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

"Damn it! This is supposed to be a competition up the mountain, and you're already scared like this by these three cowards? There are so many of us, what are we afraid of? Let's all go for it!"

Someone in the crowd shouted, and immediately others responded and surged forward.

However, the sword in the warrior's hand had not yet been drawn.

The equally indignant warrior beside him held a short sword to his neck, then twisted his wrist, severing the warrior's head.

And this wasn't the first time something like this had happened.

Of the more than fifty people surging on the platform, more than ten turned against them, raising their weapons to slash at the martial artists around them.

Bloodshed erupted in an instant.

"Damn it! These bastards, I finally know what they're up to with this Mount Hua Grand Competition!"

"This bunch of inhuman government officials, they not only want to ban martial arts and sever the spirit of the people, but they also want to use this competition to kill all our martial artists and wipe out our very foundation!"

Gu Xuan roared and pulled his hand back, causing the iron box to open with a thud.

He lined up his palms.

Two iron chains flew out and embedded themselves directly into the cliff face beside them.

"Splash!"

Gu Xuan dragged the iron box and leaped into the air.

He twisted his wrist, and several sounds came from his sleeve:

"Puff puff puff—"

Several hidden arrows were precisely shot into the throats of the martial artist who was attacking his comrade.

Gu Xuan twisted his wrist again.

The iron chain stretched horizontally and got caught on a crooked tree on the edge of the cliff.

Then Gu Xuan flew into the air, reached into the iron box, and a knife with an extremely thin blade appeared in his hand.

He flicked the blade lightly.

"Buzz—"

A dull hum emanated from the blade, and the blade trembled incessantly. He lunged straight at the man on the ground who was charging towards the cliff face.

"The sprinter? He's the sprinter they were talking about in the newspapers!"

Gu Xuan, who was floating in the sky, couldn't help but exclaim in surprise from the crowd.

Liu Qingzhu lightly flicked her wrist, taking the three-inch sword from her bosom. Just as she was about to step forward, Lin Ji gently pulled her back.

"Gu Xuan alone is enough. There's still a long way to go. We can't reveal too much of our strength."

Liu Qingzhu nodded after hearing this and put the small sword back.

The moment he drew his short sword, she activated the Heavenly Evolution Curse. The martial artists who were sneaking towards them stopped in their tracks, no longer daring to take another step forward.

Liu Qingzhu then pretended to protect the three people behind her, giving everyone the impression that the two women and the old woman behind her were weak.

……

Gu Xuan tied the right iron chain to the tree and nailed the left iron chain to the ground!

He slid down the iron chain at such a speed that he almost left a blur in the sky.

"Buzz—"

The thin blade fell.

It shook out streaks of afterimages in the air.

"Splash!"

The moment it landed on the man, it ripped into his body, turning him into minced meat in an instant!

"Third brother!"

"younger brother!"

The other two men, who were wielding large clubs and trying to drive the martial artist toward the cliff, cried out in alarm upon seeing this.

The two threw down their wooden sticks and charged at Gu Xuan, who was standing on the edge of the cliff, from both sides.

……

"My God... are the Gu family's weapons that powerful?"

The blood mist that filled the sky startled Bai Yu'er, causing her to take two steps back, but she was not afraid.

"This is nothing, Sister Yu'er. Brother Gu has some good stuff in his iron box." Su Wanning had seen what Gu Xuan's iron box contained before. He smiled mysteriously and pulled Bai Yu'er to avoid the splattering blood.

"Anything else?" Bai Yu'er asked.

"See for yourself," Su Wanning said, pointing in Gu Xuan's direction.

Gu Xuan faced the two men and shouted, "Well done!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he kicked off the iron chain behind him.

He flew into the air.

Two sticks of ignited explosives wrapped in kraft paper had somehow fallen where he left.

"It's explosives! Get out of the way!"

The chaotic crowd had long since stopped what they were doing because of Gu Xuan's movements, and were now observing how Gu Xuan would make his move.

Who would have thought?

Gu Xuan actually dropped two explosives.

"boom!"

"boom!"

Just as everyone was about to hide.

Two explosives detonated with a loud bang.

The explosion caused a ringing in everyone's ears.

The two men were blown up in front of the explosives.

He was instantly flipped over and thrown out.

His face and body were charred beyond recognition.

Gu Xuan pulled the iron chain again.

It landed directly in front of the two of them.

"puff!"

"puff!"

The thin blade trembled in the sunlight, creating countless shadows.

Two human heads flew straight into the sky.

Gu Xuan twisted his body.

The thin blade in his hand plunged straight into the iron box.

"Splash! Splash!"

The machinery inside the iron box operated automatically, retracting the iron chains that were driven into the ground and tangled in the trees.

Gu Xuan's sharp gaze swept across the crowd, and he coldly demanded, "Who else is there?!"

Everyone fell silent, terrified.

He stumbled back two steps and ended up squeezed at the foot of the cliff.

"Let's go!" Gu Xuan then called out to Lin Ji and the others at the back of the group, and walked straight along the narrow path into the distance.

The martial artists behind Lin Ji didn't dare to speak for a long time, and carefully followed far behind Lin Ji and his group as they walked up the mountain.

After passing the Wuli Pass.

It was a mountain path through the forest.

With no further obstacles on the mountain path, the group continued their ascent and finally passed through Wuli Pass.

After passing Wuliguan, there is a huge rock in front of you with three characters engraved on it: "Shaluoping".

Lin Ji remembered that this should be the first rest stop before entering the mountains.

There are many tea stalls and stone tables here.

Many martial artists who had come up the mountain earlier sat down to rest here.

The event organizers were busy serving tea and water to everyone, a stark contrast to the tense atmosphere of the previous life-or-death battles.

Lin Ji slightly expanded his perception.

The senses finally settled in a closed-off tea stall.

The tea stall was filled with smoke and fumes.

Lin Ji scanned the area and found that there were dozens or even hundreds of people inside.

Almost everyone was sitting right next to each other.

Lin Ji used his Qi-reading technique to observe the atmosphere and found that the people inside were all in high spirits, while others were conversely depressed.

The group chose an empty tea stall and sat down.

A waiter greeted them with a smile: "Gentlemen, would you like a pot of Biluochun or Longjing tea? Both are freshly harvested this year. A pot costs twenty silver dollars, no deception."

Bai Yu'er frowned, about to ask.

Lin Ji spoke first: "Since there are so many of us, let's each have a pot."

"Alright!" The servant turned and walked deeper into the platform.

"Old man, what are you doing? Two pots of tea cost forty silver dollars. Are you that rich?" Bai Yu'er complained.

Lin Ji chuckled: "Have you forgotten about that twenty-dollar bowl of tea at Wuliguan? They were testing us, seeing if any martial artists passing through that area would dare to not pay twenty dollars."

"Oh." Bai Yu'er understood immediately: "These people are too wicked. They tricked us into coming here to 'kill' us, and then they just robbed us. I thought the twelve silver dollars for the competition was enough, but there are still nine more checkpoints to go through. I wonder how much more money they'll have to spend. Sigh, the government really knows how to make money."

Everyone laughed when they heard Bai Yu'er's words.