With chaos looming, the only thing Lin Hanzhou could do was seize every moment to improve his strength.
He knew perfectly well that his cultivation at the peak of the second-tier Qi Gathering Realm was still nowhere near enough.
Although his cultivation was already impressive, enough to make him a notable figure in the martial world,
on the board of the whole world, he was still nothing more than a slightly larger chess piece.
Only by breaking through to the third-tier Qi Sea Realm and gaining the strength of a grandmaster could he truly earn the right to stir up the winds and clouds of the world.
Only then could he go from being a mere chess piece to a player capable of flipping the table.
Another year passed.
This was the seventh year since Lin Hanzhou had crossed over into this world.
By now, his cultivation was still stuck at the peak of the second-tier Qi Gathering Realm.
The bottleneck between major realms was not easy to overcome.
Even with the talent bonus of a Martial Arts Prodigy, he felt he was still just a little short of breaking through.
He estimated that he would need another year or two of steady work before he could break through naturally.
Lin Hanzhou was very satisfied with this rate of cultivation.
Achieving the third-tier Qi Sea Realm within ten years had completely exceeded his expectations.
Even in Blue Star, a world brimming with geniuses, advancing from the second tier to the third in ten years would make someone an exceptional prodigy.
What was more, he was cultivating in a world where spiritual energy was far less abundant than on Blue Star and cultivation resources were scarce.
In addition, after seven years of arduous practice, his Flowing Cloud Sword Technique had already reached the level of Great Accomplishment.
He was now just one step away from the legendary level of Perfection.
If the higher-ups of the Cloud Glow Sect learned of his mastery of the sword technique, they would probably be left gaping in disbelief.
Anyone who didn't know better would think that Lin Hanzhou was the true successor of the Cloud Glow Sect.
It was no exaggeration to say that once his cultivation improved, he could even pass himself off as the Cloud Glow Sect's Grand Elder.
That same year, a world-shaking event took place on the borders of the Great Gan Dynasty.
The Great Qing Dynasty to the north brazenly tore up the peace agreement and gathered three hundred thousand cavalry to march south.
The Qing Army's target was Liao Province on Great Gan's border, which they attacked in a lightning-fast surprise assault.
For some unknown reason, the hundred thousand Great Gan border troops stationed in Liao Province collapsed like a landslide in just half a month.
This tore a huge hole in the Great Gan Dynasty's northern defenses.
The front line was pushed all the way to Qing Province, next to Liao Province.
The incident enraged the already tottering Great Gan court!
Great Gan was now issuing a conscription order to the entire realm.
Its goal was to summon all ranked martial artists in the land to the front lines in Qing Province and repel the Great Qing invasion.
The order even affected Peace Town, the remote place where Lin Hanzhou lived.
It showed just how dire Great Gan's situation had become.
In Peace Town, nearly every ranked martial artist—from the town chief at the peak of the first tier to young men who had only just entered the third tier—left home under the conscription order and headed to Qing Province to fight the Qing Army.
As a result, Peace Town's high-end fighting force had been almost completely stripped away.
All that remained were the town chief, an old man past sixty, and a few frail third-tier martial artists.
They had not been conscripted because they had distinguished themselves when they were young or because they held important positions and could not easily be transferred.
In the face of a merciless war, the Great Gan Dynasty didn't care whether you were disabled.
Lin Hanzhou was the only second-tier martial artist left.
The only reason he hadn't been dragged off to war was his identity.
He was an outsider with no family and an unknown background.
To the authorities, people like him were the most unpredictable.
With no family or relatives to hold them back, they had no loyalty to speak of on the battlefield.
Even if they deserted in the middle of a battle or defected to the enemy, they had nothing to lose.
The threat of punishment after the war held no sway over them, either.
That was why he'd been lucky enough to avoid this round of conscription.
But Lin Hanzhou knew that even if the court insisted on drafting him, he would find a way to escape along the way.
As if he'd go and work himself to death for free for a dynasty on the verge of collapse.
Two more years passed in an atmosphere of tension and oppression.
This was the ninth year since Lin Hanzhou had crossed over into this world.
That year, even worse news came from the front lines in Qing Province.
The five hundred thousand troops Great Gan had assembled in Qing Province fought the Qing Army in a decisive battle and suffered a crushing defeat.
As a result, the entire Qing Province defensive line fell, and the province was completely lost.
By then, the Great Qing cavalry had occupied two of the Great Gan Dynasty's eighteen provinces.
The Great Qing army of three hundred thousand was heading straight for the heartland of the Central Plains!
Lin Hanzhou could only say that Great Gan was so bad it needed more practice.
They had five hundred thousand against three hundred thousand and still got beaten like stray dogs. Were they poets or something?
Given the current situation, if the Qing Army occupied one more province, the flames of war would sweep into Qing Prefecture, where Lin Hanzhou was now.
If the Qing Army came, he would definitely be the first to run.
As someone who had crossed into this world, he felt no particular attachment to the Great Gan Dynasty.
Keeping himself alive was what mattered most.
In a war on this national scale, even grandmasters were numerous. A second-tier martial artist like him couldn't change the course of the battle.
Even if, with his Great Accomplishment-level Flowing Cloud Sword Technique, he could perhaps kill a grandmaster—
Then what?
Then a whole pack of grandmasters would gang up on him and beat him to death, right?
It was worth mentioning that although the flames of war had not yet spread directly to Qing Prefecture, the whole region had grown increasingly chaotic and unsettled.
The reason was simple.
Countless refugees fleeing Liao Province and Qing Province had poured into Qing Prefecture.
Among them were also large numbers of routed soldiers, as well as bandits and brigands looking to take advantage of the chaos.
These days, bandits were everywhere in Qing Prefecture, and murder and robbery happened all the time.
Though Peace Town, where Lin Hanzhou lived, was remote, it too had gradually begun to feel a hint of unease.
He knew that his peaceful days of cultivation were probably coming to an end.
But all of that was less important than what was happening right now.
Thanks to all the groundwork he had laid, his cultivation had now reached a critical point.
He was about to enter the third-tier Qi Sea Realm!
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