Chinese martial arts: From human punching bags to martial arts mastery

The fog on the river was as thick as ink, so dense that it couldn't be dispersed, and even the sound of the flowing water was muffled and indistinct.

In order not to alert the water rats hiding in the rice market ferry dock, the small steamer slowly anchored at a safe distance.

Chen Feng, Er Gou, and Hu Mingxuan immediately switched to a light inflatable raft and, under the perfect cover of the thick fog, stealthily made their way towards the dock like phantoms in the night.

This trip involves a powerful figure from the Green Gang, a situation fraught with danger and potential for utter ruin. A single misstep could lead to utter destruction.

Chen Feng was determined not to let Hu Qing Yu Tang get involved in this bloody storm, but Hu Mingxuan and Hu Tao were adamant about sharing life and death with him.

Unable to resist their sincerity and determination, Chen Feng gave Hu Mingxuan a tight hug...

"Whoosh—"

As the raft cleaved through the water, the closer it got to the riverbank, the more numerous the headlamps flickered in the mist, their lights shining brightly like will-o'-the-wisps from a desolate graveyard, eerily drifting in the darkness.

As the small boat approached the shore, the three men stepped onto the damp, cold, and sticky muddy riverbank. Chen Feng's gaze suddenly sharpened—the anchors used to secure the boat's cables were not ordinary cast iron or wooden wedges, but rather the shinbones of young, strong men, meticulously polished and forged, with clearly defined joint curves. The pale bone gleamed coldly in the thick fog.

Although Er Gou had previously mentioned a series of extremely bloody terms on the ship, such as blood-stained ship markings, bone scales for verification, marrow contracts for signing, debts to descendants, and corpse oil for perpetual illumination, when he witnessed this insane scene firsthand...

Chen Feng's body stiffened, and a bone-chilling cold shot from his tailbone straight to the top of his head.

His brows furrowed sharply, and his fingers tightened around the kitchen knife at his waist, his knuckles turning white. A faint, chilling killing intent quietly seeped from the depths of his eyes.

He had witnessed the ruthlessness of chaotic times, the bloodshed of the martial world, and the exploitation of shantytowns, but he had never seen anyone so heartless as to use human bones as cable nails. With just one glance, he could smell the thick, unyielding stench of blood and evil deep within the riverbank.

At this moment.

The thick fog still obscured the sun and blocked out the road ahead, but the sounds coming from afar became clearer and clearer.

The harsh and violent shouts, the suppressed and desperate gasps, and the intermittent, heart-wrenching wails intertwined, like dull knives repeatedly cutting and grinding against one's eardrums, making one's heart tighten.

Chen Feng suppressed the murderous intent surging in his heart and gestured for the two to be quiet. The three of them crouched low, stepping on the soft, wet sand, and cautiously made their way in, following the horrifying sound.

Not long after.

The outline of the Class A berths slowly emerged from the mist and fire. Giant ships were moored on the river surface. The glaring red and white ring on the waterline caught the eye, and the three large characters "Yingzhou Maru" on the bow were cold and conspicuous.

"Baka! You Chinese pigs, hurry up!"

Amidst the fog and fire, one could vaguely see Japanese ronin brandishing weapons, forcing shackled Chinese people to desperately carry goods.

Hu Mingxuan lowered his voice and explained quickly, "This is a private ship of the Japanese company Mitsui & Co., which travels between the Shanghai and Songjiang docks year-round. Ostensibly, it transports grain to the Hongkou and Yokohama docks in Shanghai..."

Upon hearing this,

Chen Feng's brows furrowed completely, and that slight chilling killing intent instantly transformed into a cold and solemn expression—the Japanese had long coveted China's territory and resources, and now they were secretly stockpiling grain in preparation for war. Coupled with the collusion of the Green Gang, this was no longer a simple private fight among the martial arts world, but a complete disaster for the country and its people.

The three continued to stealthily move forward, taking advantage of the thick fog.

When the deeper berth came into view, the Japanese Rising Sun Flag fluttering in the wind and the three large characters "Yamatoho" painted on the hull instantly ignited a cold fury in Chen Feng's eyes.

He had long heard of the ship's notorious reputation. Ostensibly operating under the banner of a Japanese mail ship, it secretly smuggled arms, trafficked human organs, and smuggled opium. It was the most vicious fang that Japan had planted in Shanghai.

The numerous Green Gang cargo boats moored alongside the ship further solidified the irrefutable evidence of their collusion and cruelty towards their compatriots.

At that moment, the solemnity in Chen Feng's eyes shattered, turning into a fury that seemed to freeze the land for miles.

The air pressure around him suddenly dropped, and even the fog around him seemed to freeze. Er Gou subconsciously held his breath. He had never seen Chen Feng with such a terrifying expression.

"hurry up!"

"Get these 'human remains' cleaned up quickly! Don't dawdle!"

The Green Gang thugs brandished their clubs menacingly, and a series of harsh shouts suddenly rang in our ears.

The three people hidden in the shadows looked up and saw a scene that made their blood rush to their heads, only to freeze completely in the next second.

The boatmen, wearing heavy shackles, numbly carried off one body after another of their compatriots. Many of the young and strong men whose spines had been broken by the bone-crushing mud were still alive, their empty cavities rising and falling weakly, and their throats squeezing out broken and unwilling cries of blood and foam. They were ruthlessly thrown into the mountain of corpses like garbage.

The pile of corpses, layer upon layer, exuded a nauseating stench that mingled with the fresh smell of blood, filling the thick fog and assaulting the nostrils.

In chaotic times, human life is worthless, but to treat living compatriots so lightly, treating them like mere material, has already crossed the last line of humanity and is an unforgivable crime.

And even more heinous acts continue.

Beside the pile of corpses, rows of "rice milling and live skinning tables" stood sinisterly, with dozens of Green Gang executioners expressionless, like cold, soulless machines, methodically operating the inhumane assembly line.

A young man was forcibly dragged and lifted onto the live skinning platform. His piercing and desperate screams instantly pierced the thick fog, and blood gushed out from the blood groove on the platform, falling into the wooden basin below.

The executioner below skillfully picked up a gourd ladle, scooped up the moldy rice paste, and stirred it continuously to prevent the blood from coagulating. Once the last drop of blood was squeezed out, he immediately sealed the basin and piled it up into a small mountain—this blood would be sent to the inkpad factory to be made into so-called high-quality inkpad.

As soon as the blood was collected, the executioners on the live dismemberment platform skillfully sorted the fresh entrails, quickly refrigerated and packed them into boxes, each box marked with a cold number, and transported them directly to the heinous "Yamatoho".

Followed by.

The extremely harsh sound of scraping bones echoed on the deathly silent riverbank, so sharp and piercing that it made one's teeth ache.

The large pieces of meat that had been removed were packed into barrels and transported away to...

The fat is transported to a chemical plant and boiled down to make soap for profit; finally, a complete skeleton is thrown onto a conveyor belt on the side of the table, and as the machine coldly rotates, it is directly sent into a modified rice huller and ground into bone meal.

at the same time.

The boatmen, who had applied for numbness, unloaded more skeletons from the bone-hulling barge and sent them to the "bone-hulling machine."

finally.

These bone meal were also divided into different grades: top-grade bone meal could sell for five silver dollars per kilogram and was exclusively supplied to Jingdezhen to make so-called "beauty porcelain"; medium-grade bone meal was mixed into rice to disguise it as high-quality white rice with good color, and it could also prevent mold and whiten the rice. Bone meal accounted for as much as 10% of the rice sold by the Green Gang.

Inferior bone meal has become an exclusive secret recipe of a well-known cement plant in Shanghai, which is mixed into cement and used as a tool to make huge profits.

One incident after another, one case after another, living people were turned into materials, and corpses were turned into commodities. The Japanese sought strategic interests, and the Green Gang willingly became their lackeys. Nothing could be more depraved than this.

Chen Feng remained hidden in the thick fog, quietly observing this hell on earth.

The last bit of warmth in his eyes vanished completely, all his emotions were burned away, leaving only an overwhelming killing intent that could destroy the heavens and the earth.

The killing intent was so intense it felt almost tangible, causing the mist on the river to churn. The hand holding the knife was as steady as Mount Tai, yet every bone and blood in it roared—to kill.

Just then.

A familiar figure, accompanied by a group of henchmen, swaggered arrogantly toward this place.

(The author says this is the last time there will be an Easter egg, and even pandas have to play it safe and develop stealthily.)