Republic of China era: A hundred-year-old still practicing martial arts? Is that right?

"Change formation!"

Colin stood on the stone steps, his face showing no sign of panic, but rather a fervent light burning in his eyes.

He stared at the spear that was faintly visible in the smoke and dust, and raised his hand to press on the metal knob at his waist.

Amidst the billowing smoke and dust, Lin Ji's martial arts had truly reached its pinnacle.

He squinted, making a clear view of the foreign soldiers' appearance beneath their uniforms.

The silver metal plates snapped together layer by layer along the muscle texture. The foreigner, who was originally just an ordinary soldier, had muscles that were taut and curved almost like those of a mid-stage Dark Force martial artist after putting on this armor.

They kept their gun-holding arms perfectly still, firing a full 120 rounds before someone stopped to reload.

"It's just an exoskeleton, I've seen it all before." Lin Ji narrowed his eyes and lowered his voice.

"I'd like to see whether my gun is more effective or your foreign technology is more effective."

He shifted his feet in a Tai Chi stance, twisting his body through the gaps in the hail of bullets.

The Shadow Chasing Technique incorporates the harmonious principles of Tai Chi; even though bullets whizzed past the hem of the long robe, they always missed by just a hair's breadth.

The flames exploded beside him, leaving only a faint gray afterimage in the smoke and dust, flickering erratically.

"It's him! I know who you are!"

Colin stared intently at the long spear etched with landscape patterns, then suddenly burst into wild laughter, his voice brimming with greed: "Lin Ji! That bandit from Jiangcheng! Hahaha! A reward delivered right to our doorstep, why not take it!"

He abruptly raised his hand and pressed it against his shoulder armor, letting out a fierce roar:

"Attention everyone, activate phase two! Lock him down!"

"Click, click..."

A series of sharp, cracking sounds rang out simultaneously.

Two curved auxiliary supports were flipped out from the shoulder armor of a dozen foreign soldiers, firmly securing the gun body, and the shaking of the gun barrel disappeared instantly.

The previously scattered firepower suddenly became cunning and ruthless, completely blocking all of Lin Ji's evasive maneuvers. Bullets wove together an impenetrable net, raining down on Lin Ji.

Even with Lin Ji's lightning-fast gunfire, oversights were inevitable.

A dark shadow slipped through the gaps in the gunfire, heading straight for his waist, moving so fast that it was just a streak of light.

"bite--"

With a very soft, crisp sound, the bullet struck Lin Ji squarely in the waist and abdomen.

Colin's eyes lit up, and he was about to burst into laughter, but the next second he froze on the spot.

Lin Ji's Yin and Yang energies twisted violently, and a faint Yin-Yang phantom appeared on his lower abdomen.

The bullet seemed to have crashed into a spinning vortex, twisting and deforming as it flew out at an angle, only managing to cut a thin gash in the blue cloth robe without even scratching the skin.

"Is that all you've got?"

Lin Ji chuckled and stepped out with the Shadow Chasing Step.

The distance of several dozen feet was covered in an instant.

With a flick of his spear, Shanhe Dinglan unleashed three chilling spear flowers from its tip, heading straight for the three foreign soldiers in the front row.

The spear tip struck the breastplate without making a sound, penetrating directly into the gap between the armor plates.

Blood mist sprayed out instantly, and the three foreign soldiers fell straight down without uttering a sound.

"Spread out! Close in! Crossfire!"

Colin's expression changed drastically, but he still refused to back down.

He sternly ordered the remaining foreign soldiers to disperse and surround Lin Ji in a fan shape. More than a dozen guns fired simultaneously from different angles, and bullets poured in from all directions, completely blocking even their retreat route.

"Let's see how you defend this time!" Colin gritted his teeth.

Lin Ji stood in the center of the firepower network, a slight smile playing on his lips.

With a flick of his wrist, the tip of his spear pointed diagonally at the ground, and the concentrated internal energy he possessed surged wildly from the shaft of the spear toward the tip.

Tie Muling's Miscellaneous Treatise on Transformation of Strength clearly states that a master of Transformation of Strength can project their energy outwards and injure people from a distance. His treatise covers a wide range of topics and also includes a theory on amplifying the projection of energy. Lin Ji has tried it and found that the energy aura of a mid-stage Dark Strength master can also be amplified by this method.

Although he is now at the late stage of Dark Force, his Yin and Yang Qi condensation is far superior to that of ordinary people. He may not be unable to condense Qi by borrowing the momentum of the Mountain and River Stabilizing Spear.

The energy gathered and solidified at the tip of the spear, condensing into a three-inch-long point that gleamed coldly in the firelight.

"go."

Lin Ji gave a soft shout and suddenly twisted the tip of his spear.

The three-inch-long spear light suddenly shot out, accurately piercing the forehead of a foreign soldier on the far right from a distance of three zhang.

"puff."

With a soft thud, a bloody hole instantly appeared between the foreign soldier's eyebrows, and he fell straight back to the ground, his gun still spitting fire.

The entire room fell silent.

Even the intense gunfire paused for a moment.

"Killing someone...from a distance?" The surviving foreign soldier's voice trembled with fear, and he almost dropped his gun. "A Grandmaster of the Transcendent Realm! He's a Grandmaster of the Transcendent Realm!!"

Colin's pupils contracted sharply, and his back was instantly covered in cold sweat.

The wanted poster clearly only said "Wu Kou" (武寇), who would have thought that this old man was actually a Grandmaster of the Transcendent Realm!

But he gritted his teeth, a fierce glint in his eyes, and pressed his hand against the armor plating on his chest: "What's the panic! I still have a third stage!"

"Click-clack—"

A series of more frequent mechanical clicks came from Colin.

His armor was twice as thick as that of ordinary soldiers.

At this moment, the breastplate and backplate unfolded simultaneously, revealing the intricate gears and tubing inside, and the person suddenly grew half a head taller.

The muscles on his arms bulged high beneath the armor, faintly exuding the aura of a peak internal strength master.

"I'd like to see whether your martial arts are faster or my iron body is harder!"

Colin stomped his foot, cracking half of the stone step.

His fist, encased in iron armor, whistled through the air as it hurtled straight for Lin Ji's face, the force of the blow causing a sharp pain in his cheek.

Lin Ji blocked the attack with his spear.

"clang--"

The deafening clang of metal against metal was so loud it hurt people's eardrums.

Lin Ji took a half step back, leaving two shallow marks on the bluestone slab.

Colin was also jolted back three steps by the force of the gunshot, the armor on his arm rattling loudly.

The two immediately engaged in battle.

Guns moved with the agility of dragons, and iron fists were as fierce as cannons.

Colin relied on the superhuman strength of his exoskeleton to fight head-on, and his thick armor made him impervious to the glancing blows from the spear tips.

Lin Ji's spear technique was fluid and skillful, using Yin and Yang energy to continuously deflect force along the spear shaft, while the spear tip specifically targeted the gaps in the armor plates.

For a moment, the sounds of metal clashing were deafening, and in the firelight, the two figures separated and reunited, fighting to a standstill.

Lin Ji raised an eyebrow slightly.

This Western contraption is quite ingenious. With just his physical body, this foreigner might not even be able to use internal force, but with this shell on, he can actually hold his own against me.

If this drags on any longer, it will be troublesome once the foreign reinforcements from the county arrive.

He was pondering whether to use the trump card of Tianyanzhu to end this trouble with a single shot.

Just then.

"call out!"

A sharp, piercing sound suddenly rang out from the shadows to the side, so fast that it was reduced to a mere black line.

Colin didn't even have time to react; his head felt like it had been smashed open like a watermelon.

It exploded with a "poof".

Red and white substances were splattered all over the ground, and his heavy exoskeleton provided no protection whatsoever.

A jet-black iron spear was firmly planted beside the stone steps, its tip still dripping blood.

Li Shuwen emerged from the shadows at the alley entrance, his straw hat pulled low.

"A large Western army, several hundred people, is coming this way. If we don't leave soon, we'll be surrounded."

Lin Ji snapped out of his daze, glanced at Colin's headless corpse on the ground, then at the stunned Zhou Bingkun, and without a word, bent down and picked up the bodies of Colin and another foreign soldier leader. He then called out to the still-stunned Zhou Bingkun:

"Walk."

He darted out first, followed closely by Li Shuwen, who drew his heavy iron spear.

The three figures quickly disappeared into the deep night, leaving behind only corpses, broken metal armor, and a pile of gleaming bullet casings lying quietly in the firelight.