Song Xuan's Strength

After packing their things, the siblings left the Imperial Capital on Blue-Maned Horses, the standard mounts of the Black Robe Guard, and headed toward Langlang Mountain.

On the road, Song Xuan willed a transparent interface into view, much like a player's status panel in a game.

Name: Song Xuan

Age: twenty

Identity: third-class guard of the Black Robe Guard

Realm: ninth stage of the Houtian Realm (simultaneous cultivation of essence, qi, and spirit)

Reputation in the martial world: a fledgling fresh from his thatched cottage

Pet: Black Robe Guard Blue-Maned Horse

Internal cultivation methods: Pure Yang Limitless Child Skill (Celestial Person Level technique), Mystic Ice Force, passed down through the family (Xiantian-level technique)

Martial techniques: Black Robe Guard basic unarmed combat, basic saber techniques, basic sword techniques

Beginner hidden-weapon throwing techniques, Beginner Iron Shirt, beginner lightness technique Flying over Grass

Equipment: Black Robe Guard standard-issue flexible armor, standard-issue longsword, dagger, hidden weapons, pebbles, assorted poisons

Quest: eradicate bandits (in progress)

Closing the status panel, Song Xuan pondered for a moment.

These were the fruits of seventeen years of cultivation since his transmigration, and his development was rather severely lopsided.

His internal cultivation was advanced, just one step away from breaking through to the Xiantian realm, but his martial techniques were abysmal.

Simply put, he was a mobile artillery platform with profound internal power, surging physical vitality, and mental power at the limits of the Houtian Realm, but he lacked powerful offensive skills.

There was nothing he could do about it. To obtain formidable martial techniques, he would have to either join a sect or rise into the upper ranks of the Black Robe Guard, and neither path was easy.

Song Xuan was not the sort who liked running around making trouble. He knew perfectly well that the foundation of his survival in this world was the Pure Yang Limitless Child Skill.

Rather than venture out and risk his life for martial arts, he would be better off staying put in the Imperial Capital and cultivating behind closed doors. As long as his internal power was deep enough and his cultivation strong enough, he could still stab someone dead with basic sword techniques, no matter how lousy his martial skills were!

It was a Celestial Person Level technique, after all. Its might was far beyond that of ordinary techniques. In theory, as long as he lived long enough, he stood a very good chance of becoming one of those legendary Celestial Person Level beings.

The Great Zhou dynasty had established its rule through martial might. Martial culture flourished, and powerful martial artists emerged in droves.

Martial artists were primarily divided into five major realms-Mortal Level, Houtian, Xiantian, Grandmaster, and Great Grandmaster.

Song Xuan had always suspected that he had transmigrated into Martial Arts Grand World, the game developed in his previous life, or perhaps a similar world. The broad setting and divisions of martial cultivation in this world were almost exactly the same.

The three stages of Mortal Level: tempering the skin, tempering the tendons, and tempering the flesh.

The nine stages of Houtian: internal power reached the five internal organs and tempered the four limbs, replenishing itself endlessly. One could enter water without drowning, and every movement carried the force of ten thousand jun.

The three flowers of Xiantian: physical power condensed into the flower of essence, Xiantian true qi condensed into the flower of qi, and mental power condensed into the flower of spirit.

Grandmaster: the three flowers gathered at the crown and merged into one, capable of transforming into a martial Primordial Spirit. One's understanding of martial arts formed a school of its own, and one person could constitute an army.

Great Grandmaster: a martial domain manifested, and the power of heaven and earth lent its strength to every wave of the hand. A thousand troops scattered before them, and one person could hold an entire nation in check!

Above Great Grandmaster lay another, almost mythical rank: Celestial Person Level!

However, no one had reached that rank in the three hundred years since Great Zhou's founding. When Song Xuan had worked as a game designer in his previous life, he had only used it as background lore.

But a game was a game. The world Song Xuan now inhabited was a living world of flesh and blood, and many things could not be understood purely through the game from his previous life.

For instance, in the game, once Song Xuan accepted the Black Robe Guard's bandit-eradication quest, he only needed to reach the designated location, charge into the stronghold, and kill.

Yet now, in a village a hundred li from Langlang Mountain, Song Xuan and Song Qian encountered bandits from Langlang Mountain who happened to have descended to plunder!

More than a dozen bandits were feasting in the village. Several held village women in their arms, drinking wine and eating meat while their hands roamed endlessly over the women's bodies, looking thoroughly pleased with themselves.

A village of several hundred people was being abused by a dozen mounted bandits, yet not one person dared stand up to them. Of course, it was not that no one had tried-those who had were already lying in pools of blood, souls claimed by the blade.

"Being a bandit really is the good life! Back when I guarded other people's homes, I worked myself half to death and still couldn't afford a wife.

"Now? I eat meat whenever I want and play with women whenever I want. It's practically the bliss of an immortal!"

After a few cups of wine, one bandit sighed in tipsy delight. "This life hasn't been wasted!"

"Brother Wang's right! Food, drink, and girls to sleep with-what else does a man live for but a good time?"

As he spoke, the mounted bandit began tearing at the clothes of the village woman in his arms. With his belly full of food and wine, lust stirred, and he was about to get down to business in full public view.

But just as he was about to undo his belt, he noticed two young people who had appeared nearby at some point. The girl, in particular, was fresh and lovely, utterly endearing.

In an instant, the village woman pinned beneath him lost all her appeal!

Shoving the woman aside, the bandit sprang nimbly to his feet and drew the long saber at his waist. He leered at Song Qian. "Your lordship was just getting in the mood, and here you are delivering yourself to my door, little lady! Come over and give us boys some fun!"

Song Qian flew into a rage and drew her sword to attack, but Song Xuan reached out and stopped her.

"Cover me from behind. I'll test their strength first!"

This was his first time killing someone, and Song Xuan did not dare be careless. He drove the pure internal power of the Pure Yang Limitless Child Skill to its fullest, then unleashed his beginner lightness technique, Flying over Grass.

With a whoosh, Song Xuan left a trailing afterimage and appeared before the bandit in an instant.

Before the man could react, Song Xuan drove a simple straight punch into his chest.

Bang!

Flesh and blood splattered, and bones shattered. Reinforced by internal power, Song Xuan's fist struck like a cannonball fired into tofu. A single punch bored straight through the man's chest!

"Fuck!"

Cursing under his breath, Song Xuan pulled out his bloodstained fist and pushed the bandit to the ground in disgust. He truly had not expected the fellow to be so weak.

"He's an expert! Run!"

One of the bandits cried out in alarm. Their leader reacted fastest, immediately vaulting onto his horse to flee.

But before he could spur his mount into flight, a ringing sword note suddenly sounded beside his ear. The next instant, a brilliant flash of sword light swept past, and his massive head flew into the air.

The horse beneath him was cleaved apart at the same time, its body severed in two. Blood sprayed out, staining a broad stretch of the dirt ground red.

Song Xuan looked at the longsword in his hand, slightly astonished. Could basic sword techniques really be this powerful when unleashed at full strength?

Then understanding dawned on him. It was not that his basic sword techniques were formidable, but that his pure yang internal power was incomparably strong.

After all, this was internal power cultivated through a Celestial Person Level technique. Even the most basic punches and sword techniques, reinforced by pure yang internal power, could unleash enough might to shatter steles and split stone!