NOVPUBAt this point, Jia Xu felt the discussion was getting far-fetched. If Chen Xi and Liu Bei could gain recognition from Cao Cao’s subordinates, would they still need to fight like this? A mere call to arms would have sufficed. Moreover, Chen Xi had mentioned that the opponent’s Clear Radiance was increasing rapidly; could it be that Cao Cao’s recognition of Liu Bei and Chen Xi was even greater than that of Mount Tai?
"Maybe the other side has other methods," Jia Xu said, frowning.
"That’s the only possibility, but it still feels strange. Even if they replicated my spiritual talent, it’s useless. It seems to have become stable after being encased in Clear Radiance, but it serves no purpose without my spirit essence. It can’t autonomously adjust the celestial phenomena," Chen Xi said curiously.
"It might have been a failure," Jia Xu said uncertainly, "We’ll think of a way to see if we can retrieve your spiritual talent later. Are you sure that smaller portion of spiritual talent has a tendency to cling to you?"
"Hmm, it’s obvious. I can clearly feel that the Small Jade Bi disc has a tendency to stick to me. Incidentally, I didn’t fish it out yesterday, but I took its Clear Radiance instead, which scared me half to death. Without the Clear Radiance, that disc would have been done for," Chen Xi said with lingering fear as he recalled last night’s action.
Now, speaking of spirit capacity, well, that’s only in comparison to Chen Xi. If compared to Zhuge Liang, it is absolutely enormous.
Chen Xi is currently not too interested in spirit capacity. He is only interested in the Jade Bi disc next to him. He doesn’t lack that bit of spirit capacity now, but if he could snatch the talent, then it would truly be of great value.
"You’d better not mess around anymore. I reckon if you accumulate more spirit capacity, once your Clear Radiance merges with the opponent’s, you should be able to absorb them," Jia Xu advised. Chen Xi’s spiritual talent was an important condition for the Great Han Dynasty’s rapid development and prosperity over the next fifty years.
"I’ll be careful. If I dream about it, I will only try to approach it, not extract its spirit capacity," Chen Xi thought and said. He didn’t want to waste such a great boon. 𝘯𝘰𝑣𝘱𝑢𝘣.𝑐𝑜𝑚
"Right, are you sure it won’t dissipate?" Jia Xu asked after some thought. In his view, it would be tragic if Chen Xi ended up nurturing the other to death. If it could be nurtured to death, then they had to hurry.
"It should be fine. I feel that ever since that Small Jade Bi gradually started exhibiting Clear Radiance, it’s become a lot more stable," Chen Xi gauged, although that smaller piece was essentially a part of Chen Xi himself, so his self-assessment was unlikely to be wrong.
"That’s good. Then you’d better not let that Clear Radiance dissipate. By the way, if you have a lot of spirit capacity, share some with that smaller Jade Bi. Since you have plenty of spirit capacity, perhaps by wrapping it with the same thing, you could pull the entire thing over," Jia Xu suggested with some uncertainty. However, compared to strengthening Chen Xi’s spiritual talent, he thought this slight consumption was worth trying, especially given Chen Xi’s current vast accumulation of spirit capacity.
"Makes sense. If I dream about it tonight, I will give it a try. I have an extremely large amount of accumulated spirit capacity," Chen Xi nodded and said.
"Report!" Just as Jia Xu was about to persuade Chen Xi to return to work, another messenger burst in.
"Give me the report, and you can leave," Jia Xu said calmly to the messenger, who did not respond but simply pulled out a bamboo slip and exited.
"What did you write?" Chen Xi asked curiously.
"Cao Cao has entered the pass, leaving only Xun Yu to defend Chenliu," Jia Xu said calmly, handing the letter to Chen Xi. Chen Xi, having heard what Jia Xu said, lost interest and did not reach out to receive the intelligence report. He also failed to notice the flash of unusual color in Jia Xu’s eyes.
[Cao Mengde, you clever fellow, you’ve chosen such a good timing. At this moment, you confess to the slaughter in Xuzhou and swear an oath, and the very chance for Zichuan’s spiritual talent to grow still lies in your hands. That part of spiritual talent is protected by spiritual capacity, and if you get hit with a wave of public opinion now, what if it affects that thing? Wouldn’t that make you the sinner?]
Jia Xu cursed inwardly. He even suspected that this Small Jade Bi was deliberately created by Cao Cao to restrain them. After all, Chen Xi’s spiritual talent very much needed that outer layer of spiritual capacity protection, which came from the free spirit power of the common people.
Although Jia Xu knew about Chen Xi’s spiritual talent, he did not know the specifics in great detail. At least, Jia Xu thought, since there were those who could replicate Chen Xi’s spiritual talent, it was not impossible for others to also change the recognition from Chen Xi and Liu Bei to Cao Cao.
In such a case, Jia Xu felt a reluctance to act rashly. After all, if he truly seized this opportunity to hit hard, it wasn’t impossible to make Cao Cao really stink. However, that would mean the chances for Chen Xi’s spiritual talent to grow would also be over. Without people to provide spiritual capacity, it was natural for it to fail.
[Never mind, let it be. Consider yourself lucky, Cao Cao, to have found such a good opportunity. I’ll remind Zijing and the others about this news. Zichuan seldom slips up, and by paying attention, Zichuan probably won’t come across this news. If Zichuan’s personality is provoked again by the Xuzhou incident, I guess he won’t care about the chance for his spiritual talent to grow.]
Jia Xu thought helplessly, because for some reason Chen Xi seemed very keen on trouncing Cao Cao, that kicked cur.
[I am doing this to save more people in the future.] Jia Xu consoled himself with a tragic sense of empathy and sighed, then after contemplating the feudal lords from the four directions, he couldn’t help but admire how well-timed Cao Cao’s move was, further solidifying his belief that this talent was indeed the good hand that Xi Zhicai had left for Cao Cao in his dying effort.
Before long, the feudal lords from all directions received the proclamation in which Cao Cao admitted his wrongs. Yuan Shao, who had previously stopped Chen Lin’s proclamation and helped Cao Cao at his darkest hour, did not hesitate to have someone write an article whitewashing Cao Cao.
Yuan Shu, upon seeing this proclamation from Cao Cao, showed no reaction whatsoever. He had lost interest in everything now; his greatest hope was to cure his son. As for Cao Cao, what was that to him?
As for Zhou Yu, although he knew this was a good opportunity, he was currently confined in Shouchun because of the rumors Chen Xi had spread. Although he could summon people, doing so would inevitably cause considerable trouble for Sun Ce. Reluctantly, Zhou Yu gave up this opportunity.
In Jingzhou, Liu Biao, having lost rich lands north of the Yangtze such as Xiangyang, Wancheng, and Jiangxia, and having failed to retake Xiangyang when he had ample reserves the first time, now relied on the sparse population of the Four Commanderies of Jingnan, where the countryside was deserted and he couldn’t even scrape together enough tax revenue to barely maintain his army.
In such circumstances, though Liu Biao still harbored the determination to struggle and had good ministers like Kuai Yue and Kuai Liang, as well as valiant generals like Huang Zhong, the dream of recapturing Jingzhou grew farther and farther away! (To be continued. If you like this work, I invite you to come to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)
