PFC Chapter 7284: All Progress
Chapter 7284: All Progress
Chapter 7284: All Progress
If Han Xin used the cloud system as the foundation for everything, he established a combat framework that could be used and widely adopted by almost all armies in later generations.
For Sun Tzu, who came to power even earlier, cloud energy was not a foundation, but a kind of energy that could be used to enhance himself. Compared to the slight advantage of using cloud energy to suppress others, Sun Tzu valued the energy enhancement properties of cloud energy more.
For the vast majority of normal officers and soldiers, the essence of heaven and earth is the essence of heaven and earth, the cloud energy is the cloud energy, and the scattered and wandering self-will is the self-will. These things belong to a phenomenon of nature, an external force that can be guided and utilized.
However, Sun Tzu saw it simply: these things were also forms of energy that could be manipulated.
This is the biggest difference between the era of Sun Tzu and the era of Han Xin: Sun Tzu used these things as a kind of energy to drive them, while Han Xin used them as a form of protection for ordinary people.
Of course, this is related to the environment in which the two lived and the enemies they faced, but these two different perceptions led the two, who were at the level of the Four Saints, to take completely different paths.
Han Xin's insights cannot be replicated, but the ways he left behind to protect ordinary people can be imitated and passed on. However, ordinary people cannot follow the path of Sun Tzu. Just to clearly recognize that these things can originate from talent requires countless expositions and studies.
"Zichuan, do you know what exactly happened?" Guan Yu personally led his elite troops to the rear, repelling the demons who were rising from the ground, while asking Chen Xi's projection.
"Both Lord Wu'an and Marquis Huaiyin said that the Four Sages have their own characteristics, namely their own command ability and their understanding of military strategy to a certain level, which, combined with the soldiers, forms a kind of suppression ability against those who are not at this level. At their level, only Sun Tzu does not have this. I also asked that ancestor at the time, and he also admitted it." Chen Xi appeared in the light and shadow with a dark face.
"In retrospect, my ancestor wasn't lying; we just misunderstood what he meant by 'relying solely on command.'" Seeing Guan Yu's puzzled expression, Chen Xi didn't dare delay and directly stated his speculation.
"Sun Tzu most likely believed that the soldiers' self-will, blood and qi, and the essence of heaven and earth that emerged during battle should be something he could control, because he could command the soldiers, so he should also be able to command the things that extended from the soldiers' power." Zhou Yu also revealed this through Xuan Xiang. This is the advantage of Fa Zheng's Eight Desolate Pillars Three Rings Reconstruction: real-time communication!
“Yes, that’s the only explanation right now.” After hearing Zhou Yu’s explanation and combining it with his own analysis, Chen Xi felt that Zhou Yu’s analysis was more accurate than his own, and immediately agreed.
"So, Sun Tzu couldn't understand the talent structure, right?" Guan Yu said with a hint of realization, followed by a look of shock.
"That's pretty much the gist of it." Chen Xi thought for a moment and agreed with Guan Yu's assessment.
"Because of the different eras, in the late Spring and Autumn Period, the concept of elite talent had not been fully defined. The ancient talent framework was not as clear as it is now. There was basically no concept of 'what is what.' It was a whole, with a certain subject as the core, and then forming a tree-like structure, which is the way a seed sprouts." Zhou Yu also spoke up from the side, further explaining the issue.
“Just like the Feast of the Corpse, which we now call the Fivefold Refinement, but in essence, it’s not like that at all. Rather, it’s a giant tree that grew from the seed with the Feast of the Corpse as its core. That’s the talent. Back then, elite talents weren’t classified into such detailed categories.” Chen Xi realized this at this moment and quickly added a couple of sentences.
"In other words, Sun Tzu viewed the structure of talent from a higher perspective, or to put it more directly, Sun Tzu did not have any so-called talent in his eyes. What he had was only the soldiers' own will combined with their free blood and qi and the essence of heaven and earth to form a certain characteristic. And Sun Tzu's command went deep into the level of weaving this characteristic, right?" Guan Yu's voice was somewhat cold.
After all, there are some things that you can laugh about when you don't know them, but when you really realize them, you'll understand that there are huge problems involved!
"General Guan!" Just as Guan Yu was asking Chen Xi and Zhou Yu a question, Li Zhe's illusory clone, carrying Li Zhe's memories, landed in front of Guan Yu. Upon seeing Chen Xi and Zhou Yu, he was startled, but he didn't bother to bow, because Li Zhe had discovered the biggest bug in the Cloud Dream Demon God.
"General, besides their individual combat strength, when the Binshi Demon Gods are engaged in large-scale battles, the surrounding天地精气 (heaven and earth essence) will coordinate with their dissipated spiritual essence to form a counter-structure against all attacks." Li Zhe was afraid that Guan Yu would not understand, so he even used his own hand to simulate the effect of the two talents canceling each other out. To be honest, it was infinitely variable, and no one else could do this.
"The Binshi Demon God isn't super-adaptive; it directly analyzes our talents and then cancels them out in the completely opposite way. And analysis takes time, so this cancellation ability gradually strengthens with our attacks, which manifests as super-adaptive attack capabilities. But that's not actually the case," Li Zhe told Guan Yu, explaining his analysis.
"Alright," Guan Yu said in a deep voice. Then Li Zhe vanished on the spot, while he himself was still in the back, enduring the beating of the demon god with the group of nearly sixty-year-old cavalrymen.
"What do you think of Li Zhe's statement just now?" Guan Yu asked Chen Xi and Zhou Yu as he mobilized the battle lines and deployed heavy infantry, whose attacks were based on pure physical methods, such as heavy hammer blows and broadsword slashes, to verify Li Zhe's analysis.
“These corpse demons are mostly the 30,000 core members who followed Sun Tzu in destroying Chu. They are covered with Sun Tzu’s mark, just like Danyang. Even without command, they would have considerable organizational ability, but they just can’t unleash their full potential. This structure is probably just as I judged before. It is a reflection of Sun Tzu’s belief that the extension of soldiers should also be included in the command.” Chen Xi quickly gave his answer. “Completely different from the Marquis of Huaiyin’s view that the cloud energy is a force field of life and a suppression of the strong, Sun Tzu probably believed that this was entirely the power of his soldiers.”
"Although it's a bit perverse, I think so too. Sun Tzu also mentioned it during the Grand Martial Arts Competition. The demon god of the Corpse Offering Ritual is actually a human who has manifested all his power. It's just that the way he manifested it was too intense, which led to the mutation." Zhou Yu thought for a moment and agreed with Chen Xi's perverse judgment. After all, Zhou Yu had already seen the Four Saints level, and that was indeed the level that was not human!
"Alright, Commander, you take charge of Xuanxiang and maximize the Burning's properties. Zichuan, grant me access to Imperial Will and Supermodel Cloud Qi." Guan Yu roughly understood what he was dealing with, and the heavy infantry he had previously dispatched, some wielding maces and others large swords, had essentially confirmed Li Zhe's correctness. That is, the structure the Demon God had formed could only negate the effects of elite talents, not physical properties.
After understanding this, Guan Yu felt that the original tactics could still be carried out. After all, he came to annihilate the demon god. If he retreated in such a half-hearted manner, what would he have tested?
"Second Brother?" Seeing that Guan Yu had cut off Zhou Yu's communication channel, Chen Xi knew pretty much what Guan Yu wanted to do.
"Let me test it!" Guan Yu said in a deep voice.
"Without Sun Tzu, the master of war, all that remains of his teachings can stop me now, and that would be a disaster," Guan Yu added decisively when he saw Chen Xi was about to refuse.
“The path of Lord Wu’an’s will is no longer suitable for this era.” Chen Xi said after a moment of silence. “If it were twenty years ago, my second brother would probably be able to confront those people head-on by now. But the way changes with time, and even Lord Wu’an’s way is affected by the general environment of the times.”
“But that is also the way of Lord Wu’an.” Guan Yu replied calmly, cleaving the demon god in front of him in two with a single stroke, then sheathed his sword and looked calmly at Chen Xi.
“Alright, I also want to see if you, Second Brother, have truly found your own path.” Chen Xi sighed and said. The first step in building a system is to step out of the systems of predecessors, and the first problem to face when stepping out of the systems of predecessors is whether one can survive.
"Let's just wait and see." Guan Yu sheathed his sword, feeling the radiance of the Empire's will upon him. The clouds that had been centered on Jiangling surged toward him. Guan Yu no longer suppressed himself and released the talents of the tens of thousands of elite soldiers he had gathered over the years, relying on his legion's talents.
Standing atop Jiangling City, Chen Xi's perspective, which had originally relied on light and shadow for reconnaissance, shifted to a third-person perspective belonging to the imperial will as Guan Yu unleashed his massive elite talent.
It was precisely because it was the third-person perspective of the imperial will that Chen Xi was able to see the essence clearly. The so-called tens of thousands of elite talents released by Guan Yu did not exist. What existed was only Guan Yu's extremely strong self-will. This overly strong self was directly imprinted on the supermodel cloud, and then forcibly integrated. Subsequently, based on the legion's talents, it manifested on all the soldiers.
"This doesn't feel like the will of Lord Wu'an." This thought naturally came to Chen Xi's mind, and even though he didn't ask, Guan Yu gave his answer.
"The increased activity of the essence of heaven and earth makes the spread of will more difficult, but conversely, it also allows soldiers to exert power far exceeding what they used to have when they can leverage the essence of heaven and earth. What if we amplify it further? What if I could harvest their elite talents and then re-add them to them when they fight?" Guan Yu said with a hint of arrogance, "I would lend them this will that is unique to me, allowing them to leverage the essence of heaven and earth and achieve great things through their own minds with mortal bodies."
Turning the "impossible" into the "possible" sometimes requires this kind of assistance. Even if this assistance is not their original strength, but rather Guan Yu manifesting his legion talent, making them mistakenly believe that they can participate in the manifestation process of elite talent.
"Before, I always felt that this approach was a bit wrong. It was like I relied on the Legion Talent to regain my command of the large legion, and then added my original command ability, but now..." Guan Yu coldly looked at the things left behind by Sun Tzu. Damn it, since the Sage of War believes that commanding the essence of heaven and earth and the extension of the soldiers' own selves is also a command ability, then what else can I say!
If one type of large-scale army command isn't enough, and two types aren't enough, then what about three types?
A cloud-like structure that suppresses the opponent's power, a will structure that allows you to observe the weaknesses in the opponent's battle lines and judge the opponent's strengths and weaknesses in advance, plus this command structure that leverages the upper limit of its own power, a large-scale army command, huh? I want to see just how high the numerical limit of this thing can be!
After integrating their own talents into their talent framework, the basic qualities of all the soldiers participating in the battle were raised to a whole new level. Moreover, after Guan Yu completed the collective will connection, all the soldiers' attacks were imbued with the will-distorting reality characteristic.
Although all talents are essentially equivalent to the will to distort reality, Guan Yu's will-distorting talent has only one characteristic: sacrificing his own talent to disrupt the opponent's elite talent's control over the essence of heaven and earth. In other words, your will-distorting reality cannot manifest in reality, which is equivalent to you not having the ability to distort reality.
As for why Guan Yu was able to develop such an incredible technique, it was all thanks to Yu Jin. Yu Jin's talent for chaotic battles, to put it bluntly, is to break the battle lines, dismantle the enemy's organizational power, and then forcibly reorganize one's own forces. Whether Yu Jin had figured it out or not is unknown, but Guan Yu studied it all the time.
After all, this thing is really useful, especially when you're not looking for victory but just want to break the deadlock in a chaotic battle or use your own strength to hurt the opponent. This strategy is virtually invincible.
Guan Yu had already developed strong command abilities by following Han Xin's cloud-based strategic framework. Later, he learned Wu Anjun's willpower system, which allowed him to see the weaknesses in the enemy's battle lines. Combined with his understanding of military tactics, Guan Yu possessed extremely strong killing power.
However, the above framework is mainly used to trap people. When you encounter a real tough opponent who wants to stall for time and not reveal any weaknesses, there is really no good way to deal with them. Therefore, Guan Yu specifically studied Yu Jin's Legion talent.
Although most of the previous generation of famous generals did not think much of the concept of Legion Talent, believing that Legion Talent could be simulated on the spot using Xuanxiang if needed, and could even be upgraded online, these statements severely damaged the confidence of this generation of officers.
In particular, Huangfu Song's legion talent was so good that it was almost like he was hand-crafting a custom version for everyone, which made many officers lose confidence in legion talents. However, Guan Yu believed that since legion talents were the officers' and soldiers' understanding of their commander, combined with the commander's own will manifested in the essence of heaven and earth, then they must be something that conformed to the soldiers' concepts and self-awareness.
In other words, what makes the Legion's talent strong is not the blessing, but this self-belief that can be recognized and accepted by others.
Going deeper, if there exists a way to lead a group with conviction, then the conviction trait in the general's legion talent is probably one of the most suitable convictions.
It was during the Battle of the Ganges that Guan Yu realized this, which led him to the idea of continuing to explore the path of commanding large armies—I can forge a path that belongs to me.
"As expected, the foundation of the Legion's talent can gain the recognition of the vast majority." Guan Yu looked at the soldiers who naturally accepted this gift and believed it to be the Legion's talent, and the corners of his mouth turned up slightly. This was not actually a talent, but rather their own perception of power being influenced by Guan Yu.
Ultimately, in terms of realm, internal energy leaving the body is internal energy leaving the body, and breaking through the boundary is breaking through the boundary. Similarly, refining qi into qi is still refining qi into qi. Even veterans above the sixth level are not inferior to most internal energy leaving the body martial artists in terms of combat power, but there is still a certain gap in terms of life level.
With the banners waving, Zou Ta and his heavy infantry, composed entirely of physical abilities, charged to the front lines against the demon god. Compared to the potential for talent to be negated, pure strength and flying bricks were always very effective.
Guan Yu's quick maneuvers swiftly shifted the Han army's offensive momentum, and the Han army's elite troops who had been replaced, upon seeing their comrade at the forefront, quickly realized the mistakes they had made.
No matter what, they are all veterans who have survived countless battles. Even if they are not very bright, they have their own standards of judgment since they have survived to this day. At the very least, their comrades-in-arms will tell them the answer.
Three wedge-shaped formations of five hundred heavy infantrymen, relying on the suppressive power brought by Guan Yu's "Legion Talent" and their own strength and resilience, forcibly broke through the outer battle line of the Demon God, preparing to once again encircle and hunt down the Demon God's main command. Zhou Yu, who was in charge, activated the Burning Absorption Profound Energy at its maximum, disregarding the losses, and the Demon God's self-recovery ability was suppressed to some extent.
With this addition and subtraction, although the basic quality of the Han army still had a significant gap compared to that of the Demon God, it finally reached a level where it could be divided and suppressed by organizational strength.
However, just as Guan Yu was organizing his men to launch a decisive attack on the demonic front, casualties quickly appeared on the edge of the Han Dynasty's protective wedge formation. The demonic front, which had been severely decimated by the Han Dynasty, finally began to organize a decent counterattack.
"Bang!" The demon wielding the mace slammed its tentacles against the shield of the shield guard. The well-trained shield guard lowered its body and seized the moment when the demon's weapon bounced back, using its strength to instantly explode and slam into the demon. However, at the moment of impact with the demon in front of him, his somewhat wide and sweeping movements gave another demon an opportunity, and a white streak swept towards his neck.
Without any sense of self, the demon began to cooperate.
I feel like I'm regressing, and regressing drastically, sigh.