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

Chen Li unconsciously loosened the chains.

The head镖师 (bodyguard/escort) was thrown back from the darkness and landed at his feet, the chain rattling loudly on the ground.

His hands were still trembling. "This...Master?"

The person in front of me took two steps closer, using the sliver of moonlight from the sky.

Chen Li looked at the face; it was someone in their forties, with ordinary features, not Chen Zhan's face.
"you?"

"Bone-changing technique, altering one's appearance to avoid trouble."

After Chen Zhan finished speaking, he reached out and pressed his face a few times, using his internal energy to subtly adjust the facial bones and muscles.

The brow bone gradually protrudes, the cheekbones recede, the jawline becomes more defined, the nasolabial folds become shallower, the curve of the corners of the mouth changes, and the shape of the eye sockets changes.

The bones beneath the skin and flesh were moving, as if an invisible hand was reshaping a face from the inside.

In a few breaths, his face was restored.

Chen Li saw Chen Zhan's face, which was almost unchanged from more than ten years ago. If there was any change, it was that he had become more mature.

Chen Li bent his knees and knelt down, hitting the ground with a loud thud that echoed through the courtyard.

"Master, you're finally back."

Chen Zhan looked down at him.

When this apprentice left, he was just a twelve or thirteen-year-old boy, as thin as a monkey. Now he's almost thirty, with three scars on his face, his eyes have changed, and he exudes a murderous aura.

After seven or eight years, the little fox has grown into a big fox.

He didn't like this kind of scene, feeling melancholic and sentimental. He reached out and pulled Chen Li up, saying, "Get up, let's go inside and talk."

They went inside, bolted the door, and lit the kerosene lamp.

The lamp wick was turned down very low, the light only illuminating the tabletop and the two people's hands, while the shadows on the wall flickered.

Chen Zhan sat down at the table and glanced around the room. The wooden bed was neatly made, the military green blanket was folded into a square, a short stick leaned against the corner of the wall with its blade polished to a shine, and the teapot and teacups on the table were arranged in an orderly fashion.

He began by asking, "What is the Sanshui Gang? What do they do in Shanghai? Who do they work for?"

Chen Li sat opposite him and explained the whole story.

The gangs were a cover; in reality, they worked for the liberated areas, picking up and dropping off people, transporting supplies, and relaying messages.

For seven or eight years, nothing major had gone wrong, and no one at the Zhabei Wharf had ever doubted the Sanshui Gang's background.

"Who sent you to Shanghai to establish this gang?"

"Master's wife."

When those two words were uttered, the room fell silent for a moment.

The flame of the kerosene lamp flickered, probably from a draft that seeped in through the crack in the door.

Chen Zhan's expression changed unconsciously, and he paused for a moment, "She's in Shanghai?"

"exist."

Chen Zhan didn't ask a second time, waiting for Chen Li to continue.

Chen Li poured out everything he knew.

The master's wife led assassination operations in Shanghai, specifically targeting the middle and high-ranking members of the Military Intelligence Bureau and the Tsing Yi Society.

They've done this several times in the past few months, to the point that Military Intelligence Bureau personnel now carry bulletproof vests when they go out, and mid- to high-ranking officers dare not ride alone.

Two days ago, I shot another one, Zheng Yumin, the deputy director of the Military Intelligence Bureau. Five shots, three dead and two wounded, the last shot was a headshot, clean and swift.

He paused here, hesitating for a moment.

“When my teacher’s wife came to see me the night before last, she had been shot in the shoulder.”

She said she could handle it and didn't want me to interfere.

Chen Zhan didn't press for details about the injuries, but instead asked the next question: "Where is she now?"

Chen Li shook his head: "My master's wife never tells me where she lives. She always comes to find me. When there is something, I leave a secret signal at a few fixed locations. She will come when she sees it, but I can't contact her on my own initiative."

"What else did she tell you besides to evacuate your people?"

Chen Li thought for a moment and said, "There's something. A comrade was arrested before. His code name was Bluebird. He was a liaison officer for the liberated area in Shanghai and controlled a part of the liaison network. My mentor's wife has been trying to find out where he's being held and said she'd go and rescue him once she found out."

"Where are you being held? Have you found out?"

"I don't know, my master's wife didn't intend for me to participate."

Chen Zhan nodded. If Ye Ning really wanted to save people, she would have to take action, scout out locations, explore routes, and figure out the guards' patterns.

He remained silent for a few moments before briefly recounting what had happened that evening.

“Lu Desheng and his men captured your people on the boat. I ran into them. Lu Desheng and his men were all dealt with. Your three brothers and that woman have already left and gone downstream.”

Chen Li was stunned for a moment, his mouth opened and then closed.

He thought he had made proper arrangements when he saw Lao Liu and the others off on the ship tonight, but he never expected that Lü Desheng had buried people on the ship.

If the master hadn't run into them, these four people would be in Lü Desheng's hands now.

“Lu Desheng is dead. His men will find out tomorrow morning. The Green Gang will definitely investigate, and it’s only a matter of time before they trace it back to the Sanshui Gang. Go find the remaining brothers in the gang now, take everyone you can, and leave immediately without lingering.”

"Master, then you—"

"I have other things to do."

His tone left no room for negotiation, just like it was in Tianjin more than a decade ago.

Chen Li responded, got out of bed, put on his shoes, wrapped the chain dart around his waist, and tucked a few things from under his pillow into his bosom.

As I walked to the door, I turned around.

Chen Zhan stood by the table, having already reverted to his disguise as a practitioner of the Bone-Changing Technique.

"Master, take care."

"Well, let's go."

Chen Li opened the door, walked into the courtyard, and climbed over the wall to get out.

The footsteps faded into the alley, first quick steps, then running, growing ever more distant until finally disappearing into the night.

Chen Zhan stood inside the room, turned off the kerosene lamp, and quickly left.

Daylight broke. Downstream of the Suzhou Creek, near the Waibaidu Bridge, around six in the morning, a thin mist floated on the river, and the buildings on both banks were only visible as gray-black outlines in the fog.

The first person to discover it was a cargo boatman who had been hauling goods on the Suzhou River for twenty years.

He rowed his sampan downstream from the middle of the river and saw something floating on the water as he passed a dock post.

From a distance, it looks like rotten wood washed down from upstream; it's common in the Suzhou River.

Upon closer inspection, something was amiss.

It was a person. Face down on the water, clothes soaked through, arms outstretched, slowly drifting downstream with the current.

Old Ma poked the man with a bamboo pole; he didn't move, he was limp, and he was dead.

He called for the police officers on the dock, and the two of them worked together to hook the man to the shore with a pole. When they turned him over, they recognized him.

Lu Desheng, from Nanshi, was a member of the Green Gang. He had been working in this area for many years, and everyone who made a living at the docks knew Boss Lu.

His face was ashen; he had been soaking in the water all night, and his skin was swollen.

His right hand was fused to a Mauser pistol.

The police officer crouched down for a closer look and gasped. The finger bones and flesh were embedded in the metal of the gun, as if they had been pressed in by something. The gun was deformed, and there was a clear palm print on the outer shell, with the marks of five fingers clearly visible.

Bones and iron were mixed together, and flesh filled the crevices of the metal, which had already turned black.

The young policeman tried to pry the gun off his hand, but he couldn't; the iron and bone had already grown sturdy.

The old police officer pulled him away: "Don't touch him, call and report it."

The news first caused an uproar within the Green Gang.

Lu Desheng took fifteen or sixteen men out last night to "do business," promising to return overnight to report back, but they didn't come back, and he couldn't be reached by phone.

They sent people to look for him, and after searching all morning, they finally found him in the river.

All fifteen or sixteen of his men have disappeared, neither alive nor dead.

The condition of Lü Desheng's body shocked the entire Green Gang; his hands were clenched together with his gun.
What kind of martial art is this?
The Green Gang members aren't fools; they have many skilled martial artists, but none of them can pull off this feat.

The news reached the Military Intelligence Bureau that afternoon.

When Chen Zuyan received the report, she was sitting in the office of the Military Intelligence Bureau's Shanghai station. There were three or four documents spread out on the table, and the tea had gone cold.

The report was brief: Lu Desheng's Green Gang members went missing the night before while carrying out a mission to arrest remnants of the Sanshui Gang on the Suzhou River. Their bodies were recovered from the river this morning. The whereabouts of the other fifteen members who accompanied them are unknown, and some of their bodies were also recovered from the river.

Chen Zuyan picked up the teacup next to her and took a sip of the cold tea.

Several details caught his attention.

First, Lü Desheng got into trouble while arresting the Sanshui Gang, a small, suspicious gang that had been investigated before, but hadn't been thoroughly investigated yet.

Second, fifteen or sixteen people went out with guns, leaving no one alive. Anyone who could do that was definitely not an ordinary person.

Third, the manner of death. The hand bones were pressed into the gun barrel, the metal deformed, and there was a palm print on it. This could not have been caused by a knife or gun, but by bare hands. What kind of force could mold human flesh and steel into one piece with bare hands?
He thought of the chin sketch that had been sent back from Hong Kong.

They cleaned up the entire Tsing Yi branch, more than sixty people, with clean and efficient methods, leaving no survivors.

Something happened in Hong Kong, and something happened in Shanghai.

Moreover, the opponents did not rely on sheer numbers, but rather on individual combat prowess.
Where do so many martial arts masters come from?
Could it be the same person?

Chen Zuyan put the report aside, took out another file from the drawer, opened it, and glanced at the photos tucked inside.

The photo shows a man in his early thirties with a thin face, high cheekbones, thin lips, and a stubborn look in his eyes.

The underground liaison officer in the liberated area, codenamed "Bluebird," was arrested a few days ago and is being held in the underground interrogation room of the Songhu Garrison Command.

After this person was caught, he was interrogated several times, but nothing useful was found out.

They were about to use torture, but he stopped them.

The news of Qingniao's arrest was not publicized, but both sides were well aware of it.

Chen Zuyan didn't even deliberately block all the news, nor did she make it too obvious.

Finding out where the detainee is, how many guards are on duty, and when the shifts change is not easy, but it's not entirely foolproof either.

Ye Ningzhen's assassination operations in Shanghai have become increasingly rampant in recent months; he's trying to lure people in.

Qingniao had control over part of the Su faction's contact network in Shanghai. He knew everything about the contact methods between the upper and lower levels, the locations of safe houses, and several key intelligence channels.

If you manage to pry open their mouths, half the network will be ruined.

They will definitely come to rescue us.

The interrogation room was surrounded by three layers of hidden sentries, each unaware of the others. The first layer consisted of four visible guards, armed, who conducted routine patrols.

The second layer consists of plainclothes officers, who blend in with the regular staff of the garrison command.

The third floor is located on the second floor of a residential building opposite the building where the interrogation room is located. It is guarded by two machine guns 24 hours a day.

The three layers of netting are nested together, so from the outside it only looks like the first layer.

Even the shift change times for the guards were designed, leaving a seemingly flawed loophole: every day from 3:00 to 3:30 in the morning, during the half-hour shift change, there was only one person in the corridor.

The "flaw" is the hook on the bait.

Those who come to rescue people will definitely target this gap and will definitely choose this time to make their move.

Once inside, the three layers of netting will close simultaneously, preventing escape.

Lu Desheng's death proves one thing: the other side has skilled fighters, and ordinary sentries, both overt and covert, may not be able to stop them.

Chen Zuyan picked up the phone on the table and dialed a number.

"Help me pick up Qin Heng from Nanjing."

The call connected, and there was a moment of silence on the other end, followed by a very calm voice.

"Director Chen."

Chen Zuyan briefly explained the situation: Something had happened in Shanghai, someone had secretly intervened, and the methods were very unusual. At the same time, the liberated areas were likely to come to rescue the imprisoned liaison officer, and the time would be very soon.

Qin Heng listened quietly on the other end of the phone without asking for details.

"I'll be in Shanghai tomorrow."

Chen Zuyan: "Come find me directly when you arrive. I'll arrange for you to be near the interrogation room. Come and rescue them; I want them alive."

Qin Heng: "Okay." (End of Chapter)