Chapter 71: Nan Hua's Scheme

  Lü Bu was shocked out of his wits by this arrow, but what's even more frightening is that although the arrow didn't hit Lü Bu, it still pierced through several soldiers behind him with undiminished force, and after piercing a batch of war horses, it finally stuck into the ground with only half of the arrow shaft left, along with the quivering arrow feathers.

  Following the momentum, he saw an old man with white hair and beard, wearing a clean Taoist robe, standing on a mountain slope, looking at him from afar. Lü Bu estimated that the distance between them was far beyond the range of his bow and arrow - even if he himself couldn't guarantee hitting the target at this distance, let alone shooting through several people with an arrow that still didn't lose its momentum?

  "Who is this old Taoist anyway?"

  With a sudden turn in his mind, he immediately realized that this old Taoist was probably not an ordinary person, and might be a recluse who understood the mysteries of the universe, just like the master of today.

  If Liu Xuan were here, he would certainly be able to recognize that this white-bearded old man was the Southern China Old Immortal who had assassinated him. Unexpectedly, this old man had actually come all the way here to look for trouble with Lü Bu.

  Lü Bu realized that this was no ordinary person, and also saw that the old man had come with ill intentions. Otherwise, he wouldn't have tried to take his life as soon as he made a move. He ordered his soldiers to be on guard, while he himself faced the direction of the old Daoist, shouting angrily: "Old Daoist, you actually launched a sneak attack! What do you want to achieve?"

  A Taoist, generally speaking, likes a carefree life like clouds and wild cranes. Such people rarely take the initiative to cause trouble, so why did he sneak up on me? Can't this person see my identity?

  Even if his eyesight was really bad, he still had thousands of soldiers following him, and even if he didn't have the ability to see, it wouldn't be exaggerated to this extent, would it?

  "Could it be that these two thieves have invited a helper?"

  At this point, Lü Bu no longer hesitated and hastily urged his warhorse to rush towards the mountain slope where the old Taoist was.

  Although the distant slope is not short, the slope is gentle, and the war horse can also rush up. What's more, Chi Tu Ma is extremely divine and fast, even if it's an uphill sprint, it's faster than a normal war horse, and in the blink of an eye, it has already rushed through half the distance.

  Lü Bu didn't idle, inserting the halberd into the leather pouch on his warhorse, and with a swift motion, he picked up his bow and arrow. He drew his bow, nocked the arrow, held his breath, and focused his spirit. He felt a surge of energy flowing through his body, and then the tip of the arrow began to emanate a dazzling light, like the sun. As Lü Bu saw the light grow larger, it finally became as brilliant as the sun itself. Immediately, he released the arrow.

  "You deserve to die!"

  The sound had just fallen, and the arrow shot by the Setting Sun Bow was already at the Daoist's face. What surprised Lü Bu was that this old Daoist simply waved his hand, as if shooing away a mosquito, and brushed aside his own Setting Sun Bow, which was filled with all his might.

  Lü Bu was shocked, but he didn't have time to be surprised. The old Taoist had already swung his Falling Sun Bow and his body became blurry for a moment. When Lü Bu saw him again, the old man was standing right in front of him, less than three steps away. He saw the old man take a deep breath, bend his waist, and then his right hand, which had been hidden under his wide sleeves, shot out like a jade palm, slapping towards **the war horse.

  All of a sudden, there was a "pa" sound, and Lü Bu felt that Red Hare had stopped abruptly, and then the whole horse fell to the ground. He himself was also thrown out because the warhorse suddenly stopped, but fortunately, at this time, there were no stirrups, only single-sided stirrups, mainly used for mounting horses, so Lü Bu was not caught by the stirrup. After being thrown into the air, he quickly found his balance and landed steadily on the ground with a flip in mid-air.

  Turning back, he immediately saw that his beloved Red Hare horse was spraying blood from its mouth and nose, lying on the ground with more exhalations than inhalations. Unexpectedly, the old Taoist priest who looked frail and weak had struck down the charging warhorse with a single palm, rendering it in this state?

  "Is this still human power? Could it be that this old Daoist has already become an immortal?"

  His heart was filled with suspicion and uncertainty, but his hands immediately dropped the bow and arrow, drew out the long sword from his waist, and stared at the old Taoist with a guarded expression.

  Only to see Nan Hua Lao Xian shook his hand, as if he wanted to shake off the dirt on his hand, then turned around and looked at Lü Bu with a face of disdain: "Little kid learned some superficial skills, but doesn't know the height of the sky or the thickness of the earth..."

  It was already surprising that Lü Bu could dodge his sneak attack, and the move he shot out with a random arrow later shocked Nan Hua: "That little emperor actually passed on the cultivation method to his subordinates?"

  He didn't quite understand what idea this approach was based on. If it followed Nanhuai Laoxian's original plan, there would be many ignorant people in the world who only needed to cultivate one or two trusted followers and teach them some superficial skills to deceive these ordinary people. After the world fell into his hands, he could rely on those even more extraordinary means to become a transcendent existence, even accepting the worship of all people under heaven.

  Liu Xuan had calculated and schemed, but he never could have anticipated that Nan Hua Lao Xian's plans were all for the sake of the power born from the reverence and fear of the world. If Liu Xuan were to find out, he would surely know that this power was what people called 'Faith Power'.

  The power of faith is similar to the dragon energy of the Son of Heaven, it's a very ethereal and elusive thing, but once you grasp the method, you can transform this power into a magical force that belongs to you. If combined with corresponding tempering techniques, cultivating genuine abilities will allow your cultivation speed to increase by several levels.

  Liu Xuan's dragon energy is like this, Nan Hua Lao Xian's various plans are also for this purpose.

  Ultimately, it's because the cultivation civilization on this earth is at a very low level. Many predecessors in cultivation can only cultivate to the current level of Nan Hua, although they have a long lifespan, but not infinite, if they cannot further improve, after hundreds of years, they will still become a handful of yellow soil.

  Nan Hua Lao Xian had always been thinking of a way, and later inadvertently thought of the power of dragon energy. The dragon energy also contained emotions such as reverence, expectation, and awe from the people towards this dynasty. This old Taoist thought that if these emotions were transferred to a certain person, would it be possible for this person to utilize this power?

  Since the emperor can get the blessing of dragon energy, he is a fairy person, why can't he use this power? Maybe he can break through the shackles and go further with this power.

  So he has been waiting for the opportunity to perfect this cultivation method, and seeing the decline of the Han Dynasty as a great opportunity, he let his three disciples take action.

  Unexpectedly, my own plan ultimately wasn't perfect after all, and I ended up failing cleanly - after investigating the reason for the failure, there was a faint shadow of someone from the imperial family intervening, which is how the previous assassination attempt on Liu Xuan by Nan Hua came about.

  Although that attempt was unsuccessful, it made Nan Hua Lao Xian aware that there were also cultivation techniques in the imperial family, and this newly enthroned young emperor was a cultivator who had learned how to control and refine dragon energy. If he continued on this path, the declining Han dynasty might be saved by him.

  In that case, his own long wait would be in vain. More importantly, if the new emperor cultivated successfully and lived a long life, he himself would have no opportunity to wait for such a chaotic world again, so he could not let Liu Xuan bring this already declining dynasty back to its heyday.

  These days, Nan Hua Lao Xian has thought of several ways: to make the Han Dynasty completely collapse, it's nothing more than making the world even more chaotic. His own disciples who were not up to par may have died, but the team they pulled together still had a lot left. As long as he himself made a high call and showed off his strength again, he would definitely be able to gather the Yellow Turban Army once more.

  In addition, Nan Hua made another trip to Hanzhong, wanting to persuade the people of the Tianshi Dao to join forces - after all, the world is so big, two people each occupying half of the rivers and mountains, enough to gather a large number of followers.

  To show their sincerity, Nan Hua and Zhang Lu shared their respective methods of gathering and refining their beliefs. As a result of this sharing, they discovered that both parties had similar plans, but neither was perfect. Zhang Lu's method of gathering was better, while Nan Hua's refined method was more mysterious. After combining the two methods, they finally formed a complete method. With this, their chances of success were greater. Once the timing was ripe, they would simultaneously rise up in arms and thoroughly destroy the Han Dynasty.

  Nan Hua was very satisfied, after leaving Hanzhong he heard that the imperial court had sent troops to attack Li Jue and Guo Si, intending to bring the northwest back under imperial control. He had an idea in his mind, so he came over to take a look, thinking - if I can't kill the emperor, killing his top general would be just as good. That's why he secretly shot at Lü Bu with an arrow, but didn't expect that Lü Bu had also cultivated mystic arts. This matter made Nan Hua extremely anxious.

  "If that emperor were to spread the technique everywhere, things would become even more troublesome."

  Originally, he and Zhang Lu wanted to use secular means and some mysterious techniques to occupy the world. However, Liu Xuan's actions changed things. If all the generals of the imperial court were people who understood various mysterious techniques like this, then relying solely on one or two individuals, no matter how strong their cultivation was, it would be impossible to conquer the world. Even if he could conquer a place, there would be no one to defend against the attacks of these generals.

  "Detestable little emperor!" Towards the new emperor who didn't play by the rules, Nan Hua was so angry that his teeth itched. Moreover, Liu Xuan had also destroyed the staff he always carried with him, adding new hatred to old grudges. Nan Hua hated him so much that he wanted to eat his flesh and drink his blood.

  "Hmph, since you were able to obtain the Emperor's transmission of cultivation techniques so early on, you must be someone he holds in high regard. This time, killing you will surely make that Emperor choke with rage for a good while."

  However, before that, Nan Hua was very curious about what Liu Xuan had taught this general. According to common sense, cultivation is not easy to accomplish overnight, so it's impossible for this general to be a cultivator from the beginning?

  He reached out and grabbed Lü Bu's forehead, silently using the "Soul Searching Technique". Before Lü Bu could even react, he felt his skull was about to explode, waves of intense pain almost causing him to collapse.

  "Die, you old thief!"

  A loud roar, the originally calm and flowing aura inside his body suddenly became violent, a burst of orange-red aura exploded out, directly sending Nan Hua Lao Xian flying back.

  "What?"

  He looked up and was surprised to find that a jade seal had appeared on Lü Bu's head, suspended in mid-air, emitting a faint glow that enveloped Lü Bu. The scattered light was naturally recognized by Nan Hua as dragon energy, and it belonged to the Han Dynasty's dragon energy.