“Huh?”
Meng Chao found himself drenched in cold sweat.
He realized that Gu Jianbo had set him up.
The door was not fully locked, and he had been gesturing wildly while speaking loudly just now. With a Deity Realm elite’s hearing, Dean Zong would have definitely heard everything.
Even though Meng Chao was confident in Dean Zong, when the time came to really face the Deity Realm elite, he felt scared.
When he walked into the ward, Gu Jianbo shut the door from outside, leaving Meng Chao, a noob of the Ultimate Style, alone in the room with the strongest Beast Soul Style martial artist. He became even more nervous.
Dean Zong was actually a tiny man, even though he had the grand title of the Iron Mountain Shield and was the dean of the martial arts and life science department.
He was lying on Gu Jianbo’s bed and watching television.
An old movie from more than a hundred years ago was playing on the screen. It was about an ancient war from hundreds of years ago. The war drums thundered, and warsongs rang in the air. Cannons howled, and smoke was everywhere. The battle was filled with blood pumping action.
Meng Chao instinctively compared Dean Zong with the strongest person he had met in the past—Soul Breaking Saber Luo Wu.
There was a huge realm difference between Heaven Realm and Deity Realm, so the two realms gave off completely different presence.
Luo Wu, who stood at the peak of Heaven Realm and was a six-star superhuman, was just like his Soul Breaking Saber. He was tough, fierce, and aggressive. He constantly released the presence of a peerless martial artist, and the pressure he gave off was so strong that Meng Chao could not breathe.
Even his own son, Luo Hai, did not want to be alone with him, and Meng Chao believed that he was not lying to him.
And if someone managed to move from the Armorized Spirit Energy Realm (six stars) to seven stars, their spirit energy would act as if it gained life. They could break free from other superhumans and fly hundreds or thousands of meters. They could change however they wanted, fight however they wanted, and murder however they wanted.
This was a qualitative change in a person’s life.
At the same time, their fighting strength would increase by leaps and bounds, while their killing intent and presence would be restrained to the point that nothing could be detected. They would not give off any pressure.
Dean Zong looked to be one with his surroundings. If Meng Chao did not stare at him, he would not know he was there at all.
But when he trained his eyes on him, he felt like he was facing a towering mountain that not a single bird could cross.
“Meng Chao, good day,” Dean Zong said with a smile. “You have been running all over the university for half a day, so you must be exhausted. Come and sit. Watch some television.”
His tone was very flat. He did not give off a presence containing “strength that could intimidate hearts and was impossible to withstand”. It was not as bombastic as that at all.
Meng Chao thought about it and decided to behave and sit down in the chair beside the bed.
Since a Deity Realm elite asked him to watch television, he would just watch television.
It was a Western war movie that had happened during the seventeenth or eighteenth century on Earth. It was now showing the final battle, which was the most exciting segment.
With the coordination provided by the rhythmic beats of the war drums and the rising and falling warsongs, the armies stood in rows that were so neat that their formation looked really rigid.
The entire formation was divided into three lines. Each line was about fifty to one hundred steps apart from each other. Then, they were further divided into six columns. The soldiers stood with their shoulders touching each other. They were very close and looked like ants stuck together with glue.
The officers at the sides of the army swung their sabers and commanded the soldiers to march according to the beat of the drums. They advanced neatly and expressionlessly like fearless puppets. Even though they held flintlocks in their hands, they did not fire. They just marched forward quietly and drew closer to each other.
When they were fifty steps away from each other, the army dressed in blue and white uniforms was the first to be unable to handle the tense pressure. They stopped and started firing.
The accuracy and speed of flintlocks was pretty limited. They did not deal a lot of damage to the army dressed in red uniforms, which made them look like lobsters, even though they were really close to them.
Still, quite a number of the lobsters standing in the first row fell dead.
The lobsters standing at the back row stepped over their comrades’ corpses. They pushed forward mechanically.
Then, when they were only twenty steps away from the enemy, the lobsters started firing neatly.
They only fired three rounds, but the army in blue and white uniforms collapsed.
The lobsters put on bayonets and shouted as they rushed forward. The bayonets sank into the enemy like burning sabers cutting into monsters’ rotting carcasses. There was no doubt who won.
“It’s really stupid, isn’t it?” Dean Zong suddenly said. “This is called the line infantry, but we also call it standing in line to be shot to death. All the soldiers will stand together in a dense formation and step forward like zombies.
“They will move slowly like snails toward their enemies, and they are even dressed in uniforms of the brightest colors. They play these hilarious war songs, and it looks like a farce, because they marched forward to be shot to death by the enemy.
“They even need to push firepowder into the flintlocks in their hands through the muzzle and use a stick to shove the bullets inside. They don’t even have riflings. Their speed and accuracy are just terrible, and even the best soldiers can only fire up to five shots every minute. There’s also a 20% failure rate on top of that. Yet even if they fire thirty rounds, they might not end up hitting an enemy.
“Regardless of whether it is the flintlock or this line infantry, both of them have great flaws. That’s what you think, right?” he asked Meng Chao with a smile.
But before Meng Chao could answer, Dean Zong’s gaze turned sharp.
“Yet during that turbulent and magnificent era, the line infantry managed to win against traditional armies that had great armor while relying on these weapons with great weaknesses and this strategy that looks really stupid.
“They also defeated stragglers and disbanded soldiers that did not have great discipline and cavalry units which rode around like the wind. They helped countless heroes complete their heroic deeds and created a huge empire where the sun never sets!
“So, is this line infantry really stupid?” Dean Zong asked coldly.
Meng Chao instantly understood what Dean Zong meant.
The flintlock and line infantry strategy had hilarious weaknesses, but that did not stop them from creating an unprecedented glory in the environment and era that was suited for them.
Similarly, the Beast Soul Style and Overkill Style contained the major problems of accumulating power, stiffening up, and cooling down. They were like the flintlocks with their slow firing speed and low accuracy. They were also like the line infantry unit in which the soldiers marched forward to the beat of drums and stood in line to be killed.
This was something all the powerful fighters knew and would not deny.
But there was no perfect strategy in the world.
As long as a martial art ideal and fighting model’s advantages were greater than its disadvantages, it had its own value.
At the very least, Dragon City had relied on the Overkill Style, Beast Soul Style, Gun Fighting Style, and Machine Armor to defend itself over the past half a century. That was the truth.
But there was another reality that was showing up.
While facing Dean Zong’s gaze, Meng Chao gritted his teeth and said, “The line infantry strategy was celebrated in its time and created the mighty empire where the sun never sets, but as the world continued to develop and the people’s fighting styles changed, the sun did set on the empire!
“The line infantry strategy’s glory only lasted for around one hundred years. When the speed and accuracy of guns increased by leaps and bounds, and when huge killing weapons like the Maxim was created, if anyone continued to stand in such neat rows and push forward slowly while sounding the war drums, they’d just be marching to their own deaths like moths rushing into the flame!
“The powerful country that once rose to power because of the line infantry had to pay the price of hundreds of thousands and even millions of people in wars before it finally considered changing its strategy.
“But I don’t want to wait until Dragon City loses millions to start ‘thinking’. We can’t lose that number of people, and we can’t afford to be slow!”
Dean Zong did not expect that Meng Chao’s courage and mind would make him think in return.
He could not help the admiration and surprise that lit up in his eyes.
“Is this the reason behind why you’re challenging the students so impatiently?” Dean Zong asked. “Are you confident that the Ultimate Style can help the martial arts course grow strong and win against the monster controller course?”
“No.” Meng Chao shook his head. “I’ve never thought about winning against the monster controller course.”
“Oh?” Dean Zong quirked an eyebrow and waited for his explanation.
“If I was just thinking about winning against the monster controller course, I wouldn’t need to use the Ultimate Style. The beast soul fusion technology that our course is heavily supporting is good enough. If we perfected it a little more and cultivated Sun Ya, Xie Feng, and the rest, it’d be enough.”
Meng Chao’s eyes shone with a dazzling light as he said clearly, “There’s only one target I want to win against, and it’s Dragon City University’s martial arts course!”
“Huh?” Dean Zong’s gaze instantly turned incredibly sharp.
“The monster controller course has only been the strongest fighting occupation course in Agricultural University for the past ten years, but in the past half a century, tens of millions of people in Dragon City have acknowledged that the only one with the right to call itself the strongest is Dragon City University’s martial arts course and its Overkill Style!”
Meng Chao’s determination exploded from him like an erupting volcano. His eyes burned like lava. “Agricultural University, the University of Technology, the military school, Beast Soul Style, Machine Armor Style, Gun Fighting Style, heroic spirits, monster controllers, machine masters…
“There are countless styles and countless powerful people who have thought about challenging Dragon City University’s martial arts course and the Overkill Style, but all of them returned defeated.
“But I believe that there is no such thing as the strongest martial art in the world. The only thing that exists is a martial art that continues evolving and changing to become stronger! The Overkill Style has been shining in glory for too long, and now, it’s time for the Ultimate Style to shine!
“Dean Zong, I know that you have been spending all your effort to support the beast soul fusion technology, but your true goal isn’t the monster controller course either, but Dragon City University’s martial arts course, right? You want to prove that the Beast Soul Style is stronger than the Overkill Style, right?
“But the Beast Soul Style and the Overkill Style are the same. It’s just like the line infantry strategy. Your so-called improvement is just comparing who can form neater rows, whose soldiers fear death less, and who is more familiar with the motions of shooting the flintlock. No matter how strong the beast soul fusion technology is, without changing its core, you won’t be able to win against the Overkill Style.
“But the Ultimate Style has just been created, and it’s just like the Maxim gun when it was first created. As long as you’re willing to provide some resources to support it, it can cause a stir in the martial arts world, and even our entire fighting model will turn on its head and change!
“Even if our research and promotion will take up some of the Beast Soul Style’s resources, as long as we can defeat Dragon City University’s martial arts course and make Agricultural University’s martial arts course become the best in Dragon City, we will have ten times the benefits coming to us. Not only will the Ultimate Style be able to develop at an explosive pace, the Beast Soul Style will also be able to benefit from it.”
Dean Zong started thinking, though he had no expression on his face.
Meng Chao gulped nervously.
He was taking a bet that to Dean Zong, Agricultural University’s martial arts course was more important than the Beast Soul Style.
He was also betting that his desire to defeat Dragon City University’s martial arts course to become the strongest in Dragon City was even greater than promoting the Beast Soul Style.
In his previous life, Gu Jianbo managed to reap major benefits from this.
But now, Dean Zong smiled coldly. “You’re just boasting shamelessly. How can you say that the Ultimate Style is the Maxim gun and not one of the thousands of strange weapons that appeared during the development of guns before disappearing without even getting a name?”