Chapter 491 – Coincidence
Lu Zhi hated corruption and immoral manipulation attempts with a passion.
In the previous life, he suffered from the ten eunuchs and Dong Zhuo’s dictatorship. With the second chance, he swore that he would forgive no one who violated his principle.
And Zhuge Liang fell into this category!
Zhuge Liang: “I merely gave her my advice because she asked for it. How is it my fault?”
The young strategist was not afraid of Lu Zhi. As he had solid proof that the empress was the one summoning him to give his opinion, it would never be his fault.
Lu Zhi: “Don’t pretend ignorance. My agents reported that you advised her to kill Te Langpu in the previous meeting!”
.
Zhuge Liang was reading and replying to the clan chat while he was working in the central government office. Fortunately, minor officials here were not members of the clan, so they could not see the commotion.
Still, Zhuge Liang’s calm expression had a tinge of sweat. He had never expected that Lu Zhi would have dared enough to plant spies by the empress’ side.
He waited for the empress to react and lash on Lu Zhi. Yet, it did not happen!
‘Had the empress colluded with Lu Zhi all along? Wow, I didn’t see that coming.’
Zhuge Liang had a new retrospective of Dong Bai now. At first, he thought she was only a naïve girl, whom Zhuge Liang could easily manipulate or tricked, just like Liu Shan, Liu Bei’s son.
But the relationship between the empress and Lu Zhi was not so simple. The latter seemed to be fond of Tong’s entire family as if he were Tong’s father.
‘Very good, senior Lu. You’ve passed. I thought you were nothing but a greedy politician. It seems I misunderstood you.’
He snickered and replied.
Zhuge Liang: “I merely advised her to deal with the origin of this mess. Lord Te Langpu is the Prime Minister of our country, so if his subordinates began embezzling government assets, it is his responsibility to deal with the uproar. However, he didn’t do shit. Thus, he deserves punishment!”
Te Langpu: “Dafuq!? Kongming, you little brat!! What have I ever done to you!?”
Finally, Te Langpu could not resist anymore. He joined the conversation.
Zhuge Liang: “Nothing. But you’ve caused this whole mess. Why did you allow outsiders to possess the property assets!? They were supposed to be the rewards of our officers!”
The strategist shifted the blame to Te Langpu, controlling the subject and the pace of the chat.
But Lu Zhi stopped the conflict and reigned it back to his topic.
Lu Zhi: “Whatever Prime Minister Te did, his majesty will decide what to do with him later when he comes out of his secluded cultivation. As for you, Zhuge Liang, we will ban you from visiting the empress from now on. If you have any suggestions or opinions about the way we’re working, do it in the clan chat. All of your vocal advice will be ignored for one year. Any furthermore violation is capital punishment!”
Zhuge Liang: “Meh, fine. I’ll use this channel from now on.”
Lu Zhi: “And Prime Minister, his majesty sent words that you should refrain from making any risky moves. He understands that you want the best for our country, but your methods and cultures are too new to the local population and our officers! Slow down and teach us what you’re thinking, so we can adapt to the changes!”
Te Langpu: “Bah. Do I have to teach all of you again?”
Lu Zhi: “Yes! Your ‘Real Estate’ project is still questionable even to his majesty. We need a thorough explanation and economic class why we should follow through with your current project. Jeez!”
Lu Zhi: “Wang Yun!! You’re next!!”
.
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Zhen Yi and Wang Yun were reading the clan chat while sweating bullets. When they reread the section where Lu Zhi ordered Lu Bu to hunt for Sun Ce and Zhou Yu, they were panicked.
“How did they know!?” Zhen Yi was baffled, “I remember that I weeded out all agents from Ye and Julu. How did they find out about both of you!?”
Zhen Yi looked at Sun Ce and Zhou Yu, who were cultivating at the corner of his office.
“Had you gone out recently? Lu Zhi has already found out about you two!”
Zhou Yu opened his eyes after a long meditation. His four angel wings fluttered behind his back, while another soul was floating around Sun Ce, protecting his brother from any potential spying soul.
The five-wing angel woke up.
“Tell me about the commotion.”
…
Wang Yun and Zhen Yi spent 10 minutes recounting everything that had happened in the clan chat during these few days, including Dong Bai’s attempts to reach out to Tong.
“I think they found us because of your greediness, Governor Zhen. From your words, Lu Zhi made this move because he suspected Te Langpu’s motive, and you got caught in this mess.”
“But he said that as long as I contribute enough taxes to Ye, no one will say anything!”
Zhou Yu sighed, “That’s where you messed up. You should have taken it moderately and made it as if you are using your new properties for the people. Because you’ve bought more than half of the city, obviously, they investigated you. If I were them, I would have looked into your activities, too!”
Te Langpu’s project timing coincided with their movements.
Zhen Yi bought the land deeds from Te Langpu as he thought he would profit from the tax rights, but the governor ended up getting investigated.
Afterward, Lu Zhi found out about Zhen Yi’s secret plan!
Zhen Yi did not know if this was an accident or spies had infiltrated their ranks, but they were in trouble.
“But how did they found us!?”
“Who knows,” Zhou Yu shrugged, “Lu Zhi and Sima Fang’s intelligence agency is rumored to be efficient, but I think it has to do with the inner palace servants and bodyguards around here.”
Zhen Yi gulped. He glared at the bodyguards, who were standing outside of his office building.
“Don’t bother. It’s useless trying to find the spies now. Let’s change the subject… Did Lu Zhi claim that everything was Zhang Tong’s order?”
“He claims that he received the emperor’s order, but the emperor himself hasn’t spoken in the chat for over a year now.”
“Is Lu Zhi the only one who can contact the emperor?”
“It seems that way. Let’s forget about how he can contact the emperor. We need to prepare for Lu Bu! He’s the third strongest guy in our clan! If we want to survive, we have to take him down before Zhang Tong or Diaochan got back from their shut-in cultivation!”
“Ah… You don’t have to worry about that,” Zhou Yu grinned, “Right? Bofu?”
Sun Ce opened his eyes. He looked tired, but his presence scared Zhen Yi and Wang Yun.
Six white tentacle wings extended from Sun Ce’s back, but that was not his true strength. Another soul was hiding inside his body.
This young conqueror had awakened 7 souls, and he was preparing to break through the 8th wing.
“Lu Bu is at best a 7-wing angel like me. Since he gets stuck in this realm for a long time, I doubt that he is stronger than I am.”
Zhou Yu nodded, “Right. If I want to, I can get my 6th wing and support you had Lu Bu come here personally.”
He glanced at his followers inside the room.
Lu Meng, Lu Xun, Zhou Tai, and many young talented officers were also cultivating.
Since fighting against Tong’s armies in the open was impossible, they hid everyone within Tong’s deepest territory, Zhongshan, where the security was weakest among all cities.
Zhou Yu had bribed Zhen Yi into sheltering them for a while, hoping to weaken Tong’s forces from within.
“I doubt he can defeat all of us if we combine forces.”
Zhen Yi and Wang Yun looked at these young officers, trembling in nervousness. Each of them had at least 4 wings behind their back.
And the man behind all of them, who seemed to be the 2nd strongest among the group, was peeking outside with a deep frown.
Sun Fang was also here!
“I actually wanted to incite a misconception that Lu Zhi was lying about Tong’s order. But since the cat is out of the bag, let’s prepare to fight Lu Bu.”
Sun Ce and all his officers looked at Sun Fang, but they did not say anything.
Zhou Yu smiled at Sun Fang, “Any confidence?”
“If I weren’t confident, I wouldn’t have reconciled with you lots. I could have escaped to Japan without you,” Sun Fang snorted.
In fact, Sun Fang lied. He finished building his galley ship and sailed toward Japan as planned. When he reached to border of China Sea, Lilim’s system threatened him to strip his cultivation and system skills, just like what it did to Pu Jing.
Sun Fang did not have enough lifespan to pay for the fee. Thus, he returned to Sun Ce and Zhou Yu, and he asked for peace.
The two factions ended up together again. This time, Sun Ce became the ringleader, while Sun Fang was a follower.
Zhou Yu took a deep breath as he looked at everyone in the room.
“Let take the initiative. We should strike at Zhang Tong’s heart before he gets the chance to break through.”
He walked toward the wall where the country map was hanging. He pointed at a county nearby.
Julu
“First, we will ignore this city and attack Julu with all of our elite officers! We will kill Zhang Jiao and interrupt Zhang Tong’s cultivation!”
