Shocking Change

Returning to the cramped cabin, Lu Zhen locked the iron door tight behind him.

In the confined space, the only sound was the muffled thud of river water slapping against the hull.

Lu Zhen sat cross-legged on the hardwood bed, took a deep breath, and summoned his panel without hesitation.

His gaze locked firmly onto the general experience points he had accumulated recently.

Without a moment of doubt, he poured his experience frantically into his two martial arts!

"Add points!"

[Coiling Dragon Stake Lv.3 → Lv.4!]

[Iron Wire Fist Lv.3 → Lv.4!]

"Hum--!"

The panel flashed repeatedly as both skills broke through simultaneously!

Lu Zhen stood up abruptly. In the low cabin where he couldn't even straighten his waist, he slammed his feet firmly into the floor.

Lv.4 Coiling Dragon Stake!

In that instant, Lu Zhen felt as if a true dragon that had been dormant for ages had suddenly awakened within him.

"Roar--"

A dragon's roar, imperceptible to others but earth-shattering to his internal organs, surged from the depths of his bone marrow.

His spinal tendons writhed and roared like mad, his vertebrae popping like a string of firecrackers, and his blood and qi surged upward like boiling magma.

The invisible barrier stuck between the middle and late stages of Lianli was torn to shreds like thin paper under the savage impact of this "true dragon"!

"Boom!"

Lu Zhen's skin and membranes vibrated violently, and a surge of vigorous power far exceeding the middle stage instantly coursed through his limbs and bones. His bones were hardened, his blood was flourishing, and his strength penetrated to the marrow!

Quietly and without fanfare, he had stepped into the realm of [Lianli Late Stage]!

Lu Zhen slowly opened his eyes, and two flashes of cold electricity seemed to streak through the dim cabin.

He clenched his fists, carefully sensing the terrifying power within his body that felt as if it might burst his flesh apart.

When an ordinary martial artist enters the late stage of Lianli, their single-arm limit is eight hundred catties of force.

But Lu Zhen was different.

Not only had he crossed into the late stage, but the heaven-defying physique forged by his Lv.4 "Copper Skin Iron Bone" created an extremely domineering hidden bonus deep within his bones and muscles.

He had forcibly added a full four hundred catties of immense strength on top of that eight-hundred-catty limit!

"Twelve hundred catties in a single arm..."

He did not stop; riding the momentum of his breakthrough, he threw a punch.

Lv.4 Iron Wire Fist!

"Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!"

Without any wind-up, just a simple straight punch, four crisp, resonant explosions rang out in succession in the air!

Four echoes! With four echoes of the Iron Wire Fist, his strength was nearing perfection.

Lu Zhen restrained his aura and straightened his back.

With his current terrifying monster strength of twelve hundred catties per arm, the defense of Copper Skin Iron Bone, and the four-echo Iron Wire Fist...

Looking across the entire Lianli late stage, he could definitely be considered a formidable existence.

Even if he were to face Zhang Lei, the martial arts genius in the Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall whom the master treated like a precious treasure, Lu Zhen was fully confident he would not fall behind and could even suppress him with sheer force!

The fog on the river was growing thicker.

It was as thick as a pot of congee that wouldn't dissolve, wrapping the entire steam-powered iron ship tightly in the middle of the Soul-Falling Gorge.

Lu Zhen sat cross-legged in the dim cabin, having just completely subdued the surging blood and qi from his breakthrough to the late stage of Lianli, when his ears suddenly twitched.

Outside the cabin, the wind direction had changed.

"Whoosh--! Whoosh--! Whoosh--!"

A series of shrill, piercing sounds suddenly tore through the deathly silence of the thick fog!

Dozens of flying hooks made of refined steel, like ghost hands reaching out from hell, caught the hull and railings of the steamship with a harsh metallic screech.

Immediately after, the river water surged.

Out of the thick fog, dozens of speedboats as agile as a pack of wolves broke through the waves, forming a semi-encirclement and slamming hard into the waterline of the iron ship!

"Enemy attack! It's the Shen Family!"

The sailor in the watchtower pulled the alarm with a desperate cry.

"Damn it, they actually dared to take the bait!"

On the deck, Zhao Si drew the ghost-head saber from his back, his eyes wide, and roared fiercely: "Open the secret hatches! Give it to them!"

Before the words had even faded, dozens of Shen Family elites clad in waterproof black gear scaled the ship's railing like apes, using grappling hooks and ropes. Each held a short blade between their teeth, their eyes cold and ruthless; they were clearly death squads raised by the Shen Family.

However, what greeted them was a steel defensive line the Gu Family had long prepared.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The shutters of the hidden cabins were kicked open, and ten Western-style repeating firearms spat out tongues of scorching flame. Gunpowder smoke filled the air instantly, and a dense hail of bullets swept toward the railing like a violent storm.

At the same time, six heavy armor-piercing crossbows emitted the teeth-grinding sound of mechanical triggers.

"Puchi! Puchi!"

Thick, steel-tipped bolts carrying terrifying kinetic energy pierced the Shen Family death squads in mid-air, armor and all, pinning them firmly to the speedboats on the river surface!

Severed limbs and broken arms fell into the icy river water, accompanied by shrill, miserable screams.

Blood instantly stained the surface of the Soul-Falling Gorge.

Bolstered by the suppression of the firearms and heavy crossbows, the Gu Family guards surged with morale. Wielding staves and long blades, they pinned the Shen Family elites who had just emerged to the edge of the ship, gaining the upper hand in an instant.

"Hahaha! Is this all you've got? You dare to rob a Gu Family ship?" Zhao Si cleaved a death squad member who had just scrambled onto the deck, wiped the blood from his face, and felt his heart settle.

But before his smile could fully bloom, a sharp bone whistle suddenly pierced the air over the river.

As soon as the whistle sounded, the Shen Family death squads, who had been charging desperately, pulled back their offensive like a receding tide. Moving in perfect unison, they retreated rapidly to both sides of the deck, carving out a wide, bloody path down the center.

"Hm?" Zhao Si's heart skipped a beat, and a wave of intense unease surged within him.

From deep within the thick fog, the muffled sound of ships colliding echoed once more.

The group that boarded this time consisted of entirely different men.

These men were bare-chested, showing no fear of the biting river wind. On their knotted, muscular chests and backs were tattooed hideous, snarling black dragons!

These men wore no uniform attire, and they carried only barbed fish-bone blades and nine-section whips.

They exuded a pungent, fishy stench from years of soaking in river water and blood, their eyes glowing with the inhuman cruelty of wolves stalking their prey.

"Black Dragon tattoos... This, these are the Black Dragon Water Bandits?!"

Zhao Si's pupils contracted to the size of pinpricks, his face drained of color, and even the hand gripping his blade could not help but tremble.

The most vicious, lawless bandits on the Yangtze River—how could they possibly be here?!

Old Master Gu's intelligence report hadn't mentioned a single word about water bandits!