Li Tianwei immediately thought of that possibility. His knowledge of the sciences was nothing more than a matter of interest.
History and politics, however, were what he truly excelled at. Back when he was six, he had read through the Twenty-Four Histories in their entirety. Never mind the hundreds of millions of words—if anyone asked, he had finished them all.
From then on, Li Tianwei had harbored ambitions of unifying the Central Plains. Sadly, he had been born too late. Still, that had not stopped him from gathering the Twelve Great Generals and competing for the Central Plains back then—until all twelve of them got a beating from their parents and lost all desire to vie for supremacy.
Li Tianwei did not think it was a big deal. After all, others had already competed for the Central Plains. As the protagonist, if he was going to do something, naturally he had to do what no one before him had done. Unfortunately, he had yet to accomplish it.
That showed just how much history and politics could fuel one's ambitions. Having read through the Twenty-Four Histories, Li Tianwei could see plenty from the wording of this seemingly simple invitation.
The words Hongmen Banquet were simple enough, yet this sort of scheme—one that seemed impossible for anyone else to fall for—had buried no one knew how many people. Even the dynasty founded by Liu Bang, the very creator of the Hongmen Banquet, clearly had that precedent to learn from.
Yet Han Xin still died that way, summoned to court and killed outright. So did He Jin and Dong Zhuo at the end of the Han Dynasty.
It looked like an invitation to dinner or a meeting, but could you guard against it for a moment and guard against it for a lifetime?
One could say that conspiracies and tricks were useless. This was simple and crude: use Bai Muxu's former master-disciple bond to coerce him, then use the name of the sacred land to lure him in.
In Li Tianwei's eyes, this simple invitation contained the Evil Demons' understanding of people and their approval of political scheming.
"These Outer Realm Demons aren't as simple as I expected!"
"To think they came up with a method like inviting someone to dinner—they're truly shrewd."
At this moment, Li Tianwei's little head was exceptionally clever.
An unearned benefit, an opportunity to make a name for himself—although it looked as though it was still within the Lingxu Sacred Land, if it were truly safe, the system would not have said that the Lingxu Sacred Land had been infiltrated by the Outer Realm Demons until it was riddled with holes.
"If it were me, I'd do the same."
Li Tianwei picked up the invitation again and thought about it.
However, a so-called Hongmen Banquet had a prerequisite: the inviter had to be willing to act. If he did not fuss over all sorts of miscellaneous matters, the plan was already half complete.
Wasn't Xiang Yu exactly like that?
Then, the invited person had to be too weak, while the inviter possessed absolute strength to suppress him. That would make the matter complete as well.
Both situations required absolute decisiveness and formidable strength.
As for how to break the situation, it was simple too: suppress everything with absolute strength. Then the so-called Hongmen Banquet would become a joke. He could even use it to wreck their plans and probe their true colors.
As for that, Li Tianwei was very confident. No, he had always been confident. As the protagonist, the Hongmen Banquet existed only to set him off.
Within Li Tianwei's consciousness, the system was rarely impressed by his cleverness. According to its calculations, this sudden invitation definitely posed a major problem.
When it heard Li Tianwei's thoughts and realized that he had already figured it out, the system breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that Li Tianwei had finally been clever for once.
Unexpectedly, before it could finish marveling, Li Tianwei turned around and dismissed it, even claiming that he was the protagonist and that the Hongmen Banquet was merely there to highlight him.
Host, host, Evil Demons are not as easy to deal with as you imagine. I advise you to speak with your master.
Seeing this, the system immediately tried to persuade him.
Yet in its heart, the system had long made its calculations. If it had not miscalculated, should those Evil Demons attack Li Tianwei, they would at most dispatch someone in the Nascent Soul Realm. That would absolutely be enough to crush Li Tianwei, while the system had the strength to save him.
Clearly, this crisis was also an opportunity for the system to highlight its own existence. What persuasion? The system was practically hoping Li Tianwei would go. Then, when Li Tianwei fell into despair, it could step in and save him. Would that not make Li Tianwei understand his own incompetence?
It was killing two birds with one stone. He only needed to be reckless once. After that, as long as he carefully, prudently, and steadily raised the host's strength, he could obtain merit from this world.
A wonderful future seemed to lie right before its eyes.
Especially when it thought of someone as arrogant as Li Tianwei submitting to it, the system felt that all the pent-up frustration it had suffered since binding with Li Tianwei had finally been released.
"Hm? Are you saying I'm not good enough?"
Hearing the system's persuasion, Li Tianwei inexplicably sensed that something was slightly off.
Yet due to his personality, Li Tianwei did not point it out. Instead, he questioned it.
How could that be? You are the host I selected.
The system was still lost in its fantasies when it answered instinctively. The moment the words left it, the system realized something was wrong.
"You're acting very strange, huh!"
Li Tianwei's expression changed upon hearing that. After all, the system had always gone against him and claimed that his aptitude was lacking, yet this was the first time it had expressed approval.
Ah!
Hearing Li Tianwei's words, the system understood that it had fallen into a trap.
No, I merely wanted you to suffer a setback. This time may be fraught with danger, and when the time comes, you will need me.
Thus, the system changed its tactics.
As soon as it finished speaking, Li Tianwei smiled faintly. "Trying to fool me? I'll just block you with one hand."
Li Tianwei directly blocked the system once again. As for the system's strange behavior, he had noticed it too.
The reason was most likely that attending might truly be dangerous—at least, dangerous in the system's eyes.
Li Tianwei knew that this fellow probably wanted to use this to establish its authority.
Li Tianwei could understand the system's behavior. After all, its host was simply too outstanding, making the system seem overly useless.
Of course, Li Tianwei would not say much about the behavior of this rebellious child.
Li Tianwei figured that if he were the system and encountered such a perfect host, he too would feel far too useless and would try to fight for a little dignity.
Unfortunately, there were no ifs, nor could such an if exist.
So what if there was one? Would that not only make him seem even stronger and the system even more useless?
Li Tianwei's thoughts continuously reached the system's ears, but because Li Tianwei had blocked it, it could only rage impotently.
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"Still, I have to attend this Hongmen Banquet. Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will fight a hundred battles without defeat."
Having made his decision, Li Tianwei began cultivating in seclusion, intending to raise his cultivation as much as possible during this time.
"Come on! Explosive Secret Method, let me see where the limit of the Sacrifice Dao Undying Body lies."
Li Tianwei directly activated all sorts of Explosive Secret Methods that temporarily increased his cultivation. With the Sacrifice Dao Undying Body, he was not afraid of the damage these secret methods might cause. Instead, they would allow him to glimpse a higher realm without harming his foundation.
Very quickly, Li Tianwei's cultivation, originally at Foundation Establishment Early Stage, continuously rose to the middle stage, then the late stage. Immediately afterward, a roar rang in his ears.
"Crack..."
Li Tianwei saw a qualitative change in his spiritual energy. The originally gaseous spiritual energy transformed into liquid, even gathering together to form a round pellet that radiated an eerie aura.
This was the Pseudo-Golden Core Realm, driven by secret methods to raise him into the Golden Core Realm.