High Martial Arts: I Travel Through Heaven and Earth Through Dreams

Chapter 28: Two Provinces Fall in Daqian, Ready to Escape at Any Moment

Faced with the impending chaos, the only thing Lin Hanzhou could do was seize every moment to improve his strength.

He was well aware that his cultivation at the peak of the second-tier Qi Gathering Realm was still far from sufficient.

Although this level of cultivation is already quite high, it would make one a prominent figure in the martial arts world.

But if placed on the chessboard of the entire world, it is nothing more than a slightly larger piece.

Only by breaking through to the third-order Qi Sea Realm and possessing the strength of a Grandmaster can he truly be qualified to stir up the winds and clouds of the world.

Only then can he transform from a mere pawn into a player with the power to overturn the table.

Another year has passed.

This year marks the seventh year since Lin Hanzhou transmigrated to this world.

Currently, his cultivation level is still stuck at the peak of the second-tier Qi Gathering Realm.

The bottleneck to a higher realm is not so easy to overcome.

Even with the added advantage of his martial arts prodigy talent, he felt that he was still a little short of breaking through.

He estimated that it would probably take another year or two of painstaking effort before a breakthrough could be achieved naturally.

Lin Hanzhou was very satisfied with this cultivation speed.

Achieving the third-order Qi Sea Realm within ten years was completely beyond his expectations.

Even in a world like Earth, where geniuses abound, advancing from the second to the third tier in ten years is considered an extraordinary feat.

Moreover, he was cultivating in a world where the spiritual energy was far less abundant than on Earth, and cultivation resources were scarce.

In addition, his "Flowing Cloud Sword Technique" has reached a high level of mastery after seven years of arduous training.

This is only one step away from the legendary perfect level.

If the higher-ups of the Yunxia Sect knew about this level of swordsmanship proficiency, they would probably be astonished.

Those who didn't know better would think that Lin Hanzhou was the true successor of the Yunxia Sect.

It is no exaggeration to say that as long as his cultivation level increases, he could even use it to impersonate the Supreme Elder of the Yunxia Sect.

In that same year, a momentous event that shocked the world occurred on the border of the Great Qian Dynasty.

The Qing Dynasty in the north brazenly broke the peace agreement and mobilized 300,000 cavalry to march south.

The Qing army's target was Liaozhou on the border of the Daqian Dynasty, and they launched a lightning-fast surprise attack.

For some unknown reason, the 100,000-strong Daqian Border Army guarding Liaozhou suffered a crushing defeat in just half a month.

This directly resulted in a huge gap being torn open in the northern defense line of the Daqian Dynasty.

The battle line was directly pulled by the Qing army to Qingzhou, which is next to Liaozhou.

This incident enraged the already precarious Daqian Dynasty!

Currently, the Great Qian Dynasty is issuing a "conscription order" to the entire country.

The aim was to call upon all martial artists of the highest caliber to rush to the front lines in Qingzhou to resist the invasion of the Qing Dynasty.

This move even affected Ping'an Town, which is so remote, where Lin Hanzhou lives.

This shows just how dire the situation had become in the Great Qian Dynasty.

Within Ping'an Town, all martial artists who have reached a certain level of proficiency range from the town mayor, who is at the peak of the first-rate level, to a young man who has just entered the third-rate level.

Almost all of them left their homes and went to Qingzhou to resist the Qing army's invasion under the conscription order.

This has directly resulted in Ping'an Town having almost all of its high-end combat power withdrawn.

Only an elderly town mayor in his sixties and a few third-rate martial artists who were old, weak, sick, or disabled remained.

Those who weren't conscripted either had distinguished themselves in their youth or held important positions that were difficult to transfer.

In the face of brutal war, the Great Qian Dynasty doesn't care whether you're disabled or not.

As for second-rate martial artists, only Lin Hanzhou remains.

The reason he wasn't drafted into the army was entirely due to his identity.

A helpless stranger of unknown origin.

For the government, such people are the most unstable factor.

They had no family or relatives to rely on, and on the battlefield, they had no loyalty whatsoever.

Even if they deserted in the face of battle, or even defected to the enemy country, they would have no worries about the future.

The so-called post-war punishments had no deterrent effect on them.

This is also why he was fortunate enough to be exempted from this conscription.

However, Lin Hanzhou knew in his heart that even if the imperial court insisted on conscripting him, he would find a way to escape halfway.

He was joking; he had no intention of working for this collapsing dynasty and dying for nothing.

Two more years passed in this tense and oppressive atmosphere.

This is the ninth year since Lin Hanzhou transmigrated to this world.

That year, even worse news came from the Qingzhou front.

The 500,000-strong army assembled by the Daqian Dynasty in Qingzhou was utterly defeated in a decisive battle against the Qing army.

This directly led to the collapse of the entire Qingzhou defense line and its complete fall.

By this time, the Qing cavalry had occupied two of the eighteen prefectures of the Great Qian Dynasty.

The Qing Dynasty's 300,000-strong army marched straight into the heart of the Central Plains!

Regarding this result, Lin Hanzhou could only say that the Great Qian Dynasty should practice more.

Even with 500,000 against 300,000, the poet could be beaten into a stray dog.

Given the current situation, if the Qing army were to occupy another prefecture, the flames of war would then spread to Qingzhou, where Lin Hanzhou is currently located.

If the Qing army attacks, he will definitely be the first to run away.

As a time traveler, he had no sense of belonging to the Great Qian Dynasty.

Preserving your own life is the most important thing.

In such a national-level war, even the number of grandmasters is considerable, and he, a second-tier martial artist, has no way to change the course of the battle.

Even if he were to use the Flowing Cloud Sword Technique at its peak, he might be able to kill a Grandmaster.

So what happens then?

Then you were ganged up on and beaten to death by a group of grandmasters, right?

It is worth mentioning that although the flames of war have not yet directly spread to Gyeongju, the entire Gyeongju has become increasingly chaotic and turbulent.

the reason is simple.

Countless refugees who fled from Liaozhou and Qingzhou poured into Qingzhou.

Among these refugees were also a large number of defeated soldiers, as well as bandits and outlaws who took advantage of the chaos.

In present-day Qingzhou, bandits are rampant, and murder and robbery occur frequently.

Although Ping'an Town, where Lin Hanzhou lived, was remote, a sense of unease gradually began to emerge.

He knew that his peaceful days of cultivation were probably coming to an end.

However, none of these are as important as what he has to do right now.

Now, due to his previous accumulation, his cultivation level has reached a critical point.

He's about to enter the third-stage Qi Sea Realm!