Border Village

[Da Qing 284, you are 29 years old, Foundation Amplification 260%, Vital Energy Infused into Bone at 100%, already at a point where no further progress is possible. The last time a simulation reached this stage, you were already in your fifties.]

[At year's end, you set out for the border between the Qing Kingdom and the Wu Kingdom... but upon arrival, you realized you had been somewhat naive: the border between the two nations stretched for hundreds of miles!]

[Though this world is not some high-martial fantasy realm where one can casually traverse millions of miles, its scale is still astonishing. The three kingdoms—Wu, Qing, and Ning—each span three to four thousand miles in length and width, comparable to half of Hua Country.]

[At the border, there are dozens of villages. After a period of travel and on-site verification, you identify the three villages closest to Wu and most likely to be "attacked": Little Lotus Village, Sweet Potato Village, and Slope Earth Village.]

[These three villages are situated close together, as the territories of the two nations form a puzzle-like interlocking structure. A piece of Qing territory juts into Wu, and these three villages lie within that area.]

[You settle in "Slope Earth Village," which lives up to its name, built on a gently sloping hillside—though only on the lower to middle section. Behind this "Zhenyuan Mountain" lies a dense forest.]

[Not only can you frequently enter the forest to hunt game and supplement the meat necessary for martial training, but you can also practice martial arts atop Zhenyuan Mountain, feeling the vastness of the sky and clouds, unrestrained and free, while keeping a high vantage point to monitor the situation in the three nearby villages.]

[Da Qing 285, several months have passed. Your martial progress is average: having completed Vital Energy Infused into Bone, your next step is to circulate vital energy through the body in a Heavenly Cycle, generating it endlessly, before you can reach the Martial Master level.]

[Of course, this doesn't mean the months were wasted. Your Martial Cultivation may have reached its limit, but that doesn't mean your body's full potential has been tapped. Your total vital energy has increased by about half a tenth compared to last year.]

[It's like how an ordinary person, even without practicing Martial Arts, can increase their strength several times through other training methods. At the limit, a mortal body can even fight a Second-rate Martial Artist who possesses inner energy.]

[One day, you practice your blade technique atop the mountain. Each slash carves a blazing white light several meters wide into the air. Within this cross-section of two to three square meters of blade light, even a dozen trees as thick as a bowl could be completely severed!]

["A pity." You let out a light sigh. The Sunday Art offers little help to a Martial Master's "Vital Energy Circulation," even less than the Flowing River Technique. Fortunately, it proves quite useful for some later martial stages.]

[After Vital Energy Infused into Bone comes the limit of a First-rate Martial Artist. Completing "Vital Energy Circulation" makes you a Martial Master! After becoming a Martial Master, the next step is "Muscles and Bones Ringing in Harmony," then "Martial Will," and finally unifying Essence, Qi, and Spirit to become a Grandmaster!]

[And Grandmaster is merely the first step in martial arts, as Zhu Baowen put it!]

["My future still has such a long road..." You've just uttered these two sighs when you suddenly notice an unexpected event far down the mountain. A group of people, about a hundred or two hundred, is moving dozens of miles away.]

[They are as tiny as specks of dust. If not for the hundred-plus people gathered together, your eyesight wouldn't have noticed them at all!]

[And the direction this group is heading is precisely Little Lotus Village. You frown. From the direction and position of those "specks of dust," they set out from within the Qing Kingdom!]

["I hope it's not what I'm thinking." You mutter to yourself, then activate the Lightness Skill that accompanies the Sunday Art. With each step, it seems a firecracker explodes beneath your foot—a burst of flashing light in that instant.]

[Now at the limit of a First-rate Martial Artist, your normal full-speed running reaches forty-five meters per second. Using vital energy and Lightness Skill, it can surge to sixty meters per second... but you need to conserve some stamina and vital energy for combat, so you maintain a high-speed run at fifty meters per second.]

Yun Shou exclaimed in surprise: "That's almost high-speed rail level, isn't it?"

But he also knew that increasing speed is far harder than increasing strength or physique. The further you go, the harder it gets. Even a Great Grandmaster might not break the sound barrier, yet the combined strength of a hundred ordinary men can't match a Great Grandmaster.

Because a martial artist is light, weighing only around two hundred jin. Initially, acceleration is far easier than for a high-speed train or vehicle. The only problem is that air resistance grows increasingly severe later on, causing progress to slow.

[In just over ten minutes, you approach Little Lotus Village. The group, which was already closer, naturally arrived long before you. Because of the distance earlier, you hadn't even noticed they were riding horses!]

[When you reach the village, you see the group wearing soldier uniforms, over a hundred in total. They have dismounted and are searching the village.]

[House by house, they drag out the villagers they find and gather them in the village center. A dozen or so are responsible for tying them up. As they search the houses, they shout curses. Besides people, they also load up large bundles of valuables.]

["There's one more who slipped through." Before long, a soldier spots you standing outside the village. You take a deep breath. Having trained alone atop Zhenyuan Mountain for months, far from people, your edge has been sheathed.]

[Though not quite like an ordinary person, you certainly won't let these soldiers discern your true martial level.]

[A soldier approaches and orders you to follow. You enter the village. An officer notices your unusual bearing and asks about your background and whether you've practiced martial arts.]

[You decide to play along with their act and see if this group is truly what you suspect... In over a decade in the martial world, you've seen much darkness. In your past life, you've heard many stories. But you've never personally experienced that kind of "village slaughter and clan extermination."]

[You find it hard to believe. For the sake of ambushing a Grandmaster and gaining a wartime advantage, would a nation really strike at its own civilians?]

[So you tell the officer that you are a wandering martial artist, only at the Third-rate level, but you wanted to travel the world early to push yourself, forcing inner energy to emerge.]

[The officer gives you a knowing smirk, waves his hand, and signals two soldiers to restrain you. In a flat tone, he says they have important business to attend to. You, a wandering martial artist, should behave yourself first. They'll release you after handling their affairs.]

[The two soldiers are quite strong, both Third-rate Martial Artists trained to the muscle and blood level. They hold you down while others bind you. You do not resist—but in your heart, you've already begun equating them with bandits and mountain thieves!]

[In years of martial practice, you haven't killed many. Most challenges between martial artists end with a decision of victory or defeat. At worst, the loser lies in bed for a few months recovering. Few suffer lasting damage to their foundation.]

[Only bandits, mountain thieves, and the like—those who do evil—you cripple or maim. Those who harm the innocent, you kill!]

[You are no sage in this world, but you lean toward neutrality with a good heart. When within your power, of course you follow your true nature!]