New Three Kingdoms Tales: Starting as the expressionless Liu Bei

With the Imperial Seal in his left hand and a double-edged sword in his right, Liu Bei walked slowly toward Sun Ce.

Upon seeing this, Sun Ce hurriedly bowed in greeting.

Liu Bei is now a match for 100,000 men, ten times more heroic than his father Sun Jian. Sun Ce dares not be negligent in the slightest, fearing that if Liu Bei makes a wrong move, he will be killed with a flick of his finger.

Liu Bei nodded calmly and handed over the Imperial Seal of the State.

Sun Ce was overjoyed and immediately knelt on one knee, accepting the imperial seal with both hands, excitedly saying:

"Lord Xuande is truly a benevolent and righteous ruler; I am deeply grateful! I will serve you faithfully, even unto death, in the future!"

He paused, looked up at Liu Bei, his eyes filled with barely suppressed fervor, and added in a low voice, "Congratulations, Lord Xuande, you can now become emperor!"

Liu Bei shook his head, indicating that there was no need for such formalities.

Watching Cao Cao and his entourage depart, Liu Bei suddenly whispered, "Sun Ce, did you kill Diao Chan?"

Upon hearing this, Sun Ce froze, his face turned deathly pale, and his eyes were filled with horror.

How could Liu Bei have known?

But Liu Bei didn't give him a chance to continue panicking; he simply patted his shoulder gently, his tone softening:

"Don't be afraid. If I wanted to harm you, I would have handed you over to Lü Bu just now. Your father, Sun Jian, was an old friend of mine. Your father was also among the guests at Cao Cao's gathering of heroes in the pavilion."

"I also regret Sun Jian's death. It's all because Liu Biao was too petty. I will remember this grudge and take revenge in the future."

Upon hearing this, Sun Ce burst into tears, thinking to himself that Liu Bei was truly an honest and kind man.

He nodded vigorously and bowed deeply to Liu Bei.

Liu Bei patted him on the shoulder again and continued, "We hit it off immediately. Now that the war is over, you should take the Imperial Seal and go attack Lujiang. But I have a question: what brings you to Xuzhou this time?"

Sun Ce quickly explained, "I came here on the orders of the former ruler of Jiangdong, the Overlord, to seize the crickets so that I could prepare a powerful attack on the city with my warhorses, and also to take the crickets entrusted to me by the venerable ones. Now that I have everything, please rest assured, Lord Xuande."

"It's actually a deadly tactic of attacking the city with warhorses?" Liu Bei suddenly realized.

No wonder Sun Ce was able to march eight hundred li in the dead of night without losing a single soldier, and capture two counties and three cities in Lujiang with only his soldiers' warhorses.

He thought for a moment, then nodded and said, "Then you should set off for Lujiang first. I'll go and give instructions to Yuan Shu; after all, it's all for the sake of destroying the Destiny Ghost."

Sun Ce was extremely grateful and thanked him repeatedly. He then activated his monstrous tiger form and left with the Imperial Seal of the State.

Liu Bei watched Sun Ce's cunning and treacherous demeanor as he departed, lost in thought.

The Ghost Tiger is not simply a bizarre creature, but is forged from human souls and tiger corpses. This is related to another dark profession in this world: the evil Taoist priest.

The evil Taoist priests are far more vicious than ordinary people can imagine. To achieve their goals, they will even use young children to make Gu poison. Their methods are extremely barbaric, yet they are incredibly powerful and ordinary people simply cannot afford to offend them.

Liu Bei was too young and naive in the past. He thought that by restraining Guan Yu and Zhang Fei with the Soul Chain, he could save those talents who had been crushed by fate, such as Xu Shu and Pang Tong.

But after experiencing all the open and covert attacks along the way, when he looked back at his former self, he only found it laughable.

Gongsun Zan betrayed him, Guan Yu betrayed him, Zhang Fei betrayed him; Heaven's will was watching him every moment.

No one is entirely trustworthy, not even Yuan Shu.

Everyone is a pawn; no one can truly be relied upon.

A bitter smile flickered across Liu Bei's face, but it quickly turned into a calm indifference.

The Venerable One used him, and so did Heaven; everyone treated him as a pawn.

So he decided to play along, enduring all the way, and be the one who had the last laugh.

Let's give it a try and see if I can climb out of this chessboard and become a player instead of a piece.

I am Liu Bei with a stoic expression, now officially online.

He was about to go find Yuan Shu and ask him to lead his troops back to Yangzhou when a dark figure suddenly appeared beside him.

Liu Bei turned his head to look, and the man's face was so distorted with excitement that he was almost morbidly fanatical.

By the moonlight, Liu Bei vaguely recognized his face; it was none other than Li Ru, the eunuch in the new TV series "Three Kingdoms".

Liu Bei was no stranger to Li Ru; Tao Shang had mentioned him in a letter he brought back earlier.

Li Ru was detained by Gongsun Zan and forced to become his strategist, but he vowed not to offer any advice or strategies to Gongsun Zan, and even said that he would save his "first time" for Liu Bei.

When Liu Bei finished reading the letter, he felt a chill run down his spine and his anus tighten.

Liu Bei was somewhat surprised to actually see Li Ru.

Li Ru was trembling violently, even his voice was shaking, and he stammered:

"Lord Xuande... I can't believe I'm this close to you! Heavens! To be able to personally feel your aura, capable of defeating ten thousand men, even if I, Li Ru, were to die now, it would be worth it!"

Liu Bei knew that Li Ru had probably come to join him, but the more he looked at the man's crazy appearance, the more he seemed like a traitor sent by fate.

If you keep this around, who knows, one day it might turn on you and stab you like Guan Yu or Zhang Fei did.

He thought for a moment, then deliberately adopted a pretentious posture and asked, "Who are you?"

Upon hearing this, Li Ru became even more nervous and hurriedly explained:

"I...I was previously Dong Zhuo's chief strategist, Li Ru, a court attendant."

"Please rest assured, Lord Xuande, I have long since reformed. Now, without a lord, I only wish to serve under you and offer my advice!"

Liu Bei frowned. Li Ru kept calling him "Lord Xuande," which made him very uncomfortable.

Couldn't you just call him Lord Xuande? Was it intentional or accidental?

Of course, if he called Cao Cao "Mengde Jun" or "Mengde Sang", Cao Cao would most likely laugh heartily and say, "It makes me feel so good to be called that."

There's nothing we can do; that's what Cao Cao's hometown is called.

Suppressing his discomfort, Liu Bei asked again:

"Li Ru, aren't you an old friend of Lü Bu? Why don't you go and join Lü Bu? Chen Gong has just died, and he's in dire need of a strategist right now. You'd be perfect for that."

Li Ru shook his head rapidly, looked around to make sure Lü Bu wasn't nearby, and then lowered his voice to say:

"Lü Bu is a womanizer and a drunkard; we cannot work together."

After saying that, he stared at Liu Bei, his gaze growing increasingly intense, and whispered:

"Only a powerful figure like Lord Xuande is worthy of my service, Li Ru. My lord, I possess an unfathomable tongue, and my loyalty to you will never waver! Please accept me; I am willing to do anything for you!"

Liu Bei shook his head and made up an excuse to decline:

"My subordinates Guan Yu and Zhang Fei love to bully the strategist, I can't let you suffer like that."

Li Ru quickly replied, "It's alright! As long as I can serve by Lord Xuande's side, I'm willing to endure daily whipping!"

As he spoke, a hint of anticipation flashed in his eyes, and he added softly, "It would be even better if Lord Xuande himself wielded the whip."

Liu Bei felt a chill run down his spine and instinctively took a step back.

Li Ru is truly possessed.

Liu Bei's initial goodwill towards him plummeted, and he simply rejected him outright.

"Li Ru, it's not that I don't want to take you in, it's just that this chaotic world can't tolerate you. I wanted to take you in, but Heaven wouldn't allow it. There's nothing I can do, Heaven's way won't allow it."

After saying that, he turned to leave, while secretly raising the strange power within his body to guard against Li Ru's sudden attack.

To everyone's surprise, Li Ru's eyes reddened upon hearing this, and tears streamed down her face.

He sat down on the ground and began to throw a tantrum, wailing and screaming:

"Ahhh! No, no! I want to be Lord Xuande's strategist! If Heaven won't allow it, I'll shatter it! If the Venerable One won't allow it, I'll make him vanish into thin air!"

Liu Bei paused in his steps.

He stopped not because he was soft-hearted, but because he suddenly realized that Li Ru might be able to help him with something important.

He slowly turned his head, looked at Li Ru who was still rolling on the ground, and said calmly, "Li Ru, can you really do anything for me?"