Chapter 317: Wei Qing's Teaching

After the war council ended, everyone left one after another.

Yang Tiancheng and Lin Yiben still wanted to say something to Mu Yi, but seeing Mu Yi sitting obediently in his seat, they instantly understood that Wei Qing had other plans for Mu Yi, forced a bitter smile, greeted, turned, and left.

Soon, only Mu Yi and Wei Qing remained in the main chamber.

"Do you understand?" Wei Qing asked out of nowhere.

"I don't get it! I only feel a main thread running through all the arrangements!" Mu Yi knew what Wei Qing meant and answered honestly.

"Not bad. Guess what this main thread is."

Wei Qing extended his hand to the sand table, activating the divine art of paper warfare; the various setups on the sand table began to move.

Mu Yi stared at the progression on the sand table, was stunned, then suddenly enlightened.

"It's 'Drive the Tiger, Swallow the Wolf'!"

"Not precise enough; to be exact, it's the Vertical and Horizontal Alliances!" Wei Qing smiled and pointed at the positions of humans, elves, and other races.

"All of the mortal world is merely the foundation; we muddle the waters, draw other deities onto the field, then replace the beastfolk divine system, and the gods will welcome us as their new friends!"

Wei Qing wore a smile that Mu Yi could not read.

"But we…" Mu Yi began, then stopped.

Others didn't know, and he couldn't know either; their ultimate plan was to deal with all the gods of every divine system.

"One can only dismantle a bridge after crossing the river, right?"

Wei Qing's words made Mu Yi suddenly see clearly; warfare is a deceitful path, and the blend of void and reality is also a crucial road within the Military Strategist teachings.

"Time is still abundant; Lord Wu'an only gave you the foundation at first, so I suppose you still have many questions!"

Wei Qing waved his hand to dismiss the sand table, fixed his gaze on Mu Yi; although there was no obvious divine aura, Mu Yi still felt as if he had been seen through.

"The student does have some doubts. May I ask Grand General Wei, what exactly is this Elite Talent? From my observation, whether it's celestial soldiers, ghost soldiers, or the troops in your camp, they all merely possess two kinds of Elite Talent!"

Mu Yi pondered and raised his doubts.

"Why does everyone tacitly accept this level? Logically, you should be able to grant soldiers multiple talents!"

This had been Mu Yi's long‑standing doubt, especially after he could easily train soldiers with multiple talents, he was greatly puzzled.

"Heh heh heh, so that's it!" Wei Qing nodded in understanding.

"In your view, what is Elite Talent?"

Hearing Wei Qing's question, Mu Yi thought for a moment and gave his answer.

"The key to mastering Transcendent Power!"

"Not bad!" Wei Qing nodded.

"Then do you think you have mastered the Transcendent Power that corresponds to Elite Talent?"

Faced with Wei's query, Mu Yi was confused, extended his hand as Iron-blooded Slaughter power spread over his body, wanted to speak, recalled Bai Qi's demonstration, and fell silent again.

"Heh heh heh, you yourself are a special individual; several talents are stacked upon you, yet none have been used to their subtle advantage!" Wei Qing smiled and extended his hand.

"I see these forces in you…"

Wei Qing's body showed power continuously circulating; one after another of the Elite Talents familiar to Mu Yi manifested on him.

Mu Yi stared blankly at Wei, feeling the ethereal nature of these Elite Talents, yet they exerted at least 120% power, completely defying logic.

As Wei's Elite Talents kept rotating, Mu Yi's familiar, unfamiliar, even hundreds of talents finally converged into one talent Mu Yi knows well—Tenfold All‑round.

"What do you feel?" Wei Qing withdrew his hand and asked.

"You used only Tenfold All‑round from beginning to end?" Though phrased as a question, Mu Yi's tone was resolute.

"Exactly, what difference do you think there is between my Tenfold All‑round and yours?" Wei Qing asked with a faint smile.

"Deeper… but my Tenfold All‑round should already have reached its limit!"

Mu Yi frowned, looked at the Tenfold All‑round on his Zongwang Panel; its level indeed reached the maximum.

"A single leaf blinds the eye!"

"But it's not your fault; the Military Strategist path itself requires oral transmission, the classics are ultimately for laying foundations. To advance further, one must either receive a lineage transmission or comprehend it oneself!"

Wei Qing sighed; this is also a major drawback of the Military Strategist school, because there is no true integration.

As a result, they cannot consolidate the transmissions into a comprehensive foundation, leading to the lack of a clear main line like in Confucianism, Daoism, or Buddhism.

Except for the most basic elements which can be unified, the rest are essentially opposing, yet all can become a path to a war god; you cannot claim others' paths are wrong, even if they appear heretical to you.

If they argue, it ends up in fists, since the Military Strategist school values fists over theory, making talks impossible.

"Sun Wu demands that we all teach him… could it be…"

Wei Qing nodded thoughtfully.

If so, Jiang Shang and Sun Wu are indeed devising an extraordinary plan.

But aren't they afraid Mu Yi will be drowned by these theories and become a schizophrenic madman?

Yet thinking of Mu Yi's uniqueness, Wei became interested.

"What do you think is the difference between basic talent and Elite Talent?"

Having guessed some plans, Wei decided to go with the flow; his previously casual attitude now turned serious, intending to instill his entire philosophy into Mu Yi.

He wants to see, having seized the initiative, what remains of his theory on Mu Yi.

"One active, one passive?"

"Right, and also not right; just like Tenfold All‑round, can you say it is active or passive?" Wei Qing organized his thoughts and began to speak eloquently.

"What is called Elite Talent is actually the outward manifestation of the union of essence, breath, and spirit, while what is called basic talent directly enhances the essence itself!"

"Now I ask you, has your Elite Talent reached its limit because the Elite Talent itself hit its limit, or because your essence‑breath‑spirit outward manifestation reached its limit?"

"It is my own essence‑breath‑spirit that has reached its limit…"

The reasoning is simple: greedily chewing more does not help.

He indeed has mastered many Elite Talents, but up to now, one could even say he hasn't fully mastered a single Elite Talent.

Because his body contains too many and too mixed Elite Talents, these talents are manifestations of Jing‑Qi‑Shen, and multiple talents appear simultaneously, so they naturally cannot reach their limit.

"So the combination of talents is actually the most suitable path?" Mu Yi realized.

"No, that's not it; you can't generalize people!" Wei Qing shook his head.

"There is no single most suitable path; it must be explored individually. Everyone's height, weight, temperament, and talents differ, so the road they must walk is naturally different!"

"But shouldn't a great army tend toward unity?" Mu Yi was confused.

"Does your great army line up on a single plank bridge?" Wei Qing said irritably.

"The army tends toward unity, but it is not equal to one. Each person's road is different, yet the main trunk of the road can be the same!"

"The ideal state for soldiers is three talents, corresponding respectively to Jing, Qi, and Shen; finally unifying the three organically, achieving a fusion of Jing‑Qi‑Shen, which multiplies strength several times!"

Mu Yi suddenly understood, finally grasping everything; his approach to improving soldiers had been completely opposite.

Elite Talent is the mastery of Transcendent Power, i. e., the key to Jing‑Qi‑Shen, a manifestation of strength, not the true strength itself.

Even if you master many Elite Talents, if your Jing‑Qi‑Shen is weak, others can still crush you with a single punch.

Elite Talent is merely an amplifier; the truly important thing is Jing‑Qi‑Shen.

At this moment Mu Yi recalled how Guan Linglong's riding of the Animal Realm increased Cloud Energy; because of shared qualities, the most fundamental Jing‑Qi‑Shen was enhanced, which in turn raised Cloud Energy.

"Now that you think, after Elite Talent reaches its limit, what should be done?" Wei Qing smiled lightly at Mu Yi, knowing Mu Yi had already understood.

"Transform the Elite Talent into the very structure of Jing‑Qi‑Shen, rebuilding the Elite Talent!"

"Exactly, the name differs per person; I call it Refinement!"

Wei Qing showed a pleased expression, as if the youngster were teachable.

"The enhancement of Elite Talent has an upper bound, whereas the enhancement of Jing‑Qi‑Shen has no upper bound!"

"After refining the talent, your Jing‑Qi‑Shen expands; the Elite Talent you rebuild will naturally be stronger, and the mutual resonance will produce an even greater effect!"

"Each reconstruction I call a Refinement Level One; each increase is obvious, roughly five to six percent. Adaptability varies per person, so the effects differ!"

Mu Yi felt a bit dazed; he sensed he had grasped something.

"Which is stronger: a single talent continuously refined to its limit, or constantly refining new talents?"

"The former grows stronger the farther it goes; the latter becomes stronger the more it is refined! Yet the latter path becomes harder, and the more you refine, the harder it gets! The former's specialization limits the environments it can adapt to, while the latter's breadth allows many environments, but no single aspect stands out."

Wei Qing did not state which was stronger, but pointed out the drawbacks of both sides.

"So you developed the Ten‑Item All‑round to reach the extreme on a specialized path while still handling multiple environments?"

"Originally I intended that once the Ten‑Item All‑round was refined to a certain degree, it could mimic other talents' refinements, but it failed."

Wei Qing sighed; his original plan was that a triple‑refined Ten‑Item All‑round would directly copy the double‑refined other Elite Talents, resulting in 322…

In this way, the power increase was almost light‑speed ascension.

But it failed; the triple‑refined Ten‑Item All‑round could indeed mimic other refined talents, yet it could not directly refine onto the Ten‑Item All‑round itself.

In the end it was still 31; although the '1' can constantly change and does promote refinement, it still fell short of Wei Qing's initial vision.

"Your soldiers, though seemingly abundant in Elite Talents, have not manifested any talent's true limit!"

"What is the maximum number of refinements possible?" Mu Yi asked after a pause.

"The soldier under my command with the most refinements currently has a five‑fold Ten‑Item All‑round and a four‑fold Will Transcendence! Their strength may not be weaker than yours!" Wei Qing sized up Mu Yi and said with a smile.

"Compared to you, you also noticed that under Cloud Energy, Elite Talent performs stronger than other abilities; under Cloud Energy, a nine‑fold Refinement can cut you!"

Mu Yi finally understood the essence of Elite Talent; he said that based on his combat experience, it is hard to imagine how to slay a deity.

It turned out that, as a half‑baked trainer, he had never found the correct method.

"Just by training you can reach the Legend level… the war‑god is truly terrifying!" Mu Yi felt his teeth ache.

"Any other questions?" Wei Qing looked at Mu Yi, giving him time to digest.

"Are will‑type talents harder to train and refine than other talents?"

"Yes, and no!" Wei Qing gave an ambiguous answer.

"In most cases we choose Jing‑type Elite Talents for initial refinement, because they are easiest to cultivate and can quickly form combat power and scale!"

"But in reality, will‑type talents are the easiest to train; they only need will‑infusion, so only when qualities reach their limit do we choose to fill will‑type talents!"

"However, against enemies with quality‑type talents, will‑type talents are very useful, and we train them specifically!"

"So… will‑type talents are actually for internal conflict?" Mu Yi covered his face weakly.

Wei Qing's face was also a bit awkward; this is the most annoying part for Military Strategists.

The stage of Military Strategists is the battlefield, and who are the people active on the battlefield?

Apart from another group of Military Strategists, who else could there be?

Thus, in the research of Military Strategists, most of it is not about dealing with others, but about dealing with another group of Military Strategists.

Some even say Military Strategists are built from the endless corpses of Military Strategists.

"By the way, I must remind you, cultivating soldiers from zero differs from gathering powerful soldiers together for training!" Wei Qing coughed and changed the subject.

"The most important thing for the army is the unity of will; it's easy to infuse ordinary soldiers' will, but hard to infuse the will of the strong!"

"That's not to say it isn't a method; the difference is that starting from zero is easy‑first, hard‑later, while gathering strong soldiers is hard‑first, easy‑later; both eventually reach the same level."

"But the success rate of the former is more than ten times that of the latter!"