Chapter 167 Dong Zhuo’s Fantasy (2/2)
”No! I will side with my grandson-in-law this time! We will help him destroy Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun, then we will retreat to the capital to take over the Imperial Court while that insolence brat Liu Ping is still on the northern plain!”
Li Ru was taken aback by Dong Zhuo's ambition. Despite the fact that the decision of his boss was illogical, he immediately adapted to the changes and analyzed the army movement again.
He closed his eyes and imagined a map in his mind. He assumed that Ye City had fallen, and if Tong was controlling it, what would he do. Li Ru connected Jia Xu's letter with his assumption, a new geographic map appeared in his mind.
Li Ru opened his eyes again.
”My Lord, please forgive me for a moment. I need to open a map on the table.”
Dong Zhuo took away the letter and the ink set to make a space on the table. Li Ru proceeded to open strategic maps of Henei, Shangdang, Jinyang, and Ye City.
After a few minutes of pondering, Li Ru got rid of Shangdang and Jinyang map. He connected the two remaining map together and started putting chess pieces on the map.
”My Lord, to be honest, I doubt that Zhang Tong can defeat Liu Ping Army. But if my prediction is correct, he can defeat Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun with our help.”
Li Ru pointed at Liyang County. He moved three red chess pieces there and a black chess piece at Liyang location.
”If I were Zhang Tong, I will make a stand over here. But this troop will be a decoy, the main army of Zhang Tong will definitely sneak around by either trekking through the mountains or sail on the Yellow River toward Henei City. If he takes it, Liu Ping supply line will be cut off, and he will be forced to take it back or retreat to the Capital.”
Dong Zhuo gazed at the map with a confused look. He did not fully understand Li Ru's explanation, so he did not speak further.
”We can play along with Zhang Tong. It doesn't matter if he can survive this war or not, we can take this chance to withdraw our troops back to the Capital and take over the power.”
”If Liu Ping manages to come back alive, we'll kill him and take the throne.”
”If Zhang Tong wins, we'll still take the throne.”
”Either way, my Lord. You will be the next Emperor after this plan succeeded!”
...
...
Meanwhile, Ye City.
The famine hit Ye City this year. The harvest taxes dropped by 80% of the usual rate, and the city suffered from the deficit income. Fortunately, Tong had supplied the city granaries with his [Create Food], so the citizens would not starve this year.
Tong also tested using his [Create Food] skill with his demon soul, and he discovered the exploit that the system goddess mentioned.
…
********************
[Create Food] LV.6 (24,829/320,000)
- Create a food product or a raw food ingredient.
- 100 tons of food can be created from one usage.
Skill Cost: 1 Lifespan
Skill Upkeep: 2,000 Lifespans per year.
Skill Restriction:
- The host cannot create food that the host has never eaten before.
- Can only be used once per day. Skill resets at midnight.
********************
…
In the skill description, Tong could only use the skill once a day after the big nerf. However, he could continue using the skill multiple times if he had the demon soul using it. Unfortunately, Tong's controlling skill was still bad as he only managed to activate the skill once every a few minutes.
This was a loophole that the goddess was afraid of. She was not capable of ”Fully” controlling or obstructing someone else's awakened [Souls of Sins]. At best, she could influence the growth rate of the unawakened [Sins], be it weaken them, or strengthen them. But she could not restrict the [Sins] which had already been awakened. The only one who could govern the servant souls of sins would be her father.
This was the reason why she forced every immortal to reincarnate into mortals if ones wanted to play around in this dimension, so she did not have to worry about anyone abusing this ”Bug” that she could not fix.
The demon soul had the same ability as the true body, but they had to consume the true body's lifespans as a fuel. Thus, it took ten times the usual in exchange for the unrestricted use of the skills.
Thanked to the exploitation, Tong filled the city granaries to the brim, which delighted the officials and the citizens.
The taxes and the food problem in this city had been temporarily solved.
Cleared from the provision issues, the army was ready.