Chapter 129

"Read books! Spar with masters! Go to the battlefield and lead troops!" Mu Yi chewed on the three points proposed by Sun Wuzi.

He recalled everything he had gone through to get to today, and indeed it was exactly the three paths Sun Wuzi spoke of, but……

"Sir, I have a question!" Mu Yi stood up.

"You want to ask whether the things passed down to you by others count as something, right?" Sun Wuzi was not surprised, but nodded with an expression of understanding.

"Don't get hung up on form; what you call Zongwang point allocation is actually a kind of reading—absorbing others' things and beginning to transform them into your own. The form differs, but the essence is the same."

When Zongwang was mentioned, Sun Wuzi seemed quite interested; after a pause, he continued speaking.

"The Heavenly Dao Net I speak of is exactly the Zongwang you mentioned; for Jiuzhou it is something quite novel, but no matter how the form changes, its essence will not change!"

"You all must understand one point: different paths lead to the same destination; all roads ultimately lead to the same end."

Sun Wuzi, upon saying this, involuntarily raised his head and gazed up at the firmament.

After a moment, Sun Wuzi lowered his head and then waved his hand.

Before each person fell a book—The Art of War by Sunzi.

"These are copies of The Art of War made by special means recently; take them back, study them well, lay a foundation—this is quite important for you."

The Art of War

Item Level: 1

Quality: Blue

Type: Book

Description: This is a book recording a military training master's martial experience via a special skill; after reading, the character can quickly learn the knowledge contained within.

After the character finishes reading, the spirituality inherent in the book will completely disappear; the book can still be read, but no special effect can be obtained anymore.

Mu Yi looked somewhat strangely at the blue-quality book in his hand; he suddenly didn't understand what the book's quality was calculated according to.

He used to think it was the book's content, but now it seems not to be that.

Is it the spirituality within the book? Because of the copying?

Surely The Art of War isn't inferior to a military training record, right?

Where exactly does this difference lie?

Although he was doubtful in his heart, Mu Yi, like everyone else, firmly held the book in his hand and rose to express thanks.

"Thank you, sir, for the book!" Everyone voiced their thanks in unison.

For them, the consolation prize of participating in this conference has already been obtained.

"Open the book, I will give you a lecture!"

Sun Wuzi nodded, then began to earnestly lecture on the book's content.

A true transmission is a single sentence; a false transmission is ten thousand volumes.

Taught personally by the author himself, everyone evidently gained a deeper understanding of the content written in the book.

After Sun Wu finished lecturing all the content, his figure vanished on the spot.

Mu Yi felt he had gained a lot, and at the same time a few pieces of information drifted across his retina.

"Zongwang Prompt: Through the lecture of the Military Sage Sun Wu, your understanding of The Art of War deepens, and the gains you obtain from reading The Art of War are doubled."

"Zongwang Prompt: By reading the book, your understanding of military formations deepens further, and Military Strategist - Formation Experience increases."

"Your Military Strategist - Formation has been raised to the maximum level! Experience has been converted! You gain 10,000 points of Universal Experience."

"By reading the book, you acquire the skill Military Strategist - Command and Dispatch, current skill level LV2."

Military Strategist - Command and Dispatch

Type: Occupational Skill

Current Level: 2 (maximum currently upgradable to 5)

Description:

After a standard action, the character can perform command and dispatch, granting an additional bonus effect to formation deployment.

LV2 Effect: Formation dispatch speed increased by 10%

With a "ding" sound, the bell rang across heaven and earth; everyone curiously looked around, and Sun Wuzi's figure appeared once again before them.

"This lecture counts as ended!"

Sun Wuzi gazed at the Military Strategist disciples before him, curious about what brilliance these disciples could display at the conference this time.

"Next, I will convey to you the first task of this conference; after spatial transmission, you will arrive at the Jixia Academy."

"This conference, like the last, will adjust all your attributes to a uniform mortal limit; it all depends on how you unleash your own abilities!"

"Unlike last time, this time we no longer use elimination but a point system!"

Defeating disciples of other sects adds one point.

Winning as a team against disciples of other sects adds points according to the number of participants.

The first to reach the Jixia Academy gains ten points.

Slaying evil fugitives fleeing in the maze adds five points; for multi-person teams, the points are split equally!

Treasure chests in the maze conceal points, equipment, and items; each time a chest is opened, you are transported to a farther room.

Disciples who suffer defeat will restart from the origin!

"So it encourages both cooperation and competition?" Mu Yi instantly grasped the implication of the rules, nearly encompassing all factors.

"Ding!" Another resounding bell rang; Sun Wuzi waved his hand, sending all the head-down, contemplative Military Strategist students to the true venue.

【Transmitting… Transmission successful, you have entered the Hundred Schools Conference venue—Endless Labyrinth】

The next instant, as the scene before his eyes changed, Mu Yi himself appeared in a place similar to a secret chamber.

"Zongwang Prompt: All current attributes have been fixed and locked at the mortal limit—20 points!"

Mu Yi clearly felt his will being sealed by an unknown force while his bodily attributes surged wildly.

"Does that count as putting everyone on the same starting line?" Mu Yi's expression was rather solemn; such balance was, for him, naturally more advantageous.

But the more care one receives, the more it indicates the opponent's difficulty; unless the rival is excessively overpowered, they probably wouldn't devise such a balancing method.

The secret room contained nothing but a door, clearly the passage through it signaled the start of the Trial.

Mu Yi adjusted to his new body, then opened the door without hesitation and stepped out.

Buzz!

The sensation of spatial teleportation.

Immediately after, his eyes fell upon a glittering crystal palace, and at its center stood a table carved from massive red coral.

Opposite the table sat a stiff‑mouthed old man, as expressionless as a statue.

Behind him, a brilliantly golden treasure chest was placed.

"Trial participant, welcome to my gamble! Beat me and you may open that chest; lose to me and you return to the starting point."

"If you don't wish to gamble, you may simply leave through that way!"

A treacherous voice sounded from the old man's mouth, and the previously expressionless old man seemed to come alive all of a sudden.

Looking at the creature lurking by the opposite door, Mu Yi understood—it was a choice question.

Either storm through and defeat the gatekeeper creature, or gamble with the old man to win the chest and be teleported farther away—a binary test.

"How do we gamble?" Since the starting point was only a step away, Mu Yi decided to test the waters and see what the trial entailed.

"Roll the dice!" The old man's eyes gleamed with boundless frenzy, like a mad gambler.

Two dazzling, gem‑inlaid dice towers suddenly materialized on the table, alongside a few exquisitely carved ivory‑like dice placed nearby.

"High‑low?" Mu Yi asked casually while seated at the gambling table.

"High!" the old man replied confidently.

With a light chuckle, he waved his hand and slipped the three dice into the dice tower.

Ding ding dang dang!

After a brief shake, the old man snapped the tower shut, and three sixes instantly appeared before him.

"Just so you know, a tie still counts as my win!"

A smug expression spread across the old man's face; clearly, winning the gamble held some other significance for him.

"Are you trapped here?" Mu Yi, not rushing to roll the dice, asked curiously.

"None of your business! Hurry and roll your dice!" The old man's expression remained unchanged, but his tone was extremely impatient.

"Hmm… still can't, huh?" After trying in vain to crush the dice, Mu Yi nodded knowingly.

"There's an old saying in my hometown: gambling and drugs are never to be paired, so I won't gamble with you!"

Mu Yi smiled warmly at the old man; the old man's expression stayed unchanged, yet Mu Yi could see anger in his eyes.

"You're angry?" Mu Yi said, then abruptly drew his sword and slashed at the old man.

The blade struck the old man's head as if it were cutting marble.

"This is you courting death!"

The old man's expression finally changed, turning resentful and feral; his body began to warp and merge with the gambling table.

"So I figured it, you're not a good sort!" Mu Yi chuckled, and Hundred Schools had not a single one that would encourage gambling.

Besides, you damn rolled three sixes, leaving no margin; he's not a fool, he's rushing to his death.

A simple probe, and its true form was exposed.

However, when the old man transformed, Mu Yi's eye twitched slightly, doubting whether he had guessed wrong.

At this moment, the old man had become a monster with a goat's body, eyes under its armpits, tiger teeth, human claws, a huge head and a massive mouth.

If Mu Yi recalled correctly, such a creature is called a Taotie, a monster symbolizing endless greed.

【LV9, Elite, Greedy】

But once Mu Yi sensed the monster's aura, he instantly calmed; it was merely an elite monster, a piece of cake for him.

"Roar!" The Taotie‑shaped monster gaped its huge mouth, and the room's air rushed toward it.

Mu Yi's body involuntarily surged toward the Taotie's direction.

"Thunder!"

The surging thunder converged on the monster's maw, yet caused not the slightest ripple, as if it had no effect at all.

Mu Yi frowned, then simply gave up resistance, using the wind to charge straight at the monster.

"Take my sacrificial blade!"

Ten Thousand Armies Take Head!

The formation blade in Mu Yi's hand burst into dazzling blade light, its Blade Intent that cuts through everything emanating through his body.

The monster's gaping blood‑filled maw was sliced in half instantly; the overwhelming strike killed it with a single blow from Mu Yi.

"Yo he, have you already grasped the Blade Intent? The Blade Intent that cuts through all?"

Above the Endless Labyrinth, a group of figures sat on seats, watching Mu Yi's performance.

"You Military Strategists have found another treasure!" someone said enviously. Genius is merely a ticket to this gathering, and among geniuses there are even greater geniuses.

Having received Guan Sheng Dijun's unreserved inheritance guidance and grasped the Blade Intent, Mu Yi clearly entered everyone's sight.

"It looks a bit like Guan Sheng Dijun's style?" someone recognized the source of Mu Yi's sword technique.

"I recall this kid wasn't from an outside, unrefined path; how did he get linked to Guan Sheng Dijun?"

A crowd chattered, not yet reaching any conclusion.

"Huo, the realm of pacifying the world? Where did this Confucian youngster emerge from?"

Then everyone's attention shifted to another location where a Confucian scholar, reciting poetry, suppressed the monster before him.

Mu Yi was, after all, just a weak apprentice; the crowd defined him as a future genius, while this Confucian scholar was only half a step below them in cultivation.

"I recall that he seems to be a descendant of the Kong family, who at twenty‑five had already reached the realm of pacifying the world; becoming a great Confucian scholar is only a matter of time, right?"

"A descendant of the Sage Confucius, no wonder!"

Upon hearing this, the crowd sighed; they all knew that this so‑called descendant of the Sage Confucius had emerged from the vast world dominated by the Confucian sect.

In recent years, as the Confucian sect expanded, countless talents continued to emerge from that world, and the most striking among them were the various so‑called descendants of the Sage Confucius.

In a sense, these descendants of the Sage Confucius should be called divine offspring in the grand network.

Although Jiuzhou does not prioritize bloodlines, a reliable lineage cannot be ignored.

It's like the most famous war god of the Heavenly Court now, the True Lord of the Sublime Dao, Qingyuan; even if no one mentions him, no one can overlook the bloodline spirit he bears.

And another rapidly attaining Buddha, the Warrior Victory Buddha, also possesses an extraordinary bloodline.

They don't lack the desire for such a great world; they simply lack the strength—relying on a single family to succeed is far too difficult, and they can't even muster enough hands to keep the heavens and earth turning.

Cooperating with other families to occupy a few minor worlds is already their limit.

The Confucian sect's success back then was also due to a stroke of sheer luck.

After all, no one expected that the Sage Confucius would simply reincarnate into that world, sweep the lands with three thousand disciples, and before the Hundred Schools could react, turn the entire world into Confucian territory.

Thinking that he was a student of Confucius in that world, Sun Wuzi would have liked to storm the gate with his troops.

But unfortunately, back then everyone was about the same, whereas now the gap is widening little by little.

In any case, the Daoist sect leans on the Heavenly Court and the Underworld, the Buddhist sect leans on the Sacred Mountain, and the Confucian sect can stand alongside these two only because of that supreme sage alone.

If he were to storm the gate now, he wouldn't even need the Sage Confucius to act; he'd likely be beaten to a pulp by the three thousand disciples banding together, unless he could summon other war gods.

However, the Military Strategists have a major problem at the front line: they lack a unified leader.

A group of war gods, each refusing to submit to the other, may acknowledge each other, but expecting them to obey is pure fantasy.

Even the elder Tai Gong Wang can only lead in broad directions based on his seniority; when they founded the Military Strategist faction under the pull of the Heavenly Court, Tai Gong Wang was challenged only second to him.