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

Shanghai, Avenue Joffre, second-floor study.

The phone rang three times before Chen Zuyan picked up the receiver.

"Sir, the situation in Hong Kong has been investigated."

"explain."

"There are very few clues. The murderer disappeared completely after committing the crime, with no entry or exit records. We checked all the docks, stations, and border crossings, but found nothing unusual. The Hong Kong police have also made no progress."

"that's it?"

“There is one.” The person on the other end paused for a moment. “When the Hong Kong police were conducting their investigations, a witness provided a partial image of the perpetrator, only the lower half of his face, the outline of his chin and jawbone. Based on this, the police drew a hand-drawn sketch, and I managed to get a copy.”

"Pass it over."

"Sir, what method should we use? There's no dedicated line here..."

“Use wireless fax, go through the official telecommunications line. The shortwave image transmission line between Shanghai and Hong Kong was restored last year. Go to the Great Eastern Telegraph Office on Hong Kong Island, give them the code name of the Military Intelligence Bureau, and they will know how to connect.”

Radio picture faxing is not a new thing.

Domestic news agencies and newspapers were already using it in the 1930s. At that time, it was called "telephoto," which used shortwave radio to scan and send image signals line by line, and the receiving end restored the image.

During the War of Resistance against Japan, frontline news and military intelligence relied entirely on this technology to transmit images across regions. After the war, official telecommunications lines between Shanghai and Hong Kong were fully restored. It took about 20 to 30 minutes to transmit an image, and the clarity was limited, but the outline was sufficient.

"Go right away, I need to see it within half an hour."

The phone hangs up.

Chen Zuyan put down the receiver, lit a cigarette, and sat down at the table to wait.

Twenty minutes later, the fax machine in the study started humming, and papers slowly emerged from the machine, line by line, with black lines gradually appearing on the gray background.

He pulled out the paper and spread it on the table.

A hand-drawn picture, with rough lines and blurred details, was clearly drawn by an artist based on a witness's memory of the description.

There are no eyebrows or eyes, no forehead, only the lower half of the face, with a strong jawline, a square jaw, lips pressed into a straight line, and a clean and neat curve to the chin.

A young man's chin.

Chen Zuyan held the paper, her fingers pinching its edge, a cigarette between the fingers of her other hand, the ash growing long without being flicked off.

He stared at that chin for a long time.

A shadow flickered in my mind.

More than a decade ago, at the headquarters of the Qingyi Society in Beijing, a young man in his twenties was sitting across from me, drinking tea while wearing a gray cloth long gown.

When I looked up at him, his chin was slightly raised, and the lines of his jawbone were very distinct under the light.

The curve of that chin overlapped with the one on the paper in his hand.

Chen Zuyan's cigarette ash fell on the table, but he didn't wipe it up.

impossible.

That person has been dead for over ten years.

He flipped the paper over, then flipped it back, and looked at it again.

The lines are blurry, the details are lacking, and the precision of the hand-drawn sketch was further reduced by radio faxing. In the end, it's just the outline of a chin.

There are plenty of young men with square jaws in the world; it's absurd to judge someone solely based on that.

It's ridiculous.

but……

Chen Zuyan put down the paper, placed her hands on the table, and stared out the window.

I sat there for several minutes without moving.

The cigarette burned his finger, and only then did he realize what was happening and stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray.

A sentence inexplicably echoed in my mind: "I hope you don't become Chen's enemy. The day that happens will be your death day."

Chen Zuyan nodded silently at the time. He did not think there would be a conflict between the two because they had the same goal: the Japanese.

But it's different now.

Chen Zhan has been dead for more than a decade, and now the two men's positions have indeed become opposing.

Chen Zuyan was deeply moved and did not want to see the country divided, but now the trend was irreversible and individual power was insignificant; he could only go with the tide.

Chen Zuyan closed her eyes briefly, and when she opened them again, her gaze was resolute.

Regardless of whether it's that person or not.

If so, then it's even more important not to delay; if not, there's no harm in ending it sooner.

Set up the highest level of security, find and deal with all the Soviet faction members, and then withdraw to Nanjing.

He walked to the window. The plane trees on Xiafei Road only had half of their leaves left, which fell in the wind and covered the ground.

I picked up the phone and dialed a number.

The call connected, and on the other end was a leader of the Green Gang in Shanghai, surnamed Fan, a subordinate of Du Yuesheng, who had cooperated with the Military Intelligence Bureau for many years and was efficient in his work.

“Mr. Fan, I need your help with something.” “Commander Chen, please speak.”

"The Su faction has gone underground in Shanghai, hiding in all sorts of shells—gangs, businesses, workshops, whatever the name. I need you to conduct a round of investigations in Nanshi, Zhabei, and Hongkou. Investigate all the small gangs that have emerged in recent years, whose backgrounds are unclear, and which have no connection with known forces. Focus on the docks, warehousing, and transportation industries."

What if we find out?

"Report this to me first, so as not to alert the enemy."

"Understood. When do I need it?"

"The sooner the better, within ten days."

The phone call ended, but the Green Gang had eyes and ears everywhere in Shanghai – in every alley, every dock, and every tobacco and paper shop.

He picked up the phone again and dialed a second number.

After dialing this number, it was transferred twice, and the connection point was not in Shanghai, but in Nanjing.

"I need people."

There was a moment of silence on the other end. "Which two?"

"Qin Heng, Qin Zhun."

There was silence on the other end of the phone for a few more seconds.

The Qin brothers.

Their names were not listed in the Military Intelligence Bureau's internal organization, and their resumes could not be found in the archives, but the high-ranking members of the Military Intelligence Bureau all knew about these two people.

He learned martial arts from a young age and came from a declining martial arts family in the north. He was recruited into the Military Intelligence Bureau in his teens, trained for many years, and later assigned to the special operations group of the Green Robe Society, specializing in assassination.

ten years.

Over the course of ten years, he killed everyone from warlords and traitors to experts from hostile forces.

During the War of Resistance Against Japan, he carried out missions behind enemy lines, traveling back and forth countless times in Japanese-occupied areas, occupied areas, and the front lines and rear areas amidst gunfire.

War is the best crucible, burning away all the excess in a person, leaving only the blade.

At the age of thirty-six, the two brothers simultaneously entered the Core Formation Realm.

Embracing the elixir.

Above the Transformation Realm, there are fewer than ten people in the entire martial arts world who have reached this level, and they arrived with two of them.

What makes twins special is their unspoken understanding.

It's not the "telepathic connection" that people in the martial arts world boast about; it's an instinct that comes from the womb, plus thirty years of eating, living, training, and killing together, that has created a tacit understanding that runs to the bone.

When the two attack together, they don't need words or eye contact. One moves and the other reacts in sync, with no gap between offense and defense.

In solo combat, even a single cultivator at the Dan level is already among the best in the world.

The two masters, both at the Dan level, attacked together with perfect understanding. In the entire martial arts world, no one could withstand even a single blow from them.

"Transfer him to Shanghai, I need it fast."

"Yes."

Chen Zuyan put down the receiver and opened the file on the table.

The files were compiled by the Shanghai station of the Military Intelligence Bureau and contain records of the activities of the Soviet faction in Shanghai.

Although the Soviet faction has gone underground for the past three months, it has not stopped.

Ye Ningzhen led the remaining men to carry out their assassinations in the shadows, avoiding direct confrontation.

Two months ago, the head of a liaison station of the pro-unification faction was murdered in his own alleyway, his throat slit, and he died at his own doorstep.

A group leader of the Tsing Yi Society was struck in the temple by a hidden weapon while having tea at a teahouse last month and died on the spot. The murderer climbed out of the back window and disappeared into the alley.

Two other mid-level civilian staff members of the Military Intelligence Bureau have also disappeared and their whereabouts remain unknown.

The method was clean, leaving very few traces, and the perpetrator could not be found even after a long investigation.

All the members of the Soviet faction had official identities as cover. During the day, they worked in factories, taught in schools, and worked as shop assistants in businesses, just like ordinary people.

At night, he changes his clothes and becomes a top assassin.

Chen Zuyan herself was assassinated once.

Two months ago, he was walking back to his residence from his office, down a lane he often took, when suddenly someone attacked from around the corner. It was incredibly fast; a throwing knife was aimed straight at his throat at a tricky angle.

His bodyguard reacted quickly, slapping the throwing knife away by half an inch. The blade tip grazed his collar, severing his tie, and narrowly missed cutting his carotid artery.

The assassin failed, scaled the wall, and escaped; the pursuers lost him.

After that, Chen Zuyan always went out with at least five top-level experts.

The Military Intelligence Bureau has lost more mid-level key personnel in the past three months than in the previous two years combined.

The day before yesterday, the underground party member had been captured, but Ye Ningzhen suddenly appeared and abducted him in the street, resulting in the deaths of more than a dozen Kuomintang agents.
Ye Ningzhen is a real headache for him. Not only is her martial arts skill high, but her marksmanship is also too good. Every shot is fatal, and now many high-ranking officials in the Shanghai Military Intelligence Bureau are in danger.

She used the fewest people to create the greatest chaos, delaying the pro-unification faction's crackdown and providing cover for the real underground agents. (End of Chapter)