Quickly conquer the martial arts world, and let your fists dominate the heavens!

Ruan Zhi coughed twice, her voice still a little hoarse.

"The Republic of China... cough cough cough... thirty-one years."

"Indeed, he reached a high level of cultivation just over thirty years old; he is exceptionally gifted."

"I can't compare to my sister..."

Chen Zhan did not respond to that.

"Is Ningzhen no longer in Hong Kong?"

He gleaned information from Ruan Zhi's words: the people chasing her were the Qingyi Society, and she had fled to Hong Kong with her men, but Ye Ningzhen was not with her.

Ruan Zhi nodded and coughed twice.

"Sister Ningzhen is in Shenghai."

Chen Zhan nodded, his brows furrowing slightly.

Ruan Zhi looked at his expression, paused for a moment, and then lowered her voice.

"How much longer do I have to live?"

Chen Zhan smiled.

"You think you're going to die?"

"Cough cough cough... Don't I know my own body?"

"With me here, you won't die."

Ruan Zhi was taken aback: "Then what did you mean by shaking your head and frowning just now?"

"I'm wondering how long it will take to heal you; your gunshot wounds haven't been treated yet."

Ruan Zhi gave a bitter smile.

"There's nothing we can do. We thought we could escape the Tsing Yi Society's pursuit once we got to Hong Kong, but they're like leeches, constantly haunting us. We've already lost quite a few people; now only these few remain outside."

"Why is the Green Robe Society hunting you down?"

Ruan Zhi looked at him: "You didn't know?"

Chen Zhan scratched his head, thought for a moment, and explained:
"I've been recuperating in the deep mountains and forests for a while now, so I'm not very clear about what's happening outside."

Ruan Zhi looked at him with a strange expression.

He spent over a decade recuperating in the deep mountains and forests.

But she didn't ask.

"About ten years ago, cooperation between the two sides broke down, and the Chinese Alliance split into two factions."

Ruan Zhi spoke in a low voice, pausing between sentences, taking two breaths with each pause, as if a stone was lodged in her chest.

"One faction believes that cooperation with the Qingyi Society should continue, emphasizing that the orthodox line is in Nanjing; and since you left a message back then instructing us to fully support the Soviet area, I naturally follow your wishes."

Chen Zhan listened without interrupting.

"Not long after, a conflict broke out within the alliance, splitting it into two sides that fought their own battles. Later, the two sides cooperated again to fight against the Japanese, and a period of peace was achieved... until the Japanese surrendered, and they faced each other again."

"This time, the Green Robe Society has grown too powerful and is relentlessly hunting us down."

"Most of us are working behind enemy lines, our base isn't in the open. The Green Robe Society seized this opportunity, killing us one by one in the shadows. Uncle Cheng, Uncle Feng... they're all gone in the last few years."

Her voice trembled slightly as she spoke, and she gritted her teeth before continuing.

"I was seriously injured, and staying would only be a burden, so I thought of taking some people to Hong Kong to recuperate. My sister is still in Shenghai; she can't leave, and there are still many things in the alliance that she needs to manage."

"But there must have been a traitor over there. We were hunted down as soon as we landed, and many people died before we were able to hide here."

"Cough cough cough. Cough cough cough."

This cough was so severe, it felt like he was coughing up his lungs.

Perhaps it was because I talked too much, or perhaps the emotional turmoil just now had exhausted the little energy I had left.

After coughing for a while, a mouthful of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth. It was dark red, frothy, and landed on the towel next to his pillow, spreading out in a puddle.

Chen Zhan reached out and pressed his hand against her back, placing his palm on her lung acupoint. A gentle force seeped into her palm, helping her to clear the stagnant blood that was blocking her chest.

Ruan Zhi gasped for breath, her face even paler than before.

Outside.

The three people stood leaning against the wall, listening to the coughing coming from inside the room, feeling anxious and worried.

Fang Henian couldn't hold back any longer and whispered in Ruan Liangshan's ear.

"Uncle-Master, why would Uncle-Master Ruan call him brother-in-law? Who exactly is this person...?"

Ruan Liangshan shook his head.

How would I know?

He said that, but his mind was racing.

Chen Zhan's appearance seemed very familiar to him, but he couldn't remember where he had seen him before.

Ruan Zhi has no biological older sister. The Ruan family fell into ruin very early. He and Ruan Zhi are cousins ​​and have studied under the same master, so they address each other as fellow disciples.

Ruan Zhi's older sister is not a blood relative, but a god-sister.

He couldn't help but think of those two women.

Ye Ningzhen, Li Qingsu.

Ye Ningzhen is the eldest sister, Li Qingsu is the second sister, and Ruan Zhi is the youngest sister.

The three women addressed each other as sisters, a fact well-known within the Cheng School of Bagua School.

Especially Ye Ningzhen, this woman who almost single-handedly supported the entire Chinese Alliance, fighting against the Green Robe Society and the other part of the Chinese Alliance that split off, and she has endured it all for so many years.

But neither Ye Ningzhen nor Li Qingsu are heroines, yet neither of them is married, so where did their brother-in-law come from?

Ruan Liangshan suddenly remembered something from a long time ago.

The reason Ye Ningzhen was able to lead the Chinese Alliance for a period of time seems to be because of someone who handed over the position of Alliance Leader to Ye Ningzhen and then disappeared.

That person has been dead for many years.

At least everyone thinks so; he was the founder and first leader of the Chinese Alliance.

Chen Zhan.

Ruan Liangshan's pupils suddenly contracted.

He had seen Chen Zhan in old photos and portraits, but those were more than ten years ago. Who could remember him so clearly? The person in the portrait looked like he did in the early 1920s, almost twenty years after the person in front of him.

But the more he thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense.

At the same time, I couldn't believe it.

A man disappeared for over a decade, and everyone assumed he was dead. His sudden reappearance was truly unbelievable.

It all feels more like a conspiracy.

He leaned against the wall, staring at the closed door, his mind buzzing.

inside the house.

Chen Zhan released Ruan Zhi's arm.

"The bullet hasn't been removed from the spot where you were shot. I'll remove the bullet first, then apply medicine, and then massage the blood."

After saying that, he flipped his hand and took out a pill from his pocket.

Lesser Rejuvenating Pill.

It is dark red, about the size of a fingernail, with an oily sheen on the surface. When you get close, you can smell a faint medicinal fragrance, which is not the smell of ordinary herbs, but more like a mixture of minerals and medicinal materials.

"Take this pill first."

Ruan Zhi glanced at the pill, and without hesitation, took it, put it in her mouth, and swallowed it.

She was now completely certain that the person in front of her was Chen Zhan from back then. If she couldn't trust this person, then she had no one in the world she could trust.

"He rolled over, exposing his back."

Ruan Zhi did as she was told, turning over and lying face down on the bed. Her gray cloth shirt was lifted, revealing her back. Although there was a difference between men and women, she couldn't care less at this moment. She was so thin that her ribs were clearly visible, and her spine looked like a centipede crawling on her back. Her skin was sallow, with a mixture of blue and purple.

There are three bullet holes in his back, two below his left shoulder blade and one on his waist.

The skin around the bullet hole was festering, with a dark yellow pus discharge, and the surrounding skin was red, swollen, and blackened. This had been going on for at least three to five days.

Chen Zhan removed the dagger from Ruan Zhi's calf.

The dagger was not long, only seven inches including the sheath. When it was pulled out, the blade was dull and made of carbon steel; it was still quite sharp.

He put two fingers together and lightly traced a line on the blade of the dagger.

As the fingertip traced the blade, the dagger emitted a buzzing sound, like a plucked string on a musical instrument. The sound was thin and long, circling the room before dissipating.

The dagger did not break, but the luster on the blade changed. The originally dull blade surface became brighter and visibly sharper.

"Hang in there, it'll be soon."

Ruan Zhi nodded and bit the cloth beside her pillow.

With a flick of the dagger.

The blade tip pierced the edge of the first bullet hole, probing inwards along the trajectory with extreme speed and precision. In less than a breath, the blade tip hooked the bullet embedded in the muscle, and with a gentle flick, a deformed lead bullet sprang out of the wound, landing on the bed board with a clink.

The second time.

The third time.

The three cuts were executed in quick succession, almost simultaneously.

Ruan Zhi only felt a momentary pain, as if she had been stabbed three times by something. Before she could react, it was over.

Three lead bullets rolled onto the bed board, covered in blood and pus.

"Is there any medicine here?"

Ruan Zhi nodded and pointed to the other side.

"There are some in the cabinet."

Chen Zhan walked over, opened the wooden cabinet, and inside were several bottles of medicinal powder and several rolls of gauze. There weren't many medicines, just the most basic wound medicine and hemostatic powder.

He took it, first using a cloth dipped in water to clean the pus around the bullet hole, then removing the rotten flesh to reveal the fresh, red flesh underneath.

Then apply the wound medicine to the wound and wrap it tightly with gauze layer by layer.

The three bullet holes in his back, along with the stab wounds on his shoulder and waist, took almost half an hour to treat.

Ruan Zhi lay on the bed, silent, biting a towel to keep herself awake, her forehead covered in sweat.

After treating the external wound, Chen Zhan wiped the dagger clean and put it back, saying...

"You should meditate for an hour first. Once the effects of the Lesser Rejuvenation Pill take hold, I will help treat your internal injuries."

"it is good."

Ruan Zhi turned over and closed her eyes.

The Xiao Huan Dan began to take effect after being ingested.

A warm sensation slowly rose from my abdomen, flowing along the meridians to my limbs and bones. Wherever it passed, it felt like being washed by warm water, a warm and comforting sensation. The previously blocked and stagnant meridians were gradually cleared up.

His aura was much stronger than before.

However, her internal injuries were too severe, and the medicine alone was not enough. Chen Zhan also needed to help her uterus to drain the blood, so that the medicine could be guided directly to the damaged organs by external force.

Chen Zhan sat on the wooden stool by the bed, closing his eyes and waiting.

One hour later.

The medicinal power of the Lesser Rejuvenation Pill has already circulated through Ruan Zhi's body for several cycles, clearing most of the meridians that needed to be cleared, and nourishing the internal organs that needed to be nourished.

Chen Zhan opened his eyes and placed his hand on Ruan Zhi's back.

With his palm pressed against her Mingmen acupoint, he activated his own Qi and blood, and a warm and gentle force seeped into her palm, slowly flowing along Ruan Zhi's meridians.

His vital energy energies guided hers, like a great river carrying a small stream forward. The stream, which had been blocked and dried up, was gradually cleared by the flow of the great river.

The medicinal power of the Lesser Rejuvenating Pill was fully activated by this external force, flowing along the meridians to the five internal organs.

The hidden injuries in the heart vessels, the blood stasis in the lungs and internal organs, and the damage to the kidneys are gradually repaired by the medicinal power.

This treatment method is slow, laborious, and time-consuming.

If you have true qi and dragon-tiger blood and qi in your body, you can just pour it in directly; it's much simpler.

But now he can't use those things, so he can only use the most rudimentary method: pushing it up little by little with his own blood and qi.

Fortunately, Ruan Zhi had a solid foundation. The meridians of a master of internal energy transformation are much wider than those of an ordinary person, and the channels for the circulation of qi and blood are still there. Pushing along the original channels will achieve twice the result with half the effort.

The bleeding from the uterus lasted for about two hours.

Chen Zhan withdrew his hand, his palm slightly burning.

Ruan Zhi's complexion had improved; it was no longer the sallow, deathly gray it had been, but had regained a lot of color.

My breathing has become much more stable. It is no longer the intermittent, faint breath that could stop at any moment, but a long, even, deep breath with a rhythmic rise and fall of my chest.

"The injuries to your internal organs have stabilized and won't worsen, but a full recovery will take time. I'll treat you daily, and you should recover most of your injuries in half a month."

Ruan Zhi opened her eyes, which were much brighter than before, and the cloudiness had dissipated.

"Brother-in-law...can I return to my original appearance?"

Ruan Zhi looked down at herself.

Half of his hair was gray, his arms were as thin as two withered sticks, and his skin was sallow and loose. He was in his thirties, but looked like he was in his fifties.

Chen Zhan glanced at her, but didn't intend to tease her.

"Yes, at most a few months of recuperation."

"Really? Brother-in-law, you're not lying to me."

"Why would I lie to you? It will only take a few months of recuperation to recover."

Ruan Zhi's lips twitched slightly, but she didn't fully smile. However, the light in her eyes was a few degrees brighter than before.

Chen Zhan steered the conversation to the main topic.

"Come on, tell me the details again. I saw in the newspaper that there are still people in Hong Kong running Bagua (Eight Trigrams) shops, also using the Cheng School of Bagua as their name. Is that none of your business?"

Ruan Zhi shook her head, her expression turning cold.

"It's all a scheme. Those gossip shops were there to lure us out, but even more so to lure people from the mainland to Hong Kong, so they could catch them all in one fell swoop."

"So the Bagua Hall is just a pretext, and actually has nothing to do with the Cheng School?"

"That's right. The Green Robe Society and the Tong faction are stationed inside; going there would be like walking into a trap."

"The unification faction?" Chen Zhan asked, puzzled.

"After the split of the Chinese Alliance, those who were on good terms with Nanjing were called the unification faction, while we were called the Soviet faction."

Chen Zhan nodded, not dwelling on the matter of how he addressed him.

"Who are the pro-unification faction members? And who are the pro-Soviet faction members?"

Ruan Zhi leaned against the wall, caught her breath, and began to explain in detail.

"When the split initially occurred, it wasn't too serious. The two sides disagreed on their ideologies and went their separate ways, but there was no major fighting. My sister didn't blame anyone; she didn't stop anyone from leaving the alliance who wanted to."

She paused, coughed, and continued.

"On the Tong faction's side, Wan Laisheng and Gu Ruzhang are leading the group. After all, the two of them are from the Central Martial Arts Academy and have closer ties with them. They took a group of people with them, from both the south and the north; they're essentially part of the same circle within the alliance."

Chen Zhan did not respond when he heard Wan Laisheng and Gu Ruzhang's names.

Both of them were skilled in martial arts, had reputations and connections in the martial arts world, so it was not surprising that they joined the Tong faction.

"On the Su faction's side, it's naturally your and your brother-in-law's original team, including Xiong Hanshan, Wang Xiangzhai, Li Chunran, and others, as well as people from the Bagua Sect, Uncle Cheng and Uncle Feng, plus martial artists from several southern sects, which probably make up about 40% of the alliance."

"Forty percent?"

"Yes, initially the pro-unification faction made up 60%, while the Soviet faction only made up 40%. But my sister managed to hold on. Although the Soviet faction was smaller, it had strong cohesion and conducted more in-depth work behind enemy lines, establishing a solid foundation at the grassroots level." (End of Chapter)