Journey to the Three Kingdoms 2: Obsidian Blade vs Xiahou Dun

Xiahou Dun Receives Some Presents

Author's note: there is some violence at the beginning of this chapter. I don't think it's enough to warrant a M rating since it's not more violent than many YA novels like The Hunger Games but just a warning that a character loses his eye.

Xiahou Dun poured everyone at the meeting a warm cup of tea, tasting it to make sure it was not poisoned before serving Cao Cao and his generals. Cao Cao often had Xiahou Dun around because his presence and the sight of his injured eye was a direct cautionary tale for anyone who even thought about displeasing him, and this situation was no different. It all happened about a week ago, when a certain Lin Fang was sentenced for treason for unknown reasons. Since Lin Fang was the only person who even knew who Xiahou Dun was and treated him kindly, they have cultivated a rather strong bond of friendship. Xiahou Dun begged Cao Cao for clemency due to this friendship, and this angered the latter very much.

"If you side with the traitor, then you are no better yourself!" he declared.

Lin Fang was then put to death, and Xiahou Dun was forced to watch as he was thrown into the tiger pits and mauled alive.

"That's the last thing you'll ever see," Cao Cao said before angrily stabbing Xiahou Dun in the left eye with an ice pick so hard that its point exited the back of his head. He was going to stab his other eye too, but it was at that time when a messenger called with an urgent announcement. Xiahou Dun did not know what the messenger had said, but when Cao Cao returned, he was no longer as angry as he was before, and in the end, he had kept Xiahou Dun alive because he realized that having a living example who could actually walk around and interact with people everyday was a much more effective reminder than if he were just dead, buried six feet underground for everyone to forget. He had also forbidden doctors from treating him, because a traitor must be punished. Xiahou Dun did not know which hurt worse, his eye from his physical injury or his heart from watching his friend's death or his mind for being called a traitor for literally no reason.

Among the generals sitting at the table, there was a man with handsome and sharp facial features sitting at Cao Cao's right side. His name was Lu Bu, the most successful of them all. Ever since Cao had heard the tale that Lu Bu poisoned one of his adoptive fathers and slain the other with his halberd (his biological father was one of the ten thousand heavenly troops who died fighting against Sun Wukong when the latter wreaked havoc in the heavenly court), he had always respected the man for his ruthlessness. The fact that Lu Bu was a general who possessed both martial might and intellectual prowess was a great bonus, as was the fact that he had never lost a battle in his entire life. Lu Bu was over six feet tall, wielded a sapphire halberd, wore purple armor (the only one at the table who did not wear green) and had purple hair tied into a ponytail. Cao Cao had treated him as his own son, though he had not officially adopted him from worry due to his history. On Lu Bu's right sat Sima Yi, who was one of the strategists and used to have Lu Bu as her personal champion before Cao Cao had decided to promote Lu Bu to become an independent general and gifted him the Red Hare, a really fast horse. Even though both of them acted professionally about it, Sima Yi had always secretly harbored a grudge against Cao Cao for stealing Lu Bu. Sima Yi had mint-green hair and wore light pastel green rather than the dark emerald green that the other advisers wore. Next to Sima Yi was Lu Bu's replacement and Sima Yi's new champion, a man known only by the name Exoskeleton due to the fact that he had been slashed at with swords and spears and have not suffered a single wound due to the toughness of his skin. While he was a strong fighter, he was not respected by Sima Yi, who viewed him as a forced replacement for Lu Bu. Nevertheless, Exoskeleton was loyal to Sima Yi beyond doubt.

On the left of Cao Cao sat his brother Cao Ren, who was by rank the High Commander which was officially the highest rank in the army, but had been falling out of favor since Lu Bu joined the army. He was the tallest of them all at six feet five, and was so stern in appearance that he looked like he had no idea of the meaning of the word fun. Nevertheless, his seriousness primed him for warfare and he was an immovable force on the battlefield and he was a man of great honor. He had forest green hair and green eyes the color of moss, just like Xiahou Dun and Cao Cao did. In contrast, the person sitting next to Cao Ren, a guy who had not yet attained the rank of general, was known as Robert "Bob" Tractor, and was the oldest person in the group in his early forties. His age showed on his receding hairline, beer gut and the small wrinkles beginning to form over his plump visage, but if one were to judge him by his behavior, he would have been assumed to be the youngest. He was very informal, and was on a first name basis with everybody. He was very friendly, sometimes overly so, often telling jokes and changing the topic of conversation during strategy sessions. This was due to his simple upbringing as a truck driver who had only began to pursue military matters when he realized that he had a special talent. He had hoped to lead an army of a hundred thousand soldiers against enemy forces at the front line, cutting down every enemy that moved with a sword of majestic justice, but due to his lack of physical fitness and his dislike for chains of command and authority, he was placed behind the desk as an adviser instead. Bob Tractor wasn't someone who people wanted to be in charge of their army or of anything where life and death was involved, but he was a great fellow to have a beer with. Because of that, Xiahou Dun sat down next to him.