Mythical Three Kingdoms: Martial Arts Reach Divine Ranks, I Alone Rule the World

Faced with his childhood friend's persuasion...

Liu Bei looked down at the invitation Jian Yong had slapped on him, his expression gradually shifting from confusion to deep thought.

His fingers, which were holding the post, unconsciously rubbed the edge of the paper. The movement was extremely light, yet it carried an almost instinctive caution.

It was as if he was holding not a banquet invitation, but a key that could determine his future path.

Seeing this, Jian Yong assumed Liu Bei was tempted, and a smile had just appeared on his lips. He was about to say a few more words of persuasion...

But then Liu Bei suddenly raised his head and looked straight at him.

The look in his eyes did not contain the joy Jian Yong had expected; instead, it carried a kind of almost stubborn seriousness that Jian Yong had never seen before.

"Constitutional peace!"

When Liu Bei spoke, his tone didn't reveal much joy at being able to attend the banquet the next day. Instead, he looked earnestly at his childhood friend, Jian Yong.

Have you not heard the saying, "A man of ambition remains steadfast even in poverty"?

"Although I am now so destitute that I have to make a living by selling shoes, my ambition is to restore the glory of my ancestors and to have the title of 'King of Zhongshan' engraved on my tombstone after my death."

"If you truly crave to be someone else's gatekeeper, as you say, you'd despise yourself."

"Take this post back; you can't keep it!"

As he spoke, Liu Bei shoved the invitation, which he hadn't even warmed yet, back into his childhood friend Jian Yong's hands, and walked a short distance away to pick up the straw sandals that Jian Yong had kicked away.

Compared to the superficiality of perfunctory posts, the straw sandals in his hand made him feel grounded and at ease.

"Xuande, you..."

Jian Yong stood frozen in place, his mouth slightly open but no sound came out. He looked at Liu Bei with disbelief, his eyes filled with shock and unfamiliarity.

Jian Yong blinked, as if trying to confirm whether he had seen wrong.

Is the man standing in the moonlight, holding straw sandals in his hand, with a gaze more determined than ever before, really his childhood friend?

Jian Yong's gaze lingered on Liu Bei, as if he were getting to know him all over again.

I don't know how much time passed.

Suddenly, a smile appeared on Jian Yong's face.

The smile started small, just a slight upturn of the corners of the mouth, then gradually widened, and finally turned into a relieved smile.

"Sizzle!"

The sound of paper tearing rang out in the silent night sky, sharp and crisp, like a sharp blade slicing through the tranquility of the moonlit night.

Liu Bei, who had just picked up his straw sandals, paused upon hearing the sound. His body stiffened on the spot, and he slowly turned around to look at the two invitations in Jian Yong's hand that had been torn in half.

At that moment, the fragments were gently falling with the night breeze, swirling in the air before finally landing on the ground like two withered leaves.

Looking at his childhood friend Jian Yong's expression, there wasn't a trace of heartache on his face, as if he had torn off something insignificant.

In Liu Bei's eyes, Jian Yong, the Pig Warrior, lifted his foot and gently ground one of the pieces with the sole of his shoe, a gesture that carried a childlike sense of pride.

"Xianhe, you really don't need to. If you want to go, then go..."

Liu Bei's voice was somewhat urgent. He took a step forward, as if trying to stop something, but found that he could no longer stop it.

Before he could finish speaking…

Jian Yong then raised his head and let out a hearty laugh.

"If you won't go, Xuande, then I won't go either!" Jian Yong's tone carried a sense of reckless abandon.

Watching his childhood friend Jian Yong's actions, it would be a lie to say that Liu Bei was not moved.

His eyes welled up slightly, and his Adam's apple bobbed as if something was stuck there.

Liu Bei wanted to say something, but found his lips trembling slightly, and he couldn't utter a single word.

However, this feeling of being moved didn't last long before Liu Bei was immediately amused by Jian Yong's next remark.

"I wouldn't even be an accountant dog!"

Jian Yong's face held an exaggerated arrogance and a playful flippancy as he said, "To be..."

"You, Xuande, should be the prime minister of Zhongshan."

Jian Yong responded to his friendship with Liu Bei with the most absurd and outrageous words.

It wasn't because he believed that Liu Bei in the future could truly achieve great things and restore the Zhongshan Kingdom, whose fiefdom had been abolished.

But in this very moment.

He was unwilling to tarnish his good brother's aspirations with two posts he had worked so hard to obtain.

There can be more posts.

but.

Jian Xianhe rarely had a childhood friend as close as Xuande.

Upon arriving before Liu Bei, Jian Yong naturally extended his hand and took the straw sandals strung together with hemp rope from Liu Bei's hand.

After swaying in mid-air, he said to Liu Bei, "Since we're not going to the banquet tomorrow, let's have a big drink at the Yong family's house tonight."

As he spoke, Jian Yong took Liu Bei's arm, pulled him slightly, and led him towards his home.

Unlike last time when he was out of strength and stumbled because Liu Bei stood still, this time Jian Yong pulled Liu Bei with almost no effort.

Liu Bei's steps were light, and he slowly began to walk, guided by Jian Yong.

While on the move.

Liu Bei turned his head to look at his childhood friend Jian Yong, who was chattering incessantly, boasting that he would take ten concubines and hold a three-day, three-night banquet at Yingfu Restaurant after becoming the prime minister of Zhongshan...

Jian Yong, his childhood friend, was speaking with great enthusiasm, gesturing wildly and making gestures in the air with his other hand. When he got excited, he even started humming a little tune.

This scene warmed Liu Bei's heart, but he couldn't manage a smile on his face.

Liu Bei lowered his head, his gaze falling on the straw sandals strung together with hemp rope in Jian Yong's hand. The straw sandals gleamed with a faint yellow light under the moonlight, simple and unadorned.

Then, Liu Bei glanced back at the large mulberry tree beside the courtyard behind him, its canopy as dense as the emperor's carriage canopy.

In a daze, Liu Bei saw a young man standing with his hands on his hips, seemingly oblivious to the world, appearing under the canopy of a mulberry tree in the darkness of the night.

The young man was wearing an old shirt and his hair was a little messy, but his eyes shone as brightly as the stars in the sky.

He pointed at the large mulberry tree, tilted his head back, and declared, "I will surely ride in this canopy-covered carriage in the future."

Its sound is crisp and loud.

It carries with it a kind of arrogance and naiveté that comes with the fearlessness of a newborn calf.

But just as Liu Bei was about to get a clear look at what the young man looked like, the scene before him suddenly vanished.

What remained was no longer the spirited young man, but a large mulberry tree that stood quietly there.

The shadows of the trees swayed, and moonlight filtered through the gaps in the branches and leaves, casting dappled light and shadow on the ground. The young man of yesteryear was nowhere to be seen.

"Someone like that..."

"Can it truly lead to great achievements?"

Liu Bei let out a soft sigh.

The sigh was soft and was quickly drowned out by Jian Yong's words.

These words seemed to be Liu Bei asking his childhood self, who was full of youthful vigor, or his childhood friend Jian Yong, and asking about the heavens and the earth.

No one gave an answer.

All that could be seen was the image of Jian Yong and Liu Bei walking away side by side.

The moonlight stretched their shadows longer and longer, moving slowly along the dirt road until they finally blended into the night.

Jian Yong was still saying something, but his voice gradually faded away, leaving only fragmented words that drifted away on the wind.

However, what Liu Bei failed to notice was...

Shortly after he left, the mulberry tree next to his yard seemed to come alive, its canopy swaying incessantly.

The shaking became more and more intense, as if the mulberry tree itself was responding.

It can happen in the next moment.

As if sensing something, the mulberry tree abruptly stopped swaying, and a faint ripple suddenly appeared in the air not far away.

As the ripples spread outward from the center, they gradually expanded...

Finally, two figures emerged from within.

The first person to step forward was a man wearing an imperial crown, with a dignified face and an air of imperial authority about him.

It was none other than Emperor Xuanzu Liu Bingyi, who had previously fought Zhang Mu in the East China Sea.

He appeared alongside King Seonjo Liu Bingyi.

There was another emperor whose features bore a striking resemblance to his.

The emperor exuded a faint imperial aura, which, though deliberately restrained, still gave people an invisible sense of oppression.

He stood beside Liu Bingyi, his gaze fixed on the direction where Liu Bei and Jian Yong had left, his eyes filled with a complex emotion.

"Father, is it really necessary to cover up for Liu Bei?"

The emperor turned his head slightly to look at Liu Bingyi, his gaze questioning.

"If those insignificant eunuchs sent people to find Liu Bei, he might perish before he can even grow up."

"The fate of Zhuge Liang, the meritorious assistant chosen by the lineage of Emperor Guangwu for Liu Bei, has been altered due to Zhang Mu's intervention."

"But we cannot ignore Liu Bei's fate."

"If Liu Bei truly succeeds in reviving the Han dynasty three times, he may very well surpass you and me and become someone comparable to Emperor Guangwu, Emperor Gaozu, and my great-grandfather."

"At that time, driven by the dynasty's destiny..."

"Perhaps the cultivation levels of you and me, father and son, can advance further and reach the Immortal Emperor Realm, which is beyond the Emperor Realm."