The Great Cataclysm Era

On October 1, 2076, Blue Star Calendar, the country where Chen Wu lived was officially renamed the "Red Continent Republic."

It was also during this period that countless stirring, tear-jerking tales emerged.

By July 13, 2087, Blue Star Calendar, of the world's five remaining superpowers—the Red Continent Republic, Arctic Continent Union, United States of America, Euro Continent Empire, and Ancient Shendu Kingdom—all but the Ancient Shendu Kingdom had basically completed the recovery of their territories.

The five great nations thus formed the Human Federation and reached a consensus on combating ferocious beasts.

Afterward, humanity rebuilt city after city across the reclaimed lands, bringing vast uninhabited regions back under human rule.

Through ten years of steady advance, the ferocious beasts on land had either been killed, driven into the sea, or hidden away in secret realms humanity had yet to thoroughly explore.

Other than the islands scattered throughout the major oceans, the land had returned to humanity's embrace.

Children like Chen Wu were called "the luckiest generation."

They had basically never experienced the bloody and brutal wars between humanity and ferocious beasts, and they had also happened to be born into an era of rapid development.

Over the more than thirty years since the Great Cataclysm, human technology had advanced by leaps and bounds due to the needs of war and the exploration of secret realms.

But because of the war, all resources had previously been tilted toward it, leaving no time to develop civilian technology.

Once humanity entered the counteroffensive phase and the front lines were no longer so strained, surplus resources naturally became available for developing civilian technology.

By 2097, the Red Continent Republic had taken Suna Continent, which had always been said to share "mountains of the same range and waters of the same source" with the Red Continent, and watered its horses in the Golden Strait.

During this period, aside from some unpleasantness with the neighboring Ancient Shendu Kingdom and intermittent minor frictions, the country as a whole remained at peace.

As technological resources were poured into civilian life, clean renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power were widely promoted.

Further advances in energy and related technologies greatly raised productivity.

Secret realms contained not only cultivation manuals that allowed people to use spiritual energy, but also items that helped advance technology.

For example, the clean renewable energy technologies mentioned above had been inspired by items brought back from secret realms explored by martial artists, providing scientists with new ideas.

This made the technology of Chen Wu's era more advanced than that of his previous life, with technologies such as smartphones and maglev trains being put into use one after another.

And with advances in productivity and science, humanity's total population surged dramatically during the nearly thirty years from 2087 to 2110, Blue Star Calendar.

It had leapt from just over two billion after the "Great Cataclysm Era" to six billion.

As the world's most populous nation before the Great Cataclysm, the Red Continent Republic's population had, after years of development, reached nearly two billion, making it the undisputed most populous nation.

However, the true crisis had not been resolved.

While the existence of secret realms brought extraordinary power like martial arts into this world, it also meant that danger always followed like a shadow.

Every appearance of a secret realm was accompanied by a beast tide, testing humanity's emergency response capabilities.

The Red Continent alone had several hundred secret realms. That number was still increasing year by year, and the seven major war zones of the Red Continent required ever more troops and martial artists.

The massive herds of ferocious beasts lurking in the vast oceans were also poised at all times.

The slightest flaw exposed by humanity would invite an attack from the beast hordes.

Over these nearly thirty years of war, every nation had realized that relying solely on the military was still insufficient to contend with ferocious beasts.

Whether exploring and guarding against secret realms or preventing ferocious beasts from descending once more, humanity had to wield greater power.

Only by improving and spreading the cultivation manuals seized from secret realms could they achieve the goal of suppressing secret realms with very few people.

For this reason, countries successively introduced and promoted martial arts courses in primary and secondary schools, established martial arts advancement systems, and formally ushered in an era where everyone practiced martial arts.

As one of the earliest nations in the world to implement martial arts education, the Red Continent Republic government had achieved tremendous results since the early 2090s.

Even martial arts academies, this basic infrastructure, had spread down to the township level.

In such a world where martial arts flourished and everyone trained, even the elderly men and women dancing in the square by the roadside might be people capable of lifting cauldrons with sheer strength.

Any random vegetable vendor on the street could run far faster than the Olympic champions of Chen Wu's previous world.

After so many years of development, martial arts, under the government's leadership, had long since formed a complete system with clear classifications.

Following ancient official ranks, the nation divided martial arts cultivation into nine ranks.

The Ninth Rank was the lowest, while the First Rank was supreme.

Although martial artists displayed different traits depending on the focus of their cultivation, they never strayed beyond the scope of the nine ranks.

Based on the nine-rank classification, they were further divided into four tiers.

Ninth through Seventh Rank were the lower tier, Sixth through Fourth Rank were the middle tier, and Third through Second Rank were the upper tier.

The First Rank stood above all others, and was therefore designated as a tier of its own.

Below the Ninth Rank were reserve martial artists who nurtured their vital energy.

Under this system, a Third Rank martial artist could be called a "Grandmaster," while a Second Rank martial artist was called a "Great Grandmaster."

The emergence of extraordinary power had also changed society's rules.

Starting from the Sixth Rank, a martial artist's level of life began to differ from that of ordinary people. They could be said to form a nation's foundational military strength.

Longevity was only the most basic manifestation. Once one reached the realm of a Third Rank Grandmaster, living for a thousand years was no problem.

Even the most ordinary martial art could be turned from rot into magic in their hands.

As for First Rank martial artists, they existed as national strategic weapons.

Unlike thermal weapons such as nuclear arms, if a First Rank martial artist truly let loose, their level of threat far surpassed them.

In today's world, the publicly known First Rank martial artists numbered only about as many as one could count on their fingers.

Every First Rank martial artist was an immensely powerful existence capable of suppressing an ultra-large secret realm.

With them standing guard, nations could allocate more resources toward improving civilian life.

This naturally gave martial artists an extremely high social status.

In such a society, if one wished to achieve something—whether taking public office or starting a company, excluding scientific research and technical positions—the most basic threshold was one's martial artist rank.

Of course, those who made their living through scientific research, technology, or practical skills were another matter.

As the most populous superpower in the world today, the Red Continent Republic alone accounted for four of them.

These four each suppressed one of the Red Continent's four ultra-large secret realms, protecting the safety of the nation and its people.

To establish a sound martial artist training system, the government had truly racked its brains.

Just as in his memories, Jinlian No. 1 High School had not changed. His classmates and teachers were much the same.

If there was any difference, it was himself.