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

Lin Ji lay on the bamboo chair to the side, without saying a word.

He noticed when he returned in the morning that there were many unfamiliar faces on the streets outside the courtyard.

Some were dressed as peddlers, others as fortune tellers, seemingly strolling around, but their eyes kept glancing towards the courtyard, intentionally or unintentionally.

It wasn't from that day that they were targeted; they've been targeted ever since.

The provincial capital is not like a county town; it is heavily guarded, with each street patrol team led by at least one martial artist at the peak of the Ming Jin realm.

If a fight were to break out in the city, and the commotion became too great, the government and the foreigners would be alerted, and Lin Ji's identity would be exposed, which would only cause more trouble.

So he remained still, observing coldly from the sidelines.

But he also knew that this calm wouldn't last long.

Now that someone has already made their way here, it's only a matter of time before they take action.

……

Sure enough, by the evening of the fourth day, Lin Ji sensed that there were several more unfamiliar faces outside the courtyard, and some even used the excuse of asking for directions to peer inside the courtyard.

A storm is brewing.

The night was dark and the wind was high.

The alley was quiet; the moonlight was obscured by dark clouds, making it impossible to see anything inside.

Su Mingyuan went out during the day to contact his informant to confirm the evacuation route, but the informant had already disappeared.

He felt uneasy and returned a little late. As soon as he turned into the alley, he sensed something was wrong.

The footsteps behind me sounded wrong.

His heart skipped a beat, and he quickened his pace.

But the footsteps behind him quickened, hanging slowly and deliberately, like a persistent, intractable disease.

"Who?" Su Mingyuan turned around abruptly.

From the darkness, four dark figures slowly emerged. Each of them was tall and carried a short gun. Their faces were covered with black cloth, revealing only their cold, sinister eyes.

Judging from his build and gait, he is a foreigner.

"Mr. Su, come with us." The foreigner in the lead said in broken Chinese, his tone laced with a cat-and-mouse smirk.

Su Mingyuan's heart sank, and he subconsciously took a step back.

But two dark figures appeared at the alley entrance behind them, blocking the way completely.

He was a weak scholar, powerless and unable to even kill a chicken. How could he possibly be a match for these people?

At this critical moment.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Three extremely faint whooshing sounds suddenly rang out, like the flapping of mosquito wings, almost inaudible.

The two foreigners blocking Su Mingyuan's back both had small bloody holes appear between their eyebrows at the same time, and without uttering a sound, they fell straight down.

"Who goes there?!" The foreigner in the lead looked drastically different and suddenly raised his gun, pointing it at the roof to the side.

On the rooftop, several dark figures leaped down, their movements as swift as cheetahs.

They were all dressed in black, tight-fitting outfits. They held a short gun with a thick muzzle in one hand and a thin-bladed short sword in the other, using both gun and sword with extremely fast movements.

"Bang! Bang!"

The muffled gunshots rang out one after another, their sound as faint as muffled thunder.

Before the remaining foreign soldiers could react, they were shot and fell to the ground one after another; their marksmanship was frighteningly accurate.

In just a few breaths, the six or seven foreign soldiers who had been surrounding them fell to the ground.

Su Mingyuan was stunned and stood there, unable to react.

The foreigner in the lead, however, remained calm.

He sneered, then suddenly pulled a dark red vial from his pocket and gulped it down.

"roar--"

A deep roar came from his throat, and his body swelled up at a visible speed, his muscles bulging and bursting through his clothes, his skin turning an unnatural red, and veins bulging like small snakes crawling all over his body.

Blood Potion!

Lin Ji, who was hiding in the shadows at the alley entrance and was about to make a move, paused upon seeing this.

Something's off about this foreigner.

When ordinary people are given the Blood Potion, they will only become violent and their strength will increase greatly, causing their energy to become chaotic.

But this person in front of me, who clearly had no internal energy at all, gave off an extremely dangerous feeling.

His breathing and gait were frighteningly steady, unlike a berserker who had lost his mind. Instead, he resembled a ferocious beast poised to pounce. Moreover, he exuded a kind of energy-like feeling, sticky and clinging to his body.

"Interesting." The foreigner licked his lips, his gaze sweeping over the men in black, his voice hoarse.

"A dog belonging to the Gu family? Daring to meddle in Great Britain's affairs?"

Before he finished speaking, his figure suddenly disappeared from the spot.

The speed is astonishing!

"Be careful!"

Someone in the black-clad group gave a low shout, and everyone simultaneously raised their guns and fired.

But when the bullets hit the foreigner, they only splattered a few drops of blood and did not stop his momentum at all.

"Pfft!"

The foreigner punched the man in black in the front row in the chest. The man flew out like a kite with a broken string, crashed heavily into the wall, and coughed up blood. He was clearly not going to make it.

The remaining men in black immediately scattered, brandishing their short swords and engaging the foreigner in fierce combat.

However, the opponent was thick-skinned and incredibly strong. The short sword could only make shallow cuts when it struck him, and the opponent seized the opportunity to injure two more people.

"Kill!" the foreigner laughed wildly, looking like a madman.

Lin Ji's eyes narrowed as he lurked in the shadows.

Can't wait any longer.

He stomped his foot and suddenly darted out.

The Mountain and River Calm Waves gun was fired, its tip flashing coldly as it aimed straight for the foreigner's back.

"Huh?" The foreigner reacted quickly, turning around abruptly and crossing his arms in front of him.

"clang!"

The spear tip pierced his arm, producing a metallic clang, but it was stuck after only half an inch.

Lin Ji raised an eyebrow.

They're really tough to deal with.

This potion is different from ordinary blood potions; it can actually strengthen the physical body to this extent.

Lin Ji no longer held back. He took a deep breath, and his Yin and Yang energies suddenly erupted.

Hidden Dragon Abyss, open!

The spear suddenly shuddered, and the landscape patterns seemed to come alive, with a pale blue aura swirling around the spear tip.

Lin Ji flicked his wrist, and the shadows of the guns overlapped like dragons emerging from the sea, each shot aimed straight for the opponent's vital points.

"Jingle bells!"

The foreigner waved his arms so tightly that he managed to block several shots.

But he also showed signs of strain on his face, and the redness on his skin deepened, as if his blood vessels were about to burst.

"Die!" he roared, unleashing his full power as he punched Lin Ji in the face.

Lin Ji neither dodged nor evaded; instead, he lowered the tip of his spear and, following the opponent's fist, drew and flicked it.

The Tai Chi technique of deflecting force is used to its fullest extent, while the spear force from Qianlongyuan is unleashed at full power.

"puff--"

The spear tip pierced through the man's fist, traveled up his arm, and plunged into his chest.

The foreigner stared wide-eyed at the spear protruding from his chest in disbelief.

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but only a mouthful of black blood gushed out.

The swelling in his body subsided quickly, and he finally collapsed limply, never to move again.

Lin Ji withdrew his spear, the tip of which remained spotless.

He took a slight breath.

This foreigner's physical body is ridiculously strong; if we don't open the Hidden Dragon Abyss, it will really take a lot of effort.

The alleyway quieted down.

The remaining men in black stood up, watching Lin Ji warily, but did not make a move.

Their leader was a man in his thirties. He stepped forward, bowed deeply to Su Mingyuan, and spoke respectfully:

"Mr. Su, I'm sorry I'm late and have startled you."

Su Mingyuan was stunned:

"Who are you...?"

The scarred man smiled slightly:

"Mr. Su, there's no need to ask any more questions. You just need to know that we are from the Gu family of Guanghua. The head of the family invites you to the Gu residence for a chat, as there are important matters to discuss."

Family-oriented?

Su Mingyuan was stunned.

Lin Ji, who was standing to the side, paused slightly in his grip on the gun barrel, and his pupils contracted almost imperceptibly.

Family-oriented?

He subconsciously touched the heavy iron plaque with the character "Gu" in his pocket.

He had assumed the Gu family was just a merchant family that dealt in iron smelting, but he never expected them to have such a formidable private army.