Once the foreigners found themselves temporarily helpless against the newly risen martial artist faction.
No matter how fiercely they condemned it as treasonous and no matter how venomously they cursed it as unforgivable evil, the Qing Imperial Court was powerless against the emerging force formed by the southern faction and the martial artists.
Those people had beaten the foreigners until they were battered and disheveled. Why would they fear a bunch of backward, rotten Manchu?
This was an age of national awakening, an age of pursuing dignity.
When the martial artists could grant the common people under their rule the ability to straighten their backs before foreigners and reclaim that grand, imposing national dignity of the Heavenly Dynasty, the entire spiritual landscape of Puhai—which had originally seemed ignorant and servile—underwent a world-shaking transformation overnight!
If the foreigners could do it,
we could do it too!
And we could do it better. The conviction that there was nothing our vast and glorious Huaxia could not accomplish rose spontaneously within them!
This was nothing like the mad ignorance displayed by the Fist Cult's brainwashed masses in their despair.
All kinds of knowledge were opened to everyone for free. Jixia Academy was rapidly established. The faction members who insisted on becoming benevolent officials never tired of explaining the current state of the world, the wolfish ambitions of the imperial powers, the disaster of the nation's subjugation and annihilation, and the struggle over this once-in-a-millennium upheaval brought by sages descending from Heaven, bestowing martial arts and weapons.
No one would believe empty words.
Even if they wore their tongues raw, it was still less convincing than throwing a punch.
Thus, the martial artists, whose physical prowess was extraordinary, directly accompanied the faction's propaganda speeches by bringing guns and cannons to show off their strength. Taking bullets head-on, resisting artillery alone, shattering boulders with their fists, moving like the wind—those were all child's play.
Showing off one's strength meant killing people.
You refused to admit you were a Star Han person? Kill. You were still licking the foreigners' boots and suffering from a fear of foreigners? Kill. You continued to devote yourself to the Manchu? Kill. You were exchanging secret glances with the people in the north? Kill. You refused to provide manpower and resources to help Star Han's glorious rise? Kill, kill! You showed disrespect to the Immortal Master?! Kill, kill, kill, kill!
Driven by both their interests and the need to protect their own backsides, the martial artist faction began its brutal consolidation by the fastest means possible, establishing its legitimacy and military might as a powerful ruling force in a straightforward manner.
The local gentry and officials who nominally remained loyal to the Imperial Court began choosing sides amid the merciless purges.
Even Zhang Ji, the Governor-General of Liangjiang, had defected.
Why should these little fry continue to stubbornly hold out?
Besides, after suppressing a rebellion, one martial artist's sarcastic taunts toward the gentry struck a chord with them.
"The foreigners came to our land to burn, kill, and loot. After finishing their risk-free business, they went on to do monopoly businesses that made them filthy rich. Now that the Immortal Master has bestowed martial arts upon us, why can the foreigners do it while we cannot?"
"You want promotions and wealth? You want your descendants to rise? You want fame, status, and riches?"
"If you have the aptitude, go become a martial artist!"
"Martial artists are tougher and more durable than foreigners! They aren't afraid of guns or cannons! What are you still afraid of?!"
This martial artist was named Cheng Zong. He was a Qi Cultivation Practitioner and one of Fierce Heavenly General Zhao Jian's capable subordinates. After completing this round of purges in the territories under his control, he would return to Puhai's Institute of Natural Philosophy, receive an infusion of enlightenment from the Holy Land of Martial Arts, and strive to enter the Spirit Refining realm as soon as possible so that he could devote himself to Immortal Master Lan Yi's great cause.
Beneath the Lei Chi Immortal Lotus in the Holy Land of Martial Arts (the power plant) stood the Twelve Golden Men, forged through the immortal arts of Immortal Master Lan Yi. They could not only awaken martial artists' potential but also aid in cultivating Innate Qi.
At present, newly recruited martial artists could generally receive one free refinement from the Golden Men, while martial artists who completed missions could undergo another refinement. The speed at which Qi Cultivation Practitioners were being produced could briefly be described as blowing up fifty yuan's worth of good brothers!
The Golden Men system also possessed the ability to detect life constellations.
Of course, it could only detect whether someone possessed a life constellation. Lan Yi himself still had to examine what kind of life constellation it was.
There were many, many martial artists like Cheng Zong.
They were as numerous as carp crossing a river!
They were the common portrait of the martial artist faction's Qi Cultivation Practitioners.
Cut off your queue, put on a martial outfit, practice martial arts, study knowledge, and take up guns and cannons. No matter who you had been or what status you had once held, as long as you had the aptitude and were willing to risk your life for Star Han's future, you could contribute your share. It was fair here: the stronger you were, the more you received.
But you could not stop others from receiving their share, nor could you drain the pond to catch all the fish.
Puhai alone had a population of more than a million, while the surrounding areas together had over five million people.
A continuous stream of spiritual energy was scattered over the heads of those five million people every day.
Lan Yi was not worried about lacking martial arts talent at all.
He was not even afraid of martial artists falling into depravity.
The reason was simple: martial artists who began cultivating Spirit Refining could adjust their own minds and part of their hormone secretion. The pleasure brought by external things simply could not compare with the pleasure they gained from themselves. This genuine personal strength was hundreds of times more addictive than bodybuilding!
It was easy to imagine what had happened over the course of just a few days.
What an earth-shaking transformation Puhai had undergone.
Almost every day, geniuses were discovered. Every day, people chose to become martial artists. Every day, the pests that obstructed the flow of government orders and damaged the martial artists' base of support—the vermin hiding in the filth—were blasted into scraps by the martial artists' blazing fists!
Those who did right had to be rewarded, and those who did wrong had to be punished!
Punish until everything stood upright and honorable! Punish until every thought flowed freely! Punish until the universe was bright and clear!
This upheaval also revealed a few traces of itself to the outside world through the newspapers.
"The Miraculous East! The Great Magicians! An Inconceivable Upheaval!" This was a Western newspaper, written after several passionate yet chaste foreign noblewomen and aristocratic ladies interviewed Immortal Master Lan Yi.
This newspaper came with a string of sensational side stories.
"Immortal or Swindler? The Re-Rise of the Huaxia Empire." This was a Dongyang newspaper, written after several gentle and considerate Yamato Nadeshiko, Zaibatsu Misses, and their maids interviewed Immortal Master Lan Yi.
This newspaper came with a string of sensational side stories.
"Foreign Officer Offers Loyalty to the Immortal Master, Performing a Divine Weapon's Execution of a Criminal on the Spot." This was written by a local newspaper whose fear of foreigners had not yet fully recovered, after its gentle, tranquil, classically beautiful female reporter interviewed Immortal Master Lan Yi.
This newspaper came with a string of sensational side stories.
"Everyone a Dragon, Huaxia Prosperous, Returning to the Summit Is Within Reach." This was written by a local newspaper whose fear of foreigners had rapidly recovered, after its passionate, progressive, broad-minded reporter and female university student interviewed Immortal Master Lan Yi.
This newspaper came with a string of sensational side stories.
All the contents of the sensational side stories were fabricated fiction.
However, if you took the newspaper and sought confirmation from the female protagonists of the main story, then before being beaten out with clubs, you ought to be able to glimpse the women's bashful, slightly petulant expressions.
After confirming that Lan Yi did not care about this in the slightest,
plenty of people hoped to use this method to establish some connection with Immortal Master Lan Yi.
As for whether the contents of those sensational side stories were true or what had actually happened, no one truly cared. In any case, they had indeed interviewed Immortal Master Lan Yi. Faced with a being as handsome and powerful as a god, every one of them had been utterly captivated. As for the rest, use your own imagination.
Quite a few foreigners grew furious.
That was perfectly normal. Anyone would be furious upon finding their head covered in green. What was more, the hat might even contain their daughters' assistance. The key was that they could not determine whether it was true, while they still had to endure the contempt of their wives and daughters for being useless.
The foreigners flew into a rage, and then... that was all there was to it.
Every day, they had to face countless strange looks and jeers whenever they went outside. Yet they could do nothing but stay indoors and plot in secret.
Before you continue