Battle Royale of the Sinners

A long line of caravans departed from Julu, heading west. They were a mixed group of merchants, bodyguards, and relocating peasants from Julu City. Their destination was Jinyang.

Among the crowd, one man stood out from the rest because of his gigantic red warhorse.

Lu Bu rode alone while his hired workers drove his wagons from behind. Within the wagons, they carried Lu Bu's boxes of gold, silk, and treasures that he bought from Julu. He planned to give them to his wife and daughter at Jinyang.

'With these gold, I'll retire from this crap. I'm done.'

Lu Bu was discouraged by the recent conflict with Tong. He lost all motivation since he had realized that Tong had stolen all of his soldiers and subordinates.

Fortunately, Julu still paid Lu Bu for his troubles, which eased his stress. Or else, he would have rebelled and killed Zhang Jiao a long time ago.

While Lu Bu was riding, no one dared to approach him. Everyone kept their distance from this god of war.

Several days passed since their departure, Lu Bu grew bored by the idleness. Out of habit, he looked around, searching for something to kill times.

After scanning through the crowd of strangers for several minutes, his eyes stopped at two familiar individuals.

'Aren't those guys Yuan Shao's men?'

The two men were Qu Yi and Gao Lan, the former generals under Yuan Shao.

The two generals submitted to Tong and Zhang Jiao. They agreed to switch side and moved to Shangdang along with their families, who had escaped from Nanpi before Tian Feng could kill them.

Qu Yi and Gao Lan's expression did not belong to the losers of the war. Instead, they were smiling and chatting among themselves.

Zhang Jiao and Sima Fang gave them 3-months worth of salary as a welcome gift for joining them, which delighted the generals. Although they had to move away from the prosperous city of Julu to the border city, they did not mind it since their families were safe and the future of Tong's faction was promising.

They could see that this army was stronger than Yuan Shao by miles.

"Oi, you two!"

Hearing the haughty voice, Qu Yi and Gao Lan stopped talking and looked into the direction of the oncoming person.

Upon seeing Lu Bu, they flinched.

Qu Yi stuttered, "L-L-Lu Bu? Sir, I meant, Lord Lu Bu. What are you doing here in this caravan?"

"That's my question! What are you two doing here? Aren't you from Yuan Shao Army?"

Gao Lan and Qu Yi looked at each other and chuckled before they covered their mouth.

"W-We're sorry, sir! W-We have surrendered to young master Zhang, and we have been assigned to Shangdang City, sir!"

Lu Bu frowned upon hearing Tong's name.

'It's that brat again! What's so good about him!? Why is everyone joining him? Why are they laughing? I did my best for my men for years, but I've never seen them smiled or laughed like that. Why!?'

The face of Lu Bu distorted. He placed his right hand on his trembling left arm before he left.

Though his face reddened from anger, his eyes saddened. They were the eyes of someone who was on the verge of crying. The upper teeth of Lu Bu chomped down on his lower lips, digging into the flesh.

'I can't kill Zhang Tong with my strength. I can't match him with my intelligence. My charisma is even inferior to him. FOOk! He even has immortal power and an ideal wife, while I have … only Yan'er and Lingqi.'

The face of a gentle wife and a cute little baby appeared in Lu Bu's mind, which softened his expression.

'I'm tired of fighting. I'll live with my family …'

Lu Bu had not noticed yet that he had several white hairs despite his age.

…

…

May 4th.

Lu Bu returned to Jinyang with his luggage and wagons. He went straight to his home without greeting his foster father, Ding Yuan, first.

When Lu Bu found his wife, he had a rare smile on his face.

"I'm home."

Lu Bu's wife turned around and smiled back, "Welcome home, dear. Wow, you seem older by several years. What happened?"

"Someone betrayed me. But that's not important. Look what I've brought back for you and Lingqi!"

…

Ding Yuan sat inside the government hall, gazing at the messenger who had just given him a piece of news.

"Fengxian has returned …"

Ding Yuan did not seem happy. On the contrary, his grumpy face revealed that he did not like his son as it was before. Because of the influence of the clan chat, Ding Yuan believed that Lu Bu caused a scene and was chased back home as a punishment.

"Did he do anything after he left Julu?"

"No, sir. We saw him chatted with the surrendered generals of Yuan Shao, but he didn't do anything particularly."

"Well, that's good. You can leave."

Ding Yuan leaned back, thinking about his adopted son's actions.

'This is pathetic, Fengxian. You have been the top of the food chain for all your life. But the moment you suffered a few setbacks, you fell apart like a loser. How can I entrust you with this governor position if you can't even get back up from a simple failure.'

…

…

Meanwhile, Tong, Friday, and all soldiers returned to Julu as there was no point stationing on Anping anymore. Thus, he withdrew all his troops to rest in the city to boost their morale.

Besides, these soldiers obtained wealth from the monthly wages. He had to give them some time to spend their wealth in the city to circulate the money around.

Upon entering the city, Hua Shi and others came to welcome them back home.

Hua Shi and He Xing stood side by side with their child in their arms. They seemed to get along better when Tong was away.

Liu Xie pointed his little finger at Tong, "Fudge Lord!"

The crowd laughed by the signature random words from Liu Xie. He Xing's face reddened from the embarrassment, but no one minded it.

Hua Shi took her time, showing her baby to Tong. Everybody watched them with a warm gaze as the picture of a pair of young parents were carrying and talking with their daughter.

Half an hour later, Tong returned Zhang Min to Hua Shi, so he could work.

Knowing that the playtime was over, Hua Shi stepped back and stood by the side of He Xing.

Sima Fang bowed to Tong and informed his important business first, "Young master, our granaries are running low on supplies. We need your help as soon as possible."

"I know. I'll be right there."

"Tong, what are we going to do with the two edicts from Dong Zhuo and Diao Chan?"

With Sima Fang's lead, Zhang Jiao also changed his mood from a doting father into a workaholic.

"Prepare 100,000 stones of dry food and send them to Xuchang. Write to them that this is our tribute to the new Empress and apologize for the troubles that we have caused. Also, tell them that the Yellow Turban will be disbanded. However, we need to maintain our authority in our cities in exchange for the submission and they could not command us to do their bidding or imposing a figurehead upon our cities."

"Wait, disband the Yellow Turban?" Zhang Jiao widened his eyes in disbelief.

"Yes. You heard me right. We will pretend to swear allegiance to the new Empress since we can't suddenly announce that we want to establish another country on top of the previous Han Dynasty. If we do that, we'll become the 4th force and everyone will see us as rebels like Dong Zhuo."

Zhang Jiao nodded, "Right, Jia Xu said we have to rest to stabilize our domestic. We can't afford another war."

Sima Fang's eyes lit up as he was delighted by the plan of father and son. He coughed, "So, will we take a resting period to recuperate from the previous wars?"

Tong gestured everyone to quicken to pace and enter the inner city area. He did not want to talk out loud in the open.

When Tong and everyone got inside the private area where only officials resided, he continued.

"Jia Xu has merged Jinyang and Julu armies as one. It will take some time until the reformation is completed. Te Langpu should have told you about the reformation, right? Work with him and develop our cities. Jia Xu and I set the deadline for the development to three years, so use these three years to reinforce everything that needs to be done! After the three years, we'll probably be dragged into a war of the three monarchies. By that time, we have to be ready for another rapid expansion since we'll probably declare independent from the Empress."

Sima Fang and Zhang Jiao got motivated. They began discussing the future plan of Julu City and other affiliate cities, debating what policy they could enhance.

Meanwhile, He Xing stared at Tong in a daze.

When He Xing reached puberty, she was sent to the royal harem as one of the Emperor's concubines. For a decade, she could not see any man, but the ugly Emperor and old eunuchs. Only the times when she became the Empress, she could attend meetings with ministers and nobles. However, they were old men as well.

After she ran away from Luo Yang and traveled with Yuan Shao forces, she could finally see young men. But because of her status and as a mother, she abandoned her emotion and interest in the opposite sex, knowing that she would eventually be used by Yuan Shao.

Now, He Xing witnessed Tong at work, which the serious face of an 18-year-old teenager with smooth skin and toned body attracted her.

The charm of a young alpha male aroused her instinct which made her mouth dried.

He Xing could not keep her eyes away from Tong. Her mouth failed to close, and her face got redder than the usual.

The stare of He Xing did not escape the eyes of Hua Shi.

Hua Shi's face twitched as she detected the emerging threat of her love life. A wave of swelling anger budded in her heart, and the auto-system warning alarmed her at the same time.

<<Warning, you have fallen into negative emotion>>

<<Your [Love] has been weakened>>

<<Your [Patience] has been weakened>>

'What!?'

Hua Shi gulped and stopped what she was thinking.

'Oh my god! I got jealous for a moment, and they are weakened? To awaken a wing, do I have to live my life like a saint!?'

She wanted to scream. Thinking back when Lilim offered her the angelic path, Hua Shi felt like she was conned.

'SHIIIIIIIEEEETTTT!!! I shouldn't have chosen this path!'

There was a reason why angels picked only good souls with positive karma to heaven. Their nature and their personality would not get in the way of their wing-awakening, so they could obtain wings and acquire power without much guidance. However, those who were corrupted would find it difficult to walk along the angelic path.

Hua Shi was suffering the consequence of walking the righteous path with a corrupted mind.