In the Wu Kingdom, Breaking Through to Martial Master

[These soldiers were at least at the level of Third-rate Martial Artists—in the Qing Kingdom, they could already be called elite troops. But before you, they were no harder to kill than the bound civilians beside them.]

[In an instant, thirty-seven men had fallen by your hand. At this moment, you were like a God of Slaughter in the eyes of these soldiers. They fled in panic, scattering in all directions, making it difficult for you to pursue and kill them all.]

[Ten minutes later, you sliced off the head of the sixty-seventh soldier. Sighing, you stopped the chase as you looked at the nearest soldiers in other directions, who were still nearly a kilometer away.]

[Your Force Qi was nearly depleted, with only about half a tenth remaining.]

[Between the initial travel, the full-output burst to maintain a crushing combat stance, using Lightness Skill to chase back and forth repeatedly... the fact that you had lasted this long meant your total Force Qi was already top-tier among those of the same rank.]

[(If the soldiers hadn't started running later, you could have conserved a bit and wiped them all out before your Force Qi ran out.)]

[You returned to Little Lotus City. Some quick-witted villagers had cooperated to loosen each other's bonds earlier, then helped one by one. All hundred-plus people were now free, looking at you with a mix of fear and gratitude.]

[An old man stepped out from the crowd and asked you what they should do. You were silent for a moment, then told them there were two paths.]

[The first path: pretend they hadn't heard the officer say "by order of the Qing Kingdom, exterminate the village." Just act as if it really was a Wu Kingdom raid, and they were saved by a passing hero, then beg the nearby City Lord to take them in.]

[The second path: this shitty Qing Kingdom wasn't worth staying in. Better to go to the Wu Kingdom. It was close—just a few dozen li away.]

[The villagers had mixed opinions. Some thought they should forgive the Qing Kingdom and let the past be the past—surely they wouldn't be massacred again, right? But amid the cries of a few children shouting "our home was burned," those people silently changed their stance, and they unanimously decided to defect to the Wu Kingdom.]

[When you left Little Lotus Village, letting them pack their belongings and not wanting to meddle further, your expression shifted. More than twenty li away in another direction, smoke and fire rose again.]

[Just as you recalled that direction was Sweet Potato Village, suddenly, thick smoke also billowed from the direction of Slope Earth Village!]

["I was such a fool, truly. I only thought the soldiers were coming to massacre the village, so I ran to Little Lotus Village where the soldiers appeared. I never thought the other villages would have them too..."]

[You knew you couldn't change the outbreak of war anymore. Your Internal Energy was nearly gone. With just your physical body, you couldn't even beat the officer from before—at most, you could take on a First-rate Martial Artist who barely scraped by on the Talent Aptitude threshold.]

[The civilians in those two villages might still be alive now, but their lives were already fated to end this day. You wanted to change history, but the power of a First-rate Martial Artist was still too weak...]

[You chose to leave.]

[That same year, not only did war break out, but you also found yourself saddled with a wanted order from the Qing Kingdom's authorities!]

[The wanted reason: you, on behalf of the Wu Kingdom, coerced border villages of the Qing Kingdom into defecting to the Wu Kingdom, killed dozens of soldiers who came to stop you, and the Wu Kingdom army cruelly and vengefully bloodbathed two other villages that refused to defect...]

[In the wanted notice, you were described as utterly evil, a meticulously disguised sleeper agent. Although there were many holes and doubts, few people actually sought the truth.]

[Just like this war the Qing Kingdom had started on its own—who cared about the truth of which side massacred the villages? The only real truth was this: the Qing Kingdom wanted war, so it started one!]

[After the first round of fighting between the two armies, the atmosphere heated up. No one cared about the cause of the war anymore. All they cared about was the war itself!]

[In the Qing Kingdom, your reputation plummeted. After discovering you were wanted, you hit the road immediately, preparing to head to the Wu Kingdom.]

[Along the way, a Gold Medal Top Constable crossed an entire province to hunt you down, and a Young Chivalrous Swordsman, driven by a sense of justice, sought to fight you. You showed them no courtesy.]

[You knew they didn't know the truth, so you didn't kill them—but you weren't a saint either. Since this Top Constable lacked the insight to see the truth, and this Young Chivalrous Swordsman attacked a good man without distinguishing right from wrong, they no longer needed to walk the Jianghu.]

[You didn't kill them, but you crippled them, destroying some body tissues and meridians so that while they could still live like ordinary people, they would forever lose their Internal Energy or Force Qi, with no hope of recovery or further progress.]

[As for whether they would be targeted by enemies after losing their power... had they ever considered what would happen to you if you were caught? It was just an eye for an eye—fair and square.]

[You had your own ruler in your heart. Double standards or hypocrisy, it didn't matter. You only acted according to your will.]

[At the end of the year, you evaded the pursuit of a Martial Master and stepped into the Wu Kingdom: in this life, you had never been to this place before!]

[Da Qing 286 (too lazy to switch calendars), you settled in the Wu Kingdom. Across different countries, your reputation did a complete one-eighty. The Qing Kingdom's people didn't believe the Wu Kingdom's "truth," but the Wu Kingdom had the people of Little Lotus Village you saved, and they knew you were a righteous chivalrous swordsman.]

[You settled down in Taiguang City of the Wu Kingdom. After some time, you found that the Wu Kingdom lived up to its name—the martial spirit was thick in the air. Martial arts schools were everywhere, and there were constant arena matches or various martial arts tournaments.]

[Da Qing 287, you heard that the Grandmaster Assembly was about to be held. This assembly, initiated by the Daoist Sect, widely invited grandmasters from various countries to gather on the Daoist mountain in the Qing Kingdom to discuss the martial path. Along with exchanges, there would also be sparring, essentially to determine who was superior.]

[Although the Wu Kingdom and Qing Kingdom were at war, the Jianghu and the war were kept separate. If a martial artist enlisted to earn merit, they shed their "chivalrous swordsman" identity and became a military officer.]

[The grandmasters heading to the Wu Kingdom were clearly going as martial arts exchange participants. Even warring nations didn't kill envoys, so they had no concerns about their safety.]

[You hesitated for a moment, then decided not to warn them. After living here for a year, you knew the Wu Kingdom's temperament. Even if you told them there might be an ambush, they would think you were being petty and looking down on the Qing Kingdom's Daoist Sect.]

[Use the example of the Qing Kingdom killing its own people to start a war to tell them the Grandmaster Assembly was the same?]

[Don't joke! The Daoist Sect were martial artists—how could they be the same as those despicable officials?]

[Thinking about how, after this trip, the Wu Kingdom's grandmasters would be ambushed and killed, causing a Great Grandmaster to emerge in fury, and the Wu Kingdom, which had only been fighting Qing Kingdom soldiers, would start massacring cities—you felt a wave of helplessness.]

[Ah! The Qing Kingdom!]

[With these Insects, you couldn't unite to fight the Alien Demon that would descend in a little over a decade (even if you did unite, you still couldn't win).]

[Your heart was tired.]

[Da Qing 288, what was destined to happen still happened on schedule. You had already found the feeling of building "Vital Energy Circulation" and would definitely enter the Martial Master realm within two years.]

[In the Wu Kingdom, you focused entirely on martial arts. A First-rate Martial Artist was still too weak, utterly powerless to stop a war, not even able to snuff out its fuse.]

[Da Qing 289, the Sunday Resolution reached Major Accomplishment. Your strength was already comparable to some Martial Masters. In fact, over the past few years, the opponents you challenged were all Martial Masters. At first, you mostly lost with few wins, but now your win rate was climbing higher and higher.]

[Da Qing 290, you were 35 years old, with a Foundation Amplification of 266%. This year, you finally completed Vital Energy Circulation and stepped into the Martial Master realm!]

[A Martial Master, at full effort, could stand against a thousand troops. Force Qi circulated in a loop within the body, not only recovering several times faster than a First-rate Martial Artist but also allowing instant deployment—able to burst forth from any part of the body at will!]

[A First-rate Martial Artist's Force Qi still flowed as a single stream or mass within the body, moving quickly according to intent and releasing from the hands or feet. A Martial Master didn't need that "movement" process at all!]

[That day, the City Lord of Taiguang City held a Martial Celebration Banquet for you. Guests came from all directions. During the banquet, three Martial Masters challenged you. They weren't maliciously trying to ruin the event—they simply wanted to test the level of a newly promoted Martial Master.]

[Among the three, two were merely ordinary Martial Masters. But one, as he stretched his body, produced a series of popping sounds like cracking beans. He had already reached the "Muscles and Bones Ringing in Harmony" stage, and not shallowly at that!]

[Then, you won three battles in three matches, making your name known across sixteen surrounding cities!]

Unranked: Healthy body + some unorthodox Combat Techniques

Third-Rate: → Muscles → Qi and Blood → Skin and Membrane

Second-Rate: → Internal Vital Energy Amplification → Unity of Qi and Strength → Blood Replacement and Muscle Condensation

First-Rate: → Vital Energy External Release → Extreme Viscera Enhancement → Bone-Reinforcing Vital Energy

Martial Master: → Vital Energy Circulation → Muscles and Bones Ringing in Harmony → Martial Will

(Unity of Essence, Qi, and Spirit ↓)

First Step of the Martial Path:

Grandmaster: → Qi Flowing Through the Body → Bone Marrow Forging with Vital Energy → Perfect Unity → Manifestation of Spirit and Will

Great Grandmaster: → Impenetrable Golden Body → Solidifying True Energy into Substance → Qi and Blood Furnace → Heaven-Man Resonance

(??? ↓)

Second Step of the Martial Path:

Heavenly Being?: ?