Battle Royale of the Sinners

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.

<<Ding>>

<<Your [Virtues] have a following chance to awaken>>

<<[Chastity] 2.35%>>

<<[Diligence] 17.42%>>

<<[Humility] …>>

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.

<<[Diligence] 17.65%>>

"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!