Immortal at the River

The mighty Yangtze flowed east, its waters rolling away.

It came from Immortal at the River, a poem by Yang Shen of the Ming dynasty. The old Romance of the Three Kingdoms TV series had used it as its opening theme.

Chen Xi could even sing the next line:

"The waves wash away all heroes."

When he heard it, Qi Fei smiled faintly.

Chen Xi, on the other hand, wore a complicated expression.

Their strange reactions naturally drew the attention of everyone present.

The others glanced back and forth between them, unable to make sense of their relationship.

"Sorry, Lord Xuande, could Zihong and I speak in private?"

Chen Xi asked Liu Bei.

"Of course."

Seeing the troubled look on Chen Xi's face, Liu Bei couldn't bring himself to refuse.

"You two talk for now. I'll see to the others and have them prepare a feast to welcome Zihong."

Then Liu Bei led the bewildered Guan, Zhang, and Zhao away.

As soon as the four had left, Chen Xi started to ask Qi Fei a question.

But Qi Fei gestured for him to be quiet, then used his mental power to isolate the two of them from the outside world, so no one could eavesdrop.

Only after that did Qi Fei say:

"All right, we can talk now."

"Did you come from that world too?"

Chen Xi asked impatiently.

"Yes."

Qi Fei nodded.

When Chen Xi heard the answer, he opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Now that he had confirmation, he didn't know what to say next.

"I came from 2014. When did you come from?"

After a long silence, Chen Xi finally asked.

"I'm from 2025."

Qi Fei answered honestly.

"Then... how are things back home?"

Chen Xi hesitated before asking.

Qi Fei had known Chen Xi would ask that.

Throughout the original novel, what drove Chen Xi was never Liu Bei's ambition to rule, or anyone else's.

It was the desire to see Huaxia stand atop the world.

In the original, he had openly shared farming methods that increased yields and prescriptions for treating epidemics.

Even though these would strengthen the other warlords and make his own future more uncertain,

Chen Xi had still done it.

He had wanted to prevent the catastrophe in which the population fell by nearly eighty percent from the late Han period through the Jin dynasties.

"There are a few minor problems, but overall things are steadily improving. Our rivals, though, have made plenty of fools of themselves."

For example, Brexit and the Paris Olympics.

And there was no need to mention the Americans, who were practically on the verge of tearing themselves apart.

"Good, good."

Chen Xi sighed repeatedly in relief.

"Oh, and by my time, that magazine had become a complete joke. Video bloggers even read its articles aloud every day just to mock it."

Qi Fei gave Chen Xi another piece of good news.

"It was always a joke. Someone gets stabbed through the heart and doesn't die? What kind of superhuman is that?"

Chen Xi was grumbling, but he couldn't hide the joy in his eyes.

Back in their time, this kind of baseless glorification had been widespread.

Most people had few ways to learn about foreign countries, so they'd been badly fooled by those ridiculous magazines.

Now, hearing that people in a later era had seen through the trick genuinely lifted his spirits.

Then the two of them started making fun of all the bizarre articles in that magazine.

For a while, laughter filled the tent.

Once they had finished laughing, they turned to serious matters.

"Zihong, what's the real purpose of your visit?"

Chen Xi asked earnestly.

"As you can see, I came to join Lord Xuande—or, to put it plainly, to join you."

Qi Fei answered frankly.

"Me?"

Chen Xi looked doubtful.

He wasn't questioning whether Qi Fei was telling the truth. He doubted his own abilities.

He hadn't yet had a chance to put his skills into practice, so he had no clear sense of how capable he was.

"I have some idea of what people like us can do."

What Qi Fei really meant was Chen Xi's abilities, not those of people like them.

But it wasn't time to say that yet, so he put it that way.

"Tell me, if the two of us ended up fighting, what would happen to the people of the world?"

Qi Fei looked straight at Chen Xi.

"I'm afraid it would be a hundred times more disastrous than it was originally."

Chen Xi's expression grew troubled.

Even if he judged things only by his own standards, the result was still despairing.

And the other side clearly had the advantage in martial talent.

"I agree. That's why I came."

Qi Fei spread his hands.

"...Aren't you afraid?"

Chen Xi hesitated before asking.

"Afraid of what?"

Qi Fei asked in return.

"Afraid I'll attack you."

Chen Xi replied.

"I'm not. You wouldn't do that."

Qi Fei's answer was as firm as a nail driven into wood.

"Because I have to protect Lord Xuande's reputation?"

Perhaps his emotions had gotten the better of him; Chen Xi's voice rose slightly.

"That's part of it, sure. But more than anything, I'm willing to put my trust in you."

If Qi Fei couldn't even trust Chen Xi, there weren't many webnovel protagonists he could trust.

"What if—and I'm only saying if—you eventually found out you'd trusted the wrong person?"

Chen Xi asked, looking lost.

"Then I'd start over."

Qi Fei replied unconcernedly.

As long as he wasn't killed right then and there, he'd still have a chance to turn things around.

"..."

Chen Xi fell silent.

Qi Fei's unreserved trust had genuinely shaken him.

"Come on, big bro. Don't dwell on all that nonsense."

Qi Fei said, patting Chen Xi on the shoulder.

"Back in your time, transmigrators in all kinds of stories mostly wanted to rule over everyone. It's different for us. Cooperation and mutual benefit are the norm."

Even Tang, who'd always been seen as bottom-tier, had people trying to set him straight.

And that went double for protagonists who were decent people to begin with.

"Sounds like the online world got a lot better after our time."

Chen Xi said with a smile.

"Uh..."

Qi Fei froze as if someone had pressed pause.

"Don't tell me it got worse?"

One look at Qi Fei's expression told Chen Xi something was off.

"Yeah."

Qi Fei quietly answered with a single word.

"...Forget it. We won't be around to see it anyway. If it gets worse, so be it."

Chen Xi sighed helplessly.

Even if things had gotten worse, there was nothing transmigrators like them could do about it.

"Let's talk about business. Tell me if you have any ideas about what we should do next."

Chen Xi had been fretting over the lack of suitable civil officials to handle government affairs.

Having a fellow transmigrator to discuss things with would be ideal.

"Just follow your own ideas. I'm not good at this."

Qi Fei immediately replied.

As if he'd want to discuss development plans with you.

You're even better than someone with a resource cheat. Discussing this with you would just be asking to humiliate myself.

"Before I transmigrated, I was an orthopedic surgeon. Since coming here, I've only shown some talent in the Military School. Oh, and I brought you a gift."

Afraid Chen Xi would find him work to do, Qi Fei spoke at lightning speed.

"?"

Chen Xi was a little dazed by the barrage of information.

"Zichuan, do you know which troop type is best suited to people like us in this world?"

Qi Fei asked.

"Please enlighten me, Zihong."

Chen Xi had a habit: leave professional matters to the professionals.

If there was a field he didn't understand, he wouldn't speak carelessly about it.

"Surely you've noticed that developing firearms isn't really possible in this world."

Qi Fei began by raising the issue.

At least, gunpowder weapons weren't possible for the time being.

"Huh?"

Chen Xi had only recently transmigrated and hadn't yet looked into the matter.

So Qi Fei explained the reasons from the beginning.

This world had a unique technique called Nurturing. By using Internal Qi and Cloud Qi, people could greatly increase the strength of objects.

A whole bucket of black powder couldn't even blow apart a wooden barrel that had been nurtured, let alone armor made of steel.

And Nurturing couldn't increase the amount of energy released by gunpowder in an instant.

That meant early firearms were practically useless.

You'd need anti-materiel weapons from at least the Second World War to hurt even the weakest ordinary soldier.

Against a regular soldier with talent, you'd probably need to hit him with artillery for quite a while.

Not because artillery fire could kill them outright, but because prolonged heating could break down the structure created by Nurturing.

That would strip away the protection their equipment provided.

As for the higher-tier legions, you'd need to bombard them nonstop with huge-area weapons like fuel-air explosives.

Maybe prolonged oxygen deprivation could kill them.

Of course, using such weapons would require Cloud Qi on this side too.

Without Cloud Qi, there'd be no need to send out a legion. A single martial general could tear the whole place apart.

Chen Xi fell silent after hearing Qi Fei's explanation.

He felt as if Heaven itself had it in for him.

The thing transmigrators were best at—using modern weapons to beat up the locals—was off the table.

"Don't worry."

Qi Fei called out.

"I've prepared a troop type for you that can turn production capacity into fighting power."

At that moment, he seemed like a divine soldier descending from the heavens.

"Ta-da! The former Huangfu Personal Guards. Their talent is Self-Adaptation, which lets them adapt to certain adverse conditions."

Qi Fei spoke in Doraemon's tone.

"So how are they supposed to turn productivity into combat power?"

Chen Xi played along and asked.

"Heh heh. They can adapt not only to all kinds of damage, but even to the weight they carry."

Qi Fei explained to Chen Xi.

"They can fight under Cloud Qi while carrying equipment that weighs as much as they do."

"At 150 jin, they can easily beat a One-Talent soldier. At 180 jin, they can hold their own against a Two-Talent soldier. At 200 jin, they're unquestionably top-tier Imperial Guards."

And yet the Huangfu Personal Guards themselves had only one talent, and were extremely easy to train.

"Wait a second. What do you mean by One-Talent and Two-Talent?"

Chen Xi asked in confusion.

"You know about Elite Talent, right?"

Qi Fei had almost forgotten that the Han Dynasty didn't classify soldiers that way at this point in time.

"I do."

Chen Xi had spent a fair amount of time with Liu Bei by now, and had seen the special powers possessed by the soldiers.

"You mean the numbers refer to how many talents they have?"

He figured it out in an instant.

"Exactly. Aside from a few special legions, they can generally all be classified this way."

Qi Fei nodded.

Some legions were special, like the Wolf Cavalry.

They had ten effects from a single talent. Did that mean they were a Ten-Talent legion?

That was ridiculous.

Legions with such special traits could generally only be classified by their level of combat strength.

"In my view, One-Talent means Regular Soldiers. Anyone with a normal understanding of military affairs can train them."

The only question was whether the soldiers they trained would meet their needs.

"Two-Talent means elite troops. Generally, only veterans with at least ten battles under their belts can advance to that level."

Even a commander like Huangfu Song, who ranked among the best in the world, could only bring out the qualities the soldiers already possessed.

To train them from scratch required someone at least on the level of one of the Four Sages of the Military School.

Even Han Xin would require soldiers to have at least some combat experience if he wanted to train troops of this caliber.

—Of course, it wasn't impossible that the old... old geezer would slack off because he couldn't be bothered.

"Three-Talent troops are the Imperial Essence. They're also the limit of what the current environment can support."

For a long time, even top-tier empires like the Han Dynasty and Rome couldn't afford to lose troops of this caliber.

They were the true top-tier soldiers.

Besides these three classifications, there were also Imperial Guards, Army Souls, and Miracles.

Imperial Guards were clearly stronger than ordinary Two-Talent troops, but weaker than Three-Talent troops.

However, because the way they were formed differed somewhat from simply gaining a talent, they were classified separately.

Army Souls had slightly lower average qualities than Three-Talent troops, but their special abilities let them easily contend with them.

Aside from each group's own special ultimate ability, Army Souls had three major advantages.

First, they could Resist Death.

Second, they could use Army Soul power to rapidly turn soldiers into replacements.

Third, they could rely on Army Soul power to continuously produce Imperial Guards.

Miracle Legions were the most outrageous of all.

The strength of other legions generally fell below the world's limit, while Miracles pushed right up against it.

They were the strongest combat force a single legion could possess.

Qi Fei explained all the different types of legions in God Three to Chen Xi.

Chen Xi listened in astonishment.

Damn, I'd thought generals were already outrageous enough, but it turned out soldiers had all these intricacies too.

"Wait. You said earlier that Huangfu Personal Guards carrying 180 jin could fight Two-Talent troops. You mean One-Talent Huangfu Personal Guards?"

Chen Xi suddenly caught on.

They could train soldiers themselves to the level of troops who'd had to fight and die on the battlefield.

That was an enormous advantage.

"Why else do you think I prepared this gift?"

Qi Fei asked in return.

That wasn't all. The Huangfu Personal Guards also had a far higher survival rate than ordinary soldiers.

Throw tens of thousands of soldiers onto a battlefield, and even if they didn't lose, you'd be lucky to have half of them left after several years of fighting. That would count as excellent casualty management.

But the Huangfu Personal Guards were different. With heavy armor and Adaptive Talent, they would only get tougher over time.

As long as they weren't reckless, losing even ten percent of them would require a battlefield on an imperial scale.

When Qi Fei mentioned this advantage, Chen Xi's eyes lit up.

"Good, good. This suits me perfectly."

He loved this kind of wall-like troop: one tied to productivity, with phenomenal survivability.

"It's just a shame there's another legion that would suit us perfectly, but I can't get my hands on it."

Qi Fei sighed.

But Chen Xi was thrilled.

There was another expert legion?

"Zihong, just tell me what it is. I'll figure something out."

Chen Xi said at once.

"Zichuan, do you know that Dong Zhuo has an Army Soul called the Flying Bear Army?"

Qi Fei asked.