Mythic version of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 6984 Optimizing Promotion Strategies

Chapter 6984 Optimizing Promotion Strategies

Chen Xi had a general idea of ​​what direction the future would take, but having experienced the end of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the coalition of eighteen warlords against Dong Zhuo, and the widespread displacement and hunger across the land, he was at least quite satisfied with the current situation.

Therefore, even if there are some setbacks in the future, as Liu Tong said, it can still be considered a golden age at the very least. And to be honest, Chen Xi's goal is really to extend this golden age for a longer period of time.

As for breaking free from the dynastic cycle, Chen Xi wasn't actually that ambitious. He had considered it before, but later found that there were too many prerequisites, and the people's education was insufficient. In addition, some issues could not be resolved simply through education.

The more books Chen Xi reads, the more he realizes that history is a cycle.

If you think back carefully, almost every unified dynasty, after operating for seventy or eighty years, was experiencing internal turmoil while simultaneously fighting against external forces.

The Western Han Dynasty was ruled by Emperor Wu, during the reign of Emperor Fenglangjuxu, followed by the reigns of Emperors Zhao and Xuan, after which the dynasty began to decline.

The Eastern Han Dynasty was founded by Emperor He, whose reign was marked by the Yanran Inscription. He was succeeded by Empress Dowager Deng, who, despite internal strife and the Qiang rebellion, recreated a prosperous era. After that, the dynasty began to decline.

The Tang Dynasty was replaced by the Wu Zhou dynasty, and there's no need to go into what happened after that. Everyone knows what happened after that, given how famous it is.

The Ming Dynasty was like a pig squealing at the gate, the only one that was completely shameful compared to the previous ones, but the two emperors who succeeded it were still reliable. However, even if the emperors after that were still excellent, the dynasty clearly declined.

Even the Qing Dynasty, in essence, fits this pattern. The struggles at the end of Kangxi's reign, Yongzheng's efforts to consolidate and lay the foundation for the future, and then after the reign of the next emperor, it was irreversible.

This is why Chen Xi complained that history is a cycle. If someone could lead the masses out of the dynastic cycle, they would definitely be a top-tier expert. But the biggest problem now is that they simply can't escape it. Even Chen Xi vaguely realized this. His efforts are essentially just prolonging his life.

However, as Liu Tong said, just because you know it's a prolongation of life and can't change the essence, does that mean you shouldn't do it? What a joke! It's already very difficult for ordinary people to enjoy a period of prosperity. So why insist on the so-called dynastic cycle?

Having the opportunity to eat a little more is a huge step forward in an era where people can't even get enough to eat. Moreover, Chen Xi has elevated this era to such a level that even if some problems or setbacks occur along the way, it won't fall back to the point where people can't get enough to eat.

"I feel like you're thinking about some really strange things." Liu Tong glanced at Chen Xi. She could vaguely sense Chen Xi's thoughts, and sometimes she couldn't help but feel that Chen Xi's thoughts were too far-reaching and too profound. Sometimes, life is indeed quite simple.

“I sometimes daydream about the future. Actually, I had some ideas, but it’s not really appropriate right now. I’ll put them into practice when the opportunity arises,” Chen Xi said with a smile. “Then I’ll show you some amazing stuff.”

"Is that just a one-off thing? Your brain never seems to stop working all day long. I remember there's a saying, 'Too much wisdom can be harmful.' I feel like with all that brainpower, something bad should have happened by now," Liu Tong said to Chen Xi with amusement in his eyes.

"Actually, it's not as complicated as you think. Most of the time, it's just a slight extension of what you're thinking. After all, as humans, we can't really live for three meals a day. Although from a human perspective, this is the real issue, and everything else is just nonsense." Chen Xi said with a hint of teasing.

This is actually true. If we set aside everything else, the goal of humankind should really revolve around getting three meals a day to keep the body functioning. Everything else is essentially just an afterthought.

Unfortunately, as society has become more complex and sophisticated, this seemingly simple and fundamental thing has become secondary to other things, leading to extremes in certain matters. In reality, if people simply realize that they only need to eat three meals a day and let go of other unnecessary thoughts, they can live forever...

From a certain perspective, one's own pressure and burden will be greatly reduced instantly.

One good thing about feudal society is that most people genuinely thought that way; they truly believed that three meals a day were sufficient.

"Forget it, let's not talk about this anymore. Anyway, as you know, and as we speculate, we shouldn't spread it around. Watching the Grand Martial Arts Competition, Qiu Linnian's final actions served as a reminder to the other Xiongnu people, which means the final outcome is imminent," Chen Xi transmitted to Liu Tong, speaking with a hint of laziness.

Upon hearing this, Liu Tong stopped dwelling on the matter and continued watching the grand military exercise. Compared to the previous situation where the Xiongnu were attacked one by one as they passed by, the current situation was much better. On the one hand, the Han Dynasty's top-tier troops had finally started to move, and on the other hand, the slightly weaker veterans had also banded together.

At the soldier level, no matter how elite they are, their fighting power when they band together is always greater than that of an individual. Especially when six or seven people are banded together with various weapons, they can fight against even the top seventh level soldiers. Well, Sun Er's method is a bit too much. That move is a complete crushing blow to those who lack defense and willpower. It's a real test of their abilities.

"This situation looks alright. Jiang Bin is indeed very outstanding." Liu Bei pointed at Jiang Bin, who was fighting head-on with Xu Bu Rui, and laughed happily. Xu Bu Rui's talent, which was to destroy all other talents, was almost meaningless against Jiang Bin.

Of course, this doesn't mean Jiang Bin is immune to talent reduction. Rather, the more crucial point is that Jiang Bin relies primarily on his terrifyingly high muscle density of 1.5 during combat. Talent is merely a secondary factor. Therefore, even after his talent is weakened, Jiang Bin can still beat Xu Bu Rui half to death with his fists and feet. If nothing unexpected happens, Jiang Bin will easily defeat Xu Bu Rui next.

"Damn it, damn it!" Xu Bu Rui clutched the wound on his chest, his face ashen as he stared at Jiang Bin. He had clearly dispelled the opponent's talent, and the opponent could no longer use his original battle fortress, only his inner armor to fight him. Moreover, the opponent's reaction speed and combat awareness were weaker than his own, yet he still couldn't defeat him.

Jiang Bin's potential is actually higher than Jiang Guang's. After all, a muscle density of 1.5 is simply too exaggerated. This represents an amazing upper limit and the upper limit of a supermodel's strength. Theoretically, if Jiang Bin develops properly, he does have a chance to defeat Jiang Guang.

However, Jiang Bin's problem lies in his relatively slow reaction and weak combat awareness. If his combat awareness were better, he could have held out against Jiang Guang for a longer period of time. Unfortunately, Jiang Bin's combat awareness is practically nonexistent.

This is why, despite having a clear advantage in basic attributes and being able to ignore almost all of the opponent's attacks thanks to her inner armor, even if the opponent used a finishing move that tore through her armor, Jiang Bin could still withstand it with her bare body.

"Stop messing around, you can't beat me. Let me kill you quickly." Jiang Bin said something that made Xu Bu Rui very angry, but anger really doesn't solve problems sometimes.

However, at that moment, Qiu Linnian unleashed his inner energy as he streaked across the sky. Regardless of the final outcome, this scene greatly shocked Xu Bu Rui. So, they could advance to the stage of inner energy separation here? If that's the case, what else is there to say? Of course, they should advance!

Already furious at Jiang Bin's words, Xu Bu Rui no longer hesitated. Having been at the peak of Qi Refining for many years, and with his essence, energy, and spirit adjusted to their peak, he directly began his breakthrough here.

Jiang Bin was, after all, a Qi Refining cultivator. Although he hadn't reached the peak of Qi Refining, he still knew what the other party was doing. So when he saw this scene, he was stunned for a moment. Then, after thinking for a while, he actually ran in the opposite direction. This scene left Liu Tong and Chen Xi dumbfounded.

"Jiang Bin, what the hell are you doing?" Zhang Fei's ghostly roar rang directly in Jiang Bin's ears. Zhang Fei was almost going crazy at this moment. Damn it, why the hell are you running? If you can't win, the worst that can happen is death. It's not like you're really dead. Besides, even if you were really dead, what would it matter?

"I'll go put on my outer armor." Jiang Bin didn't panic when he heard Zhang Fei's ghostly roar. He gave a very direct reply, then ran to the outer armor that he had been forced to take off after his talent was suppressed. In no time, he put on the more than 500-pound outer armor again.

There's no way around it; Subu Rui's passive finishing move is quite powerful, and the reduction in talent is no joke. Even after Jiang Bin's talent was stripped, he couldn't continue to unleash his wild output while wearing the 800 composite heavy armor. He could only take off his 550 outer armor and rely on his inner armor to fight.

That's right. Even without his talent, Jiang Bin could still fight people with his 250 armor under the clouds based on his own foundation. Do you understand what an incredible quality a muscle density of 1.5 is? He's incredibly strong. But relatively speaking, the sense of security that the 250 armor provides to Jiang Bin is not as good as that of the 800 composite fortress.

Since the opponent is about to advance to the level of Qi leaving the body, the previous passive finishing move is useless. So why don't I keep wearing my 800 Fortress? Wearing it will give me maximum security.

With a muscle density of 1.5, Jiang Bin doesn't really need to refine anything like force-absorbing or muscle-defense techniques. His exaggerated muscle density comes with these built-in. As for blunt force trauma and heavy weapon strikes, he can withstand them. So, for Jiang Bin, wearing this armor is the ultimate form that allows him to fight Jiang Guang head-on.

Without this, he could only hold out against Jiang Guang for a while before being sidelined.

Xu Bu Rui's promotion speed was not very fast, probably because his mentality was broken by Jiang Bin. He needed to adjust for a while. However, his foundation was very solid. After adjusting, he quickly started to be promoted. However, in this short period of time, Jiang Bin successfully built a fortress around himself.

After Xubu Rui completed his advancement, he saw a steel fortress with only a slit for the eyes showing in front of him. Upon seeing this, Xubu Rui did not say a word, mobilized his inner energy, and launched a full-force attack on Jiang Bin. Jiang Bin was too lazy to even dodge such an attack.

Having faced many masters who had mastered internal energy separation, Jiang Bin knew very well that his armor had exceeded the limit of being directly destroyed by internal energy separation. The way internal energy separation mobilized the entire body's internal energy to unleash a legion-level attack could at most send him flying with the protection of his fortress and the talent to strengthen it; he wouldn't be seriously injured.

If that's the case, then why hide? I'll show you how to kill someone whose internal energy has left their body under the battlefield's misty atmosphere!

Xu Bu Rui's short spear pierced Jiang Bin. The extreme force of his internal energy leaving his body only touched Jiang Bin's extremely thick armor. The armor, which was forged and rolled using water conservancy, was clearly dented. The terrifying impact inside was no less than the great power of a heavy weapon strike from a six-fold forged armor.

But so what? The moment Jiang Bin was hit, instead of retreating, she advanced, stretching out her large hand, which resembled a fan due to the double-layered gauntlets, and directly grabbed Xu Bu Rui's short spear. Then, she pulled it forward in the direction in which the spear was being used.

The tearing sound of steel cutting, the sparks flying, and the terrifying scratch on the armor, which was clearly more than ten millimeters deep, were enough to illustrate the terror of a master who had separated his internal energy from his body. But it was all meaningless. Did he even know what an 800-level heavy armor fortress was? This was something that even Jiang Guang couldn't normally wear. Only someone like Jiang Bin, who was trying to ambush Jiang Guang, would wear such terrifying equipment.

A mere scratch of a few millimeters would be a terrifying attack that could kill a normal shield guard, but for Jiang Bin, it was like saying, "You bastard, come here!"

Xu Bu Rui never expected Jiang Bin to fight like this. Xu Bu Rui, who was originally pushing forward, was pulled forward and naturally lunged forward. With this lunge, the two were basically close together. Then Jiang Bin spread out his other arm and directly launched a bear hug towards Xu Bu Rui, and then pressed down hard.

Jiang Bin may not have mastered other techniques, but he was very good at wrestling. He used his upper body to generate power, his lower body to shift the opponent's center of gravity, and then he made the most of his own weight. With just one strike, he and Xu Bu Rui were slammed to the ground, creating a large crater with a loud thud.

After throwing Xubu Rui to the ground, Jiang Bin began his all-out attack. Xubu Rui realized that things were going badly, but his only talent was the Boundary Wall, and his Boundary Wall was a conceptual diffusion without any defensive power. As a result, he could only use the power of internal energy leaving his body, which he was not familiar with, to fight against Jiang Bin.

What is the power of internal energy leaving the body? It is internal energy, it is basic quality. Again, it is very strong, an order of magnitude stronger than Qi Refining into Gang, but not much stronger than the top-level quality-type sixth level of fusion. And Jiang Bin, who is currently clinging tightly to Xu Bu Rui, happens to be the one with the highest numerical value among all the quality-type high-level fusion veterans.

So much so that when Jiang Bin completely disregarded the opponent's attacks, relentlessly headbutting and beating him, Xu Bu Rui's struggles were almost completely ineffective.

After all, they were already at close range, and both sides could only rely on their bodies to exert force. Short guns and daggers were meaningless against a fully armed Jiang Bin. As for the enormous force that could be unleashed by using internal energy, Jiang Bin, who had been beaten countless times by Jiang Guang from the neighboring county, and who dared to use his second stage attack when they met, demonstrated his incredible endurance to the fullest at this moment.

After just three headbutts, seven or eight heavy punches, and a few more attacks, Subrur was utterly desperate. All his attacks were meaningless against Jiang Bin, who was clad in heavy armor. Even when he used special clustering techniques to launch penetrating attacks, Jiang Bin continued his onslaught without expression.

Sensing that Subul's struggles were weakening, Jiang Bin adjusted his strategy and began a full-scale attack. He no longer used his extra strength to suppress Subul, but instead launched a fierce attack with his steel fists. After six or seven punches, Subul's struggles began to weaken, and his body lay on the ground, while his head was embedded in the earth.

After eight or nine punches, Xubu Rui stopped struggling, and his body became very sluggish. After a hundred punches, Xubu Rui finally stopped trembling, and his hand, which had been gripping tightly, loosened and fell to the ground. However, even at this point, Jiang Bin did not stop and continued to bombard him until Xubu Rui's head was completely smashed.

"You really think that just because you've advanced to the Inner Qi Separation stage, you're stronger than us?" Jiang Bin stood up, flicked the blood off his gauntlets, and looked at Xu Bu Rui's headless corpse. To be honest, if Xu Bu Rui hadn't advanced to the Inner Qi Separation stage and hadn't had that talent structure, Jiang Bin really wouldn't have been able to do anything to him.

Unfortunately, Xubu Rui suddenly advanced to the Inner Qi Leaving Body stage, and the original mechanism completely collapsed. He only obtained a high number of values, but the problem is that these values ​​were not high enough to crush Jiang Bin. Especially after Jiang Bin put on the 800 heavy armor fortress, Xubu Rui's values ​​were just a joke. If he had kept his distance from the beginning, it would have been fine if he had just taken off. But he dared to attack at close range.

Jiang Bin sometimes wanted to ask, "Are you an idiot? Does anyone really think that someone with internal energy leaving their body and wielding a short gun with an ordinary handle can penetrate an 800-level fortress that has been nurtured, etched, and has special protective properties? What kind of fantasy is that?"

"Grand Commandant, I have completed your orders." Jiang Bin shook the blood off his hands and spoke to Liu Bei in his mind.

"Well done, there will be a reward later." Liu Bei said to Jiang Bin with great satisfaction. Although the operation was somewhat bloody and brutal, it was nothing to brag about. In this day and age, people don't care much about such things. Any move that can kill the Xiongnu is a good move. And it was obvious that the Xiongnu were indeed killed, so it was very good and deserved a reward!

"Even without internal energy leaving the body, it can't penetrate Jiang Bin's armor?" Liu Tong asked, somewhat puzzled. "Isn't that a bit too exaggerated?"

“Jiang Bin’s armor is the thickest and best kind after all. It’s not that internal energy can’t penetrate it, but that Xu Bu Rui can’t penetrate it, or rather, most internal energy users can’t penetrate it when they encounter situations like the one before where Jiang Bin tricked them with his moves,” Chen Xi explained casually. “Jiang Bin must have been specially trained on how to fight against internal energy users. His fighting style maximizes his advantages.”

Jiang Bin's advantage lies in his resilience and superhuman defensive capabilities. When these two are combined, even without weapons, his internal energy cannot harm him. Conversely, if Jiang Bin can control his internal energy and ride on his opponent, he can beat them into submission like a child fighting. After all, when riding on his internal energy, Jiang Bin can withstand any attack.

"That's because Jiang Guang in his second stage has an output ability, or rather, force, that is even more excessive than most internal energy leaving the body. And Jiang Bin has been beaten by Jiang Guang many times, as you have seen." Liu Bei listened to Chen Xi's explanation and then said leisurely from the side, "This move was obviously prepared to deal with Jiang Guang. The big guy rides the small guy and then beats him fiercely."

"Alright, he's gotten used to it after taking so many attacks at the level of internal energy leaving the body. There's nothing he can do about it; it's his natural advantage." Chen Xi recalled that he had indeed seen Jiang Bin and Jiang Guang fight. Jiang Guang usually won, but he was never very dignified. Most of the time, he would suffer bone fractures or be covered in bruises. As for Jiang Bin, he always crawled away on his own.

However, Jiang Bin was the only one who could withstand the second-stage Heavenly Demon without exploding and even manage to fight back. But when Jiang Guang opened the second stage to fight Jiang Bin, Jiang Bin wouldn't be able to withstand more than a few punches before he had to leave the stage.

Conversely, when Jiang Guang, a second-dan player, was fighting Jiang Bin, Jiang Bin would also try to withstand the attack while simultaneously kicking him hard, disrupting Jiang Guang's balance and causing him to get injured as well.

Unfortunately, only Jiang Bin could execute this tactic. Zhang Yong tried to learn it once, but Jiang Guang punched him so hard he almost vomited. It just goes to show that even a mind-based defense can't provide a sense of security against a second-stage Heavenly Demon. This kind of combat approach inevitably requires innate talent.

"Tien seems to be chasing after Yan Liang to join up with Wei Shuang," Liu Bei said to Chen Xi.

"Has Tien not advanced to the Inner Qi Separation stage?" Chen Xi asked with some curiosity. Logically speaking, given the current situation, the Huns should all be advancing to the Inner Qi Separation stage after seeing Qiu Linnian's actions.

“No, Tien isn’t stupid. Advancing to the Inner Qi Separation stage requires a considerable amount of time to adjust before they can unleash their full combat potential. They probably won’t advance here unless absolutely necessary.” Liu Bei has now realized that advancing to the Inner Qi Separation stage at the top level will result in a loss of combat power in a short period of time, at least three to six months.

This is normal, though. Each of the six levels of forging has its own combat system. The internal energy leaving the body basically relies on data force to fly bricks, so there are still some differences. Especially for those veterans with mechanism-based combat, if they become pure numerical, they might end up like Sudari, not knowing how to operate.

"I'll issue an official document later, instructing those who want to advance to the level of Inner Qi Separation in the Sixth Layer of Melting to return to their homeland for testing. They should try to avoid testing on the battlefield, especially those Sixth Layer Melting techniques that are more mechanic-oriented; they must return to their homeland," Liu Bei said after thinking for a moment.

It's over, it's over. My plan to stockpile chapters is ruined. I'll have to wait until after the summer solstice.