Chapter 21: Breaking Through the Second Realm—Just in Time

Driver, go to Rong Cheng No. 1 High.

Sure.

At the gate of the Heroes' Martyrs Cemetery, Lu Xun got into a ride-hailing car.

Driver, why is this route wrong?

Not far along, Lu Xun sensed something was off.

Young man, just now there was an accident on Beicheng Avenue that blocked the road, so we have to detour.

An accident?

What kind of accident could block an eight-lane, one-way Beicheng Avenue?

Rumor has it that Shadow Clan members have infiltrated the city, specializing in assassinating geniuses who have opened the Heaven Earth Meridian; the accident on Beicheng Avenue happened just like that.

The driver, fearing Lu Xun wouldn't believe him, hurried to explain.

Shadow Clan members have come to Rong Cheng!

Don't worry, young man; these Shadow Clan members only kill geniuses who have opened the Heaven Earth Meridian. We're just passing right under their noses, and they wouldn't even glance at us.

The driver, worried Lu Xun might be scared, kindly tried to comfort him.

Lu Xun opened his mouth, but in the end he didn't tell the driver that he, too, had opened the Heaven Earth Meridian.

Sigh, these days ordinary folk have a hard time getting by. You look like a student, young man—hurry up and open your meridian. If you can't, you'll end up like me, a fifty-something with four kids at home, still needing another child just to qualify for a pension.

Once the driver started talking, he couldn't stop, pouring out his life's hardships to Lu Xun.

Lu Xun held the cat in one hand and pulled out his phone to scroll videos with the other.

Soon he came across a video of the Beicheng Avenue accident.

All he saw was thick smoke billowing, utter chaos, and wrecked vehicles strewn everywhere.

Such a big move?

Aren't the Shadow Clan supposed to do assassinations? How did they pull off such a huge spectacle?

An energy transport vehicle… no wonder.

After scrolling through the comments, Lu Xun understood.

This time the Shadow Clan's assassination target was Wang Tengyun of the Wang family.

However, Wang Tengyun is always guarded by experts, so they cleverly used a vehicle transporting energy blocks, detonated it to create chaos, then moved against Wang Tengyun.

Unfortunately, they still failed to kill Wang Tengyun.

Murong Zhan is a fourth-realm grandmaster; as long as Murong Wan stays home, she should be safe…

Lu Xun put down his phone and instinctively began to worry about Murong Wan.

Boom~

Suddenly, a blast rang out and the taxi swayed left and right.

Damn!

The driver struggled to stabilize the vehicle and brought the taxi to a halt.

A tire blew out, young man—wait a moment while I get the spare.

The driver unbuckled his seat belt and got out.

Shit, both tires are ruined—who the hell put spikes on the road??

Young man, sorry, but you'll probably need to call another car; I'll refund your fare.

After checking the situation, the driver told Lu Xun.

No need, driver—you're not having it easy either, so don't bother refunding the fare.

Young man, you're really kind.

Lu Xun didn't let the driver refund the fare, pulled out his phone to call another car, then got out holding the cat.

Meow.

Just after getting out, the little cat in his arms suddenly stood up, its fur all bristling.

Lu Xun's brow twitched violently.

A sense of mortal danger surged into his heart.

His head instinctively tilted to the side.

Whoosh!

A sharp bolt whizzed past, barely grazing the hairs on his face.

Even though it didn't hit Lu Xun, nor even touch his skin, the skin on his face felt as if it were being scraped by a fierce wind.

This shows the power of the bolt.

If it had struck Lu Xun, even though he was at the twenty-fourth stage of body tempering, his head would have been pierced through.

Driver, I have the Heaven Earth Meridian—help me call the police.

After dodging the deadly bolt, Lu Xun tossed out those words and bolted, holding the cat.

Huh?

The driver was dumbfounded.

The young passenger in his own car turned out to be a peerless genius who had opened the Heaven Earth Meridian?

After realizing this, he quickly flung himself to the ground and pulled out his phone to call the police.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh~

Sure enough,

After the first bolt, immediately the second, third, and fourth bolts came shooting.

The terrain here is extremely open, with no obstacles—clearly the enemy had carefully chosen this spot for sniping.

「Myriad Traces Step! 」

The crossbow bolts came fast and accurate, Lu Xun used Myriad Traces Step.

Only saw his figure constantly shifting, each time he managed to dodge the crossbow bolts at the critical moment.

He kept winding forward, wanting to escape the opponent's range.

「Whoosh~」

A crossbow bolt landed beside his foot, shattering a tofu-sized stone into fragments.

「Warrior crossbow! 」

Lu Xun knew the opponent was using a warrior crossbow with immense power and extremely high firing speed.

He changed direction again, dodged several crossbow bolts, and hid behind a large rock.

「Haah. 」

Lu Xun panted heavily.

The martial art's power is extraordinary, but using it consumes greatly; Lu Xun had just opened his meridians and cannot sustain it for long.

He could first catch his breath then escape.

「What the hell, is this the first realm? 」

In the distance, the attacker wielding a warrior crossbow couldn't believe it.

With his strength, combined with the ambush using this warrior crossbow in his hand, even an ordinary second-realm martial artist would hardly escape death.

Now dealing with a first-realm guy, he actually missed!

「No signal... something's off, this guy is probably not a Shadow Clan person. 」

Behind the rock, Lu Xun pulled out his phone, glanced at it, and found something off.

Shadow Clan people would not normally block phone signals in an area.

Moreover, Shadow Clan people are natural assassins; if they wanted to kill me, they could just sneak over and stab me—no need to use a warrior crossbow.

「Whoosh whoosh whoosh~」

「Bang bang~」

The attacker resumed the attack.

Crossbow bolts kept hitting the rock, each arrow sinking completely into it, feathers and all.

「If this continues, the rock will be shot through; his distance is constantly closing; after resting half a minute, he'll escape. 」

The attacker's strength is not bad; even this large rock cannot protect him.

Moreover, Lu Xun felt the opponent rapidly approaching.

Because the interval between crossbow bolts kept shortening, the force kept increasing.

【Murong Wan broke through to the second realm, you gain ten times Murong Wan's harvest.】

At this moment, suddenly.

The system's voice rang in his mind.

A heat flow followed.

「She broke through? 」

Lu Xun's face involuntarily showed joy.

Murong Wan had just mastered her martial technique yesterday, and today she broke through to the second realm.

The timing of the breakthrough was exquisite.

It came just in time.

At this moment, heat flow continuously surged into his body.

After this heat flow entered his whole body, it ran along the Ren, Du, Chong, and Dai meridians... forming a great circulation.

In this process, true qi kept being born.

Other martial artists wanting to reach the second realm need to stabilize their meridians, then absorb Dark Energy to conduct a heavenly circuit, thereby converting the absorbed Dark Energy into internal true qi.

When true qi becomes abundant, one can burst open the dantian and establish the qi sea in one go.

Thus, the second realm of martial arts is called the qi sea realm.

In Lu Xun's case, however, this process is simplified.

Under the impetus of the tenfold-return heat flow, the speed at which true qi is born in his body is too fast.

Even if his meridians throughout his body were as wide as great rivers, they would quickly be filled.

Immediately afterward, these true qi rushed toward his dantian.

「Hum! 」

The dantian was burst open, true qi surged in, and a vast qi sea rapidly formed.

Lu Xun thereby formally entered the second realm of martial arts, possessing the first layer of qi sea cultivation.

This hasn't ended yet.

There was still plenty of heat flow, continuously turning into true qi that poured into the qi sea until the qi sea could hold no more.

At this point, the qi sea began compressing true qi, raising its quality.

Until it could no longer be compressed.

「Hum~」

The qi sea was further expanded, and Lu Xun entered the second layer of qi sea.