Republic of China: From Street Performer to War God in a Chaotic Era

On winter nights in Tianjin, the wind is like a steel knife scraping your bones.

After having a full meal at Juyinglou, it was already completely dark when we came out.

On the streets of Nanshi, apart from the occasional passing policeman and a rickshaw puller with his neck hunched over pulling his cart, not even a stray dog ​​could be seen.

Lu Guan helped the old blind man and pushed open the peeling wooden door of the Fuju Class.

"Clang..."

After settling the two jin of cornmeal and several jin of charcoal he had bought, Lu Guan turned and walked towards the old camphor wood opera box in the center of the backstage area.

This opera box is an old item that has been passed down for three generations in the Fuju Opera Troupe.

The camphor wood grain was already permeated with oil and sweat, and the brass covering the edges was covered with a layer of green rust.

"Old man blind, where is that hidden compartment you mentioned?"

Lu Guan squatted down and gripped the edge of the opera box with one hand.

The originally heavy solid wood box was flipped over as easily as an empty cardboard box by his terrifying arm strength, which was now at the beginning of the "Integrated Strength" stage.

The old blind man sat cross-legged by the brazier, groped for a pipe to light, and took a couple of puffs.

"The third wooden board on the left side of the bottom of the box, near the brass corner."

"Tap with your fingers, listen to the hollow sound, press down, and then push hard to the right..."

Lu Guan did as instructed.

"Tap, tap."

Sure enough, a hollow echo came from under the wooden board.

He took a deep breath, pressed his thumb against the edge of the wooden board, and exhaled forcefully.

With a "click," the camphor wood baseboard actually slid open an inch to the right, revealing a flat interlayer.

A fishy smell mixed with a musty odor suddenly burst out from the hidden compartment, heading straight for Lu Guan's face.

This tastes extremely cold.

Even though Lu Guan's blood and qi were now as strong as a furnace, the hairs on the back of his neck still stood on end instinctively when he smelled this scent.

In the hidden compartment lay several old thread-bound opera scripts, and at the very bottom of these scripts, pressed down a completely black booklet.

Lu Guan reached out and pulled out the black leather booklet.

The cover of the booklet was made of tanned black animal hide of unknown origin.

There were no words on it, only a ring of copper nails around the edge.

The copper nails were extremely strange in design; upon closer inspection, one could faintly see talismans for warding off evil spirits engraved on the nail heads.

"Young Master, have you found it?"

Although the old blind man couldn't see, his hearing was excellent. Hearing Lu Guan's heavy breathing, his hand holding the pipe trembled involuntarily.

"Take this old man's advice: just look at that black notebook, and don't flip through it."

"When your master was alive, he repeatedly warned you that this thing was extremely evil and that their ancestor had dug it out of a pile of corpses."

"This thing brings neither wealth nor prosperity; it's specifically designed to bring misfortune to its owner!"

Lu Guan did not reply.

He stared at the black leather play script in his hand by the light of a kerosene lamp.

With the true essence of Bajiquan in hand, how could one be afraid of a tattered book, given the fierce fighting spirit cultivated within?

Lu Guan flicked his finger and directly lifted the black animal skin cover.

"Buzz..."

The moment he opened the book, Lu Guan felt a sudden shock in his mind.

Immediately afterwards, the tinnitus surged like a tsunami, drowning out the howling wind and snow outside the window.

He forced himself to stay awake and stared intently at the pages of the book.

The pages were covered with tiny, black characters written in tiny characters.

Soon, the ink marks began to slowly wriggle in the dim light.

"hiss……"

Lu Guan gasped sharply, instinctively trying to close the script, but his hands were frozen, stuck to the pages, unable to move an inch.

"Buzz".

The "Eight Extremes Master" shadow puppet that Lu Guan had been hiding close to his body suddenly emitted a scorching heat, as if it had been enraged by the overwhelming evil energy and wanted to break free of its shackles and roar like a tiger in the mountains.

"boom."

At the same time, deep within Lu Guan's consciousness, the [Creation Stage] trembled violently, and the white soul-summoning banner on the stage also rolled wildly.

[New script detected: "The Record of a Hundred Faces - The Body Borrowing Chapter"!]

[The script is incomplete and contains extremely heavy negative energy; it has now been forcibly included in the Creation Stage.]

[Inclusion Requirements: This image must be made primarily with "Spiritual Skin," using aged beef tendon as thread, and supplemented with the host's essence and blood.]

[Once the image is created, the host will receive a great fortune: possession of another's body!]

[Detailed Explanation of Creation: Shadow puppetry, originally, involved using people to control shadows, creating illusions that were indistinguishable from reality. However, the "Borrowing a Body" technique reverses this, allowing the shadow to enter the body, thus cultivating true power through illusion! The host can temporarily cover their body with the "image" of a shadow puppet. For a short period, the mortal body will gain some of the supernatural abilities, strength, and combat instincts carried by that shadow puppet!]

[Warning: All spirit-possessed skins are tainted with demonic and malevolent energy. During possession, if the host's will is not strong enough or their vital energy is insufficient, they are highly susceptible to being devoured by the remnant spirit of the shadow puppet, leading to it usurping their body!]

This is the meaning of overcoming one's master!

……

"Huff, huff..."

Lu Guan slammed the black-covered playbook shut, his forehead already beaded with cold sweat.

"So that's how it is! So this is what Master meant by 'overcoming one's master'!"

Lu Guan finally understood everything.

Ordinary shadow puppets, like the Bajiquan master in his hand, are made of ordinary tiger skin with piercing eyes and a white forehead. Although they have a bit of a fierce beast aura, they are ultimately inanimate objects, carrying only the true meaning of the fist technique.

However, the method of creating a physical form recorded in the "Hundred Forms Record: Borrowing a Body" requires a "spiritually connected skin"!

What is a psychic skin?

In the chaotic and bizarre Republican era, only those demons and evil spirits that had gained sentience, received offerings, or even cultivated themselves to a certain level could have skin that was called "spiritually connected skin"!

Using this kind of evil skin to make shadow puppets, and then performing the "borrowing a body to possess" technique, is equivalent to forcibly wearing the soul power of an evil ghost or demon on one's own body.

Power is terrifying, but danger is equally deadly.

For ordinary people who lack the [Creation Stage] to suppress their souls and who lack the powerful and unparalleled Qi and blood protection of the "Eight Extremes Bright Strength"

Using this method is absolutely certain death; one will be possessed by the lingering evil spirits within the shadow puppets and reduced to a walking corpse.

This is why the patriarch sealed the script with evil-repelling copper nails, and why the master dared not touch it even on his deathbed.

Because it is indeed a deadly evil book!

But... that's how it applies to other people.

"I have the stage of creation protecting my soul and true spirit, and the unwavering will to advance without retreat, forged by the essence of Bajiquan, my blood and qi are like a furnace, supremely yang and extremely strong!"

"As long as my will can suppress the resentment of those lingering souls, this 'possession' technique is practically a weapon of mass destruction in this chaotic world, tailor-made for me!"

Thinking of this, Lu Guan's eyes sharpened.

Where can I get a psychic skin?

Although Tianjin is full of strange occurrences, the truly powerful evil spirits are not like cabbages on the street that you can just stumble upon.

Even if he were to encounter one, with his current strength at the initial stage of the Qi Refining Realm, if he were to encounter a centuries-old demon, he probably wouldn't even be enough to fill a tooth gap, let alone skin it alive.

Lu Guan touched his chin, his brows furrowing slightly.

Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind, and he seemed to smell that pungent, rat-like odor from last night again.

"Grey Fairy..."

Lu Guan's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Grey Dog," a prominent figure in the Tainan gang!

That bastard who drove his master to his death, wasn't he worshipping a "Grey Immortal" that sucked the blood and flesh of living people, could speak human language, and even cast illusions?!

Last night's enormous gray rat, half a person's height, was incredibly cunning, but in essence, it was absolutely a genuine evil spirit.

Isn't its rat skin the perfect "skin of spiritual communication"?

"hehe……"

Lu Guan suddenly chuckled softly.

Previously, Greyhound was already a huge burden on Fujuban's head, and the elusive "Grey Fairy" was even more of a thorn in his side, becoming a deadly threat hanging over his heart.

He was secretly planning to take advantage of these few days to perform on stage and accumulate progress, fully unlock the power of Baji Mingjin, and then fight Greyhound to the death.

But now, the balance of power seems to be shifting.