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

A full incense stick's time passed.

The sound of panting heavily could be heard through the wind and snow.

The two disciples from the Liuhe Martial Arts School, covered in sweat, each carried one side of the old camphor wood opera box over.

Behind them followed an old blind man, shivering from the cold and clutching his broken erhu tightly to his chest.

"Put the box here and help the person over," Lu Guan said bluntly, pointing to the ice.

The two disciples were seething with anger. They slammed the box onto the ice, cursing under their breath.

"That charlatan."

"If you can't catch that turtle later, let's see how you, little actress, will save face in front of Governor Feng."

Lu Guan completely ignored these idiots. He stepped forward, opened the opera box, and took out a bamboo pole and a white cloth.

"Old man, you'll have to endure the cold tonight," Lu Guan said in a low voice.

Although the old blind man was blind, he had an extremely keen sense of smell.

The strong, fishy stench in the air told me I had arrived at a deadly and dangerous place.

He pursed his thin lips.

"Young Master, go for it! This old man has survived so many years in this chaotic world, I can still hold on."

Lu Guan moved swiftly and quickly, breaking through the ice five steps away from the ice hole, inserting a bamboo pole, and pulling up a white cloth curtain.

A lantern was hung behind the curtain, its light and shadow flickering, appearing extremely eerie on the pale ice surface.

Seeing that Lu Guanzhen had set up a makeshift stage, Feng Changshan, carrying a purple-red iron palm, led several patrol officers to get closer and see what was going on.

"Supervisor Feng."

Lu Guan had just finished setting up the curtain and didn't even turn his head.

"Take your men and these spectators from the martial arts school and retreat ten feet."

"What did you say?" Feng Changshan glared at him.

He was a master of internal strength and the supervisor of the military equipment department. He was always treated with respect and deference wherever he went. Yet today, he was ordered to step back by a mere brat.

"I said back off. What's lurking beneath this water is a powerful, sinister entity; we must be very wary."

"You people all practice martial arts to the point that your yang energy is so strong that it's blocking the edge of the hole. You've startled the evil energy, and it won't even show its face until it dies."

"If we fail to catch this beast today, will Lord Feng take responsibility?"

Feng Changshan was so choked up that his face turned ashen.

At the scene of this bizarre case, the worst thing to do is to take the blame upon himself. If this water monkey gets away, he'll be in deep trouble if the governor's mansion blames him tomorrow.

He gritted his teeth, his cheeks twitching, and suddenly swung his large hand.

"Back off! All of you, back off ten zhang!"

"I'd like to see if you mess up your lousy stage today, or I'll skin you alive."

The crowd retreated like a receding tide.

In the middle of the vast frozen Haihe River, only Lu Guan's makeshift platform and the old blind man shivering from the cold remained all alone.

Lu Guan stepped behind the curtain, blocking everyone's view.

He reached into his robes and pulled out the eerie shadow puppet, made of gray squirrel skin, called "Rat Shadow," which he then pressed directly against his chest.

"Buzz—"

Using another's body to hide!

At that moment, Lu Guan's vigorous masculine energy was instantly shielded, and his living presence completely disappeared behind the curtain.

To outsiders, all that's behind the white cloth is a cold, lifeless shadow.

This time, Lu Guan did not perform his most skilled Bajiquan.

The play he performed was an obscure and bizarre opera that the old blind man had learned in his early years in the Northeast... "Fishing for the Moon".

The play is not about talented scholars and beautiful women, nor about emperors and generals.

Instead, it is a bizarre story about an old fisherman who lights will-o'-the-wisps by a deep pool on a moonless night of the fifteenth of the lunar month, using blood as bait to catch a great monster in the water.

On the screen, a shadow puppet of a hunched-over night walker appears.

Under Lu Guan's control, the shadow puppets seemed to possess a soul, and every movement carried the breath of a living person.

The erhu played a mournful tune, while the shadow puppets on the screen made the motion of casting a fishing net.

Behind the curtain, unseen by outsiders, Lu Guan, using the malevolent energy of the [Hidden Rat] spirit's gray skin, transformed the shadow puppet show into a ritual of "summoning souls through play."

A pure yin energy seeped into the black water along the ice surface.

The water monkey is a water monster born from the combined yin and evil energies of heaven and earth.

On this moonless, snowy night, I suddenly sensed an even purer yin energy bait on the shore.

A chaotic mind simply cannot resist this attraction.

"Gurgle..."

Bubbles rose again from the ice hole.

"this……"

Everyone on the shore involuntarily held their breath, their hearts pounding in their throats.

In the churning black water, the head covered in green hair resurfaced.

It gripped the edge of the ice hole with its claws, its eyes fixed on the white cloth fluttering in the wind a dozen steps away.

In its perception, there was no yang energy of living people behind the curtain, only an extremely rich yin energy.

"Tick-tock, tick-tock..."

A chilling scene unfolded.

The water monster didn't just stick its head out to intimidate like before. Instead, it used all four limbs and, carrying a strong stench of river mud, forcefully crawled out of the ice hole!

With a hunched back, he took one step, two steps... tentatively walking towards Lu Guan's stage.

"hiss--"

The martial arts students in the distance felt their scalps tingle, and cold sweat instantly soaked through their undergarments.

Who would have thought that this ferocious creature, which moves like the wind underwater, would actually be "captivated" by a shadow puppet show on a makeshift stage and willingly climb ashore?

Upon witnessing this scene, Feng Changshan was also horrified.

This little actor actually knows the unorthodox secret methods of capturing souls in the underworld.

The ability to completely swindle such a water monster ashore is something even the pampered "feng shui masters" in the Bureau of Mysteries might not be able to do.

"Closer, closer..."

If that beast were just a few steps further away from the ice hole, he was absolutely certain that a single, powerful iron palm strike would shatter its skull.

One zhang (approximately 3.3 meters).

Five feet.

Three feet!

The water monkey had completely walked to the white cloth.

It slowly opened its foul-smelling mouth full of fangs, as if it wanted to swallow the shadow puppet on the white cloth and the eerie aura behind it in one gulp.

"kill!"

Lu Guan, behind the curtain, suddenly shouted.

He ripped the "Hidden Rat" shadow puppet from his chest, severing the pure Yin energy.

With lightning speed, his right hand clenched the tiger-skin shadow puppet of the "Eight Extremes Master" into his palm with a "snap," pressing it tightly against his right fist.

"boom--"

Extreme Yin transforms into extreme Yang!

Using the fierce martial arts intent contained in the tiger-skin shadow puppet, Lu Guan unleashed the pinnacle of the Bajiquan single-style killing move without reservation... "The Fierce Tiger Climbs the Mountain"!

"roar--"

In the darkness, it seemed as if a magnificent tiger had suddenly risen up.

"Sizzle—"

The moment the water monkey opened its foul-smelling mouth, the white cloth was instantly torn apart.

A fist with thick knuckles slammed out.

The terrifying pure Yang Tiger Fiend Fist intent preceded the fist strike, sweeping out like an overwhelming force.

The water monkey, being an extremely yin and evil spirit, seemed to truly see a fierce tiger descending from a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood before this domineering fist intent.

The absolute suppression from the attributes and blood energy directly captivated the mind of this ferocious beast, leaving it frozen in place for half a breath.

"Snap!"

"Squeak—"

Shui Gui let out a scream as his sternum collapsed. His feet left the ground, and he hurtled seven or eight meters to the right and back.

This blow not only severely damaged its internal organs, but also sent it flying far away from the life-saving ice hole.

In the instant he was critically injured, Su Ruoxue, who had been holding back for a long time, suddenly rushed out as well.

"die!"

Su Ruoxue unleashed her inner strength, and with her willow-leaf single-edged sword, she incorporated the essence of the Bajiquan killing move "Yanwang Sandian Shou" into this strike, slashing down fiercely.

"Pfft."

Blood gushed forth.

The willow-leaf blade cleaved the water monkey's skull open, and green blood seeped onto the ice.

The water monster struggled for a few moments before stiffening completely and turning into a corpse.

The cold wind howled.

The ice surface of the Haihe River was deathly silent.

Everyone stared in disbelief at the white cloth fluttering in the wind, and the gaunt figure silently putting away the shadow puppets behind it.

The martial artist carrying the nine-ringed saber gasped, nearly dropping the saber to the ground.

Zhao Linchuan's mouth dropped open, his face filled with disbelief.

Meanwhile, Feng Tiezhang, the supervisor who had mastered the hidden strength, was staring in Lu Guan's direction.

After a long while, he still couldn't utter a single word.