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

Lu Guan lightly tapped the list on the kraft paper, pointing to the last case, the "Ghost Market Weasel Stall in Nanshi," a bizarre case.

"White hair, this is it."

The white-haired man narrowed his gleaming right eye slightly.

"The Ghost Market case? That place is a mixed bag, and the waters there are just as deep as the Haihe River."

"But since you've made the choice, I have to give you a heads-up about the rules."

"As far as I know, in addition to receiving a monthly salary, our Investigation Department also receives points after closing a case, which can be exchanged for resources from the Imperial Treasury?" Lu Guan asked.

"You know it all, kid."

Bai Dangtou chuckled dryly twice.

"That's right, the Governor's Mansion earns extra 'merit points' for slaying monsters and solving major cases."

"Whether it's wild ginseng from beyond the Great Wall, black tiger bones, or foreign firearms, as long as you have enough points, the doors of the Armory will be open for you."

Hearing this, Lu Guan felt much more at ease.

But he didn't leave immediately; instead, he stepped forward and lowered his voice.

"Senior, the lineage I belong to is somewhat unique."

"I have no use for ordinary martial arts manuals. I wonder if our imperial treasury has any special 'play scripts'?"

Bai Dangtou was taken aback.

"A script? Didn't the old troupe leader of your Fuju Opera Troupe leave you enough material?"

"To be honest, only two copies were passed down in the team."

Lu Guan said, half-jokingly.

The ancient "Stage of Creation" in his mind could not be awakened by ordinary plays other than "The Warrior of Cangzhou" and "The Record of a Hundred Images: The Hidden Rat".

Lu Guan paused for a moment, then presented the situation he had been considering for a long time.

"What I need is not those mundane scripts for singing under a bridge."

"Instead, it is written with 'yin ink' and 'spiritual chapters' that carry the martial arts will to die for the cause of our predecessors or the resentment of demons and monsters. Only such scripts can fit my lineage."

The one-eyed man with the white hair gave Lu Guan a deep look before sighing after a long while.

"The 'Yinmo Lingpian' you're talking about is an old relic from the Yin-Yang Bureau of the Qing Dynasty."

"Most of them are the final words written by those grandmasters before their death, using their own blood mixed with their ashes, or the records of suppressing great demons and evil spirits. These things are extremely evil; an ordinary person would go crazy if they just glanced at them."

"However, our Armaments Department inherited the foundation of the Yin-Yang Division from back then, and there should still be a few dusty, fragmented scrolls buried deep in the inner treasury."

"If you really want it, I can look through the files for you later. But the points required to exchange for this thing are absolutely astronomical; you'll have to risk your life for it."

"Thank you, senior. As for the points, I will make up for it with the heads of the monsters."

Lu Guan cupped his hands in a fist salute, took the dossier of the ghost market, and turned to walk out of the red brick building of the Bureau of Exorcism.

……

By the time we returned to Nanshi, it was completely dark.

Lu Guan bought a roast duck and several steaming hot white buns from a restaurant on the street corner and carried them back to Fuju Class.

Pushing open the dilapidated courtyard gate, the courtyard was quiet.

The fire in the backstage area was burning brightly.

The old blind man was curled up on the bed, clutching the Browning M1911 pistol tightly in his arms. Hearing footsteps, he immediately fumbled for the safety.

"Blind Master, it's me," Lu Guan said reassuringly.

The old blind man finally breathed a sigh of relief and sat up shakily.

"Young Master, have you secured the official's token?"

"Hold on tight."

Lu Guan placed the roast duck on the table, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.

"Today at the Changqing Observation Field, I not only received the black iron waist token of the Examination Department, but I also made a name for myself in public. The Governor's Mansion personally vouched for me, and now no one in Tianjin Guards dares to easily touch our Fuju Troupe."

Those rats hiding in the gutter of the Fox Clan are the most bullying of the weak and fearing of the strong.

Now that Lu Guan has donned the tiger skin of the Military Affairs Department of the Governor's Mansion, even if that young man in the moon-white silk shirt is so angry that he vomits blood, he would never dare to send people to forcibly attack the theater in broad daylight.

They could only retreat into the shadows and reconsider this tough nut to crack.

"Hehe, we'll settle this score slowly."

After settling the old blind man down and having dinner, Lu Guan sat alone cross-legged in front of the old camphor wood opera box.

it's time.

He pulled out the receipt tied with a red string from his pocket. This was a special reward granted by Feng Changshan and Director Shen to win over this "genius of boxing skills".

A blood-red Ganoderma lucidum from beyond the Great Wall that is at least 300 years old!

In addition, there was the residual ointment he had made from the jade-like tiger bones he had bought on the black market using small yellow croakers.

Lu Guan swallowed the entire large amount of medicine without hesitation.

"boom!"

In an instant, a violent life force, like magma, exploded in my stomach.

The essence contained in that three-hundred-year-old Blood Spirit Mushroom is simply astonishing.

Lu Guan felt his blood boil instantly, his skin turned crimson, and white steam burst forth from his pores, enveloping the entire backstage area in a misty haze.

"Break it for me."

Lu Guan clenched his teeth tightly, squeezing out the full potential of his "dragon tendons and tiger bones".

He guided the medicinal power, causing it to impact the membrane between the skin, flesh, and bones.

"Crackling... sizzling."

The barrier that had prevented him from reaching the Great Completion Realm finally shattered under the immense medicinal power.

"Buzz—"

At this moment, the Qi and blood in Lu Guan's body were no longer merely intertwined under the skin.

Instead, it completely broke free from the constraints of the physical body, like a blazing Bagua furnace, radiating a terrifyingly high temperature of extreme strength and yang.

Qi and blood flow like a furnace, generating the power of supreme Yang!

The Ming Jin technique has reached its peak!

Lu Guan suddenly opened his eyes, and in the complete darkness, his eyes faintly gleamed with a sharp light.

At this moment, any ordinary yin winds or evil spirits that dared to approach within three steps of him would be instantly evaporated into nothingness by this yang energy.

……

At midnight, the heavy snow had just stopped.

In the no-man's-land where the French Concession meets the Chinese-controlled area, there is a deserted dirt road leading to a mass grave during the day.

But once midnight passes, the place is lit up with eerie green and dim yellow lanterns, like a River Styx flowing through the mortal world.

This is the famous "Ghost Market" of Tianjin, also known as "Dawn Market".

The market opens at midnight and closes at dawn.

This place specializes in selling items of dubious origin.

The items include funerary objects recently unearthed by tomb raiders, smuggled goods from foreign auctions, costumes of the dead sold off by disbanded opera troupes, and even "living creatures" once worshipped in ancestral shrines.

Tonight, Lu Guan will make a trip to this ghost market.

He had two objectives.

First, there's the stall owner selling weasel skin in the records of the Bureau of Exorcism. The Military Equipment Department suspects that this person is a "skin dealer" from a certain mountain sect, specializing in collecting spirit skins that can carry evil spirits.

Secondly, he himself urgently needed to find some good "spiritual skins".

Although the [Rat Concealment] shadow puppet was useful, it was ultimately a low-grade one, with limited time to use and significant backlash.

To survive in this chaotic world overrun by demons, he needs even more powerful shadow puppets.

The cold wind howled.

In a dead-end alley before entering the ghost market, Lu Guan reached into his robes and pressed the shadow puppet of the "Hidden Rat" against his heart.

"Buzz—"

Possessing another's image!

As that chilling aura coursed through his body, Lu Guan immediately activated the minor supernatural ability that Rat Shadow had just unlocked... [Bone Shrinking and Disguise].

"Crackling and popping."

Lu Guan's originally tall and strong body was shrunk by three inches.

His back was slightly hunched, and his facial muscles were twisted and changed under Ming Jin's control, his eye sockets were sunken, and his cheekbones were high.

In the blink of an eye, he transformed into a sleazy, vulgar secondhand costume reseller.

Lu Guan pressed down on his tattered felt hat, locking the surge of vital energy within his body. Carrying a broken lantern, he hunched over and merged into the crowd at the ghost market.