Fierce Battle

Lu Zhen's gaze was cold and sharp. His feet were firmly anchored to the deck by the Coiling Dragon Stake, and with both hands gripping his iron-reinforced staff, he channeled his waist and horse stance into a ferocious horizontal sweep against the incoming Nine-Ring Broadsword.

"Clang—!!!"

The collision of blade and staff sounded like a thunderclap exploding in mid-air!

Blinding sparks showered wildly across the dark surface of the river. Lu Zhen felt his arms go numb, and the webbing between his thumb and forefinger throbbed with pain.

The young gang leader was truly a notorious bandit of the river; his raw vitality and monstrous strength were not the least bit inferior to Lu Zhen's terrifying twelve-hundred-jin force!

While their strength was matched, the gap in their martial foundations was revealed in that moment.

Having spent years fighting on the river, the young gang leader had long since mastered his Splashing Water Saber Technique to perfection.

Using the recoil from the clash, he flicked his wrist, and the heavy broadsword slid along the iron staff like a nimble fish, slicing toward Lu Zhen's fingers.

At the same time, the Emei Piercers of the two Shen Family death warriors closed in on his flanks.

Lu Zhen was forced to retract his staff to defend, his wide, sweeping style instantly suppressed by the opponent's dense and vicious web of blades.

"Ding-ding-dang-dang!"

The sound of clashing weapons was as dense as rain.

Despite possessing Copper Skin Iron Bone and a thousand jin of strength, Lu Zhen was forced back step by step by the exquisite swordplay and the cunning coordination of the death warriors. His sheepskin vest was shredded by blade qi, and he had fallen completely onto the defensive.

"Die!" the young gang leader sneered, his blade light like snow as he prepared to deliver the killing blow.

Just at this critical juncture of life and death.

"Woo—!!!"

A piercing, high-pitched steam whistle echoed through the air!

From the downstream direction, a black speedboat surged forward at full throttle.

On the bow, Gu Yanzhi stood without even his long gown, staring fixedly at the scene. Beside him stood a middle-aged man dressed in black short-sleeved attire.

His trusted head instructor, A-Kuan!

Behind him, the elite Black Guard of the Gu Family stood in formation, holding Western-style repeating rifles, their muzzles already leveled at the deck.

"Damn it! It's the Gu Family's main force! The situation is dire, retreat!"

The young gang leader's expression changed drastically.

The moment he heard the whistle, he knew the mission to raid the ship had been completely exposed; to continue fighting would mean certain death.

He feinted with his blade to force Lu Zhen back, then turned like a slippery loach and lunged toward the gunwale, intending to leap into the river to escape.

"Trying to run? Stay here!"

Lu Zhen took a deep breath, a dull, thunderous sound rumbling from his chest and abdomen.

Ignoring the harassment of the death warriors on either side, he shattered the wooden planks beneath his feet and lunged forward like a tiger descending a mountain!

The iron-reinforced staff in his hands whistled with a sharp sonic boom as he swept it out, sealing off the young gang leader's path to the river!

"Get lost!" The young gang leader panicked and raised his blade to block.

"Clang!" The two clashed hard once more. Lu Zhen was shaken by the impact, his blood churning, but the young gang leader's momentum to leap into the river was forcibly halted, and he stumbled back half a step.

That half-step decided life and death.

"Boom—!!!"

On the bow of the Gu Family speedboat, the man known as A-Kuan, a tower of a man, moved.

Without using any grappling hooks or ropes, he kicked off the deck, vaulted across the ten-zhang expanse of the river, and crashed onto the iron ship's deck like a meteorite.

In that instant, a terrifying pressure that made every Lianli martial artist feel suffocated swept across the scene like a tsunami!

"Bright Force... a true Bright Force Martial Master!" The young gang leader was terrified out of his wits.

A-Kuan's face was as calm as water, his five fingers clenched into a fist.

"Hum!"

Five thousand jin of inhuman strength, driven by the qi and blood of Bright Force, formed a visible layer of white air waves on the surface of his knuckles!

Internal force projected, qi and blood like steel!

Across a distance of a zhang, A-Kuan threw a punch at the young gang leader's back.

"Bang—!!!!"

The air was instantly blasted apart.

The tyrannical Bright Force fist wind tore through the river breeze.

In desperation, the young gang leader held his hundred-jin Nine-Ring Broadsword in front of him.

But in the face of absolute power, this was nothing more than a mantis trying to stop a chariot.

"Pfft—!"

It was as if he had been struck head-on by a high-speed steam train.

A basin-sized hole exploded in the young gang leader's back. His formidable body, tempered through the late stages of Lianli, shattered like fragile tofu under the five-thousand-jin blow of Bright Force.

A rain of blood mixed with shredded flesh drifted down, scattering across the deck.

The power of a single punch was truly terrifying!

The steam-powered speedboat pulled alongside the iron ship.

The deck looked like a Shura slaughterhouse.

Lu Zhen leaned on the iron-reinforced long staff that had been bent out of shape, his entire body bathed in blood.

Gu Yanzhi stepped forward quickly, disregarding his status as the young master of the Tongjiang Chamber of Commerce, and bowed deeply to Lu Zhen.

"Brother Lu! I never expected you to break through to the late stage of Lianli at this life-or-death moment!"

He took a deep breath, his tone filled with lingering fear: "If not for your breakthrough in the heat of battle to turn the tide, all the brothers on this ship would likely have perished here in Soul-Falling Gorge!"

A-Kuan, who was following behind Gu Yanzhi, slowly retracted the terrifying Bright Force that had been radiating from his body.

He glanced at the deformed heavy iron staff in Lu Zhen's hand, a flicker of surprise flashing in his eyes, and gave a slight nod:

"Not bad strength."

After a brief rest, only Lu Zhen and Gu Yanzhi remained in the private cabin.

With no outsiders present, Gu Yanzhi's face was filled with guilt.

He held nothing back, smiling bitterly as he revealed the truth about his father Gu Wanshan's "empty ship as bait" plan and the fact that the hold was filled only with ballast stones.

By the end, Gu Yanzhi clenched his fists tightly, gritting his teeth: "Brother Lu, all the faults lie with the Gu Family.

Once I learned of this, I chose to defy my father's orders and come here! If any harm had come to you today, I, Gu Yanzhi, would have no face to go on living!"

Lu Zhen listened quietly, then slowly nodded.

His heart was a complex mix of emotions, yet he remained strangely calm.

Should he blame Gu Yanzhi? No.

That this young master would risk his life to defy his father and save him was a rare display of genuine character in this cold, chaotic world.

Should he blame Gu Wanshan? Not really.

In this Ten-Mile Foreign Field where human life is as cheap as grass, a great merchant sees only interests and bargaining chips; all living beings are merely chess pieces.

To be used as bait and thrown out to take the blade—in the end, it only came down to one thing—

That he, Lu Zhen, was not strong enough!

If he possessed the Bright Force cultivation today to decide life and death with a single punch like A-Kuan, would Gu Wanshan have dared to use him as bait?!

On the path of martial arts, if you do not advance, you die.

By evening, the steam-powered iron ship, covered in bullet holes and dried blood, docked once again at Shiliupu Pier.

Having experienced this life-or-death battle, Gu Yanzhi knew well that for a top-tier expert like Lu Zhen, who had clawed his way up from the bottom and valued trust and profit, empty words of sincerity were not as substantial as gold and silver.

Without a single word of hypocritical pleasantry, he waved his hand.

Several trusted subordinates immediately carried over a heavy mahogany chest.

"Brother Lu, this is a small token of compensation from me, and from the Gu Family."

The lid of the chest was flipped open.

Inside was a full chest of Red Scale Treasure Fish, dried using secret methods; they were as scarlet as blood, and the aggressive, sweet, and fishy scent of vital energy rushed toward them instantly.

There was also a Century-Old Mountain Ginseng, its roots perfectly intact and shaped like an infant!

Lu Zhen did not stand on ceremony; he reached out and slammed the lid shut with a "clack."

"I accept Brother Gu's sincerity."

These items were exactly the resources he urgently needed to temper his muscles and bones to charge toward that "Bright Force"!