Chapter 512 – Awakening Li Feihong (2)
It took Li Feihong three days to settle down with his new power and self-healing. Xu Shu and Zhou Cang also rested nearby, concentrating on recovering from the injuries as well.
Lu Lingqi sat behind Li Feihong, watching over him while he was cultivating the whole time. She didn't know what attracted her to this otherworlder, but she didn't hate his hard-working face.
Although everything seemed to not go according to Zhuge Liang's plan, the strategist was smiling from ear to ear.
While Li Feihong was cultivating, the throne room meeting had concluded, but none of the people in this dimension cared anymore.
Finally, Li Feihong reopened his eyes after he got used to the new power, his other life's memory, and karmic sense, and the god's eyes.
Looking at the karma chains and everyone's real souls, Li Feihong had a complicated emotion. He summoned his 8th soul, which had the appearance of Liu Bei, to stand before himself.
"Goddammit! Why was I Liu Bei!? Just … How!?"
Li Feihong couldn't help but scream as he didn't like what kind of person he was in the other previous lives. Li Feihong couldn't accept the fact that he was once Liu Bei.
It hurt him more when he recalled that he killed Zhang Fei and Pang Tong with his own hands. Yet, the swelling anger stopped his tear and override the guilty feeling he had.
Zhang Fei and Pang Tong might have been Liu Bei's loyal retainers, but they had unforgivable flaws.
Zhang Fei was a hoodlum through and thorough. His excessive violence also cost Liu Bei his post when he started his career as a town official. When Liu Bei entrusted him to protect Xiapi, Zhang Fei drank too much wine and lost the city to Lu Bu. Then, his cruelty and harsh treatment toward his soldier subordinates ended up killing him before Liu Bei launched a revenge campaign on Sun Quan.
From Li Feihong's point of view without Liu Bei's bias memory, Zhang Fei was just a strong brute, which was more suited as a vanguard, not a general of an army. For the other fields, he was useless.
Pang Tong was not any different. He enjoyed appraising people to the point that it inflated his pride. He also misjudged the abilities of many people by his bias virtues, prioritizing the latter over the former. As a result, he performed poorly when he was a minor official in Jing Province under the Sun Clan during his early career.
In this world, Pang Tong mistreated Tong's ways of government. He never forgot one mistake that Tong had made in Liyang, the town massacre incident, and overlooked the achievements that Tong had laid the groundwork for the people.
Pang Tong ended up joining this world's Liu Bei, who had barely demonstrated his kindness and love for the people. After all, among all warlords, Liu Bei didn't have as many tarnished reputation as Cao Cao, Tong, or others. Again, Pang Tong's pride made him overlook what was the most important for the country, the talents.
And lastly, the order of Pang Tong at Hongnong contradicted his beliefs. He wanted to kill the townspeople for the sake of capturing the city even though he proclaimed that he hated evil acts.
The hypocrisy made Li Feihong disgust. He got angry by just remember Pang Tong's face.
'Those assholes don't deserve to live! I did nothing wrong! I'm here to repent for what I did to Tong, and that hasn't changed! No matter who I was, I AM LI FEIHONG, A FUCKING SINNER!! GO AHEAD AND TORMENT ME, YOU FUCKS!! I REGRET NOTHING KILLING ALL OF YOU HERE!! UNTIL ZHANG TONG FORGIVES ME, I WILL STILL BE HERE WORKING FOR HIM!!'
Unbeknownst to Li Feihong, Zhuge Liang, or anyone, three chains of karma, which had the resentment of Tong's former friends and relatives in the other world. They released Li Feihong from their bind as if they wanted to approve Li Feihong's mindset.
*BOOM*
One of the karma chains other than the fading ones shattered and freed Li Feihong from its binding. They belonged to Tong's former parents who resented him because of this previous life's deed.
The fragments of the broken karma transformed into glittering light and entered Li Feihong's body. As soon as they become one with him, the remaining soul injuries disappeared like magic.
The development shocked Li Feihong as well. He opened his eyes and examined his souls and his physical body.
He was healed!
While Li Feihong was confused about his past and the karma knots on himself, Zhuge Liang knelt and prostrated to his lord.
"Welcome back, my lord. I'm glad to be your vessel again in this life."
When Zhuge Liang kowtowed to Li Feihong, Xu Shu and Zhou Cang also got back to their senses even though they were still in the middle of healing their soul injuries.
"What?"
"Why are you…?"
Something was not right with Zhuge Liang's behavior. Even Li Feihong squinted his eyes in suspicion.
Although Li Feihong could see his other form of his souls, the others should not be able to identify his true identity without having the same cultivation or higher. Yet, Zhuge Liang's action indicated that he knew something.
"First of all, how do you know that it's me? Normally, you can only see my appearance as Li Feihong, not Liu Bei."
For now, Li Feihong put the fact that he was once Liu Bei to the back of his head. He wanted to interrogate Zhuge Liang for what he was planning.
"I just knew, my lord."
'Just knew?'
Li Feihong had a suspicion. Zhuge Liang shouldn't be able to identify his other pasts with his cultivation, so the only answer should be the external influence – Lilim!
Since many people were acting suspiciously in the election meeting, Li Feihong got paranoid if someone might have a deal with Lilim while Tong and other demonesses were not paying attention.
"Was it Lilim who told you?"
Nonchalantly, Zhuge Liang smiled, "Impressive deduction my lord. That's correct!"
Hearing that Lilim and Zhuge Liang made a contact, Li Feihong was enraged. He armed his right hand with his aura and placed it on Zhuge Liang's neck, threatening to kill him.
"Did you sell us to Lilim!? What the fuck did she tell you or trade with you!?"
"Hahahaha! I'm a happy man, my lord. You, in this world, is so smart! I'm glad I've picked the correct Liu Bei!"
Li Feihong moved his hand and cut a bit of Zhuge Liang's white neck, telling him to be serious.
"Okay. Enough joke. I'll tell you everything. Let's begin with what I have traded with Lilim, shall we?"
Li Feihong refused to withdraw his hand. His eyes were still glaring at this strategist.
"Haiz. It seems you start to act like Zhang Fei these days. Please calm your heart and your thoughts. Your anger can ruin you again if you're not careful."
Reminded of the mistake Liu Bei had made because of anger, Li Feihong withdrew his aura and hand.
"Tsk! Go on."
"Hahaha! Alright. Let's start with Lilim's offer. She promised to bestow me 2 or 3 system skills of my choice. She gave me a list of 100 skills. Well, to be honest, I'm surprised to find your dimension skill in the list, too, my lord."
The offer was tempting even for Zhuge Liang. As all 100 otherworlders had a good imagination, most of their created system skills were useful.
Some could create weaponry, such as Tong's former [Firearm Creation], or [Grenade Creation].
Some assisted them in their daily life or survivability, such as [Create Food], [Private Dimension], and [Self-Resurrection].
Some were purely wicked. [Necromancy], [Die for Me], [Immortal Yang Vein], or [Eyes of Dominance].
These skills could corrupt any local civilian with ease. It wasn't strange for Lilim to tempt the stoic Zhuge Liang with these perks.
"Did you accept it?"
"No. I postponed my decision."
"Then, how did you know I'm Liu Bei."
"Haha. First, let me continue what I left off. In exchange for those skills, she wanted me to either kill Liu Bei or swear allegiance to her by making an oath with my immortal voice, but I said I need to cultivate a bit to understand everything."
Again, Lilim seemed to have contacted many officers, trying to poach Tong's subordinates.
"As I said, I declined the offer. She insisted that I should accept it since Zhang Tong would face his demise soon. Well, I'm kind of doubt her, so I asked her why."
Zhuge Liang laughed again, "She blurted that you are the reincarnation of Liu Bei, and you might end up fighting against Zhang Tong. Therefore, I probed Zhang Tong's officers to see if there are trustworthy, competent, or simply useless. Well, I'm surprised that all of Zhang Tong's wives never wanted to let their children sitting on the throne. Even his father declined the offers of my agents. Lu Zhi and Hua Tuo are good, too. Eh, except for Cao Cao and Te Langpu's goons. These guys have to die ASAP."
Zhuge Liang confessed that Lilim had contacted him the moment that he obtained the other timeline's memory and experience. She pestered him many times, but Zhuge Liang kept delaying his answer.
In the end, Lilim asked him to do one thing, either kill Liu Bei or make an oath to be Lilim's subordinate.
But it revealed one ugly fact that Zhuge Liang almost made Li Feihong kill Liu Bei!
"Say, Kongming. What do you think will happen if I really kill Liu Bei in this world?"
"Some freaky thing might happen, perhaps?"
Li Feihong facepalmed as Zhuge Liang was too reckless. He glanced at the monitor, which was displaying Liu Bei. He could see the latter's true soul.
It was not an animal like other people in this world. Instead, it was a heinous blob monster as if it came from Resident Evil's T-Virus Series. Moreover, it had Liu Ping's face!
Liu Ping was inside Liu Bei!
Li Feihong had a scare. Had he killed Liu Bei, the monstrous soul would escape from the body and might possess somebody else.
Moreover, Liu Ping might get his chance to reincarnate as a local with his old memory! This might spell a disaster for Tong and his allies!
"You almost made me do something stupid, Kongming."
"Why?"
"You have no idea… Anyway, we're not going to kill Liu Bei. What are you trying to achieve anyway?"
"That's a pity. I was hoping to get a few skills from Lilim. I want that [Immortal Yang Vein], too!"
"… Don't mess around."
"I was kidding. For now, let's give Ma Chao my prepared note, so he can work for us."
