The End

What was Sun Wu doing while Qi Fei commanded the Crimson Blood Guard to kill, kill, kill?

Answer: He was using a formation to compete for the spoils Slaughter Absorption had looted.

In truth, Sun Wu didn't want to do this.

Facing an opponent on ground they had prepared long in advance was usually tantamount to suicide.

But after all his attempts came to nothing, he could only start here, reducing the legion's absorption efficiency.

As expected, his opponent had anticipated this as well.

Once Sun Wu began using his formation to compete with the Crimson Blood Guard, Qi Fei applied a similar formation to his own troops.

The ratio of spoils from kills made by the Crimson Blood Guard versus Sun Wu's plundering was 6:4. For the other soldiers, the ratio was 5:5.

As for the spoils from kills made by Sun Wu's army, Qi Fei and Sun Wu took them at a ratio of 3:7.

Qi Fei was utterly outclassed in efficiency.

That was why the Crimson Blood Guard had killed twice as many enemies as their own number and only now started to smoke.

However, Sun Wu's army had a very low kill rate. So despite how alarming the ratios looked, Qi Fei still had the upper hand.

"With things as they are, a counterattack should be coming soon. It's time to call in the reserves."

As Qi Fei poured all the spoils he had plundered into the Crimson Blood Guard, he issued orders to the rear.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Sun Wu was modifying his Elite Talent on the spot to turn around his army's unfavorable kill rate.

At first, to hold back Qi Fei's army, he had given his legion Muscle Defense, a defensive talent.

But defense no longer mattered.

If so, then he would change it.

The will of the entire army was drawn out, dissolving the legion's talent in an instant before swiftly reconstructing it.

So what if it was Heavenly Demon Disintegration? He could do that too.

At the same time, Cloud Qi swirled overhead as several layers of formations nested within one another. They strengthened the soldiers while also granting them effects like Piercing and Penetration Strike, which were meant to counter heavy armor.

Whether my soldiers survived was anyone's guess, but at least each of them had to take an enemy with them before they died.

Once the formations and talents had been adjusted, Sun Wu's gains from plundering surged.

However, the negative thoughts in the soldiers imbued with this power increased right along with them, and they gradually began to lose control.

But that was fine. I might be useless at plenty of things, but bringing out-of-control soldiers under control is instinctive to me.

Sun Wu skillfully directed the rampaging soldiers as they dismantled Qi Fei's legion.

In the process, he even improvised a specialized talent to make use of all those negative thoughts.

He kindled a spiritual flame of fury within the soldiers, then used their negative thoughts as fuel.

The more negative thoughts they had, the fiercer the flames burned.

This not only dealt with their negative emotions, but also transformed them into a boon through the flames of fury. At the same time, the flames could address the morale problems that were beginning to emerge.

Three birds with one stone.

As the killing continued and the negative thoughts accumulated, the flames of fury began to transcend the realm of spiritual will and manifest in the real world.

Sun Wu's vanguard had gone so berserk that actual flames now blazed over their bodies. With every movement, they looked like fire demons.

Even the super-shields of the Huangfu Personal Guards could withstand only one blow from them.

After that single blow, the composite shields, built from layers of steel and wood, turned to charcoal on the spot and became useless.

"Now let's see. Will you break through my center and rear first, or will I dismantle your vanguard?"

Sun Wu studied the situation and breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Even he hadn't expected that he still had this kind of potential.

Back when he had to clean up after Wu Zixu, that old troublemaker, he had never been pushed to the point of changing his talents in the middle of a battle.

The young ones these days were truly remarkable.

"Will Attack, and at a level that can completely reshape reality. That's terrifying."

From afar, Qi Fei watched Sun Wu's vanguard.

The terrifying flames on those soldiers were so powerful that even he, watching from a distance, felt traces of burning on his body.

The Saint-Fallen Cavalry, the Miracle Legion that specialized in Will Attack, probably weren't much different, were they?

"Still, it's within what I can handle."

The twenty thousand reserves Qi Fei had prepared in advance had arrived on the battlefield.

In essence, they were merely armed laborers who had received some training. For ordinary commanders, they could only be used for logistical support.

They had indeed been Qi Fei's logistical support until now.

But to Qi Fei at this moment, they were a vital part of what would determine victory.

He activated Sharing, linking the minds of these twenty thousand people with his spiritual power.

Then their scattered wills were drawn out and unified. Together with Qi Fei's own will, they pierced through all the soldiers engaged with the enemy.

"Now, I'll share the greatest privilege of God Boundary Breaker with you."

As Qi Fei's words fell, the situation on the battlefield changed once more.

Sun Wu's vanguard discovered that the flames that had previously been unstoppable no longer killed their opponents outright.

Even when their attacks struck a vital spot, the enemy could ignore their injuries and keep fighting back.

Some soldiers who had already been burned to charcoal even got back up, picked up their weapons, and cracked their enemies over the head from behind.

Sun Wu's vanguard was stopped dead in its tracks.

"The will of mere laborers can support Resist Death. It seems a commander's Internal Qi cultivation matters more than ever."

As Sun Wu pondered this, he prepared to adjust his forces.

Resist Death looked intimidating, but it ultimately had to be borne by the soldiers themselves. With proper preparation, it wasn't impossible to kill them outright...

However, just then, the Crimson Blood Guard, which had been building up strength all this time, finally reached its limit.

Qi Fei immediately cut away all the negative thoughts suppressed by his legion's talent.

The moment those thoughts were cut away, they turned into Shadow Soldiers that looked just like real people. At the same time, the Crimson Blood Guard itself advanced to the Three Talents realm.

This was the most underhanded use of Slaughter Absorption, developed by Great General Dou Xian.

Slaughter Absorption plundered the vital essence of the living to help soldiers grow rapidly, while the negative thoughts were cut away and turned into Shadow Soldiers just a hair weaker than the originals.

And after the Shadow Soldiers died in battle, they could continue to accumulate negative thoughts by killing enemies, allowing them to be summoned again.

Back when Dou Xian had cut through the Xiongnu, each of his Crimson Blood Guard—Miracle had seven Shadow Soldiers with Equal to Heaven.

In this form, Dou Xian's Crimson Blood Guard were powerful enough to kill any Miracle Legion outright.

However, Qi Fei's Crimson Blood Guard were much weaker than Dou Xian's Personal Guards.

The legion's talent was suppressing the negative thoughts, so the Crimson Blood Guard themselves had not tempered their wills by resisting them.

Moreover, their nascent legion talent could suppress fewer negative thoughts than that of a Miracle Legion.

Thus, the Crimson Blood Guard were merely Equal to Heaven, not Miracles, and each soldier had only four Shadow Soldiers.

However, with an army of Qi Solidification warriors and the Three Talents, the Crimson Blood Guard's latent strength had already surpassed the world's limits.

So, under the strength correction from the overflow of power in their true bodies, the Shadow Soldiers could also display Equal to Heaven strength.

That meant more than ten thousand elite soldiers, each far stronger than an ordinary Three Talents warrior, had suddenly appeared in Sun Wu's formation.

Even for the God of War, that blow was deadly.

"We've lost."

Sun Wu sighed.

Not just this battle, but the entire sparring match.

Qi Fei's command ability wasn't enough to completely surround him. He could probably still lead six thousand soldiers on par with the Crimson Blood Guard through a breakout.

But it wouldn't matter.

Sun Wu had already seen how things would unfold.

Qi Fei would use his War Chariots and cavalry to keep pursuing him. He would take at least three cities in the process and continue advancing until the second major battle began.

The second battle would most likely end in a draw.

At the cost of at least twenty thousand able-bodied men, Sun Wu would repel Qi Fei's army.

Afterward, Qi Fei would switch to defense.

He would rely on the city walls and abundant supplies to hold the city, occasionally fighting a few small battles with Sun Wu that would not affect the overall situation.

That was only true from Qi Fei's perspective.

For Sun Wu, every such battle would mean real losses in population.

In the end, he would be worn down until he had no one left to command and no strength to counterattack.

"Had you planned this from the very beginning? Impressive."

Sun Wu smiled and sighed, then continued directing his army as before.

The soldiers whose fury had been kindled fearlessly attacked the Crimson Blood Guard, only to be easily cut down.

In the end, the Crimson Blood Guard and the Shadow Soldiers surrounded Sun Wu's remaining four thousand troops.

Sun Wu conceded defeat.

"...Why don't you try breaking out?"

Qi Fei was starting to regret it.

Had he played it too safe earlier? Maybe he could have called in a few more cities?

"There's no need. You were prepared for this from the start, weren't you?"

Just from the remaining War Chariots and cavalry that had yet to move, Sun Wu could tell how thorough Qi Fei's preparations had been.

"Not everything would necessarily have worked."

Qi Fei replied casually.

After all, he was the God of War. It wouldn't be surprising if he pulled off something outrageous.

"You're not denying it."

Sun Wu had a feeling that Qi Fei's preparations went beyond even his own predictions.

"To defeat an enemy through strategy. Heh. I never thought that one day a later generation would defeat me with my own principles."

When he had written those words, he had never imagined they would come true for him.

But now...

Sun Wu carefully studied Qi Fei, who was still little more than a child.

The moment Qi Fei mentioned twenty cities, he had already begun preparing for the war that would follow.

And Sun Wu had still thought he was there to teach a child a lesson.

His defeat was well deserved.

"I know my own command ability well enough. If I wanted to win, I had to prepare."

Qi Fei felt no embarrassment at all about having outmaneuvered an elder.

Until his own aptitude had reached a certain level, this was the only way he could defeat the God of War.

In truth, if Sun Wu hadn't misjudged the scale of the war, Qi Fei felt there was a good chance he would have lost.

In commanding a large army, more soldiers always meant greater strength.

Moreover, adding soldiers would further thicken the Cloud Qi overhead, increasing the suppression of Internal Qi cultivation.

If Sun Wu had commanded thirty thousand Regular Soldiers, Qi Fei guessed that even if his entire army had reached Qi Solidification, the enemy might still have crushed them outright.

The first time Han Xin appeared, he had already used an army of thirty thousand to wipe out the enemy's two hundred thousand.

Although two hundred thousand soldiers were actually much easier to dismantle than thirty thousand Qi Solidification warriors, that difference in strength meant nothing to a God of War.

And that wasn't even the God of War's limit.

Beings like the God of War could easily command a million soldiers on a single battlefield. Han Xin, who had put every skill point into troop numbers, could even command more than two million.

As for Qi Fei's own command ability...

At any rate, once his forces exceeded fifty thousand, he started losing bonuses. Above seventy thousand, his troops no longer moved as smoothly. Once they passed a hundred thousand, they began interfering with one another.

The gap was enough to make anyone sigh.

"Make the most of your strengths and attack the enemy's weaknesses. That is as it should be."

Sun Wu said approvingly.

As the two spoke, the dream had nearly faded away, and the three of them returned to reality.

Only after Liu Bei had regulated his breathing did he manage to absorb what had happened in the dream.

"Could you be...?"

He asked excitedly.

As the referee, he had naturally heard Sun Wu and Qi Fei's exchanges.

"To defeat an enemy through strategy" came from a classic work by the Sage of War.

"Don't say it. Heaven does not permit the form I take after recovering my memories."

Sun Wu stopped Liu Bei.

Heaven was not keeping a particularly tight watch at the moment, but it would still punish such an obvious violation.

"Still, your reaction was much slower than his."

Sun Wu looked at Qi Fei.

Qi Fei's preparations, from beginning to end, clearly hadn't been made for an ordinary commander.

A slightly less capable commander would have had his entire army routed the instant he engaged Qi Fei at close quarters.

"I just happened to know a few historical secrets, so I made a guess."

Qi Fei said, half truthfully.

"You made that many preparations based on a guess? Zihong, you're really... cautious."

As the referee, Liu Bei could see all of Qi Fei's remaining trump cards.

"The Military School is no ordinary business. It's always better to be cautious."

The more Sun Wu looked at Qi Fei, the more pleased he felt.

"Still, your ability to command large armies is merely average. I imagine you've noticed that yourself."

Qi Fei had been fighting a rigid battle from beginning to end, dragging it out until Sun Wu had few opportunities to use his own abilities.

"You're still young. There's no need to deliberately avoid your weaknesses. The right path is to try more things."

Even if he failed, he could still gain practical experience and improve his command skills.

"I understand."

Qi Fei nodded.

Wasn't this just because his opponent was the God of War? If he didn't fight cautiously against the God of War, was he supposed to wait for his opponent to show off?

And even so, Sun Wu had still shown off his skills in spectacular fashion.

Creating an Elite Talent on the spot to suit the battlefield conditions— even Marquis of Huaiyin couldn't do that.

No wonder he was a big shot who'd put all his skill points into his soldiers.

"As for your method of training troops, even I could never have imagined it. It's truly remarkable,"

Sun Wu praised him.

Although as one's Internal Qi cultivation reached the later stages, the strength of one's talent would actually decline, at the same level of talent, Qi Solidification was still stronger than Internal Qi Condensation.

"Keep working hard. Perhaps you'll be able to make that seemingly absurd idea of forming a legion out of beings with Internal Qi Separation a reality."

By then, even if Qi Fei wasn't good at commanding, he could still rely on sheer strength to kill him.

"That seems incredibly difficult."

Just thinking about it struck Qi Fei as absurd.

He could only attempt to advance to Qi Solidification after his soldiers had formed a unit. But forming a unit out of beings with Internal Qi Separation, whose individual wills had reached their peak...

"You've already defeated me. What's there to worry about?"

Sun Wu said with a smile.

"That's different."

Qi Fei knew better than anyone how he'd won.

"It's the same."

Sun Wu rejected Qi Fei's argument.

"For those of us in the Military School, the result is everything."

So don't disappoint me, junior.