The more Wang Xuan looked at her, the more captivated he became. Cai Yan's exquisite face, coupled with the unique charm of a talented woman, was truly mesmerizing.
"My spring has come!" Wang Xuan was about to step forward and get closer to Cai Yan when an unexpected turn of events occurred.
Not far away, a troop of soldiers was seen heading towards the location of the literary gathering.
The soldiers in that troop were all full of vigor and blood, as strong as horses and as powerful as dragons. There were only a hundred or so of them, but they were more captivating than a thousand troops!
"Those are the Bingzhou Iron Cavalry! Could it be that scoundrel Lü Bu who has arrived?" Cai Yan exclaimed softly, her expression somewhat grave.
Wang Xuan was right next to Cai Yan at that moment and heard the Cai talent's soft gasps clearly.
Unexpectedly, it was Lü Bu who arrived!
Among men, Lü Bu was renowned; among horses, Red Hare was the best. Even on Earth in his previous life, Lü Bu's name was legendary, let alone in this mythical Three Kingdoms world.
In this world, Lü Bu has already reached the realm of the celestial being, capable of splitting mountains and breaking peaks, and is widely recognized as the strongest person most likely to break through to the realm of divine powers!
When the Bingzhou cavalry approached, most of the men scattered to the side to keep watch, but two valiant men walked over.
One of them had a handsome face, wore a purple-gold hair tie, and a crimson battle robe, exuding the aura unique to a powerful being. Just by standing there, he seemed to become the center of the world, drawing everyone's attention.
"Lu Bu!!"
When Lü Bu appeared, the scholars and Confucianists who had come to attend the literary gathering in Luoyang gasped in surprise, and many of them turned pale.
It wasn't that they were cowardly, it was just that Lü Bu's fearsome reputation was too great!
When Dong Zhuo first entered Luoyang, Lü Bu led his Bingzhou cavalry in a fierce battle against Dong Zhuo's Xiliang cavalry. After surrendering to Dong Zhuo, he helped suppress the Eight Colonels of the Northern Army of the Han Dynasty. After several major battles, Lü Bu had already killed over ten thousand people in Luoyang; his fearsome reputation was enough to make even children weep!
As the organizer of this literary gathering, Cai Yong stepped forward without hesitation and said to Lü Bu, "I wonder what brings General Lü here? As far as I know, you are not interested in such literary pursuits, are you?"
Cai Yong's words implied that Lü Bu was an uncultured brute. This was a gathering of scholars, and what was a brute like Lü Bu doing here?
Although Lü Bu was not very cultured, he was certainly not stupid. He sensed the sarcasm in Cai Yong's words and said with a forced smile, "The world is vast, so where is there that I, Lü Bu, cannot go? I can come whenever I want, what do I care about your literary ball!"
Before he could finish speaking, a surge of intense blood energy and overwhelming killing intent emanated from Lu Bu's body, causing everyone around him to pale in horror and go limp, as if they were being targeted by some natural enemy.
Wang Xuan had been trying to get closer to Cai Yan by staying close to her. Cai Yan and her father, Cai Yong, weren't far apart, and now, with Lü Bu's imposing aura looming over them, Wang Xuan's face flushed red, and he cursed inwardly.
This Lu Bu was truly arrogant and domineering. As soon as he arrived, he attracted everyone's hatred, including Wang Xuan.
Fortunately, the young general who accompanied Lü Bu stopped him and whispered, "General, Cai Yong and Lu Zhi are renowned Confucian scholars. Our lord is currently in need of capable people, so it is not advisable to offend them, otherwise it will alienate the literati of the world."
It's unclear whether Lü Bu listened or not. He simply snorted coldly and withdrew his imposing manner, acting as if nothing had happened. He then said to Cai Yong and the others, "Lord Cai, please continue. I, Lü Bu, was merely curious, which is why I came to take a look. I have no other intentions."
However, no one believed him. Lü Bu's arrival here might have been at Dong Zhuo's behest.
After all, Dong Zhuo had occupied Luoyang, and the warlords of Guandong were rising up to fight against him. There were signs of unrest in Luoyang. At this sensitive juncture, a large number of scholars and nobles, including Cai Yong and Lu Zhi, gathered there, so Dong Zhuo naturally sent people to monitor them.
With Lü Bu causing trouble, the literary gathering was destined to fall apart. Before long, the scholars and literati began to leave.
Wang Xuan was greatly provoked by Lü Bu and deeply felt his own weakness, so he had no intention of staying here any longer.
Anyway, he has already achieved his purpose in attending this literary gathering, so he should go back and focus on practicing martial arts from now on.
Once he has accumulated enough luck, Wang Xuan plans to travel to a low-level martial arts world to reap some rewards. Before that, he needs to improve his strength as much as possible.
Before leaving, Wang Xuan made sure to say goodbye to Cai Yong and Lu Zhi.
Lu Zhi simply nodded to Wang Xuan without saying anything more. Cai Yong, however, looked at Wang Xuan with admiration and said, "My dear nephew, your writing already shows the style of a master. I hope you will not slack off and continue to study. If you have any questions, you can come and ask me."
Being able to consult a great Confucian scholar like Cai Yong at any time was undoubtedly an honor, and it would make one very proud. Wang Xuan was very pleased to hear this, and Cai Yong's next words made him even more overjoyed.
Cai Yong then said to his daughter Cai Yan, "Zhao Ji, please see my nephew Wang off."
That old man Cai Yong is creating an opportunity for Wang Xuan to spend time alone with Miss Cai Yan!
A slight blush rose to Cai Yan's fair and pretty face. She clearly understood Cai Yong's meaning, but she did not refuse.
She didn't dislike Wang Xuan; on the contrary, she felt a certain fondness for him because of the talent he had just displayed.
Poor Miss Cai Yan, if she knew that the guy next to her was just a plagiarist, she probably would have turned on him and left immediately.
Although she said she would see Wang Xuan off, Miss Cai Yan only accompanied him for a few hundred meters before parting ways with him and turning back to find her father, Cai Yong.
Despite Wang Xuan's attempts to persuade her to stay, the young lady only rolled her eyes at him and left without looking back, which deeply hurt Wang Xuan.
Chapter Seven: First Arrival in Another World
Wang Xuan put on the white robe woven from the thousand-year-old ice silkworm and hung the low-grade magic weapon-level broadsword at his waist. As for the rest of his items, he put them into his spatial ring.
At this moment, the two topknots on his head had long been broken up and tied into a bun, which was tied with a white jade hairpin. He looked handsome and dashing, with a touch of otherworldly charm.
With all preparations complete, Wang Xuan no longer hesitated and activated the Eternal Tower of Heaven and Earth with his thoughts.
The Eternal Tower of Heaven and Earth trembled, as if it had absorbed something from Wang Xuan's body—Wang Xuan's fortune!
It's a great deal to get a chance to travel through the world by spending a full 100 points of luck.
The energy required to traverse different world dimensions is absolutely enormous; even draining the energy of an entire world might not be enough. Wang Xuan estimated that the 100 points of luck he provided were merely a catalyst; the true power source for this traversal was the Eternal Tower of Heaven and Earth itself.
Before Wang Xuan could think any further, the space and time before him suddenly shifted.
He felt as if he had been stuffed into a washing machine, his head spinning and his mind reeling.
I don't know how much time passed before that dizzying feeling finally stopped.
Wang Xuan suppressed his urge to vomit, turned his head and looked around, and found that he had somehow ended up in a forest.
“The gravity, oxygen concentration, and other factors in this world are no different from the world I came from before.” Wang Xuan quickly made the judgment that this world has the things necessary for his survival.
But this place is a desolate wilderness, with no one around, so it's impossible to find someone to ask for directions.
Just as Wang Xuan was feeling a bit worried, a series of light footsteps suddenly came from his left front.
"Someone's here!" Wang Xuan was overjoyed and was about to ask someone for directions when, unexpectedly, a dozen or so henchmen rushed out of the woods.
These men were armed with broadswords and spears, their clothes were somewhat tattered, and their expressions were fierce and menacing; they were clearly a group of bandits!
"Hey, these days there are still hotheads who dare to come to our Shaohua Mountain Stronghold. Look at his attire, he's clearly a fat sheep delivered to our door!" A burly bandit sized up Wang Xuan and said with a mixture of surprise and delight.
The other robbers burst into laughter.
Wang Xuan frowned. If he had encountered bandits or brigands in the previous Mythical Three Kingdoms world, he would have naturally chosen to lie low and call for a few guards to come to his rescue—because the martial arts level in the main world was too high. Even ordinary bandits had acquired skill levels, no less than Wang Xuan. As for the larger bandit gangs, their leaders were even at the Innate Realm, far beyond Wang Xuan's capabilities.
However, this world is only the lowest level of world. He looked at the group of bandits in front of him. They were all weak and lacked vitality. There wasn't even one person at the Acquired Realm. They were just ordinary people.
"I've been practicing martial arts for a while now, but I haven't fought anyone yet. Today, I'll make my move on you guys!" Wang Xuan sneered, grabbed the sword from his waist, and without even drawing it from its sheath, slashed at the bandits with the sword still in its sheath.
The bandits were startled when Wang Xuan suddenly attacked. By the time they came to their senses, Wang Xuan had already covered a distance of five or six zhang and pounced on the bandits.
"bump!"
Wang Xuan swept his blade across, and with his 600-pound body strength, he sent a bandit flying, blade and all.
The bandit convulsed and coughed up blood after landing, clearly not going to make it.
"How dare you! You actually dare to kill people from our Shaohua Mountain Stronghold! Brothers, let's all charge together and chop down this pretty boy!" A bandit shouted, and immediately more than a dozen bandits rushed over.
"Too weak! Even without using my internal energy, I could easily take down this band of bandits with my physical strength!" Wang Xuan shook his head. In just a short exchange, he had already discerned the strength of these bandits.
Without a doubt, these bandits were just ordinary people, at most having practiced some swordsmanship and hand-to-hand combat, but they didn't possess any real martial arts skills. Their strength was only a couple hundred pounds, and their speed was also much slower than Wang Xuan's.
Wang Xuan had thought he could finally get some playing time, but his opponents turned out to be nothing more than a bunch of weaklings with a combat strength of only level five. He was somewhat disappointed, but he showed no mercy to his men.
With agile movements, he easily dodged the bandits' attacks, his sheathed sword flashing in his hand. His immense strength of six hundred jin was virtually invincible; one strike at a time, no one could withstand his second blow.
In less than twenty breaths, Wang Xuan had already knocked all the dozen or so bandits to the ground, each one either dead or injured.
This was only because Wang Xuan intentionally held back, needing to leave two survivors to ask for directions; otherwise, he would have probably killed the entire band of bandits.
"You've all witnessed my skills. Do you want to live or die?" Wang Xuan asked, looking at the bandits who were still alive.
These bandits had been beaten half to death by Wang Xuan and were terrified of him, so they cooperated very well.
After asking around, Wang Xuan finally figured out the basic information about this world.
"The country I'm in is the Song Dynasty. Before the Song Dynasty, there were the Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, Sui, and Tang Dynasties!" A hint of joy flashed in Wang Xuan's eyes. Sure enough, he had transmigrated to a world with an ancient Chinese background.
He had already guessed this from the moment he first met these bandits and heard their Mandarin with a Northwestern accent.
Wang Xuan then inquired further and learned that he was in Shaohua Mountain in Huayin County. There were three powerful bandits on Shaohua Mountain, who had gathered six or seven hundred henchmen and engaged in robbery and plunder. The bandits before him were the ones sent by Shaohua Mountain stronghold to plunder!
“Six or seven hundred henchmen!” Upon hearing this, Wang Xuan’s expression also became serious.
Ultimately, he is only at the second level of the Acquired Realm, and has only just begun his journey in cultivation.
If there were twenty or thirty bandits, Wang Xuan could easily deal with them. If there were fifty or sixty bandits, Wang Xuan, protected by this top-grade magic artifact robe, would also be able to defeat them.
But if hundreds of bandits came, he wouldn't be able to handle them. Even if he had a protective armor that made him invulnerable to swords and spears, he couldn't keep up with the physical exertion. He would be exhausted to death.
"No, I can't stay on this mountain any longer. I'd better leave here as soon as possible!" Wang Xuan didn't dare to hesitate. After finding out the way down the mountain, he killed the few remaining bandits to prevent them from going back and reporting the news.
Wang Xuan walked down the mountain path for about half an hour before he saw smoke rising from the chimneys ahead, revealing a village.
Chapter Eight: Shi Jin, the Nine-Tattooed Dragon
Wang Xuan followed the direction from which the smoke was rising. As he got closer, he realized that this was not an ordinary village, but a large manor.
This estate occupies a considerable area, with houses of varying sizes arranged in a pleasing manner. It is surrounded by earthen walls, and outside the earthen walls, two or three hundred large willow trees are planted.
"This must be the estate of some landlord!" Wang Xuan's lips twitched. This place was in a remote location. If they missed this one, they didn't know how far they would have to go before they saw any signs of life.
Well then, I'll ask this landlord for lodging. I don't know if he'll be easy to talk to. If he agrees, fine, I can just pay for the lodging. But if he dares to turn me away, then I'll have no choice but to be a bad guest.
Having made up his mind, Wang Xuan went straight to the front of the manor and began to knock on the door.
After a long time, the gate of the manor finally opened, and a servant came out.
The servant first sized up Wang Xuan, then noticed that Wang Xuan was dressed in an exquisite white robe and had his hair tied up with white jade. Knowing that Wang Xuan was no ordinary person, the servant did not dare to be negligent and asked politely, "Who is this distinguished guest? What brings you to our manor?"
"Looks like my clothes are pretty convincing!" Wang Xuan thought to himself before replying, "This young master was traveling and lost track of time. As it's getting late, I'd like to ask to stay the night at your estate."
"So you just need lodging," the servant said. "Young master, please wait a moment while I go and ask the master of the manor. If he agrees, then there will be no problem."
After saying that, the servant turned and went into the manor.
Fortunately, the servant came out not long after and said to Wang Xuan, "The master invites you in, young master."
Wang Xuan followed the servant into the village and inquired about the place along the way, eventually learning that it was Shi Family Village.