Chapter 194

After two major battles, many soldiers have already increased their strength.

However, this increase in strength is physical fitness, a basic attribute increase, not a level increase.

Without an advanced profession, these soldiers' levels cannot increase, which also gives Mu Yi a headache.

He knows the best way to get these soldiers to advance is to have them read Military Strategist classics, learn orthodox Military Strategist knowledge, then change profession to warrior.

Such direct profession change to warrior like him is rare; according to Military Strategist internal situation, most officers' profession composition is Level 10 soldier, Level 5 warrior, Level 5 commander/fierce commander/wise commander.

Later the difference becomes negligible, but earlier the difference is still quite obvious.

Just like Cao Ming as a Level 10 warrior, Level 1 fierce commander officer, his combat strength is not much weaker than Li Xian, a Level 10 soldier bearing three Elite Talents.

But the idea is good, Mu Yi simply doesn't have the manpower to set up a military academy; this could be asked for help from the Military Strategist sect, though...

He still owes the sect a huge debt; before it's paid off, there's no hope.

After killing a chicken to scare the monkeys, then giving a slap and a sweet date, this management style is rough, but under Mu Yi's formidable strength, the effect is surprisingly good.

Individual strength weakened, but collective strength became stronger.

However, Mu Yi actually understands that although the riddle-speakers are annoying, this circle successfully let his understanding of Elite Talent reach a higher level.

Although it's difficult, it can still succeed.

A thousand people can already besiege the secret realm leader; five thousand might be able to try their hand at cutting down a Legend.

At least it gives these captured bandits a goal; as humans, as long as they can see hope, they will absolutely not despair.

But a strong soldier individual is like a picture already fully painted; wanting to change it into the set pattern on this base requires several times the effort.

Looking at the few bandits in front of him who, due to the experiment, were forcibly given a clean slate and trained to have talent, Mu Yi pointed at them.

Mu Yi scratched his head somewhat vexedly; something that could be explained in one sentence, he insists on going around in circles.

And Mu Yi conducted an experiment on these bandits, arriving at a conclusion.

Afterwards, the caravan's journey became peaceful again; occasionally an oblivious bandit squad would run into them, and before the caravan guards could exert force, Cao Ming led a few people up and cut them down like slicing melons and vegetables.

Mu Yi also isn't worried; first set a small goal, organize a properly structured three-Elite-Talent elite regiment, then talk.

Other families' style is: the stronger the strength, the easier the understanding of techniques.

That is why the stronger the strength, the harder it is to form Elite Talent, and also hard to render.

In this process, Mu Yi also verified a previous doubt.

But upon reaching the Military Strategist, it reversed: the stronger the strength, the harder it is to give birth to Elite Talent.

Although military books mention this matter, they do not explain the principle; it seems they are waiting for later generations to actively explore.

Sometimes, after being changed, strength not only fails to increase but actually decreases.

The stronger the individual, the weaker their sense of belonging to the collective; weak soldiers are like a blank sheet, easily rendered, painted into a pre-set picture.

"I say, seniors, can't you also write this thing into common sense?"

"From today, you are promoted to centurions, assisting Cao Ming and Li Xian in management!"

Just as Mu Yi was day after day directing training, with his over two thousand little brothers under him, Biso'er came to the door.

"Lord Mu Yi, we are about to reach Neutral Fortress; I don't know where you plan to settle after finishing?" Biso'er looked at Mu Yi somewhat fearfully.

If he once had some petty thoughts, now he has none at all; Mu Yi's strength dispelled all his thoughts.

However, fear aside, greed still overcame his reason; he still wants to hire Mu Yi, with Mu Yi as escort, he could completely organize another large caravan, bring Neutral Fortress's goods back to the empire, the profit from this middleman is more than manifold.

"Maybe we'll go look for the other Nine Calamities? See their strength!"

Mu Yi glanced at Biso'er, saw the greed in that man's eyes; he has no interest in continuing as a bodyguard.

Having obtained some information from the bandits, he is quite interested in trying to complete that special achievement; he feels it will be very interesting after completion.

Moreover… Mu Yi's gaze swept over Biso'er and saw not far away Xin Ya; after reaching Neutral Fortress, this young lady's mission chain will begin, but overall it feels this young lady has recently become somewhat strange, as if she is plotting some conspiracy?

However, Mu Yi doesn't care; he doesn't care what the other party is plotting; once he gets the wilderness secret treasure, the rest has nothing to do with him.

"I will quickly sell the goods, then present your portion, sir!" Biso'er wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and hurriedly said.

"I only want the wilderness secret treasure; no matter its function, I want it all!" Mu Yi looked at Biso'er and emphasized.

"Understood, I completely understand!"

After about half a day's journey, the originally desolate wilderness gradually began to prosper, and a very prosperous large city appeared in their view.

"What are those?" Mu Yi narrowed his eyes, pointing at the distant exotic beings.

"Reply, sir, these are exotic tribes in the wilderness, also here to trade; it seems because in the deep wilderness, these exotic tribes also possess high wisdom!"

The knowledgeable bandit immediately answered Mu Yi's doubt.

"What does Neutral Fortress mean? It turns out to be this?" Mu Yi's eyes flashed with a strange light.

"Near Neutral Fortress, fighting is prohibited; violators will receive a double blockade economically and politically from Neutral Fortress, and will be issued a sky-high bounty; many oblivious exotic tribes and bandit groups have been destroyed this way."

Mu Yi stroked his chin; it seems the two great empires have always been the strongest forces on this continent; even while checking each other, they tacitly use various ways to nest shackles on the heads of pioneering lords, merchants, bandits, and exotic tribes.

On one hand preventing chaos, stopping ambitious forces from growing; on the other hand driving these forces to create benefits for them; truly a two-birds-one-stone plan.

Or perhaps I should add fuel to the fire?

Mu Yi thought it over, but still gave up that evil idea; provoking war is easy, wanting to end war is difficult.

I am merely a passerby; take what I should, do what I should, and still not bring pain to the world's people.

After escorting the caravan into Neutral Fortress, Mu Yi led a group rushing wildly into the wilderness.

Mu Yi did not enter Neutral Fortress; having so many people go in to settle would also require a considerable expense; the food and drink along the way were provided by the caravan, now that they have parted ways, he still needs to figure out how to feed so many people.

Compared to that, first going to copy the wealth hidden by the Wind Disaster and Earth Disaster is the proper business.

Others don't know where the lair is; how could he not know?

As an existence governing reincarnation, extracting a bit of information from the dead's memory is as easy as it gets.

The place where the Wind Disaster hid its treasure is in a quite hidden cavern; what appears before Mu Yi and them is a pile of glittering gold treasure, stacked together like a small mountain; at a glance it is still visually shocking.

Compared to the treasures Mu Yi saw earlier in the Giant Dragon Treasury secret realm, there are even more, especially those scattered gold coins and gems, which give a feeling of luxury.

"So much gold!"

"A plunderer who used to be under the former Wind Disaster looked at the mountain of gold before him and couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva."

"They could survive simply because they had joined not long ago, so relatively speaking they weren't that utterly wicked, and naturally they hadn't come into contact with the core business of the bandit gang."

"Usually being able to drink some soup and the officers eat some meat was already good; the bulk of what they plundered was basically the private property of the Wind Disaster himself."

"The other plunderers had similar expressions; they had never seen so much wealth piled together before."

"After all, they were truly wealthy and noble people; how could they possibly come here to become outlaws?"

"Mu Yi felt somewhat indifferent; there were no wilderness secret treasures in this pile of wealth, but that made sense—this stuff could be used as equipment outright, so how could it be hidden?"

"After counting the quantity, Mu Yi waved his hand and directly gave one-tenth of the wealth to all the soldiers present."

"To have people willingly follow and submit, one naturally needs some benefits to guarantee it, and generous rewards are the best benefit."

"After raiding the old lairs of the Wind Disaster and Earth Disaster, Mu Yi instantly became rolling in wealth; he directly brought a large fortune back to Neutral Fort, rented a place as a base, and then gave his soldiers leave in batches so they could go out and squander."

"After ordering Cao Ming and Li Xian to watch over these soldiers, Mu Yi planned to go purchase a batch of weapons and equipment."

"The previous ordinary equipment was no longer enough for Mu Yi; he needed Transcendent equipment, as good weapons and equipment could boost one's strength by leaps and bounds."

"Mu Yi didn't go look for Bisoer; for things that can be bought with money, don't use personal favors—the deeper the entanglement, the more trouble. If he planned to stay long-term in this world, he could develop connections, but since he only intended to be a passerby, Mu Yi didn't want to be tied to the Caravan Chamber of Commerce."

"With money opening the way, Mu Yi quickly met the imperial nobles garrisoned in this city in the guise of an honorary noble."

"He was also one of the largest arms dealers in this neutral territory."

"Selling weapons openly is legal, but Mu Yi's required quantity was too large, so only this kind of biggest arms dealer could deliver it all at once."

"After all, he could directly strip it from his own soldiers."

"You're the Soldier Disaster whose fame has recently soared?"

"Seeing nothing special about Mu Yi, the imperial noble was somewhat surprised; after all, it was a big deal, so some background check was necessary."

"As it turned out, it was Mu Yi."

"\"I'm a law-abiding citizen! \" Mu Yi answered indifferently; although he'd been labeled a Soldier Disaster, he had never engaged in plundering, and blacking out black (i. e., stealing from thieves) isn't illegal."

"Moreover... in this city, the Four Harms and Nine Calamities each have specialized shops for fencing stolen goods; it's truly neutral to the core."

"\"Hehehe! \" The imperial noble chuckled; who would a decent person buy so many weapons and equipment? Look at you—do you look like a law-abiding citizen?"

"But as a weapons seller, he had no standing to say that."

"The two quickly agreed on a price, and in one go they drained ninety percent of Mu Yi's wealth."

"Even so, it was the imperial noble who didn't swindle Mu Yi, even giving him a small discount; after all, the imperial noble could still report this batch of weapons and equipment as a loss to the empire and make another profit, so he was even more eager than Mu Yi."

"The imperial side knows this full well, but the significance of Neutral Fort is extraordinary, and the trade wealth it creates is astonishingly high, so they can only turn a blind eye."

"A single ordinary military Transcendent weapon, merely infused with the simplest armor-piercing enchantment, costs a full hundred gold coins; basically, the price of one weapon exceeds the total assets of an ordinary imperial commoner."

"As for armor, it's even more expensive; a standard chainmail costs over five hundred gold coins, with only the simplest reinforcing enchantment attached."

"A full set emptied ninety percent of Mu Yi's gains from this journey, also making him realize how important it is to have his own logistics base."

"If there were a corresponding production base, the cost of these items would be only a tenth—pure profiteering."

"The production techniques of the main world are very mature, and the speed of producing standard equipment is absolutely sufficient, but the relevant materials and enchantment techniques are completely zero; wanting to achieve self-production and self-sales is purely a dream."

"As for buying from the Zongwang platform, the cost-performance ratio is too low; the quality might be a bit better, but spending Zongwang Disaster Coins versus spending gold and silver treasure are completely different matters."

"Standard military equipment is uniformly silver-white, forming a stark contrast with another empire's pure gold color; to provide some cover and also to appear presentable, after asking Mu Yi's preference, all the weapons and equipment were dyed a layer of dark red."

"Seeing the soldiers before him completely re-equipped, Mu Yi was very satisfied; they were wrapped up tightly from head to toe, looking mighty and formidable, and combined with the power of Iron-blooded Slaughter, one could instantly sense a bloody terror."

"Mu Yi was very pleased with the effect of the new equipment; when he left the city, it even caused a stir, after all, few people like Mu Yi appear."

"The imperial nobles secretly leaked the news, and for a time almost the entire wilderness knew Mu Yi's identity."

"After learning Mu Yi's identity, everyone had a premonition."

"That the wilderness was about to undergo a drastic change!"

"The feared Wind Disaster and Earth Disaster have died, replaced by something stronger and more terrifying: the Soldier Disaster."

"\"So, you used the pretense of sending me wilderness secret treasures to make Bisoer and your fiancé think I abducted you? Is that your escape plan? \""

"Mu Yi narrowed his eyes at Xinya; she used him, putting an invisible black pot on his head, and in passing left everyone with an impression—a bond between her and himself."

"Everyone was a victim, only Xinya became the sole beneficiary."

"Moreover, she planted an unknown enemy for Mu Yi—namely, the family of Xinya's fiancé."

"Mu Yi narrowed his eyes, contemplating whether to kill Xinya here; this kind of woman has deep scheming, heavy thoughts, and is a classic calamity-bringing beauty."