Martial Master, Half-Wasted Body

[You decide to break out, but the world doesn't revolve around you—whether you succeed depends entirely on how hard the enemy blocks you!]

[Unfortunately, the one blocking you just happens to be a Demonized Captain: strength and physique comparable to a Martial Master reinforced with energy, only clumsier in movement, but still a Martial Master in combat power.]

[Shadows of men crowd all around. You look toward the village outskirts—two to three hundred Demonized Soldiers stand expressionless in a line. If you charge out, they'll intercept and attack you within moments, and then the Demonized Captain with its eyes locked on you will catch up from behind...]

[Caught in a pincer, certain death!]

[You glance at the other battle zones—almost every martial artist faces a demonized enemy a tier stronger. Hoping someone else can break free and create chaos to give you an opening is nearly impossible.]

[Then there's nothing left but a fight to the death.]

[You let out a long howl and draw the Zhanming Saber that has accompanied you for over thirty years. Over those decades, this blade has been reforged several times. A faint blue tint now ripples along its edge—the color of your energy staining the steel, turning the saber into your own hue.]

[You are fifty-seven years old, a peak First-rate Martial Artist in cultivation, still in your prime for pushing forward. Your deep blue energy surges like crashing waves. In just a few exchanges, you use the Combat Techniques paired with "Flowing River Technique" to apply clever force, leveraging four ounces to deflect a thousand pounds, forcing the Demonized Captain back several steps.]

[But the first surge is strong, the second weakens, the third exhausts. After pouring out too much energy too forcefully, your meridians and flesh can't bear the strain. Barely a dozen exchanges in, the Demonized Captain's war spear taps forward—the force travels through your blade into your arm, then all the way into your body. Your internal organs are wounded, and a mouthful of blood rushes up to your throat.]

[If a First-rate Martial Artist whose organs haven't been reinforced had taken that hit, their insides would already be a pulped mess, and they'd be dead on the ground, breath gone.]

[But you still have strength to fight. The deep blue energy, like seawater, flows gently inside you, wrapping around your organs like an inner suit of armor, protecting them while slowly repairing the damage.]

[Blow after blow. Screams of agony merge into a chorus around you. This village holds over twelve hundred people, but the vast majority are ordinary folk. Only a little over a hundred have reached Second-rate or above. The demon army can spare just two or three hundred to suppress them completely!]

[And besides those forming the encirclement outside the village, nearly three hundred Demonized Soldiers aren't idle—they're slaughtering the thousand-strong civilian populace.]

[Once the civilians are butchered clean, those three hundred Demonized Soldiers will join the hunt against the martial artists—a dead end within a dead end!]

[Not far away, on the Grandmaster battlefield, Xu Yinkong has already had an arm torn off. The Blood Demon savors it in its mouth, toying with its prey like a cat with a mouse, intent on killing him slowly.]

[On the razor's edge of life and death, you feel something circulating inside you. In a daze, you mechanically block the Demonized Captain's attacks, spit blood, and repeat.]

[Countless blood vessels burst. Your vision turns crimson. Your mind is a fog. But in your abdomen, in your limbs, streams of warmth surge forth!]

[Boom! A barrier shatters. You take a step back, dodging the Demonized Captain's strike, and realize in shock: your internal energy is now cycling through the Heavenly Cycle on its own, unceasing, forming a thin but endless stream!]

[You break through mid-battle and become a Martial Master!]

[Overjoyed, but the sudden surge in power doesn't make you lose your head. You glance at the demons, then turn and run.]

[Not just any run—you forcibly stabilize your injuries with energy, while simultaneously using it to catalyze and ignite your life potential, "lighting yourself up" into an explosive state.]

"Stimulating the body to secrete adrenaline?"

Yun Shou figured it was something like that.

In the process of martial training, a martial artist's control over their body gradually improves—especially for someone like him, whose total training time exceeded a hundred years.

[Spears and arrows strike your body. Your life flame flickers like a guttering candle. Ignoring all the hidden injuries, you forcibly tear open a gap in the line and break through. Behind you, you hear Xu Yinkong's scream.]

[But the scream cuts short. You don't dare turn back to waste time. You run, fleeing far away.]

[In the central area of Fenglan Village, the Blood Demon releases its claws. Xu Yinkong's headless corpse thuds to the ground. It glances with interest in the direction you fled, but doesn't care.]

[Just an old bug that slipped away, an ant easily crushed underfoot. Let it go and announce their arrival, spreading panic into the dog kennels of the old humans!]

[Three days later, you collapse to the ground, barely clinging to life. Martial artists from Purple Star Village find you, take you back, and nurse you for half a month before you're out of danger. You don't wake until a full month later.]

[The village physician can't help but praise you: "Old-timer, you've got a good body. To survive that..."]

[After waking, you tell them what happened. The head of Purple Star Village sighs and says they're preparing a staged retreat deeper into the forest.]

[Simply put, once the deepest village finishes building a new settlement and people slowly move there, those in the second-deepest will gradually relocate to the original deepest village's abandoned site.]

[And the unlucky villages on the outer edges have to bear the most basic duty: monitoring and resisting the demon army.]

[In the 7th year of the Ancient Dynasty, you finally recover normal mobility. Though your Martial Cultivation wasn't crippled, the escape and slaughter half a year ago dealt far more damage to your vitality than falling into the water at age twelve—countless times worse!]

[So you can say with confidence: you are definitely the weakest Martial Master in the world!]

Yun Shou: "Bruh, why do you sound kind of proud?"

[Speaking of which, the Grandmaster stationed at Purple Star Village is actually an old acquaintance of yours. Decades ago, when you were sixteen, you participated in that year's Young Talents Grand Competition. The Meteor Sect's overseer at the time—a Martial Master—was in charge of maintaining order during the matches.]

[When you were twenty-three, you heard that Martial Master had become a Grandmaster. Who'd have thought that now, nearly sixty, you'd meet again in this village.]

[That Grandmaster's surname is Li, given name Tianbing. Li Tianbing, an eighty-six-year-old Grandmaster. For a Grandmaster with a lifespan of a hundred and fifty, that age isn't considered old yet.]

[You and Li Tianbing catch up. After the demonic calamity descended, everyone has few old acquaintances left. Meeting someone you crossed paths with decades ago is a stroke of luck for both of you.]

[A flicker of nostalgia crosses his face. Despair -1. You've made the acquaintance of a Grandmaster-level Old Acquaintance, and you can learn more about the Demon Slaying Alliance's inner workings.]

[In the 9th year of the Ancient Dynasty, you turn sixty. You've already moved twice deeper into the Demon Extermination Forest, but the demon army keeps closing in. Two more villages have been crushed in these years.]

[In the 10th year of the Ancient Dynasty, you, along with several other martial artists and some talented young martial artists, follow Li Tianbing to the Demon Slaying Alliance's "headquarters."]

[They say a major matter needs to be discussed, requiring the participation of high-end combat power like Grandmasters and even Martial Masters from every village.]