The hemp rope was thick, and the knotting method was quite particular. In short, even a Second-rate Martial Artist would find it difficult to break free without Internal Force, let alone you, who were merely a "Third-rate Martial Artist."
"Not a bad saber." A soldier drew your long saber and casually tossed it onto the ground without another glance. You only cared about stats, not appearance; this "Mysterious Iron Saber" was of excellent quality, but it was far from ornate.
One house after another was searched clean. Some civilians sensed that something was wrong and hid in cellars or wells, only to be dragged out by the soldiers and brought one by one to the center of the village, where they were tied up.
Once they had basically found everyone, you and the villagers were bound and crammed together. As the soldiers gradually revealed their savage faces, your keen ears caught the conversation of two soldiers several dozen steps away.
"Search every corner thoroughly. Not a single living soul can be left behind! Afterward, throw all the Wu Army's weapons here."
Then you watched them toss down weapons and military uniforms. Next, someone set fires and poured oil, and house after house went up in flames.
As the blaze soared into the sky, the villagers visibly panicked, while the soldiers approached with cruel grins.
"Military sirs..." someone begged, only to be met with loud laughter. "What military sirs? We're the vicious soldiers of the Wu Kingdom! This time, we specially disguised ourselves as Qing Kingdom Soldiers to massacre your village!"
"So that's how it is. You really are troops from the Wu Kingdom. No wonder you're so vile and devoid of human feeling!" You wore an expression of "sudden realization."
Then, amid the mockery of several soldiers, you snapped the hemp rope apart. Force Qi surged over your entire body, and you shone brilliantly, like a divine being descended into the world. "In that case, I may kill without guilt!"
"External Qi Projection!" Several officers blanched in shock. "A First-rate Expert!" They hurriedly retreated, and one of them shouted, "This is a misunderstanding!"
You paid no heed to such nonsense. Your fist struck the soldier in front of you, and a tremendous crack of shattering skull burst from before your knuckles. Then you kicked another soldier away; with a crunch, his spine snapped, and he flew several meters backward, unable to move again.
Taking several strides forward, you grabbed the "Mysterious Iron Saber" they had tossed nearby. With a slash that howled through the wind, you cleaved an incoming soldier and his standard-issue military saber diagonally into two halves.
Your attack had come too suddenly. Before the soldiers could react, they had already lost three men. The leading officer flew into a rage, Force Qi surfacing around his body as well. He was also a First-rate Martial Artist!
The officer's Force Qi was bright yellow, a common Martial Art in the army: Hundred Battles Unfailing. Once cultivated to Major Accomplishment, its Force Qi turned bright yellow; upon reaching perfection, it became dark yellow. Though Hundred Battles Unfailing was not an Advanced Martial Art, it was comparable to the Iron Body Technique—an outstanding product among common goods.
The officer was around forty and considered himself a martial arts prodigy. You looked no older than your twenties. Your Foundation Amplification was too high, and its life-extending effects also manifested in slower aging. Even if someone your age was a First-rate Martial Artist, they would at most have only recently broken through, perhaps without even reinforcing their internal organs. But he had already achieved Vital Energy Infused into Bone!
The officer wielded a long spear. A thrust was a Fierce Dragon Crossing the River; a horizontal sweep was a Sweep Through a Thousand Armies. His Combat Techniques had been honed to perfection. As he attacked, another five or six officers at the Second-rate level rushed in as well. With so many attacking together, could you still be their match?
Yet the instant spear and saber met, his expression changed drastically. The spearhead was forcibly jolted aside by several dozen degrees. The sheer ferocity of your strength surpassed his imagination!
Not as strong as that bandit chief. You felt contempt rise within you. With an eruption of Force Qi, you drove him into a dead end in just over ten exchanges. But by then, those five or six officers had reached the area. You had no desire to trade your own injuries for this officer's life, so you temporarily gave up the chance to deliver a fatal blow.
That officer could still forcefully receive ten of your strikes, but those Second-rate officers were another matter. You sidestepped a slash from behind, shifted sideways again, and smashed an elbow into one officer's ribs, breaking them viciously. Then you thrust your saber, knocking aside another officer's spear as the Mysterious Iron Saber pierced straight through his chest!
In a single exchange, you shattered one man's jaw and severely wounded him, while killing another on the spot!
"Stop! This really is a misunderstanding!" Words that seemed familiar rang by your ear once more. But this time, the person saying them was the officer who had charged at you in fury only half a minute earlier.
One would never know without fighting. The moment they exchanged blows, he realized in horror that you were so powerful that you simply did not seem like a First-rate Martial Artist, but rather a Martial Hall Master—a Martial Master!
Even with every Second-rate officer present joining him, they would not be your match. Perhaps even these hundred-odd elite soldiers would all be buried beneath your saber!
"A misunderstanding?" You killed as you sneered and asked, "Why wasn't it a misunderstanding just now? Now that you can't win, it suddenly becomes a misunderstanding?"
The officer panted violently. It was not that your words had choked him speechless, but that your ten consecutive saber strikes had sent his blood and qi roiling. Who knew how many capillaries, skin membranes, joints, and other minute tissues inside his body had been injured? One misstep, and he would be left with lingering wounds for years to come.
Seeing that in only this brief time, you had cut down another two officers and five soldiers, the officer was both anxious and enraged. He spat out a mouthful of blood and finally decided to tell you the truth.
"It truly is a misunderstanding! Young hero, stop at once! We are all Qing Kingdom soldiers, not from the Wu Kingdom! We came here to slaughter this village entirely on orders from above!"
You sneered disdainfully. The surrounding officers and soldiers were either dead or crippled. In a short time, more than ten had fallen. The rest stood in terror more than ten steps away from you, holding their weapons but not daring to attack.
"Orders from above? Are you trying to make me die laughing? Who would attack their own citizens for no reason? You shameless Wu Kingdom scum, do you think you can deceive me?"
The officer pulled out a document from within his robes and threw it to you. "Young hero, it is truly so. We soldiers merely followed orders. Look—the order is written right there. It demands that we disguise ourselves as Wu Kingdom soldiers, carry out slaughter, and frame them."
You took the document and carefully read it in full. It was indeed as he had said. It gave no specific reason for massacring the village, merely a simple demand: leave none alive, frame the Wu Kingdom. At the end, seemingly out of moral consideration, it even added one sentence: This is done for the Qing Kingdom.
A flattering smile appeared on the officer's face. "This is an order from above, for the greater good of the Qing Kingdom. I hope young hero will leave now. Let all previous misunderstandings be wiped away, and make things convenient for us."
You found it rather funny.
To be honest, in this world, you possessed no sense of national righteousness or attachment.
Because the "Qing Kingdom" of this world had never given you any help. It was unlike your parents in this world; they had treated you very well, and you likewise regarded them as your true parents.
You had grown up in the Qing He Gang, where all you received was exploitation. You had embarked upon the path of a martial artist by selling your life to the Chu Family, through equal exchanges.
Afterward, the preferential treatment you received in various cities and places was not because you were a citizen of the Qing Kingdom, but because you were a lofty martial artist!
This country had never done anything for you in the first place. If they were martial artists born into sects or disciples under martial halls, they might still possess some sense of duty toward family and country. In truth, most did not, because the three kingdoms shared the same origin and the same race.
—From the very beginning, the resources these martial artists used to grow and train had been supplied by the Qing Kingdom to the sects and martial halls. They fought for the sects and martial halls, while the sects and martial halls fought for the Qing Kingdom.
But the resources of gangs like the Qing He Gang had been obtained by exploiting the civilians beneath them, by exploiting you!
And you had never taken resources for nothing from beginning to end. You had never been cultivated or invested in freely by others. Only at those two Young Talents Grand Competitions had you received anything tangible. You would remember the kindness of those two sects, but you would not extend that goodwill to the nation behind them.
Therefore—you casually tore the document into scraps. Facing the officer's smile, which had only just appeared before freezing stiffly, you spoke five words that filled him with despair: "You put on quite an act."
You leaped into the air and descended from above. Your saber slashed down in fury like a Divine Demon descended, blazing white light like two suns hanging in the sky, its dazzling radiance making it impossible for him to look straight at it.
He barely managed to block your saber, only for you to suddenly release your grip. The Mysterious Iron Saber flew away and landed on the ground after losing your control, but you had already passed by him and slammed into his chest with a Mountain-Pressing Shoulder Strike. A fist wrapped in immense Force Qi blasted into his chest and violently burst his heart apart!
The officer fell to the ground. Before life completely faded from him, he faintly heard your laughing words: "Even if it were true, why should I act for a country capable of issuing such orders, or grant convenience to scum like you?"