Next morning .

  Liu Bei and his brothers had been treated by their army physicians last night . Everybody rested in their tent .

  Guan Yu sat alone in his tent, staring at the steel blade that was stolen from Tong and contemplating the battle yesterday . He noticed that Tong did not use his blinking magic again after he had displayed it . The same applied to the black weapon he used to kill Zhang Fei’s horse .

  ’There’s a limit in his magic . He’s not that omnipotent as the rumor said . But his martial art and speed are better than mine . If it weren’t because of Yide, I would have been punched to death!’

  ’And there’s also the things he said when he provoked Yide ……’

  Guan Yu did not 100% believe in everything Tong said yesterday, but a part of it made sense .

  People suffered from harsh taxes before Liu Ping took the throne . The bad harvest last year also devastated the peasants, which made them more miserable than the usual . It was natural for them to flock with a lord who was willing to help them .

  Zhang Jiao might be one of the kind lords who extended his hands toward these poor civilians, but Liu Ping branded him as a traitor instead .

  Conflicted feeling swelled in Guan Yu’s heart as he could not find an answer he was looking for by himself .

  ’Is taking up arms with Xuande the right answer?’

  ’No, I’ve sworn that I’ll get through this with my brothers! I won’t change my mind!’

  Guan Yu closed his eyes and reviewed his fight, trying to improve his martial arts . .

  Jiang Man, who managed to scrape for his life, also sat in cross legs inside his tent, cultivating his mind .

  There were bandages that covered his left face as his left eye was damaged . Though the empty left eye socket hurt, his mind was calm .

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  The angelic power that Jiang Man was cultivating was different than what Tong had gone through . As the opposite of the [Sins], angels had to accumulate good deeds and righteous mind to increase the chance to awaken their wings .

  It looked easier than getting the demonic cultivation method, but it had a significant drawback .

  An angel could try to awaken each [Virtue] only once in a lifetime, which the same rules applied to Jiang Man . Should he fail, he would not be able to obtain a wing from the [Virtue] that he tried to awaken .

  For example, had he tried to awaken his [Diligence] and failed, the [Diligence] would have been deleted from his soul, and he could not reattempt to awaken [Diligence] again forever .

  Therefore, instead of getting rid of the [Sins] by reducing the chance to take over the host’s body, Jiang Man had to increase all his [Virtue] to 100% before he could attempt to make a breakthrough .

  In the system menu, Jiang Man had 7 virtues, which was the opposite of the 7 sins . As he sat and meditated, his [Diligence] percentage increased every minute passed .

  7 A . M .

  Liu Bei visited Jiang Man’s tent to deliver him breakfast . Seeing that Jiang Man was sitting cross-legs, Liu Bei smiled .

  "Little Jiang, have you gotten better?"

  Jiang Man opened his eyes and glanced at this status menu .

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  \r \r \r

  "I’m alright . It’s just a couple of arrow wounds . No big deal . "

  "Good . I’ve brought you breakfast . You should eat first . We’ll continue marching in an hour . "

  "What about Zhang Tong and the Yellow Turban? Do you have the scout report?"

  Liu Bei narrowed his eyes for a moment, but he returned to his smiling face, "They’re gone . Yesterday, they regrouped with their men at the north of Ji City and withdrew south . I think they’re returning to Zhongshan . "

  Jiang Man sighed, pitying that Tong had retreated . Without Tong, Jiang Man had to find another otherworlder to kill or attempt to get rid of Tong again in the future .

  ’Or, I can awaken my first 2 wings . Then, I can absorb life essence from the surrounding and pay the fine to cancel my quest . ’

  Lilim had given him another bonus . Jiang Man could cancel her mission with a condition . Jiang Man had to pay one million lifespans to the system as a fine for terminating the quest .

  It sounded absurd and expensive at a glance, but Jiang Man knew that it was not that unreasonable .

  In the note that Lilim had given him, there were details about how he could utilize his angelic wings to acquire lifespans and examples of things and lifespans they had .

  A 100-year-old grown tree could generate over a thousand years of lifespans if Jiang Man could absorb it, which there were plenty of such trees in this era in this country . Absorbing the life essence from a living 20-year-old adult could also give Jiang Man 30 to 70 years, depending on the health and the upbringing of the victim .

  "That’s good . We have to gather more men before we can fight that monster," Suggested Jiang Man, "But what about Zou Jing’s remaining army? I heard Zou Jing is already dead . "

  Liu Bei smiled, "I’ve become their temporary commander, so we have the control of the entire army . "

  "What? How? I thought there were many nobles in the army?"

  "Hahaha! They’ve fled the moment Zou Jing was killed . I’m the only volunteer commander remaining . Besides, Yide and Yunchang did well in the last battle . They drove that monster Zhang Tong away with their prowess! You, too . Everyone is talking that you’ve used your stratagem to trap Zhang Tong, and all soldiers respect us!"

  Jiang Man scratched his head, "I did nothing actually . I only suggested a tactic to stop Zhang Tong’s cavalry charge . "

  "Yes, that’s the good stratagem you did! Thanks to you, we all have survived! Thank you . "

  Liu Bei smiled as he held Jiang Man’s hands . His face and his words sounded sincere, but Jiang Man felt that Liu Bei was acting .

  ’As expected from the famous [Pretender], he’s good at acting . If I were a native, I would have thought that Liu Bei was being naïve or sincere!’

  ’But, doesn’t he know that he’s acting kind of gay!?’ ……

  March 13th .

  Zhongshan City, 500 meters in front of Zhongshan eastern wall .

  Liu Yan Army, which was led by Yan Yan, stationed in twenty 1000-men square formations . Five hundred trebuchets and spike barricades were arranged in front of their formation . Twenty thousand men of their soldiers remained from the initial 30,000 after a month of the prolonged siege attempt .

  Zhang Bao, Zhang Liang, Bo Cai, and Zhen Yi did their best to protect the city . As the Zhang brothers had baptized in the battle at Anping with Guo Dian force, they utilized the trebuchets and their repeating crossbows well .

  With the newly recruited militias from the city and Zhen Yi’s private army support, they did not worry about their number of archers .

  As a result, Yan Yan and Liu Yan were intimidated by the solid defensive wall and archers . They decided to trade trebuchet projectiles instead of sieging directly to avoid the deadly repeating crossbow arrows .

  The stalemate lasted until today as a piece of news changed everything .

  "Zou Jing is dead?"

  The scout of Yuan Shao reported their intelligence in place of Liu Yan’s scouts as they were faster . However, that was not important . The critical news that shocked Liu Yan was the defeat of Zou Jing .

  "How is Ji City?"

  "Reporting, Zhang Tong didn’t take the city . His army is withdrawing back to Zhongshan at the moment . We are expecting him to arrive here in a day or two . "

  Liu Yan’s face paled . Sweat droplets could be seen on his face as he got nervous after losing his close aide .

  Yan Yan gazed at the wall of Zhongshan city and shook his head .

  "Let’s retreat, my lord . If Zou Jing can’t handle Zhang Tong and a few thousand men, I doubt we can take the city with Zhang Tong defending it . "

  "Retreat to Ji? Will it be safe? Now that Zou Jing is dead, I think most of my elites would have been dead . Our military power is crippled!"

  "No, my lord . We will not go back to Ji . We should head back to our homeland and solidify our power while we hide from all conflicts . "

  Liu Yan widened his eyes as he was enlightened, but he frowned in a few seconds after .

  "Then, who will take care of Ji City? I don’t have anyone I can entrust the governor role . "

  "We don’t have to . I think Gongsun Zan will move into the city sooner or later . Even if we send a letter to Liu Yu in the Capital to give this city to him, he will eventually fight with Gongsun Zan and lose the city regardless . "

  "I see," Liu Yan paused, "Send my order . We’re going to move to Chengdu! It’s going to be a long journey so those who don’t want to come with us, they can join forces with Yuan Shao . Messenger, I hope that Lord Yuan Shao can provide us some supplies in exchange for the service from some of our soldiers . Please deliver my message . "

  The scout bowed and left .

  Liu Yan gazed at Zhongshan City with complicated eyes .

  He muttered, "A pity . I’ve heard Zhen Yi’s daughters are beautiful . I failed to make them my concubines . "

  Yan Yan heard it, but he pretended not to hear it . He followed after his master and organized his men to leave the territory . ……

  March 14th .

  Tong returned to the city with a paled face . Although Zhang Bao reported that Liu Yan canceled the siege in the clan chat, Tong still rushed back as soon as possible .

  3,000 Men survived from the fight with Zou Jing and Liu Bei’s brothers . Only a bit over a thousand men died in the battle .

  As for the rest of the men, they had retreated back to Zhongshan long ago .

  "Welcome back, young master Zhang . "

  The bootlicker, Zhen Yi, stood in front of the north gate to welcome Tong .

  "Thank you, Sir Zhen . Please provide my men with a place to rest and get me a fresh horse . I’ll continue my journey to Julu . "

  "Won’t you rest in the city?" Zhen Yi was puzzled .

  Tong had a wry smile on his face, "No, I have to head back to Julu and help the others . I don’t have time to rest . "

  "Eh?"

  The baffled Zhen Yi had a frown on his face as he did not understand why Tong was in a hurry .

  Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang, who came out to receive Tong as well, nodded as they understood the reason .

  In the clan chat, the situation in Julu was not optimistic . Despite having Lu Bu, Jia Xu, Zhang Liao, and Li Feihong together, they were facing tough foes like Wen Chou, Yan Liang, and Tian Feng .

  Lu Bu’s monstrous strength was countered by the duo, Wen Chou and Yan Liang .

  The Gao family, Feng Ji, and an unknown strategist under Yuan Shao were keeping Li Feihong, Zhang Liao, and Gao Shun at bay .

  Lu Zhi, Zhou Cang, Xu Huang, and Jia Xu were also in a stalemate with Yuan Shao’s main army and Tian Feng .

  In the detail reports in the clan chat, they had the disadvantage in both number and weaponry .

  The reason for their inability to defeat Yuan Shao despite the quality of Tong’s generals were Yuan Shao’s new weapons .

  Tian Feng’s had copied Tong’s repeating crossbows, which all of Yuan Shao troops were sporting these crossbows as well .

  Moreover, they had something that Tong had planned to research, but he did not have enough time or manpower to do it .

  They had gunpowders!