Sudden Change

Back in the cramped cabin room, Lu Zhen slammed the iron door shut and locked it from the inside.

In the tight space, the only sound was the dull thud of the river beating against the hull.

Lu Zhen sat cross-legged on the hard wooden bed, drew a deep breath, and without hesitation summoned the Panel.

His gaze fixed intently on the General Experience he had accumulated recently.

Without a moment's hesitation, he poured it all into two martial arts techniques!

"Add points!"

[Coiling Dragon Stake Lv.3 → Lv.4!]

[Iron Wire Fist Lv.3 → Lv.4!]

"Vmmm—!"

Light flashed across the Panel, and both skills broke through at once!

Lu Zhen sprang to his feet. In the low cabin, where he could barely straighten his back, he drove both feet fiercely into the floor.

Coiling Dragon Stake Lv.4!

In that instant, Lu Zhen felt as if a true dragon, long dormant inside him, had suddenly awakened.

"Roar—"

A dragon's roar, faint yet shaking his five viscera, surged from the depths of his marrow.

The great tendons along his spine writhed and roared. Vertebra after vertebra cracked like a string of firecrackers, and his qi and blood surged skyward like boiling magma.

The invisible barrier between the Mid Force Refining Realm and the Late Force Refining Realm shattered like thin paper beneath the savage charge of that "true dragon"!

"Boom!"

The skin covering Lu Zhen's entire body trembled violently as a powerful force, far surpassing what he had possessed before, surged through every limb and bone. His bones were hard, his blood vigorous, and his strength penetrated to the marrow!

Without a sound, he had stepped into the [Late Force Refining Realm]!

Lu Zhen slowly opened his eyes. In the dark cabin, two streaks of cold light seemed to flash.

He clenched his fists, carefully feeling the terrifying force within him, so powerful it seemed ready to burst his body apart.

When an ordinary martial artist entered the Late Force Refining Realm, the limit of a single arm was eight hundred jin.

But Lu Zhen was different.

Not only had he entered the Late Force Refining Realm, but the extraordinary Physique forged by Lv.4 "Copper Skin Iron Bone" had also given his bones and muscles an exceptionally domineering hidden boost.

It had forcibly raised his strength by a full four hundred jin above that eight-hundred-jin limit!

"One thousand two hundred jin in one arm..."

He didn't stop. Riding the momentum of his breakthrough, he threw a punch.

Iron Wire Fist Lv.4!

"Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa!"

He hadn't wound up at all; it was just a simple straight punch. Yet four crisp, clear cracks burst one after another through the air!

Four Resonance! With four Resonance, Iron Wire Fist was already nearing mastery.

Lu Zhen reined in his aura and straightened his back.

With his terrifying one-arm strength of twelve hundred jin, his Copper Skin Iron Bone defense, and his four-resonance Iron Wire Fist...

Among all those in the Late Force Refining Realm, he was undoubtedly a formidable presence.

Even against Zhang Lei, the martial arts prodigy whom his master at Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall treasured like a precious jewel, Lu Zhen was absolutely confident he wouldn't be outmatched. He could even overpower him with sheer strength!

The fog over the river grew thicker and thicker.

It was so dense that it looked like a pot of white porridge that would never boil away, smothering the entire steam iron ship in the middle of Soul-Falling Gorge.

Lu Zhen sat cross-legged in the dark cabin. He had just completely subdued the surging qi and blood brought on by his breakthrough to the Late Force Refining Realm when his ears suddenly twitched.

Outside the cabin, the wind had shifted.

"Whoosh—! Whoosh—! Whoosh—!"

A string of shrill, tearing whistles suddenly ripped through the stillness of the thick fog!

Dozens of steel grappling hooks, like ghostly hands reaching out from hell, clamped onto the steam iron ship's hull and railings with grating metallic screeches.

The river churned beneath them.

Out of the dense fog, dozens of swift boats shot forward like a pack of wolves, forming a half-circle before slamming hard into the iron ship at the waterline!

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

The sailor in the lookout tower screamed as he sounded the alarm.

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

On deck, Zhao Si yanked the Ghost Head Broadsword from his back. His eyes wide, he roared, "Open the hidden gun ports! Fire!"

Before his words had even faded, dozens of Shen Family elites dressed in waterproof black clothes had already climbed the ropes of the grappling hooks and scrambled over the gunwales like monkeys. They all held short knives between their teeth and had cold eyes—clearly, they were deathsworn raised by the Shen Family.

But what awaited them was the steel defense line the Gu Family had prepared in advance.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang—!"

The hidden gun-port shutters were kicked open, and ten Western rapid-fire guns spewed tongues of scorching flame. Smoke instantly filled the air as a dense hail of bullets swept toward the gunwales.

At the same time, six heavy Armor-Piercing Crossbows groaned as their mechanisms cranked.

"Thwack! Thwack!"

Thick steel bolts packed with terrifying force pierced the Shen Family deathsworn through armor and body in midair, pinning them fast to the swift boats on the river!

Severed limbs tumbled into the icy river amid shrill screams.

Blood instantly stained the waters of Soul-Falling Gorge red.

With the firearms and heavy crossbows keeping the enemy at bay, the Gu Family guards' morale soared. They swung their cudgels and swords, pinning the Shen Family elites who had just appeared at the gunwales. For a time, they held the upper hand.

"Hahaha! Is that all you've got? You dare try to rob a Gu Family ship?" Zhao Si cut down a deathsworn who had just climbed onto the deck and wiped the blood from his face, his heart settling.

But before his grin had fully spread, a sharp bone whistle suddenly sounded over the river.

At the whistle, the Shen Family deathsworn, who had been charging desperately, abruptly halted their assault like a receding tide. They moved in perfect unison, retreating swiftly to either side of the deck and forcibly opening a wide, bloody path through the center.

"Hmm?" Zhao Si's heart gave a sudden leap, and a powerful sense of unease rose within him.

Deep in the thick fog came another muffled crash of boats colliding.

This time, the people boarding the ship were completely different.

These men were bare-chested and entirely unafraid of the river wind's chill. Their knotted muscles and backs were tattooed with ferocious black dragons, each one baring its claws and fangs!

They wore no uniform. In their hands were nothing but barbed Fish Bone Blades and nine-section whips.

They reeked of the rank stench of men steeped for years in river water and blood. Their eyes, like wolves watching their prey, gleamed with a savage cruelty utterly devoid of humanity.

"Black dragon tattoos... Th-this is the Black Dragon Water Bandits?!"

Zhao Si's pupils contracted to pinpricks. His face drained of color, and even the hand gripping his blade trembled.

How could the most brutal, most lawless bandits on the Yangtze's waterways have appeared here?!

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