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

The warehouse finally fell completely silent.

Lu Guan exhaled a long breath of white air, walked to the corpse of the rat spirit, and took out a small, sharp skinning knife from his pocket.

Although the cat-sized rat spirit was dead, its fur was a rare "spiritual skin".

Lu Guan worked with lightning speed, deftly peeling off the entire gray squirrel pelt along the fur's texture.

As soon as the skin was removed from the body, it emitted a sinister aura, clearly having absorbed all the evil and filth.

Lu Guan wrapped the rat skin tightly in an oilcloth and tucked it into his pocket.

Next comes the body-looting part.

Since Greyhound came to take on this high-stakes gamble of "hundred dollars," he must have brought a lot of money with him.

Lu Guan walked up to the greyhound's corpse and began to carefully search inside its tattered coat.

Sure enough, Lu Guan felt something hard in a sheepskin bag close to his body.

When poured out, it shimmered with a captivating golden luster under the light of the kerosene lamp.

Two bright yellow "little yellow croakers"!

In Tianjin in 1925, a small yellow croaker weighing one ounce could be exchanged for at least thirty-five or thirty-six silver dollars on the black market. Moreover, gold was a hard currency, ten thousand times more reliable than those warlord paper currencies that could depreciate at any time.

Besides the two gold bars, there was also a stack of silver dollars wrapped in oil paper in the bag, roughly twenty dollars in total.

There were also several unredeemed pawn receipts mixed in with the pawnshop.

Lu Guan's breathing quickened slightly.

This is the real way to make a fortune!

The poor are scholars, the rich are warriors. With these two small yellow croakers and more than fifty silver dollars, he now has the money to advance his internal strength, buy century-old ginseng and top-grade medicinal wine.

"No wonder so many people want to climb up the ranks in the gang; even a low-ranking member like him has such a substantial fortune."

Lu Guan carefully put the money away and was about to get up and leave when his eyes caught sight of another hidden gap inside the Greyhound coat.

There was a thin booklet wrapped in black cloth hidden there.

Lu Guan pulled it out and opened it, his eyes instantly turning cold.

This is a secret ledger.

The document is densely filled with records of the various branches of the Nanshi Canal Gang, especially the Greyhound branch, detailing their monthly financial transactions with various martial arts schools, opium dens, and even police detectives.

"On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month of the fourteenth year of the Republic of China, I presented Detective Zhao of the Nanshi Police Station with twenty silver dollars as a token of my respect..."

"On the fifteenth day of the twelfth month of the fourteenth year of the Republic of China, Instructor Zhang of the Liuhe Martial Arts School took three qian of 'Red Pills' as payment for fifteen silver dollars..."

Every single account reeks of the corrupt collusion between the underworld and the corrupt officials in the southern part of Tianjin, a place where people are devoured without a trace.

"Good stuff. Keep this; it might come in handy later." Lu Guan rolled up the dark curtain and stuffed it into his pocket.

Just then, deep within his mind, the ancient and weathered "Stage of Creation" suddenly shone brightly.

The yellowed script moved on its own without any wind, turning directly to the black tattered scroll sealed with evil-suppressing copper nails.

Rows of ink characters appeared in the void.

[Materials detected: Spirit Skin (Grey Fairy Rat Skin)]

[The materials meet the requirements for making a body as described in "The Record of a Hundred Physiognomists: The Chapter on Borrowing a Body"!]

[Can create a Prime Minister – [Rat Hiding]!]

[Requirements for preparation: The main material is the skin of a spirit-connecting rat, the thread is aged ox tendon, and it is supplemented with the host's essence and blood.]

[Synergistic Effect: During the possession period, the host will gain the supernatural abilities of 'Concealment' (concealing one's presence), 'Night Vision' (seeing objects in a dark room as if it were daytime), and 'Sensory Enhancement' (significantly enhanced sense of smell).]

[Warning: This spirit's body is extremely yin and contains lingering evil resentment. It must be cleansed with yang water for three days to wash away the yin impurities before it can be used to control the spirit. Otherwise, forcibly possessing it will inevitably result in the evil spirit turning against you and taking over your body!]

Lu Guan looked at the prompt that appeared in his mind, a hint of fanaticism flashing in his eyes.

"Stealth, night vision, and keen sense of smell."

In the chaotic world of Tianjin, these three abilities are practically innate assassination and survival skills.

Once this "Hidden Rat" shadow puppet is made, he will no longer be a martial artist who can only rely on his fists, but a ghost who can reap lives at any time in the dark.

However, the mention of "Yang Water" in the prompt made Lu Guan frown slightly.

"All water belongs to Yin, so how can there be Yang water?"

Lu Guan quickly searched through the original owner's memories for those folk tales and mystical records.

A moment later, he suddenly realized what was happening.

"There are only two kinds of yang water."

"One type is rootless water, the first thunderstorm of early spring falling with the rising sun. The other... is 'pure yang talisman water' refined by true Taoist practitioners using superior cinnabar talismans and exposing it to the scorching sun for forty-nine hours!"

Spring thunderstorms are still a long way off; we can't wait.

It seems I'll have to make a trip to those genuine Taoist temples in Tianjin and spend a fortune to get a bowl of "pure yang talisman water".

Lu Guan touched the two heavy little yellow fish in his arms, a cold smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

Money is meant to be transformed into power.

He picked up the kerosene lamp, poured some lamp oil on the greyhound and the two henchmen's corpses, then gently struck a match in his hand and flicked it with his finger.

"boom."

The flames instantly engulfed the corpse, burning all the sins that could not be brought to light, along with the remains of the Gray Immortal, to ashes.

Only after confirming that even the eerie wooden memorial tablet had been burned to ashes did Lu Guan pull off his tattered felt hat and turn to walk into the snow-covered night.

……

The cold wind was like a knife, stinging his face, but Lu Guan's heart was burning hot.

He reached into his robe and, through the coarse cloth, could feel the two hard, erect penises and the heavy stack of silver dollars.

In Tianjin in 1925, although prices hadn't skyrocketed, they were by no means cheap.

A lowly policeman in the police station, risking his life for a living, could earn at most eight silver dollars a month. For an ordinary family of five, twelve silver dollars a month was barely enough to get by.

A small yellow croaker weighing only one or two ounces could fetch thirty-five silver dollars in the black market of Nanshi.

Including the twenty-odd silver dollars on Greyhound's person, he made a windfall of nearly a hundred silver dollars on this trip!

"With this money, century-old ginseng, top-quality tiger bone wine... none of that will be a problem. My foundation, which is just beginning to develop, can be solidified even further!"

A glint of light flashed in Lu Guan's eyes.

In this chaotic world where human life is as cheap as grass, the ocean is like calcium in our bones and strength in our fists!

He skillfully navigated several narrow alleys, shaking off the lingering smell of blood, and pulled his tattered felt hat down further before turning into a breakfast stall in a no-man's-land in the southern part of the city.

As dawn broke, several idle men with their necks hunched over had already gathered in front of the stalls selling fried vegetables and fried dough sticks.

Lu Guan ordered a bowl of steaming hot soy milk, then quietly approached a stranger, lowered his voice, and sighed mysteriously.

"Have you heard? Something big happened at the abandoned dock last night."

The thug, who was chewing on a fried dough stick, perked up his ears upon hearing this: "What's going on? Which gang is robbing us this time?"