On Victory and Defeat
Seeing that he had only been in seclusion for half a month, yet his inbox already contained 19,554 unread emails, Qu Heng's lips twitched. What had happened?
He used to have such a comfortable life as the sect leader. He had nothing to do on a daily basis, and he could go into seclusion for years or even decades without affecting the operation of the Taiheng Sect.
With mobile phones, shouldn't handling affairs be more convenient? Because many things don't require calling people over; they can be discussed directly via video or phone.
But what about now?
It's supposed to be something that increases efficiency, so why is it making me do more and more work?
Seven days is 20,000 letters. If I were to go into seclusion for seven years, what would that be like?
Should I continue my seclusion?
"Let me see what's going on?"
Qu Heng sighed. The room he was in was like a movie theater with only one seat. In front of him was a huge screen composed of 864 mobile phone interfaces, which could display 864 interfaces at the same time, or it could display one interface at the same time.
The former is used for office work, while the latter is used for watching movies and entertainment.
Leaning back in the massage chair, Qu Heng commanded, "Deep Blue, display all emails on the screen one every five seconds. If there's video or audio, play it completely before switching!"
In the blink of an eye, 864 tiny windows appeared on the large screen in front of me.
An ordinary person witnessing this scene would likely experience a massive drop in their sanity. Is this something a human being should be doing?
Even Qu Heng felt a headache coming on, but it was all Taiheng Sect's business, and he couldn't just ignore it!
"Qu Bai is dead?" Qu Heng frowned, but didn't seem particularly saddened.
After all, he was devoted to the path of immortality, and his sons were merely the product of his pleasures. He had many sons, so their deaths were not a pity.
The weapon used to kill his son, however, is worth studying.
"The Immortal Extermination Sniper Rifle weighs 16kg, is 2.33 meters long, and uses 12.7mm caliber bullets, specifically the Immortal Extinction 2.0 bullet."
"Built-in Temporary Rune Array Attacher, Mana Acceleration Rune Array, Electromagnetic Acceleration Rune Array, what on earth is all this?"
Fortunately, we live in the internet age, so if there's anything you don't understand, you can ask directly online.
First, firearms.
"A weapon first used by Zhang Chulan of the Great Ming Kingdom, later improved by Wu Yi, a disciple of the Tianyi Sect, who also revealed its manufacturing principles!"
"After improvements by several cultivators, it became the final version of this weapon!"
"They are divided into several levels, including ordinary firearms, Immortal Extermination Gun, and Rune Electromagnetic Rifle."
"Tests have shown that even a sniper rifle among ordinary firearms can kill a cultivator at the Body Refinement Tenth Layer and can also harm an unsuspecting Qi Refining cultivator!"
"The Immortal Extermination Gun can penetrate the Aura Shield formed by cultivators at the Mana Realm, and can kill ordinary cultivators at the Mana Realm!"
"The Rune Electromagnetic Rifle can kill cultivators at the Talisman Realm. There is no combat data available for Golden Core Stage cultivators as they have never appeared on the battlefield!"
"Ah, this!" Qu Heng was dumbfounded. Firearms? Could they kill a cultivator at the Talisman Realm?
What is all this?!
Moreover, Electromagnetic Rifle capable of killing cultivators at the Talisman Realm only costs 100,000 taels of silver?
Keep reading.
"Temporary Rune Array Attacher: Applies a temporary rune array to an item, effective for no more than 5 seconds!"
Qu Heng knew about this; it was something that had been researched long ago. It was meaningless to cultivators—who buys a talisman that expires in five seconds?
But
When this temporary rune attachment was paired with bullets, it immediately changed.
The bullet can travel at a speed of 1200 meters per second, covering 6000 meters in five seconds. As long as it hits the target within five seconds, it doesn't matter whether there are any runes on the bullet after five seconds!
"Electromagnetic Acceleration Rune Array, Mana Acceleration Rune Array."
Qu Heng fell silent. He knew about the Mana Acceleration Rune Array. Law Power could increase the flight speed of Law Artifact, which was a basic operation. Of course, there were corresponding rune arrays in the Cultivation World.
He didn't know about electromagnetic acceleration before, but he learned about it after reading about electromagnetic theories. It's not a very complicated thing.
As for the fact that the Explosive Flame Talisman explodes in a confined space, propelling metal projectiles out, that becomes much easier to understand.
In just over ten minutes, Qu Heng understood the principles of the entire firearm.
It's very simple, easy to understand, and all of it uses techniques that Taiheng has had for a long time; there's nothing beyond the scope of the curriculum.
But why is it that when these technologies are combined, they can become a weapon capable of killing a cultivator at the Talisman Realm, yet it's so cheap?
Why didn't anyone think of this before?
If a cultivator at the Talisman Realm can be killed with 100,000 taels of silver, then what's the point of spending so much silver on Spirit Artifact and treasures?
"Zhang Chulan, the inventor of firearms, Great Ming Kingdom; Wu Yi, the improver and popularizer of firearms, is from the Tianyi Sect!"
Looking at those two names, Qu Heng fell silent again. Why wasn't it me, a member of the Taiheng clan?
If these two people are from Taiheng, then this kind of weapon should be exclusive to Taiheng. He would never allow the manufacturing technology to leak out, resulting in people all over the world having it now, with small workshops and sects everywhere making it!
Qu Heng shook his head and continued reading.
The more Qu Heng read the email, the darker his expression became.
In just fifteen days, over 170,000 members of the Aristocratic Clan have died?
Taiheng Outer Disciple: 220,000 killed, 190,000 captured?
"Bang!" The marble table in front of him shattered instantly. Qu Heng roared, "What the hell is going on? How the hell is this a battle?"
He was furious, but had nowhere to vent his anger because the Outer Disciple were fighting amongst themselves and there was no unified leadership. He couldn't even find someone to argue with!
"Damn it, I'm not watching anymore!" Qu Heng rubbed his forehead, getting angrier the more he looked. A dignified Spiritual Law Realm cultivator was so angry that his cultivation was about to break down, and his blood pressure was about to rise. What was the point of watching anymore?
"Deep Blue, you tell me, what's going on!" Qu Heng asked, "How did this battle turn out like this? What are the reasons? Where did the problem lie?"
AI's governance capabilities surpass those of all others, but AI lacks understanding of human relationships, so many people only regard AI as an advisor.
If the country and clan were governed according to the AI's proposed solutions, the nation and clan might become powerful, but the interests of individuals and Lineage would be compromised.
"Ding! All email information has been collected, and we are providing a comprehensive opinion!"
Deep Blue believes there are five reasons why the war has turned out this way:
First, different understandings of war lead to different levels of mobilization and importance attached to it.
The Great Peace Way Dao regarded the war between the two Taiping forces as a war, and therefore mobilized all the civilians and cultivators within its sphere of influence, formed an army, coordinated logistics, and brought out the full potential of the Great Peace Way's power.
However, the Taiheng Sect viewed this war as a mission. Therefore, although they mobilized 600,000 Outer Disciple and 12.41 million lower-level sect disciples at the Body Refinement Realm, these disciples lacked organization and coordination. Fighting independently, even if our individual forces had an advantage, they would be defeated piecemeal by the enemy, resulting in a situation where we had a local advantage but a global disadvantage!
Qu Heng nodded; it seemed that was indeed the case.
On Deep Blue Video, there are countless videos of the Taiheng Sect Great Peace Way Great Peace Way, but very few Great Peace Way soldiers upload videos of defeating Taiheng Sect disciples.
If we only look at the videos, the disciples of the Taiheng Sect should have the biggest advantage.
In reality, Taiheng Sect was initially able to use the advantage of Flying Boat to directly penetrate the interior of Great Peace Way, but as Great Peace Way seized the Flying Boat and set up defensive lines on the perimeter, Taiheng Sect disciples began to retreat in defeat.
The actual battle situation was far less optimistic than depicted in the videos.
"Secondly, the level of importance attached to new technologies differs!"
When firearms appeared, the Great Peace Way and other rebel armies rushed to buy them. The Taiping Great Peace Way alone purchased 50 million High-Kinetic Energy Rifle capable of killing Body Refinement Tenth Layer. However, the Taiheng Sect only purchased 400,000, and most of them only thought of buying them after suffering losses from firearms after the war started. By then, the firearms had already been sold out!
"The same was true for the rebels. They were very enthusiastic about buying guns, but the rebel forces with members from powerful Aristocratic Clan were obstructed in every way by these proud Aristocratic Clan men and did not buy guns. As a result, they were easily defeated by the side with guns on the battlefield."
Qu Heng was somewhat speechless, yet he could understand the thoughts of these scions of the Aristocratic Clan.
Our Aristocratic Clan have been passed down for so many years, and we've never even heard of firearms. Now you're saying you want to spend so much money to buy a gun? Of course, the scions of these Aristocratic Clan won't agree!
Even if the scions of the Aristocratic Clan disagree, the Aristocratic Clan -ups will agree with them, since they come from the Aristocratic Clan and are well-informed!
Of course, to prove their correctness, these scions of the Aristocratic Clan would also charge ahead and face the power of firearms head-on.
Then they were utterly defeated on the battlefield.
This is the reason for the large number of deaths among the scions of the Aristocratic Clan these fifteen days.
"Third: Insufficient productivity."
"In the Great Peace Way region, there are over 40,000 factories of various kinds, comprised of 600 million people, continuously producing grain, canned goods, vehicles, steel, and elixirs. Recently, they have also begun producing firearms."
However, the Taiheng Sect only had 600,000 Artifact Forging Master, and they were all beginners. They didn't know how to rune, how to forge weapons, and they still had to go to the battlefield with their masters.
This resulted in the Great Peace Way Dao soldiers gaining more and more supplies as they fought, while the Taiheng Sect disciples had fewer and fewer supplies!
"Four days ago, there were even instances where supplies ran out, and disciples surrendered due to hunger!!"
Qu Heng's face twitched, and he was speechless.
Fourth, the level of importance attached to intelligence differs.
"The disciples of the Great Peace Way place a very high value on information. Although they all have mobile phones, they never post videos on their phones. However, the Taiheng Sect not only posts videos but also broadcasts live, making no attempt to conceal their strategic plans and action routes!"
"This gives the Great Peace Way side ample time to calmly mobilize its forces and launch an attack on the Taiheng Sect disciples!"
"Although the disciples of the Taiheng Sect are stronger and more experienced, they are still no match for a large number of opponents and will be defeated just the same!"
"Fifth."
Qu Heng listened to Deep Blue's analysis, looking somewhat bewildered.
Among these problems are those of the Outer Disciple, since they were the ones who fought the battles.
But the bigger problem lies with the Taiheng Sect. Firstly, Taiheng lacks organization, and secondly, Taiheng lacks instruction.
The disciples don't even know how to fight; how can they not be defeated!
But I, Qu Heng, don't understand either!
The Taiheng of the past, and even the Taiheng of today, has never needed to fight a war!
If a problem arises, just send in top-tier combat forces to suppress it, and that's it!
Just like the Great Peace Way uprising now, the solution in the past was to send a few Qi Refining Stage disciples to resolve it. Even now, with the Tian Dao Yi taking over, it's still a problem to end it!
The problem is, I can't go!
Do we really intend to follow the example of the Great Peace Way Dao, organizing Outer Disciple into soldiers and then organizing them to fight?
But who will organize it?
Who can command respect? Who understands military strategy and warfare? Who understands logistics and supply? Who understands battle formations? Who understands the use of new weapons?
A name suddenly popped into Qu Heng's mind.
That young man single-handedly transformed a bottom-ranked nation into the strongest power in the Northern Plains over several years.
He's also good at inventions and creating Cultivation Method!
If he were still alive, how could Zhang Chulan and Wu Yi possibly have a chance to use firearms?
Qu Heng shook his head, no longer thinking about it, and instead began to ponder the selection of a leader for the Taiheng Army.
First of all, this person cannot be entrusted to someone with the surname Qu or outside the top twenty surnames. After all, your surname is Yue, and mine is Zhao; how can I trust you?
But all twenty-one surnames have gone to support the rebel army, so who else is willing to come out and lead troops into battle?
Okay, let's create a group chat and ask.