Republic of China era: Actor? Please call me Martial Arts Master!

Chapter 166 Fake Core Formation? Half-Step to Core Formation!

The late spring cold snap in March brought extremely heavy fog.

The white river mist, like a thick, water-soaked quilt, tightly enveloped the dock at the lower reaches of the nine rivers, making it impossible to see a single person even three steps away.

At the edge of the Dagu Road pier in the French Concession, the atmosphere was so tense that it was on the verge of collapse.

On the river, the Japanese destroyer flying the Rising Sun flag looked like a steel behemoth lurking in the abyss.

The dark muzzles of the ship's guns had slowly lost their covers, and the "click-clack" of the winches turning sent chills down one's spine in the deathly silence of the night.

On the dock, the Japanese consul Sato, along with a squad of heavily armed military police, was blocking the steamship's path.

"Lu Cheng, you killed my Japanese samurai and destroyed the glory of my Great Japanese Empire. Today, this Haihe River will be your burial ground!"

Sato hid behind the military police's line of defense, waving a white glove in his hand, his voice shrill.

"Fire! Blow this ship to pieces!"

On the ship, all the disciples of the Qingyun Clan and the several rescued grandmasters were pale-faced.

How can flesh and blood withstand powerful ships and cannons?

At that critical moment, just as the captain of the Japanese destroyer was about to give the order to fire.

"Boom—!!!"

A deafening, mechanical roar, like a mountain collapsing and the earth splitting, swept in without warning from the thick fog behind the French Concession.

That wasn't the sound of a car.

That was the roar of steel tracks crushing the bluestone pavement.

"What happened?"

Sato turned around abruptly, a hint of horror flashing in his triangular eyes.

The thick, impenetrable white fog was suddenly torn open, leaving a huge gash.

Rows of blinding headlights, like dozens of monstrous beasts roaring in the night, forcefully broke through the darkness.

That wasn't just a few vehicles, but an entire convoy of fully armed armored vehicles.

The trucks were all American military Dodge trucks and Willys Jeeps, with water-cooled Maxim heavy machine guns mounted in the cargo beds, and bright yellow bullet belts hanging from the sides of the truck beds like venomous snakes.

At the very front of the convoy were two armored vehicles painted with the insignia of the Republic of China.

The dark, menacing muzzles of heavy machine guns and the imposing barrels of flat-fired cannons, exuding a suffocating sense of oppression, were directly aimed at the Japanese military police on the dock and the swaggering destroyer on the river.

"squeak--!"

The convoy braked suddenly outside the dock, the screeching sound of tires cutting through the night sky and splashing up a cloud of mud.

"Click-clack-click-clack".

The carriage partitions were lowered, and hundreds of elite soldiers dressed in gray woolen military uniforms and fully armed jumped off the train like wolves and tigers.

Their movements were perfectly synchronized, without a single wasted word; the sound of them pulling the bolts of their guns was continuous, and they instantly took control of the entire perimeter of the dock.

They turned the previously clamoring Japanese military police into an impenetrable fortress.

Right in the middle of this torrent of steel.

A young officer stood in a covered Willys Jeep.

He was wearing a crisp, overcoat, but no military cap, and his short black hair looked somewhat disheveled in the river breeze.

His face was as hard as if carved by a knife and axe, and his brows exuded a fierce and bloodthirsty aura that seemed to have been rolled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

He casually chewed on an unlit Havana cigar.

The bright gold star of the Major General on his shoulder stung Sato's eyes under the cold light of the searchlight.

This man was none other than the youngest and most powerful figure in Beiping, a rising star general stationed on the Beijing-Tianjin defense line—

—General Shi!

That's the "Stone" who crawled out of a pile of corpses back then and did anything for power.

"General Shi—General Shi, what do you mean by this?"

Sato swallowed hard, forcing himself to maintain the airs of a consul, and roared in a fierce but cowardly manner.

"This is the French Concession. The murderer who killed the samurai of the Imperial Japanese Empire is hiding on this ship. You dare to use regular troops to intervene? Are you trying to provoke a war between our two countries?!"

General Shi did not respond to him immediately.

He leisurely took out a match from his pocket and lit it with a "snap" on the windshield of the jeep.

He held the flame close to his lips and lit the cigar in his mouth.

He took a deep breath and exhaled a thick cloud of blue smoke.

"war?"

General Shi looked down at Sato from his high vantage point and sneered.

"You, a mere consul, dare to talk to me about war?"

He stretched out his white-gloved hand and pointed at the destroyer on the river in the air.

"Your wrecked ship only has two main guns at most."

"Believe it or not, if your cannons dare to emit even a spark, my shore-based direct-fire cannons and heavy machine guns can riddle your ship and you with holes in ten seconds?"

"How dare you!" Sato screamed in exasperation.

"You can try and see if I dare."

General Shi's eyes instantly turned icy.

"My brothers haven't had any meat in ages. We've been looking for an excuse to use you bunch of Japanese dwarfs as a sacrifice."

Just as tensions were running high and the atmosphere had reached a freezing point.

"Da, da, da."

A series of slow, deliberate footsteps sounded.

Pierre, the chief detective of the French Concession police station, dressed in a smart French military uniform, slowly walked out, surrounded by a group of Indian police officers.

Pierre straightened his bow tie, a shrewd glint flashing behind his monocle.

"Mr. Sato, General Ishi, please remain calm."

Pierre spoke broken Chinese, but his tone leaned towards the Chinese side.

"According to the regulations governing the concessions, Japanese warships are prohibited from firing arbitrarily along the coast of the concessions without permission. Moreover—"

Pierre then changed the subject, bowing slightly and making an extremely gentlemanly gesture.

"Mr. Lin Shiyuan has personally vouched for Mr. Lu Cheng. Mr. Lu is a legitimate businessman and artist, not a terrorist."

"If Mr. Sato attempts to use force on my territory without solid evidence, the French Republic will not stand idly by."

Sato's face instantly turned a deep liver color.

He never expected that the French, who always only cared about money, would dare to defy the Great Japanese Empire for the sake of a Chinese actress.

Little did he know that Lin Shiyuan, in order to protect Lu Cheng, not only spent a fortune but also used the Lin family's huge shares in French banks as leverage, effectively crippling Pierre.

"You—you're in cahoots."

Sato was trembling with anger, pointing at General Shi and Pierre.

General Shi snorted coldly, losing his last bit of patience.

He drew his Browning pistol from his waist, pulled the slide, cocked it, and pointed the dark muzzle directly at the sky.

"I don't listen to your diplomatic rhetoric."

General Shi's voice pierced through the thick fog and reached clearly onto the deck of the destroyer on the river.

I'll count to three.

"Your ship, if you don't get out of the steamship's lane, then..."

"I'll give the order to open fire!"

The entire room fell silent.

Only the sound of the river water lapping against the embankment could be heard.

On the Japanese destroyer, the captain, a colonel, stood on the bridge, cold sweat instantly beading on his forehead.

Through his binoculars, he could clearly see the firepower deployment on the shore.

Those were the real, regular Chinese army, fighting with real weapons.

If they opened fire at this moment, even if they could sink the steamship, his destroyer would definitely suffer heavy damage under the enemy's dense barrage of direct fire and heavy machine gun fire.

Most importantly, the headquarters is not yet ready for a full-scale war.

If he were to start a local war here because of a personal grudge between a martial arts master, he would definitely be punished by seppuku when he returned!

"three!"

General Shi's voice was cold and ruthless, leaving no room for negotiation.

On the shore, thousands of Chinese soldiers straightened their rifles, and the bolts of the Maxim heavy machine guns made a metallic clanging sound.

"two!"

Sato's psychological defenses completely collapsed.

He looked toward the bridge, frantically waving his white gloves, signaling not to fire.

The captain gritted his teeth and slammed his fist on the command platform.

"Baka! Back off! Sound the horn! Back off at full speed!"

"Ugh—!"

The Japanese destroyer let out a long blast.

The massive ship, locked in place by heavy firepower from the shore, abruptly halted its approach. Thick black smoke billowed from its smokestacks as it began to reverse in a disarray, clearing the main channel of the river.

"call-

'

As the Japanese warships slowly receded, the Chinese laborers, police officers, and even the disciples of the Qingyun Troupe on the dock all let out a long sigh of relief.

Cool!

So fucking cool!

In Tianjin, where foreigners ran rampant, there was finally a time when it was the guns and cannons of the Chinese people that forced these Japanese devils to retreat.

"sail."

General Shi put away his gun, not even glancing at Sato's grief-stricken face, and waved directly in the direction of the steamship.

On the deck of a steamship.

The river wind was fierce, blowing Lu Cheng's moon-white robe, which was stained with a few bloodstains.

He stood with his hands behind his back, quietly watching the scene on the shore.

Looking at the steel torrent, General Shi stood against the wind.

Looking at the Japanese warships that had been forced to retreat and lose their fighting power.

Looking at the ordinary Chinese soldiers and laborers whose eyes had been rekindled with light because of this victory in the standoff.

That's the source of our confidence.

No matter how strong an individual's fighting ability is, they can only kill a hundred or a thousand people in the end.

To truly uphold the backbone of a nation, what is needed is for the indomitable spirit within the bones of millions of Chinese people, and for the roar of steel and cannons.

"The backbone of China is not completely soft yet."

Something seemed to be deeply touched in the depths of Lu Cheng's eyes.

In that very instant.

"boom-!!!"

Deep within his consciousness, it was as if a cosmic explosion had occurred.

The long-lost system notification sound was no longer a cold, mechanical voice, but rather a heavenly sound like the grand tolling of a great bell, resounding deep within his soul.

[The host entered the Dao through martial arts, personally engaging in the battle, successfully deterring foreign enemies and awakening the fighting spirit of the Chinese people!]

A single spark can start a prairie fire!

[The igniting spark within the host's consciousness has absorbed a vast amount of national willpower, undergoing a qualitative change!]

[Hidden Achievement: Spreading the Word and Saving the Nation — Achieved!]

[Comment: The greatest heroes are those who serve their country and its people. The ultimate martial artist can suppress the fate of the nation. You disregarded your own life, stormed the enemy's lair at night, slew the bandit leader, and rescued the grandmaster. This act saved not only a few lives, but also the soul of the Northern martial arts world, an undying spark in this chaotic world!]

[Hidden Grand Prize Giveaway:]

[1. The progress of marrow cleansing has been forcibly accelerated—reaching 70%!]

[2. The Opportunity for Enlightenment—The Embryonic Form of the "False Elixir"!]

"Buzz—!"

As the system's voice faded away.

Lu Cheng felt an indescribable surge of vitality erupting from the "golden fire seed" that had grown to the size of a fist.

This power is unlike any previous instance of internal energy being injected.

If the initiation of internal energy is like pouring water into a vat, then this marrow cleansing is like directly reshaping that vat.

"hiss----"

Even with Lu Cheng's current composure as a Grandmaster of Internal Energy, he couldn't help but grunt and clench his fists tightly.

That's too domineering.

He felt as if countless files were frantically scraping his bone marrow deep within his bones.

Those acquired impurities that remained in the gaps between bones and deep within the internal organs were forcibly stripped away and vaporized under the scouring of this immense vitality.

Seventy percent of the marrow has been cleansed!

In the martial arts world, a master of the Transformation Realm cultivates the spirit and returns to emptiness, spending an extremely long time "cleansing the marrow and removing the hair." If one can achieve 30% of the marrow cleansing, one is already an ancient immortal who has shaken the ages.

At this moment, Lu Cheng directly transcended decades of hard work.

His skin began to radiate an almost transparent, jade-like luster, as if it had shed the last shackles of his mortal body.

In the pitch-black night, a faint white light even seemed to surround him.

But that's not the scariest part.

What truly made Lu Cheng's heart pound was the change in his dantian.

The "Toad-Catching Strength" and a hundred years of refined internal energy, under the pressure of that vast vitality and willpower, began to collapse and condense wildly towards the center of the dantian.

"Tick-tock, tick-tock—"

"Qi and blood are like mercury" was originally just an adjective describing the thickness and density of qi and blood.

But at this moment, the blood and qi in Lu Cheng's body actually condensed into drops of tangible "water beads" in his dantian.

These water droplets continuously converge, rotate, and compress.

Extreme motion transforms into extreme stillness.

At the very core of the dantian, a "phantom" the size of a soybean, yet radiating an extremely terrifying and condensed aura, slowly took shape.

Fake pills!

Embrace the elixir and sit on your hips, internally gathering the golden elixir.

This is the legendary preliminary state before breaking through the void and seeing the indestructible god.

Lu Cheng's breathing stopped completely.

He felt that his heartbeat, blood flow, and even the metabolism of a single cell were completely controlled by the illusory "fake pill" in his dantian.

With just a thought, the power unleashed by this fake pill would be enough to instantly push his already powerful body, which had undergone seventy percent marrow cleansing, into an inhuman realm.

"Half a step—embracing the elixir."

Lu Cheng slowly opened his eyes, and two golden rays pierced through the night fog as if they were tangible.

He stood on the deck, and although his size had not changed, in the eyes of Shunzi, Lu Feng and the others, their master seemed to have suddenly become an insurmountable sacred mountain.

That aura was as deep and unfathomable as a mountain peak.

"Master, you—"

Shunzi rubbed his eyes, feeling that his current master made him want to bow down and worship.

"It's alright, I've only gained a little insight."

Lu Cheng suppressed all his aura, reverting to his gentle and refined demeanor. He turned his head and looked at the vast Haihe River in front of him.

"Let's set sail."

"Our performance in Tianjin is over. It's time to go back."

"Waaaaah—!"

""

The steamship sounded its horn and, taking advantage of the thick fog, quickly sailed into the depths of the Haihe River.

However, this journey home is destined to be anything but peaceful.

Four o'clock in the morning.

The Haihe River is incredibly wide, and the surrounding reeds rustle in the night wind.

The dense fog not only failed to dissipate, but instead became even thicker due to the moisture from the river.

-

It was pitch black; if two ships were ten meters apart, you could only see a blurry black shadow.

Just as the steamship was sailing smoothly...

Sudden.

On the river, the muffled sound of motors came from all directions.