"Master Huo!"
"Master Huo, we've all cut off our queues!"
"That's right, all cut! Immortal Master, bestow martial arts upon us and let us in!"
"We want to fight the foreign devils just like you, Master Huo. That was exhilarating! You alone sent all those gun-wielding foreigners tumbling!"
Huo Yuanjia was nearly drowned beneath the enthusiasm of his fellow martial artists.
Just now, Huo Yuanjia had charged out of the International Journalists' Club alone, as though Xiang Yu himself had returned to the world, with a Vajra possessing his body. One punch had blown apart a brick wall, he had sent the chevaux de frise flying, and when bullets struck his body, he had merely flexed his muscles and squeezed the deformed bullets out. Not even a drop of blood had appeared! He had come and gone like the wind; the bullets could not touch him, and in the blink of an eye, he had shot more than twenty meters away! He had slaughtered the foreigners until they were sent sprawling!
We martial artists had been bullied miserably by foreign guns and cannons! Who wouldn't want to vent their fury properly?
Cut off their queues?
What did that count for? So long as the Immortal Master bestowed martial arts upon them, let alone cutting off their queues—even storming Tianjing, seizing that damned emperor's bird throne, and giving it to the Immortal Master would be no problem!
Besides, the Immortal Master feared not even the foreigners. He had summoned the Dragon King and overturned the ironclad ships, sending them plunging into the Yangtze River to the bottom, then called upon the Thunder God and Lightning Goddess to slaughter the foreigners until not a scrap of armor remained! With such divine might, such legitimacy, who across all Huaxia could stand against him? Who could resist? On the Central Plains battlefield, anyone who witnessed the Immortal Master's might would surely surrender at the first sign of it.
The bestowing of martial arts was secondary.
With the Immortal Master right here, could health and longevity still be far away?
It was easy to imagine how fervent the martial masters who had been named were, and how deeply they detested the foreigners trying to sneak inside.
If not for the lingering authority of their foreign identities.
Those few foreigners trying to push their way through would have suffered far more than a few black-punches and stealthy elbow strikes. Even without openly beating them or striking a killing blow, the martial masters could not conceal their intense hostility. Their eager anticipation of entering to receive martial arts quickly transformed into a hope that Huo Yuanjia would deal with all these foreign journalists.
"Master Huo, hurry and throw these foreigners out. Don't let them secretly learn our martial arts."
"That's right. How could the Immortal Master's bestowed martial arts be something the barbarians could spy on?"
"I'm afraid they mean the Immortal Master harm!"
These were the more restrained voices. Less restrained ones could be heard everywhere.
"Immortal fate is hard to come by, and there may not even be enough places to go around. What qualifications do foreigners have to take a share? We might as well kill them and be done with it!"
"Master Huo, the Tartars and foreigners are in league with each other. We've all cut off our queues, and today there's no turning back. If we keep them alive, they'll certainly leak the news!"
"Use their blood for the sacrifice! Sacrifice them to raise the banner!"
These people had only just cut off their queues and were now wild-haired, red-eyed, and saying things more terrifying than the last, like shrill evil ghosts. The foreign journalists were thoroughly frightened; at this point, they could not leave even if they wanted to.
"We're only journalists, you pack of savages!"
"We protest!"
"That's right, why are you discriminating against us?"
Several rather naive foreign female journalists could not help protesting.
At present, protest was all they could do.
If this had been several hours ago, they would have arrogantly berated them, requested that their own envoy dispatch troops to suppress the mob, and demanded that these savage, backward yellow monkeys apologize and pay compensation.
"All right, take them all into custody for now. We'll leave the rest to the Immortal Master."
Nong Jinsun spoke.
He was Huo Yuanjia's childhood friend, and now that he had spoken—especially as a member of the revolutionary party—his words carried weight second only to Huo Yuanjia's.
The martial masters had surrounded the foreign journalists long ago. With someone taking the lead, more than a dozen foreigners were promptly and neatly subdued, each person working harder than the last.
"Jinsun, this..." Huo Yuanjia frowned.
"Yuanjia, you've received the Immortal Master's great opportunity and benefited from his immense grace. You should put the Immortal Master first in everything." Nong Jinsun interrupted Huo Yuanjia. Anyone could see that Huo Yuanjia had won the favor of Immortal Master Lan Yi. Whatever the reason, that favor absolutely could not be squandered over something that might displease the Immortal Master.
Whether revolutionaries or martial masters.
They might look feverish and impulsive, but every one of them was shrewd. They knew perfectly well that Lan Yi was an Immortal Master who bestowed martial arts, but he could also become a fiend of unmatched wickedness at any moment. Most terrifying of all, no one could restrain this fiend—not even the foreigners' ironclad ships had escaped being overturned.
Within the human wisdom of the River Civilization, in a world where rites and music had collapsed, rather than trust another person's integrity, it was better to lock one person in place and establish him upon the throne of a sage, making his every word and action conform to the conduct of the wise and virtuous.
Unfortunately, Lan Yi did not fall for that trick.
Ever since Lan Yi had stormed into the International Journalists' Club, although he had not slaughtered innocents indiscriminately, the cold strength in his bones had been visible to the naked eye. Apart from Huo Yuanjia, no one else had the right to say even one extra word in his presence.
Of course, Huo Yuanjia was the exception.
Revolutionaries such as Nong Jinsun and Chen Qimei had also made a backup plan.
That was to offer women.
Now that the foreign female journalists had been captured and were awaiting the Immortal Master's judgment, if the Immortal Master took a fancy to one of them, wouldn't it still be a matter of one sentence?
Huo Yuanjia could not be bothered with these twists and turns. He simply lowered his head and walked outside, preparing to wait for the next wave of foreigners and government officials.
"Yuanjia, don't forget to cut off your queue!" Nong Jinsun called out loudly.
"Immortal Master! Please bestow martial arts upon me!"
Zhao Jian excitedly clasped his hands and bowed toward Lan Yi, who hovered in midair.
Lan Yi glanced at him, his Colorless Eyes flashing twice.
"Your aptitude is passable."
Zhao Jian's aptitude was naturally passable. He had been able to fight Huo Yuanjia evenly when Huo Yuanjia's baleful energy was at its peak, and had traveled across the land, fighting his way to the title of unrivaled across three provinces.
In a certain sense.
Zhao Jian was even more suited to practicing martial arts than Huo Yuanjia after his spiritual transformation. He might enter Spirit Refinement even faster. More importantly, Zhao Jian possessed a Fate Cluster, and it happened to be something Lan Yi's Nine Heavens Responding Primordial Treasury required.
"You possess something I want. If you're willing to give it to me, I can agree to send you straight to Qi Cultivation Grand Completion and gift you a volume of true cultivation art."
Zhao Jian paused at those words, then nodded heavily.
"I'll follow the Immortal Master's arrangements."
"You won't regret it."
The moment Lan Yi finished speaking, Cang Hua abruptly whipped around and stabbed forward. Zhao Jian forcibly suppressed his nervousness and fear, standing motionless in place. The next instant, countless strands of Cang Hua pierced through his flesh. As a tingling sensation spread, his consciousness grew hazy while he maintained his standing posture.
Sharper than surgical blades, Cang Hua traveled through Zhao Jian's body.
Before long, it discovered an area at the back of his neck that was especially compatible with spiritual energy. A Fate Cluster that had never absorbed spiritual energy lay dormant there.
Fate Cluster: Prison Suppression.
Location: Back of the neck. Ability: Subdue the heart-monkey and integrate Dao with the spirit.
In plain terms, it was a combination of an iron will and natural coordination. Used alone, its effect was not obvious. In the Artificial Divine Realm 1909 world, without spiritual energy to nourish it, it would be even less conspicuous.
But placed within the Nine Heavens Responding Primordial Treasury fate chart, with Prison Suppression combined with other Fate Clusters, it could unlock the astonishing and earth-shaking Heaven Burning Thunder Soldier Prison.
Heaven Burning Thunder Soldier Prison: Across the Three Realms and Six Paths, no martial artist below Void Refinement could stand against it! No Daoist below the Galaxy Realm could fathom it!
Before you continue