"So you're Ximen Qing? No wonder you can seduce wives and young girls everywhere, so you make a living off your looks!" Wang Xuan launched into a tirade of abuse.
Ximen Qing was inexplicably scolded, and immediately became furious. Relying on his knowledge of martial arts, he wanted to teach Wang Xuan a lesson.
As the saying goes, "When the master is in trouble, the disciple will do his work," without Wang Xuan even lifting a finger, Wu Song, who was standing next to him, kicked out and sent Ximen Qing flying.
When their boss was beaten up, the pharmacy was thrown into chaos. Those who worked there wanted to help Ximen Qing, but they were afraid of Wang Xuan and his men and dared not step forward.
Men like Ximen Qing, who like to seduce other men's wives, are practically the enemy of all men! When I first read "Water Margin," Wang Xuan wanted to kill Ximen Qing with his own hands, and today he finally has the chance.
He walked straight to Ximen Qing's side and gently kicked him. A hidden internal force surged into Ximen Qing's body through Wang Xuan's foot.
This internal force won't kill Ximen Qing instantly, but it will leave a hidden injury in his body. A year or two later, when the injury flares up, it will be incurable.
Ximen Qing clutched his chest, his voice trembling with fear, and said, "This is Yanggu County! How dare you injure people in broad daylight?! Is there no law left?!"
Sure enough, Ximen Qing was just a coward who bullied the weak and feared the strong. Wang Xuan shook his head; he had no interest in wasting words with a dead man, so he led Song Jiang and Wu Song out of the pharmacy.
Ximen Qing still wields considerable influence in Yanggu County. Having offended him this time, Wang Xuan and his group are not planning to stay in Yanggu County any longer, to avoid further trouble.
Wu Song's hometown, Qinghe County, was right next to Yanggu County, only about a hundred miles apart. The three of them traveled through the night, and by sunrise the next day, they had arrived in Qinghe County.
Wu Song invited Wang Xuan to stay at his home for two days, during which time Wang Xuan did not see the legendary Pan Jinlian.
It seems he arrived too early; at this time, Pan Jinlian was probably still working as a maid in a wealthy household.
No one saw Pan Jinlian, but Wang Xuan wasn't disappointed. After all, he wasn't a lecherous man; no matter how beautiful Pan Jinlian was, could she possibly be more beautiful than Miss Cai Yan?
It's important to know that Miss Cai Yan was born in a world teeming with gods and demons, where the spiritual energy is far richer than in the Water Margin world. Nourished by this spiritual energy, the average beauty there is much higher than in the Water Margin world. Moreover, Cai Yan also has the added advantage of being a "talented woman," far surpassing the alluring beauty of someone like Pan Jinlian.
Chapter Thirty-Six: Zixu Temple
"Master, we have arrived in Jizhou!" Song Jiang said respectfully from outside the carriage.
Inside the carriage, Wang Xuan stopped cultivating and slowly opened his eyes.
They had been gone from Qinghe County for over a month, and Wu Song had not followed them. Instead, he was living a good life with his brother in Qinghe County.
It wasn't that Wu Song didn't want to come, but that Wang Xuan wouldn't let him.
Their trip to Zixu Temple was extremely dangerous, and Wang Xuan was not confident that he could be distracted by protecting Wu Song.
Song Jiang, on the other hand, was different. His luck was so extraordinary that he could often turn bad luck into good. Unless he was extremely unlucky, he would not die.
Besides, even if Song Jiang, that traitor, were to die, Wang Xuan wouldn't be saddened by it...
"Master, are we just going straight to Zixu Temple like this?" Song Jiang hesitated for a moment before finally asking the question that had been bothering him.
He clearly remembered that Gongsun Sheng, who was killed by Wang Xuan in Liangshan and fell into the Cloud Dragon, came from Zixu Temple!
You killed someone else's apprentice, and now you brazenly come to visit them. Aren't you ashamed?
Wang Xuan said, "You underestimate my shamelessness. What is 'guilty conscience'? Can you eat that stuff?"
"Let's go, we'll head straight to Zixu Temple!" Wang Xuan gave the order, and the carriage sped off again.
Although Zixu Temple is not as famous as Longhu Mountain, it is still one of the major Taoist temples in the north, with a thriving incense offering. Therefore, it is not difficult to find out the location of Zixu Temple.
As they drew closer to the Purple Void Temple, Wang Xuan's expression suddenly changed. He took out a talisman from his robes, the very Yellow Heaven Fortune Talisman he had snatched from Gongsun Sheng, the Cloud Dragon.
Wang Xuan studied the Yellow Heaven Fortune Talisman for nearly two months but still couldn't figure out how to use it, as if it were just an ordinary jade pendant.
However, as they approached the Zixu Temple, the Yellow Heavenly Fortune Talisman underwent a strange change. The originally cold and indifferent talisman now emitted waves of warmth and began to tremble gently, like the wings of an insect!
"Not good! It must be a sub-talisman of this Yellow Heaven Fortune Talisman that resonated with the mother talisman in the Purple Void Temple!" Wang Xuan immediately guessed. A treasure like the Yellow Heaven Fortune Talisman must have been kept safe by the Purple Void Temple. It would not be easily snatched away by outsiders. Otherwise, how could it have been passed down for thousands of years?
He immediately channeled his inner force into the Yellow Heaven Fortune Talisman, attempting to suppress it, but to no avail. Instead, the talisman vibrated even more violently, almost flying out of his grasp!
"Does a treasure that's already in my hands fly away? No one can take away what belongs to Wang Xuan!" Wang Xuan thought fiercely, and suddenly injected a large amount of internal energy into the Yellow Heaven Fortune Talisman, forcibly suppressing it for a moment.
In that short moment, a lot could be done. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Wang Xuan put the Yellow Heaven Fortune Talisman into his spatial ring. The Yellow Heaven Fortune Talisman, which had been trembling, instantly quieted down and became an inanimate object again.
Wang Xuan breathed a sigh of relief and sneered, "The spatial ring contains its own space. If your Zixu Temple can cross space to summon the Yellow Heaven Fortune Talisman back, I, Wang Xuan, will not hesitate to flee back to the main world immediately!"
Song Jiang, who was in charge of driving the carriage, was completely unaware of this scene and drove the carriage straight to Zixu Temple.
They walked for about five or six miles and then saw a green mountain ahead.
This green mountain is shrouded in clouds and mist, with the cries of monkeys and cranes all around, and pavilions and towers appearing and disappearing from view. It can be called a paradise on earth.
Wang Xuan has now mastered the first volume of "The True Explanation of Ziyang" to perfection, reaching the twelfth level of the Acquired Realm, and has a faint sense of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
The concentration of spiritual energy in the two immortal mountains where Zixu Temple is located is probably twice as high as that of the outside world! Wang Xuan himself has a huge amount of medicinal power in his body, so he doesn't need to worry about spiritual energy for the time being, but his disciples need to absorb spiritual energy.
If Wang Xuan could seize this Erxian Mountain and establish his own sect here, it would undoubtedly be an excellent choice.
But after thinking about it again, Wang Xuan smiled.
Erxian Mountain is indeed very nice, but compared with Taoist paradises such as Zhongnan Mountain, Wangwu Mountain, and Emei Mountain, it is still quite inferior.
He made up his mind that once he resolved the grievances with Zixu Temple, he would find a famous mountain or river with abundant spiritual energy to establish his own sect and pass on his lineage!
Wang Xuan put aside these complicated thoughts for the time being and, together with Song Jiang, walked up the mountain along a small path in the shade of the pine trees.
Before long, they arrived at the mountainside. There stood a Taoist temple with a vermilion plaque above the entrance bearing three golden characters that read "Zixu Temple".
Before they could even knock on the door, two young Taoist boys, around thirteen or fourteen years old, came out and said to Wang Xuan and his companions, "Our master foresaw that distinguished guests would be arriving today, and specially instructed us to wait here and welcome you in."
Song Jiang exclaimed in surprise, "This Master Luo is truly skilled; he was able to predict our arrival today!"
At this point, Song Jiang's expression changed, and he leaned close to Wang Xuan's ear and whispered, "Master, you said that Master Luo is good at divination, did he foresee that we killed his disciple?"
"Shut up!" Wang Xuan scolded, his face dark.
It's unclear whether Song Jiang was a terrible teammate or deliberately trying to sabotage his master.
The matter of killing someone else's disciple should be denied to the death; how could it be said here at Zixu Temple?
Although Song Jiang's voice wasn't loud enough for an ordinary person to hear, were the Taoists in the Zixu Temple ordinary people?
Leaving aside others, the two young Daoist disciples who came to greet them, though they looked young, already possessed cultivation levels of two or three levels of the Acquired Realm, and were sharp of hearing and sight. At this moment, Wang Xuan and Song Jiang were only three or four meters away from them; how could they possibly hide it from them?
Not to mention that there is a mysterious Master Luo in Zixu Temple. He can use luck to cast spells, and this place is his lair. It is likely that from the moment Wang Xuan and his group set foot on Erxian Mountain, their every move has been monitored by Master Luo.
Wang Xuan looked up at the two young Taoist disciples. They appeared calm and composed, as if they hadn't heard anything. They simply urged the disciples to go in and meet Master Luo.
“Something is definitely amiss. These two young Taoist disciples are determined to get me in. I’m afraid that once I step into this Taoist temple, I’ll fall into their ambush!” Wang Xuan sneered. Although he took the initiative to strike first, he wouldn’t be foolish enough to jump into someone else’s trap.
"Your Master Luo is too kind. I came from afar and didn't bring any gifts. I'll give you this good disciple as a greeting gift!" Wang Xuan chuckled and then suddenly kicked out, sending his good disciple Song Jiang flying into the Taoist temple!
Chapter Thirty-Seven: It's so satisfying to trick your apprentice!
How could Song Jiang have guessed that his master would ambush him? In addition, his martial arts skills were far inferior to Wang Xuan's. He only had time to let out a scream before he was kicked flying into the Zixu Temple.
The two young Taoist disciples were also dumbfounded. They had planned everything, but they had never expected such a scene to occur.
As Song Jiang was kicked into the Taoist temple by Wang Xuan, a sudden change occurred.
The Taoist temple, which had been perfectly normal, suddenly emitted a terrifying fluctuation that made it hard for people to breathe.
"There really is a trap!" Wang Xuan gasped. There was actually a formation set up inside the Taoist temple. If Wang Xuan had rashly rushed in, he would definitely have been in big trouble.
However, when Song Jiang entered, everything changed.
In this depleted spiritual world, even formations have lost their former power. At most, they can only confuse the eyes of ordinary people, but they cannot trap a martial arts master like Wang Xuan who has reached the pinnacle of acquired cultivation.
Wang Xuan estimated that the reason why the formation in this Taoist temple was so powerful must be because Master Luo used the Yellow Heaven Fortune Talisman to borrow the power of fortune to set it up!
However, the power of fortune is the most mysterious and unpredictable. Even if Master Luo can use secret methods to activate the power of fortune to kill enemies, he still needs to worry about the possibility of fortune backlash from time to time.
Who is Song Jiang? Don't let his dark complexion and short stature fool you; he is the leader of Liangshan in the original novel, the head of the Thirty-Six Heavenly Spirits, and the main protagonist among the main characters in the Water Margin world!
Luo Zhenren was tricked by Wang Xuan, who used the power of destiny to set up a killing formation that struck Song Jiang, causing a series of strange changes to occur on Song Jiang's body.
A huge white tiger phantom appeared behind him, roaring to the sky, yet it seemed to be bound by something.
This is the manifestation of the fortune within Song Jiang's body! Suppressed from the outside by that fortune-killing array, the defiant fortune within Song Jiang's body finally surfaced and launched a counterattack on its own!
At this moment, Song Jiang had lost his mind, acting solely on instinct. His eyes were glazed as he stared at the sky, muttering to himself, "From childhood I studied the classics and history, and as I grew up I possessed both power and strategy. Like a fierce tiger lying in wait on a desolate hill, I lie low, biding my time..."
Originally, this poem had a second half, but Song Jiang's fate had been completely changed by Wang Xuan, so the second half could not be recited.
However, this half of the poem was enough. As the half of the poem was finished, the white tiger behind Song Jiang seemed to break free of its chains and pounced forward fiercely!
"roar!"
Suddenly, strange phenomena appeared throughout the Taoist temple, with countless red and white auras intertwined into threads, confronting the white tiger.
Each time the White Tiger pounces, it shatters a large number of threads of fortune.
Deep within the Zixu Temple, out of Wang Xuan's sight, a middle-aged Taoist priest wearing a star-studded crown and a crane-feather cloak suddenly opened his eyes, spat out a mouthful of black blood, and instantly his aura as a highly accomplished Taoist vanished.
"Not good! I set up a killing formation in the Zixu Temple, originally intending to deal with that traitor who killed my disciple Gongsun Sheng. But who would have thought that the villain was so cunning, actually pushing the Heavenly Star Song Jiang, who was born by destiny, into the formation." Master Luo's face was gloomy: "A person of destiny is no ordinary person, I will surely suffer a backlash from my fate!"
As the White Tiger of Luck behind Song Jiang continued to pounce, numerous black spots, invisible to the naked eye, appeared out of thin air and flew into Luo Zhenren's body like raindrops, gradually staining Luo Zhenren's face black.
However, Master Luo, after all, possessed the inheritance of an ancient powerhouse. Although he was outmaneuvered by Wang Xuan and suffered a backlash of fortune, he still had ways to deal with it.
"Qingfeng, Mingyue, come here quickly!" Luo Zhenren called out, and soon two young Taoist priests in their twenties came over, looking at Luo Zhenren with worried expressions.
These two young Taoist priests were disciples of Master Luo. Master Luo taught them martial arts from a young age, but never taught them the secret method of manipulating Qi.
Because these two were the furnaces that Master Luo prepared for himself, specifically to transfer the backlash of his fortune!
As for the feelings cultivated over the years, Master Luo was now being devoured by the backlash of fate, so he couldn't care less about that.
Before the two young Taoists could react, he pounced and grabbed one of them by the Baihui acupoint on the top of his head.
Above Master Luo's head, a palm-sized jade talisman shone brightly, with a large amount of golden light flowing within it. Each time the golden light shifted, a wisp of black energy was drawn from Master Luo's body and transferred to the two young Taoists!
Unexpectedly, when faced with danger, Master Luo, who seemed like a highly accomplished Taoist master, actually chose to betray his disciple, just like Wang Xuan!
Outside the Zixu Temple, Wang Xuan saw that most of the threads of fortune inside the temple had been scattered by the white tiger of fortune behind Song Jiang. Knowing that the time was almost up, he immediately rushed into the temple.
The two Daoist boys who had come to greet Wang Xuan earlier were unwilling to agree. They pointed, and a palm-sized jade talisman appeared above each of their heads, exactly the same as the Yellow Heaven Fortune Talisman that Wang Xuan had taken from Gongsun Sheng!
"Two more Huangtianyun Talisman sub-talismans?" Wang Xuan sneered. Back when he dealt with Gongsun Sheng, his martial arts cultivation had only reached the eighth level of the Acquired Realm, yet he was still able to kill Gongsun Sheng.
Now that he has reached the twelfth level of the Acquired Realm, his strength has more than doubled, so how could these two Daoist disciples possibly stop him?
"Clang!" A crisp sound of a blade rang out as Wang Xuan drew his sword. The blade flashed like a silver dragon, slashing towards the two Daoist boys!