Sweeping Through the First-Rate

Now 27 years old, with Foundation Amplification at 258%, you felt that you might even have a shot at becoming a Grandmaster.

Vital Energy Infused into Bone had reached nearly eighty percent. With all sorts of favorable conditions bolstering you, you were already among the very best First-rate Martial Artists across the three kingdoms. He Yi was naturally no match for you.

You went on to challenge East Forest City's other First-rate Martial Artists, such as the Martial Arts School Head. He had already begun Vital Energy Infused into Bone, but his progress was nowhere near yours.

There were also two renowned figures who had wandered the martial world for many years before establishing family enterprises and peacefully teaching their descendants in the city. One was in his fifties, while the other was an old master already past seventy.

You sparred with them in the spirit of friendly exchange, trading moves, then kindly offered guidance to their younger descendants afterward. The atmosphere was exceedingly harmonious.

When they learned that you had placed second in that year's Hundred Stone Forest grand competition and could be called one of the "Second Young Heroes" among that generation's young martial artists, the gazes around you immediately filled with admiration...

Yet one of the renowned figures secretly badmouthed you before his own descendants.

"See that? That's what a Rogue Martial Artist is like. With his heaven-blessed talent, at his age, he should already have become a Martial Master and made his name famous throughout a province! But now? He's still stuck at the First-Rate level, just as he was years ago!"

"Why? Of course it's because he has no Martial Dao Resources and no elders to guide him! Such excellent bones and talent, wasted away. Many people who were once inferior to him have now caught up!"

You did not hear the backroom criticism that this renowned figure named Zhao Yuan made about you.

Yun Shou, petty-minded: "I saw it."

"Next time, I'll beat you until you wail in front of your descendants!"

He absolutely loved this Simulator's narrator setting.

After this simulation ended and he finished everything he needed to do, he planned to specifically buy a little notebook and record all the grudges and entanglements that had occurred during the simulations. Otherwise, with simulations lasting so long, he would forget them.

More than a month later, the City Lord finally noticed that something was wrong. He realized that a band of bandits had arrived outside the city, specifically robbing and killing passing travelers and merchant caravans, greatly impacting East Forest City's development.

He assembled a force of fully four hundred soldiers and marched into the mountains with high morale.

If they had been soldiers of the Wu Kingdom, their baseline strength would have been that of Third-rate Martial Artists. Some of their captains and Centurions would even have reached the level of Second-rate Martial Artists. Then they might have been able to take down this band of bandits.

But Qing Kingdom troops... even ordinary Centurions were generally only at the Third-Rate level.

After challenging First-rate Experts from all sides, you had been practicing martial arts in peace. By the time you learned of the bandits' arrival, the City Lord had come to invite you personally.

This time, East Forest City's City Lord appeared exceedingly humble. Although you, without inherited memories, had no idea what his attitude had been like last time, he was humble this time, at any rate.

One reason for his humility was that you were not familiar with each other. The other was that you were simply too strong. In just over a month since arriving in East Forest City, you had defeated every expert in the city!

He had to put on a smiling face even before those renowned martial figures you had defeated, and he could not even invite them. How could he possibly summon someone even stronger than them, like you?

The lineup this time was the same as last time: two First-rate experts, one of whom was He Yi, followed by more than a dozen Second-rate Martial Artists and over thirty Third-rate Martial Artists.

It was just unknown whether the specific people would differ from last time due to some butterfly effect.

You entered the mountains. This time, you warned everyone beforehand to watch out for a bandit ambush. As a result, when you rounded a hillside, you spotted over twenty bandits walking through the forest before they noticed you.

You scooped several pebbles from the ground. Force Qi, glimmering like sunlight, wrapped around them as you flicked them from your fingers. The wind howled, but those mountain-patrolling bandits could not react at all.

Five pebbles directly blasted three men to death, while the other two were wounded. The battle immediately erupted. You achieved a crushing victory and left two survivors alive.

...After interrogating them, you headed straight for the bandit stronghold. This time, He Yi and the others dealt with the remaining bandits while you faced the bandit leader alone!

(Although you knew that the bandit leader was a disciple of some sect, so much time had passed that you had long forgotten the information from that earlier simulation. He had left too faint an impression for you to track down, so you could only continue calling him the bandit leader.)

Yun Shou sighed that this Simulator was reliable one moment and unreliable the next.

Unlike the Flowing River Technique, which mainly strengthened Force Qi and allowed it to transform in countless ways, the Grandmaster-level martial art Sunday Art primarily enhanced physical strength and resistance—to poison, heat, and cold. As for Force Qi? It merely added a glowing special effect.

Your attacks were heavy and powerful, and every strike left the bandit leader suffering bitterly. You no longer held back in this battle. Every head-on collision of blades nearly knocked the bandit leader's saber from his grasp.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Under your frenzied slashing, the bandit leader's blade developed a chip after merely twenty exchanges. His tiger's mouth split open and bled, yet he did not flee—he knew he could not possibly escape!

Amid a buzzing tremor, the bandit leader's saber fell to the ground. You swept your blade upward, and its radiant arc sliced across his right shoulder. With a crack, you sheathed your blade, while the bandit leader's right hand was already useless beyond recovery.

The bones of a martial artist at the Vital Energy Infused into Bone stage really were tough, you mused. Even as someone close to being invincible among the First-Rate, you could only sever his shoulder bone with one slash, unable to cut off his entire arm outright.

Terrified, the bandit leader began begging for mercy, with a hint of threat in his voice. "Don't kill me, I am..."

You raised your blade again and swept it across his throat. Blood gushed forth like a torrent, and bubbling gurgles choked off his words. His eyes flew wide, and he fell to the ground, dying in unwillingness.

"Nothing special." You only found it unsatisfying, but on second thought, perhaps your sights had simply grown too high.

In the 283rd year of the Great Qing, you returned to Qingcheng. You knew war was about to break out, and you were not yet qualified to change any of it. You sent Uncle Ji and other acquaintances to towns deeper within Qing Kingdom territory, giving them enough money to settle down and keeping them far from the flames of war.

Then again, in a war between two nations numbering in the hundreds of thousands, you were nothing more than a green onion. But you recalled that the war had begun because a Qing Kingdom village had been massacred by the Wu Kingdom. Perhaps you could go there and see the truth of the matter.

Previously, you had always assumed that Qing Kingdom had started the war and that the village attack was merely a false pretense—because of the later Grandmaster Assembly incident. But what if? What if it had truly been an accident or some other circumstance?

You recalled the Alien Demons descending in a previous simulation. If the war between the two kingdoms had not occurred, the vast resources saved and the people who survived could all become a force against the Demon Country!

...Probably?

You did not think you were courting death. You had some confidence in your own ability. Two years from now, your Martial Cultivation would absolutely reach the First-Rate limit. If you got lucky and experienced some enlightenment, you might even become a Martial Master!

If the army massacred villages, there was no way they could stop you from fleeing. And if martial artists were responsible, how could something as trivial as wiping out a few villages possibly warrant sending Martial Master-level figures?

Investigating the truth was safe!