Mythical Three Kingdoms

The crowd burst into laughter, but no one felt Liu Bei’s words were out of line. On the contrary, they all believed it should be this way. After all, both Yuan Shao and Liu Bei were doing things to disgust each other, knowing it wouldn’t have any real consequences—just for the pleasure of seeing the other vexed.

”Three, two, one!” Chen Xi stared at the dark clouds in the sky and began to count down coldly. Then, with a sudden surge of his maximum Spiritual Capacity, the three people beside him mimicked his actions. In an instant, the dark cloud hovering over the center of the river was forcibly pushed to the other side. Before anyone on the opposing end could react, a torrential downpour came crashing down!

”Damn it!” Xin Pi and the rest flailed around in a panic, but they were still drenched from head to toe, becoming thoroughly soaked.

”Clang!” Wen Chou deflected a silver-blue arrow with his spear. The arrow instantly disintegrated into powder, and Liu Bei’s bold, resounding voice echoed through the air.

Yuan Shao was utterly drenched by the rain. Although his strategists quickly dispersed the dark clouds in the next moment, his gloomy mood was not so easily dispelled.

”Liu Xuande!” Yuan Shao shouted in rage.

Before Sheni Pei and the others could take the blame upon themselves to calm Yuan Shao with a few placating words, an arrow had already flown their way. What was said in that message almost made Yuan Shao explode with fury.

”Lord, it was all our carelessness. We failed to go all out, leading to this mishap. Please punish us,” Sheni Pei said, smiling bitterly. Earlier, those like Dong Zhao and Xuu You were merely testing the waters with half-hearted efforts. Who would have thought the opposing side could unleash such immense Spiritual Capacity in an instant?

”Hmph, return to camp!” Yuan Shao took a deep breath and regained his usual composed expression. Though Liu Bei’s words were harsh, they rang true: if you’re going to observe, then do it openly and honestly—no need for such underhanded tricks.

Tian Feng, Ju Shou, Sheni Pei, and Xuu You exchanged glances, all showing expressions of helpless resignation as they retreated to camp. The earlier incident was truly unexpected. Although their strategists may not have been as unpredictable as Liu Bei’s team, they weren’t lacking in brilliance either. Moreover, they had the advantage of numbers, yet a moment’s carelessness had reduced them to this sorry state.

”What do you all think?” Liu Bei asked, glancing around as he ensured Yuan Shao’s figure had disappeared from the high platform on the opposite riverbank.

”It’s of no real consequence. Regardless, we’ll fight how we planned to. At most, Yuan Shao’s just venting his anger for a while. With people like Sheni Pei, Xuu You, Tian Feng, and Ju Shou around him, unless he makes a move himself, it’ll still be tricky for us to handle him,” Chen Xi remarked casually, picking up a piece of meat with his chopsticks. ”If Yuan Shao doesn’t self-destruct, it’ll take time for us to defeat him.”

”What a pity there’s no bridge over the Yellow River. If there were one, whether it was us or Yuan Shao, we’d both have it easier. We could just start fighting directly,” Liu Bei said, half-lamenting, half-dreaming.

At this moment, Sunx Qian, returning from a fishing trip with Jian Yong, overheard these words. He looked at Liu Bei with a peculiar expression, then glanced toward the silent Chen Xi, unsure whether to interject. Although he belonged to the earliest group of followers, Sunx Qian’s presence was much weaker compared to this group, despite his renown in construction.

”Gong Youu, with that ’I have something but dare not speak’ expression of yours, just say it already. Are you still afraid of us?” Guo Jia teased playfully. He had always been irreverent toward formalities and, being close to Sunx Qian from their earlier days, gave him a friendly push while laughing.

”Do you have something to share with us, Gong Youu?” Liu Bei asked, noticing Sunx Qian’s hesitance. Curious, he added, ”Don’t tell me I’m so intimidating that you can’t even speak? That’s impossible!”

”Actually, I discussed this issue with Zichuan before,” Sunx Qian began after some thought. ”Technically speaking, with our current knowledge and materials, we are capable of building a bridge over the Yellow River and even the Yangtze River.”

The room went silent at his words. Liu Bei’s statement had merely been an offhand quip, yet when this came from Sunx Qian, regarded as the foremost bridge-building master of the present day, it suddenly became an actionable concept.

”Are you saying you can really build a bridge?” Liu Bei asked in disbelief, staring at Sunx Qian.

”A bridge can be built, but the difficulty is immense. Moreover, the timing isn’t right. The data required, the materials needed, and the number of professional craftsmen involved—it’s all too much,” Chen Xi said, frowning.

Sunx Qian had previously submitted a proposal for building a Yellow River bridge. Normally, such an ambitious project would have been outright dismissed as unrealistic for the Han Dynasty. However, since the proposal came from Sunx Qian, Chen Xi took the time to study it.

Ultimately, Chen Xi found himself with a massive headache. Although the plan had its flaws, it was shockingly feasible. This world’s material sciences were almost magical. Inner Qi nurturing was practically a divine technique, far surpassing specialized steel materials!

Afterward, Chen Xi taught Sunx Qian how to create scaled-down prototype models of the Yellow River Bridge. While he failed dozens of times, Sunx Qian eventually made a model using existing technologies that worked. Its strength was more than sufficient!

When Sunx Qian excitedly brought the prototype to him, Chen Xi was rendered speechless. A Yellow River Bridge? That level of technical expertise wasn’t supposed to exist for another 1,700 years! Yet here Sunx Qian was, not only proposing it but proving it could be done. Was he trying to outshine Zhang Heng?

At the time, Chen Xi had vaguely brushed him off. Building such a structure would require at least three billion coins, and the Yellow River banks weren’t even Liu Bei’s territory yet. If Yuan Shao were to destroy it after it was built, wouldn’t that be heartbreaking?

”So it can really be built?” Liu Bei pressed, furrowing his brows as he looked at Chen Xi.

”Yes,” Chen Xi nodded. ”To be precise, it could even be built successfully in one go, yielding a bridge that could last over a hundred years.” Sunx Qian nodded enthusiastically in agreement, like a pecking chicken beside him.

”Then why didn’t you bring this up earlier? If we’d started back then, it might be finished by now,” Liu Bei said, sighing in frustration.

”The technology wasn’t mature enough before. By the time it was, it’d still take at least two years to complete the bridge. Moreover, the costs are astronomical. Considering everything else stacked together, I’d need to allocate eight billion coins as initial funding. But to be honest, there’s no room for that in the current year’s budget,” Chen Xi said helplessly.

”That’s exactly right. The bridge can be built, but it wasn’t until the end of last year that the technology finally caught up. By then, Zichuan had already finalized and issued the annual budget. We’d need to wait five more months to access the necessary eight billion coins,” Sunx Qian explained. He didn’t harbor any resentment toward Chen Xi. Instead, he completely understood Chen Xi’s reasoning for delaying the project, as everything had been thoroughly clarified at the time.

(To be continued. If you enjoy this work, feel free to visit Qidian (qidian.com) and vote through recommendations or monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com for reading.)