At that moment, Chen Shouyi was dazed, his reactions sluggish.
He was hesitating over whether to kill them and be done with it when the barbarians spotted him.
Five barbarians charged over in a disorderly rush and surrounded him. They pointed their wooden spears and long swords at Chen Shouyi, not daring to let their guard down for a second.
"Stop!"
"Throw your sword on the ground!"
"Despicable human!"
These barbarians had clearly suffered before. They knew that humans with swords were hard to deal with.
More than a year had passed since the release of the new Thirty-Six Body Tempering Forms. Most teenagers, so long as they practiced diligently, had already attained the physical fitness of a Martial Apprentice—even if passing the Martial Apprentice swordsmanship test was another matter.
Meanwhile, the number of martial artists had exploded.
In just one short year, the number of newly promoted martial artists had nearly equaled the total from the previous twenty years.
Of course, the main reason was that after twenty years of accumulation, the pool of Martial Apprentices had grown enormous. Many veteran apprentices had fallen just short of the required physical standards and remained stuck at that level for a long time.
Now that the new and more effective Thirty-Six Body Tempering Forms had appeared, those veteran apprentices, who had spent years building up their strength, were advancing one after another.
The numbers had exploded.
Human martial artists were, for the most part, full-time professionals.
Martial arts were their profession.
More efficient training methods, more scientific and powerful ways to channel force, and a focus on killing made them far superior to ordinary barbarians, who spent every day scrambling for food.
To use a vivid comparison, it was like the difference between modern professional soldiers and feudal-era peasant conscripts. Even