Lin Xing hurried back to the ward and immediately attempted the secret technique for opening doors that Jiang Hong had taught him.
He lightly sliced open a small cut on his finger and let a few drops of blood fall onto the door frame of the ward's door.
Then he brought his palms together and chanted, "When twin heavens converge, my presence revealed, celestial gates swing wide, and the five Qi surge."
As he finished the incantation, Lin Xing placed a palm on the door and continued to chant the spell.
One minute passed, and nothing happened.
Ten minutes went by, and still the door showed no response.
Lin Xing murmured to himself while looking at the unresponsive door, "Did Jiang Hong deceive me?"
After all the life-and-death experiences in the Mirror World, the repeated reversals of time, and the prolonged fighting, this was the outcome.
Watching Lin Xing clutch his wrench, Bai Yiyi thought, "How many times has Lin Xing reverted time in his fight with the Mountain God? How many months, or years, has it been? He seems to have changed a lot."
While thinking this, Bai Yiyi still said, "Wait a moment, Lin Xing, I don't think Jiang Hong necessarily deceived us."
She pondered and then said, "There's no spiritual mechanism here, while the Great Zhou World is filled with them. Perhaps that's where the issue lies."
Lin Xing's eyes sparked with realization, "Master Bai, do you mean this secret technique can only be activated within the Great Zhou World?"
Bai Yiyi replied, "Anyway, don't you often encounter doors opening? Just try it when the time comes, and you'll know."
Indeed, from his recent experiences, Lin Xing often found himself in situations involving opening doors.
He and Bai Yiyi had previously speculated that there might be something special about him that invariably attracted the opening of doors.
Sure enough, two days later at noon, Lin Xing once again felt the urge to open a door.
Without a moment's hesitation, he grabbed the cat plushie, picked up the backpack he had already prepared, and swiftly pushed open the door of the ward and stepped through.
...
Crossing the threshold, Lin Xing reappeared in the small courtyard of Jiang Hong's house from where he had last departed.
However, as soon as he materialized, Lin Xing smelled the unmistakable scent of charring reaching his nostrils.
Surveying his surroundings, thick smoke billowed in every direction, and not far away, flames were shooting into the sky.
Startled by this scene, Lin Xing immediately ran out.
After only a few steps, he saw two soldiers in tattered uniforms setting fire to house after house.
Seeing the arson, Lin Xing, as a man of integrity, naturally chose to intervene straight away.
"Stop!"
The two soldiers, seeing Lin Xing running over, one of them shouted, "There's one who didn't get away."
But Lin Xing charged at them like a tiger descending the mountain.
The soldier who had shouted drew his long knife and swung at Lin Xing.
Dealing with such villains, Lin Xing never held back. He dodged swiftly and delivered a hard kick right to the man's groin.
The soldier collapsed with a thump, writhing in agony.
The other soldier, shocked by the sight, quickly snatched up the old-fashioned rifle from his back and aimed it directly at Lin Xing.
But before he could pull the trigger, Lin Xing had already rushed forward and delivered another powerful kick.
The man now lay on the ground, clutching his crotch and screaming in pain.
However, the commotion here evidently attracted more attention, and soon four more soldiers surrounded Lin Xing, rifles in hand, aiming at him.
Lin Xing was surprised by the scene, "So many armed thugs?"
But seeing that they were about to shoot, he quickly dashed into the adjacent yard.
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Although the long spears these soldiers were using looked very primitive, they still weren't something Lin Xing could confront head-on at this moment.
The moment he retreated, accompanied by a burst of gunfire, the spot where he had just stood was now kicked up in a cloud of dust.
At the same time, more shouts came from all directions.
"So many soldiers, and all of them with guns," Lin Xing mused, "It looks like what comes next is another life-and-death battle between me and the mobsters."
Bai Yiyi speculated, "These soldiers are probably the ones the villagers mentioned, under Commander Zhang's command. Retribution sure comes fast."
Listening to the footsteps drawing ever closer, Lin Xing took a deep breath and said, "Let's first see how many people there are."
Although he had the superpower to reverse time, Lin Xing never grew arrogant, thinking that he was invincible in the world.
Since he had decided to engage in repeated battles using time reversal, the first thing he chose to do was to gather intelligence to understand the situation around him, to avoid inadvertently falling into an unfavorable position with each time reversal.
In a flash, Lin Xing's figure moved, charging out the door and immediately saw over ten dark gun muzzles aimed at him.
Bang!
Time reversed, and Lin Xing came back to his senses, finding himself back in the courtyard of Jiang Hong's house.
"There were at least a dozen guns on the other side."
Remembering the scene he saw before dying, Lin Xing was reassured, "Now I don't have to be afraid of not being able to die."
Then he stepped out of the courtyard again, and soon saw the two soldiers who had started the fire.
At the same time, the two soldiers also spotted him: "There's one that didn't run."
This time, Lin Xing didn't pay attention to them, choosing to turn and run instead.
The area around Jiang Family Village was surrounded by high mountains and dense forests, with only two roads leading out.
Lin Xing chose to dash towards the back entrance of the village and from a distance saw more than a dozen soldiers guarding there.
Seeing Lin Xing charging out, the soldiers didn't say a word, raised their guns, and fired.
After reversing time again, Lin Xing chose to rush towards the main entrance of Jiang Family Village. This time he saw another group of soldiers guarding the gate, and he was once again shot dead in a hail of bullets.
After several time reversals, Lin Xing had scouted around the entire Jiang Family Village a few times.
He found that there were roughly more than twenty soldiers setting fires around the village, with both the front and back entrances guarded by over a dozen soldiers each.
However, throughout this process, he hadn't encountered a single villager from Jiang Family Village and didn't know if they had escaped or been captured.
Having understood the situation in the village, Lin Xing, after this round of time reversal, didn't rush out again, but sat down to contemplate his next move.
"Currently, I have the first level of Sickle Swordsmanship, the second level of Taiqing Long Fist, and the first level of Meditation; a total of three skills enhancing me, plus countless life-and-death combat experiences. My strength should be about at the peak of a brawny man."
"With those ordinary soldiers, if it's close combat, I should be able to take on five or six of them alone. If I use the terrain to my advantage, I could take out even more."
"But now they all have guns in their hands, and that's a different story."
"The good thing is I die quickly, which is convenient for me to reverse time."
"The bad thing is also that I die quickly; I can't win at all."
Even for Lin Xing as he is now, facing squads of gunmen who coordinate with each other, it's almost certain death upon encounter; that's the power of an army.
Even if the army of this world was far behind the one in the world where Lin Xing lived, it was still not something Lin Xing could challenge single-handedly at this time.
Recalling his experiences of dying under gunfire over and over, Lin Xing concluded, "There are dozens of guns here together; it's impossible for me to overcome them with my current strength."
"So I might as well take this opportunity to enhance my strength."
"If I raise my Meditation to the second level, I can attempt to comprehend the heritage."
"What kind of improvement will the Daoist Child heritage provide?"
Thinking thus, Lin Xing was already in meditation with each breath, feeling the flow throughout his body.
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