Republic of China Era: Entering the Dao through Divine Strike.

As dusk settled, details in the distance became indistinct; all that could be seen were figures running about on the merchant ship's deck, accompanied by a series of gunshots.

The sea breeze carried a faint sound back to the shore...

Wang Jingya tightened her arms around Ali, and whispered, "Let's go back to the City God Temple first."

"Aren't we waiting for big brother?" Ali looked up and asked.

“He’ll be back after he catches the loaches.” Wang Jingya turned and walked away, saying gently, “Let’s go back and start a fire to cook, so he doesn’t come back without a hot meal.”

Ali nodded vigorously, turned around and took a deep look at the dark sea, then hugged Wang Jingya's neck and gently pressed her face against her shoulder.

Night completely swallowed the sunset, and the sea returned to silence.

A muffled, loud noise could be faintly heard from the distant sea.

It was swallowed up by the sea breeze in an instant.

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Chapter 193 The Azure Dragon's Secret Treasure

The plank cleaved through the waves, leaving a white line as it crashed straight into the gunwale of the merchant ship.

The searchlights on the gunboat swept over, shining brightly on Li Xin's face. He squinted, but the wooden planks beneath his feet did not slow down at all.

A soldier on the ship's side raised his rifle, the muzzle following the figure riding the waves. Just as his finger touched the trigger, his vision suddenly blurred.

A piece of wood flew up from the sea, swirling and piercing his throat.

The soldier clutched his neck and tumbled off the ship's side, crashing into the sea. Before the splashing water had even settled, Li Xin had already stepped onto the merchant ship's deck.

The deck was packed with people...

There were at least two hundred Anssa soldiers.

Bayonets were positioned in the front row, rifles in the back, and two hand-cranked Gatling guns behind them.

The gun barrels gleamed coldly in the moonlight... A group of foreigners in civilian clothes, both men and women, were crowded at the cabin door. They were merchants traveling on this ship to Southeast Asia to do business.

They clutched short muskets and daggers, their expressions even fiercer than those of the soldiers.

"Fire!" Lieutenant Vince, standing on the bridge, swung his sword.

Machine guns opened fire, and the flashes of gunfire from rifles created a continuous barrage on the deck.

Bullets rained down, striking the ship's gunwale, mast, and wooden crates.

Splinters of wood flew everywhere. The smoke was thick and choking...

The entire deck was filled with the smell of gunpowder, and you couldn't see anything.

When the smoke cleared, there was one less young man in a blue shirt on the deck, and three more corpses of soldiers.

The three soldiers fell right in the blind spot of the machine gun, each with a thin line of blood on their throat.

Lieutenant Vince's sword was still raised in mid-air when his pupils suddenly contracted.

He saw that green figure weaving through the crowd, as fast as a wisp of smoke, each pause taking a life.

The machine gun muzzle followed Qingying's movements, bullets sweeping across the deck, leaving rows of holes.

But that green figure was too fast; no matter how fast the gun barrel spun, it couldn't catch up.

"Bayonets! Fix bayonets!" Vince roared, "Force him to the side of the ship!"

The soldiers in the front row charged forward with howls, their bayonets flashing in the moonlight.

Li Xin chuckled softly.

Why engage in close combat?

He brandished his long sword, and the blade rang out loudly.

As the blade moved, a streak of light whistled through the crowd, flashing past in the blink of an eye, having already traversed the entire group.

Dozens of heads flew into the air almost simultaneously.

The blood gushed out like a fountain, rising and falling in waves.

It's quite a sight.

Then, some people screamed, some cried out, and some threw down their guns and knelt on the ground to make the sign of the cross...

Someone jumped into the sea.

The Anssa merchants on deck began to shrink back into the cabin.

The leader was a large, fat man in a plaid suit, holding a short musket inlaid with ivory. He fired a shot at Li Xin as he retreated.

The bullet grazed Li Xin's clothes and pierced the ship's hull. Li Xin turned and glanced at him. The fat man was so frightened that he dropped his gun and scrambled towards the cabin door, only to get stuck in the door frame, unable to move forward or backward.

Li Xin cleaved the hatch open with a single stroke, splitting the hatch and the man in two.

The merchants who were crowded at the back screamed and ran towards the bottom of the hold, not even bothering to pick up their shoes when they lost them.

Lieutenant Vince jumped down from the bridge, holding a naval command sword in his hand, the tip of which was pointed at Li Xin. His lips were trembling, but he did not back down.

"You...are you a human or a ghost?"

Li Xin ignored him, flicked the blood off his knife, and strode forward.

The soldiers standing around him held their guns, the muzzles following his movements, but none of them dared to pull the trigger again.

Their superior was still standing there, but their legs were moving backward.

Vince's facial muscles twitched a few times, then he suddenly roared and swung his knife down with both hands.

The commander's sword missed its mark. Li Xin dodged the blade by sidestepping, then swung his sword backhand and plunged it into Vince's chin, the tip protruding from the top of his head.

Vince froze on the spot, his sword slipping from his loosened fingers and crashing onto the deck with a clatter.

The foreign soldiers still standing on the deck finally broke down completely.

Some people threw down their guns and jumped into the sea, while others knelt down with their hands raised, muttering something in their mouths, probably begging for mercy.

Li Xin did not look at them.

He simply smiled and said, "Since you're here, then don't leave."

He took a deep breath, raised his long sword high, and channeled his inner energy wildly, making the blade brighter and brighter, with a dazzling golden flame.

chi...

The blade roared and howled.

Layer upon layer of sword shadows slashed onto the deck.

Before everyone's eyes, the deck was torn apart, followed by the lower deck. The sheet metal and wooden planks shattered like paper under the flash of the blade, bursting into golden flames.

Rumble...

Half of the ship suddenly collapsed, and seawater gurgled and poured in.

The ship began to list, and the mast groaned under the strain.

"Oh no, the ship is broken!"

"Save me, save me..."

"Spare me! I don't want to die!"

Li Xin chuckled, lightly touched the gunwale of the ship, and flew backward, landing lightly on a piece of broken wood on the sea.

Behind them, the bow of the merchant ship slowly sank into the water, while the stern rose high. The soldiers and merchants on the deck slid into the sea like dumplings being dropped into boiling water.

Huge white waves surged on the sea surface, swirling with splinters of wood and canvas, dragging everyone down with them.

Huge waves surged.

See, a shipwreck, it's that simple.

Li Xin looked at his masterpiece with satisfaction for a while.

With a gentle turn of the wooden plank beneath his feet, true energy emanated from the Yongquan acupoint on the sole of his foot, propelling the water waves.

The plank sped off like an arrow, chasing after the direction in which the last gunboat had fled.

The gunboat was billowing black smoke from its smokestack, and its stern propeller was churning up a white wave as it desperately fled towards the deep sea.

The deck was in complete chaos. Some people were firing guns, some were throwing lifeboats into the sea, and some were frantically stuffing shells into the cannons.

Clearly, the sinking of the merchant ship had frightened them.

Howard kept a close eye on the situation on the sea through his binoculars from the bridge.

He saw the young man in the blue robe speeding across the sea on the wooden planks, and saw his hair being blown back by the sea breeze.

Howard slammed the whiskey bottle in his hand onto the deck, shards of glass and liquor splattering everywhere.

He snatched the megaphone from the helmsman beside him and roared the order to fire.

The gunboat's stern cannons roared, and shells exploded around Li Xin, sending up several towering columns of water.

The wooden plank beneath Li Xin's feet rose and fell with the waves, moving as fast as a flying fish.

His body didn't even sway, and each time he passed right through the gaps in the shells' impact points.

The wooden plank split open, leaving a white line that traced a straight path on the sea surface before crashing directly into the port side of the gunboat.

The shells from the tail gun couldn't catch up with him at all, and the gunner was sweating profusely with anxiety.

The cannon barrel was red-hot, but it didn't even brush against the hem of his clothes.

Li Xin activated his inner energy, and the wooden planks beneath his feet suddenly accelerated.

A wave two zhang high rose up behind them.

The shockwave propelled the wooden plank a third faster, but Li Xin stood on it as steadily as if he were standing on flat ground, without even bending his knees.

The foreign soldiers on the gunboat were completely devastated.

He shouted loudly, "Selling cakes!" and "Hei'erbu!" while tears streamed down his face. He didn't even have the strength to fire a gun.

Li Xin moved swiftly, leaping up and onto the gunboat.

The moonlight shone from behind, shrouding his entire face in shadow, leaving only his eyes visible.

“You’ve come all this way to the East to cause trouble, and this is the end you deserve,” he said. “Your God can’t control things that far away.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Marquis Xinting drew his sword.

The cold glint of the blade even forced the moonlight to retreat by a third.

He took a step forward, and the flash of his blade stretched across the deck like a bolt of lightning.

The bayonet broke in two upon impact with the blade, and the man holding the knife remained in a forward-charging posture, a thin line of blood already appearing on his throat.

The flash of blades swept across the deck like water, and soon the deck was covered with corpses.

The soldiers' blood flowed down the slope of the deck, dripping into the sea and turning the water below the ship's side a dark red.

Howard stood on the bridge, his sword trembling, his eyes filled with despair.

He muttered words like "Satan, devil" under his breath.

He watched as Li Xin slowly approached from the deck, drops of blood from his knife falling onto the iron ladder.

My mind and spirit completely collapsed.

He suddenly threw his sword on the ground, turned around, took out a revolver from the drawer, put the muzzle in his mouth, and closed his eyes.

A gunshot rang out...

Howard's body lay slumped beside the steering wheel, his eyes wide open.

His pupils were unfocused, reflecting the moonlight on the sea outside the window.

"As it turns out, your God isn't all-powerful after all."

Li Xin sneered.

Blazing golden flames blazed up on the blade once more.

He discovered that this Qiankun Extreme Yang True Qi was really useful.