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

Lu Guan remained outwardly calm, but inwardly he was seething with turmoil.

"Hu Family Hall: Inviting the Immortals"?

This is not a play for people to listen to at all!

In the slang of the shadow puppetry trade outside the Great Wall that the old blind man had once told him, this was called "sitting in the hall play".

This is the tune used by those shrines in Northeast China that worship household guardian spirits when they offer sacrifices to the spirit god and open their gates to absorb the incense and vital energy of the living.

If an ordinary opera troupe dared to take on this play, before they could even perform the third act, the life force of the people backstage would be completely drained by the foxes, weasels, and pheasants that came running after smelling the play.

In the end, he ended up mentally unstable.

Lu Guan lowered his eyelids slightly.

It seems that the Hu family of Qinglongzhuang is the biggest den of evil among the Hu clans from outside the Great Wall in Tianjin!

"What's wrong, little actress? Can't you sing?"

The steward, dressed in a blue silk robe, frowned when he saw that Lu Guan remained silent.

"Can sing."

Lu Guan raised his head, immediately adopting a fawning expression, and rubbed his frozen hands.

"Our Fuju Troupe is naturally adept at performing such grand celestial dramas."

"However, sir, this play is quite sinister. For the sake of your master's well-being, we must follow some rules."

"Butler, you must prepare three things for me: a basin of pure yang chicken blood from a crowing rooster, a bundle of fine yellow paper, and seven 'everlasting lamps' filled with sesame oil."

After hearing this, the butler gave Lu Guan a deep look.

It seemed that they thought this amateur actor, who came from a humble background, actually knew a thing or two about the intricacies of summoning spirits in a temple.

"You're not bad, kid. You know a thing or two about manners."

The steward waved his hand, signaling to the servants behind him.

"There's plenty of rooster blood and ever-burning lamps in the mansion; you just need to set up the stage. If tonight's performance pleases the old master, you'll be well rewarded."

"Alright! Please allow me to carry this opera box inside."

"But sir, I still have a few 'ritual instruments' used in this play left at the South City Inn. I have to go and get them as fast as I can, and I'll be back before dark."

The butler looked up at the sky; there was still more than an hour before nightfall.

The Hu family's courtyard walls were extremely high, so they weren't worried about what trouble this little actress might cause, and they simply nodded coldly.

"Go and come back quickly, or I'll skin you alive if you miss the auspicious hour of midnight."

……

After leaving Qinglong Village, the wind and snow intensified.

Lu Guan pulled down the brim of his tattered felt hat and quickly disappeared into the withered woods beside the official road.

Relying on the connections he had built up in the southern part of the city over the past few days, he headed straight for a secondhand clothing shop on the edge of the Chinese-controlled area.

On the surface, this shop is a filthy place where people buy and sell old clothes from the dead and where pawnshops sell their goods.

In reality, it was a secret agent set up in the South City by the Military Affairs Department of the Governor's Office.

Having received the black iron token from Governor Feng and become one of the officials, Lu Guan naturally understood the principle of "using someone else's strength against them."

This Hu family mansion is home to countless evil cultivators from the Fox Clan who know bewitching magic. Even with his Great Perfection Ming Jin and Fierce Tiger Fist Intent, he alone could fight his way in and out seven times.

But if those powerful demons escape, the consequences will be dire.

When a lion hunts a rabbit, it uses its full strength.

If you flip the table, you have to drag the warlord's mansion down with you!

"Tap, tap tap."

Lu Guan knocked on the slightly ajar back door of the secondhand clothing shop, and an old shopkeeper smoking a pipe poked his head out.

Without saying a word, Lu Guan flipped his sleeve, and the black iron waist tag with the four large characters "Military Equipment Investigation" engraved on it flashed in front of the old shopkeeper.

The old shopkeeper's pupils contracted, and he immediately stepped aside to let Lu Guan in.

To make a long story short...

Lu Guan found a piece of hemp paper used for wrapping herbs, picked up a pen, and wrote a few lines in a flowing, elegant style.

"Immediately hand this intelligence over to Supervisor Feng Changshan."

The old shopkeeper took the note, glanced at it, and his eyes widened instantly.

[The Hu residence in Qinglong Village is a branch of the Hu Clan outside the Great Wall. Tonight at midnight, the Hu family will open its gates wide to "invite the immortals," and a hundred demons will gather. — Jinzi 980, Lu Guan.]

"This...this is a shocking case!"

The old shopkeeper's expression changed slightly.

The Five Immortals Sect's secret agents in Tianjin, which the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics had been investigating for more than half a year without any concrete information, were actually wiped out by this newly arrived external martial arts master.

"Go and do it. Tell Inspector Feng that I'll put on an act inside to stall them."

"At 11:15 AM, if flames are seen shooting into the sky from the Hu residence, use the signal to smash a cup and summon the soldiers from the Armed Forces Department with heavy machine guns to plow the fields!"

"Yes, I will risk my life to deliver the letter."

Knowing the gravity of the matter, the old shopkeeper hid the note on his body, pulled over a rickshaw, and sped off towards the red-brick building at the border between the French Concession and the Chinese-controlled area.

……

At the border between the French Concession and the Chinese-controlled area, small red-brick buildings were brightly lit.

Feng Changshan was sitting in a grand chair, his brows furrowed, flipping through a stack of files in his hand.

The Fox Clan's spies in Tianjin were very well hidden. In the past few days, he sent out hundreds of men, but they didn't even catch a single fox hair.

"Bang!"

The office's wooden door was suddenly pushed open, and a gust of cold wind carrying ice shards swept in.

The old shopkeeper collapsed in front of the desk and pulled out the piece of hemp paper from his pocket.

"Supervisor Feng... Urgent report from the undercover agent in Nanshi. The letter is from Tianjin, number 980, and it's an order!"

"Lu Guan?"

Feng Changshan's gaze sharpened, and he grabbed the note.

His pupils contracted as his gaze swept over the two lines of wild cursive script on the note. This seasoned master of internal strength, who had seen countless storms, was startled.

"The Hu residence in Qinglong Manor...a branch of the Fox Clan?!"

Feng Changshan was startled.

With a "crack," a large piece of wood was pinched off the edge of the mahogany desk in front of him.

What shocked him was not only that Lu Guan was able to uncover the Fox Clan's lair in such a short time.

What shocked him even more was that Lu Guan had actually managed to sneak into the demon's lair, where hundreds of demons had gathered, all by himself.

They even had to set up a stage inside to put on a play, using their own strength to hold back all the evil spirits in the courtyard!

"He's insane...this kid is a fucking lunatic."

Warriors fight to the death, believing in never retreating.

Lu Guan wasn't going to perform in a play at all.

This is clearly using oneself as bait to set off a bomb under the belly of a demon!

"Commander Feng, the Hu family is a prominent and influential family in the suburbs. They usually give us tribute during festivals. If we rashly send troops, we'll be blamed by our superiors..."

The trusted adjutant beside him hesitated.

"To hell with the rich!"

"All I know is that once you have the black iron waist token, you're a soldier of the Governor's Mansion. If Lu Guan dares to risk his life to pave the way for me, I'll use cannons to cover for him."

Feng Changshan grabbed a yellow woolen military overcoat from the wall and draped it over his shoulders.

"Pass on Lao Tzu's orders."

"Emergency assembly of the First and Second Action Teams of the Investigation and Investigation Department."

"Bring out those two Maxim heavy machine guns from the warehouse and replace all the bullets with 'red-head bullets' that have been boiled with cinnabar."

"Trucks lead the way, heading straight for Qinglongzhuang outside the city!"

……

into the night.

The old Hu family residence in Qinglongzhuang was eerily silent.

Outside the tall, vermilion gate, two pale paper lanterns swayed in the cold wind, as if summoning souls.

Lu Guan had already set up a simple shadow puppet stage on the bluestone slabs of the Hu family's main courtyard.

A long white silk curtain, over 12 feet long, was stretched straight, and behind the curtain, a tung oil lamp was lit.

In front of the curtain, seven "eternal lamps" filled with sesame oil were arranged according to the Big Dipper constellation. The tiny flames did not go out in the cold wind, but instead emitted a pale green hue.

In the very center of the eternal lamp, there is a basin of still-steaming bright red rooster blood.

Lu Guan, dressed in a coarse cloth jacket and bare-armed, stood quietly behind the curtain.

"Squeak—"

The heavy, carved wooden door of the central hall was slowly pushed open from the inside.

A foul stench wafted from inside the house, heading straight for the stage in the courtyard.

If an ordinary martial artist who has just entered the Ming Jin realm were to be hit by this poisonous miasma, their blood and qi would immediately flow backward and their mind would become confused.

But the strange image of the fox spirit that Lu Guan had placed on his heart trembled slightly, and his minor supernatural power, "Exquisite Heart," quietly began to operate.

The peach blossom miasma, which was enough to bewitch the mind, was like a cold wind in front of him, unable to penetrate his seven orifices in the slightest.

Accompanied by the sound of light, soft footsteps.

Dozens of people from the Hu family, including the steward, servants, and maids, all with expressionless faces, filed out from both sides of the corridor and knelt in a row in the courtyard.

Immediately afterwards, an elderly man dressed in a crimson silk robe inscribed with the characters for "longevity" and "good fortune" walked slowly out of the main hall, supported by two maids.

This is the master of Qinglong Manor, Old Master Hu, Hu Sanyuan.

Hu Sanyuan sat in the armchair in the center of the courtyard, staring at the curtain, and said in a hoarse voice.

"The time has come. Let the altar be set; please, venerable ones, take your seats..."

"Thump—cough—"

Lu Guan stepped on an old drum, flicked the bamboo stick in his hand, and a dull drumbeat broke the silence.

"To cultivate the great path deep in the mountains and forests, to forge one's true soul in the darkness—"

Lu Guan started singing.

The voice wasn't the kind of street singing you'd hear under an overpass begging for money; it was a rough, nasal tune from beyond the Great Wall.

The moment the operatic singing began, the mournful sound scraped straight to the bones of everyone present.

The entire audience fell silent.

On the screen, a fox spirit shadow puppet draped in a white fur coat suddenly appeared.

With Lu Guan's powerful wrist movements, the shadow puppet seemed to be infused with a true soul.

Her eyes sparkled, and her flowing sleeves danced in the wind.

Under the glow of the tung oil lamp, it exuded an eerie beauty.

The servants and maids kneeling in the courtyard began to convulse uncontrollably.

They breathed deeply into the air emanating from the stage, as if it weren't shadow puppets, but rather the real celestial beings descending upon them.

While wielding the bamboo stick, Lu Guan maintained his operatic singing without faltering, and from behind the curtain, he slid the "Zhaoxin" ancient mirror out of his sleeve.

He placed the bronze mirror against a gap beneath the curtain, slightly adjusted the angle, and looked through the reflection in the mirror towards the grand master's chair in the center of the courtyard.

"hiss--"

Even with Lu Guan's resolute character, his scalp tingled the moment he saw his reflection in the mirror.

The man sitting in the armchair is no longer the same Hu Sanyuan, the old master of the Hu family.

Beneath Hu Sanyuan's sallow face, there was another face superimposed.

It was a hideous face covered in snow-white fur, half-human and half-fox.

Its hairy chin was incredibly sharp, and its mouth was stretched out wide, reaching all the way to its ears.

It wasn't just Hu Sanyuan.

Lu Guan turned the mirror, scanning the dozens of servants and maids kneeling in the courtyard.

In the bronze mirror, wisps of blue smoke hovered above the heads of all these people.

The faint phantoms of foxes with pointed snouts and monkey-like cheeks appeared in the smoke, lying on the tops of these people's heads, sucking their yang energy.

"What a fine Hu family ancestral hall."

Lu Guan steadily manipulated the bamboo skewer, his opera singing growing ever more intense, yet his heart was already boiling with murderous intent.

"The spirit skin that the yellow rat stole from the ghost market must be in this courtyard."

"And the dozens of living people in the Hu family have probably long been 'borrowed' by those beasts from the Fox Clan, and completely turned into walking corpses and puppet vessels."

That group of people has quite the grand scheme.

Using the lives of everyone in the village, a nest of bloodsucking monsters was raised in the suburbs of Tianjin.

Time passed by, second by second.

The play has reached its most crucial moment.

"Cigarette smoke curls towards the celestial palace, welcoming the great immortal descending to the mortal realm—"

According to the script of "Hu Family Hall: Inviting the Immortals", the climax of the ritual to invite the immortals is when the seventh act is sung.

The fox spirit shadow puppet on the screen should sit upright on a lotus platform, receiving the worship of all believers present.

This was also the moment when the evil Hu sect, hidden in the shadows, took the opportunity to plunder the incense offerings and vital energy of its followers.

Hu Sanyuan, who was in the courtyard, and all the servants who had been possessed, now had their eyes turned a ghastly green.

They stiffly raised their hands, preparing to bow and worship before the curtain.

Lu Guan's opera singing suddenly changed its tune!

The originally high-pitched and eerie invocation of immortals was suddenly suppressed in Lu Guan's throat.

"please……"

"Heavenly... Master... Suppress the Demon!"

This isn't a line from a play at all!

This is a "suppressing evil spirits tune" passed down from the old blind man in his early years!

It was used by the substitute executioners of the Yin-Yang Division of the Qing Dynasty to suppress the domineering voices of those unclean things backstage when they performed shadow puppet shows in the desolate wilderness late at night.

"Heaven's justice is clear, and the netherworld will not tolerate it—"

"Demon, reveal your true form at once!"

In an instant, the pure yang qi and blood in Lu Guan's body erupted from his throat.

"boom!"

"Puff puff puff".

The seven pale green ever-burning lamps were instantly extinguished by this surge of pure yang energy.

On the grand master's chair in the central hall, "Hu Sanyuan," who was about to enjoy the incense offerings, suddenly changed his expression. It was as if his human skin was about to be torn apart by the fox face beneath it.

"ah--"

"You damned little beast, how dare you disrupt my celestial altar!"

Hu Sanyuan suddenly sprang up from the armchair.

The withered hands instantly sprouted three-inch-long claws, which lunged straight at the white silk curtain.

at the same time.

Behind the curtain.

Lu Guan's eyes were cold and sharp as knives. With a sudden jerk of his left hand, he pulled away the bamboo stick that was manipulating the fox spirit's shadow puppet.

"Snapped!"

The fox spirit shadow puppet fell to the bottom of the box.

Lu Guan pulled a shadow puppet from the deepest part of the old camphor wood opera box with his right hand and stuck it directly onto the screen.

The tung oil lamp suddenly lit up!

A figure of Zhang Tianshi, dressed in a Bagua Taoist robe, holding a demon-slaying peach wood sword, and wearing a Five Thunder Crown, appeared.

"Give me the town."

Lu Guan's right arm veins bulged, and the power of his perfected Ming Jin (a type of internal energy) flowed along the bamboo skewer, forcefully pushing Zhang Tianshi's peach wood sword forward.

"Click."

The moment Hu Sanyuan's fox-like claws touched the curtain, it was as if they had hit a wall of cast iron.

The pure Yang Fist intent from Zhang Tianshi's shadow puppet burst forth, striking Hu Sanyuan directly in the chest.

Hu Sanyuan coughed up a mouthful of black blood and flew backwards into the central hall like a kite with a broken string, smashing the carved offering table.

"Kill him! Tear him to pieces!"

The evil cultivators of the Hu Clan, hiding in the shadows, have gone completely mad.

Dozens of servants and maids, possessed by a fox spirit, with bloodshot eyes, surged wildly toward the stage like zombies unleashed.

"Damn it, let's fight!"

Lu Guan ripped off the curtain and kicked the tung oil lamp into the air.

"Bang."

The tung oil lamp exploded, and a sea of ​​fire instantly spread.