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

Kowloon Pier, at night.

The passenger terminal was brightly lit, with customs and police officers on night duty checking documents at the gates, and departing passengers queuing up to pass through one by one.

The cargo terminal was different. A row of bulk cargo ships were moored there, and dockworkers were carrying sacks and wooden crates up and down. The shouts and the clanging of the crane chains were all mixed together, creating a chaotic scene, but nobody cared about anything else.

Chen Zhan chose a cargo ship that ran the Shanghai route. During a break in loading, he went up from the gangplank. The cargo hold was dimly lit, stuffy, and filled with wooden crates and burlap sacks.

A sailor stopped him and looked him up and down.

Chen Zhan took out a few silver coins and handed them over.

The sailor weighed it in his hand, stuffed it into his pocket, and gestured towards the depths of the cargo hold, "Stay inside, don't wander onto the deck."

There were already people in the corner of the cargo hold.

Three small-time merchants from Guangdong, carrying several boxes of imported goods, were also bypassing the official border crossings. They were huddled together in a pile of burlap sacks, playing cards.

A young man in a short jacket was curled up sleeping in a corner, his face covered by a hat, so his appearance and origins were unknown.

There was also a couple with a child. The woman was holding a bundle in her arms, the man was leaning against a wooden box with his eyes closed, and the child was asleep on the woman's lap.

Those fleeing, those running away with goods, those hiding from trouble—each with their own thoughts, none of them giving each other a second glance.

Chen Zhan found a spot by the side of the ship and sat down, pulling his hat brim down and remaining silent.

The ship set sail in the middle of the night, and the vibrations from the engine came up from the bottom of the ship, causing the entire cargo hold to sway slightly.

The card player, bored, lit a cigarette and was scolded by the sailor. The cargo hold was full of cotton and tung oil; if it caught fire, everything would be ruined.

The vendor sheepishly stubbed out his cigarette and pulled back to continue rubbing his hands.

The couple's child woke up and cried for a while, and it took the woman a long time to soothe him.

Chen Zhan closed his eyes, listening to the sounds in the cargo hold; the ship's swaying was even and slow.

The ship sailed north along the coast. On the second day, it passed the waters off Shantou without docking. On the third day, it stopped in Xiamen for half a day to resupply and loaded a batch of tea, making the cargo hold even more crowded.

After more than three days at sea, Chen Zhan spent most of his time in the cargo hold, only occasionally going up to the deck for some fresh air after dark.

At the end of October, the sea was gray and the wind was strong and the waves were rough. Standing on the side of the ship, you could see scattered lights on the distant coastline, like scattered gold on a black cloth.

On the morning of the fourth day, the ship entered the mouth of the Yangtze River.

Where the Huangpu River and the sea meet, the colors are distinctly different: the muddy yellow river water pushes outwards, while the grayish-blue seawater surges inwards, and the dividing line is clearly visible.

The cargo ship docked at the Shiliupu Wharf.

Shiliupu was the largest wharf in Shanghai, with passenger ships, cargo ships and fishing boats crammed together. The wharf was packed with people, customs officers were inspecting goods at the gate, and police officers were walking back and forth in the crowd.

Chen Zhan did not leave through the sluice gate.

As the cargo ship docked to unload its cargo, groups of dockworkers rushed ashore, carrying sacks and wooden crates, creating chaos on the dock.

He turned up his collar, pulled his hat brim down, and stepped off the boat onto the gangplank between the porters. He then walked onto the stone slab of the dock and turned into the side street following the path the porters had taken.

There is no entry record and no ticket stub.

Shanghai was unaware of his arrival.

He didn't rush into the city.

Next to the dock, there is a row of low shacks in the alleys, selling breakfast, cigarettes, and repairing shoes. Between the shacks are several narrower dark alleys leading to the old lanes of Nanshi.

Chen Zhan turned into a deserted, dark alley and stood with his back against the wall.

Raise both hands and press your ten fingers against your face.

The internal energy seeped from the fingertips into the bones and muscles of the face, making subtle adjustments. The brow bone was pushed forward a little, the curve of the cheekbone was flattened, the jawline was narrowed, and the direction of the muscles at the corners of the mouth changed.

Yi Gu.

The most profound techniques in internal martial arts are so advanced that ordinary people can practice for a lifetime and still not even get a grasp of them.

Using internal energy to make subtle adjustments to one's bones and muscles is not a complete transformation, but the changes in the eyebrows and eyes are enough to make acquaintances not recognize them at first glance.

It took less than half a cup of tea.

He lowered his hands, moved his face, and felt the slight discomfort after his bones and muscles returned to their original positions, but he quickly got used to it.

When he emerged from the dark alley, he was no longer the young man with his hat pulled down on the dock.

Her facial features haven't changed much, but her overall demeanor is completely different. The curves of her brow bone and cheekbone have been altered, turning her face from sharp to ordinary, making her unremarkable in a crowd.

Nanshi, the old city area.

He walked along the alleyway, looking for a place to stay.

The alleyways of Nanshi are as dense as a spider web, with rows of Shikumen houses next to each other, and people living upstairs and downstairs. Kitchens are set up in the passageways, chamber pots are placed at the entrance of the alley, and children chase each other in the alleys.

This area was outside the concession area, so the police were lax in their duties, and landlords took the money without asking where it came from.

He found a small room at the end of a quiet alley. It was on the second floor, facing north, with the window facing the wall next door. He couldn't see the street and was not easily seen by people on the street.

The landlady was an elderly woman in her sixties who was hard of hearing and had a hunched back. Chen Zhan handed her two silver dollars and said he would stay for a month.

The old lady held the silver coin in her hand, touched it, nodded, took out the key from her waist and handed it to him, then turned and left without ever asking him his surname.

The small room contained a metal bunk bed, a small table, a chair, and a washbasin stand in the corner.

A layer of dust had accumulated on the windowpane, making the light that came in hazy. He put down his things, went outside, and began to examine the Shanghai market. Shanghai in 1946, on the surface, seemed no different from what it had been a decade or so earlier.

The neon lights of the department stores on Nanjing Road were on all day, the foreign trading houses on the Bund stood in a row, the ship horns on the Huangpu River sounded constantly, the plane trees in the French Concession began to shed their leaves, and the cafes and dance halls remained open as usual.

The bottom is different now.

More than a year after the end of the War of Resistance against Japan, the Nationalist government took over Shanghai, and various forces were reshuffled.

The gangs are still the same gangs; the Green Gang's foundation remains intact. Although Du Yuesheng has shifted his focus to Hong Kong in the past two years, his disciples in Shanghai are spread across all walks of life, from docks to factories to finance to the military and politics, forming a complex and intertwined network.

Huang Jinrong was getting old and didn't manage things much, but his reputation remained, and his followers were still very influential.

There are also members of the Hongmen who are active, but their influence is not as great as that of the Green Gang.

These gangs had very deep ties with the Nationalist government. It was Du Yuesheng who carried out the April 12 Incident. The cooperation between the gangs and the Military Intelligence Bureau had a long history.

The faction of unification was able to suppress the faction of Soviet faction in Shanghai not only because of the military intelligence's own strength, but also because gangs were another hidden force.

There were some things that the Military Intelligence Bureau couldn't do themselves, so the gangs did them for them.

Chen Zhan spent two days walking around the addresses in his contacts.

Without going in or making contact, stand on the opposite side of the street and observe from a distance the entry and exit of personnel, the deployment of guards at the entrance, and the patrol schedule.

Near Avenue Joffre in the French Concession, there was a Western-style building with a sign that read "Chinese Martial Arts Federation". The people coming in and out wore suits and top hats and didn't look like martial arts practitioners, but rather like office workers.

There were two plainclothes officers standing under the sycamore tree at the entrance, smoking and keeping an eye on the pedestrians on the street.

In the alley behind Nanjing Road in the International Settlement, there was a tea shop that was marked as a contact point for the Tsing Yi Society in its address book.

It operates normally during the day, selling tea, but the back door leads to another alley, and someone guards the back door.

Near the City God Temple in Nanshi, there is a martial arts school, the territory of the Tongpai sect, with a plaque that reads "National Martial Arts Strengthens the Body". Some people practice martial arts there, while others do not.

There was a separate room in the backyard, with the curtains drawn tightly, and a telegraph line running out from the roof.

The pro-unification faction and the Tsing Yi Society had a much larger presence in Shanghai than in Hong Kong, with at least three or four times the number of strongholds. They were scattered throughout the concessions, both overt and covert, and their methods of communication were more secretive.

We can't just fight our way through like we did in Hong Kong.

The scale in Shanghai is more than ten times larger, and it's the headquarters of the Military Intelligence Bureau. If one location is disturbed, the other outposts will receive the news within hours and be on full alert.

He was also inquiring about Ye Ningzhen's whereabouts.

Instead of asking directly, the Su School had gone underground in Shanghai, and Ye Ningzhen's name was rarely heard in public. No one knew where she was hiding.

He couldn't go to her rashly yet.

There has been no new news for more than three months, and the contact information may have changed several times.

If she tries to contact him through the old channels, and those channels have already been infiltrated by the pro-unification faction, it could expose her location.

Find a way to confirm that it is safe before connecting to the network.

On the evening of the second day after he scouted the location, he noticed a name.

Sanshui Gang.

The gangs operating in the Nanshi and Zhabei areas were small, doing dock handling and warehousing business, and were not considered big names in Shanghai.

They were small figures who made a living in the cracks between big gangs like the Green Gang and the Hongmen.

But the name made him pause.

Sanshui?

When he went to Fengtian, he used the alias Chen Sanshui.

He used that name for a while, and some people in the underworld of Fengtian knew about it, but not many. Later, he revealed his identity, and the alias Chen Sanshui was never used again.

That happened more than ten years ago.

Is it a coincidence that a "Sanshui Gang" has emerged in Shanghai?

He was cautious and wandered around the dock, chatting with the porters to find out about the Sanshui Gang.

The gang leader's surname is Chen, and his name is Chen Li. He is very young, not yet thirty years old, but he doesn't come to the docks often. It is said that he has very high martial arts skills and is rarely seen.

These porters had never seen Chen Li before.

The gang has dozens of members and runs a legitimate moving business. They don't cause much trouble or have conflicts with larger gangs. They started about seven or eight years ago, working their way up from a small dock in Zhabei.

Seven or eight years ago, during the War of Resistance against Japan.
Nighttime, in the pavilion.

Chen Zhan sat on a chair by the window. Outside the window were the gray brick walls of the neighboring building. Looking up, he could see a narrow strip of sky, and in the distance, the neon lights of Nanjing Road were reflected on the clouds, turning half the sky a dim yellow.

"Thump thump thump—!"

The clock tower at the Bund struck ten times, the sound carrying across several streets.

He had a plan in mind; he couldn't delay too long, because the longer it went on, the more dangerous it would be for Ye Ningzhen.

He was not clear about the current situation in Shanghai, but historically, the situation in Shanghai was very complicated during this period. After the cooperation between the two sides broke down, many people were purged, but many senior executives went into hiding with complicated identities.

I wonder what Ye Ningzhen's current situation is. (End of Chapter)