Yun Chang POV

“I am still not qualified enough and my capabilities are limited.” Li Dian said as she lowered her head. By the time she looked up again, her smile had vanished, “To be honest, when I was persuading you, the feeling you gave me was like you would never defect. It was a face that would never defect or change your mind no matter what happened. I know, as a fellow warrior.”

Un… I thought that Li Dian and Cao Ren definitely trusted us and never expected that Li Dian would unleash a lethal move on me this late in the game.

“Everyone changes with the times. No one can predict what will happen in the future after all.” That was all I could say in response to what she said.

“Be that as it may, I still don’t believe it.” Li Dian shook her head lightly, “It’s not because you can’t kill Lu Bu, it’s because I can still see a trace of that stubbornness in your eyes. Those aren’t the eyes that someone who has chosen to defect can have.”

“… I’m just too used to being like this now that I can’t change it.” I responded tiredly. Aura is not something that can lie about one’s intentions. At least not when one has a half-a.s.sed martial prowess like mine.

“Hmph.” She scoffed at what I said and suddenly drew her glaive which she brandished at me. She was fast and by the time I detected her motion and stopped, her blade was already at my neck. If it were someone else, they might not have realised and continued walking, losing their head as a result. Good thing that my reflexes were quick.

“Un?”

“Lord Li Dian, this is…”

Wen Yuan and Chen Gong stopped. Because we had conducted our exchange with hushed voices, they did not know what had happened and seemed surprised and at a loss as to what to do.

“It’s fine,” I said to prevent Wen Yuan and Chen Gong from acting up. That said, even I do not understand why Li Dian is reacting like this. My guess is that she has detected something from my expression or aura.

“Why?” I said as I calm myself down, “Does Lord Li Dian not believe us?”

“I said it before already. I need to think it over more.” Li Dian said with an undecipherable expression.

Her hat covered her face from view and all I could see was a mouth that was biting on itself. I was about to turn around to see what Cao Ren’s reaction would be but then stopped as I realised that if Cao Ren did not react on seeing this, then she would not react whatsoever anyway.

“Lord Guan Yu.” She spoke up.

“What is it?”

“Are you willing to spar with me?” She said as she pa.s.sed me her glaive, “We’ll use glaives. Both of us.”

“Here? And now?” I asked with surprise but did not reveal it entirely on the surface.

“Yes, you can’t?”

Un… I began to consider her request. To be honest, I still have no idea what she’s after with challenging me to a duel, to the point where she’s handing me her weapon. Normally, I would think that defeating Li Dian meant that I could return unmolested but I have to think differently here.

“… Lord Li Dian, I cannot duel with you.” I said as I raised my hand and softly pushed away the glaive, “I came here to talk, not to fight. When we meet on the battlefield as opposing sides, or in future in our free time, let us duel then.”

“If you are going to defect to our side, how could we possibly meet on the battlefield as enemies?”

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o;No one can say for sure what will happen in future.” I said and something seemed to take control over me as I softly added, “Perhaps we are just faking a defection.”

When I finished, I smiled. Li Dian still had a serious expression and it seemed like what I said did not have much of an effect on her though it must have spooked the other 2 behind me now.

“Hu… Never mind.” Just as I was wondering what would happen next, Li Dian seemed deflated as she lifted her blade, “It’s fine whether your defection is genuine or otherwise. All i can say is that I hope it is.”

“…”

“Because no matter what, Xinye city will fall.” Li Dian continued and did not pay any attention to my silence, “The troops sent to commence the southern expedition are part of an unstoppable force and my lord will not despair or delight from the outcome of this battle. It is only a matter of time and your defections, genuine or otherwise, will only hasten or slow down the inevitable.”

“…” I continued to remain silent. And just then, Li Dian continued to walk ahead for some reason. I thought that she had said her peace but then she came up to me and planted her weapon to the ground as she looked into my eyes combatively.

“One last thing.” She said seriously and slowly, “If you genuinely wish to defect, choose to defect to my lord.”

“…” I waited silently for a moment before I saluted her and replied slowly and just as seriously, “Even if I am surrendering, I would be surrendering to the Imperial Court of the Great Han! This is what my big brother would have wanted.”

…

Neither of us said anything after this. Li Dian merely snorted and turned around before continuing to lead us out of the encampment. Li Dian did not say anything at all nor did she react to what I said but I believe that what Xu Shu said has come into play here, that they do hope deep down that our defection is genuine.

Of course… Apart from Shen Pei, that is. She is not too anxious to break through the current stalemate status quo so she is more conservative and it is because of that conservative mindset that has led to much troubles during the course of this meeting.

“Wait for our news then. If we haven’t deployed by the 3rd day, then please continue to wait.” Li Dian said as she saluted us, “When the time comes, please make the right choice.”

Just then, the horses we came here on were brought to us.

“Understood.”

“Well then, see you in 3 days.”

We grabbed our reins, gave our greetings and saluted. Immediately, Li Dian relaxed and turned to return to the encampment and the gates shut with a loud clang. We would likely never return to this place.

“Hu…” Wen Yuan heaved a sigh of relief as we began our trip back home. Looks like she’s relaxed her strained nerves.

“Don’t be too happy too soon.” I said, “When we get to our gates, we still have to pa.s.s through customs. We have to go back in how we came out.”

As for me, I do not even have the mood to feel relieved and merely rode on in a blank state of mind.

“I think I lost 10 years of my life there.” Wen Yuan said.

“I think Lord Zhang Liao acted a little too much back then. You really caused a big commotion back there.”

“No, I stopped faking it halfway through and it became my true feelings.” Wen Yuan said as she shook her head and disagreed with Chen Gong.

“I too felt the same.” I nodded and agreed with Wen Yuan, “At some point, I even doubted if I was actually here to defect or if I was just playing the part.”

“Un un, that’s the highest level of acting.” Chen Gong nodded and smiled as she looked at me, “But I really didn’t expect that Lord Guan Yu would be able to respond with the right words so calmly. Though I must say that what you said at the very end really spooked me.”

“Hahaha… I don’t know why but I wanted to say that back then.” I said as I lightly chuckled. I was still so nervous though that my laughter did not really contain cheer and it merely sounded like laughter.

By the way, even though we are chatting, we made sure not to make any abnormal movements so that the people watching us from behind would not detect anything untoward.

“However, it feels like that Li Dian might have detected our true intentions.” Wen Yuan said. If she did not, she would not have said or acted like how she did at the very end.

“I don’t think so.” Chen Gong shrugged, “She said a lot of things, both supportive of us and not. If Shen Pei’s position is that she is certain that our defection is fake, then Li Dian’s position is that of uncertainty.”

“That does make sense…” I nodded. If it were before this, I would not have understood what meant but I do now.

At the end of the day, Li Dian wishes from the gottom of her heart that our defection is genuine. There is ample proof for that but there is always the nagging feeling that our defection is not genuine. And so, the questioning she subjected me to at the end was to try to dispel that feeling.

“But… 3 days later huh?” Wen Yuan said as she tucked her hands behind her head, “I wonder if they will come.”

“Yes, I wonder if they will come too.” Chen Gong still wore a smile as she echoed Wen Yuan’s thoughts. It feels like administrative officials get over such tense standoff situations easier than warrior generals. Wen Yuan and I simply cannot bring ourselves to smile yet.

But no matter what, all we can do is to tell Xu Shu of all we have discussed here and make all the necessary preparations.

Everything, will be decided 3 days later.