The job change is a bizarre and calamity; the nation begs me to tone it down.

Gu Xu's lips twitched.

Want to say a few words?

These four words may seem simple, but they carry a great deal of weight.

Previously, he was the chief of staff of the God-Slaying Army, Zhou Yi, a soldier under Su Qiong. To put it bluntly, he was a high-level worker.

It doesn't matter what working people say, because they have someone above them to protect them.

But it's different now.

He is the legion commander of the Calamity Army.

The commander of an army.

Once those four words are attached to you, a carefree, joking attitude won't work anymore.

Every word spoken by the corps commander represents the direction and attitude of an army.

With hundreds of people watching you, if you go up there and spout a bunch of nonsense like "Thank you Sherlock TV! Thank you Sherlock Central Film and Television," who will take the Calamity Army seriously in the future?

Gu Xu quickly went over his words in his mind, then strode onto the stage.

He stood in front of the microphone, his gaze sweeping over the densely packed faces below the stage.

Among these people were old comrades-in-arms who had fought alongside him in the East China Sea, bigwigs from all walks of life whom he had never met but had long heard of, and mid-level officers who had not yet recovered from hearing the appointment document.

So many eyes were fixed on him; it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Gu Xu didn't rush to speak.

He first raised his hand and gave a proper military salute to the audience.

The movement was neither too fast nor too slow, but it was flawless from every angle.

Su Qiong sat below, raising her eyebrows slightly.

In all the time she had known Gu Xu, she had almost never seen him give such a perfect military salute.

When this guy returns gifts, he usually just casually puts his hand on his forehead and that's it, like shooing away flies.

Today's salute really did resemble that of a soldier.

"first--"

Gu Xu spoke, his voice less playful than usual, but he didn't try to be serious.

"Thank you for the trust of the Supreme Command. Thank you, Minister Li, Minister Zhang, and everyone present for your recognition."

Simple and clear, without being verbose.

The audience listened quietly.

Gu Xu paused for a moment, then changed the subject.

"However, I don't plan to preach any grand principles or shout any slogans today. I'm not good at those things."

He touched his nose, a slight smile playing on his lips, revealing a somewhat self-deprecating expression.

"But there's one thing I need to tell everyone."

"I've been lying in the hospital these past few days—well, mainly soaking in that ridiculously expensive repair solution—but I haven't been completely slacking off."

A low chuckle came from the audience.

Minister Chen rolled his eyes in the corner, thinking to himself, "So you do know that stuff is expensive."

Gu Xu completely ignored Minister Chen's accusing face and continued speaking.

"I'm thinking about a question."

His expression gradually became serious.

That kind of seriousness wasn't feigned; it came from the very core of his being.

Many people in the audience subconsciously sat up straight—because they had all witnessed that when this seemingly carefree young man got serious, it was often a sign that he was about to do something big.

"We won the battle in the East China Sea."

"But it was a very ugly win."

Gu Xu held up one finger.

"Four demigods and one Origin-level projection. With that level of combat power, they almost sent our hundreds of thousands of troops to the bottom of the sea to become fish food."

"If it weren't for the legion commanders risking their lives, and if it weren't for Senior Ye Nantian fighting with his life on the line, everyone knows what the outcome would have been that day."

The auditorium was silent for a few seconds.

The moment Ye Nantian's name was mentioned, everyone's expression darkened.

That golden figure is still etched in the memory of every survivor.

Gu Xu paused for a moment, then continued.

"I've been thinking about this for the past few days: why did it turn out like this? Why is our mighty Divine Xia Empire being beaten so badly when facing several demigod-level enemies at the same time?"

He looked around, his voice not loud, but every word was clearly delivered to the ears of everyone present.

"The answer is actually obvious to everyone."

The audience was silent.

"It's not that our soldiers aren't brave enough, nor that our generals aren't capable enough."

Gu Xu tapped his fingers lightly twice on the microphone.

"The problem is a lack of high-end combat capabilities."

Six words, straightforward.

There was no embellishment, no euphemism, and no polite formalities to save face for others.

Several veterans in the audience subtly changed their expressions.

It wasn't because of anger, but because Gu Xu's words touched upon a secret that everyone knew but no one dared to reveal in public.

"Or to be more precise—"

Gu Xu held up a second finger: "It's not that we don't have enough high-end combat power, it's that we don't have enough high-end combat power to use."

"The number of Saints in our Divine Sheikha is definitely not small when viewed globally. Add to that the Night Watchers in the various forbidden areas, and on paper, our strength can even be said to be among the top three on Earth."

"But what's the problem?"

Gu Xu shrugged: "There are too many dimensional rifts."

"The East Sea has the Forbidden Water Clan, the Southwest has the Elf Clan, the North has the Abyss Rift, and dozens of secret realms and forbidden areas of varying sizes are scattered throughout the country, requiring high-end combat power to guard them."

"Every place needs to be watched over, and every line of defense must not collapse."

"And the result? Our high-end combat power was like a lump of clay, stretched into an extremely thin thread, barely managing to cover up all the holes."

"It looks like there are guards everywhere, but in reality, every place is stretched thin."

"When something happened in the East China Sea, we simply couldn't spare any personnel. It's not that we didn't want to transfer people, it's that we couldn't—we were even more unable to spare the time elsewhere."

Gu Xu's voice turned serious: "One radish, one hole; but there are more holes than radishes. This is the core dilemma facing our Divine Xia right now."

After he finished speaking, the atmosphere in the audience clearly changed.

The change was subtle—not somber, but rather a complex feeling that came from having one's secrets revealed.

Zhou Yi nodded slightly.

As the legion commander of the God-Slaying Army, he has the most personal experience of the problem of "not having enough high-end combat power".

During the Battle of the East Sea, his quasi-saints were reduced to barely breathing. If another demigod were to join the fray, they wouldn't even have had time to hold out until Gu Xu made his move.

Li Podi also stroked his chin thoughtfully.

The district he was in charge of faced a similar problem—there were enough Saints, but not enough to go around.

If something goes wrong, we won't be able to spare a second team.

On stage, Li Weiguo and Zhang Daoxuan exchanged a glance. They could tell that Gu Xu wasn't just making things up. Although the kid had been in the hospital for several days, his mind hadn't been idle for a moment.

"so--"

Gu Xu raised his third finger, his tone suddenly rising a notch: "I thought about it for three days and three nights in my hospital bed, and I've figured something out."

All eyes were fixed on him.

There is only one way to solve this problem.

Gu Xu said, word by word, "Turn the saint into a demigod."