Wu Qi

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Wu Qi (吴起)
Alias(es)	Military Strategist Wu Zi
Gender	Male
Affiliation	Great Wei; Martial King Zhao Hongming's forces; Wei Elite Soldiers
Occupation/Role	Imperial Guard commander; general and commander of the Wei Elite Soldiers
Status	Alive
First Appearance	Chapter 52

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Innate Realm	167	Broke through amid the Battle of Jin Yin while leading the Wei Elite Soldiers against Zhao Country; his True Qi crossed the Heaven and Earth Bridge and transformed into killing intent.

Background / History

Wu Qi initially served as a leader among the Imperial Guards. During the journey back from Zhengyi Sect, he chose a longer route so he could retrieve wounded guardsmen left at the earlier battlefield, then ordered the dead buried before returning to the palace. Zhao Hongming had gifted him a fine steed. 63

While stationed under Zhao Hongming in Ying Commandery, Wu Qi identified the fundamental weakness of Great Wei's inherited mobilization system: temporarily recruited farmers, wandering Martial Warriors, and sect personnel lacked shared command, discipline, and cohesion. He proposed replacing it with a volunteer-based force of professionally trained elite soldiers. 114

Zhao Hongming recognized the plan as the Elite Soldier Strategy, elevated Wu Qi from battalion commander toward generalship, and entrusted him with building the force that became the Wei Elite Soldiers. 114 129

Personality

Wu Qi is calm, practical, and attentive to the welfare and morale of his soldiers. During an ambush by Chu Martial Warriors, he immediately divided his formation to delay the enemy and protect Zhao Hongming's carriage. After the battle, he treated the injured Chang Wubing with a Heart-Saving Pill. 52 55

He combines confidence in war with personal modesty. When Zhao Hongming praised him as worthy of becoming a great general, Wu Qi knelt and insisted that he did not deserve such a post. 114

His command philosophy is uncompromising: discipline, clear rewards and punishments, and constant training are essential to turning Martial Warriors into soldiers. Desertion and disobedience during campaigns are punished by execution. 125 135

After cultivating the Killing Scripture, Wu Qi's demeanor becomes more imposing and wrathful, reflecting the killing intent condensed by the technique. 171

Abilities & Skills

Military Strategy

Wu Qi is a tactician specializing in disciplined, professionally trained Martial Warrior formations.

• Proposed the Elite Soldier Strategy: a volunteer army separated from farming and independent Martial Arts Forces. 114
• Holds that groups of lower-realm Martial Warriors, properly equipped and arranged in military arrays, can defeat stronger individual Martial Warriors. 125
• Trained different specialists—Hard Qigong, Lightness Skill, Offensive Skill, and other practitioners—for separate battlefield roles. 129
• Used terrain and feigned disorder to bait enemies into decisive engagements. 167 251
• Stopped pursuit of the routed Zhao Army to avoid forcing desperate soldiers into a costly counterattack. 169
• Reacted to the sudden rise of Zhao's God Worshipping Army by ordering scouts, tightening vigilance, and later shifting to supply-line raids and attacks on isolated units. 288 289

Innate Realm Martial Arts

Wu Qi is an Innate Realm Martial Warrior, having broken through in battle at Jin Yin. 167

• Uses True Qi and a long saber in direct combat. 167 184
• His breakthrough produced powerful killing intent as his True Qi passed through the Heaven and Earth Bridge. 167
• Personally joins battles when necessary, including the clash against Han forces at Xinzheng. 251
• His martial cultivation remains a relative weakness beside his strategic talent; the more experienced Innate Martial Warrior Hu Yunfeng overwhelmed him during the battle at the Lin River. 184

Killing Scripture

Zhao Hongming rewarded Wu Qi with the Immortal Martial Arts Technique Killing Scripture, judging it suited to a battlefield commander whose cultivation could advance through slaughter. 156

• Condenses a stern, wrathful killing intent that changes Wu Qi's bearing. 171
• Is described as a more suitable cultivation method for him than the derivative techniques used by ordinary palace guards. 129 156

Formation Command

Wu Qi can coordinate large numbers of Martial Warriors as a unified fighting force.

• Expanded the Wei Elite Soldiers to 30,628 fully armored Martial Warriors, ranging from Meridian Opening Stage 3rd Grade to Aperture Opening Ninth Grade. 161
• Organized troops with bows or crossbows in addition to heavy armor, long halberds, and swords; his army included Long Halberd Soldiers, Sword and Shield Soldiers, and logistics troops. 162
• The military formation of the Wei Elite Soldiers was nearly equivalent to an Innate Fifth Grade Martial Warrior during the battle against Jiang Yuguang. 251

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Fine steed — Gifted to him by Zhao Hongming. 63
• Armor — Wears full armor while commanding and fighting alongside the Wei Elite Soldiers. 129 252
• Long saber / treasured sword — His personal melee weapon in battles and command tents. 184 294

Relationships

• Zhao Hongming — Lord and patron. Zhao Hongming recognized Wu Qi's military talent, funded his elite-army project, promoted him, granted him the Killing Scripture, and repeatedly entrusted major campaigns to him. 114 135 156 198
• Wei Elite Soldiers — Commander and architect of their training system. He personally recruits, organizes, rewards, disciplines, and leads them into battle. 129 135 252
• Chang Wubing — Fellow member of Zhao Hongming's retinue. Wu Qi gave him a Heart-Saving Pill after he suffered internal injuries in the Chu ambush. 55
• Zhang Yi — Fellow retainer of Zhao Hongming. Zhang Yi prepared camps and supplies for Wu Qi's forces during the Zhao campaign. 165
• Li Mu — Zhao Country general and battlefield rival. Wu Qi defeated Li Mu's much larger army at Jin Yin, forcing the surviving Zhao forces to retreat. 167 171
• Cen Xiu — Wei general who campaigned alongside Wu Qi during the wars of unification. 299

Story Role / Major Arcs

Formation of the Wei Elite Soldiers

After presenting the Elite Soldier Strategy, Wu Qi was appointed to recruit and train Zhao Hongming's new army outside Lu Ling City. He selected Martial Warriors from refugees, wanderers, and local Martial Arts Forces through harsh assessments, distributed silver and Wish Stones to successful candidates, and promised advancement, profound techniques, and the possibility of earning the Killing Scripture. 114 129

His first victory came against Chen ShengHai's conscripted troops. He enforced strict battlefield discipline, then earned the title Military Strategist Wu Zi for creating a force capable of changing the rules of warfare. 135

Zhao Country Campaign

Wu Qi expanded the Wei Elite Soldiers to more than thirty thousand Martial Warriors before Zhao general Li Mu advanced with an army of 180,000. 159 161

At Jin Yin, he judged that much of the Zhao Army was poorly coordinated rabble despite its numbers. He used a thousand soldiers as bait to destroy twenty thousand Zhao troops, then struck the enemy's flanking force with both wings, eliminating roughly thirty thousand more. 166 167

When Zhao deployed five hundred War Chariots, Wu Qi activated preparations he had made specifically for that threat. He broke through to the Innate Realm amid the fighting, and the Wei Elite Soldiers routed Zhao's army, leaving only about fifty thousand survivors from the original 180,000. 167 171

He then pushed into Hexi City, assessed and distributed military merits to preserve troop morale, and continued the counteroffensive. 173

Lin River and the Zhao Counteroffensive

While attempting to cross the Lin River using a pontoon bridge built from drifting logs, Wu Qi personally faced Zhao commander Hu Yunfeng. Although determined to hold the crossing, he was badly outmatched in their Innate Realm duel. 184

During later fighting, Zhao's God Worshipping Army targeted Wu Qi directly. Three enemy Martial Courage Realm combatants cut through his personal guards to assassinate him, but Zhao Hongming arrived in time to protect him. 290

Han Country Campaign

Wu Qi's advance into Han Country slowed because assassins repeatedly targeted his troops and Han equipment disrupted Wei's non-elite forces. He recommended a slower strategy of besieging cities and gradually weakening Han territory. 249

After Zhao Hongming killed the assassin Min Zong, Wu Qi correctly concluded that a successful assassination would have been followed by a night raid on the Wei camp. He turned this expectation into a trap, staging a camp in chaos and annihilating Jiang Yuguang's ambushing Han Army. 251 252

Wars of Unification

Facing Zhao's renewed god-worship forces, Wu Qi maintained order after Tang Zihao's army was annihilated and sent urgent intelligence to the capital. 288

He later led the Wei Army to defeat the Chu-Qi alliance and capture nearly 400,000 prisoners. Wu Qi ordered the captives buried alive, using the act to demonstrate Wei's power and terrorize its remaining enemies. 298 299

In the final unification campaigns, Wu Qi and Cen Xiu captured Qi's capital and destroyed Qi. Wu Qi then seized Chu's capital, Yingdu, after a year-long campaign, ending Chu as an independent state. 299

Notable Quotes

“A true man born between heaven and earth, how can he remain long in obscurity beneath others? My name, Wu Qi, shall rise to fame, starting from today!” 165

“If soldiers are to possess combat strength, this subordinate believes that the mobilization system inherited from the previous dynasty must be reformed into a volunteer army system, separating soldiers from farming and separating Martial Arts Forces from soldiers.” 114

“Kill them! Leave none alive!” 252

Trivia

• Wu Qi's first organized force was personally named the Wei Elite Soldiers by Zhao Hongming because its members were Martial Warriors and Zhao Hongming bore the title Martial King. 129
• He long coveted the Killing Scripture before Zhao Hongming finally awarded it to him. 129 156
• Wu Qi regarded pledging allegiance to Zhao Hongming as possibly the most correct decision of his life. 171