Meng De POV

The sun was now high in the sky and the skies were clear and blue. In such weather, I should be setting aside my work and be out frolicking with my subordinate generals instead.

Yet, when met with this scene of violence, bloodshed, and slaughter, even if one wanted to play, they would lose their mood instantly. It’s a good thing that I’ve already gotten used to seeing such things though, and won’t feel nauseous in the least.

Whilst having such whimsical thoughts, I pointed my sword downwards as I stared right at the person before me.

She too put down her sword and stared back at me. As for what she could be thinking about now, my guess is as good as any.

But for some reason, seeing such a serious Ben Chu felt out-of-place.

“Meng De, you’ve really given me quite the thras.h.i.+ng in this battle.” Ben Chu seemed to be saying exactly what she thought as she looked at me, “You got the Yellow Turbans on your side, convinced Zhang Xiu, and even got my strategist to betray me. Am I supposed to say, as expected of Meng De?”

“Hahaha, I’m not as formidable as you’re making me to be.”

“n.o.body’s praising you!” Seeing me accept her praise, she got angry instead but she soon got into a stance.

“How about it? Let’s finish this with a duel.”

“…” I’m confident of besting Ben Chu in a duel but my stamina is quite lacking now so I don’t want to take the risk.

And besides, as long as I keep stalling for time, my troops will definitely be able to break Wu Chao. Xu Huang’s units have intercepted Ben Chu’s troops so the only one left here is Ben Chu herself. Even if I were to send ordinary soldiers against her in turn, Ben Chu would probably be unable to hold on.

But…

“Alright, I’ll take that bet.” Though my mind had arrived at the most logical choices, my actions betrayed my thoughts and I readied my stance, “Consider this a show of my respect for you.”

Perhaps I’m still soft deep down.

Ben Chu wordlessly nodded and got into a stance that lowered her centre of gravity.

And in the next moment–

“Ka!” Ben Chu lunged forward as quick as an arrow and I hurriedly raised my sword to block.

“Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!” She continued stabbing at me from close quarters, and as I dodged, I found that my strength was lacking and raised my sword to block the attacks I was unable to dodge.

But if it’s just this, then I can still deal with it.

Ben Chu’s moves are very orthodox and are often not adapted to suit the situation. As long as one knows Ben Chu’s attack patterns, one can easily create an opening and initiate a counterattack.

“Haa– Ha!” Just then, she suddenly stabbed at my head and I jumped backwards to avoid it.

“Hei!” She yelled out and did a mid-air turn and slashed down.

I blocked the blow snd raised my leg to kick her abdomen but she was able to jump back in time and gain some distance before launching yet another wave of unbroken stabs yet again!

The pattern was there, but…

Her attacks are continuous and have no gap between each attack at all. Even if I know what she’s going to do, I have no room to think of how to exploit that and can only concentrate on defending.

Eh! It’s starting to take a toll on me. In just a few bouts, my stamina is almost completely drained.

Looks like the fight with Yan Liang took too much out of me. But Ben Chu was also fighting just as long as I was so why is she still so energetic?

“I got you now!”

“Ah…” I was momentarily stunned and misjudged the angle of Ben Chu’s stab, and by the time I corrected my block, her sword had already sunk into my shoulder.

“Ha!”

*Si*!

She pulled out her sword in an instant, and before I could recover from the shock of the pain, she swept my feet and I landed on the ground hard.

“Ka…”

“Stop resisting!” Just as I was about to get up, that sword was resting on my neck near my throat.

Looks like this duel is over.

There are as many excuses as I want but the reality is that I lost, and I can’t take back my decision to partic.i.p.ate in the duel.

And there were essentially no issues with the strategies and tactics employed in this battle anyway. The only thing that was wrong were my personal feelings.

Feng Xiao, I’m really sorry.

“How about that, Meng De?! I’ve finally bested you!” Ben Chu proclaimed in between pants.

Perhaps she’s been hoping to beat me a little too much.

Though it might be a stretch to call Ben Chu a hero, I ought to respect her just for that tenacity of hers.

“So what if you’ve won, Ben Chu?” I slowly smiled as I said so, “You’ve disrespected the Son of Heaven, brazenly and unilaterally established yourself as a feudal lord after occupying the 4 states in Hebei. How can you call yourself a loyal subject of the Great Han? And now you’re going to slay a Court official serving her duties. Take care that you are not denounced by the people.”

“Meng De,” She smiled when she heard what I said, “You’ve seized control of the Son of Heaven and used the authority of the Emperor to control the feudal lords, slaughtered ordinary civilians wantonly, and dictated Court matters. Take care that the people do not spit at your grave.”

We both sank into silence thereafter.

Well then Ben Chu, what will you do next? Kill me, and then be the one to lead the world?

That’s actually not too bad since I don’t need to work so hard anymore.

“Hmph, I absolutely hate that expression of Meng De’s that’s as though you’ve seen through everything.” Just then, Ben Chu raised her sword from my neck, and gave a radiant smile.

“Let me tell you, Meng De.” She said, and sat down, as though she wanted to engage me in a casual chat.

“I, Yuan Shao Yuan Ben Chu, have never had any intention of committing treason. I took Hebei only because I wanted to prove my superiority over you, a treacherous retainer who is by the side of the Son of Heaven.” She then forcibly stabbed her sword into the ground before she continued, “I am a retainer of the Great Han so naturally I won’t be killing you. But I have more than enough legitimate accusations, of which almost all are enough to get you off your position.”

“Hahaha, that really is scary.” For some reason, I couldn’t help but feel that Ben Chu has become more mature.

I’d detected it on the mountain peak yesterday, but today, it was clear as day that Ben Chu had changed a lot since the feudal lord alliance.

*Dadadada*…

Un? From where is the sound of horse hooves coming from?

“Yuan Shao Yuan Ben Chu! I’ll be taking your life!”

I turned to the direction where the sound came from and saw not far off from behind Ben Chu, a girl with a steel helmet and a long spear, charging at Ben Chu.