Master of Chinese Martial Arts: I Can Steal the Skills of a Grandmaster from the Republic of China E

Chapter 101 Listening to the Truth in the Turbid Stream

Zhou Xing opened his eyes in the water.

The warm current flowing smoothly through his chest and abdomen suddenly changed the violent vortex outside his body.

An undercurrent brushed past my left rib, swirled around my waist, and the suction below surged intermittently like a tide.

With a thought, the internal energy in the chest and abdomen flows naturally, the waist and hips rotate slightly like a bearing, and the shoulders and back sway gently like water plants.

With a clever twist of the eddy, the body was not pulled into the depths, but instead slid out of the core, like a fish breaking free of a fishing net. With a few light swaying movements, it escaped the most dangerous center of the eddy and came to rest in a slightly calmer water layer.

He hovered in the water, slowly regulating his breathing, feeling an unprecedented sense of freedom within his body.

A warm sensation filled his chest and abdomen, with energy circulating smoothly and freely. It showed the beginnings of yielding to and leveraging external forces.

"It's done. This vortex-like tearing motion is an excellent place to hone one's inner strength, soften its variations, and integrate power. I can come here often in the future."

The sound spread out, sweeping across the water.

In the dim light, the riverbed was vaguely visible.

More than one skeleton, entangled in tattered ropes or seaweed, swayed gently with the waves, like pale ornaments hanging underwater.

Deeper inside, there was a half-sunken ship's shadow, its hull riddled with holes and jagged edges, unlike natural corrosion.

Bullet holes—it looks like it was hit by gunfire and sank here. In chaotic times, human life is worthless; corpses sink to the bottom of the river without a sound.

He looked at the wreckage gathered by the vortex, and a thought struck him.

The Haihe River is so vast, perhaps we can find a token there? When I have some free time in the future, I can come and investigate.

Finding nothing further, he moved on without dwelling on it.

With a twist of its body, its fascia stretched, it cut against the edge of the vortex and swiftly darted towards the direction of the upstream Old Dragon Head Bend.

In about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the water's flow changes drastically. The riverbed abruptly bends at a sharp angle here.

We've arrived at Laolongtou Bend.

The turbulent currents at the previous three-way intersection were tearing, but the currents here are cutting.

The reefs are like jagged rocks in a forest, interlocking and intertwined.

The water, propelled by pressure, surged forward like a wild horse breaking free of its reins, rushing headlong into the jagged reefs, only to be violently bounced back and cut through.

They formed undercurrents, high-speed and sharp, occasionally emitting low moans.

As Zhou Xing approached, a stream of water swished across his cheek, leaving a slightly cool mark on his skin.

"Sneer"

The water flowed past again, cutting a gash in my clothes and leaving a white mark on my skin that stung, but it didn't break the skin.

"Where did this high-pressure water jet come from?"

Zhou Xing cursed under his breath, his nerves on edge.

The reefs are abrupt and the currents are unpredictable.

It must be faster than the water flow.

He was completely absorbed in listening. His pores became probes, breaking down the hissing of the water, the prelude to the crashing of the rocks, and the differences in the intensity of the water jets.

In this extreme evasion, he discovered that his control over the extremities of his body had reached an unprecedented level of precision.

The facial muscles constantly make subtle adjustments to relieve the force, the fascia behind the ears vibrates at a high frequency, the fingertips unconsciously flex and extend to maintain balance, and the hidden strength is also forced to flow to these subtle places that are usually difficult to reach.

What a great place!

Zhou Xing understood immediately: the water was sharp and evenly distributed. Cultivating internal energy here, reaching the finest parts of the body, would be twice as effective with half the effort.

He adapted as he quickly searched, his ears ringing as he passed through the crevices of the rocks.

There are no traces of human intervention. Only the remnants of nature and time.

On several rocks, tattered pieces of fishing nets hung, dark clumps covered with mud.

Soon, he sensed three larger dark shadows—the sunken ship.

A small cargo ship that had capsized, a wrecked awning boat, and an old-fashioned steamship with its hull torn apart.

As they approached the steamship, a skeleton was found wedged in the twisted hatch, covered with a piece of military uniform cloth, its arm bone broken.

Military ships? They've also been destroyed here.

He scanned the dark cabin with his own light. Time was of the essence, so he suppressed the urge to explore further and memorized the location and features of the place.

A sacred place for cultivation, and potentially a treasure trove.

No further findings were made.

He twisted his body, using the thrust of an undercurrent, like a fish swimming through a crevice in a rapid current, turning downstream and diving towards the reeds in the direction of the British concession.

This section is downstream, and the speed is much faster.

The closer you get to the British concession, the more turbid and dark the river becomes, with more impurities in the water, and you can even see suspended coal slag and unidentified flocculent matter.

This reed marshland is a swampy river bend formed after the old river channel was silted up; underwater, there is another world.

The clamor has been shut out. Only stagnation and decay remain.

The water flowed so slowly it was unsettling, the silt was as thick as cream, exuding a cold, putrid stench that seeped into every pore.

The aquatic plants were so dense that they tangled around our hands and feet, and visibility was almost zero.

Zhou Xing held his breath, fully activating his Toad-Fishing Technique, his internal breathing becoming long and deep, resisting the pervasive chill and the putrid stench that resembled a mixture of corpses and chemical waste.

Listening to the sound here is like being stuck in a quagmire.

In the fuzzy feedback, the riverbed is uneven and contains a large number of irregular objects.

Most of them were bones of varying lengths, some scattered, some still curled up. Occasionally, you could touch pieces of burlap sacks, wrapped around the already brittle bones inside.

Not just one or two, but a whole area.

Mixed among them were rusty tin box corners, broken pottery jars, and even one or two dilapidated rickshaw frames.

This place is like a mass grave slowly swallowed by the river, mixed with all the filth abandoned by the city.

After walking around for a while, I felt a chill creeping into my body, my body temperature was dropping, the resistance to movement was immense, and the putrid smell I inhaled brought nausea, dizziness, and a bone-chilling cold.

He intensified his efforts to activate the toad-fishing energy, causing his qi and blood to surge and generate heat.

"Gulp—thump—"

The sound of internal circulation seemed audible within the body. A deeper, more intense heat rose from the dantian, permeating the body with the rhythm of breathing.

Fluctuation.

The body's vital energy and blood instinctively resist and accelerate their flow, causing the internal organs to throb and the metabolism deep within the bone marrow to become unusually active due to the stimulation of this external pathogen.

The previously lukewarm, water-like vibrations have now become clear and powerful, as if a small hammer is striking the bones from the inside.

In a toxic environment, external pathogens can easily invade, but this can actually trigger a natural resistance from the body's vital energy, blood, and bone marrow.

His mind raced. He would cultivate the Toad-Catching Technique here, using the poisonous environment to unleash his potential. The efficiency of his marrow cleansing and blood transformation would likely be ten times greater than usual!

He glanced at the sacks containing the corpses and the half-buried iron boxes.

Beneath these reeds lies a place that's both filthy and incredibly rich. Once I have some free time and tools, I'll definitely come and plunder a slice of the pie. Tokens of love, money—who knows, I might find some.

The town's money showed no reaction. This place was extremely taxing on mental and physical strength, so it was not advisable to stay for long.

He determined his direction and plunged into the lower reaches of the Xixi River, the ultimate target of his exploration.

This time, he clearly felt his physical strength declining.

The continuous high-intensity listening, resisting the turbulent currents and the cold, maintaining breathlessness for a long time and swimming at high speed, even with his current internal strength cultivation and river spirit characteristics, he began to feel tired.

The flow of internal energy was no longer as smooth as it had initially been, and I felt a tightness in my chest.

But while physically exhausted, I was mentally very excited.

The Xiaxihe Sluice Gate is a newly built cement sluice gate, only a few years old, used to regulate water levels and facilitate navigation.

Before we even got close, the texture of the water changed again.

Previously, the river water in various places, whether turbulent, rapid, or muddy, was always alive and natural.

The water here, however, carries a sense of dullness and oppression.

The sound of the flowing water became monotonous and heavy, as if it were not flowing on its own, but rather being restrained by a tremendous force, forced to move forward in a predetermined narrow passage.

A huge shadow appeared before my eyes.

Those were the bases of the concrete gate piers, like gray mountains submerged at the bottom of the water.

Slippery seaweed and shells covered the surface. Thick steel cables hung down from above, disappearing into the dark water, swaying gently with the waves like the tentacles of a sea monster.

As Zhou Xinggang approached the deep water area in front of the sluice gate, the river-suppressing coin in his arms suddenly became scalding hot!

The burning sensation was so clear that it even burned my skin through my clothes.