Chapter 571

When Chen Wuji led his troops to arrive at Xie Fengxian's Daying, Lü Ji and Xie Fengxian had already formed their ranks outside the Daying and were waiting for him.

Chen Wuji was not surprised they were so prepared.

They had just scattered scouts over a wide area, so knowing his movements was not difficult.

Chen Wuji slightly bowed his head and asked the insistent Lu Ping'an, who insisted on holding his horse, "Lu Jinglve, which of the two commanders ahead is Lü Ji and which is Xie Fengxian?"

"The Bearded Gentleman is Lü Ji, and Xie Fengxian is that white-faced young commander," Lu Ping'an said.

Chen Wuji nodded and looked up.

Lü Ji appeared to be in his mid-thirties, looked mature, and with that incredibly smooth, shiny beard on his chin—no one knows what he uses to maintain it—he looked even older.

Unfortunately, he does not use a horse‑cutting knife but a long spear.

Xie Fengxian appears to be in his early twenties, pale‑faced, beardless, clean‑cut, and full of heroic vigor.

If you ignore his somewhat flamboyant sword‑brows, this person could practically debut right where he stands.

Those sword‑brows add a lot of killing intent to his whole face, making him seem somewhat hard to approach and not gentle.

These two almost made Chen Wuji feel as if he were facing the Three Kingdoms heroes, the Bearded Gentleman Guan Yu and General Xie Fengxian combined, but fortunately they only share a slight resemblance.

"Chen Wuji, hand over my lord!" Xie Fengxian sprang forth on horseback, stood before the two armies, pointed his long spear forward with force, and shouted loudly.

Chen Wuji slightly bowed his head and asked Lu Ping'an, "Lu Jinglve, why don't you say a couple of sentences?"

"Speaking is fine, but I haven't figured out what to say yet; I'm afraid I'll mess things up." Lu Ping'an suddenly became nervous, and this expression wasn't feigned—he was genuinely worried.

Chen Wuji said, "It's fine; just give normal advice."

"Alright, I'll give it a try." Lu Ping'an took a deep breath, handed the reins to the Personal Guard beside him, tidied his clothes, and stepped forward.

But after just two steps, he let out a loud belch reeking of alcohol.

He alone had polished off several dozen servings of meat and nearly a jar of wine…

After a light cough, Lu Ping'an put on a stern face and continued forward, "Xie Fengxian, cease fighting and surrender—I've already surrendered! If you still want to believe me, then under General Chen Wuji's command make a good future for yourselves; following me would be wasting your talents, and I'm not fit to be your lord, to lead you in conquering the world—I'm not that material."

"General Chen Wuji didn't coerce me; instead, he entertained me with good food and drink, as you can see—I am now completely a free man."

Xie Fengxian stared at Lu Ping'an, his face full of shock, "Lord, what happened to your face?"

"I wanted to assassinate General Chen Wuji—what's strange about getting beaten?" Lu Ping'an shouted.

"If it weren't for this beating, I might not have awakened—I might still be daydreaming there!"

"I call myself Lord of Nan Jun, commanding tens of thousands of troops, but what's the situation? Actually, you two should know better than I. Across several provinces, there are tens of thousands of Bīngmǎ, yet the only ones I truly trust are you two—I vaguely recall you reminding me of this before? I just never thought about it seriously, and it seemed impossible, but now I've really figured it out."

"I'm grateful to General Chen Wuji for helping me figure this out, so I won't die under random blades, nor will I bring you and the other generals to a pointless death. Surrender—I've been this frank; what do you still have to hesitate about?"

Xie Fengxian gave Lu Ping'an a strange look, then rode straight back to his own camp, quickly found Lü Ji, and said, "Brother, is our lord possessed by an evil spirit? How did he suddenly become like this? Could Chen Wuji know some demonic arts? Have you heard of such things?"

Lü Ji clasped his long spear horizontally, tugging at his beard, with an inscrutable expression, "I don't know whether evil spirits exist in the world, nor do I know if Chen Wuji knows demonic arts, but I feel……our lord has truly awakened; he has indeed figured it out."

"Ah?"

"What our lord just said is correct; if he continues to act unilaterally, let alone plotting some great undertaking, even this small foundation won't be preserved—it will surely be completely devoured by Chen Wuji." Lü Ji said in a low voice.

"When Chen Wuji took control of Yunan, I had already advised our lord to raise a strong army and destroy him with thunderous force; if this person were allowed to grow, he would surely become a major threat to our lord, but our lord did not heed the advice."

"This time, when sending out troops, I also advised our lord that if he wanted to ally with Chen Wuji, he must show sincerity; if he wanted to oppose him, he must muster more than eighty percent of his strength and strike decisively, without hesitation or using underhanded tactics. Yet our lord still believed that woman's words, insisted on taking the risky path, and the result……"

"Xie Fengxian, before today, our lord would absolutely never have said such words."

Xie Fengxian shouted, "In front of the two armies, don't lecture me on principles—I'm only asking because our lord suddenly said these words, which was frightening, so I wondered if he might be possessed."

"If being possessed could make our lord become like this, I'd actually wish he were possessed sooner!" Lü Ji shook his head and said, "Unfortunately, everything is a bit late."

Xie Fengxian: ……

"Brother, are you also possessed, standing before the two armies?" he shouted urgently, "Since our lord isn't possessed, give us an idea—what should we do now? Fight or surrender?"

Lü Ji raised his hand, "I'm also thinking."

"You……are really anxious." Xie Fengxian jerked hard on the reins, "Never mind, there's some distance now—I'll lead the troops in a charge first to rescue our lord."

Lü Ji quickly grabbed Xie Fengxian, "Don't act rashly, or we'll cut off our own retreat."

"If we rescue our lord, won't we then have a retreat?" Xie Fengxian asked.

Lü Ji said, "But what if our lord has truly made up his mind to defect to Chen Wuji?"

"Is that possible?"

"How could it not be? Our lord has said these words—this is unprecedented."

"Well……seems so, then let's surrender."

Lü Ji shook his head again, "Just surrendering like this directly still worries me—Chen Wuji is good at setting traps and building victory mounds."

"We haven't done anything to Chen Wuji, yet we're giving him such a straightforward surrender—would he still trap us and pile us into a victory mound? Brother, I think you're overthinking it." Xie Fengxian said.

"Let me think, think again."

Xie Fengxian said urgently, "What's there to think about? It's either fight or surrender—there's no third option. There's no separate goal here that would let us give Chen Wuji a Pledge Token to show loyalty, or anything else."

"Exactly, sigh, what I wanted to say is exactly this—we must set up a pledge token!" Lü Ji suddenly said loudly, "I've been thinking about this all along, and you keep interrupting me."

Xie Fengxian: ……