Martial artists had robust physiques. Once they reached the Meridian Opening Realm and gained a rudimentary ability to harness the power of heaven and earth, they could greatly enhance their bodily functions and even improve their constitutions.
Although this did not directly extend their lifespans, it allowed Meridian Opening Realm martial artists to maintain their fighting strength until a hundred years of age. Even if they failed to break through further before then, they could still live to a hundred and fifty.
As for the realms above that, Zhao Er knew little about them, but True Astral Realm martial artists could certainly retain their fighting strength longer and live to a greater age.
In other words, under these circumstances, the number of Meridian Opening Realm martial artists in the Martial Academy alone was probably staggering.
Of course, cultivation and the number of martial artists were not matters of simple addition and subtraction. Martial cultivation was a dangerous profession, after all. Missions, obtaining martial resources, feuds and vendettas, the risks of breakthroughs—the casualties suffered through all these processes were surely astonishing as well.
Moreover, the Martial Academy had to guard the entire Prefectural Seat. Yet even with all these considerations, it undoubtedly had plenty of experts hidden away.
Zhao Er had only recently joined the Martial Academy. Neither his cultivation nor his standing had brought him into its true inner circle, so he had paid little attention to these things before. Only now, after Wu Xing's reminder, did they occur to him.
He would probably have to become a steward before he could truly understand the Martial Academy's underlying strength.
"By the way, junior brother, you're planning to fight today, aren't you? Have you decided which steward to challenge?"
Unless necessary, Zhao Er stayed at the mine, so Wu Xing had