Chapter 420 - Their Decision - Part Two
Pang Tong"s decision triggered the desire of other villagers in Zhuge Liang"s village as well.
Xu Shu worried about his friend, so he accepted Liu Bei"s invitation. He wanted to witness if this naïve junior could turn an unknown underdog into a dragon.
The majority of villagers had a good impression on Zhou Cang and Wei You. Most of them decided to follow them to Ye.
The only ones that stayed were elders and their slaves, who refused to part their hometown.
Sima Hui and his family had not decided yet, but everyone in his family voted that Tong"s side was the right choice.
In the end, Sima Hui put more weight in Tong"s academies and his t.i.tle as the emperor. They accepted Wei You"s goodwill and followed them.
Zhuge Liang could not decide since he understood that he was too young to partic.i.p.ate in the grand war of hegemony. Thus, he stayed.
.
A week later
Pu Jing gathered information from Xiangyang, and he found Zhuge Liang"s whereabouts. Without wasting his time, Pu Jing followed Zhuge Liang"s trace to the mountain of Xiangyang outskirts.
Many scholars settled down on this mountain, forming a small village here. The courtyard that this young strategist resided in was in the middle of the bamboo forest.
Pu Jing ran into many Zhuge Liang"s acquaintances, which made it easier for him to find the target"s resident.
"Is this the one?" Pu Jing asked an elder.
"Yes. Sir, are you from Ye?"
Pu Jing got curious, "Why do you think that I"m from Ye?"
"Many people from Ye visited this place a few days ago. Are you one of them, too?"
"…"
Pu Jing paused. His face was expressionless, but his mind was stirred.
"Zhang Tong sent his men here, too!? I have to hurry."
Fear that Tong would s.n.a.t.c.h all young strategists to his kingdom before Cao Cao, Pu Jing rushed into Zhuge Liang"s courtyard.
Betraying Pu Jing"s expectation, Zhuge Liang was still there with many elders, playing weiqi (Go) together.
Many old men frowned as they did not approve of Pu Jing, who interrupted their game.
"Who are you? What are you doing here in our courtyard!?"
Pu Jing"s still had indifferent expression, "I"m here to escort Zhuge Liang and all scholars in this resident to Xuchang. Please come with me and do not resist. Be warned that this is not a request. It"s an order."
"Xuchang? Not Ye City?"
"Yes. Xuchang."
"So, you"re Cao Cao"s man."
"… You can say that."
"We refuse."
"Didn"t I tell you that it"s an order?"
"We have no obligation to follow you there."
"Very well," Pu Jing summoned his souls. He did not bother speaking with a cliché line, such as [All of you can die here]. Instead, he launched a preemptive strike at an elder to demonstrate his seriousness.
The soul punched the elder through his chest, which killed him.
Zhuge Liang and the others were horrified. This was their first time seeing an immortal at work.
"I repeat. Come with me. That"s an order."
"…"
No matter how smart Zhuge Liang was, he could not defy the mysterious power of Pu Jing. Furthermore, Pu Jing"s intimidation aura told the sleeping dragon that the a.s.sailant was a veteran fighter.
Without a choice, Zhuge Liang complied, "Leave them alone. I"ll go with you."
"Good. First, accept the invitation."
Pu Jing chose to bind Zhuge Liang with his clan invitation.
>
Zhuge Liang saw the system messages for the first time. He looked at transparent screens, astonished.
"Wow."
"Press [Yes], now!"
Pu Jing did not like risk factors. He knew that Zhuge Liang could always betray him and Cao Cao at any time once they arrived in Xuchang. To stop this strategist from joining anyone, Pu Jing forced Zhuge Liang to join his clan first.
Afterward, they could slowly persuade this young genius to work with them.
Meanwhile, Zhuge Liang hesitated. His instinct cried that as soon as he pressed it, his future would be grim.
He prayed in his mind, "Is this the end of my future? Being enslaved by Cao Cao of all people?"
The face of Wei You and Zhou Cang appeared in Zhuge Liang"s mind. He regretted that he did not accept their invitation a week ago.
"No matter how smart or how skillful ones are, someone will best them one way or another. Fate is cruel."
Zhuge Liang gained enlightenment as he shed a tear of regret.
He raised his finger, pointing at the [Yes] b.u.t.ton.
At that moment,
*WHOOSH*
An arrow flew to the direction of Pu Jing"s head at high speed.
Someone ambushed the premiere!
Pu Jing"s second soul caught the arrow. The two souls turned toward the direction of the shooter.
A muscular man, revealing his bare chest, glared at Pu Jing from a distance. His left hand held a longbow, while his right hand pulled another bolt from his quiver.
He had brown messy long hair and tanned skin. Aside from his naked upper body, he wore a belt with bells hanging from it. The shorts he wore were also made from old clothes which looked like a used rag.
This man was the pirate that Zhou Yu scouted, Gan Ning.
The pirate disregarded the souls and fired another arrow. As soon as the bolt was released, Gan Ning backpedaled, running away from Pu Jing.
The former premier caught the arrow again.
One of his souls pursued Gan Ning while the other remained by his real body.
"HELP! SOMEBODY!!"
The elders in the courtyard screamed. Their voice echoed across the mountain.
Pu Jing turned around and sent his first soul to kill the elders.
The ma.s.sacred ended with all village elders, who had chosen to remain in this village, lay dead in Zhuge Liang"s courtyard.
"Press the [Yes] b.u.t.ton, or you"re next."
Witnessed the ma.s.sacre, Zhuge Liang pulled his hand away from the screen.
He glared at Pu Jing, "Why did you have to kill them? They"re harmless people."
"They got on the way."
"That"s it?"
"I hate variable."
Pu Jing soul grabbed Zhuge Liang"s neck, "Press it, or die here."
Zhuge Liang spat at Pu Jing"s face, "Kill me. I won"t work for you, ever!"
"…"
Pu Jing snorted. He exerted his forces, commanding the soul to choke Zhuge Liang.
*SWUA*
The soul of Pu Jing suddenly had a wound on his chest. His real body also suffered from the same injury.
"What!?"
Pu Jing"s conscience focused on the second soul, [Patience], which was pursuing Gan Ning. Because of the distraction by Zhuge Liang, Pu Jing did not pay attention to the automatic-moving soul.
Before [Patience], a bald man cut him with a long sword.
It was Zhou Cang, who had reinforced his body and weapon with his wing power.
"As his majesty said, only immortals can kill immortals and ghosts. I don"t know who you are, but you came to the wrong house, fool!"
Using what he had learned from Tong and Medusa, Zhou Cang activated his overclock mode and chased after the injured soul. Although he was not aware that this person was Pu Jing, he wanted to kill it since it was a threat.
Pu Jing unsummoned the soul to save his life.
Meanwhile, Gan Ning was saved by Zhou Cang when he was running away from the ghost. He looked at Zhou Cang and Pu Jing with a horrified expression.
"What the h.e.l.l are these people!? Well, lucky me."
Gan Ning ran back toward Zhuge Liang"s courtyard as he had unfinished business.
"I need that boy dead."
.
.
Sima Hui looked at the disappearing Zhou Cang and Gan Ning in horror.
He and Zhou Cang returned here because he forgot a treasure trove that he buried behind his courtyard. Because they were heavy, Sima Hui asked Wei You to give him a hand.
Wei You sent Zhou Cang with Sima Hui as he was the strongest among all bodyguards.
However, when they arrived at the village, they saw Gan Ning running away from a ghost. Then, the desperate voice of an elder caught their attention.
Zhou Cang jumped in to help Gan Ning by instinct. With his surprise attack, he managed to wound the ghost with his sword.
Now, all of them ran back toward the mountain, heading to Zhuge Liang"s courtyard.
"Please be alright, Kongming!"
.
.
Zhou Cang reached Zhuge Liang"s resident and found corpses of elders and a trail of blood. The trace led to the road, leading to Xiapi City.
He broke into Zhuge Liang"s house to check if there were survivors. Inside, five young female servants were hugging each other in fear.
"What happened outside!?"
"A-A ghost appeared and killed everyone!"
Zhou Cang"s mood was ruined. A ghost that could kill could only be one thing, a spirit of an angel or a demon.
An immortal was here!
He left the house and decided to follow the blood trail.
When he got outside, Gan Ning appeared. From the looks of his eyes, he wanted to loot the house.
"Get lost, homeless thief. I don"t have time to play with you."
Gan Ning was anger, "I only want some souvenirs. I don"t mind taking used women."
Thinking of the cowering women in the house, Zhou Cang activated his overclock mode and attack Gan Ning with a sword slash.
"s.h.i.+t!"
Gan Ning dodged the slash in a panic. His opponent"s speed was too fast.
After he leaped backward, the pirate raised his hands to surrender.
"Don"t attack! I was kidding. I won"t harm anyone!"
Zhou Cang roared, "Get lost, motherf.u.c.ker! I have a s.h.i.+tty mood right now!"
"Oh, cool. I"m in a s.h.i.+tty mood, too. Now that I"ve failed my mission …"
Gan Ning kicked the ground, throwing dirt to the eyes of Zhou Cang with his foot.
"Die!"
Gan Ning switched his weapon to bow and arrow within a second.
An arrow was fired!
*POEK*
A transparent third arm appeared from Zhou Cang"s left shoulder and caught the arrow.
Gan Ning had a chill running down his spine. He had killed many good fighters, but this was his first time fighting someone with supernatural power.
"I can"t leave you alive, or those women will experience h.e.l.l. Die!"
Zhou Cang summoned his virtue spirit and attacked Gan Ning together, turning the situation into 2-on-1.
The spirit threw a punch at Gan Ning.
As long as it hit, the punch would crush Gan Ning"s flesh and bone like tofu.
Gan Ning sensed dread in the punch. He rolled and ran away.
Zhou Cang"s real body already caught up to Gan Ling. He slashed down with his long sword.
Gan Ning took out short knives and parried it.
*BOOM*
The feedback force stunned Gan Ning"s arms.
The fledging Gan Ning was no match against the Zhou Can, who experienced two worlds. Furthermore, Tong trained Zhou Cang with a peculiar training style.
Zhou Cang"s daily training routine was 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and 10km running.
It had been years that he had this routine added into his lifestyle. Although he could not produce the same result as Saitama, Zhou Cang was confident in his destructive power.
Zhou Cang"s left leg kicked Gan Ning"s body midsection.
It hit Gan Ning"s rib cages and shook his liver.
"Gah!"
The pirate fell onto his knee as the excruciating pain stunned him again.
Before Zhou Cang could deliver a finis.h.i.+ng blow, Gan Ning begged.
"Spare me! I give up. I surrender!"
The bald man frown. He did not have a luxurious time to babysit this pirate as a captive.
"Sir Zhou, what happened here!?"
Sima Hui arrived and found the horrifying scene of corpses.
"An immortal killed them, and he probably took the Zhuge boy away. Do me a favor. Tie this man and call my men. They will take it from here."
Zhou Cang kicked Gan Ning"s solar plexus, which knocked him unconscious. He turned around to chase after Pu Jing, who left a b.l.o.o.d.y trail on the ground.