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

"Gulp."

Lu Guan gently stroked Manager Zhao's neck, and the black pill slid down his esophagus and into his stomach.

"Cough cough cough... Ugh."

Manager Zhao clutched his neck, collapsed onto the carpet, and began to retch violently, tears and snot streaming down his face. "Master Lu... what kind of poison did you give me?!"

"A little local specialty."

"Since you know that the Jinmenwei area is treacherous, you should understand that the Fox Clan is not the only one that knows about underworld magic and evil arts."

"I killed that gray-skinned creature that had become a spirit, and then, using its heart's blood mixed with incense ash from the grave, I made this 'Heart-Eating Pill'."

"This thing dissolves inside your stomach, and you'll normally show no signs of anything. But if you harbor even the slightest rebellious spirit, or try to seek help from the Fox Clan to remove the curse..."

Lu Guan slowly leaned down, staring into Manager Zhao's pupils, and said, word by word.

"Inside your belly, hundreds of gray-haired rats with barbs will be born. They will gnaw your internal organs and intestines into mincemeat from the inside out."

"Finally, it will crawl out of your seven orifices. When you die, you won't even leave behind a complete skin."

"If you don't believe me, you can try it."

"hiss--"

Manager Zhao was so frightened that his scalp tingled and half of his soul seemed to fly away.

"I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare. I'm Master Lu's dog in life and in death, I would never dare to have the slightest disloyalty." Manager Zhao kowtowed frantically, like pounding garlic.

Little did he know that what Lu Guan had just fed him was nothing more than a dry, hard, smelly "rat dropping" that Lu Guan had casually picked up from next to a rat hole in the corner of the Fuju Classroom.

There's no point in trying to reason with this two-faced opportunist.

Only by instilling a fear even more sinister than that of a fox spirit can one truly exploit his weakness.

Lu Guan took a step back with satisfaction, his figure already blending into the wind and snow outside the window.

"A wise choice."

"Wait for my news in a few days."

……

Snow and wind raged.

The fourth watch of the night in Tianjin is the most grueling time of day. Water freezes instantly, and even the sound of the night watchman's clapper is frozen and shattered in the alleyways.

Lu Guan leaped over the dilapidated wall of the Fujiu Ban courtyard and landed steadily in the snow-covered courtyard.

He pushed open the wooden door to the backstage area and immediately bolted it shut behind his back.

He then reached into his robes and peeled off the shadow puppet of the "Hidden Rat" that was pasted to his heart.

"hiss--"

The moment the shadow puppet detached from the body, Lu Guan couldn't help but gasp.

A chilling aura was forcibly peeled from the skin of his chest, releasing a foul, fishy smell into the air.

Lu Guan looked down and saw that a thin layer of white frost had formed on the skin of his chest.

There's an old saying in the shadow puppetry world: "Don't play with shadows at midnight, or you'll be possessed by a ghost."

This spirit-infused shadow puppet, made from century-old grey fairy skin, already carries an extremely heavy aura of evil and malevolence.

Even though he had used the "Seven Methods of Cleansing the Skin" to remove most of the Yin poison and relied on his powerful Qi and blood, which was at the minor stage of Ming Jin, to suppress it, he would still be eroded by this Yin energy after it had been possessing him for a long time.

"If I hadn't cultivated my physical constitution to the point where my skin was as smooth as leather and my blood and qi formed a net, an ordinary martial artist who had just entered the Ming Jin realm would have had his heart meridian frozen and become seriously ill."

Lu Guan put the shadow puppets into the inner compartment of the old camphor wood theater box.

Shadow puppets are lifeless without light, but come alive with light.

When not in use, these objects that have been tainted by karma must be wrapped in red cloth and weighed down with heavy objects; this is called "fixing the image".

Especially this kind of spirit-infused skin, if it comes into contact with the blood and energy of a living person, it is easy for it to turn against its owner.

He then went to the clay stove and gulped down a large bowl of scalding hot ginger soup.

The ginger soup felt like a fiery thread falling into my stomach.

With a slight exertion of his internal energy, the powerful and domineering yang energy within his body instantly boiled, evaporating the remaining yin energy that had invaded his body completely.

At this moment, the old blind man turned over on the wooden bed, smacked his dry lips, and said in a low voice.

"Young Master, has the wind outside calmed down?"

"It's a draw."

Lu Guan walked to the bedside and tucked the blanket around the old blind man. "However, the water in this big pot at Jinmenwei has only just started to heat up."

……

The next morning, just as dawn was breaking.

Before Juyinglou, located on the edge of the Japanese concession in Nanshi, even opened its doors to customers, Manager Zhao, sporting two huge dark circles under his eyes, had already hitched up a rickshaw from the backyard and headed straight for Guyi Street, the most bustling street in Nanshi.

Last night, he truly experienced what it meant to be "worse than dead".

As soon as he closed his eyes, he felt as if a million barbed rats were gnawing at his internal organs inside his stomach, which terrified him so much that he woke up in a cold sweat several times, his clothes soaked through.

"Quickly, go to 'Desheng Pawnshop' and 'Yutai Tea House'. Even if I have to lose face, I have to get this joint guarantee letter today."

Manager Zhao sat in the rickshaw, constantly urging the driver on.

In 1925, which shopkeeper in this lawless area could open a century-old brand without being a shrewd person?

Who would be willing to vouch for a half-grown actor with an unknown background for no reason?

But Manager Zhao got anxious.

He dared not joke about the "Heart-Eating Pill" in his stomach, much less gamble on Lu Guan's patience.

For the entire morning, Manager Zhao, relying on the connections that Juyinglou had accumulated over the years, offered a lot of benefits and even paid for several tables of fine food before finally getting the two old managers to affix their personal seals to the red paper.

A quarter past noon.

There was a gentle knock on the gate of the Fuju Class.

Lu Guan opened the door and saw Manager Zhao wrapped in a thick leather coat, holding a neatly folded piece of red paper in his hand, his nose running from the cold.

"Master Lu...Master Lu, I have completed the task you instructed." Manager Zhao nodded and bowed.

Lu Guan took the red paper and glanced at it.

The top clearly states Lu Guan's family background and place of origin, and below it are the bright red seals of three century-old brands: Juyinglou, Desheng Pawnshop, and Yutai Tea House.

"Well done."

Lu Guan remained calm, took out two silver dollars from his pocket, and casually tossed them over.

"This is a tip for your hard work. Is the situation with the Fox Gate stable?"

Manager Zhao hurriedly caught the silver dollars, nodding repeatedly.

"It's under control. I sent one of my trusted men to their secret contact point early this morning. He said you took a large dose of drugs yesterday and went berserk in the courtyard in the middle of the night, and you were on the verge of going berserk."

"A message came from over there, instructing me to keep a close eye on you. Three days from now, at nightfall, their leader will personally lead his spirits to 'close the net'."

"Three days later..."

A cold glint flashed in Lu Guan's eyes.

"Very good. Keep your mouth shut for the next three days."

"If even the slightest word gets out, those little things in your belly will have to come out for some fresh air."

Manager Zhao trembled with fright, instinctively clutching his stomach, and repeatedly said he dared not.

"Alright, you can go back now. This afternoon, I need to go to the Armed Forces Department myself."

Lu Guan turned and went into the inner room. When he came out again, he had a stack of silver dollars wrapped in oil paper in his hand.

The annual examinations conducted by the Military Affairs Department of the Governor's Office not only required joint signatures as a guarantee, but also required candidates to personally go to the site to verify their identity and pay a "free examination fee" of ten silver dollars.

In this chaotic world where the poor couldn't even afford cornmeal, ten silver dollars was an insurmountable barrier, keeping ninety-nine percent of impoverished warriors out.

The warlord's government never wanted starving refugees; it wanted killing machines built with real money.