Chapter 125 War
The next morning, Fang Xingjian, who was seated cross-legged in the training room, opened his eyes. The sword in his hands turning into dust, scattering into the air. His Effulgence Weapon could not form, and while he had learnt it and reached level 1 in this skill, no matter how much he cultivated, he was not able to gain additional experience points.
Only after the Effulgence Weapon took shape would one be able to gain more experience points and level up.
Now, Fang Xingjian could only continue to train patiently, hoping that his Effulgence Weapon would be able to form one day.
'It seems like I'll have to start from using materials and see if I can use the method recorded in the manual for the Ether Divine Art to smelt and incorporate materials, thus giving form to my high frequency Effulgence Weapon.'
Fang Xingjian now understood the path he needed to take to become stronger as well: to cultivate his Waves, Effulgence Weapon, as well as to temper his attributes. All of these required one to train very, very slowly, taking all of eternity to train.
But his mental cultivation method, sword arts, and sword intent could all do some brushing up.
Early this morning and after breakfast, Fang Xingjian put on his blue and white Knight attire. Similar to how he had decided the day before, he brought along the small sword pendant exclusive to Knights and headed for Huang Lin's office.
On the way, however, he saw many servants rushing about everywhere in the academy, and there were even many soldiers whom he had never seen before setting up barricades in numerous places.
It was as if they had changed from a period of peace to war overnight.
However, to Fang Xingjian, these soldiers did not have much use. They were not even official Knights and could only be there to guard the place and protect ordinary people.
In fact, Knights were the main force in the Empire's armies. An official Knight had the powers to defeat a thousand-man army of ordinary people, and just ten of them would be able to bring down a city guarded by ordinary people.
If there were one hundred Knights, then no matter how many ordinary soldiers came, they would not be able to win.
Thus, the Empire's main force tended to be an army of Knights formed from either three to five people, over ten people, or at max, a hundred people.
It could be said that the wars across this world would be one with over tens, or at the most, just over hundreds of such Knights.
In history, there were only a few wars which truly activated thousands or tens of thousands of Knights. All of them were able to shake heaven and earth.
And once Divine level experts appeared, just a few of them would be able to determine the flow of the war.
Therefore, the wars in the Miracle World comprised of the battle histories of the strong. Ordinary guards were only used to defend the territories and suppress ordinary commoners.
No one would be so moronic as to use an army of thousands or tens of thousands to face off Knights.
What really determined the victory or defeat was the results from the fights between the Knights.
Most ordinary soldiers not only have lousy equipments and mediocre skills in martial arts, most of them did not have any experience in war and would only have chased off wild beasts or hunted ferocious beasts.
It was because they were not required at all in war. Even if they were to fight, they would only be lambs waiting to be slaughtered by the Knights. Although they could sneak sudden attacks on the enemy's' troops who were not Knights, it would not affect the battles between the Knights, even if they were to win.
The victory or defeat to wars were almost not dependent on them at all. It was why the Empire's echelon had never thought highly about the construct of the troops at the lowest level of the army.
On his way, Fang Xingjian suddenly saw a familiar-looking Knight and grabbed hold of him. That Knight was also an official student in the academy who appeared to be angry until he saw that it was Fang Xingjian. He immediately broke into a faint smile.
"Oh, Xingjian, it's you."
Fang Xingjian nodded and asked, "Why is the academy suddenly so heavily guarded? Did something happen?"
"Oh, you haven't heard? That's right, you've been focusing on your cultivation all the while and must have not received the news yet." Suddenly, that person showed a hateful expression, "It's those Black Devils, those people from the small island in the West Sea. Don't know what's with those people from the Western Garrison, letting those Black Devils get past them. I've heard that they've even gotten through to Kirst's territory."
In the past, about a thousand kilometers away from the Empire's west coastline, there was a huge island. Many black skinned humans stayed there, calling themselves the descendents of the Sun God. They formed a country called Garcia.
Garcia had been plundering on the West Sea and had been even more arrogant in the past ten plus years. They had, from a few years back, started to land on the Empire's coastline to plunder, kill, and set the places on fire, sparing no living thing, not even a fowl or dog.
While the Empire was very strong, it was impossible to let the Knights split up and separately guard along the endless coastline.
Therefore for the past two years, they had started to fortify the defenses and clear the lands, evacuating the many villages located near the coastline.The Knights from the Western Garrison would focus on their attacks, wiping out the enemy's primary force.
It was said that a few months ago, the Western Garrison had eradicated one of Garcia's main force. This time around, Garcia amassed their troops and had over three hundreds Warriors, who were at least of the level of Knights, to charge through the west coastline. Caught unaware, the Western Garrison had let many of the small troops to break through them.
With so many strong Warriors who had been coming with extraordinary strength, ordinary villages and cities were not able to fend them off. Within a short period of time, countless citizens died horrible deaths under the blades of the foreigners.
That Knight continued to say, "There's news that someone had seen Black Devils outside Kirst, and someone from the Western Garrison had wrote to us to request for the academy to send assistance. We will probably need to join the Western Garrison for the combat drill this time around and fight against those Black Devils."
Saying that, hints of killing intent appeared on that person's face. "Hmph, this is for the best. I've long got tired of waiting. To think that those Black Devils, despite coming from such a tiny country, would dare to create disturbances on our borders, killing our people..."
Fang Xingjian did not continue to listen to him. He knew that the time he had left was even shorter now.
'Has the war started?' Fang Xingjian knew that with his current abilities, there were not many Knights who were his match. Only those core disciples from great aristocratic clans or factions could potentially be his match.
But what kind of place was the battlefield? With hundreds of Knights clashing against each other, there would definitely be the appearance of enemies who were at the level of Conferred Knights. He needed to a strengthen his prowess very quickly.
After he had consecutively challenged so so many Prefectural Champions and threatened Charlie, his Ice Age Meditation Art had improved tremendously and his sword intent was also just a little bit away before it leveled up.
'I must attain another breakthrough before the war starts.'
Fang Xingjian knew that as long as he maintained an attitude of doing as he wished, without inhibition, the cultivation for his Ice Age Meditation Art would get increasingly faster. This was especially so if he did not succumb to pressure, maintaining his initial will each time he faces pressure, threats, or difficulties. Each time he managed to maintain his initial will, it would mean that he had managed to made it through another door, allowing his mental cultivation method to progress even further.
Cultivating the Ice Age Meditation Art, Fang Xingjian's heart could not stand unfairness.
Therefore he planned to enter Kirst to plunder sword arts, taking whatever he wanted and answering to his heart's call without any inhibitions. He would not go about any detours. Moreover, he had no time for all those. It was another ten plus days before his first year was up. Fang Xingjian had only four years before he reached the end of his life.
Of course, there must be a limit towards all these. If not, it could not be considered true to his heart and and extinguishment of unfairness, but rather foolishness and recklessness. The fine differences between these two proved to be another crux to the cultivation of his mental cultivation method.
With that, not only would he be able to strengthen his mental cultivation method, he would also be able to accumulate sword arts. Only then would Fang Xingjian be able to achieve a breakthrough within a short period of time.
Just as Fang Xingjian was thinking about this, he had already stepped into Huang Lin's office. A few Knights who exuded a strong presence and had blood stains on their Knight attire was just leaving Huang Lin's office.