Chapter 72: Emergency Measures

  That Jade Seal South China Old Immortal did not recognize, if Lü Bu raised his head to take a look, he should be able to recognize it. However, at this moment Lü Bu didn't notice this point at all, he only felt that the energy in his body was surging non-stop, like a fierce burning fire tumbling inside him.

  But this situation didn't make him feel uncomfortable, instead he had a very strange feeling - his whole body was full of strength, and he wanted to vent it out fiercely.

  He turned his head to look at the old Taoist, only to see that the Taoist was staring at something on top of his own head with a shocked expression. Lü Bu didn't know what the Taoist was looking at and he wasn't interested in knowing either. All he knew was that this old man had severely injured his beloved horse Red Hare, and it was uncertain whether the horse would survive or not. Moreover, the old man had also humiliated him. If he didn't avenge this, he would be unworthy of being a man.

  With one step, he rushed to the front of Nan Hua Lao Xian in a few big strides. Lu Bu's Fang Tian Hua Halberd was on Chi Tu Ma, and he only had a long sword in his hand. However, this ordinary long sword couldn't be underestimated in his hands. The sharp sword in his hand fell like lightning, and Nan Hua Lao Xian saw that the power of this sword was full and swift as thunder. Even with his strong cultivation, he didn't dare to hard-receive it, so he immediately retreated a step back and forced the sword away.

  As he jumped back, Nan Hua Lao Xian's left hand spread its five fingers apart, and a black-purple cloud gradually condensed in the palm of his hand. The black cloud seemed to be substantial, and Lü Bu felt uncomfortable after taking a glance at it. He knew that this thing was unknown but absolutely untouchable. To avoid getting too close and losing reaction time, Lü Bu held his long sword horizontally, then twisted his waist and swung his arm. Suddenly, he flung out a half-moon slash, which shot straight towards Nan Hua Lao Xian's throat.

  Lü Bu was originally a master of martial arts, and after mastering these moves one by one, he could also unleash them with great power, directly targeting people's vital points. Although the Old Immortal of South China was not beheaded by Lü Bu in one move, he also had no interest in using his own neck to test how strong this move really was.

  As soon as he saw the Half-Moon Slash, he immediately thought of ducking to avoid it, but unexpectedly, the jade seal that had been hovering above Lü Bu's head suddenly came crashing down, catching Nan Hua off guard and slowing his movements. By the time he tried to react, it was almost too late, and he could only barely block it.

  With a push of his left hand, a black smoke burst out, and at the same time, his right hand clenched into a fist, raised high above his head and then chopped down fiercely, actually chopping Lü Bu's half-moon slash to pieces.

  He waited for him to lift his head again, but was shocked to find that his black smoke couldn't even affect the jade seal, and was instead slowly dissipated by the golden dragon energy emitted from the jade seal. In just this short moment, more than half of the black smoke had already disappeared.

  "What on earth is this thing?"

  With many unresolved questions in his mind, he made various responses with his hands, and all kinds of spells were applied in turn. However, most of them could not overcome the dragon's aura. Seeing that this thing was so troublesome, Lü Bu took out a painting halberd and stabbed it straight at his face. After hastily avoiding it, he had no choice but to decide to flee.

  "Relying on your dragon's aura being extraordinary, wait until the Immortal destroys your rivers and mountains, breaks your dragon's aura, and see how you'll still be so arrogant!"

  A surge of anger welled up in his chest, and he grew even more resentful towards Liu Xuan. After a moment's thought, he headed straight east: "Let the world become even more chaotic."

  Lü Bu held his halberd, and in the blink of an eye, that old Taoist had vanished without a trace. A mouthful of stifled anger had nowhere to vent, he was so angry that he almost spat blood, but since everyone had run away without a trace, what could he do?

  It wasn't until then that Lü Bu noticed the imperial seal floating in the sky, something Nan Huai was unfamiliar with, but he recognized it - it was one of the six imperial seals, which Liu Xuan usually carried with him every day, how did it end up here?

  "Could it be that I was saved by Your Majesty?"

  As soon as the thought arose, the imperial seal suddenly burst open, and countless golden clouds merged and dispersed to form a faintly visible golden dragon. The dragon then coiled around Lü Bu's body, and he felt the tearing sensation on his body gradually subsiding. Afterwards, the golden dragon plunged its head into the body of Red Hare, which was almost on the verge of collapse.

  Lü Bu was astonished, and then he was amazed to find that the Red Hare horse, which had almost stopped breathing, miraculously slowly recovered. Its breathing also gradually stabilized a lot. Lü Bu was overjoyed, and since Liu Xuan had saved his life earlier, he looked into the distance at Liu Xuan's location and bowed several times.

  Although Chi Tu's injuries were gradually recovering, he was in no condition to go into battle at the moment, so he had to let his subordinates send Chi Tu back to Chang'an for good care.

  At this time, the emperor was in his tent, Zhang Liao stood with a sword outside the big tent, not only did he not call anyone to come in, but even approaching was also forbidden.

  Yang Biao naturally didn't know what the Emperor was doing, but Xun Yu and Guo Jia knew that Liu Xuan had become a hermit to cultivate his skills and it wasn't convenient for people to see him, so he let Zhang Liao guard him.

  But in fact, Liu Xuan was not cultivating, but urging the emperor's seal in his hand to compete with Nan Hua from afar.

  The jade seal that suddenly appeared on Lü Bu's head was actually the projection of one of the six seals, the Emperor's Seal of Authority, which was used by the emperor to appoint kings and officials.

  Originally, Liu Xuan was going to refine the Emperor's Seal after successfully refining the Heaven's Son Seal, but because the Long Knife Chi Xiao had retained a part of the dragon energy from the Chi Xiao Sword, and even the killing intent was still present, the Emperor's Seal was not so urgent to be refined. After selecting for a while, Liu Xuan began to refine the Emperor's Imperial Seal.

  This imperial seal should be the most important of the six seals, as it is a symbol of the emperor's authority and represents the bureaucratic system of a feudal dynasty. If this seal were to be successfully worshipped, perhaps there would be great benefits for Liu Xuan's rule over the world.

  It turned out that Liu Xuan's speculation was not wrong, and after spending several months finally completing the refinement of the Emperor's Seal, Liu Xuan was surprised to find that the effect of this Emperor's Seal was indeed the most helpful to the throne among the six seals.

  From then on, as long as Liu Xuan issued an edict with the imperial seal to appoint officials, he would establish a mysterious connection with the entire dynasty. Similarly, Liu Xuan, who had thoroughly grasped the dragon energy of this dynasty, could also connect with these people.

  At this time, because Liu Xuanxiu was still weak and the emperor's seal itself was not powerful, this connection did not show up. If it were to wait until Liu Xuanxiu became stronger, then the emperor's seal would reveal its power - as long as it was through this seal that officials were appointed and the other party accepted, a strange connection similar to a master-slave contract would appear.

  If we use Liu Xuan's more familiar affairs to describe it, the Emperor's Seal seems to have a bit of the meaning of the "Ranking of Gods", those who are appointed by oneself will thoroughly submit to oneself.

  Upon learning this, Liu Xuan was overjoyed. After all, the shadow of being betrayed last time had not completely dissipated. Although he had now gathered a group of capable people and enticed them with various benefits to risk their lives for him, he still worried that one day these people would betray him.

  However, with the existence of the Emperor's Seal, this possibility of betrayal can be reduced to a minimal level - in normal times, the Imperial Seal will not impose any constraints on Liu Xuan's subordinates, but rather bring benefits.

  For example, as Liu Xuan's dynasty becomes more prosperous, these generals will also share some of the prosperity and their cultivation will grow slowly, and their training speed will also be slightly faster.

  Even at some critical moments, they will get shelter and burst out strong combat power.

  However, if you betray and want to oppose Liu Xuan, all these benefits will be lost, and you will also be subject to various restraints. Within the scope of Liu Xuan's rule, your own cultivation will also be severely suppressed - think about it, this person's cultivation is not as good as Liu Xuan's, and after being suppressed, where is the possibility of successful resistance?

  This treasure that benefits his own rule is the most needed treasure for Liu Xuan at this time, but he didn't expect that the first time it was activated, it was because his general Lü Bu was ambushed.

  In fact, Lü Bu was ambushed, even if he was killed by Nan Hua, it would not trigger this treasure to respond. But unfortunately, Nan Hua should not have used the Soul Searching Technique to forcibly seize the cultivation method from Lü Bu's mind.

  Liu Xuan's transmission of the mantra to the crowd was quite special, especially the second part of the cultivation mantra, which had a mutual influence with the entire dynasty - if not, how could these generals' cultivation progress so quickly? The root cause lies in the fact that after Liu Xuan ascended to the throne, the Han Dynasty's atmosphere changed along with it, gradually shifting from decline to a trend of rising.

  With the great harvest in Chang'an, the people are also prospering and praising. Liu Xuan also gradually felt the change of dragon energy between heaven and earth. Those who obtained the formula from Liu Xuan and started cultivating also benefited from it, and their cultivation speed increased a lot, which is why they could become battle-ready in such a short time.

  As soon as the old immortal of Nanhua touched this part, he immediately triggered a response from the Emperor's Seal - offending the heavenly power, how can one not be angry? At the same time, Liu Xuan also had some feeling, directly using the Emperor's Seal, taking the monarch-subject relationship between the two as the benchmark, through the dragon energy scattered in the heaven and earth to make a connection, pouring part of the dragon energy into Lü Bu's body, causing his combat power to surge instantly.

  It's just that this situation can't be used recklessly, Lü Bu is able to withstand it because his physical body is already extremely strong, if an ordinary person were to suddenly obtain such power, they would probably immediately explode and die. As for coordinating with Lü Bu against the enemy, this move isn't something that can be used at any time either, unless Liu Xuan sits there motionless every time, more importantly, he can only divide his attention to control one place, if it weren't for Lü Bu running into Nan Hua, Liu Xuan wouldn't have resorted to using this trick.

  Apart from this, gathering the scattered dragon energy between heaven and earth, with Lü Bu as the guide, condensing into an emperor's seal that exists between reality and illusion, isn't something that can be done just by relying on the dragon energy stored within the emperor's seal in Liu Xuan's hand.

  In order to achieve this, Liu Xuan had no choice but to use his last resort - break the Dragon Egg!

  Breaking the dragon egg is just a name, in fact, it's to crack open several gaps inside the body, then extract the dragon energy from the gaps for emergency use.

  This approach has a huge problem that anyone with a bit of brain can see, but in order to keep the newly cultivated Lü Bu, it's not necessarily not worth it.

  "Never mind, anyway, once the northwest is pacified, the gathered dragon energy will be even more abundant, and this loss can be made up quickly."