"These soldiers are at least third-rate warriors, and in Qing Country they would be considered elite soldiers. But in front of you, they are no harder to kill than the civilians tied up beside them."
In a short moment, thirty-seven men have been killed by you. At this moment, you are like a killing god in the eyes of these soldiers. They start to flee screaming in panic. Since they are running in all directions, it is very difficult for you to chase them.
Ten minutes later, you decapitated the sixty-seventh soldier with a single blow. Looking in the direction of the nearest soldier, who was nearly a thousand meters away, you sighed and stopped chasing.
[Because you have very little energy left, only about half of it.]
[From the initial rush, to the all-out output in pursuit of overwhelming combat stances, using Qinggong to rush and repeatedly chase down soldiers... If you've managed to hold on until now, your total energy level is already among the best in your class.]
If the soldiers behind you hadn't started running, you could have killed them all before you ran out of energy.
You return to Xiaohe City. Some resourceful villagers, having previously collaborated to free the prisoners, then helped each one individually. Over a hundred people are now free. They look at you with a mixture of fear and gratitude.
An old man walks out from among the villagers and asks you what they should do. You pause for a moment, then tell them there are two options.
[The first option is to pretend you didn't hear the officer say "We're under orders from the Qing Kingdom to massacre the village." Just pretend it was actually the Wu Kingdom attacking, and that they were saved by a passing hero. Then the whole village can ask the nearby city lord for shelter.]
[The second option is to go to Wu State, which is closer. It's only a few dozen miles away.]
The villagers had varying opinions. Some suggested forgiving the Qing Kingdom and letting bygones be bygones. They wouldn't massacre us again, would they? But amid the cries of several children, "Our house is burned down," these people silently changed their minds and ultimately unanimously decided to defect to the Wu Kingdom.
When you left Xiaohe Village, letting them pack up their belongings and not wanting to get involved any further, your expression suddenly changed. Over twenty miles away, smoke rose from another fire in another direction.
Just as you remembered that the direction was Sweet Potato Village, suddenly, thick smoke began to rise from the location of Potu Village!
"I was so stupid, really. I only knew the soldiers were going to massacre the village, so I ran to Xiaohe Village where they appeared. I didn't know there would be soldiers in other villages..."
[You know you can't change the outbreak of war. You have very little internal energy left. With your physical strength alone, you can't even defeat the officers you used to fight—at best, you can only defeat a few of the top-tier warriors who are just above the qualification level.]
[The civilians of those two villages may still be alive now, but their lives are destined to end on this day. You want to change history, but the power of a first-class warrior is still too weak...]
You choose to leave.
[That same year, not only did war break out, but you also found yourself on a wanted list by the Qing Kingdom!]
[Reason for the wanted order: On behalf of Wu, you forced the border villages of Qing to defect to Wu, and killed dozens of soldiers who tried to stop you. At the same time, the Wu army brutally and retaliated by massacring two other villages that refused to defect...]
[In the wanted list, you are described as an unforgivable criminal, a well-disguised lurker. Although there are many loopholes and doubts, few people actually explore the truth.]!
Just like the war that Qing initiated this time, who cares which side actually massacred the village? The real truth is only one: Qing wants to fight, so it has to start a war!
After the first round of fighting between the two armies, the atmosphere became tense. No one cared about the cause of the war anymore, only the war itself mattered!
In Qing Kingdom, your reputation plummeted. After discovering you were wanted, you immediately set out for Wu Kingdom.
Along the way, there were famous detectives chasing you across the state, and there were young heroes out for justice ready to fight you. You showed no mercy to these people.
You knew they didn't know the truth, so you didn't kill them—but you're not a saint. Since this detective didn't have the foresight to see the truth, and since this young man indiscriminately attacked a good person, then there's no point in wandering the world anymore.
You didn't kill them, but you crippled them, damaging some of their body tissues and veins. Although they can still live like normal people, they have lost their internal energy or vigor forever, making it impossible for them to recover or improve.
"As for whether they'll be retaliated against by their enemies after losing their powers... have they considered what will happen to you if you're captured? It's just tit-for-tat, fair enough."
You have your own yardstick in your heart. Whether it's double standards or hypocrisy, you just follow your heart.
At the end of the year, you evaded a martial artist's pursuit and entered the Wu Kingdom: You have never been to this place in this life!
In the 286th year of the Daqing era (too lazy to change the calendar), you settled in the Wu Kingdom. Despite being a nation apart, your reputation took a complete turn. The people of Qing no longer believed the "truth" of the Wu Kingdom, while the people of Xiaohe Village, whom you saved, knew you as a righteous knight.
You settle down in the Wu Kingdom's "Taiguang City." After a while, you discover that the Wu Kingdom lives up to its name, with a strong martial spirit. Martial arts schools are everywhere, and there are frequent competitions and tournaments.
In the 287th year of the Daqing era, you heard that a Grandmasters' Conference was about to take place. This conference, initiated by the Daoist sect, invited Grandmasters from all over the world to gather on Mount Qingdao to discuss martial arts, exchange ideas, and compete with each other to see who was better.
Although the Wu Kingdom and the Qing Kingdom are currently at war, the Jianghu and the war are separate. If a warrior joins the army and makes achievements, he will leave his "knight" status and become a general.
The Grandmaster from Wu State was clearly there as a martial arts exchange. Even when the two countries were at war, they didn't kill the envoys. They weren't worried about the safety of this place at all.
You hesitated for a moment, then decided not to warn them. After living here for a year, you knew the Wu people were so stubborn that even if you told them there might be an ambush, they would think you were being petty and looking down on the Qing Dao Sect.
[Using the example of the Qing Kingdom killing its own people to start a war, tell them that the Grandmasters' Meeting is the same?]
[Stop joking! We Taoists are warriors. How can we be the same as despicable officials?]
[When you think about how, after this trip, the Wu State Grandmaster was murdered, leading to a great Grandmaster's outburst, and the Wu State, which had originally been fighting the Qing State soldiers, began to massacre the city, you feel a sense of helplessness.]
[Alas! Qing Kingdom!]
[With this group of insects, we can't work together to fight the demons that will arrive in a dozen years (although we can't defeat them even if we work together).]
You are tired.
In the 288th year of the Daqing era, everything that was supposed to happen has finally happened. You've found the feeling of building a "power cycle" and will become a martial artist within two years.
[In this situation in Wu Country, even though you are devoted to martial arts training, a top-tier warrior is still too weak to prevent a war, nor can you even extinguish the fuse of the war.]
In the 289th year of the Daqing era, the Sun Martial Arts reached perfection, and your strength is now comparable to that of some martial artists. In fact, the opponents you've challenged in recent years have all been martial artists. At first, you lost more than you won, but now your winning rate is increasing.
[In the 290th year of Daqing, you are 35 years old, and your foundation has increased by 266%. This year, you finally complete your energy cycle and enter the realm of martial artist!]
[A martial artist, when exerting all his might, can defeat a thousand enemies. The energy circulates within his body, not only recovering at a speed several times faster than a first-rate martial artist, but he can also call upon it at any time, instantly releasing it from any part of his body!]
The energy of a first-rate martial artist remains as a stream or mass flowing through the body. As the mind shifts, it can move rapidly within the body and be released from the hands or feet. A martial artist, however, doesn't need this "movement" process at all!
[On this day, the Lord of Taiguang City held a martial arts celebration banquet for you. Guests from all over the world came to the banquet. During the banquet, three martial artists challenged you. They were either maliciously trying to sabotage you, or simply wanted to test the skills of a newly promoted martial artist like you.]
[Among the three, two could only be considered ordinary martial artists, but one of them, as he stretched his body, could hear bursts of popping sounds. He had already reached the stage of "muscles and bones resonating", and it was quite advanced!]
[Then, you win three battles and become famous in the surrounding sixteen cities!]
Not good enough: healthy body + some unconventional martial arts skills
Three Flows: → Muscles → Qi and Blood → Membranes
Second-rate: →Inner Strength Enhancement →Strength Integration →Blood Exchange and Flesh Coagulation
First-class: → Strength is released outwards → Internal organs are greatly strengthened → Strength penetrates the bones
Martial Artist: → Energy Circulation → Muscles and Bones Resonate → Martial Will
(Unity of Essence, Energy and Spirit↓)
The first step of martial arts:
Grandmaster: → Qi flows throughout the body → Strength strengthens the marrow → All-in-one → Divine will manifests
(Great) Grandmaster: → Impervious Golden Body → Solid Energy Transformation → Furnace of Qi and Blood → Interaction between Heaven and Man
(???↓)
The second step of martial arts:
Celestial being: ??