Battle Royale of the Sinners

A messenger walked into the military camp of Sun Jian in the county. He dressed in an official green robe, but he was treated as if he was a royal eunuch.

"Sun Jian of Xiapi, accept the royal mandate of Heaven!"

Without confirming the identity of Sun Jian, the green robe messenger bellowed.

Sun Fang, Li Jing, and Huang Gai frowned upon seeing the man, wondering what this new empress was planning for them.

Huang Gai pretended to be Sun Jian. He knelt down and cupped his fist, "I'm Sun Jian of Xiapi! May the Empress live a long and prosper life!"

The messenger nodded, "Good! Sun Jian of Xiapi, you've contributed greatly for eliminating the bandit lord Zhang Yan. We have heard about your bravery and your leadership, and we judged that you are wasting your talent as a commander under a noble family!"

"Right now, several bandits claimed to be a part of the Yellow Turbans, which they appeared everywhere in our country. Currently, the Jing Province lacks a talented man to lead the troops against the rebelling bandits. You will be assigned as the Governor of Changsha in Jing Province. We want you to lead them and get rid of all the threats in the southern regions!"

"As a compensation, your family status will be raised as an official aristocrat family. Your surname [Sun] will be listed in our Imperial ranks!"

"Accept your edict!"

The green robe man passed the edict scroll and a seal to Huang Gai, who received them with cringed expression.

…

The messenger left without staying over for a night. It was as if he was running away from them or was rushed because of something.

Meanwhile, Huang Gai, Li Jing, and Sun Fang reread the scroll in disbelieved.

Huang Gai laughed as he thought that all the past works had borne fruits. On the contrary, Li Jing and Sun Fang narrowed their eyes and looked at each other.

"Someone is trying to interfere with our fight?" Li Jing muttered.

"It's more like the Empress is trying to correct the historical events and send my father south as in history," Whispered Sun Fang.

Huang Gai heard the mumbling voice from the two, "What are you two whispering about?"

Sun Fang panicked, but Li Jing answered it in his stead, "We think this empress is kind of fishy. It's as if she didn't want us to fight the Yellow Turban main forces."

"Our spies from the west said Dong Zhuo has already taken over Luo Yang. I think this is a fake edict," Sun Fang supported.

Huang Gai scratched his head, "Leave the politic matters to the adults. I'll tell everything to our Lord with the chat."

Huang Gai input everything that happened to Cheng Pu and Sun Jian in the chat. He received a reply from his lord in a few seconds.

Sun Jian: Go back to Ganling first. We don't need to fight them for now.

Wu Guotai: Are you alright, dear?

Sun Jian: I'm fine. They're treating me well.

Sun Jian: None of you should be worrying about me.

Cheng Pu: I'll return in a few days. Please take care, my lord.

At this moment, Li Jing, who had been absentminded, recalled something important. She rechecked her system logs as she wanted to confirm the information that she had remembered.

"Everyone, there's something important. I'll input everything in the clan chat," Spoke Li Jing.

Afterward, she typed everything in the system logs into the chat. They were the details about Xiao Wu's weaknesses that she had detected by using her deleted skill [Weakness Detection].

All details about Friday's secret were listed and shocked everyone in the clan chat.

"She's Dong Bai!? How? I thought she was only a little girl!" Baffled Huang Gai.

Sun Fang, on the other hand, had a pale face when he found out that Friday was an ex-demoness from Hell.

"She's … not just a reincarnator? She was a demon?"

"Fang, I want you to focus on the later part. It's about the demonic contract and the Lust Soul."

"This … I don't understand at all."

Nobody could understand the demonic contract or the Lust Soul parts in the details.

'System, or Lilim if you are free, can you explain or tell us about this?' Li Jing asked Lilim in her mind, hoping to get an answer from the goddess herself.

[For this sensitive information, I want 1,000,000 Lifespans donation to the central pool.]

[Nothing is free from me, Hahahaha!]

"…"

Li Jing's face was black as she glanced at Sun Fang. It seemed that they still had a long way before they could match with the Yellow Turban forces.

…

March 1st.

Cheng Pu returned to Guanzong after he demolished five bandit gangs of 1,000 men each in the area. He glared at Sun Fang and Li Jing in anger as he was still unsatisfied with the result of the battle against Xiao Wu.

Cheng Pu calmed down a minute later as he knew that it was not their fault.

"What do you think about the empress decree?" Huang Gai asked Cheng Pu.

"I don't even know that there's a successor of the throne. But since she is willing to give a title for our Lord, why should we refuse it?"

"Hahaha! Indeed. A title is better than an empty ideal. It's a pity that we can't win against the real Yellow Turban forces. We will take it on the imposters after we move there."

"Did we lose that bad? I thought they were outnumbered and only had two reliable officers in their army."

Huang Gai bit his lower lips, "Yellow Turbans and their immortals are not simple."

Huang Gai told Cheng Pu about Xiao Wu's power, the female ghost, and the repeating crossbows that destroyed their 5,000-men task force.

"They had a breakthrough in the arts of war, by what you meant."

"Yes. Their war-tools are better than ours."

A lot of homework was waiting for them as they needed to understand the technology of the new repeating crossbow model if they wanted to wage war with the Yellow Turban Army again.

"For now, let's retreat to Ganling and get our lord back first."

Cheng Pu opened the system menu and typed to the clan chat to ask for Sun Jian's status.

Later that day, the retreat order was announced to the army which upset the nobles who mobilized soldiers to help them. They protested to threaten them that they would revolt.

Upon knowing that the new Empress had declared Sun Jian as Changsha Governor, they changed their stance and tried to get on Huang Gai and Cheng Pu's good side instead.

Both generals were annoyed by their hypocrisy. Thus, they chased the noble forces away, leaving them with soldiers from their Sun family.

Meanwhile, Sun Fang was sitting cross-legs in his tent, cultivating to obtain as many lifespans as possible.

Sweat drops, green blood vessels, and sagged eyes could be seen on his face as he was exhausted from the non-stop cultivating session. He had been sitting still for two days without sleep or food.

"Fang, you should rest for today. It's enough for now," Li Jing hugged Sun Fang from behind, soothing Sun Fang's mood.

Sun Fang opened his eyes and leaned on his wife. He exhaled, breathing out his stress.

"I can only get 10,000 lifespans a day if I cultivate for an entire day. Getting a million is going to take long."

Li Jing kissed the cheek of Sun Fang, "It's a good gain. It means that you can casually get 5,000 lifespans a day if you cultivate it for 12 hours. We should take it easy this year."

"But I'm worried about your quest."

Li Jing laughed, "As I said, we're ok. We have many years to complete this quest. Besides, I have asked Lilim, and she said I have to pay her a million lifespan to cancel it. So we have a lot of leeway on this."

"We're weaker than them, and we're out-teched. I think we'll have to focus on our war technologies."

"Of course. Well, since the empress is doing us a favor by giving us a city and times. We should start thinking about developing our bases and give science to the natives."

"How about gunsmithing?"

"We can do that. But since we are going along with the trend of historical events, I think we should start drafting warship blueprints. The Sun family is destined to conquer the southeast of China, so we should start aiming for seafaring."

…

…

March 14th.

Scout teams, which was dispatched to watch Guanzong, returned and reported to Friday.

"Report! Sun Jian Army has withdrawn from Guanzong. They are moving toward Ganling!"

Xun Yu listened to the report and glanced at Friday, who was leaning on a chair and placing her feet on the strategic table. Her expression was calm and relaxed as if she knew that it would happen.

Xun Yu was shocked when Friday returned with the hostage, Sun Jian. He had no choice but believe in the absurd phrase "Facing the absolute strength, strategies and tactics are meaningless."

"My lady, I'll report this in the clan chat," Spoke Xun Yu.

"Ah, please do."

"Will you release Sun Jian right away?"

"No, I'll keep him until they leave Ganling. They're the descendants of Sun Tzu. We can't trust them."

The scout messenger glanced at the two, thinking if he should continue his reports.

Noticing the fidgeting messenger, Xun Yu asked, "What's wrong? Is there more report?"

"Yes, sir! It's a rumor within Sun Jian Army. Many soldiers were gossiping that Sun Jian has received an edict from the new Empress. He is promoted as the new Governor of Changsha."

Friday stood up and stared at the messenger with widened eyes.

"Changsha? Changsha Commandery in Jing Province?"

"Y-Yes, my lady!"

Murderous intent exploded out from Friday, and the menacing air enveloped the entire tent.

Friday predicted that if Sun Jian were to go to Changsha as in the other world's historical event, the Sun Family would rise to power. Then, Sun Ce and Sun Quan would also expand their forces with the help of capable officers from the south, such as Zhou Yu, Zhang Zhao, Zhang Hong, Gan Ning, or many others.

Sun Jian should not rise to power, or Tong would have troubles in the future.

"Xun Yu, take several strong men to Sun Jian and kill him."

"I'm sorry, my lady. We cannot!"

Despite the shock of the sudden order, Xun Yu refused her without hesitation.

"Kill him, or I'll kill you."

"That's impossible, my lady. Killing him will give us a bad reputation. You've promised them that you will let him go once they retreat from Guanzong and Ganling. If you kill him now, Lord Zhang Jiao and your husband will be marked as untrustworthy traitors. You will soil their hard-earned reputation! People will shun them. All our neighbors will use Sun Jian's death as a pretext to mobilize more troops to attack us again! This time, it will be us against everyone in the country!"

Friday glared into the eyes of Xun Yu, who stared back despite the intimidation of the former 4-winged demoness.

Seeing the unyielding attitude of Xun Yu, Friday withdrew her killing intent.

"Report this to the clan chat. I want everybody else to know what happens on our battlefront."

Xun Yu sighed a relief, "Yes, my lady."

<<Ding>>

Before Xun Yu or Friday could send a message to the clan chat, a message came from Jia Xu.

"Are the battles in Ye or Zhongshan done? Can I have some reinforcement?"