Surviving in the chaos of war begins in the wilderness.

Chapter 99 Night of the Snowstorm and Massacre

Chapter 99 A Night of Slaughter in the Snowstorm (Part 1)

As a prominent and wealthy family, the He family was indeed very generous, quickly sending Zhou Ye several large bundles of arrows. Because the iron-pole arrows were quite heavy, they even specially arranged for two servants to carry them for Zhou Ye.

Now that Zhou Ye has been studying martial arts at the martial arts school for so long, he has gained some basic knowledge of martial arts.

Like Zhou Ye and his group of outer disciples. They joined the martial arts school within a few months of each other. There were about 4 or 50 of these disciples, and almost all of them could sense the Qi.

But only 17 people truly mastered the skill. Among them, only Zhou Ye and his group of 5 broke through on their first attempt. Most of the rest broke through on their second or third attempt.

In other words, the success rate of breaking through to the next level is only 30% to 40%.

Furthermore, this result is the result after screening various conditions. These include: how well did the child develop from childhood? Can they receive adequate nutrition for martial arts training? Can they afford the high tuition fees, etc.?

If we take all ordinary people as the base, the success rate of entering the field is surprisingly low, only about one percent.

But when it came to breaking through to the Mingjin stage, only the two genius disciples, Yuan Zhen and Du Juan, succeeded. There was also Huang Sheng, who failed, though he was also considered a genius disciple. They both reached the Mingjin stage in about a year. How could Zhou Ye actually rank fourth?

Furthermore, if we consider the future, Zhou Ye will have spent about two years.

Generally speaking, those who can break through to the Mingjin level within three years are already considered to have some talent.

Take my friend Wu Jun for example. If he's lucky enough to break through to the Ming Jin level, it might take five or eight years, and it wouldn't be surprising if it took more than ten years.

It's important to understand that this is assuming one can even break through to the Ming Jin stage. Generally speaking, the success rate of breaking through to the Ming Jin stage is incredibly low, around one in several tens.

So, perhaps Du Keyuan, this old man, was incredibly lucky; he actually encountered the golden generation. Among the same batch of disciples, two achieved the Ming Jin level, one failed to break through, and there's another one quietly and stealthily developing their skills?

Having understood this, one should know that those above the Ming Jin martial arts master level belong to high-end martial arts and are generally not used lightly. On the contrary, martial artists like Zhou Ye, who are at the late stage to the peak of the Entry Jin realm, have become the backbone of the force.

In fact, the He family's situation was the same.

Among the powerful and influential families, the He family was relatively low-profile. However, their strength was not weak. The He family also had two masters of internal strength, the patriarch and the eldest elder. In addition, including the retainers, there were more than twenty masters of external strength.

Of course, most of them were members of the He family. Although not as extreme as Zhou Ye's, these core family members could basically guarantee the supply of resources such as pills and demon beast meat. Therefore, the success rate was quite high.

By the way, having sufficient resources is crucial in the early stages of martial arts training. The success rate can differ by several orders of magnitude.

Therefore, powerful organizations like the imperial court, sects, and aristocratic families, possessing ample resources, can continuously cultivate talent. In contrast, training for martial arts practitioners in the common folk becomes extremely difficult.

However, in the later stages of martial arts development, the dependence on resources decreases. It's not that resources are no longer needed; in fact, the total demand for resources will increase dramatically. But the reliance on them diminishes.

At this stage, it becomes a matter of talent. In other words, the lower limit depends on steroids, while the upper limit depends on natural talent!

For example: a master of innate wisdom.

By the time he became a Grandmaster of the Innate Realm, there were no more mature cultivation methods or martial arts techniques. He had to rely on his own talent to create a few cultivation methods and martial arts techniques that were best suited to him. In essence, they were custom-made for him.

This is why, although the number of independent martial arts practitioners is relatively small within the martial arts community, almost all of them possess astonishing talent, and none of them are easy to deal with.

Therefore, in He Jing's group, only He Jing, a Ming Jin martial arts master, was leading the team.

This group numbered over a hundred. Among them were just over 20 martial artists who had reached the Energizing Realm, and only 4 who had reached the late Energizing Realm. Now, with Zhou Ye added, that made 5. The rest were some relatively strong servants. However, even these servants wore simple leather armor and carried well-made weapons. In terms of actual combat strength, they were not much weaker than those who had reached the early or mid-stages of the Energizing Realm.

And just like that, the day was almost over. By mid-afternoon, everyone had finished dinner early and had been given some dry rations for a midnight snack. They might be busy all night, so they needed to ensure they had plenty of energy.

Zhou Ye also received the 20 taels deposit. Furthermore, the head of the He family came over in person, and he chatted with him warmly for a few minutes.

Therefore, there are actually factions within powerful and influential families. He Jing is clearly a member of the family head's faction.

For someone who has reached the peak of the Qi Refining stage, is still young, and is poised to break through to the Ming Jin stage at any moment, and who can provide a continuous supply of demon beast meat? These powerful families will become much more amiable; they prioritize winning them over others.

It's actually quite realistic. Ultimately, it comes down to whether you can generate sufficient profit!

At this moment, the team was ready to depart. Before setting off, He Jing called Zhou Ye and the others to his side.

"This time, the Prefect (Guerrilla General) relied on aristocratic families like us to quell the rebellion, so he'll definitely cede a large portion of the profits. Therefore, those mining smugglers aren't important. Crushing them is like crushing a few bugs. Instead, the biggest rivals will be the other families. If they take too much, we'll get less. So, our team will be the second to enter the city. Don't worry about suppressing the bandits, and ignore the fighting. We must seize the following locations. That is—"

Good heavens! The battle hasn't even started, and they're already on guard against friendly forces? And the various powerful families are already preparing to seize the spoils?

On the contrary, they looked down on the miners, basically thinking it was a very easy cleanup operation.

"Oda."

"Yes, Uncle Jing."

"Take these fireworks. Once we get there, stay at the highest point. If you spot the enemy, signal them immediately. Also, use your bow and arrows to support the battle."

"clear!"

"Mengzi, Ershun, you two—"

'

When the team was ready to set off for the county town, Zhou Ye took out a windproof scarf and covered most of his face.

Unexpectedly, this action reminded He Jing: "Right, right! Just like Xiao Tian, ​​we all need to wear masks. You guys go quickly and find some black cloth."

Good grief! Does this mean they're planning to double-cross each other?

By now, darkness had completely fallen. Groups of people carrying torches emerged from the manor. And tonight, the snowstorm had intensified.