actually possessed such heaven-defying functions. Li Miao's mouth split open all the way to the heavens.

Unlike the battles with Lujiang, Chen Lan, and Lei Bo, under Li Yin's command, everyone was currently in a state of emergency discussing countermeasures. After all, Li Miao had fainted, and they still had to fight a war tomorrow, didn't they?

As for tomorrow—whether they should stay inside a broken city to be beaten or go outside the city to be beaten...

Not only Li Yin, but everyone's mouth twitched.

No matter what, the outcome seemed to be the same: getting beaten up by others.

"This is utterly screwing us over!" Huang Yi felt like crying without tears.

At that moment, a junior officer came forward to report.

"What is it?" Li Yin had a headache and was on the verge of shedding tears of old age. He only now discovered that after Li Miao passed out, lacking a peerless general like His Majesty under the tent, Jiangting felt utterly stifled to death.

Li Yin felt increasingly unable to fathom Li Miao. The more unfathomable he became, the more awe and reverence Li Yin naturally felt. Our veteran Li Yin was gradually evolving toward a formal state. He had a premonition that his eldest nephew was definitely not someone who would stay trapped in a mere puddle.

"Prince of Fu, an emissary from Lujiang is outside the city, claiming he wants to see Your Majesty!" The junior officer knelt on the ground and said.

"An emissary from Lujiang?" Li Yin muttered suspiciously to himself, then cast a burning gaze at Yang Hong and said, "Minister Yang, what are your thoughts?"

"I don't know." Yang Hong was extremely concise; he truly couldn't fathom Lujiang's intentions.

Hadn't the fight finished yet?

Was sending an emissary meant for peace talks? But even for peace talks, shouldn't it be Jiangting dispatching someone to Lujiang?

"Bring him in." Li Yin couldn't figure it out either, so he simply decided to call him in and ask, just to interrogate why Lujiang's troops had attacked Jiangting. Right now, they didn't even understand why they were getting beaten.

Before long, the junior officer brought in the Lujiang emissary. This man had previously been a strategist under Li Shu. When Liu Xun was promoted to Administrator of Lujiang, Li Shu had given him to Liu Xun. It seemed Liu Xun's act of establishing himself independently had been instigated by this very fellow.

"Greetings, Prince of Fu!" the envoy said respectfully.

"Why did your Lujiang attack my Jiangting?" Li Yin bristled his beard and rebuked angrily, "The late emperor treated you quite well back then. It would be bad enough if you didn't know how to return kindness with gratitude, but after taking the gold for our borrowed troops from Jiangting, you even harbor ambitions to encroach upon our Jiangting. Is this how you people in Lujiang conduct yourselves?"

Li Miao's words were a blatant slap to the face, and moreover, they were all statements of fact. This string of remarks could be described as utterly discourteous.

However, the envoy showed no signs of taking offense. Although Li Yin scolded him, he still wore a poker face, laughed heartily, and said, "Prince of Fu, you are merely arguing sophistry. My lord has ordered us to come here this time precisely for the purpose of assisting the son of the General of the Rear."

"Look, ever since the passing of the General of the Rear, Jiangting has neither troops nor provisions, and has suffered consecutive blows. Today, Jiangting is already completely hollowed out. A mere two thousand troops, in this era where warlords are carving up territory, are completely incapable of making any significant waves."

"Furthermore, the Imperial Jade Seal is still in the General's hands, and you have suffered continuous, successive blows from Mei Gan and Mount Tianzhu..." The envoy spoke eloquently and fluently.

"And from your Lujiang as well," Huang Yi interjected with a deadpan remark.

"Uh..." The envoy's face flushed red. Huang Yi really had a rather obnoxious mouth. He continued:

"The safety of both the General and Your Majesty causes my lord great concern."

"Therefore, my lord wishes to welcome the General and the others to Lujiang."

How could Li Yin possibly believe his ghost stories? He demanded sternly:

"Then what is the purpose of your attacking Jiangting? Why not directly send someone to negotiate peace?"

The envoy was well-prepared and said with absolute confidence:

"To not keep it from Your Majesty, my lord is about to take Haihun and Shangliao, requiring a swift advance. Fearing that the General and the others might be unwilling to go to Lujiang, he had no choice but to resort to force..." The envoy was quite adept at fabricating lies. However, the situation was completely reversed; it was obviously because they saw it was practically impossible to crush their morale that they were suing for peace.

After waking up and hearing everyone holding a secret discussion in the tent, Li Miao had come over and happened to catch this exact speech by the envoy.

A shock ran through Li Miao's heart. Haihun and Shangliao—if he remembered correctly, Lujiang's Wancheng eventually seemed to belong to Sun Ce, and Liu Xun apparently lost Lujiang's home base to Sun Ce and Zhou Yu precisely because he went off to attack Haihun and Shangliao.

Li Miao suddenly woke up with a start. Wasn't this a fantastic opportunity created for him? If he could occupy Lujiang, wouldn't he have a place to develop?

Li Miao only then realized that he had already been in this world for several months, yet he hadn't even properly studied what was going to happen.

He possessed foreknowledge! Even though minor details might change—such as Taishi Ci following Liu Xun—the grand trend would not change. Sun Ce would beat Liu Xun like a dog just as he was supposed to.

For some reason, Li Miao suddenly remembered that those legendary beauties, Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao, seemed to be from Lujiang as well. What if he could get Taishi Ci into his grasp...

Driven by his baser instincts—no, his blood boiling with passion—Li Miao strode right into the tent, grabbed the envoy by the neck, and demanded:

"What are your terms?"

Looking at Li Miao's fierce, wolf-like gaze, the envoy remained unyielding and said:

"We require you to renounce your status as the fake emperor."

Li Miao naturally understood that this meant they wanted his jade seal. Hesitating slightly, whenever Li Miao thought of a problem difficult to resolve, he would think of his omnipotent Nokia 50.

He thought of the Alibaba app boasting "zero dead ends" on it.

With a twitch of his mouth, Li Miao let go, dropped the envoy back onto the ground, dusted off the wrinkles on his grabbed clothes, and said excitedly:

"Isn't it just the Imperial Jade Seal! I'll give it to you. I want to go to Lujiang; go back immediately and prepare, quickly!"

With his grand enterprise imminent, Li Miao was too excited to conceal his appearance.

The envoy looked at this Li Miao and was completely dumbfounded.

The people in the Jiangting tent were also dumbfounded. Huang Yi touched his own head and muttered, "He doesn't have a fever, does he?"

Li Miao was dancing around with joy by himself, displaying the majesty of an emperor to the fullest.

"Lujiang! We must go!"

Everyone swallowed hard, suddenly feeling that this Li Miao might perhaps be a fake...

Inside the large tent, you could practically hear a pin drop.

The sudden turn of events had completely disrupted the peace talks. Originally, everyone thought that upon hearing the envoy's terms, Li Miao would drag this messenger outside and execute him.

Yet, Li Miao's bizarre antics left everyone speechless.

If it were earlier, Li Miao really would have dragged this envoy out for execution. But this messenger had not only pointed out a smooth highway leading to fierce generals, beauties, and dominion over the realm for Li Miao, but had also made Li Miao understand a principle: since he possessed a millennium of foreknowledge, why not use the knowledge of the empire's grand trends?

Moreover, before the tripartite division, this history could not be changed too drastically—this was a truth Li Miao finally understood after living here for so long.

Since Li Miao had spoken with absolute finality, the peace talks concluded, and the matter came to a temporary close. The envoy returned in high spirits to report the good news to Liu Xie.

After the envoy left, Li Yin finally could no longer hold back. But the current Li Yin no longer dared to look down upon Li Miao with disdain as he used to; after all, Li Miao's abilities were right there for everyone to see.

"Your Majesty, is this move of yours a bit too abrupt?"

Li Miao was still immersed in his beautiful daydream. Hearing Li Yin's words without catching them clearly, he chuckled uncontrollably to himself and said:

"Abrupt? Very abrupt."

Li Yin's face instantly shifted, turning a livid green. Huang Yi, watching from the side, felt a sense of sorrow for Li Yin's complexion.

Li Yin was just about to flare up. From his perspective, Li Miao giving away Jiangting with such irresponsibility and being willing to go to Lujiang to be someone else's underling completely betrayed the late emperor's expectations. Furthermore, this prodigal son actually wanted to give away the imperial seal?

If it was to be given away, it should at least be given to Li Shao.

The more Li Yin thought about it, the angrier he became. Although he had been puzzled earlier as to why Liu Xun wanted the jade seal, seeing Li Miao's silly grin made the towering expectations that had previously risen in Li Yin's heart collapse with a resounding crash. This Li Miao was just as incorrigibly mediocre; having good martial prowess at best only earned you a marquisate!

In Li Yin's heart, what was a mere marquis worth?

"Humph!" Furious, Li Yin flicked his sleeves and stormed out. Seeing Li Yin's reaction, Li Miao was stunned at first, and then realized this was because he had disappointed Li Yin.

Li Miao took a few steps forward, blocking Li Yin's path, and said:

"It's not abrupt, absolutely not abrupt! Rest assured, Uncle."

Knowing that the Lujiang envoy had already left, Li Miao's trust in his subordinates—who had stayed by his side and never abandoned him during his moments of peril—went without saying. Placing one hand on Li Yin's shoulder, Li Miao turned to look at the bewildered crowd still caught in a daze, and proclaimed with a voice like a booming bell:

"I am a man of my word! Listen well, all of you: within half a year, I shall make Lujiang change hands!"

At this moment, Li Miao was no longer the fake emperor in other people's eyes, nor did he need to conceal his ambition. Since he was in this underworld-like army, if he wanted to survive, it was certainly not by compromising and submitting, but by step-by-step expansion.

Yet given the current situation, he was utterly unable to cross Jingzhou to develop in Hanzhong, and he was currently besieged on all sides. Right at this juncture, Lujiang had presented itself.

Steady, accurate, and ruthless!

Li Miao did not want to be consumed, so he was going to consume others! The lingering aura of Li Miao's regal dominance still filled the tent. With a wave of his sleeve, Li Miao decided to go check out what subsequent developments awaited him. As for history and such things, Li Miao was truly no academic prodigy.

However, your lord here has a cool Nokia. What can you do to me?

Li Miao was already deeply infatuated with his Nokia. Was this a bullshit gadget? No, this was a divine artifact!

Li Miao quickly returned to his room, leaving everyone else dumbfounded.

Even Li Yin and Yang Hong believed that His Majesty was joking. But His Majesty's earlier speech was enough to show that he had not lost his drive. Li Yin was relieved.

Thinking of his own sense of powerlessness just now, Li Yin knew Jiangting could not develop. This place was surrounded by enemies on all sides, driven into a corner, and because of Li Miao's identity, he could not temporarily defect to someone else and then plot independence later.

"His Majesty is no Liu Bei," Li Yin thought to himself.

A fake emperor versus a legitimate scion of the Han imperial house—their status simply could not compare.

"So be it. Let him forge his own path. If we stay trapped in this Jiangting, we'll sooner or later be suffocated to death," Li Yin muttered inwardly.

Without further ado, Li Miao decided to buy a jade seal first. Opening the Taobao app, he searched for an imperial jade seal, but Li Miao didn't know which model it was. There was no helping that. After pondering for a moment, Li Miao recalled that during the Han dynasty, the imperial jade seal had one corner chipped off and was later repaired with gold. Based on this clue, he quickly purchased a counterfeit.

"Are you there?" Li Miao opened the customer service chat and began chatting with the customer service representative on the other side.

"I'm here! Handsome, what kind of divine item do you need?"

"I want to buy a few imperial jade seals to play with."

"A few?" The customer service representative on the other side was clearly quite shocked.

Li Miao mentally tallied them up: apart from the real one in his own hands, there were also Cao Cao, the Han Emperor, Sun Ce (Sun Quan), Big-Eared Liu, Liu Biao... Forget it, I won't count anymore.

Li Miao typed directly:

"Well... let's start with twenty of them."