Chapter 2446 2160: You Tell Me This Is Fake!

Looking at Zhang Liao standing where he was, Gao Lan suddenly felt a bit ashamed. After a moment of silence, he patted Zhang Liao on the shoulder. "For Zhuxia."

On the other side, Sheni Pei watched that scene from afar and patted Chen Gong. "Is Zhang Wenyuan really about to step into the Qi Burst Boundary?"

"Mm, that should be right." Chen Gong nodded as he spoke.

"Another Marquis Wenn!" Sheni Pei said irritably.

"How is that possible? Even if he breaks through, he can't be as strong as Marquis Wenn, you could even say—whether he can beat the Marquis Wenn back then, at the Inner Qi Manifestation limit, is still a question." Chen Gong curled his lips as he spoke. Zhang Liao can only bully people weaker than himself, that flexible Internal Qi of his.

"But that line he said, you didn't teach him that, did you?" Sheni Pei swept a glance at Chen Gong. Though lately, in order to adapt to this group, his temperament seemed much milder, in reality, at the instant he turned his head to scan around, a cold gleam still habitually flashed in his eyes.

"That I didn't. But the proposal of fighting for Zhuxia is good. I'm planning to drag Hu Kongming in too; he's very capable at governing territory." Chen Gong smiled as he spoke. Sheni Pei frowned. Fighting for Zhuxia, huh—right now, they still couldn't afford such luxury.

"Aduo, are you brain-damaged?" Li Jue roared at Guo Si. "Can you awaken a Legion Talent or not? Did you see that Lyu Bu just now? Back then when we led troops, we beat him till he was running all over the place. Now you tell me, can we still kill him or not!"

"That guy's so strong he's basically impossible to deal with." Fan Chou lay off to the side and spoke helplessly. "If right now he brings the Wolf Cavalry, with ten thousand on each side, we probably wouldn't win."

"Shut up!" Li Jue glared furiously at Fan Chou. "Are you two intellectually disabled? I already told you to think of a way to awaken a Legion Talent. Look at what you've been doing!"

"The problem is, even if we awaken a Legion Talent, we can't chase the Wolf Cavalry like we did back then. I seriously don't believe you haven't noticed—the Wolf Cavalry are now almost as strong as we are!" Guo Si glared back at Li Jue, unconvinced.

"That's not an excuse!" Li Jue bellowed. "Are you two pigs? You can't even awaken a Legion Talent. The two of you aren't even as good as the enemy's banner. What use do I have for you two? If the Zhang Family were still alive, he'd definitely spit a face full of saliva on you. Look at you now—what can you do?"

"Enough out of you." Guo Si was also holding back a bellyful of anger. "What did you think of that Trajan Legion led by that guy called Camillo just now?"

"Next time Laozi will stomp them to death!" Before Li Jue could answer, it was Fan Chou who roared. As the Commander-in-chief of the Xiliang Iron Cavalry, in his whole life he'd never been humiliated like that. One versus four, huh, they sure could fight. Turns out even the Xiliang Iron Cavalry had times when others looked down on them.

"Their quality is even higher than ours." Li Jue sat down cross-legged, arms folded across his chest, dropping his butt to the ground, his face showing deep contemplation. "You'd say that's impossible. Honestly, our quality should already be at the limit. Could it be that the third Elite Talent has some special Talent Effect?"

Li Jue and the others all understood the situation of the Iron Cavalry. The Soldiers' quality had basically already reached the peak; that type where it's impossible to get stronger. Even climbing higher mountains was essentially just reinforcing the foundation. Having reached this current extreme, at most they could only tinker and patch up a little.

Going any further, if they wanted progress, Li Jue, Guo Si, and Fan Chou all understood they only had two paths left: one was becoming a Military Spirit, the other was becoming a Three Talents Legion.

But unlike most legions, the Iron Cavalry's state was just a bit too complicated.

Simply put, the Xiliang Iron Cavalry Headquarters' elites were themselves reserves for a Military Spirit Legion. The Flying Bear disappeared, but it left extremely deep traces on the path forward for the Xiliang Iron Cavalry Headquarters' elites.

Those traces were so deep that, after the Xiliang Iron Cavalry reached the limit of Military Spirit Legion reserve Soldiers, it was very hard to break through further. Because for the Iron Cavalry Headquarters, the road ahead had been cut off. They had followed the Flying Bear's wheel tracks to this step, and it was impossible to retreat and walk it again.

Later, in Hua Xiong's Northern Frontier campaign, with Hua Xiong's Headquarters at a point where they could no longer advance and could not retreat, they forcibly broke through the Flying Bear's wheel tracks and leaped up to the height of a Military Spirit, inheriting a portion of the Flying Bear's power while also carving an even deeper groove into the trajectory of the Xiliang Iron Cavalry.

Put simply, the road forward for Li Jue's Headquarters could no longer be braked. It was full of pits left by their own people. If they kept walking the old path, then the limit they'd reach would be the current point Li Jue was at—meaning that whenever needed, they could instantly become Military Spirit Soldiers to fill out a Military Spirit Legion.

But having walked this road, and reached the level Li Jue and the others were at now, it was impossible for them to get stronger. There was absolutely no way a new Military Spirit could be born, because the Iron Cavalry Headquarters had two layers of Military Spirit Legion shackles bound to them. This simply wasn't something that could be broken by the Dual Talent Extreme tier.

Therefore, for Li Jue and the others, the only route they can choose is the Three Talents path—but how should one put it, this is a pit too.

The Dual Talent of the Xiliang Iron Cavalry Headquarters—those three guys all know the effects are Defense and Reinforced Defense, and as for what the Third Talent is and how to obtain it, in fact Li Jue, Guo Si, and Fan Chou have already guessed it, or rather it shouldn't be called guessing, they already know what the Third Talent is.

To be precise, if Li Jue, Guo Si, Fan Chou, and even Hua Xiong were to sit down and think carefully, they could all figure out what their Third Talent is; it's just that this bunch denied the Third Talent of the Xiliang Iron Cavalry, or rather their very existence has interfered with the actual manifestation of that Third Talent.

One effect the Xiliang Iron Cavalry has always had is: when the Xiliang Iron Cavalry appears, our army's cavalry gains the blessing of the Xiliang Iron Cavalry; for every additional fully organized Xiliang Iron Cavalry Legion, that blessing is strengthened once. It applies to the Xiliang Iron Cavalry themselves and to cavalry Military Spirit Legions.

How to describe this effect… all cavalry who fight alongside the Xiliang Iron Cavalry acknowledge that this effect exists, and within the Xiliang Iron Cavalry they also recognize this effect as their Talent.

Yet in reality, this effect is fake, it's a scam, something Li Jue, Guo Si, Hua Xiong, Fan Chou, and Zhang Ji, that earliest batch of old foxes from the Xiliang Iron Cavalry, cooked up to fool the Qiang Cavalry—but after fooling them for long enough, even the Xiliang Iron Cavalry themselves came to believe it, and in the end everyone believed it.

You could say that at this point, even if Li Jue tells others that this effect is fake, he has no way to explain it; but if they want to rise to Three Talents, then those four who know the essence—Li Jue, Guo Si, Hua Xiong, Fan Chou—must die.

The so‑called Third Talent is, at its core, pure Idealism: whether you call it "borrowing falsehood to make truth" or "turning lies into reality," as long as the four who know the truth and falsehood—Li Jue, Guo Si, Fan Chou, Hua Xiong—are dead, then when false becomes true, truth also becomes false, and the distinction no longer matters; this effect that has always inherently existed in the Xiliang Iron Cavalry will instantly turn into a Third Elite Talent—Idealism Enhancement!

This is also why the entire Iron Cavalry Headquarters finds it so hard to advance. The basic quality of the Xiliang Iron Cavalry has in fact already reached the threshold for birthing a Three Talents Legion; as long as they condense a Third Talent, they can complete an internal‑to‑external sublimation and transform into a new Three Talents Legion.

Originally, the hardest part of attaining Three Talents lies in how, after pushing the first two Talents to the extreme, you then grind out the Third Talent.

The problem with the Xiliang Iron Cavalry is that we've long since honed the first two Talents to their limits, and even years ago the effect of the Third Talent had already been tempered into existence, but then our commanders collectively decided that the Third Talent was fake. Yep, the Third Talent is fake!

The current paradox is: the effect of the Third Talent has already emerged, your qualities also meet the standard, and then you deny this Elite Talent. Do you understand what "blocking the path" means? If we're being blunt, the Third Talent of the Xiliang Iron Cavalry has already taken shape; all it's missing is one sentence of recognition, and instead you tell me it's fake!

That is the real reason the Xiliang Iron Cavalry is flat‑out unable to advance to the Third Talent. Hua Xiong's Iron Cavalry Headquarters, with Flying Bear Will blocking the road ahead, forcibly broke through to Military Spirit; that in itself meant he slapped two layers of Military Spirit sealing lines onto the path behind, where the rest of the Xiliang Iron Cavalry are.

And now these brain‑pit idiots have even sealed off their own Three Talents route, outright blocking the doorway with a Third Idealistic Talent that has already become real and formed, and which, even without attaching to the essence of the Xiliang Iron Cavalry, has already birthed a Talent Effect.

To put it in simpler terms, the Xiliang Iron Cavalry walked the whole road themselves, then went and blocked their own way forward, and now they're shouting that there's no road left to take—what were they doing earlier?

For the Xiliang Iron Cavalry to birth a Third Talent now, either the four big bosses—Li Jue, Guo Si, Fan Chou, Hua Xiong—commit suicide; as long as those four brain‑pit idiots die, the Three Talents of the Xiliang Iron Cavalry will absolutely take shape on the spot.

Or else the Xiliang Iron Cavalry defies the heavens and squeezes out yet another Third Idealistic Talent: just like Hua Xiong back then tore apart the Flying Bear Will that blocked the Military Spirit path, they must also destroy this doorway‑blocking Third Idealistic Talent and thereby prove a new Third Talent. There are only these two roads: for the former, it's just a matter of time; for the latter, if it can be born, it might even snatch some substance from the already‑formed Idealism Enhancement.

But the problem with the latter is that the four—Li Jue, Guo Si, Fan Chou, Hua Xiong—fundamentally lack the mental wiring to grasp what "Idealism" means in the context of a Third Talent. Fine, even if they did understand, it wouldn't matter much; the already‑formed Idealism Enhancement will suppress the birth of any new Talent.

Unless they can do what Hua Xiong did back then—at the extreme limit of Dual Talent, explode with a will capable of tearing apart Military Spirit—only then can they forcibly break through under obstruction. Yes, one instant is enough; as for whether they understand it, that's actually not important. For this bunch, as long as they can hit people, that's good enough—what's the point of talking about understanding.

"Probably only by forming a Third Talent can we see any fundamental change." Guo Si said irritably. "So what are we supposed to do?"

"With my Legion Talent in high‑speed consumption mode, I can hold off the Trajan Legion." Li Jue fell silent for a moment before speaking. "For One Quarter Hour, my Legion Talent is enough to rival an Elite Talent."

Li Jue doesn't know that, in terms of effect, his Legion Talent is not inferior to the talents of those Breakthrough Experts; it merely lacks the resistance that a Breakthrough Talent would provide against Sima Yi.