In the end, though, Cao Cao would not live to see the actual era of the Three Kingdoms, as he would pass away on March 15, 220 at the age of 66, having been promoted by Emperor Xian as "King of Wei" four years prior, though still working as a vassal of the Han dynasty. It would be Cao Cao's second son, Cao Pi, who forced Xian to abdicate the throne a little less than a year after his father's death, resulting in the creation of Cao Wei, which in turn would lead to Liu Bei & Sun Quan announcing the official formation of Shu Han & Eastern Wu, respectively. Wei's ultimate fate would come in 266, when Cao Huan (the fifth & final Emperor of Wei, & Cao Cao's grandson) abdicated the throne to Sima Yan, resulting in the formation of the Jin dynasty that eventually reunited China.
When it comes to Romance, Cao Cao is always portrayed as the primary antagonist of the story, as while he's not a "villain" his actions & worldview make for a direct clash with Liu Bei's more idealistic & benevolent nature, or Sun Quan's focus on honor & family. However, it is important to remember that Romance is a fictionalized take on the actual historical source text for what happened back in the day, Records of the Three Kingdoms by Chen Shou... so how would the story of the Three Kingdoms work out if one was to rely more on Records than Romance? In 1994 that would come about when the editor-in-chief for a manga artist calling himself "Gonta" asked "Why don't you try to depict Romance of the Three Kingdoms as a Broadway musical?", and while Gonta was a fan of stories detailing Chinese heroic legends, & knew of ancient China, he knew nothing about Romance. Gonta decided to give Romance a read but was put off early on by all of the embellishments, deciding instead to read Records, upon which he essentially decided "If you're going to embellish, then at least make it interesting". Therefore, with help from Korean writer (& former film director) Hagin Yi, the now King Gonta debuted Souten Kouro/Beyond the Heavens in the pages of Kodansha's Morning magazine in late 1994, a manga adaptation of the life of Cao Cao that took primarily from Records of the Three Kingdoms, but also some elements from Romance as well as the occasional original embellishment by Gonta & Yi; Gonta has admitted that making Cao Cao the main character was Yi's idea. Sadly, Hagin Yi would pass away from liver cancer on September 22, 1998, leaving King Gonta to continue making Souten Kouro on his own, and in late 2005 the manga came to an end after 409 chapters across 36 volumes, winning the Kodansha Manga Award for General Manga (alongside Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji) in 1998, the same year Hagin Yi passed away.
On April 8, 2009 a TV anime adaptation of Souten Kouro done by Madhouse debuted on NTV, replacing baseball/gambling anime One Outs, and in fact was produced by the same companies that had produced Madhouse's unofficial trilogy of gambling anime, i.e. VAP, NTV, & D.N. Dream Partners (Kaiji & One Outs only for that last one). The Souten Kouro anime would also be the final production ever directed by venerated animator Toyoo Ashida (Fist of the North Star, Vampire Hunter D OVA), & be Ashida's penultimate anime in general, before passing away in mid-2011 at the age of 67. So, after having reviewed various anime adaptations of Romance of the Three Kingdoms throughout this year, with the majority putting the focus on Liu Bei as the primary focal point (and one technically focusing on Wu), let's bring it all to an end with the sole anime Romance adaptation that dared to look at things from the perspective of probably the most divisive man of the era, Cao Cao of Wei. Yes, I know that there's one other direct anime adaptation of Romance, but there is no complete English translation for it yet... and I honestly feel like I've experienced more than enough anime Romance in a single year.