Chapter Seventy-One: The Power of the Qi Refiner

The county militia, hastily assembled, chose a place to pitch camp for the night: high ground, near a source of water, and with no obstacles around it.

The entire encampment was arranged with great order. The tents did not crowd one another; lanes were left between them so movement could pass quickly, yet nothing felt disorderly.

Clearly, beside Chen Bushi, the chief commander, there was someone highly skilled in the art of war.

At the very least, in terms of organizational strength, this army was formidable.

In such an ancient age, when a commander did not lead a professional army, the arranging, organizing, and deployment of troops for all manner of military tasks was terribly difficult.

Only seasoned officers, perhaps even men who had truly studied the methods of warfare, could manage it.

Only a top-tier noble house like the Chen clan of the Riverlands would have such talent at hand at all times.

On the other hand, if one looked at it from another angle, the march into Wugi Mountain today must have been planned long in advance; preparations had clearly already been made.

As one of Chen Bushi’s trusted men, Wang Zhenling now held more than a single place among those confidants in Danling County.

In any case, as a trusted subordinate and the patrol officer of Guangyang Township, commanding three hundred troops, he naturally had the right to take part in the county militia’s council of war.

Just now, while he had drifted off for a moment, he had heard Chen Bushi’s confident voice ring out from within the main tent.

He had said that although there were many demon bandits on Wugi Mountain, there were not many true masters among them.

Most had only cultivated to the Breath-Gathering stage. Only a small number had reached the Out-of-Body stage, which was also known as the human-immortal realm.

Since Chen Bushi had long since made plans for Wugi Mountain, he must already have thoroughly investigated the situation there. So his tone was calm and assured.

Within the main tent, a low murmur arose as people leaned together and whispered among themselves.

At last, another acting military captain rose from a kneeling posture and asked, with some embarrassment, “Commander... no, Colonel, may I ask how strong the Breath-Gathering stage is, and how strong the Out-of-Body stage is?”

It was clear he did not often deal with practitioners and had no intuitive grasp of how these realms differed.

Wang Zhenling suddenly felt a twinge of pain in his teeth. How was such a thing to be explained clearly?

Yet Chen Bushi seemed to have anticipated this long ago. He smiled slightly and said, “Let me put it this way. In the five realms of Breath-Gathering, if one is an ordinary person not born with extraordinary strength, then by the time one has gathered breath, one should have the strength of roughly two hundred pounds... and at Breath-Extension, perhaps three or four hundred pounds.”

“Then Breath-Descent would be five or six hundred?” the patrol officer guessed smugly.

“No. Once one reaches Breath-Descent, one can project inner energy outward and injure a person from a distance.”

Chen Bushi did not speak. One of the guards beside him said in a deep voice.

Without any wasted motion, the long sword at his waist sprang free. With a single slash through the air, he split the hanging curtain, which had been drifting lightly in midair, powerless and weightless, with a sharp tear.

Everyone in the tent erupted in astonishment. That was a slash from more than three yards away, cutting through empty air!

Wang Zhenling’s brows twitched as well. This inconspicuous guard, whom he had seen before but never truly dealt with, was undoubtedly a master cultivator.

“A cultivator at the Breath-Descent stage has already transformed inner energy into true energy. Striking from a distance at least ten yards away becomes possible, and the force increases more than tenfold!”

This time, the guard gave no further demonstration. But Wang Zhenling believed his abilities were certainly not limited to that.

“And at the Breath-Settle stage, true energy is released outward and becomes a gale force. At that point, one is no longer injuring by a single point, but like this...”

The guard struck again. With a sudden lift of his hand, true energy surged outward and seemed to solidify into a wall as it pushed forward.

Everyone in the tent immediately felt a pressure as heavy as a mountain. Hair and clothing whipped about, as though the air within the entire tent had truly become a wall pushing toward them.

After a long moment, the people in the tent finally recovered. All of them changed color slightly.

It seemed that the masters of the Breath-Gathering stages were stronger than they had imagined.

Still, this remained within everyone’s ability to comprehend. What came next, however, was enough to make faces change.

“When one reaches the Out-of-Body stage, practitioners call it the realm of the human immortal. One can already wield divine powers and supernatural force... for example, retrieving objects from afar.”

The guard struck once more. Without any visible irregularity, a water cup five or six yards away floated up and flew into his hand.

Wang Zhenling watched with fascination, eager to know how the great clans of this eastern world understood and classified the Out-of-Body stage.

Yet Chen Bushi did not explain further in detail, because the methods of the Out-of-Body stage had already approached the level of spirits and gods. It was not wise to spread such things too widely; it could easily shake those with weak resolve.

Breath-Gathering, Breath-Extension, and Breath-Descent were all relatively easy to deal with. At most, they were merely men of brute strength; three or five armored soldiers equipped with fine arms and armor would be enough to kill them.

But once one reached Breath-Settle or Breath-Solidify, the matter changed. At the very least, it would take ten or twenty soldiers to surround and kill such a person. So if they encountered masters at those stages, they would need to be cautious.

Of course, if bows and crossbows were used in coordination, then killing such cultivators would be much easier. Essentially, a squad of ten soldiers would be enough to kill one.

“But when you encounter a master of the Out-of-Body stage, then it is no longer so easy. Those people possess supernatural arts; they are elusive and unpredictable. Unless it is on a battlefield, it is difficult to surround them. Still, if one can trap them with ten or twenty soldiers, they can be killed.

“But away from the battlefield, if you cannot surround Out-of-Body practitioners, then you must restrain them with the order and mandate of official power.”

Wang Zhenling’s expression shifted slightly as he listened. So this world already possessed very mature methods for dealing with cultivators.

He himself was a cultivator, already at the Breath-Solidify stage, and one who could send forth his spirit early.

Naturally, he knew that what Chen Bushi said about dealing with cultivators was entirely correct.

If the method was right and the timing suitable, a dozen fully armed soldiers would be enough to encircle and kill Wang Zhenling himself.

If one then added the suppression of official seals and the force of lawful authority in the hands of magistrates and clerks, Wang Zhenling’s fate would only be worse.

“This time, our commandery is sending a total of fifty thousand troops. No matter how many cultivators there are in Wugi Mountain, it will only be a few hundred at most. By then, we will be able to encircle and kill them one by one, or drive them out entirely...”

The Lower Mi Commandery was actually sending only twenty thousand troops, but from Chen Bushi’s mouth it became fifty thousand, an exaggeration by more than double.

Still, such exaggeration was common in ancient warfare, because few people could ever determine exactly how many troops their own side truly had.

Only a rare sort, like Wang Zhenling, with a calm and calculating mind, could take the county and township mobilization and infer the strength of the entire commandery.

As expected, once the numbers were inflated in this way, morale at once rose sharply.