99: Chapter 99 Seeking Justice

Adar really did have a hidden rule related to the early-stage debuff effects.

"Final Chapter Rule F: During the final Heroic Spirit showdown, 'Divine Judgment' can target the effects of items!"

'Divine Judgment' can target the effects of items.

Chen Aoyun's eyes lit up instantly.

But upon closer thought, Chen Aoyun felt this rule was not easy to exploit!

What are 'item effects'?

They are what reduced the generals' combat power.

[Divine Judgment] can 'vindicate' a general.

By recounting a general's glorious deeds and using those deeds to deduce their combat power, one could prove their true strength and break the item's effects.

However, the problem is that one Judgment can only target one event or one general.

Chen Aoyun could use Divine Judgment to restore 'Fan Kuai's' combat power to normal.

But what about the other generals?

Behind [Emperor Liu Bang] and [Zhu Yuanzhang] stood thirty generals each; that's sixty in total!

And the Dragon Country only has three Judgment attempts in total!

Chen Aoyun could vindicate Fan Kuai to restore his combat power, and he could also vindicate Xu Da and Chang Yuchun to restore theirs.

But after restoring the original combat power of these three, what about the other fifty-seven generals?

Restoring only three is not enough to contend with Sakura Country!

Fifty percent, no! At least eighty percent!

At least eighty percent of the generals' combat power must be restored for [Emperor Liu Bang] and [Zhu Yuanzhang] to have the strength to fight the Heroic Spirits of Sakura Country!

Because the Heroic Spirits of Sakura Country not only suffered no debuffs, but they might have even received buffs in the first stage!

On the field, the two Huaxia Emperors were struck hard again; [Emperor Liu Bang]'s imperial crown was knocked off, and [Zhu Yuanzhang]'s vambrace shattered!

There is not much time left!

"Judgment! If I can't judge a single general, what if I judge the emperors?!!!"

Suddenly, Chen Aoyun thought of a way to bypass the quantity limit of [Divine Judgment]!

The situation was urgent, and Chen Aoyun immediately took action!

A simplified Judgment began, and the massive The Scales appeared in Chen Aoyun's eyes.

This time, the weight on the other side of The Scales was not someone else's opinion, but the items from the first stage.

"One Judgment can only target one event or one Heroic Spirit, so I will target the Heroic Spirit [Emperor Liu Bang]!"

Clearing his throat, Chen Aoyun said solemnly, "I declare that with [Emperor Liu Bang]'s wisdom in employing personnel, his subordinates can exert one hundred percent, or even one hundred and twenty percent, of their combat power!"

Whoosh. His words transformed into a weight and fell onto The Scales.

Worried that the weight wasn't heavy enough and to avoid wasting time, Chen Aoyun directly cited a logical allusion: the source being the self-summary of Liu Bang in the "Records of the Grand Historian: Annals of Emperor Gaozu"!

After becoming Emperor, Liu Bang summarized his method of employing personnel: "In strategizing within a tent and winning battles a thousand miles away, I am not as good as Zifang (Zhang Liang)! In governing the nation, soothing the populace, providing supplies, and ensuring food lines are never cut, I am not as good as Xiao He! In leading an army of a million, always winning in battle and taking what I attack, I am not as good as General Han Xin! These three are all outstanding talents, yet I could use them; this is why I conquered the world!!!"

All are outstanding talents, and I could use them! This encapsulates [Emperor Liu Bang]'s ability to employ talent!

Each of Chen Aoyun's sentences was recognized by the will of the Game of National Destiny, transforming into a weight that tipped The Scales in Chen Aoyun's favor, overcoming the weight of the items.

"It worked! By using '[Emperor Liu Bang]'s employment of personnel must exert one hundred percent combat power' to suppress the logic of the items! Therefore, the items' debuff effects have vanished!"

On the arena, because Chen Aoyun's Judgment was successful, invisible shackles on [Emperor Liu Bang] suddenly shattered!

In an instant, [Emperor Liu Bang]'s combat power was raised by over a hundred points!

"If [Emperor Liu Bang] can be manipulated this way, then by the same logic, the Ming Taizu of Huaxia, [Zhu Yuanzhang], can be too! There are still two Judgment attempts left; that is enough!"

Just as Chen Aoyun was overjoyed, believing he had broken all the combat power debuffs on [Emperor Liu Bang], and was preparing to replicate this method for [Zhu Yuanzhang], he suddenly paused.

"Why is there only an increase of a hundred-plus points? Didn't thirty generals 'stand' behind [Emperor Liu Bang]? Even if a general's combat power isn't high, if they were restored to an average of 80, it should have restored at least 300 points of combat power. Why only a hundred-plus?"

After a careful check, Chen Aoyun was immediately speechless. "Damn! Does it have to be this rigorous!"

The logic was correct, and the train of thought was right. '[Emperor Liu Bang]'s 100% wisdom in employing personnel' did indeed restore the generals' combat power. But it only restored the combat power of those founding generals of the Great Han!

Fan Kuai, Xiahou Ying, Zhou Bo... these generals who fought to conquer the world alongside Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang all had their combat power restored. But General Wei Qing, General Huo Qubing, General Li Guang... these other generals of the Great Han still maintained their debuffed combat power without a single change!

"So, according to the content of my Judgment, only those truly employed by [Emperor Liu Bang] could have their combat power restored? General Wei Qing, General Huo Qubing, and General Li Guang are generals from the era of Emperor Wu of Han; they are not within the scope of the 'Liu Bang's wisdom in employing personnel' that I judged, so their combat power didn't change?!"

This was the first time Chen Aoyun hated the rigor of [Divine Judgment] so much.

"This is troublesome. If [Emperor Liu Bang] cannot restore the combat power of all the generals, then following the same line of thought to judge [Zhu Yuanzhang] will result in the same effect!"

With two Judgment attempts left, Chen Aoyun immediately aborted the plan to judge [Zhu Yuanzhang] using the same approach.

On the arena, the [Emperor] and [Shogun] of Sakura Country had generals behind them with an average combat power of around 90, with some even approaching 100! These were the values after the item buffs.

Each general provided 90-100 combat power, and with thirty of them, it calculated to [Emperor] and [Shogun] both having over 2700 in combat power!

Looking at [Emperor Liu Bang] and [Zhu Yuanzhang] on the Dragon Country side, the generals provided an average combat power of only 70, making [Emperor Liu Bang]'s combat power only 2145, while [Zhu Yuanzhang]'s combat power was at 2120.

Even though Chen Aoyun's Judgment this time restored the combat power of five generals in total, including Fan Kuai, Xiahou Ying, and Zhou Bo, [Emperor Liu Bang] increased his combat power by over a hundred on top of 2145, reaching 2269, but there was still a clear gap compared to the Heroic Spirits of Sakura Country.

In a decisive battle that relied purely on numbers, the two Huaxia Emperors were still being suppressed and beaten!

What was even more despairing was that the forms of the two Huaxia Emperors had already begun to show signs of dissipating!

There was no time left! If he didn't find a way to quickly increase the combat power of the two Huaxia Emperors, and things continued like this, in less than 10 minutes at most, the forms of the two Huaxia Emperors would be completely shattered!

At this time, Adar, who had already fulfilled the obligations of an ally and was hiding in a corner, advised Chen Aoyun, "Stop struggling. Not to mention using three Judgments, it is impossible to restore the combat power of all sixty generals. Even if you did, so what? You don't think the generals of Sakura Country are trash, do you? The generals of Sakura Country are strong! Even if you could restore the combat power of all Huaxia generals, it's unlikely you would be a match for Sakura Country, and furthermore, Sakura Country has additional item buffs! Take a piece of advice from your brother; just admit defeat. There's no point in persisting, and there's also a probability of accidentally hurting my side..."

The blank-slate Heroic Spirits of Ottoman only had double-digit combat power, while the Dragon Country and Sakura Country sides were both attacking each other with combat power over two thousand. There was no need for sneak attacks; even the aftermath of the two sides' battle made Ottoman feel immense pressure.

Ignoring Adar's advice, Chen Aoyun barely permitted failure, so how could he possibly permit himself to give up?

Furthermore, the last Judgment could not be considered a complete failure!

"The last Judgment didn't achieve the ideal result, but the direction of the line of thought was correct! It is indeed possible to use one Judgment to solve the combat power problem of multiple generals!"

Closing his eyes, the scene of the two Huaxia Emperors retreating step by step still stung his nerves. He couldn't lose his head! The more desperate the situation, the calmer he had to be!

Chen Aoyun took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down from his boiling blood and anxious emotions.

"Since it is possible to use one Judgment to solve the combat power problem of multiple generals, then the direction of the Judgment is the key to breaking the deadlock! Judging [Emperor Liu Bang] can only restore the generals of the Gaozu era. Then what can I judge to restore the combat power of all the generals of the entire Western Han period? Wait... Western Han! Dynasty! Right! Dynasty! Bypassing individual generals and the Heroic Spirit [Emperor Liu Bang], can I judge the martial virtue of the entire 'Western Han' period?"

His train of thought became clearer; next came the details and logic!

"The generals of the entire Western Han had their combat power suppressed because of the items. But the historical achievements of the Western Han are unparalleled! If I use 'the historical achievements of the Western Han' as an anchor and 'achieving such great historical results requires powerful generals' as the weight, and use this method to judge all the generals of the Western Han, can I restore the combat power of all Western Han generals? It should be possible!"

Still keeping his eyes closed, Chen Aoyun exhaled a breath of stale air.

The train of thought was clear, and the details and logic were there; next, he had to organize the rhetoric!

This Game of National Destiny had indeed won a lot of national destiny, but the Game of National Destiny was not over yet, and the national destiny won had not yet been 'credited'.

There were indeed two Judgment opportunities left. But the national destiny that had to be used for the Judgment could only be the amount of national destiny the Dragon Country possessed before the Game of National Destiny started.

The amount of national destiny possessed before the Game of National Destiny started was very small, very small indeed, so small that for the next two Judgments, each Judgment was only enough to place one weight!

In other words, if Chen Aoyun wanted to use 'the historical achievements of a dynasty' as an anchor to restore the combat power of all the generals, he could only propose one achievement per dynasty!

The more extraordinary the historical achievement, the higher the degree to which the combat power could be restored.

Then... in the history of the Han Dynasty, what was the greatest achievement related to the generals' combat power? And in the history of the Ming Dynasty, what was the greatest achievement related to the generals' combat power?

The sounds of battle were incessant; even with his eyes closed, Chen Aoyun knew the pressure the two Huaxia Emperors were under at this moment.

One minute... two minutes... three minutes... Chen Aoyun suddenly opened his eyes!

"If we are talking about the greatest historical achievements related to generals for these two dynasties, it is undoubtedly these two points!"

The anchor point was selected, the national destiny was offered, and Chen Aoyun's Judgment began!

First was the Han Dynasty: "The Han Dynasty won the war that decided the future of the entire Huaxia: the Han-Xiongnu War! The Xiongnu at that time were incomparably powerful and were known as the 'Xiongnu Empire'! The Han Dynasty forcibly broke their spine when the nomadic people were at their most prosperous! The phrase 'If the invaders can come, so can I.' The phrase 'One Han equals five Hu.' From then on, the northern nomads could only be called tribes, and they no longer deserved the title of a nomadic empire! This dynasty brought unprecedented dignity to Huaxia and the confidence for an ethnic group to stand tall for thousands of years! States always perish due to weakness, only the Han perished due to strength! The martial virtue of the Han Dynasty was so abundant that it shocked both the ancient and modern times!"

The Han-Xiongnu War of the Han Dynasty was Chen Aoyun's anchor! And the weight dropped with this anchor was incomparably huge! It was so huge that Chen Aoyun could no longer see The Scales themselves in his eyes; they were completely occupied by this weight!

It was far more exaggerated than when he placed the [Self-Sourced Text] piece; The Scales didn't just tilt toward the Dragon Country, they were directly crushed by the weight!

Not to mention that Sakura Country no longer had the opportunity to judge and intervene in this Judgment initiated by Chen Aoyun. Even if Sakura Country did, upon seeing such a huge and unreasonable weight, they would only let Chen Aoyun win the Judgment!

At the same time, the audience watching the live stream had gone crazy!

Although [Divine Judgment] was conducted in a simplified form, they clearly saw that insanely huge weight through the split-screen of the live broadcast.

- "Did they move the moon from the sky to use as a weight? Why is it so big! Is it because of the traction of the two characters 'Xiongnu'? I know that in the historical materials left behind by many countries, this Xiongnu is mentioned. It was a nomadic empire that was ridiculously strong. Its existence was real, and it influenced the direction of history for a long period in the Old Era. So, was this powerful empire wiped out by Huaxia in the Old Era?"

- "It has turned into such a huge weight, can it still be fake?"

- "The authenticity doesn't need to be discussed; I just don't know if Huaxia defeated the Xiongnu by picking up a leak."

- "Picking up a leak, my foot! Didn't you hear the Dragon Country Strategist say it was 'forcibly breaking their spine when the nomadic people were at their most prosperous'! It wasn't picking up a leak, and it wasn't a sneak attack or liquidation after the Xiongnu declined. They just went head-to-head!"

- "Indeed, judging by the weight placed by the Dragon Country, they won against the Xiongnu by going head-to-head... but this is too subversive to my cognition! Oh my god, in just this one Game of National Destiny, how many times has the Dragon Country subverted my understanding of Huaxia Civilization?"

The audience in the real world was deeply shocked.

On the arena. Because of Chen Aoyun's Judgment on the martial virtue of the Han Dynasty, the sound of invisible shackles shattering on [Emperor Liu Bang] rang out again! Crack! Crack! Crack—!

This time, the sound of chains shattering like popping beans around [Emperor Liu Bang] was incessant! The twenty-five general stars, which were originally somewhat dim, were now shining with boundless light, brilliant as a galaxy!

General Wei Qing's steadiness, General Huo Qubing's sharpness, General Li Guang's ferocity... all the true power of the Great Han generals was finally added to Emperor Gaozu [Emperor Liu Bang] without reservation!

Combat power: 2801! From 2269, it jumped to 2801, which was even higher than the combat power of around 2700 of the two Heroic Spirits of Sakura Country!

Boom! The Sakura Emperor, who was originally suppressing and fiercely attacking [Emperor Liu Bang], was staggered and knocked back by this sudden power, his face filled with shock!

A disgusting, perverse smile appeared on Chen Aoyun's face again.

Since [Emperor Liu Bang] can be judged this way, then Ming Taizu, Emperor Hongwu, [Zhu Yuanzhang] can too!

"Next, it's time to seek justice for our Emperor Hongwu!"