Reborn In The Three Kingdoms

If you want to read 20 Chapters ahead and more, be sure to check out my Patreon!!!

Go to https://www.patreon.com/Tang12

___________________________

And now, the sole obstacle to his ambition. ”Wenruo,” Cao Cao began, his voice deceptively calm, ”we have walked this path together for many years. Through victories and defeats. Through blood and ink. Tell me, why do you hesitate now?”

Xun Yu stood motionless, his scholar’s robes pristine, his expression unreadable. But his eyes, those betrayed the conflict within.

”My lord,” he said slowly, ”it is not hesitation. It is a matter of principle.”

”Principle? A principle can be changed, it is just you still resist it,” Cao Cao said, not accusingly, but with a tired edge. ”Even now, after all, we’ve seen, after all we’ve lost and gained. You still can’t change your principle for me?”

Xun Yu lowered his gaze briefly. ”My Lord, I have never questioned your vision, and the principle I have always in line with your vision. But what you propose...” He looked up again, voice calm but filled with conviction. ”...is not a mere strategy or principle. It is the abandonment of everything you once claimed to believe.”

Cao Cao rose from his seat and he walks around his table, stepping toward his old friend. ”Do you remember what I told you at Xuchang? When you come to pledge your service to me from Yuan Shao who underutilized you? I said I would uphold the Han Dynasty. That I would restore the brightness of its banner and restore it to its glory.”

”Yes, My Lord,” Xun Yu replied softly. ”And I believed you. I still do. That is why this pains me so much.”

Cao Cao exhaled, long and low, as if trying to rid himself of ghosts. ”That man still lived then, Wenruo. But war, politics, betrayal... they change a man. I’ve seen the rot inside the bones of the Han itself. There is nothing left to restore.”

Xun Yu did not flinch. ”There is always something left, if the will remains, My Lord.”

Cao Cao narrowed his eyes. ”Is it the will of the people you speak of, or your own, Wenruo?”

The question hung there like a guillotine blade, silent and swift.

Xun Yu finally stood. ”My lord, if this were about you leading the realm in all but name, I would support you still. You already wield power greater than any minister in Han Dynasty history. But to usurp the throne, to force the Emperor’s abdication, is to cross a threshold from which there is no return.”

”Fengxiao thinks otherwise,” Cao Cao said sharply. ”He says the people need a new symbol. That Lie Fan has already declared a new dynasty in Hengyuan. If we do not respond in kind, if we cling to a rotting husk, we will lose not just legitimacy but the future itself.”

Xun Yu clenched his jaw. The mention of Lie Fan’s rise clearly disturbed him. ”Fengxiao is a brilliant mind, but he sees the realm only in terms of power and force. The people do not yet reject the Han. They still believe in the Han’s Mandate.”

Cao Cao approached him slowly, his voice quieter now, heavier. ”And what do you believe, Wenruo? Do you serve the Han, or do you serve me?”

It was not a threat. It was a plea. The words revealed not wrath, but need. A raw, vulnerable truth rarely seen in a man like Cao Cao.

Xun Yu felt it. He had served Cao Cao through fire and storm. Through rebellion and famine. Through victories carved into flesh and cities built atop ashes. He had always believed his lord to be a man of destiny. But this...

”I serve the realm, My Lord.” Xun Yu said finally. ”And in serving the realm, I have served you.”

”Then understand this,” Cao Cao replied, his voice firmer now. ”The realm needs a new center. Not a relic. I have kept the Han alive longer than it deserved out of loyalty. But now, I act out of necessity.”

He paused, then added, ”I do not ask you to betray your principles, Wenruo. I only ask that you trust me one more time.”

A long silence followed. Outside, the wind carried the faint clatter of falling leaves, like whispered echoes of the past.

Xun Yu bowed his head, not in submission, but in deep contemplation. ”Let me... consider your words, my lord.”

Cao Cao did not press. He placed a hand on Xun Yu’s shoulder, a rare gesture. ”I need you by my side, now more than ever, Wenruo. Fengxiao commands the legions, but you understand the soul of governance and guidance.”

The gesture lingered for a moment before Cao Cao turned away. Xun Yu remained still, watching his lord walk toward the shadows of the chamber, both men silently haunted by what must come next.

After that, the sun goes down and the candlelight flickered against the lacquered walls of the private study in Luoyang, casting long shadows behind Cao Cao as he sat hunched over his desk, an untouched scroll resting before him.

The words written on the parchment blurred in his vision, not from lack of light but from the pounding weight in his skull, a dull, insistent throb that had built steadily since morning in his meeting with Xun Yu. Now it had grown into something unignorable, pulsing like a war drum inside his temple.

He tossed the scroll aside, not caring where it landed. His breath hissed between clenched teeth as he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. The tension that gripped him refused to ease.

The report had arrived not an hour after his quiet, soul rending conversation with Xun Yu that reached the evening.

It was official.

Sun Ce, the so called Little Conqueror, and his father, Sun Jian, The Tiger of Jiangdong, had publicly declared their allegiance to Lie Fan. Not merely as allies in convenience, not in veiled support or mutual defense, but as vassals to his throne. The Sun Clan had formally pledged fealty to the man who had declared a new dynasty.

The implications were staggering.

Cao Cao had suspected their dealings for some time. He’d heard whispers, and seen the movements in Jiangdong, the sudden tranquility between the Yangtze and the Huai Rivers.

But like many in the realm, he had assumed the Sun Clan harbored ambitions of their own. Why else fight so fiercely against the Southlands’ chaos, raise their own banners, and enforce their rule with such discipline?

They had the strength. They had the lineage, and Sun Ce possessed that wild charisma, a flame akin to the young him or even Liu Bei who played his acting so well needing much charisma. And yet... they had knelt.

Lie Fan must have offered them something remarkable.

Cao Cao slammed a fist down onto the desk, rattling the ceramic inkstone and sending a few bamboo slips tumbling. ”Damn him,” he muttered, voice hoarse. ”Damn that man.”

He didn’t care about Sheng Xian. That former bureaucrat turned small time warlord could rot in a dusty archive for all he was worth. But the Sun Clan... the Sun Clan’s allegiance was another story entirely.

It shifted the balance of power. It threatened to collapse the delicate network of hesitation and neutrality that still held many nobles in place. Liu Zhang in his south was an enemy, who would never attack but stayed in his land.

But with Gongsun Gong in the northeast, Shi Xie in the far south, and now the Sun Clan pressing from the southeast all had pledged their allegiance to Lie Fan, Lie Fan had surrounded the heart of his capital Luoyang like a noose.

Cao Cao could see the writing on the wall.

If he did nothing, if he continued to rule as Chancellor under the Emperor’s name, trying to prop up a dead ideal, he would lose everything. Not to rebellion. Not to battle. But to legitimacy.

And legitimacy, once lost, could not be clawed back.

He exhaled sharply and pressed a hand to his temple. The headache surged again, worse now, as if responding to the fury he tried to cage. His fingers trembled slightly as he reached for the wine cup on the side table and drank deeply, hoping the warmth would soothe his nerves.

It didn’t.

A knock came at the door. ”My Lord,” came Cheng Yu’s voice, muffled but composed. ”The meeting with the Grand Commandant awaits.”

Cao Cao didn’t answer immediately. He stared at the carved wood of his desk as if it might give him clarity.

”I will join shortly,” he said finally.

”Understood.”

When the door clicked shut, silence returned to the chamber. Cao Cao rose to his feet, slowly, shoulders heavy with the weight of the empire. His thoughts drifted back to Xun Yu. The man’s eyes had spoken volumes. Still loyal. Still principled. But wavering.

He would wait. He needed Wenruo’s support. Not just because of his brilliance, but because of what he symbolized, restraint, morality, and the last tether between power and righteousness.

Cao Cao rubbed his brow again. This time, the headache lessened ever so slightly. A decision had been made in the heart, even if not yet acted upon.

The throne must be taken.

He would not sit idle while Lie Fan drew the world toward a new center. He would answer that declaration with one of his own.

He only prayed that Xun Yu would understand... and follow him into the storm once more.

Meanwhile, in Xiapi.

The morning sun filtered gently through the latticed windows of the imperial palace, casting delicate patterns across the floor of the Emperor’s study.

Inside, Lie Fan sat at a grand table strewn with documents, memorials, petitions, and official notices, stacked in tall, precarious columns. Ink smudged the edge of his sleeves, a testament to the long hours he had already spent poring over the matters of state.

He leaned back with a low groan, pinching the bridge of his nose. ”I didn’t think becoming Emperor meant marrying paperwork,” he muttered under his breath.

The weight of rulership was not new to him, governance, military logistics, and diplomacy, these were things he had learned and practiced in his previous life and this one. But the sheer volume of administrative tasks was something no system, no skill level, could make glamorous.

”I used to only see the important ones,” he muttered again, reaching for the next scroll. ”Now I see everything.” Still, regret flickered only briefly. A shadow at the edge of his pride. This throne, this title, Emperor, it had been his goal since the first moment he’d realized his rebirth, since the system he had brought with him granted him knowledge and power over this world.

______________________________

Name: Lie Fan

Title: Founding Emperor Of Hengyuan Dynasty

Age: 34 (201 AD)

Level: 16

Next Level: 462,000

Renown: 2325

Cultivation: Yin Yang Separation (level 9)

SP: 1,121,700

ATTRIBUTE POINTS

STR: 966 (+20)

VIT: 623 (+20)

AGI: 623 (+10)

INT: 667

CHR: 98

WIS: 549

WILL: 432

ATR Points: 0