Chapter 193

At the mere thought that he, too, might have the chance to seal the wolf-mountains and carve his name into the stone of Mount Yanran,

Zhang Liao felt his heart surge with excitement.

Not to mention that his lord even harbored the ambition to completely eradicate the Hu Ren.

At the very possibility of this, Zhang Liao could not help but tremble slightly with agitation.

"Haha! It's a deal! No going back! If I forget, you can remind me!"

Su Xuan laughed and gave his word.

"Good!"

Zhang Liao nodded firmly.

Following this, both Su Xuan and Zhang Liao wrote letters and handed them to the Dark Guards, instructing them to deliver them to Zhang Jiu in Ma Yi as quickly as possible.

Six days later,

although he had received the letter sent back by his lord six days prior, Agent Twenty-Five was in no rush to deliver it to Lu Bu.

Instead, he waited until today—calculating the time it would take for a fast horse to deliver a letter at maximum speed—before arriving at Lu Bu's residence to hand over the letter from Su Xuan.

His purpose was to avoid exposing the fact that they possessed the means of rapid communication via golden eagles and carrier pigeons.

After all, Lu Bu was not a man who could keep secrets; he had a loose tongue and was prone to letting things slip.

Moreover, based on his lord's plans and arrangements,

it was fundamentally impossible for Lu Bu to accept his lord's recruitment and join his ranks in the short term.

That made it all the more important not to let him know easily.

Although, eventually, as usage increased, exposure would be a matter of time.

But the later, the better.

It could often lead the enemy to make misjudgments.

"Has Su Boyuan's reply finally arrived? Great! Give it to me! Quickly, give it to me!"

"You have no idea, I've been worried to death about funds!"

"That Ding Lord Yuan has already come knocking for the second time. Things shouldn't happen a third time; if I don't give him an answer on the third visit, I fear he will turn hostile."

Lu Bu excitedly took the letter and grumbled.

Su Xuan had said a few years ago that he would meet a noble person in the future.

He strongly suspected that this noble person was Ding Lord Yuan.

That made it even more important not to miss out.

"Haha!"

Upon hearing this, Agent Twenty-Five smiled knowingly: "If General Lu can trust my lord so much, my lord will surely be very happy when he finds out."

"Hey! It's nothing! Su Boyuan and I are good brothers!"

Lu Bu laughed and waved his hand, then opened the letter to read it carefully.

His brows furrowed and then smoothed out; finally, he revealed a relieved smile and said: "Phew! It's fortunate that I didn't rush to agree this time, but chose to stall and consult Su Boyuan instead!"

"Otherwise, I might have really fallen for Ding Lord Yuan's trap and ended up having to be his dog in the future! Heh!"

"This Ding Lord Yuan certainly has a clever scheme!"

"However, since you want to use me to rapidly expand your power, why can't I, in turn, use you to improve my position while also strengthening my own forces?"

In the letter, Su Xuan had analyzed in detail the background and motives of Ding Lord Yuan.

Lu Bu now understood clearly that Ding Lord Yuan was merely a dog of the Lord Yuan clan, sent to Bingzhou to consolidate and absorb troops for the purpose of leading an army into Luoyang to deal with the eunuchs later.

And he, Lu Bu, held immense prestige among the Bingzhou border troops.

As long as Ding Lord Yuan could recruit Lu Bu—or even have Lu Bu acknowledge him as a foster father—he could win over the hearts of the Bingzhou border troops in a very short time and rapidly expand his influence.

And because of the constraints of the foster-father status, Lu Bu would have to obey Ding Lord Yuan in everything, effectively becoming his dog, following his every command.

Otherwise, in this era where ritual and law were paramount, if Lu Bu dared to defy his foster father, it would be unfilial and a great transgression.

With this status weighing him down, even if Ding Lord Yuan didn't give Lu Bu real power or the promised position, Lu Bu would have to endure it with resentment, completely unable to resist.

Unless Lu Bu didn't care about his reputation!

One could only say that Ding Lord Yuan's calculations were excellent.

If it were someone else, he would have truly succeeded, and there would be no future incident of "beheading."

But because this person was Lu Bu, who grew up in the border counties and was raised on the wolf-like cultural mindset and thinking patterns of the Hu Ren, things were completely different.

At first, Lu Bu might endure it.

But once he could no longer bear it, or found an opportunity, he would absolutely not mind killing Ding Lord Yuan.

One could only say that Ding Lord Yuan did not understand Lu Bu!

Even if Su Xuan hadn't intervened this time, he would still have died at Lu Bu's hands in the future.

This was almost inevitable.

As for the past life, where netizens discussed that Ding Lord Yuan was actually trying to cultivate Lu Bu, hoping he would be both civil and martial, and truly treating him like a biological son,

Su Xuan only wanted to say: that's nonsense.

At least, in this world, it is nonsense.

According to the Dark Guards' intelligence, this old man Ding Lord Yuan was not without sons.

Under such circumstances, do you think he truly treated Lu Bu like a biological son to be cultivated?

Do you think that's possible?

In fact, one could see from the fact that Ding Lord Yuan was willing to be a dog for the Lord Yuan clan, and later dared to lead an army into Luoyang to "protect the king" and "clear the emperor's side," that this person had immense ambition and desire for power.

How could a person driven by such lust for power be a good person?

How could he kindly adopt an adult he had just met as a foster son?

And then pour his heart and soul into cultivating him like a biological son?

Isn't that just nonsense?

Su Xuan understood Lu Bu very well.

He was a very simple and straightforward person.

Everything was direct; he didn't have so many twists and turns, and he was even less capable of playing conspiracy games.

He didn't have the brains for that either.

Whoever was good to him, he was good to them.

Whoever dared to be bad to him or scheme against him, he would absolutely retaliate fiercely.

He might not be smart enough, but he possessed a wolf-like, keen intuition.

He could actually feel through intuition who was genuinely good to him and who was just putting on a show.

Just like the two previous times he met Ding Lord Yuan, he could feel that Ding Lord Yuan harbored ill intentions toward him.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have chosen to stall for time and go to Su Xuan for help.

"Then I wish the General success!"

Agent Twenty-Five, hearing Lu Bu's words, replied with a light smile.

"Hmm!"

Lu Bu nodded, looking at Agent Twenty-Five with gratitude: "This time, many thanks to you, Brother Twenty-Five! Consider me owing you a favor. In the future, if you have any business, just come to me. As long as I can do it, I will absolutely not refuse."

"Haha! That sounds great!"

Agent Twenty-Five heard this and immediately smiled knowingly: "To be able to obtain a favor from a heavenly warrior like General Lu, I've made a huge profit!"

"Hahaha!"

Lu Bu heard this and felt extremely comfortable inside.

It was still more comfortable and at ease to interact with Su Xuan and his subordinates!

At least, he didn't feel like they were scheming against him.

That was very rare.

That was why Lu Bu trusted Su Xuan so much and was so close to him.

Afterward, Agent Twenty-Five stayed at Lu Bu's home for over an hour,

drank quite a bit of wine with Lu Bu, and then left.

"Father! You contacted Brother Su Boyuan?"

At this moment, Lu spiritual energy followed her mother, Lady Yan, inside, and then blinked her large eyes, asking curiously.

"Hmm?"

Lu Bu heard this, his brows furrowed slightly, and he said speechlessly: "Don't call him that randomly. That is your Uncle Su Boyuan. He and your father are good brothers, yet you call him 'brother'—doesn't that mess up the generation?"