"boom!"
The Tower of Eternity trembled slightly, and Wang Xuan instantly felt that the world had changed.
The scenes he had seen in the past became clearer at this moment.
However, enlightenment requires consuming luck points, and Wang Xuan had no time to waste. He quickly sat cross-legged, facing the sky, and began to cultivate the "Purple Sun True Explanation".
With each cycle of his internal energy circulation, it became more concentrated, constantly cleansing his meridians.
After circulating the cultivation technique for five cycles, Wang Xuan suddenly had a flash of inspiration, and his internal energy began to tremble at a certain frequency.
With this tremor, the seven tendons and eight meridians and twelve regular meridians in his body seemed to unlock some shackles, connecting completely to form a small circulation.
Wang Xuan has broken through the final barrier to reaching the Innate Realm!
The medicinal power stored in his body for more than a decade began to be released, strengthening the internal energy in Wang Xuan's dantian.
At the same time, the sparse spiritual energy of heaven and earth from the outside world slowly flowed into Wang Xuan's body and was assimilated by his internal energy. His internal energy grew rapidly, like a snowball rolling downhill.
In just a dozen breaths, Wang Xuan's internal energy more than doubled, causing his meridians to swell and ache.
However, at this moment, the originally surging internal energy began to collapse towards his dantian, condensing into a higher level of power.
This power is true qi!
Chapter Forty-Two: Entering the Innate Realm of Martial Arts!
The transformation of acquired internal energy into innate true energy is undoubtedly a metamorphosis!
With the completion of this transformation, it signifies that Wang Xuan has completely broken through to the Innate Realm!
"Is this the Innate Realm? It's truly powerful!" Wang Xuan silently sensed his own power, a satisfied smile appearing on his face.
Compared to before his breakthrough, his strength has now doubled, reaching a full ten thousand jin!
This is just pure strength. If we also take into account the improvement in speed and nerve reaction, Wang Xuan now could take on five of his predecessors before his breakthrough!
But soon, Wang Xuan's smile froze on his face.
Because the luck value displayed inside the Eternal Tower of Heaven and Earth has dropped from more than 6,000 points before Wang Xuan's breakthrough to more than 4,000 points, and it is still being consumed at a visible rate.
"This one cultivation session alone consumed over 2000 points of luck, which is equivalent to the luck of over 2000 ordinary people!" Wang Xuan quickly withdrew from his enlightenment state, feeling extremely pained: "Indeed, this enlightenment ability is a ruthless drain on luck!"
This isn't enlightenment at all; it's clearly just the pay-to-win aspect of those ridiculous games Wang Xuan played in his previous life!
If you want to get stronger, how can you do it without spending money? The only difference is that the currency has changed from RMB in his previous life to Luck Points. As for other differences, Wang Xuan can't tell.
"I thought my family's cheat ability was incomparable to those flashy ones outside, but I never expected your cheat ability to be like this!" Wang Xuan sighed, his good mood about breaking through his cultivation level completely gone.
Half an incense stick's time has passed since Wang Xuan was trapped on this small hill. At this point, nearly ten thousand battle-hardened veterans have surrounded him from all sides and are not far away. With Wang Xuan's heightened senses after breaking through to the Innate Realm, he can even vaguely see the figures in the distance.
Although Wang Xuan's cultivation had broken through to the Innate Realm, greatly increasing his strength and the duration of his battles, he was still in grave danger facing an attack by tens of thousands of troops.
He could die here if he is not careful.
Wang Xuan showed no fear whatsoever. He adjusted his Heavenly Silkworm Armor, using the hood that came with it to cover his head, leaving only his face exposed.
It can be said that as long as his face is not hit by an enemy, other parts of his body that are hit by others will not hurt him.
"Listen up, everyone! Evil Blade Wang Xuan is hiding ahead! Don't underestimate him! Swarm him and hack him to death!" Wang Xuan faintly heard someone shouting from the government troops, and his face immediately turned as black as the bottom of a pot.
"What the hell is this 'Evil Blade Wang Xuan'? I am clearly the White-Clad Sword Saint Wang Xuan!" Wang Xuan gritted his teeth in anger: "If I find out who gave me this ridiculous nickname, I'll kill their whole family!"
Unexpectedly, as soon as Wang Xuan spoke, the soldiers who were close to him noticed him and became on guard.
After about two or three breaths, the soldiers seemed to have received some order, and they all rushed towards Wang Xuan with strange cries.
The number of people exceeded ten thousand, and the area over there seemed to stretch endlessly.
Wang Xuan didn't know whether the elite army besieging him numbered ten thousand. But he did know that the mountains and fields were filled with enemies, and the sight of them made his heart tremble.
Before the enemy could get close, they set up their positions at a distance of more than a hundred paces, and a large number of archers stepped forward and fired a barrage of arrows at Wang Xuan.
Fortunately, not all archers could hit something a hundred paces away. Most of the arrows went astray, and even those that were aimed precisely at Wang Xuan collided with each other due to their density, and most of them fell to the ground.
Only a few dozen arrows actually hit Wang Xuan.
Wang Xuan covered his face with the sleeves of his Heavenly Silkworm Robe. He didn't even dodge the arrows that were shot at him, trying to conserve his energy for the upcoming battle.
However, seeing that he did not flinch, the government troops actually went further and pulled out more than a dozen ballistae from somewhere!
"Good heavens, these are siege weapons!" Wang Xuan's face turned green: "If I were hit by these ballistae, even with the Heavenly Silkworm Armor protecting me, I would still suffer some minor injuries."
The Heavenly Silkworm Robe is a top-grade magical artifact; in terms of defensive power, nothing in the Water Margin world can break through it.
However, Wang Xuan's cultivation level was too low, and he was unable to unleash the power of this top-grade magic weapon. He could only wear it on his body, which greatly weakened the defensive power of the Heavenly Silkworm Robe.
To put it simply, none of the tens of thousands of soldiers could break through Wang Xuan's defenses, but that only applies to humans; the powerful siege machines could still injure him.
Seeing several crossbow bolts as thick as an arm shooting towards him, Wang Xuan quickly dodged.
His keen senses as a natural-born martial artist allowed him to dodge the crossbow bolts relatively easily, but he was not prepared to give the enemy another chance to shoot him with ballistae.
With a loud "bang!" Wang Xuan stomped his foot on the ground, and like a cannonball, he shot forward. Only a few inches deep footprint remained where he had just stood.
Wang Xuan covered the distance of over a hundred paces in just three or four seconds, charging directly into the enemy's ranks.
The generals in command clearly hadn't expected Wang Xuan to move so fast, and they didn't even have time to withdraw their archers.
Wang Xuan charged into the ranks of archers like a tiger among sheep; with a casual slash of his sword, he could take several lives.
Enemies surrounded him from all sides, and countless swords, spears, and halberds slashed at Wang Xuan. As long as they didn't target his face, he didn't even try to block them, unleashing a barrage of attacks that sent these elite Song soldiers reeling.
His wicked sense of humor kicked in, and Wang Xuan began to record the number of people he killed. With his innate level of cultivation and the speed at which his brain worked, he was perfectly capable of doing so.
"One hundred!" "Two hundred!" "Three hundred!"
Before he knew it, six or seven hundred soldiers had fallen under Wang Xuan's blade. Wang Xuan also felt that his physical strength was greatly depleted, and his innate true energy was almost completely exhausted.
He quickly stopped, his attack speed slowed down several times, and he focused on circulating the "Purple Sun True Explanation" to recover his true energy.
When the Song Dynasty soldiers saw that Wang Xuan's offensive had weakened considerably, they were all invigorated.
"Everyone, put in more effort! This demon is finished! Whoever can take his head will be promoted three ranks and rewarded with a thousand taels of gold!"
A thousand taels of gold, according to the gold-silver exchange rate in the Northern Song Dynasty, was roughly equivalent to more than eight thousand taels of silver. Even an ordinary family with a fairly good financial situation could only accumulate a few taels of silver at most throughout the year, which shows how powerful the purchasing power of a thousand taels of gold was.
A generous reward always brings forth brave men. Wang Xuan saw that the soldiers around him were all like they had been injected with chicken blood, their eyes bloodshot, howling as they rushed towards him.
Chapter Forty-Three: The Overlord Blade?
"Do you really think I'm no match for you?" Wang Xuan sneered upon seeing this, merely killing off the soldiers who attacked him, instead of charging and fighting as fiercely as before.
In this way, the rate at which his true energy was consumed and the rate at which it was replenished gradually reached a balance. Although the amount of true energy consumed was still slightly more than the amount replenished, it was enough for Wang Xuan to sustain himself for a long time.
"Kill!" This was a war of attrition, and Wang Xuan was like a tank, charging through the thousands of troops. The Song army had no choice but to rely on their numerical superiority to wear him down.
The mastermind lurking in the shadows clearly knew this, which is why they mobilized a massive army to besiege Wang Xuan. However, what Wang Xuan hadn't expected was the sheer size of their forces. From the time he left Jizhou until now, the number of troops scattered across various regions searching for and attacking him had reached tens of thousands!
Mobilizing tens of thousands of troops is absolutely impossible without the consent of the emperor of the Song Dynasty.
"Could it influence the will of the Dao Emperor?" A cold glint flashed in Wang Xuan's eyes. He had a guess about who the mastermind was, but he couldn't confirm it yet.
Although he was analyzing and thinking about other things, Wang Xuan's hands never stopped moving, and every second someone died at his hands.
These are the elite troops of the Song Dynasty, and they shouldn't be wasting their time here. Their enemies should be the Western Xia and the Khitans!
Wang Xuan was not a ruthless killer; he felt extremely reluctant to kill so many people at once. However, he was now at the mercy of others, and if he did not resist, he would face certain death. He had no other choice.
With each elite Song soldier killed, Wang Xuan's anger towards the mastermind behind it all grew stronger, like a volcano that had been dormant for a while, but was about to erupt.
Either burn the mastermind behind it all to ashes, or destroy yourself.
This is no joke. If Wang Xuan fails to find and kill the mastermind behind this, the sheer number of people he has killed this time will create a mental demon within him!
"I will definitely find the mastermind behind this and avenge you in the future. Now you can just die quietly!" Wang Xuan said blankly.
The two sides fought for another half an hour, and before they knew it, the number of people who had fallen under Wang Xuan's blade had exceeded two thousand.
This translates to a 20% casualty rate. For ordinary troops, such a high casualty rate would be enough to break them. But Wang Xuan is now facing the Song Dynasty's most elite Northwest Army!
"Two thousand five hundred!"
"Three thousand!"
"Three thousand five hundred!"
Wang Xuan silently counted until he had killed 3,600 people, with a mortality rate approaching 40%. This most elite force of the Song Dynasty finally collapsed.
Countless soldiers scattered and fled, having lost the will to continue fighting.
To these soldiers, Wang Xuan was an unkillable devil. Nearly half of their army of nearly ten thousand had perished, while the enemy hadn't even suffered a single wound—how utterly despairing that was for them!
Wang Xuan did not pursue them, letting the soldiers escape.
In fact, he was already exhausted. His internal energy had been depleted half a cup of tea's time ago, and his muscles were tired and sore all over.
If the enemy holds out for even a little longer, then Wang Xuan will have no choice but to leave the Water Margin world and return to the main world.
Wang Xuan gripped his sword tightly; this was not the time for him to let his guard down.
Although he repelled the siege of the imperial army, the person hiding in the shadows could attack him at any time!
He coldly surveyed his surroundings, revealing not the slightest flaw.
Perhaps the enemy hiding in the shadows was also frightened by Wang Xuan's overwhelming power just now, and ultimately did not show himself.
Wang Xuan was also helpless; if the enemy didn't come out on their own, there was nothing he could do.
Another half hour passed, and Wang Xuan's internal energy had recovered by more than half, and his muscle fatigue had also been greatly relieved. He did not linger there any longer and headed towards Liangshan Marsh, which was eight hundred li away.
Along the way, no enemies dared to attack him again. Clearly, Wang Xuan had displayed great prowess in his previous battle, and the enemies had given up on trying to overwhelm him with numbers.
Moreover, Wang Xuan had been ambushed before, making him even more cautious and vigilant, so it would be extremely difficult to trap him in an encirclement again.
As time went on, news of Wang Xuan's achievements within Daming Prefecture spread.
Within the territory of Daming Prefecture, a celestial demon descended and single-handedly fought against tens of thousands of elite troops from the Northwest. He broke through the armor of 3,600 men and routed the entire army!
When this news spread, the whole world was shocked and expressed their doubts.