Capítulo 992: 941. Emperor Xian et Zhuge Liang & Lu Xun
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Lu Xun gave him a helpless look. “And whose fault was that? With you and Brother Zhongda constantly provoking debates at every sunrise and sunset a sthe thre of us was together, how could I not be affected? The two of you argued over everything, even the shape of clouds.”
Zhuge Liang lowered his fan, eyes gleaming. “Clouds shape the temperant of heaven. They matter.”
Lu Xun let out an exaggerated sigh. “And this is exactly why I needed to temper my personality in Lujiang. I worked hard to grow past my impulsive tendencies. And I am glad I did, His Majesty entrusted with a task of great significance, not to ntion promoting to Grand Bailiff of Xiapi.”
His voice carried subtle pride, not vanity, just filled with purpose.
Zhuge Liang smiled. “His Majesty has been waiting for you to finish your duties in Lujiang and the debt of gratitude to your Grand Uncle as well. The mont you done with all of that and proved yourself, he summoned you, and entrusted you with sothing aningful to mark your arrival.”
Lu Xun exhaled quietly, eyes softening with deep respect. “His Majesty has always been… mysterious, even when we were young. I still cannot see through his thoughts. Every move he makes is as though it had already been played out in his mind a hundred tis. The result always seems predetermined… Always victory.”
Zhuge Liang’s expression grew thoughtful.
“That is why he will unite this land,” he said, voice quiet but certain. “The others fight for territory, for pride, for survival. But His Majesty sees beyond that. Every banquet, every alliance, every placent of a single official, it is all a piece of a grand design. Nothing he touches is trivial, imaybe the effect aren’t today, tomorrow, or next week, ut could be even several years later.”
Lu Xun nodded slowly, absorbing each word.
Ahead of them, Chengdu’s gates swung open fully, wooden beams groaning, iron braces gleaming in the sun.
And the mont the Hengyuan banners ca into view, the people of Chengdu gasped.
Whispers spread like wildfire.
“Hengyuan’s banners, here?”
“Why would they send envoys now?”
“Is it good news? Trouble? A peace proposal?”
“Is it about the Princess? The rumors of marriage?”
As Zhuge Liang and Lu Xun entered the city proper, more citizens gathered along the streets, rchants clutching baskets of spices, farrs unloading produce, officials hurrying from building to building. Even the guards straightened in surprise, trying to remain stoic as tension rippled through the city like a disturbed pond.
The procession advanced slowly, the steady clop of hooves echoing through Chengdu’s main avenue.
anwhile, inside the palace.
Within the quiet interior of the Chengdu palace, Emperor Xian sat hunched slightly over a stack of petitions, his fingers stained faintly with ink. The chambers around him were elegant but subdued, filled with an airy stillness broken only by the soft rustle of papers.
He did not handle the important affairs of course, not truly. Fa Zheng, Zhang Song, and ng Da had curated the docunts carefully, ensuring that only trivial petitions reached the emperor’s table.
Requests for minor repairs. Local disputes. Ritual approvals. Petitions from small clans seeking tax exemptions for damaged fields.
Nothing that could influence policy. Nothing that could shift the balance of power.
Emperor Xian knew it. He wasn’t blind. But he accepted it because he had no choice, not if he wished to buy more ti for Wang Fu and Wu Yi to stir the embers of resistance elsewhere.
He lifted another scroll, eyes scanning automatically. His movents were practiced, patient, the posture of a man who had spent years doing tasks that mattered only in na.
Then—
A servant knelt at the threshold of the chamber.
“Your Majesty,” the man said, bowing deeply. “News has arrived, the Han procession returned escorting the Hengyuan envoy. They have already entered the city.”
The emperor’s hand paused, ink brush hovering over a half signed line.
His heartbeat quickened, not from joy, nor from fear, but from the twisting unease of a man whose fate was being shaped by forces he could only delay, never stop.
“The envoy…” Emperor Xian murmured. “Who leads it?”
“The Hengyuan envoy consists of two primary representatives,” the servant replied. “The leader is Hengyuan’s Minister of Personnel, Master Zhuge Liang. The second is the newly appointed Grand Bailiff of Xiapi, Master Lu Xun.”
Emperor Xian closed his eyes.
Not just any envoys.
Not re bureaucrats.
Zhuge Liang, one of Lie Fan’s most talented and loyal strategist. As for Lu Xun, he ha e heard of his fa, he is a rising star who brilliance have dimd for so ti, but it looks like now it have beco a brilliant, unshakeable, and trusted star.
If Lie Fan sent n like them, it could only an one thing.
The response to the marriage proposal had arrived.
And it would be delivered with precision, with pressure, with the kind of subtle dominance Lie Fan wielded with frightening ease.
The emperor’s voice was barely above a whisper.
“So… it begins.”
He swallowed, straightened his back, and forced steadiness into his voice.
“Prepare the hall,” he said. “We will receive the envoys.”
The servant bowed and hurried away.
Emperor Xian remained seated for a long mont, staring down at the ink stained petitions before him, petitions that once represented the authority of a dynasty stretching centuries into the past.
He touched the scroll lightly, tracing the characters with a slow, almost wistful motion.
His daughter…
To be married to Lie Fan’s eldest son.
A union he did not want.
A sacrifice he could not refuse.
A tether around his neck disguised as an alliance.
He inhaled deeply, steadying himself.
“Wang Fu, Wu Yi,” he murmured under his breath, “I have bought you as much ti as I can. Pray that it is enough.”
Outside the palace, Wu Tai stood at the foot of the steps, posture perfect, face unreadable. Slowly, he turned toward the oncoming Hengyuan procession. His expression shifted into the reserved, mildly polite facade of a loyal Han official performing routine ceremony.
Zhuge Liang approached first.
Wu Tai bowed only slightly—precisely the bare minimum required by etiquette.
“Envoy of Hengyuan,” he said, voice clean but formal, “His Majesty awaits.”
Zhuge Liang returned the courtesy with identical restraint. “We trouble His Majesty with our presence.”
Lu Xun mirrored the action, his youthful dignity sharpened into diplomatic calm.
None of the watching servants knew. None of the guards suspected. The entire exchange looked stiff, distant, exactly what Han Hengyuan diplomacy was expected to be. Zhuge Liang looked up at the palace roofs glinting beneath the sun. He closed his fan with a quiet snap.
“Shall we?” he asked Lu Xun.
Lu Xun smiled faintly. “After you, brother.”
Together, with calm dignity, with the unspoken authority of the future, Zhuge Liang and Lu Xun guided the Hengyuan procession toward the heart of Chengdu.
Back inside the palace, on the main hall, Emperor Xian now was sitting on his throne while the Han officials and courtiers stood below him, with Fa Zheng, Zhang Song, and ng Da leading them. His knuckles whitened around his armrest. His pulse hamred.
The doors parted.
Two figures entered.
Zhuge Liang,composed, graceful, eyes like still water yet carrying storms beneath. Lu Xun, upright, young, but every inch a dignified envoy.
Their presence filled the hall like a shifting tide.
Emperor Xian forced himself to breathe.
This was no re diplomatic response.
This was a ssage.
A reminder of power.
A reminder of inevitability.
And as Zhuge Liang bowed with perfect courtesy, Emperor Xian felt sothing inside him tighten, a sense that the ground beneath the Han Dynasty was slipping grain by grain, inch by inch… into the hands of Lie Fan.
Zhuge Liang rose smoothly from his bow, the sleeves of his robe settling around him like calm water. His posture, his gaze, even the faint curve of his smile were refined to an art, respectful enough for an emperor, yet carrying the unmistakable steadiness of a man who served one far greater.
“We pay our respects to Your Majesty,” he said, voice poised, neither humble nor prideful, simply appropriate. “I, Zhuge Liang, Minister of Personnel under His Majesty Emperor Hongyi, greet Your Majesty of the Han.”
Lu Xun followed imdiately, bowing with dignified precision, his voice carrying the clarity of youth blended with the weight of high office.
“Lu Xun, appointed Grand Bailiff of Xiapi by His Majesty Emperor Hongyi, humbly greets Your Majesty.”
The chamber remained still for the briefest heartbeat, the air stretched thin like lacquer over wood. Emperor Xian nodded slowly, his expression controlled, though the faint tremor at the corner of his eye betrayed the strain beneath.
“You are both welco in my court,” he replied, tone gentle, formal, but edged with tension. “I hope your journey to Chengdu was comfortable and peaceful. I trust the procession sent by my court provided due proper treatnt.”
Behind the two envoys, the Han procession, visibly uneasy beside the gleaming Hengyuan banners, bowed in sync, their movents crisp yet overshadowed by the presence of Hengyuan’s finest.
Zhuge Liang smiled politely, hands folded behind his back.
“Our journey was smooth, Your Majesty. Your procession perford their duties with respect and appropriate decorum. Master Wu Tai led them with dignity.”
Wu Tai stiffened, unable to tell whether this was praise or an elegant reminder of how carefully his own actions had been watched. Emperor Xian rely nodded, his throat tightening.
“Good,” he said. “Good… Then since you stand here in my court, I assu His Majesty Emperor Hongyi has given his response to the marriage alliance proposal.”
His voice wavered, not much, not loud, but enough that those who listened closely could hear the heaviness in it. The weight of resignation. The weight of an emperor who had written a letter he did not approve, ordering a submission he did not want, for the sake of buying ti he could no longer afford.
Zhuge Liang and Lu Xun did not acknowledge this hesitation. They did not need to. They were envoys, but also artists in diplomacy. Silence was just another brushstroke.
Lu Xun stepped forward, his expression composed.
“Your Majesty is correct,” he said with polished respect. “His Majesty Emperor Hongyi has issued his formal response to the marriage alliance. The content of his reply is contained within this imperial scroll.”
As Lu Xun finished speaking, his page, standing perfectly still a step behind him, lifted the lacquered wooden case with both hands. Lu Xun turned, retrieved the scroll with deliberate grace, and presented it to Zhuge Liang.
The sound of the case latch opening seed louder than it should have. Sharper. Like a blade being drawn rather than a simple box being opened.
Emperor Xian’s fingers clenched around the armrest of his throne, knuckles whitening.
Below him, the Han officials exchanged looks.
Fa Zheng, Zhang Song, and ng Da shifted slightly, giving nearly imperceptible nods. And like trained perforrs cued onstage, murmurs began swelling through the ranks of officials.
“Hengyuan presents their reply with such grandeur…”
“Emperor Hongyi must be a man of imnse courage.”
“Much stronger than His Majesty, clearly he commands with true imperial presence.”
“No wonder the three masters manage court affairs. His Majesty is too gentle, too indecisive.”
“It is wise that we listen to them, not him.”
The whispers rippled across the hall, growing intentionally loud enough for everyone, including the Hengyuan envoys, to hear. Emperor Xian’s eyes closed briefly. He knew this ga. He knew this provocation. Fa Zheng and his faction wanted him to lose control.
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Na: Lie Fan
Title: Founding Emperor Of Hengyuan Dynasty
Age: 35 (202 AD)
Level: 16
Next Level: 462,000
Renown: 2325
Cultivation: Yin Yang Separation (level 9)
SP: 1,121,700
ATTRIBUTE POINTS
STR: 966 ( 20)
VIT: 623 ( 20)
AGI: 623 ( 10)
INT: 667
CHR: 98
WIS: 549
WILL: 432
ATR Points: 0
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