"Angelica, angelica... this Cao Zheng..."
In Heaven-Answering City, Li Tonghai toyed with the medicinal herb in his hand.
This was already the second time Cao Zheng had sent him medicine. Both times, it had been the same thing, yet the meaning behind it was entirely different.
Last time, the Yellow Heaven Sect had been battered by wind and rain, its great edifice on the verge of collapse. When Cao Zheng sent the medicine, he had been attempting to persuade him to surrender. Even if Li Tonghai had refused then, the seed would have been planted; once Yellow Heaven fell, if Cao Zheng came again to recruit him, there would at least be a little more sentiment between them.
This time, however, the Heaven-Answering Army was advancing with unstoppable momentum. Though the army numbered only six hundred thousand, by the conventions of this era, it could be called a million strong.
A million troops marched out of the Southern Wasteland!
What a vast and mighty sight!
This time, when Cao Zheng sent his gift, he was no longer urging surrender. He meant to offer his allegiance.
"Wenxuan, what do you think?!"
Li Tonghai set down the herb in his hand and suddenly asked.
Besides him, there was another person in the study—a young man named Shen Wenxuan, a rare talent Li Tonghai had discovered two years earlier while inspecting Moonwatch County.
After putting him through a few tests, Li Tonghai had found that although the man was of humble birth, he was exceedingly intelligent. More importantly, his character was upright, and he possessed a spirit that never ceased striving for self-improvement. Thus, Li Tonghai had taken Shen Qing as his student and granted him the courtesy name Wenxuan—hence Shen Wenxuan.
Over the following two years, Shen Wenxuan had not disappointed Li