My chat group is full of female losers

Chapter 355 Take a Gamble

Chu Lu was stunned when he heard that he couldn't catch Tian Shu.

His face then gradually darkened, and he leaned back, lowering his head into a long silence.

Seeing this, Huo Qi felt a surge of guilt and self-reproach that solidified into a boulder, dragging his stomach downwards.

Huo Qi kowtowed fiercely and cried out, "This humble general is incompetent! This humble general is incompetent! I have failed to fulfill Your Majesty's instructions. Please punish me, Your Majesty!"

Chu Lu didn't speak, his eyes unfocused, as if he was still deep in thought, or as if he had already given up hope.

Huo Qi's voice was already trembling with sobs: "It was my fault for failing in my duties and alerting the enemy, which made that traitor wary and ruined Your Majesty's grand plan. I deserve to die! I deserve to die! I deserve to die a thousand deaths!"

After a while, Huo Qi was still blaming himself, but Chu Lu's eyes gradually regained their light, as if he had come to his senses. He spoke slowly, his voice devoid of emotion: "Alright, you've done your best. There's no need to blame yourself. Go back."

"Your Majesty..." Huo Qi wanted to say something more.

Chu Lu waved his hand, interrupting him: "I said you can go back now."

Huo Qi swallowed the words he was about to say when he saw Chu Lu's unquestionable gaze.

He kowtowed again, filled with gratitude and even deeper remorse, and left the imperial study.

Silence returned to the surroundings.

"The situation is very bad." At this moment, Qin Su's ghostly figure emerged from Chu Lu's body.

"Yes," Chu Lu sighed, "I never expected that at the very last moment, with only one step left, this would happen."

Qin Su said worriedly, "Our original plan was to capture Tian Shu and obtain enough correction points to deal with her and Fei Wu. But now that Tian Shu is hiding and not coming out, our plan has become empty talk."

She continued her analysis: "Tian Shu is hiding because of the chaos in the capital. Therefore, to lure him out, we must first defeat the Third Princess and end the war. But how can we defeat the Third Princess without using the correction value?"
Her power has exceeded the combat limit of this instance. Even if everyone is gathered together, they are no match for her. To win, we must start with her weakness.

Generally speaking, in order for the story to develop smoothly, authors will more or less give some restrictions to overly powerful protagonists, such as being injured during transmigration or the spiritual energy of this world being depleted. However, the Third Princess is the main female lead, and the author only wishes to add more cheat codes. Why would they give her any weaknesses? What they like is to bully the weak.

The cultivation system doesn't have the same obvious limitations as Si Ren and the others.

So, should we try negotiating? No, that won't work either; the female lead is completely incompetent at communication. Tsk…

No matter how Qin Su analyzed the situation, she couldn't see a glimmer of hope; the situation was so dire it was suffocating.

"Chu Lu, do you have a solution?" Qin Su couldn't help but look at Chu Lu.

“This situation is different from the past,” Chu Lu admitted. “Just as you analyzed, the other side has almost no weaknesses that can be exploited. It’s definitely impossible to solve this easily with tricks as before.”

Qin Su's face darkened, as if she had given up completely, and she was about to let out a long sigh.

“But,” Chu Lu changed the subject.

Qin Su was taken aback.

“Our correction value is high enough,” Chu Lu continued. “After capturing those two Tian Shu subordinates, our correction value has risen to eighty-three points. This value is enough for us to defeat her head-on.”

"A direct confrontation!?" Qin Su exclaimed in surprise, then immediately retorted, "But if you do that, won't you expose your identity? How will you deal with Minister Fei Wu then? She's been watching you from the shadows the whole time!"

"There's no need to deal with it," Chu Lu said bluntly.

"Why?" Qin Su asked, increasingly puzzled.

"Because Fei Wu is very likely no longer in this instance." "Huh?" Qin Su was stunned by this abrupt assertion.

Chu Lu had been puzzled for a long time. Why did these female protagonists, who had clearly formed chat groups to contact each other and exchange information, still have to line up one by one like the Calabash Brothers saving their grandfather?
Even if they initially underestimated them, after Xiao Jiu and Si Ren suffered consecutive defeats, they should have realized something was wrong and started to join forces, right?

You can't just explain it by saying "that's how it's written in the novel," since although they are fictional characters, they have long since transcended the novel and developed their own self-awareness.

Chu Lu could only think of two explanations for this.

First, the answer is simple and blunt—because they are just that stupid.

Secondly, their leader, Fei Wu, who could give orders, was no longer there. Without a leader, no one was willing to submit to anyone else, and everyone wanted to seize the immense credit of defeating the group leader, but they were also worried that the fierce infighting would give Chu Lu an opportunity to exploit.

Thus, through compromises from all sides, the current farcical situation of alternating one-on-one confrontations has come to this.

If the opponents were different, Chu Lu would decisively choose the second possibility. But since the opponent is the female lead, the probability of success for both possibilities is quite close.

However, considering that he has not found any further clues about Fei Wu's activities, the second guess is obviously more likely.

Chu Lu told Qin Su about these ideas exactly as they were.

Qin Su hesitated for a long time before speaking, "What you said does make a lot of sense, and I can't refute it. But you don't have any concrete evidence, right? So these are just guesses after all, and what if you're wrong?"

"I know, but we have no other choice," Chu Lu said resolutely. "Not gambling means certain death!"

Qin Su fell silent again.

She racked her brains trying to come up with a reason to oppose Chu Lu, and she thought of a safer solution, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't think of one. In the end, she could only helplessly admit, "You're right, we really have no other choice."

Seeing Qin Su's dejected look, Chu Lu smiled and comforted her, "You don't need to be so pessimistic. I think our chances of winning the bet are quite high. By the way..."

Chu Lu suddenly asked again, "Although you introduced the Third Princess before, it was a bit brief. Could you elaborate?"

"Huh? Why?"

“Although we’ve decided to take direct action, if we can lure her to some secluded corner and quickly deal with her, we might be able to avoid exposing our identities,” Chu Lu explained. “But I don’t have a clue how to lure her, so I’m looking for some inspiration.”

"Understood." Qin Su immediately agreed and then recounted the story of the Third Princess in detail.

After listening, Chu Lu sighed, "She's as outrageous as ever. But with her absurd behavior and self-proclaimed savior, I might be able to provoke her with words and lure her over here."

As he spoke, he fell into deep thought again.

# # # # # #
Time passed. Outside the capital, the Third Princess maintained an astonishing pace of advance, never slowing down for a moment.

None of the cities she conquered were spared; almost all were burned to ashes, with only a very few survivors. These lucky survivors fled to other cities, spreading the news of what had happened there.

Thus, the name of the Third Princess spread like wildfire, quickly engulfing the entire dynasty.

Panic gripped many capitals in the Central Plains, with most deciding to flee beforehand to avoid encountering the Third Princess's army. Only a few elderly, weak, sick, disabled, and impoverished individuals, along with the stubborn, remained.

The once bustling capital city has become lifeless.

In this suffocating atmosphere, the Third Princess's army finally arrived in the capital.

(End of this chapter)