Words Strategize for the World

My editor informed me today that the book will be available for purchase on the 1st of next month. I hope that those of you who like this book will give me some investment; there will be a reward!

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The burly man had his own confidence, and his title as the number one general was not just empty boasting.

The man's surname was Li, and his given name was Li Tianyi. He was the second son of the Li family, one of the five great families of the Hegemon Kingdom.

The Li family is a family of powerful figures, with a wealth of talented individuals, including scholars and warriors.

The Li family established their name with the character "鍊" (lian), meaning to forge and refine. Every martial artist in the family would practice the family's secret technique: Fire Refining Steel Body.

Fire-Refined Steel Body is a secret technique that focuses on cultivating physical strength. After mastering this technique, the body will become extremely resilient and powerful, impervious to attacks from ordinary weapons, and the generation of Qi will be faster than in other martial arts techniques.

As a refined scholar, Fang Hao was unfamiliar with the power system and levels of martial artists. He had no powerful martial artists around him, and no one had ever told him about martial artists. As a result, the only thing he knew was that martial artists were divided into five levels: Dao, Heaven, Earth, General, and Law, with each level further divided into three layers.

This is the most basic understanding.

In the Yongping Continent, the fact that warriors can be ranked alongside scholars as the ruling class definitely has its own advantages.

It is correct to divide martial artists into five levels: Dao, Tiandi, Jiang, and Fa. Furthermore, each level of martial artist has its own characteristics, which is exactly the same as that of refined scholars.

The characteristics of martial artists are as follows: **Technique Level:** Refining techniques to win. Niu Da, Lai Fengwu, and Yuan Kang, who are close to Fang Hao, are basically at this stage. **General Level:** Refining strength to win. Excellent third-level generals can cultivate Qi, which can be added to their weapons for attack. Yang Qiangkun, who challenged Fang Hao, once had a blue light appear on the tip of his spear; this was the application of Qi.

Fang Hao didn't pay attention at the time. If he had noticed later and asked about Feng Wu, he might have already understood the power system of martial artists.

Actually, there's another important reason why Fang Hao doesn't understand the power system of martial artists.

The Yongping Continent is ruled by powerful families, who keep many things hidden. Although the scholars are selected from among the common people, few of them manage to rise to prominence.

This is especially true for martial artists.

Although there are a large number of martial artists, no Dao-level martial artist has ever emerged from the common people. Why is that?

Because of the secret technique.

Only aristocratic families possess secret techniques. They've collected all the secret techniques they could get their hands on, and ordinary people simply don't have the secret techniques to reach the Dao level, so how could Dao-level masters possibly emerge?

Therefore, it is understandable that Fang Hao does not understand martial artists.

Earth-level: Qi Refining, winning by using Qi, and can freely imbue weapons with Qi. A skilled martial artist at this stage can achieve a thousand-man kill.

Heavenly Level: Refining Essence. This primarily involves compressing the body's Qi, removing impurities, and purifying it. It can be said that martial artists at this stage win by focusing on the quality of their Qi. Of course, the most significant characteristic of martial artists at this stage is their ability to project their Qi externally, using it for both offense and defense. Projecting Qi externally for attack is incredibly powerful, and the compressed Qi allows martial artists to fight for extended periods, earning them the reputation of being able to kill ten thousand men.

The Dao level is the highest level. Martial artists who reach this level begin to refine their spirit. Through the compressed energy of the Heaven level, impurities are removed and the energy is purified to a certain stage before entering the Dao level. The most powerful aspect of the Dao level is the qualitative change: energy transforms into liquid, energy generates liquid, and as long as the energy exists, the person continues to live, becoming stronger and more courageous with each battle. This is the power of Dao-level martial artists, also known as the "100,000-man slayer."

These claims are all achievable, of course, only if there are no refined people present. If there are refined people present, then that's another story.

Li Tianyi was exceptionally intelligent and cultivated the Fire-Refined Steel Body. As a result, he developed Qi at the second level of the General rank, which is why he was able to become the number one General rank cultivator.

Li Tianyi certainly had reason to be arrogant, but unfortunately he ran into Fang Hao.

His face showed astonishment; he couldn't understand why he couldn't do things he used to do so often now.

He didn't have much time to think, because Fang Hao's golden knife had already fallen.

Unable to dodge in time and bound, Li Tianyi encountered a crisis he had never faced before in his life.

Just when Fang Hao thought he was about to kill Li Tianyi, he saw him roar. Then, he took a deep breath, flexed his muscles again, and prepared to withstand Fang Hao's attack and break the rope.

Liu Tianyi was indeed formidable; his muscles bulged even more powerfully than before. Moreover, upon closer inspection, a fiery red light flashed across his muscles, like red-hot steel.

"Keng"

The golden knife struck Li Tianyi's muscle, producing a dull metallic sound.

Although the golden knife struck him, it did not penetrate deeply into his flesh.

"ah"

Perhaps it was the shame of being slashed or the pain of being injured, but Li Tianyi roared again, then bent over to gather his strength. Before Fang Hao could control the golden knife to attack again, Li Tianyi suddenly exerted his strength, quickly stood up and opened his arms, and this time he actually broke the golden rope.

"Hmph, I knew I underestimated you. To be able to kill Yang Qiangkun on the battlefield and escape from Zhao Jun's clutches, you really have some skill. However, if that's all you've got, then you're in for a world of hurt."

Li Tianyi's act of forcibly breaking the golden rope despite the golden knife's attack startled Fang Hao.

But after the initial shock, Fang Hao secretly warned himself to be extremely careful.

After finishing his sentence, Li Tianyi ignored Fang Hao and turned around to pick up a heavy knife from the table.

Li Tianyi's heavy sword weighs 128 jin (approximately 64 catties) and is similar to a nine-ringed broadsword. It was forged by a famous blacksmith from the Ba Kingdom through countless hammerings.

Seeing Li Tianyi pick up the heavy knife, Fang Hao became even more vigilant. He wrote three "defense" characters in seal script, then stood still, waiting for the other party's next move.

While Fang Hao and Li Tianyi were locked in a standoff, Lai Fengwu was facing a crisis on all sides.

In just a short while, Lai Fengwu was covered in injuries. Although most were superficial wounds, they looked gruesome.

A ring of dead soldiers surrounded him. The rapid killing had quickly exhausted him, and his upright body was now swaying precariously.

Lai Fengwu glanced at Fang Hao and noticed that he was confronting the burly man with great vigilance.

Seeing that Fang Hao was unharmed, he was relieved and prepared to focus on dealing with the soldiers.

At the same time, Tian Ming and Xu Feng, who were heading towards the county seat, also encountered resistance, preventing them from quickly coming to their aid.

Apart from the soldiers lying in ambush, the county government didn't have many soldiers, but every minute and second was precious. The longer the delay went on, the more critical the situation would become for Fang Hao and Lai Fengwu.

Outside the prefectural capital, fires had broken out in many parts of the entire Hexia Prefecture, all instigated by Yuan Kang and his men. The more chaotic Hexia Prefecture was, the greater their opportunity. Besides, Hexia Prefecture had already submitted to the Ba Kingdom, so they wouldn't feel much remorse no matter where the fires spread, except for civilian houses. While setting the fires, they shouted loudly: "The Ba Kingdom's army is attacking! Run!"

Inside the main hall of the prefectural government, Prefect Liu looked at the swaying Lai Fengwu, his face turning pale. He thought that the delicate-skinned Lai Fengwu would be easy to kill, but many soldiers died while Lai Fengwu was still alive.

Fang Hao hadn't been captured by Commander Li yet, and he didn't dare send his advisors to...

At this moment, the shouts of battle outside the hall and the cries of the city reached his ears directly. Somewhat frightened, he looked at Lai Fengwu and Fang Hao, gritting his teeth in his heart.

"Kill him! Kill him! Whoever kills him will be promoted to deputy inspector."

Liu, the prefect, shouted hysterically, which gave the soldiers around him who dared not step forward a huge boost of energy.

With a generous reward, brave men will surely emerge. As soon as Prefect Liu spoke, the soldiers became restless.

Suddenly, a soldier shouted, "Kill!" and charged towards Lai Fengwu with renewed courage. His action triggered a chain reaction, and the remaining soldiers, lured by the huge reward, also rushed forward.

Unfortunately, the soldiers had the courage, but not the ability, and the first soldier was quickly killed by Lai Fengwu.

Lai Fengwu was already exhausted, and now he was attacked by a group of soldiers who were blinded by their rewards. If he slowed down even slightly, he would be stabbed in the abdomen by a spear.

After being injured, Lai Fengwu shouted and managed to kill the spearmen, but he also faced a life-or-death crisis.

Fang Hao heard Lai Fengwu's shout, turned around, and was shocked.

He stood shakily, pierced in the abdomen by a spear, bright red blood flowing continuously from his abdomen. He tried his best to use the sword in his hand to continuously block the attacks coming from the front.

This horrific scene filled Fang Hao with anxiety. He ignored Li Tianyi and ran towards Lai Fengwu.

While running, he quickly wrote the character for "dragon," intending to help Lai Fengwu escape the crisis first.