SWDnovel Chapter 129 A Body Without Leaks, Utmost Sincerity and Foresight
Chapter 129 A Body Without Leaks, Utmost Sincerity and Foresight
Chapter 130 A Body Without Leaks, Utmost Sincerity and Foresight
The curtain slowly closed.
The stage and audience at the Chinese Theatre remained deathly silent.
Immediately afterwards, someone gasped, and the entire theater seemed to come alive again.
On the stage, Yun Feiyang, the "Little Tyrant" of Tianjin, stared blankly at his empty hands.
His hundred-pound pure steel spear was now deeply embedded in the crossbeam above his head, its butt still humming and vibrating.
He lost.
Not only did they lose, but they were treated like children, disarmed without even being able to touch a piece of clothing.
"A gun is a warrior's courage; if you break your gun, you're useless."
"Keep this gun to kill those who deserve it, instead of fighting amongst yourselves on this tiny stage."
Yun Feiyang shuddered violently.
He suddenly understood.
I've been used as a pawn today!
He turned his head, his gaze sharp as a knife, and stared intently at a VIP box on the far right of the second floor.
Sitting inside was Zhao Laohu, a big boss of the Tianjin Weiqing Gang and a sworn brother of Ma San, the president of the Tianjin Martial Arts Association. He was known as "Ghost Head Knife".
This Zhao Laohu, last night, took a large sum of money and two century-old ginseng roots to his master's martial arts school and stirred up trouble.
They said that the actors from Beiping looked down on the martial arts performers in Tianjin and boasted that they would climb to the top by stepping on the heads of all the martial arts performers in Tianjin.
Yun Feiyang was young and impetuous, and couldn't stand being provoked, which led to his "drawing a gun in public" incident today.
"What a brilliant scheme to use someone else to do the dirty work!"
Yun Feiyang bit his lip until it bled, and a metallic sweetness spread through his mouth.
If he really pulls out his gun today, Yun Feiyang's life will be ruined.
But those old foxes hiding in the shadows were able to test Lu Cheng's true strength without shedding a drop of blood.
Thinking of this, Yun Feiyang turned around and looked at Lu Cheng, who was still wearing a white robe, with his eyes reddening.
He did not reach for the steel spear stuck in the crossbeam.
Instead, he clasped his hands together, bent his knees, and bowed deeply to Lu Cheng.
"Master Lu—I, Yun, am ashamed."
"Today, I have offended the true God due to the instigation of wicked people."
"I will remember your teachings. I will leave this gun on this beam for now. I will come back to retrieve it when I have killed enough of those traitors and lackeys who betrayed their masters."
After saying that, he suddenly stood up, pushed aside the crowd behind the curtain, and strode out of the backstage without looking back.
Watching Yun Feiyang's retreating figure, Zhao Laohu, sitting in the private room on the second floor, turned ashen-faced and suddenly crushed the teacup in his hand.
"Useless trash, can't even force you to make a single move." Zhao Laohu gritted his teeth, his eyes gleaming with ferocity.
A thin man in a gray cloth coat approached and whispered.
"Tiger, Chairman Ma instructed that Lu Cheng is a variable. Since we can't gauge his true strength, we can't let him leave the Grand Theater alive. Otherwise, the grand banquet at Dengying Tower three days later might cause trouble."
"Hmph, if open tactics don't work, then we'll resort to covert ones."
Zhao Laohu gave a sinister sneer.
"Get Quick-Gun Liu ready to make his move. At this close range, even if he were made of iron, we'd still get a hole in his head!"
On the stage, Lu Cheng, carrying the white waxwood pole without a spearhead, was about to turn around and leave the stage.
The audience below finally realized what was happening and erupted in thunderous cheers.
"good!!!"
"Master Lu's 'flying spear' technique is simply divine."
"That's real skill—effortless mastery, turning the mundane into the extraordinary."
Just as the crowd was in a state of high excitement and the noise reached its peak.
Lu Cheng's steps stopped abruptly without warning.
[Seek good fortune and avoid misfortune!]
His heart suddenly clenched, and the hairs on his body stood on end in that instant.
A chill ran down his spine.
Since stepping into the threshold of the Transformation Realm, Lu Cheng's perception of danger has reached an unreasonable level.
He didn't even turn around or look; his body's instincts reacted before his brain could.
The [Bone Shrinking Skill] is combined with the [Swallow Form] body technique.
Lu Cheng's spine cracked with a crisp "crack".
Its once upright and pine-like body suddenly collapsed to the left in the blink of an eye, twisting at an unbelievable angle.
The person was like a thin sheet of paper folded by a strong wind, shifting half a foot horizontally out of thin air.
"Bang-!!!"
A gunshot rang out, but it was drowned out by the deafening cheers from the crowd.
Only a few people in the front row heard a piercing whistling sound.
A bright yellow rifle bullet flew past Lu Cheng's scalp, its scorching trajectory even scorching a strand of hair at his temple.
"puff!"
The bullet pierced deep into the thick solid wood backdrop behind the stage, creating a fist-sized crater of sawdust.
The difference is minuscule.
If Lu Cheng hadn't dodged half a second earlier, that shot would have been enough to blow his skull off.
"There's an assassin."
"Someone's shooting from behind!!!"
Someone screamed and noticed the bullet holes on the backdrop.
In an instant, the Chinese Theatre erupted in chaos.
The fans who were cheering wildly just moments ago were now terrified, running away in panic. Tables and chairs were overturned, tea and melon seeds were spilled everywhere, and the cries of women and children filled the air.
"Master!"
Shunzi and Lu Feng, standing backstage, had bloodshot eyes and drew their knives, ready to rush out.
"Don't come any closer, keep an eye on the opera box and your fellow disciples."
Lu Cheng's words, like a thunderclap, shook the entire audience.
Without the slightest panic, he suddenly raised his eyes, which flashed with golden light and locked onto a ventilation shaft in the southwest corner of the second floor.
That shot just now came from there.
"Trying to leave?"
Lu Cheng snorted coldly, slammed the white waxwood stick in his hand to the ground, and slammed his toe heavily on the pillar.
"boom!"
The pillar let out a groan, and Lu Cheng rose into the air like a giant hawk spreading its wings.
Instead of taking the stairs, he stepped directly onto the carved wooden railing of the second-floor private room in mid-air, his figure moving so fast that only a moon-white afterimage remained.
In a few leaps, it covered a distance of more than ten meters and headed straight for the ventilation shaft.
"Stop him!"
Zhao Laohu, who was in a private room on the second floor, was terrified and roared as he pulled out his pistol.
But before he could even aim, Lu Cheng swept past his private room like a whirlwind, the force of which overturned the tea table in front of Zhao Laohu.
"Bang!"
Lu Cheng smashed the louvered wooden window of the ventilation vent with a single palm strike, and slipped into the dark mezzanine passage like an eel.
The interlayer was filled with a pungent smell of gunpowder.
Lu Cheng's eyes could see clearly even in the dark. He saw a lean man dressed in black, carrying a modified Mauser rifle, frantically running away a dozen meters ahead.
"Do you think you can escape?"
Lu Cheng's voice was icy, and he pushed the "Ghostly Shadow Step" to its limit.
Instead of slowing down in the narrow pipe, it sped up even more, getting less than three steps away from the gunman.
The gunman, nicknamed "Quick Gun Liu," was a renowned sharpshooter in the Tianjin underworld.
At that moment, he felt as if an ancient ferocious beast was opening its bloody maw behind him, and the terrifying pressure made it almost impossible for him to breathe.
He knew he couldn't escape.
If a master of this caliber gets close, you won't even have a chance to draw your gun.
"Damn it, I give up."
A ruthless glint flashed in Quick-Gun Liu's eyes.
He stopped abruptly, without turning to fire, and instead bit off a small, pre-sewn black pill from his collar and took a hard bite.
"Click."
Poison in the throat, once it sees blood, will kill.
When Lu Cheng's large hand gripped the back of his neck like an iron clamp, Quick Gun Liu's body stiffened abruptly, black poisonous blood spilled from the corner of his mouth, his eyes rolled back, and he stopped breathing completely.
Suicide squad!
Lu Cheng frowned and turned the body over.
He quickly searched the corpse.
Apart from the gun, there was no other token that could prove his identity; even the fingerprints on his fingers had been deliberately erased.
The trail has gone cold.
"What ruthless methods! If the first strike fails, he immediately commits suicide without any hesitation."
As Lu Cheng stared at the corpse on the ground, the cold glint in his eyes grew ever stronger.
This kind of style is definitely not something that ordinary gangs can cultivate.
Behind this must be a tightly organized group, either the Japanese Special Higher Police or traitors like Ma San who have sided with the Japanese.
"The water in Tianjin is indeed quite muddy."
Lu Cheng sneered, released his grip, and let the corpse fall into the ventilation duct.
He returned the way he came, and floated lightly down from the second floor back to the lobby on the first floor.
At this moment, the hall was already crowded with police officers who had rushed over and people from various martial arts schools in Tianjin.
When they saw Lu Cheng jump down from above unharmed, everyone gasped.
How could he dodge such a close-range sniper shot in such a noisy environment?
They even chased after them?
"Master Lu, are you alright?" A Chinese patrol leader, wiping away cold sweat, approached.
"It's alright, the murderer has already committed suicide by poisoning himself. He's in the ventilation duct on the second floor. Go and collect the body."
Lu Cheng dusted off the dust on his long robe.
That night, Tianjin was in complete uproar.
Special editions from major newspapers were printed overnight, with headlines in bold red ink:
"The Living Martial Saint Appears! Lu Cheng's Divine Skill: On the Stage, Before the Autumn Wind Strikes, the Cicadas Sens the Breeze, and He Dodges a Series of Sniper Shots!"
Tianjin's martial arts world is in an uproar: A single move defeats the spear king, a lone figure breaks the deadly trap! Who can rival the dragon crossing the river from Beiping?
Lu Cheng's name has become a household name in Tianjin.
Those local bullies and old hands who had initially considered his capabilities were now terrified.
Even the high-ranking members of the Black Dragon Society in the Japanese concession, upon learning that the meticulously planned killing shot had missed, strengthened their defenses overnight.
Everyone realized that Master Lu from Beiping was not just a theatrical performer; he was a killing god.
Late at night, in the French Concession, at the National Hotel.
This restaurant was built by foreigners; it's magnificent and luxurious.
The floor was covered with a thick Persian carpet, so that you could walk on it without making a sound.
A dazzling crystal chandelier hangs overhead, illuminating the lobby as if it were daytime.
These days, an ordinary family might only have two or three silver dollars a month for grain.
A suite in this National Hotel costs five silver dollars a night.
Lu Cheng booked half a floor and settled all the disciples of the Qingyun Class there.
It was late at night, and all was quiet.
Lu Cheng sat alone on the mahogany bed in the suite, without turning on the lights.
He was undergoing "marrow cleansing".
The pure, hidden energy accumulated over a hundred years has now transformed within his body from dormant stagnant water into a roaring "millstone."
"After mastering the fundamentals, comes the marrow cleansing—"
Lu Cheng closed his eyes and placed his hands in a Tai Chi mudra on his lower abdomen, dantian.
"Ming Jin trains the bones, An Jin trains the skin and internal organs, and when you reach Hua Jin, this force must penetrate into the gaps between the bones to force out the deepest turbidity."
"Buzz—!"
Lu Cheng's mind stirred.
A century's worth of accumulated internal energy transformed into countless scalding hot threads, relentlessly piercing through all 206 bones in his body.
They went inside.
Even with Lu Cheng's steely will, he couldn't help but gasp.
"hiss"
pain!
The pain was excruciating, like having your bones ripped out!
It's as if someone took tens of millions of red-hot steel needles and forcefully pierced them into the seams of his bones, then used a brush to scrub his bone marrow.
But Lu Cheng gritted his teeth and didn't utter a sound.
His breathing became extremely long, sometimes only once a minute.
The [Turtle Breathing Exercise] has been activated to its fullest extent.
As the hidden strength is constantly washed and ground in the bone marrow.
Lu Cheng's body began to undergo astonishing changes.
A layer of dark substance slowly seeped out from her originally fair and jade-like skin.
Those are impurities deep within the bone marrow.
It is the accumulation of fetal toxins, old blood, and turbid qi from eating grains and other foods, and being exposed to wind, cold, heat, and dampness for more than 20 years.
The layer of black mud kept growing, emitting an extremely pungent stench, even more unbearable than the stinkingest ditch.
"call----"
A full hour passed.
Lu Cheng slowly exhaled a long breath.
This breath transformed into a white streak in the darkness, shooting three feet away like a sharp sword before striking the wall.
He stood up and felt an indescribable lightness throughout his body.
"So light."
Lu Cheng tried to take a step forward.
Without using any light-footed skills or deliberately slowing down his steps, he felt no downward pressure as he stepped on the thick carpet.
The feeling was as if he were a feather, being "supported" by the air.
Light, agile, and transparent!
This is not just about weight loss, but about his incredible control over every muscle and bone in his body.
"Splash!"
Lu Cheng walked into the Western-style bathroom attached to the suite, turned on the brass faucet, stood under the showerhead, and washed away the fishy, black mud all over his body.
The water flowed over his streamlined muscles, yet not a single droplet remained on his skin.
Not a single feather can be added, not a single fly can land!
After taking a bath, Lu Cheng put on a clean white silk undergarment.
He walked to the dressing table and picked up a sharp razor.
He looked at himself in the mirror, then suddenly reached out his left hand and lightly made a cut on his forearm with a razor.
"laugh."
The skin and flesh were cut open, revealing a bloody gash.
But then a miraculous thing happened.
The wound had only a tiny droplet of blood seeping out.
Immediately afterward, Lu Cheng had a thought, and the muscles around the wound instantly writhed and closed, squeezing the blood vessels tightly.
In less than ten breaths.
The bloodstain had already scabbed over, and then the scab fell off, revealing tender new flesh underneath.
Not even a scar was left.
"The wound heals extremely quickly, and the strength is long-lasting and undiminished—"
A hint of a smile flashed in Lu Cheng's eyes.
"This is the benefit of marrow cleansing."
"Unless someone cuts off my head or pierces my heart, ordinary knife or gunshot wounds will stop bleeding and scab over in no time for me."
Nothing was said that night, and dawn broke.
Lu Cheng slowly opened his eyes.
"Finally, the marrow cleansing is complete—"
At this moment, his skin looked fair and smooth, without even a trace of calluses or hidden scars from martial arts training.
He tried clenching his fist.
There was none of the usual cracking or popping sound from the joints.
Instead, it happened silently.
But he could clearly feel that the immense and terrifying hidden energy of a hundred years was no longer dormant in his meridians and muscles, but had deeply "seeped" into his bone marrow.
Like lead and mercury, it is heavy yet incredibly lively.
The senses in one's own body also seem to have undergone a tremendous "mutation".
"Tick-tock—tick-tock—"
The sound of the clock was amplified countless times in his ears; he could even hear the metallic clanging of the gears inside.
Through two thick floors, he could hear the sound of the head steward scraping the bottom of a pot with a large iron ladle in the kitchen downstairs.
You can even smell the aroma of freshly fried dough sticks from a breakfast stall, mixed with a faint fishy smell, carried on the wind blowing from the Haihe River outside the window.
"My body feels lighter and more 'transparent'."
Lu Cheng got out of bed, put on a gray-blue long robe, and pushed open the door to go out.
"Master."
Outside the door, Shunzi was dozing against the wall when he heard the door open. He was startled awake and quickly stood up straight.
He stared at Lu Cheng as he walked out, paused for a moment, and rubbed his eyes.
"Master, how come you walk so quietly? You startled me."
Lu Cheng smiled slightly, offering no explanation.
"Alright, stop guarding this place."
"Go wake everyone up. Let's go to the theater's backyard early today to stretch our legs and get some exercise."
"Hey!" Although Shunzi didn't understand what was going on, he quickly ran to call for help.
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