Many people who seemed immensely powerful had weaknesses of their own. It simply took particular surroundings, circumstances, and timing for those weaknesses to show.
Yes, that meant Xi Chao.
The grave illness he had suffered after returning from Guanzhong was the best example. A man who had always prided himself on despising shamanic practices had suddenly fallen seriously ill just before turning twenty. Confronted with life and death, his mental defenses had utterly collapsed, and he had actually chosen to believe in a shaman's ritual riddled with flaws.
In fact, over these years, as Liu Acheng's dealings with Xi Chao's family grew closer, his understanding of Xi Chao had become very deep indeed.
To put it seriously, Xi Chao's intelligence and precocity had bred a fierce distaste and resistance toward his father Xi Yin's various foolish actions... this had been especially apparent from his teens through the age of twenty.
So, if you were superstitious, I would be pragmatic; if you fawned over Daoism, I would revere Buddhism; if you were stingy, I would be generous; if you wanted to preserve the Xi Family's image of patriotic loyalty, I would throw in my lot with the Upper Reaches.
But behind this opposition to his own father at every turn lay more than a simple conflict between father and son. Rather, within the strong emotional bonds of a family, a clever, precocious, impatient adolescent was "angry at his failure to strive" and "afraid his family would fade away."
At heart, he had done those things to prove to his father that he was the one better able to revive the family and ensure its continuation.
Moreover, as Xi Chao came of age and secured his position in Huan Wen's headquarters, and with Xi Yin half-reluctantly accepting office, the father and son's