’Should I steal their weapon first? No, I should convert lifespan into physical energy for now. Not getting any food hurts.’

  In the cell, Ma Chao managed to break free from the restraints. Broken chains and pieces of wooden boards lay on the ground as Ma Chao destroyed all of them.

  Yet, he could not escape from the prison.

  In front of his prison cell, three angels, Cao Chun, Zhu Ling, and Yu Jin, were sitting there, meditating while they were guarding. If Ma Chao wanted to flee, he had to go through these three men first.

  It was an impossible task at the moment as he was too weak.

  Ma Chao was starving as he hadn’t eaten anything for days. By the order of Cao Cao, the three wardens were told not to give Ma Chao any food to sabotage his strength.

  Still, Ma Chao was a cultivator with 4 wings. No matter how hungry he was, he could overcome it by converting lifespan into life force, feeding the exhausted body some energy.

  Unfortunately, the process prevented him from cultivating or gathering more lifespan as the life force in the underground prison was too thin. Moreover, three cultivators with 4 wings were absorbing most of the flowing life force in the air into themselves, obstructing Ma Chao from getting any lifespan.

  ’Despicable! Once I can get out, I’ll come back and kill these sons of bitches!’

  As Ma Chao was fantasizing about killing his prison wardens, a hand-sized portal opened and ejected a small piece of paper into his hand.

  *VHOOM*

  The mini gate immediately closed without waiting for Ma Chao to react.

  ’What?’

  The blue hole just now reminded Ma Chao of Li Feihong’s ability, which could abduct anyone into a mysterious place.

  Ma Chao glanced at his wardens. As usual, the three Cao Cao’s underlings were meditating, concentrating on absorbing the surrounding life force, hindering Ma Chao from gaining any lifespan or recovering himself.

  Using this chance, Ma Chao read the paper.

  [Ma Mengqi, this is Zhuge Liang. I’ll help you escape from this prison, but you’ll have to work for me in return. If you accept this deal, blink three times. If you don’t, just toss this paper away.]

  Ma Chao’s pupils expanded as he finally found hope. Although he doubted Zhuge Liang’s motive, the latter was still a former colleague, who went through several campaigns in the other timeline together. Ma Chao could still remember the Southern Campaign, where he was the vanguard against Meng Huo, the southern barbarian.

  It was a good time since Ma Chao displayed his full potential and won several battles for Shu Han Dynasty.

  ’Kongming, I don’t know why you’re working for Zhang Tong, but I’ll believe you.’

  He blinked three times as instructed, gesturing that he agreed. He glanced at Liu Bei in the other cell, worrying about his lord.

  *VHOOM*

  A small blue portal opened again and spat out a sword and a pistol.

  *VHOOM*

  Another gate opened behind Ma Chao. He could feel that someone placed a hand on his back and inject some life force into himself.

  Ma Chao’s eyes widened. He could feel that his strength return and his injuries disappeared. Moreover, the hunger subsided as the life force energized him.

  Then, he could hear a whisper.

  "To use it, inject your force into that pistol. Then, aim the muzzle at your target and pull the trigger. Help me kill these men, and I’ll get you out of here."

  Ma Chao remembered the voice. It was from Li Feihong, the one who had abducted him and Liu Bei!

  He did not know why Li Feihong was helping him, but he was not against his instruction.

  On the contrary, Ma Chao rejoiced that he could finally have a chance to kill Cao Cao’s goons!

  "With pleasure!"

  Ma Chao spread his four wings and injected his life force into the pistol along with the resentment toward Cao Cao’s men.

  The killing intent from Ma Chao alarmed the three officers. They woke up from their meditation and pulled out their sword in reflex.

  But it was too late.

  *BANG*

  *BANG*

  *BANG*

  Although Ma Chao had not learned how to shoot, aligning the gun barrel was a simple task for him. Furthermore, the men were only less than 50 meters away. Aiming at three big men was easy even for a rookie.

  The shells pierced into their bodies, damaging their internal organs.

  \r \r \r

  "CHARITY! HEAL!"

  "PATIENCE! ENHANCE!"

  The three used their soul abilities to save their life, but the shooting had not ended.

  *BANG*

  *BANG*

  Ma Chao could see that one bullet could not take down a four-wing angel easily, so he focused firing at the weakest officer among the group. .

  Cao Chun, the younger brother of Cao Ren, followed after Cao Cao when the latter raised an army to subdue the Yellow Turban in the other timeline.

  Unlike other generals under Cao Cao, Cao Chun’s few achievements came from the campaign against Yuan Shao’s sons, whose armies were already on the verge of self-destructing. Cao Chun’s position at that time was the Tiger and Leopard Unit, one of Cao Cao’s favorite cavalry platoons, and he played a small part of hunting down Yuan Tan.

  In this world, the Yuan Family was destroyed by Tong, so Cao Chun didn’t have any noteworthy achievement. He ended up working alongside with other minor generals.

  Cao Chun might have two lives of experience, but he could not change the fact that he had less experience than the others among his peers.

  *BANG*

  *BANG*

  More bullets punctured Cao Chun’s chest area. Cao Chun could feel the burning metal passing through his body and exiting from the back.

  He could hardly breathe as blood got into his lungs!

  Desperate, Cao Chun sent his four souls to Ma Chao, hoping to kill him before he died.

  But that was a common mistake that all newbie immortals usually make. Detached souls were weaker than concentrated force in one’s physical body. With just a single direct hit, one of Cao Chun’s souls could be destroyed, which could lead to Cao Chun’s death.

  Ma Chao saw that four souls were rushing at him. He grabbed Li Feihong’s sword, enchanted it with cultivation force, and slashed at one of Cao Chun’s souls.

  *SWUA*

  Cao Chun thought that the souls were immune to physical attacks, so the souls didn’t defend themselves. As a result, one of them was severed in half from head to groin.

  A chain reaction occurred. All Cao Chun’s soul received the same damage as the cleaved soul.

  *SPLAT*

  The damage transferred to Cao Chun’s physical body. He got splitted into two.

  This was the reason why Li Feihong and Zhuge Liang couldn’t kill these men himself.

  First, Li Feihong couldn’t harm fellow clan members, either by melee or ranged skills. But most importantly, the murderer of a clan member would be automatically identified to other clan mates.

  An outsider like Ma Chao was the best scapegoat for this kind of incident.

  "CAO ZIHE!!" The two officers shouted in shock.

  Ma Chao didn’t let Zhu Ling or Yu Jin react or call for reinforcement.

  After firing several bullets, Ma Chao learned the basics of aiming. He pointed at Yu Jin’s head instead of shooting their body.

  *BANG*

  *BANG*

  Two shells punctured through Yu Jin’s skull and brain.

  *CLICK*

  Unfortunately, the pistol ran out of the bullet.

  "Tsk!"

  Ma Chao was about to break the iron bars and charge at Zhu Ling, but a new gun suddenly dropped from a portal above his head.

  Li Feihong dropped another loaded gun for Ma Chao!

  "How considerate……"

  Ma Chao grabbed it and aimed.

  *BANG*

  *BANG*

  Zhu Ling managed to react and leaped toward the side, dodging the bullets. The shells dig into the stone wall, creating small holes.

  The survivor didn’t bother trying to fight Ma Chao. He turned tail and ran while he opened his clan menu to ask for help.

  But a giant blue portal appeared before him. Zhu Ling’s feet were already in auto-mode as he was running for his life, so he dashed into the other dimension without realizing it.

  Upon getting inside Li Feihong’s world, he found a scholar with a strange black and brown weapon. Its long muzzle was pointing at his face. Behind him, one girl and two men were watching him.

  "Aim at his legs and hands. Don’t kill him."

  "Ah, I forgot."

  Zhu Ling stared at the people before him in shock. He recognized two of the four.

  "Li Feihong!? Zhuge Liang!?"

  *TATATATATA*

  It was too late for Zhu Ling to react. The AK-47 in Xu Shu’s hands spat fire. However, they did not hit Zhu Ling’s body. The shells tore his legs and forced him to collapse on the ground.

  *VHOOM*

  When Zhu Ling collapsed on the ground, Ma Chao entered the portal after he had broken out from his cell. As soon as he found the injured officer, he plunged the sword tip into Zhu Ling’s skull.

  The sword pierced through Zhu Ling’s head as it was soft tofu!

  A system message flashed before Zhuge Liang and Li Feihong, but the two master-and-servant didn’t care about it anymore. Their attention shifted toward Ma Chao and another person.

  It seemed Ma Chao had freed Liu Bei and brought him into the dimension as well.

  Zhuge Liang sighed as he was disappointed in Ma Chao, "We didn’t tell you to bring that man along."

  "If I leave him there, he will die."

  "That’s none of our concern. Oh well, we can keep him as a pet for now. We don’t want him to bad mouth us when Cao Cao’s guys come."

  "Zhuge Kongming! He was your lord! How could you abandon him!?"

  "Ma Mengqi. That was the other timeline. In this world, I serve his majesty and General Li. This moron here doesn’t deserve my loyalty!"

  While Ma Chao and Zhuge Liang were bickering, Li Feihong opened several more portals to collect bullet shells in the prison. As for the corpses, Li Feihong got out of the gate and used a sword to cut them to several parts and tossed them all over the place, destroying any evidence that might lead to himself.

  He was hiding the traces of bullet holes in their body. If someone saw them, they would believe that it was a work of an insider as only Tong’s trusted men had guns.

  Li Feihong wanted to cover the holes in the wall, but he rushed back into his private dimension in a hurry.

  Someone was coming, and Li Feihong didn’t want to be seen.

  *WHOOSH*

  Li Feihong returned to his world and closed all gates. ……

  10 Seconds later, a burly man with 6 wings rushed to the prison area and found the traces of battles.

  "AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!"

  Dian Wei shouted in anger as soon as he saw the dead bodies of his colleagues.

  "MA CHAO!!"

  The bodyguard expanded his sense to find the runaway prisoners, but he found no one. ……

  Li Feihong watched Dian Wei swinging his axe around and destroying the prison, going berserk. Walls and iron bars were wrecked by the monstrous force of this muscular man.

  Clan chat notifications alerted Li Feihong non-stop as the clan members were also in frenzy, shocked that Cao Cao’s men suddenly died.

  Li Feihong didn’t dare to open the clan menu to read the messages as he expected that someone might suspect him for this deed.

  An odd notification sounded. Li Feihong flinched when he heard it as it was a private message alert.

  He looked at Zhuge Liang and Ma Chao, who was still debating if rescuing Liu Bei was a good idea. Aside from Xu Shu and Zhou Cang, nobody paid attention to him at the moment.

  As for Liu Bei, the loser, he was fidgeting as he stood behind Ma Chao, terrified that he might be killed.

  Since the suspicious bunch was not paying attention to him, Li Feihong mustered his courage and read the private message.

  Diaochan: "Feihong. Swear allegiance to me using your empowered voice or be forever our enemy."

  Diaochan: "I knew from the beginning that you were once Liu Bei, but I allowed you to live since you were working hard to repent of your sins. But since you’re now an 8-wing angel now, it’s time to take sides. Pick one. Join us or die."

  Chapter 514 - Stance of Li Feihong, Zhuge Liang, and Cao Cao

  Diaochan: "I repeat - Swear allegiance to me. Or else, we’ll hunt you down!"

  Diaochan: "I also know that you were the one who killed those men. Choose wisely!"

  Li Feihong wanted to cry but he had no tear. Just now, he went out of his private dimension, so he was aware that Medusa might have found him by using her all-knowing eyes.

  This was a scary part of all 8-wing immortals since nobody could escape their absurd detection range. Their third eye could see everything, everyone, and every soul, including inner souls. This ability made Li Feihong’s monitors and his system skill a joke.

  Without hesitation, Li Feihong replied.

  Li Feihong: "I surrender. I didn’t expect that I was Liu Bei. I’m sorry!"

  Li Feihong: "I did it because of Zhuge Liang’s advice! Please forgive me!"

  Not only Li Feihong begged Medusa for mercy, but he also vowed with his empowered voice.

  "[I swear allegiance to Miss Diaochan!]"

  Li Feihong’s voice was soft, but Zhuge Liang, Liu Bei, Ma Chao, and everybody else in his dimension could hear it. The dimension shook for a minute as karma laws were at work.

  From now on, Li Feihong could sense Medusa’s whereabouts whenever he went out of his dimension. However, he didn’t want to step out of his safe-haven at the moment since Dian Wei was trying to track him.

  Diaochan: "Good. I’ve received your karma knot. I’ll treat you fairly."

  Diaochan: "Actually, I didn’t blame you for what you’ve done. I think it’s a good idea to reduce some of Cao Cao’s men."

  Diaochan: "Transfer me to your dimension tomorrow afternoon. I want to talk to you and your [Clansmen] in private and teach you a few abilities that 8-wing immortals like us can do. This world is within Lilim’s detection range, so I can’t talk much."

  Li Feihong: "Yes, ma’am!"

  Li Feihong was relieved that Medusa was in favor of killing Cao Cao’s subordinates. He sighed and turned toward his men, who were looking at him in shocked, puzzled, and confused.

  "What did you do, my lord?"

  Even Zhuge Liang was baffled by his lord’s action.

  "Surrendering to the empress, of course. She found us the moment I stepped outside for a few seconds."

  Zhuge Liang laughed and shook his head, "You never and will ever plan to betray his majesty Zhang Tong at all, don’t you?"

  "Backstab Zhang Tong and all meanie women will come after my life! Do you think I’m stupid!?"

  "Not at all! A wise choice, my lord!"

  "What is your goal? I meant, for real. I thought you wanted to rebel against Zhang Tong, but it seems you have too many ulterior motives."

  Everyone turned toward Zhuge Liang, who was the mastermind of this rescue mission.

  While everyone’s glared at the scholar, the latter was unfazed. On the contrary, he was enjoying being at the center of attention.

  "First goal, wipe out Cao Cao and his clansmen. These ambitious fools are a concerning threat toward our Han Dynasty."

  Li Feihong, Xu Shu, and Zhou Cang nodded in approval. Since these men were untrustworthy to the point that they dared to bite the hands that fed them, they shouldn’t allow them to enjoy the aftermath of the unification.

  Liu Bei and Ma Chao were also happy with Zhuge Liang’s goal. The more Tong and Cao Cao fighting each other, the better the chance that they could thrive.

  "Second goal, get rid of all unruly factors, such as Te Langpu, Zhen Yi, Sun Ce, Sima Yi, and the cultivator cult in Jiangdong."

  Again, Liu Bei and Ma Chao delighted by the discovery. Now, they understood that Tong’s subordinates were not in harmony. Instead, they were trying to kill each other to the last man.

  But Xu Shu managed to notice another hidden agenda within the limited information.

  "No Sun Quan in the list?"

  Zhuge Liang didn’t mention Sun Quan or his clansmen, only Sun Ce.

  "Nah, Sun Quan is smarter than those idiots. I talked to him in private chat, and he ratted out that Lilim and Cao Cao are trying to instigate chaos in our country. He also didn’t fall to Lilim’s temptation."

  \r \r \r

  "Lilim?"

  Their conversation caught Li Feihong’s attention, "What else do you know about Sun Quan and Lilim?"

  Zhuge Liang shrugged, "Not much. He told me that Lilim tempted him with system skills, but he declined since she wanted his immortal oath. Oh, he told me that he was in trouble with having two types of wings, and he was hoping to get Diaochan’s advice. I think Sun Quan wants to be Diaochan’s apprentice and get closer to the royalty."

  "So, he’s not a threat?"

  "He’s never a threat. I can tell that he only wants the best for his clansmen and his mother. He will play it safe and secure his position in the court as it is. Aside from his attempts to pursue the princesses, he won’t try anything stupid or gamble it all like Cao Cao or others. We can count on them."

  This was a piece of good news to Li Feihong and Zhou Cang, who were concerned about the empire’s harmony.

  "Are you certain? If he’s going after the princesses, won’t he try to fight for the throne?"

  "He won’t. At best, he will just demand a title, like …… the King of Wu or something and still be taking orders from the higher-ups as usual."

  "……"

  "Well, back to the main topic, I can’t reveal my other plans. It’s not the right time."

  Zhuge Liang smiled and pointed at Liu Bei and Ma Chao, who were the outsiders.

  Li Feihong and Xu Shu understood that Zhuge Liang wanted to keep his plan a secret, so they didn’t press for more info. After all, knowing that Zhuge Liang was still their ally was good enough.

  Ma Chao and Liu Bei looked at the crews in wary. They realized that they were being used, but they had to work for Li Feihong and Zhuge Liang for now. After all, they were still Li Feihong’s prisoners.

  Even if Ma Chao wanted to act unruly, he was no match against Li Feihong’s 8-wing cultivation.

  "Anyway, let’s move to our next target. Should we kill Te Langpu next? What do you think, Kongming?"

  Li Feihong changed the subject and asked Zhuge Liang for his approval.

  "To be honest, I want to kill Te Langpu right away, but doing so will bring suspicion on you, my lord. If we kill Te Langpu within a short period after Ma Chao got out of prison, those over-thinkers in the clan would have deduced that you were behind this escape plan since you’re the only one with teleportation ability. Right now, you are the only one who can rescue Ma Chao and Liu Bei out without getting detected."

  "What is your suggestion, then?"

  "The most dangerous place is the safest place. We should camp inside this prison for a while and spy on Cao Cao’s movements. We’ll plan our next move according to their reaction and investigation. Also, please use your gates to recover those bullet heads inside the wall. If they find it, you’re busted."

  "……"

  Li Feihong observed Dian Wei’s reaction from the spy monitors. The 6-wing angel wasn’t paying attention to the corpses or the wall as he ran around, searching for a secret passage that he thought Liu Bei and Ma Chao had used to escape.

  He didn’t notice the bullet holes in the wall!

  ’I should replace the bullet heads in the wall with these……’ ……

  = 10 Minutes later =

  The dead of Cao Chun, Zhu Ling, and Yu Jin was bad news to Cao Cao as Ma Chao had a vendetta against him in the other timeline, and he might carry it over to this world as well.

  Cao Cao inspected the prison personally after Dian Wei had confirmed that Ma Chao and Liu Bei had escaped. He crouched and examined the corpses.

  Aside from Cao Chun’s dead body, Zhu Ling and Yu Jin’s remains were cut into small pieces. Over a hundred human parts scattered throughout the prison.

  "These cuts were not from combat. Aside from the cleave cut on Zihe, the others should have died before these wounds happened. What do you think, Yuanrang?"

  "These dead bodies were chopped to pieces to disguise the true cause of death. If they had a sword fight here, they should have had enough time to inform us in the clan chat since their strength is equal."

  "Right. Three 4-wing immortals can’t even stop a weakened 4-wing immortal. I doubt it’s the work of Ma Chao alone."

  Xiahou Dun was looking left and right, searching for a trace of Ma Chao’s helper.

  "Ma Chao couldn’t break out of this alone. Someone should have come and helped him out."

  Xiahou Dun’s eyes stopped at the wall in front of Ma Chao’s former cell. He walked toward it and touched a hole in the wall.

  Deep holes, each with a diameter of a finger, could be seen in several areas. Xiahou Dun dug one of the bullet holes as if he wanted to get something inside.

  Xiahou Dun’s action attracted Cao Cao’s attention. The latter stopped what he was doing and observed his cousin.

  "Huh?"

  Xiahou Dun found what he was looking for, the cause of these holes.

  Bullets!

  "……"

  But Xiahou Dun was disappointed as he looked at what in his hand was.

  They were lead balls, which they used for musket shells.

  "Musket ammo?"

  Cao Cao also frowned in disappointment. He was hoping for a cylinder pointy shell, which were modern bullets, created by Diaochan’s [Firearm Creation]. If that were the case, Li Feihong would be the prime suspect of this prison break.

  Unfortunately, a musket was not Li Feihong’s primary weapon. Therefore, the prison break should have been done by someone else.

  "Yeah, musket shells."

  "So, it can’t be our men since we’ve contacted all of them. Can it be Sun Ce’s guy?"

  "Maybe. Zhang Tong’s men don’t use muskets, but those otherworlder’s guns. Only Sun Ce or Liu Bei’s forces use muskets."

  "What about Lilim’s servants?"

  "…… No idea."

  "……"

  Cao Cao and Xiahou Dun clicked their tongues in frustration. Had they found a modern bullet head in the scene, they would have used it to blame this prison break on Li Feihong and strip him from the legion supreme commander position.

  Since they found round musket shells instead of modern lead bullets, Cao Cao could only speculate that Sun Ce’s men busted Ma Chao and Liu Bei out as they had the same enemies.

  "Let’s go back. Liu Bei and Ma Chao will show up to fight Zhang Tong eventually."

  Cao Cao shook his head as he wanted to remain here for a while longer. Although he wasn’t sad that his cousin and his subordinates died, the loss was a slap to his face.

  Moreover, this incident revealed that the infighting had become complicated as many factions started to move.

  Emperor’s supporters,

  Sun Quan’s faction,

  Cao Cao’s faction,

  Sima Family,

  Te Langpu,

  Sun Ce’s remnants,

  And Lilim’s.

  ’I should contact Lilim and ask her about the situation with Lu Bu and Zhang Tong. If those two are taken care of, I can proceed with the plan. If not, I should abort the mission and kill both Te Langpu and Sima Yi.’

  Cao Cao hesitated if instigating chaos within Tong’s clansmen was the right move. He contemplated if Tong or Lilim would come out on top in their struggle for power.

  ’Zhang Tong or Lilim? If Lilim can defeat Zhang Tong, overthrowing his throne is the right move. If Zhang Tong wins, I’m dead.’

  Although he could maintain his position as Tong’s retainer, the reward he could get from supporting Tong’s side was minuscule. However, joining Lilim had huge perks, included system skills, cultivation guidance, and authority.

  The comparison between the two forces aroused Cao Cao’s desire. Since everyone would become immortals, it would have been a shame if he had to live as Tong’s lapdog for the rest of eternity.

  Why not betting everything in this huge gamble? He could win big and enjoy all the skills and perks of being an immortal with absolute authority, second after Lilim. He could even steal Zhang Tong’s wives once Lilim took over his throne.

  The choice was obvious.

  Win big or die fighting!