Chapter 98: Though the Divine Tortoise May Live Long, Its Time Must Still Come to an End

The battle for recognition of the rightful master had already lasted half a month.

Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan stood by the shore with grave expressions, staring fixedly at the lake’s surface, smooth as a bronze mirror.

Half a month earlier, a divine beast had emerged from the water: a black dragon tortoise.

“Will His Majesty win?” Sun Quan asked in a low voice.

“...May Heaven bless our emperor,” Liu Bei replied with studied tact.

Sun Quan shot him a glance.

He had always thought Liu Bei slippery and evasive; now, answering a question with another question only made him seem all the more hypocritical.

“Mengde, what do you think?” Sun Quan asked Cao Cao.

To his surprise, Cao Cao dodged the question as well.

“More than whether His Majesty wins or loses, I’m curious about something else. The three of us all bear the fate of emperors. Why is the divine beast contending only with His Majesty? Could it be that the will of Heaven is hinting that the three of us are, in the end, unfit to be emperors?”

At this, Sun Quan’s expression darkened.

A flicker of unease also appeared on Liu Bei’s face.

The three of them had stood guard by the lake under the pretense that, as close ministers of the Han Emperor, they naturally had a duty to protect him.

But each of them harbored private intentions of his own.

What if one among them were chosen by the divine beast...

“Heh heh, no need for alarm, gentlemen,” Cao Cao said with a quiet laugh. “A heavenly beast sent to protect the realm has descended, yet we have never founded a state of our own. Naturally, it has nothing to do with us.”

When he finished, silence fell again.

Once, they had all been loyal ministers of Emperor Liu Xie of Han.

But ever since the meeting of the Three Emperors, when Liu Xie had greeted them with suspicion and rebuke, seeds of discontent had been planted in their hearts.

In the end, Sun Quan, the youngest, could hold it in no longer.

“As long as His Majesty lives, I shall remain loyal to him for as long! If His Majesty is gone, I’ll return to my lands in Jiangdong and live out my days in peace.”

This was his declaration.

In the Great Han, he served only Liu Xie, the Han Emperor.

Once Liu Xie died, whether an evil minister usurped the throne or a new emperor ascended, Sun Quan would no longer be a subject of Han.

After speaking, Sun Quan turned to Liu Bei.

“Brother-in-law, what about you?”

Liu Bei had been born with the look of a man destined for display: remarkable in bearing, graceful in demeanor, with the noble air of a dragon and a phoenix. Yet when Sun Quan called him “brother-in-law,” even his cheek twitched.

“I am the imperial uncle of Great Han. If His Majesty were no longer here, I would gladly shoulder the burden of this Han realm myself!” Liu Bei declared, his voice ringing with iron strength, each word striking like metal.

“Cao serves on the Han salary...” Cao Cao paused slightly, then said slowly, “If Heaven’s mandate rests with me, then I shall be King Wen of Zhou.”

What did King Wen of Zhou mean?

Not rebellion, but lifelong loyalty to Shang.

As for whether his son would rebel, that had nothing to do with King Wen of Zhou.

Just as they were speaking, the lake suddenly churned, boiling like a pot of tea.

“His Majesty!”

The three cried out at once. Sure enough, a figure stumbled out of the lake in disarray and fell heavily into the mud by the shore.

Emperor Liu Xie of Han was covered in filth. He managed to struggle upright.

His Twelve-Tassel Crown was nowhere to be seen. His hair hung loose about his shoulders, and he had none of the bearing of an emperor.

His dragon robe was still mostly intact, but it was plastered with mud and water, filthy beyond recognition.

“Hah... hahaha, I’ve won. I’ve finally won.”

Emperor Liu Xie laughed in delight, waving both hands. In his right hand he tightly gripped a golden sword.

The Sword of the First Emperor.

Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan exchanged glances, then dropped to their knees in unison and bowed deeply.

“Congratulations to Your Majesty, for subduing the divine beast!”

“My dear lords, rise quickly,” Liu Xie said excitedly. “It was thanks to the three of you finding the Sword of the First Emperor. Without this sword, I might not have prevailed.”

As he spoke, he pulled from his sleeve a dark, irregularly shaped round object. It was a tortoise shell.

“Hah... it seems the beast is sleeping,” Liu Xie said awkwardly.

He had originally intended to show off a little, to let his trusted ministers admire the divine beast’s grandeur.

Unfortunately, the beast did not seem particularly willing to give him face.

The moment it was subdued, it immediately withdrew into its shell and fell asleep.

“My lords, have you any news from the states of Brightness and Chu?” Liu Xie asked, aware of the awkwardness and eager to change the subject. “Has the Jiajing Emperor and the Emperor of Chu... Xiang Chong? Have they also, like me, successfully subdued a divine beast?”

Cao Cao replied, “Our spies report that the Jiajing Emperor subdued his divine beast in only seven days and named it the Vermilion Bird of Great Brightness, then announced it to the world.”

“What? Only seven days?” Liu Xie looked disappointed. “The Jiajing Emperor really is the foremost man under Heaven.”

At this, Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan all sighed inwardly.

An emperor is the foremost man under Heaven.

Yet their own emperor had so readily admitted that he was inferior to a foreign sovereign?

No wonder the Han house was waning and the realm unstable.

But Liu Xie did not think so much. He felt that before his trusted ministers, he ought to speak freely.

He hurriedly asked again, “And what of Chu? Speaking of which, my precious Changle truly has a hard fate. She’s barely been married for a few days, and now she’s already a widow in all but name, isn’t she?”

Fan Li had already spoken to Cao, Liu, and Sun in advance, saying only that Xiang Ning had been forced to abdicate and was being kept under house arrest by the Pure Land of Brahmic Sound, but that they must not reveal the truth of her being a woman.

“The divine beast of Chu... seems not to have appeared yet,” Cao Cao said with a frown. “At least, the latest reports from our spies say that Emperor Xiang Chong of Chu is still holding regular court and has not yet begun the Recognition of the Rightful Master battle.”

Liu Xie sneered at this. “See? Usurpers are never any good! My dear son-in-law is the true Mandate of Heaven in Chu. That false emperor is utterly unworthy of the realm’s guardian beast.”

Cao, Liu, and Sun all felt a strange heat creep into their cheeks at those words.

Cao Cao coughed and said, “Your Majesty, perhaps you should imitate the Jiajing Emperor and bestow a name upon the divine beast?”

“Bestow a name?” Liu Xie blinked for a few moments, then asked, “Could I call it Little Tortoise?”

The three simultaneously rolled their eyes.

The Vermilion Bird of Great Brightness, and we get Little Tortoise?

That was simply beyond all propriety.

Liu Xie also seemed to realize it was inappropriate and said awkwardly, “Haha, Minister of Works, I have read very little since childhood, so perhaps you might do it for me? I’ve long heard that your literary talent is outstanding, and that you even founded the Jian’an school of literature?”

“...This minister obeys.”

Cao Cao gazed at the Han Emperor for a long time, and within him there rose an unexpected sense of helpless futility.

Once upon a time, he too had wanted to fling aside his head and spill his blood, all for the restoration of Han.

Cao Cao sighed before saying, “The divine beast is black by nature, and so ‘xuan.’ It comes from the water, and water is yin, and yin is darkness. In ancient times, Cangjie created the characters, and the sounds for ‘darkness’ and ‘martial’ were related. This minister suggests the divine beast be named Black Tortoise.”

“Black Tortoise?”

Liu Xie repeated the name several times and was very pleased.

“Little Tortoise, from now on your name is Black Tortoise?” he said, patting the shell lightly.

Suddenly, the Black Tortoise seemed to wake. It poked out a small head from its shell.

Its pair of round, bead-like eyes ignored Emperor Liu Xie and settled instead on Cao Cao, then shifted to Liu Bei and Sun Quan.

The others also stared at the Black Tortoise, and for a moment it seemed as though they could discern some emotion on its face.

Confusion?

Puzzlement?

At a loss?

How could a divine beast wear such an expression?

Soon the Black Tortoise withdrew back into its shell, as though nothing at all had happened.

Liu Xie laughed and said, “Minister Cao, since I have subdued the Black Tortoise, we should celebrate. I shall trouble you to write a Ballad-style poem and present it to me tomorrow for my enjoyment.”

“This minister obeys your decree.”

That night, Cao Cao returned to his own ministerial residence and spread out a sheet of plain paper upon the desk, then lowered brush to ink.

“Though the divine turtle may live long, its days will still come to an end...”