Peak Strength

[Your guess had been correct.

As the pirate ship approached your merchant vessel, you leaped aboard first and easily subdued all forty-odd pirates on deck.

After a bloody round of interrogation, you learned that these pirates were the men of Zhang Baozai's son, Zhang Yulin.]

[After you casually crushed several stubborn holdouts to death, the pirates who feared death immediately led you toward their lair, Ao Tou Fort, in terror.]

[Under your deliberate control, the sky had completely darkened by the time you finally arrived outside a highly secluded island.

This was Zhang Baozai and his pirates' lair—Ao Tou Fort.]

[A moonless, windy night—the perfect night for murder.

As the ship docked, you, already dressed in black, rushed into the island like a ghost.

As for the pirates who had guided you aboard? You were not with the authorities, so you had no need for prisoners.]

[As a Hua Jin master, you moved as silently as a night cat. Your reflexes, five senses, and perception of danger far surpassed anything ordinary people could imagine.

Within Ao Tou Fort, the vast majority of pirates were merely ordinary men who knew a few fighting moves. Only a handful of pirate leaders had reached the Clear Force realm, fewer than ten in total.

As for those who had reached the Hidden Force realm, there were likely only the two pirate kings: Zhang Baozai and his son Zhang Yulin.]

[But even Hidden Force masters could not last three moves against you, much less the weaker ones.

Thus, once you entered the island, you slaughtered your way inward as if entering an empty land. No one could withstand a single exchange with you.

No one survived your hands.]

[An hour later, you successfully found Zhang Baozai and his treasure cave.

Villains died from talking too much. With a casual use of Marble Skill, you blew Zhang Baozai's head apart and sent him straight to the underworld to keep his son Zhang Yulin company.]

[Early the next morning, after looting every last treasure from the island, you set sail once more and headed back to Hong Kong.]

[That evening, as planned, you presented more than half the ship's gold, silver, and jewels as a gift. Everyone who saw the treasure was so shocked their eyes nearly popped out.

They had never imagined that the grand gift you mentioned would be so grand—so grand that they would not even dare dream of it.

And they desperately needed money now. Your gift was truly timely aid in the snow.]

[In the fortieth year, the Qing Court's incompetence allowed the great powers to run rampant, and the situation grew ever more chaotic.

Having been appointed chief instructor of the New Army, you began training the New Army while steadily improving your own strength.]

[In the forty-first year, banditry continued to plague every region, and the people lived in misery. You continued training the New Army while refining every martial art you knew to its limit.]

[In the forty-second year, you continued training the New Army and constantly refining each martial art you knew.]

[In the forty-third year, you continued training the New Army.

You finally succeeded in refining all the first-rate martial arts you knew to Perfection Level, and your strength reached a new peak.]

[In the forty-fourth year, with your help and after more than four years of preparation, you officially began armed resistance against the Qing Court, believing the time had come.

This was a full two years earlier than in the original timeline.]

[That same year, you launched four uprisings in succession.

Unfortunately, the Qing Army was too powerful. Moreover, neither you nor the New Army you had trained took part in the fighting. The four uprisings ultimately failed for various reasons, though they accumulated a great deal of experience for future success.]

[Seeing their side's morale suffer, you decided to pass down, all at once, every advanced idea you knew from your previous life.

As for whether that knowledge would be useful, that was beyond your control.

After all, you were merely a martial man. When it came to fighting, you feared no one, but in other matters, you were not particularly capable.]

[In the forty-fifth year, you continued training the New Army and taught them some coordination methods you had seen online in your previous life, determined to forge them into an iron army with strict discipline and absolute obedience.]

[At the end of the eleventh month of the forty-seventh year, with the death of the Qing Court's true ruler, you began your uprising again after more than two years of preparation.

This time, you and the New Army you had trained also joined the battle.]

[After a night of fierce fighting, with the combined aid of your formidable strength and the New Army's powerful combat ability, you achieved an initial victory.]

[Three days later, as news spread, regions across the nation responded one after another—Hunan, Sichuan, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi...

For a time, the flames of war rose everywhere. Qing troops suffered defeat after defeat, and many Qing soldiers were even won over and rose in rebellion on the spot.]

[Two months later, the Qing Court was completely destroyed, and you officially established a new regime.]

[In the forty-eighth year, at your suggestion, the new government began establishing schools throughout the country in order to improve the people's overall quality.

At the same time, it founded military academies in many parts of the country and sent large numbers of students abroad to the world's major powers, constantly studying the foreigners' advanced technologies.

Beyond that, you spent heavily to establish military industry research institutes, imported advanced foreign machinery and weapons, and built arsenals, machinery factories, shipyards...

All to maximize the nation's military strength and reserve of talent!

As for where the money came from? You seized it from Manchu remnants of the Qing, seized it from wealthy and unscrupulous aristocratic clans, issued national bonds, borrowed from foreign banks... and so on.]

[Naturally, these measures of the new regime touched many people's interests.

You had long anticipated this situation and prepared a response.

Your preparation was simple—kill!

Those who obeyed openly while defying secretly—kill!

Those who refused to carry out orders—kill!

Those who embezzled and broke the law—kill!

The ones carrying it out were the Assassination Squad led by you.

Every member of the squad was an elite personally selected by you from the New Army.]

[After several years of your training, all thirty-six members of the squad had reached at least the Clear Force realm, with three attaining the Hidden Force realm.

In addition, every squad member was proficient with firearms, disguise, tracking, concealment, and all manner of other skills.

It was a genuine special operations unit!]