100: Chapter 100 The moment the musket fired, Li Shuwen knelt down on the spot.

Bang! Bang!

Lin Tian seized an opening and slammed two fierce straight punches directly into Li Shuwen's chest.

Li Shuwen felt his blood roiling in his chest, and a thick, metallic tang surged up his throat, threatening to spew out.

Although he used his extraordinary willpower to force the blood back down, the look in his eyes as he gazed at Lin Tian was already tinged with a hint of terror:

"Could he be an unkillable iron man?!"

Meanwhile, Lin Tian was filled with utter admiration for Li Shuwen.

To be honest, if it came down solely to move technique and combat experience, he was more than a tier below Li Shuwen.

Even with an absolute advantage in strength and physique, he had exhausted all his efforts yet still failed to take the opponent down, instead being injured internally over a dozen times by the opponent's "Hard Fist No Second Strike."

If not for the nearly cheating regenerative abilities of the t-virus, he definitely would have fallen here today.

However, Lin Tian's two powerful, heavy punches from just a moment ago had also caused Li Shuwen severe internal injuries.

Although he was putting up a strong front, his movement speed and striking techniques were inevitably beginning to decline.

Li Shuwen knew his own physical condition best; if this dragged on, he would certainly be the one to end up on the ground.

"Since ordinary methods cannot break through this freak's defense, I have no choice but to use that move!"

Years ago in Zhili, Li Shuwen had once seen an elephant brought in by foreigners; the hide and flesh of such a massive beast were ten times thicker than an ox.

From that moment on, he had been deep in thought, pondering how to break the deadlock if he ever encountered a monster of hard qigong that even his "Striking Across the Mountain" couldn't penetrate.

After months of secluded training, he had mastered an absolute finishing move with power so great that even he was afraid of it.

In his view, the Lin Tian before him must have mastered some mysterious Western hard qigong technique capable of protecting his internal organs.

To win, he had to use the most violent force to forcibly pierce through!

He never used this move in daily life because its power was too great; it would easily take a person's life.

But thinking about how losing meant spending his whole life in a foreign land acting as someone's lackey, he could no longer afford to care about such things.

Li Shuwen jumped back to create distance, took a sharp breath of cold air, and with a solemn expression, instantly raised his spirit and focus to the limit.

Swish!

His speed was like a bolt of white lightning as he pressed forward again, unleashing a "Six Great Openings Embracing Elbow" without holding anything back!

Visually, this move was extremely similar to the Gu Ang Fist's "Heart-Piercing Elbow."

However, this Baji Fist technique was an absolute death move that combined offense and defense. If Lin Tian dared to throw a punch or kick to counter, he would be instantly entangled by the opponent's "Thrust" and "Embrace" techniques, locking his joints.

At the same time, the opponent's iron-hard elbow tip would, in a ten-thousandth of a second, directly shatter Lin Tian's chest.

Li Shuwen had once used this move to blast the heart of a rampaging wild ox to pieces with a single elbow.

Seeing the rapidly enlarging elbow tip in front of him, the corner of Lin Tian's mouth curled up slightly:

"Since you want to play this game, let's see whose finishing move is harder!"

Thud!

Lin Tian slammed his right foot back, likewise turning into an afterimage as he charged forward to meet the attack.

He turned his left elbow into a peerless spear, thrusting it fiercely toward the opponent's joints!

Gu Ang Fist finishing move—Heart-Piercing Elbow!

Li Shuwen had never expected Lin Tian to use the same wide-open elbow strike to meet him head-on.

With both parties moving at such extreme speeds that they left afterimages, it was completely impossible for him to change moves or pull back his strength now.

He could only grit his teeth, pouring all the strength in his entire body into his elbow tip, and crashed into him crazily.

Crack!

In mid-air, two spear-like elbow tips collided fiercely without any flair.

As that terrifying recoil force arrived, Li Shuwen's face turned deathly pale in an instant.

Hearing a bone-chilling sound of shattering bone, his entire body was like a kite with a broken string, blasted more than ten meters away by that overwhelming, mountainous force, before crashing heavily onto the concrete ground.

"You lost, Li Shuwen." Lin Tian landed steadily, looking calmly at the young man lying in the distance.

On the open ground, Li Shuwen, lying splayed out on the concrete, coughed violently a few times before shakily using one hand to push himself up from the ground to a standing position.

His entire right arm now hung limply by his side; the bones were clearly shattered.

The injuries he had been forcibly suppressing in his chest could no longer be contained, and a trickle of bright red blood slowly seeped out from the corner of his mouth.

Yet even in such a miserable state, this Cangzhou man had no intention of admitting defeat in his bones.

Gritting his teeth, he used his left hand to pick up the long spear that had fallen not far away.

With his movement, the white cloth wrapped around the spear shaft fell away with a rustle, revealing the cold, dazzling steel spearhead and the tough, vermilion-red shaft.

"I haven't fallen yet! The big spear hasn't moved, so it doesn't count as losing!"

Li Shuwen roared through gritted teeth, holding the spear with one hand, ready to charge again.

However, in the next second, his steps were abruptly frozen in place, and he was unable to move at all.

Because, without him knowing when, Lin Tian was now holding a bizarrely shaped double-barreled short firearm with a terrifyingly thick muzzle.

Lin Tian didn't even glance at him, instead turning his head directly and pulling the trigger toward a century-old tree nearby that required several people to encircle.

Boom!

A deafening, violent gunshot exploded in the courtyard.

A dazzling tongue of fire erupted from the muzzle. When the smoke cleared, Li Shuwen was completely dumbfounded.

He saw that the trunk of the massive ancient tree was now densely studded with shiny silver coins.

All the silver coins were deeply embedded inside the hard bark, blasting a huge, bloody-looking hole into the tree's trunk.

"You... why did you use a firearm?!" Li Shuwen stared fixedly at the gun in Lin Tian's hand and demanded loudly.

Lin Tian played with the short gun in his hand indifferently and retorted, "Isn't the thing in your hand also a gun?"

"This..."

Li Shuwen was rendered speechless by this remark.

His face flushed red, and after holding it in for a long time, he finally managed to squeeze out: "This spear of mine is a long spear passed down by my ancestors! That thing of yours is a foreign gunpowder gun! Can these be the same thing?!"

Lin Tian sneered, twisted his wrist, and aimed the pitch-black muzzle at Li Shuwen's head:

"What's different about it? When it comes down to it, aren't they both weapons used to kill on the battlefield?"

"Li Shuwen, you need to learn to open your eyes and look at the world."

"Times are progressing, and guns are naturally progressing too."

Undeniably, Li Shuwen's long spear technique was truly peerless in this era.

But with the rolling wheels of technology, cold weapons would only become increasingly powerless when facing the firearms of the industrial age.

Before transmigrating, Lin Tian had once read a piece of trivia: in medieval Germany, there was a renowned, peerless sword saint named Michael Hunter, who had poured his heart and soul into writing a peerless secret manual called "One Hundred Sword Techniques."

On the last page of that book, which recorded countless exquisite sword moves, the most powerful 100th technique was clearly written with four words—Draw Gun and Shoot.

Later, someone specifically provided a concise comment for this move:

"My lord, the times have changed."

Lin Tian looked at Li Shuwen, whose face alternated between green and white, his eyes filled with extreme struggle. With a thought, he directly retracted the specially made coin firearm back into his storage space and said indifferently:

"Li Shuwen, if you feel unconvinced today, thinking I cheated by using a firearm, that's fine. I'll void the wager; the gate is open now, and you can leave at any time."

Having said that, Lin Tian turned around, making as if to walk toward the brightly lit main hall.

However, at the very moment he turned his head.

Thump.

A dull thud came from behind him.

Lin Tian looked back and saw that the iron-willed Cangzhou man was now on one knee, his right leg bent, kneeling heavily on the concrete ground.

"I, Li Shuwen, have lost—I am convinced of my defeat, completely and thoroughly!"

He lowered his head, his left hand gripping the long spear tightly. His voice was hoarse but exceptionally firm: "From today on, this life is yours; I will follow you from now on. However, there is one thing you must remember clearly!"

Lin Tian suppressed the wild joy in his heart, turned around, and raised an eyebrow: "Which one?"

"Although my life is worthless, I will absolutely never help foreigners or traitors do anything that harms my homeland and compatriots! Even if the current imperial court is already rotten to the core, that place is still the root where I was born and raised!"

"If you dare to force me to do those heinous acts or dirty dealings like trafficking opium, you had better shoot me dead right now!"

"Hahahaha!"

Hearing this resonant and powerful vow, Lin Tian suddenly couldn't help but laugh up at the sky.

He strode over to Li Shuwen and pulled this man with natural, unyielding pride to his feet, laughing:

"Li Shuwen, what kind of person do you take me for? That harmful, filthy stuff like opium has long been a capital offense explicitly prohibited in my territory and throughout the entire Hongmen!"

"Whoever dares to lay a hand on that stuff, you won't even need to do it yourself; the hundreds of thousands of Hongmen disciples would tear that guy to pieces—no one is an exception!"

Hearing Lin Tian give such a guarantee, Li Shuwen finally let out a long sigh of relief.

When he was back home, he had seen too many tragedies where well-dressed foreigners colluded with corrupt officials and local gentry to open opium dens in every town.

Back when he was in the country, whenever he encountered such opium dens, he would sneak over in the middle of the night to burn them clean and then twist the necks of those corrupt gentry while he was at it.

Precisely because of this, he had been very worried just now that a big tycoon like Lin Tian would also touch that vile stuff.

"Alright, since you're my man from today on, we're all brothers, no need to be so formal. From now on, I'll call you Shuwen."

Lin Tian patted his left shoulder and continued:

"Looking at your right arm, the bones must be shattered pretty badly. Let's go, the manor has top-tier private doctors; we'll go get your bones set and treated right now."

"Alright, I'll listen to the boss."

Li Shuwen did not refuse this time and stood up with some difficulty.