Nongbase loved fighting since he was a child.
For the matter of fighting, he possessed more enthusiasm than his peers.
After doing little farm work, Nongbase would think about how to make use of the terrain and environment, how to bluff, how to press the enemy, and how to make use of his advantage of flexibility.
He made wooden figures modelled on the human body and used them as imaginary enemies to practice combat.
As a child, this sort of thing would be sought after by many children.
As they grew older, they had fewer and fewer friends to fight with, and everyone had a bit of time to turn over the soil and plant, or to find a job in town, or even to lie on the ridge and soak up the sun.
Everyone said, “Nongbase, it’s time for you to wake up.”
“It’s not like you’ve been able to pass the seminary or get into the city guards, so farm well, save up some money, get a wife, and stop imagining things.”
Nongbase had never been able to pass the seminary exam.
He was born sick, coughing a lot and occasionally having stabbing pains in his chest. So his father usually didn’t let him do too much heavy farm work and just wanted him to get well.
Therefore, Nongbase was freer and more relaxed than farm children of his age, and he had a lot of time to run around the fields and practice his fists and kicks, honing his combat skills – at least that’s how he felt about himself.
Nongbase then set his sights on becoming Master Shioji Shiohisa, a martial arts practitioner.
He was convinced that he would become a martial arts practitioner and start travelling the world, battling all kinds of transcendents and monsters, as well as fighting for his life and death.
But the death of his father brought the burden of reality down on his shoulders.
Nongbase had to work in the fields every day like any other farmer, and the heavy farm work left him with nothing else to think about for a long time.
As the others said, all he could think about was saving more money, repairing the thatched roof that always leaked in the rain, having money left over to buy some wine, marrying a woman, and living like that.
Only in his spare time, he would play the wooden man again.
This kind of happiness is simple and pure.
With the increasing intensity of labour in the fields, Nongbase began to cough up blood frequently. In order to cure the disease, he spent all of his savings, but was told by the physician that the disease was currently difficult to cure, and that it might come back again at some point.
At that time, Crystal City began to recruit people, saying that they were looking for someone to take care of the rose garden.
Nongbase went over there with a wooden man on his back.
In the new city, he started everything over again.
Nongbase secured the wooden man outside of his broken down hut, he was never alone because he was always fighting the wooden man. This makes him a strange man in the eyes of many.
On his first trip out of town, he was attacked by killing flying locusts.
Instead of immediately fleeing, Nongbase relied on a wooden stick he had with him and managed to kill six flying locusts.
The entire fighting process had been rehearsed hundreds of times back when Nongbase was fighting the wooden man. As he looked at the bug corpses under his feet, his body couldn’t help but keep shivering.
It was worth it.
All the years of practice were worth it.
Nongbase clenched his fists.
This practice of his was immediately met with mad retaliation from the locust swarm, and in the end, Nongbase died of serious injuries in the Crystal City.
After becoming a Ghost Warrior, Nongbase took revenge on the Locust Swarm.
Years later, Nongbase became a well-known locust killer in Crystal City, and anyone who needed to pass through the locust-infested area would always want to hire him as a bodyguard.
After taking out his 10,000th Killing Locust, Nongbase let go of the feud.
It was pointless to continue killing, he was already too familiar with the locust swarms and the repetitive monotonous battles no longer brought him any progress.
He needed new opponents.
So Nongbase once again carried the wooden man on his back on the road, and he travelled all the way to the door of the Martial Cultivation Association in Salt City. Now he could finally hold his head up and become a member here, fulfilling the promise of yesteryear.
The new era had come quietly, but had changed many things.
Nongbei had sparred with a middle-aged martial cultivator in Crystal City.
His opponent’s strength was not bad, and he won with great difficulty.
“You are strong.”
The Martial Cultivator closed his hand and said, “You should become an Armour Bearer, put on the latest Twin City Armour and assemble a fine weapon, you will be much stronger than you are now.”
Nongbase stated that he wanted to become a martial practitioner.
Instead of voicing his objections, the Martial Cultivator asked him, “What is the fastest way to kill a Transcendent?”
Nongbase thought carefully and said, “Set a trap and sneak attack by surprise.”
The other shook his head, “It’s with the Black Rose.”
“The Killer Black Rose is a forbidden weapon bred by the Apostle Lord Pinkman, and it is also the strongest variety of Transcendent Rose at the moment. As long as the Slayer Mode is on, the Black Rose can instantly kill enemies within ten paces.”
The martial practitioner grabbed a branch and gently pointed it towards the farm base.
“That’s it, you’re already dead.”
Nongbase was stunned, “Unable to resist?”
“Don’t think about competing with the Black Rose for reaction speed.”
The other party said with a serious face, “The Killer Black Rose, can spot you when you gaze at it, what you see is just its shadow but you can’t tell where it really is. It will accurately stab the target’s heart or brain, completing a fatal blow.”
The Martial Cultivator dropped the branch and laughed to himself, “Even the strongest Martial Cultivator, without refined equipment, his flesh cannot resist the Black Rose’s lethal attack. This is the status quo.”
“The traditional path of martial cultivators is already far behind.”
“At least in this era, the Armour Executioner is the stronger path.”
“Young man, listen to people’s advice and eat your fill, go become an Armour Executioner.”
Nongbase simply said, “I want to try.”
Compared to the Twin Cities, which were at the centre of the world, Crystal City was still a distant place, everything was still relatively slow, and there were delays in a lot of changes, so the great changes of the times were not yet visible.
But after coming to the Salt City, which was the main camp of the Martial Cultivators, Nongbei finally realised why the Martial Cultivators said that.
An ordinary armour-bearer could also fight Nongbase evenly, and the other party was just a twenty-year-old young man who was only in his first year of armour-bearing.
The young man relied on the latest Twin Cities Armour, the Hardened Sword as well as the Hundred Fold Shield.
There was no need to mention the Dual City Armour, it was renowned and was itself synonymous with powerful defence.
The Hardened Sword was a fine iron sword with the element of fire attached, sharp and tough, and also with burning damage.
The Hundred Fold Shield was forged from the finest copper ingots and had excellent resistance to blows, and with the earth element attached, it was able to significantly mitigate damage.
The biggest reason for the popularity of these pieces of equipment amongst the Armour Bearers was the birth of the Fire Vapour Furnace, which drastically reduced the amount of manpower needed for forging and smelting, which led to the mass spurt of fine equipment.
Nongbase couldn’t help but be perplexed as well.
Could it be that individual life and death limit style cultivation was really meaningless?
After a short period of scepticism, he firmed up his ego.
By no means.
Nongbase observed in Salt City and found that the Armour Bearers here were indeed outstanding in battle, but most of them didn’t have rich combat experience, and were able to contain potential criminals and Transcendents just by virtue of their names.
They were incredibly vulnerable if they were caught in an encounter and when they had no way to cloak themselves in armour.
In contrast, martial cultivators did not have this concern at all.
Because the Martial Cultivator pathway is all about pushing the limits, and seeing attacks and danger as routine, bare hands are the Martial Cultivator’s fighting stance.
The advantages and disadvantages of each of the two transcendent paths remained unchanged.
Armour-bearers were easy to cultivate, the stronger the equipment, the stronger they were, with weaker solo combat abilities and encounters.
Martial Cultivators are fewer in number, do not rely on props, and have a strong overall ability on their own, but when besieged will fall into danger due to their style of pushing the limits.
Nowadays, the requirements for Martial Cultivators had become extremely loose, as long as one demonstrated the ability, one could register.
After registering as a Martial Cultivator, Nongbase walked out of the association’s aged and dilapidated gates. The dilapidation and depression inside was even worse than he had imagined.
He stood on the streets of Salt City.
The streets were filled with citizens dressed in various colours and chatting with each other.
The armour-bearers, armed with swords and shields, patrolled the stone paths with a neat step and click-click-click-click-click.
The city resounded with the sound of snickering, and the streets were haunted by a damp, pale white mist, which was a fire steam furnace working non-stop, like the beating heart of the city.
Nongbase couldn’t help but think.
What would he have done if it had been Shiohisa-san?
Can a fist of flesh and blood still compete with a body of steel?
Just as he was in a trance, a voice suddenly sounded beside him.
“Nongbase-san, are you interested in participating in an event?”
The one who spoke was a tall, thin man, wearing a bright and presentable green coat, holding a silver cane, and wearing a wide-brimmed black hat, the brim of which completely hid his features.
“This event is called the “Martial Arts Convention”, only barehanded Transcendents can participate, and Transcendents from all over the world who meet the requirements are invited. The eventual winner will be able to receive a special reward from the Divine Lord.”
Nongbase froze, “Martial Arts Conference? Who are you?”
“I’m just a messenger.”
The other party pressed the brim of his hat and said, “If you are interested, please prepare well and build up your strength in the next few days, the convention will open in a month’s time. I look forward to you having a good time.”
After saying that he turned around and left, disappearing in a few steps.
Nongbei couldn’t see how the other party left at all.
A moment later his heart was on fire again.
Martial cultivators from all over the world had gathered to decide the strongest.
Just thinking about this made his fists itch and filled his body with power.
I wish all the reader lords an auspicious year of the rabbit and all the best~
