Witch Wind

Chapter 419 Relentless Pursuit (Part 2)

Beneath the boundary marker, beside the long table.

Suddenly, a jade pendant with an ancient and simple design flew out from Jian Yong's sleeve. A very fine and clear voice came from the pendant, which was none other than Guan Yu's loud laughter. He was using a secret method to send a joyous message to all the civil and military officials of Shu Han: "Brothers, elder brother, the great path has been achieved!"

Jian Yong was stiff.

Ma Liang was stunned.

Zhang Bao, Zhang Zhu, Zhang Lan, and other generals were all dumbfounded on the spot.

After a while, all the officials of Shu Han cheered and jumped for joy. Some of the more unrestrained ones even took off their helmets and, like drunken bulls, spun and danced wildly in the air.

Sima Zhao stared dumbfounded at the Shu Han officials who had suddenly gone mad.

His face grew increasingly pale, and the dark circles under his eyes turned deathly white. His body was stiff, and cold sweat poured down his forehead. The officials of the Great Jin Dynasty around him were also ashen-faced, and many of them had their eyes unfocused.

They were all highly accomplished individuals, and the more accomplished they were, the more they understood the true meaning of a 'sage'.

Sima Zhao suddenly smiled, stood up, and rushed to Jian Yong, grabbing his hands in one swift motion. Sima Zhao's face flushed red, and his normally fierce and sinister triangular eyes abruptly transformed into watery, inexplicably passionate peach blossom eyes. He stared intently at Jian Yong and cried out with deep emotion, "General Xianhe, please heed my heartfelt words!"

"Sima Ping is my brother."

"We are deeply grateful to the gentlemen of Shu Han for their great kindness and virtue. They only captured him alive and did not mistreat him... Our Great Jin is truly grateful and overwhelmed with gratitude... If you want to exchange that good-for-nothing Sima Ping for something, just say the word."

“Our Great Jin can cede half of its territory, excluding the Wuyan Nebula, in exchange for Sima Ping’s return.”

"Naturally, Sima Ping is the son of my Sima clan. His small stature is not worth half the territory of my Great Jin... This extra star field is a gift from my Great Jin to Emperor Xuande for his advancement!"

Sima Zhao's face was as beautiful as a peach blossom, and his whole body exuded a kind of 'vulgar' slutty aura. He tightly gripped Jian Yong's hands and shouted at the top of his lungs, "General Xianhe, I have a younger sister named Diyi. Her beauty is beyond description. She is only fourteen years old, but she has already reached the Taiyi realm."

"Emperor Xuande, would you be so kind as to allow my little sister to serve you?"

Sima Zhao smiled radiantly, and her smile even carried a strong hint of allure.

Jian Yong, Ma Liang, Zhang Bao, and the others all shuddered – good heavens! Sima Zhao's ancestors were all dead! They would rather fight Sima Zhao to the death than see a Sima Zhao like this.

"Sima Zhao, let go!" Jian Yong shook his hands violently.

Sima Zhao's hand seemed glued to Jian Yong's, no matter how he shook it, it wouldn't budge. He gripped Jian Yong's hand tightly with great enthusiasm and said loudly, "General Xianhe, I have three concubine daughters, who are my new bloodline in the last hundred years... When I return, I will bestow upon them the title of princess."

Sima Zhao glanced at Jian Yong, Ma Liang, and Zhang Bao, and said with a grin, "Gentlemen, I am willing to give each of those three girls a dowry of a thousand habitable planets. I urge you three generals to accept them!"

Jian Yong was furious.

Ma Liang's face was twitching wildly.

Zhang Bao shouted hoarsely, "Sima Zhao, where is your face? Where is your face? Where is the face of your Sima clan?"

Zu Ti, Xie Xuan, and other generals of the Jin Dynasty blushed and covered their faces with their sleeves, but none of them offered any advice to Sima Zhao.

What advice should be given?
He advised Sima Zhao to stand up, rouse his masculine spirit, and lead the army of the Great Jin in a war of annihilation against Shu Han.
Nonsence!

This is clearly a game we can't win!
Let alone Liu Bei truly breaking through to the Saint Realm—even across this vast distance of billions of light-years, the terrifying pressure from Liu Bei's breakthrough had already made them weak all over, and they couldn't even unleash one ten-thousandth of their magical power.

Let's not even talk about true saints.

Take Sima Jin Dynasty for example. Before coming to this void, he had experienced dozens of worlds, large and small. In one of the large worlds, his entire dynasty was hunted down for eight thousand years by a 'beast' that had already stepped into the Saint Realm.

Eight thousand years have passed, and the once massive army of over a billion people in the Sima Jin Dynasty has been reduced to a mere eight million!
More than 990 million elite cultivators perished in eight thousand years of fleeing and running, including dozens of quasi-saint level elites.

That was merely a beast that had taken a half-step into the Saint Realm.

Liu Bei, on the other hand, truly and genuinely ascended to the rank of saint... There was no chance of a fight, absolutely no chance of a fight.

Unless that old fellow Sima Yi suddenly breaks through his current bottleneck like Liu Bei, Liu Bei could wipe out the entire Sima Jin Dynasty in an instant.

Back then, the Sima Jin dynasty was able to flee with their families.

This time, the descendants of various families are scattered across habitable planets, and it will take three to five years for them to come together... There are so many family members, so many relatives, so many officials and subordinates... and so much wealth.

It's impossible to escape without a century or more of planning and coordination!

A century?

If the sage Liu Bei truly wanted to destroy the Sima Jin Dynasty, even a hundred breaths would be far too long.

Sima Zhao smiled brightly, charmingly, and with an extremely alluring air. He offered Jian Yong a variety of conditions without uttering a word—he knew perfectly well that if he could persuade Jian Yong, even if his Sima Jin Dynasty suffered heavy losses, at least it wouldn't be in danger of extinction.

Jian Yong was a staunch confidant of Liu Bei when he first rose to power.

As for the Sima clan, they had no personal grudges with Shu Han or Liu Bei... cough cough, it was that silly boy Cao Pi who destroyed the Liu Han dynasty back then, and it had nothing to do with Sima Zhao.

"General Xianhe, I know of a top-secret path that bypasses more than a dozen treacherous passes and leads directly to the heartland of those scoundrels from Sun Wu... cough cough, this path was discovered by chance by some of my younger family members while they were out having a good time." Sima Zhao suddenly remembered something and hurriedly offered new conditions.

“Those Jiangdong rats have a blood feud with the Shu Han officials… If the Shu Han officials want to seek revenge against Sun Wu, my Sima family is willing to mobilize the entire nation’s army to be the vanguard!” Sima Zhao said to Jian Yong with utmost sincerity, “Those Jiangdong bastards have been disliked for eight million years.”

"It's settled then. We'll join forces and wipe them out... We won't take any territory. All of Sun Wu's territory will belong to Shu Han... Our Sima family is willing to be loyal subjects of Shu Han for all eternity!"

Jian Yong had an excellent temper.

Even the good-tempered Jian Yong was almost driven to rage by Sima Zhao's shamelessness.

He gave a dry laugh and said in a deep voice, "Your Majesty... cough cough... Duke Jin... cough cough... General... I cannot make the decision on what the General has said. Everything depends on the Lord's decision. Cough, cough cough!"

Sima Zhao's smile remained unchanged, still radiant, though his eyes dimmed slightly.

Well, just a moment ago he was 'Your Majesty,' then he was immediately demoted to his former title 'Duke of Jin,' and then, in another twist of fate, he couldn't even hold onto 'Duke of Jin' anymore, and was reduced to his former official position 'Grand General'... What a Jian Yong, truly, truly...

Sima Zhao's smile grew even brighter. He laughed and said, "I dare not accept the title of Grand General. If in the future, I have the opportunity to participate in the affairs of the Shu Han court, I will be content. Even if it is just a minor general, I will be happy to accept it!"

Ma Liang, Zhang Bao, and the others were speechless once again.

From Grand General Nen to a low-ranking general? That's a difference of at least seventy, eighty, or ninety ranks. Only someone from the Sima family would have the audacity to do something like that.
Just as Sima Zhao disregarded the dignity of a powerful warlord and forcibly tried to get close to Jian Yong.

Far from the Great Li Dynasty, in a starry sky that stands in a triangular formation opposite Cao Wei and Great Li, vast nebulae are scattered across the sky, dotted with habitable planets.

Unlike the Dali, Cao Wei, and Sima Jin dynasties, this star field contains nearly 120,000 habitable planets, all gathered in one place, naturally forming a spherical starry sky. In all directions, there are extremely chaotic torrents of stardust, filled with many terrifying natural dangers, where even a Great Luo Golden Immortal might perish.

The turbulent currents acted as a natural barrier, perfectly shielding this part of the starry sky. Only a few winding, narrow paths connected the inside and outside, allowing ships to travel back and forth.

This vast expanse of starry sky contains 120,000 habitable planets, each one remarkably large, boasting abundant climate, environment, minerals, and numerous natural resources—truly a land of natural riches. Even more astonishing is that each of these habitable planets is naturally surrounded by three to seventy or eighty resource planets. These resource planets contain various precious metal deposits, as well as various spirit gold and spirit crystals.

This is the territory of Sun Wu.

Among the four major powers that entered this world, only Sun Wu got lucky and stumbled upon this blessed land out of thin air.

If we were to rate the territories of the four powers, including their habitable and resource-rich planets, Sun Wu's natural resources would be several times richer than those of Dali, Cao Wei, and Sima Jin combined.

The territory of Sun Wu was the richest and most concentrated.

A vast and fertile land can naturally support the densest population.

Moreover, this part of the starry sky is only connected to the outside by a few narrow paths, making it a naturally easy place to defend and difficult to attack. In fact, because of the existence of natural barriers, if the civil and military officials of Sun Wu were to fight back, they would basically be the only ones who could launch an attack on the other three forces, while the other three forces would be unable to attack them at all.

However, millions of years have passed, and the Wu kingdom has remained steadfastly entrenched in this corner of the starry sky.

Occasionally, they would have some friction with Dali, Dajing controlled by Cao Wei, and even the Sima Jin Dynasty... But all along, Sun Wu was the one who was beaten down.

If it weren't for their exceptionally advantageous geographical location, who knows how badly Sun Wu would have been defeated and humiliated.

At the core of the vast star cluster, two enormous purple suns stand facing each other from afar.

Near each purple sun, there are twelve habitable planets with artificially planned orbits, slowly rotating around the sun... Upon closer inspection, these twenty-four planets are roughly similar in diameter, geography, the ratio of oceans and land above them, the arrangement of famous mountains and rivers, and even the storage of resources.

Even the orbits of these twenty-four planets are like the real bodies and projections inside and outside a mirror, so uniform and identical.

The two large purple suns were quite a distance apart.

If a line were drawn between two great suns, at the midpoint of that line, a floating palace would stand out in mid-air. The palaces and pavilions, with their intricate brackets and flying eaves, were adorned with white jade floors and golden beams, and decorated with unparalleled splendor.

Within this palace complex, which spans dozens of miles, one can see squads of armored soldiers patrolling back and forth everywhere.

However, it was clear that these armored soldiers were divided into two factions.

Their armor was entirely blood-red, exuding a chilling and resolute aura, revealing the air of seasoned veterans.

Their armor was gleaming gold, dazzling and magnificent, exuding royal grandeur.

In the very center of this palace complex, the chimes of bells and the sounds of drums filled the air, signaling a grand and lively banquet. Large groups of civil and military officials knelt on either side of the main hall.

The civil and military officials on the east side wore robes with an ancient and simple style, mainly in black and purple, with many scarlet decorations. They wore swords at their waists and exuded a chilling aura of killing intent.

The civil and military officials on the west side wore extremely luxurious and magnificent robes, mostly in gold, silver, vermilion, and purple. They wore jade belts around their waists, adorned with numerous jade pendants, jade rings, and other decorations. The jade crowns on their heads were also carved with patterns of mythical beasts, birds, exotic flowers, and rare herbs, with wisps of celestial light swirling around them, making them exceptionally extravagant.

Above the two groups of civil and military officials, in a north-facing position, two imposing men sat side by side, about three zhang apart.

The man on the east side wore a simple black robe, with long, flowing hair. His slightly long, square face was quite resolute, and his skin was snow-white, like jade with a subtle, shimmering luster. A blood-red sun appeared and disappeared above his head, containing boundless golden spears and iron horses, like a flood trapped by a dam, ready to break through and enter this world at any moment.

The man on the west side had a bushy beard, a square face, and a pair of emerald green eyes with a faint glint of double pupils. He wore a golden crown and a golden imperial robe, with nine jade seals of varying sizes slowly rotating around him. Circles of majestic and heavy precious light surrounded him, like a shrine burning with flames protecting him, blocking the terrifying aura emanating from the black-clad man to his left.

Music filled the hall, and the aromas of wine and meat almost solidified into a tangible form.

Hundreds of delicate and beautiful young women, dressed in light clothing and holding feather fans, were singing and dancing in the center of the hall. Their melodious songs had the air of a mad dance of celestial demons.

The civil and military officials on the west side were all beaming with joy, constantly raising their wine cups and shouting for a good drink. They were all smug and unrestrained. Some of them were so drunk that their pores were open, constantly emitting wisps of almost tangible alcohol fumes.

Meanwhile, the civil and military officials on the east side simply sat there quietly, their backs straight.

They watched the crowd across from them, shouting and drinking wildly, remaining silent like war puppets made of steel.

With a loud bang, the long-haired man in black robes suddenly slammed his fist on the long table in front of him and shouted sharply, "Enough... Get down... Second brother, why did you provoke Liu Xuande again?"

Inside the main hall, hundreds of young girls trembled in unison, along with the musicians, and stopped what they were doing, standing frozen in place, not knowing what to do.

The man with blue eyes and double pupils slowly raised his head, gently stroking his golden beard with his right hand, and said calmly, "Why is Brother angry? That Liu Bei and Shu Han have brought trouble upon themselves, confined to one place... Externally, they face pressure from us... Internally, those native barbarians of Dali are constantly using many cunning tricks."

"If Shu Han continues like this, it will inevitably fall sooner or later."

With a slight smile, the man said softly, "Since it is destined for ruin, there are still some people and things in Shu Han that are worth taking... If you are unwilling to take them, brother, then give them to me?"

The man in black robes said coldly, "In my opinion, our enemy is Cao Wei."

The man with double pupils shook his head: "What you say is very inappropriate, brother. Cao Wei is powerful, why provoke them? We have no enmity with Cao Wei. On the contrary, do you think we can reconcile with Liu Bei?"

Before the man in black robes could speak, the man with double pupils shook his head again: "Brother, don't talk about grand principles like 'a true man acts with integrity' or 'the glorious Tang Dynasty'... We all understand those principles, who doesn't?"

"But..." The man with double pupils picked up the wine cup and began to speak eloquently.

He and his elder brother had exchanged similar conversations thousands, even tens of thousands of times... No one could convince the other that they, as brothers, might inevitably end up fighting each other.

So let's keep arguing.

In any case, with this uniquely blessed land, even if the two brothers are entangled with each other and the internal ministers are engaged in fierce infighting, Sun Wu remains invincible and has nothing to worry about!

That's when.

Liu Bei's breakthrough aura resonated with the Heavenly Dao, traversing the vast void and surging all the way to this place.

Sun Ce, the man in black robes.

Sun Quan, a man with double pupils.

Their renowned ministers and generals, such as Zhou Yu, Lu Su, Lü Meng, Gan Ning, and Huang Gai, were all terrified and stood up one by one, looking towards the direction of Tianma Star.

"This matter is dire." Lu Meng, dressed in a white robe, spoke in a strangely hoarse voice, his voice dry and strained. "How could it be him? How could Liu Bei, the Xuande Emperor, possibly have such good fortune?"

On Lü Meng's left, Mi Fang, with his rugged face and burly build, looked even more ashen. As a dignified Great Luo Realm cultivator, Mi Fang felt the surging aura of the Heavenly Dao and listened to the faint aura of Liu Xuande's name emanating from the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth. His body swayed, and he almost collapsed to the ground.

Suddenly.

Right in the center of this great hall, a ray of light quietly appeared.

Liu Bei's voice echoed across the void: "My ministers, muster your troops and march against Sun Quan. The events of that year must be settled. In this battle, our Great Han will surely prevail... I urge you all to unite as one and exert your utmost efforts!"

"Second brother, third brother, in this great battle, I will be in charge of the central army. Now it is up to you two to make your mark!"

(End of this chapter)