Lu Zhen's eyes turned icy. His Coiling Dragon Stake stance rooted him firmly to the deck as he gripped the iron-wrapped staff with both hands, joined his waist and legs, and swept it fiercely toward the Nine-Ring Broadsword.
"Clang—!!!"
Blade met staff with a crack like a dry thunderclap exploding in midair!
Dazzling sparks flew wildly across the dark river. Lu Zhen felt both arms go numb, and his tiger's mouth throbbed with pain.
The young chief was every bit the notorious river bandit he was made out to be. His vital energy and freakish strength were in no way inferior to Lu Zhen's terrifying force of twelve hundred jin!
Their strength was evenly matched, but the difference in their martial arts foundations showed itself at that moment.
The young chief had spent years fighting on the river. His Splashing Water Saber Technique had long since reached perfection.
Borrowing the recoil from the clash, he flipped his wrist. His heavy broadsword slid down the iron staff like a fish, slicing toward Lu Zhen's fingers.
At the same time, the Emei Piercers wielded by the Shen Family's death warriors on either side were already closing in on his clothes.
Lu Zhen could only pull back his staff to defend. His broad, sweeping staff technique was instantly suppressed by the opponent's dense, vicious web of blade strikes.
"Clang, clang, clang!"
The clash of weapons came like a torrential rain.
Though Lu Zhen had Copper Skin Iron Bone and a thousand jin of strength, the exquisite saber technique and the death warriors' tricky teamwork drove him back step by step. Saber force tore several holes in his sheepskin vest, and he was thoroughly on the defensive.
"Die!" The young chief sneered, his blade flashing like snow as he prepared to strike the killing blow.
At that critical moment, when life and death hung in the balance—
"Wooo—!!!"
A long, piercing steam whistle sounded!
Downriver, a black speedboat came charging toward them at full throttle.
On its bow stood Gu Yanzhi, not even wearing his long robe, staring fixedly in their direction. Beside him stood a middle-aged man in a black, close-fitting jacket.
His trusted chief instructor, A-Kuan!
Behind him, the Gu Family's elite Black Guard stood in formation, Western rifles in hand, their muzzles already aimed at the deck.
"Damn it! The Gu Family's main force is here! They're too much to handle—time to get out!"
The young chief's expression changed drastically.
The moment he heard the whistle, he knew the attack on the ship had been completely exposed. If they kept fighting, they were as good as dead.
He feinted with his saber, forcing Lu Zhen back, then spun around and darted toward the railing like a slippery eel, intending to leap into the river and escape.
"Trying to run? You're staying right here!"
Lu Zhen drew a deep breath. A muffled rumble of thunder sounded from within his chest.
Ignoring the death warriors' attacks from either side, he stomped so hard that the planks shattered beneath his feet, then pounced like a fierce tiger descending the mountain!
The iron-wrapped staff in his hands let out a sharp sonic boom as it swept out with a whoosh, sealing off the young chief's path into the river!
"Get out of my way!" The young chief panicked and raised his saber to block.
"Clang!" The two clashed again. Lu Zhen's blood and vital energy surged from the impact, but the young chief's leap into the river was forcibly checked. He staggered back half a step.
That half-step decided life and death.
"Boom—!!!"
On the bow of the Gu Family's speedboat, the iron-tower of a man known as "A-Kuan" moved.
Without using any grappling hooks or ropes, he thrust off with both legs and crossed ten zhang of river in a single leap, crashing onto the iron ship's deck like a meteorite.
In that instant, a terrifying pressure that left every Lianli martial artist gasping for breath swept over the whole scene like a tsunami!
"Bright Force... a true Bright Force Martial Master!" The young chief was so terrified that his soul nearly fled his body.
A-Kuan's expression was calm as water. He clenched his five fingers into a fist.
"Bzzz!"
Driven by the blood and vital energy of Bright Force, his inhuman strength of five thousand jin formed a visible layer of white air around his knuckles!
Force unleashed. Blood and vital energy surged like an iron aura!
From a distance of a zhang, A-Kuan punched toward the young chief's back.
"Bang—!!!!"
The air exploded in an instant.
That overbearing Bright Force tore through the river wind.
The young chief desperately raised his hundred-plus-jin Nine-Ring Broadsword in front of himself.
But before absolute strength, it was no more than a mantis trying to stop a chariot.
"Pfft—!"
It was as if he had been hit head-on by a speeding steam train.
A basin-sized hole burst open in the young chief's back. His formidable body, at the Late Force Refining Realm, was torn apart like fragile tofu beneath the killing blow of five thousand jin of Bright Force.
A rain of blood and shredded flesh drifted down across the deck.
The power of one punch was terrifying beyond words!
The steam speedboat pulled alongside the iron ship.
The deck was like an Asura's slaughterhouse.
Lu Zhen leaned on the iron-wrapped staff, bent nearly double from the fight, his whole body drenched in blood.
Gu Yanzhi hurried forward. Completely disregarding his status as the young master of the Tongjiang Chamber of Commerce, he bowed deeply to Lu Zhen.
"Brother Lu! I never imagined you'd break through to the Late Force Refining Realm at this life-and-death moment!"
He drew a deep breath, his voice full of lingering fear. "If you hadn't broken through in the middle of the fight and turned the tide today, all the brothers aboard this ship would have been lost here in Soul-Falling Gorge!"
A-Kuan, who had followed Gu Yanzhi, now slowly reined in the frightening Bright Force surrounding him.
He glanced at the bent heavy iron staff in Lu Zhen's hands. A flicker of surprise crossed his eyes, and he gave a slight nod.
"Not bad strength."
After a brief rest, only Lu Zhen and Gu Yanzhi remained together in a private cabin.
With no outsiders present, Gu Yanzhi's face was full of guilt.
He hid nothing. With a bitter smile, he laid out the whole truth: his father Gu Wanshan's plan to use an "empty ship as bait," and the fact that the lower hold had been filled entirely with ballast stones.
At the end, Gu Yanzhi clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. "Brother Lu, the blame for all of this lies with the Gu Family.
"Once I learned the truth, I had to come, even if it meant defying my father! If anything had happened to you today, I, Gu Yanzhi, could never have lived with myself!"
Lu Zhen listened quietly, then slowly nodded.
His feelings were tangled, but, strangely, he was calm.
Should he blame Gu Yanzhi? No.
The young master had risked his life and defied his father to save him. In this cold and chaotic age, that was a rare display of genuine feeling.
Should he blame Gu Wanshan? Actually, no.
In the Ten-Mile Foreign Field, where human lives were worth less than grass, the great merchants saw only profit and bargaining chips. All living beings were pieces on a chessboard.
If he'd been thrown out as bait to take the blow, then, ultimately, there was only one person to blame—
Lu Zhen himself, for not being strong enough!
If he'd had A-Kuan's Bright Force cultivation, the kind that decided life and death with a single punch, would Gu Wanshan have dared use him as bait?!
In the path of martial arts, you either advanced or died.
By dusk, the steam iron ship, still bearing bullet marks and dried blood, had returned to Shiliupu Pier.
After this life-or-death battle, Gu Yanzhi understood that for a top expert like Lu Zhen—someone who had clawed his way up from the bottom and valued both loyalty and profit—no amount of heart-to-heart talk and empty promises could beat real gold and silver.
He didn't waste a word on insincere pleasantries. He simply waved his hand.
Several trusted subordinates immediately carried over a heavy redwood chest.
"Brother Lu, this is a small token of apology from me and the Gu Family."
The lid was lifted.
The chest was filled with Red Scale Treasure Fish, dried by a secret method, scarlet as blood. Their rich, pungent scent of blood and vital energy immediately filled the air.
There was also a Century-Old Mountain Ginseng, its roots intact and its shape like that of an infant!
Lu Zhen made no show of refusing. He reached out and snapped the chest shut.
"I'll accept your sincerity, Brother Gu."
These were exactly the resources he needed to temper his sinews and bones and make a push for Bright Force!
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