An enormous manta ray floated on the surface of the sea. Gu Xiechen sat cross-legged atop the ray he had killed, palms, soles, and crown facing heaven as he silently circulated his True Qi.
The steel-hard muscles on his lean body rose and fell. Gu Xiechen's heart beat at a steady two hundred and ten times per minute, sending streams of powerful energy from his heart to every part of his body. True Qi raced through his meridians. After the energy flowing from his heart completed nine cycles through his body, it merged into his True Qi and became part of his cultivation.
Destruction was necessary for renewal. That saying was indeed correct.
Although he had suffered the greatest danger of his life the night before and his body had been badly injured, Gu Xiechen had gained quite a lot as well. He had forcibly activated the Dao embryo hidden within his heart, and powerful energy had flooded through his body in the span of a breath. It had utterly wrecked his meridians, but after a night of meditation and recovery, the damaged meridians had already healed. Meridians that had once been like two-lane roads had become broad eight-lane highways. His True Qi now moved smoothly and obediently, like an extension of his own limbs. The feeling was truly wonderful.
After circulating his True Qi through eighty-one cycles and sensing that his cultivation had improved by another small step, Gu Xiechen finished his meditation and stood.
He jumped a few times on the manta ray's back and carved off a large chunk of flesh. The rank-smelling fish meat was hardly a delicacy, but Gu Xiechen forced himself to swallow a full kilogram of it. This manta ray had lived for a very long time, and its flesh contained abundant blood essence. As soon as the meat entered his stomach, a hot current surged upward from within him. Gu Xiechen let out a satisfied belch. His physical functions were extraordinarily powerful, and the fish meat was quickly digested and broken down, restoring his body's vigor.
Looking around, Gu Xiechen could no longer tell where he was after drifting through the night. The watch he could have used for navigation had been destroyed in the fierce battle the night before. He could only determine that he was not too far from New York, but he had no way of figuring out his exact location.
Gu Xiechen's highest priority now was to leave Gu Group's sphere of influence. Not just the waters near New York—even the entire American region was dangerous to him. Gu Group's hidden influence throughout the Americas was astonishingly vast. If Gu Xiechen showed himself anywhere in North or South America, he would certainly be discovered immediately. Gu Juechen had already tried to murder Gu Xiechen in his struggle for control of the Gu family. If he discovered that Gu Xiechen was still alive, a second and third wave of assassins would surely follow.
This time, Gu Juechen had misjudged Gu Xiechen's own strength. In addition, many family death warriors loyal to Gu Xiechen had fought desperately to carve out a bloody path for him, allowing him to escape by sheer luck. Next time, Gu Juechen would definitely use even more powerful forces to kill him.
His escape the night before had thoroughly exposed the personal strength Gu Xiechen had concealed for so long, while the family forces loyal to him had been completely wiped out by Gu Juechen. If Gu Juechen attacked again, Gu Xiechen alone would never be able to oppose the entire Gu family. Not to mention that among those who had attacked him the night before were several strange figures of unknown origin. Gu Juechen had clearly joined forces with other powers.
"Where should I go?" Gu Xiechen frowned.
Having never left New York since birth, Gu Xiechen had always been under the family's comprehensive protection. It would not be easy for someone lacking worldly experience to hastily devise a workable plan.
A ship slowly passing more than a thousand meters ahead made the decision for him. It had clearly departed from New York Harbor. Since it was leaving port, its destination would at least not be New York. Gu Xiechen pondered with a frown for a while, then leaped off the manta ray.
Relying on a breath of innate True Qi, Gu Xiechen swam rapidly underwater like a fish. Every movement of his limbs generated tremendous thrust, and he sped forward three meters beneath the surface like a torpedo. In less than three minutes, he had crossed more than a thousand meters and pressed himself against the ship's hull. Taking a deep breath, Gu Xiechen used the gecko wall-climbing technique to slowly scale the ship.
The moment he climbed onto the deck, several pitch-black gun barrels pointed at him.
A middle-aged man in a first mate's uniform stood on the deck above, holding a bottle of liquor. Smiling warmly, he raised the bottle toward Gu Xiechen.
"Tsk, tsk, look at this. An uninvited guest who came aboard halfway through the trip! How rare! Was this distinguished guest robbed by pirates? Why isn't he wearing a single stitch of clothing?"
Several armed sailors burst into laughter. They pointed at the naked Gu Xiechen and began commenting on his physique. It had to be said that Gu Xiechen had an excellent body. Though lean, the sharply defined muscles all over him looked as though they had been carved with knives and axes, carrying an incomparable sense of power.
Gu Xiechen rubbed his bare head, looked up at the middle-aged man, and smiled. "I ran into pirates on the way. I want to hitch a ride on your ship and go anywhere."
"Pirates?"
The middle-aged man laughed exaggeratedly, while the sailors laughed so hard they nearly choked. Shaking his head, the man said, "Young man, you ran into pirates in the waters outside New York Harbor? Do you think those bastards in the Federal Fleet were raised on shit?"
He tossed the bottle to Gu Xiechen and shook his head. "Whatever you are, it doesn't matter to us. Not in the slightest. Are you some murderous, fire-starting scoundrel? Even better! Take a drink to warm yourself up. You have one minute to decide whether to join our mercenary group, work for money, and buy a ticket, or jump back into the sea."
Gu Xiechen took a gulp of the harsh, pungent cheap liquor and looked at the man in surprise. "A mercenary group? This is your mercenary group's ship?"
Leaning against the railing of the upper deck, the middle-aged man gave Gu Xiechen an interested once-over and smiled. "We're the Hell Angels Mercenary Group's recruit transport ship. This vessel carries three thousand new recruits we just bought, all fine heroes we paid a fortune to get out of federal prisons! After a year of training with us, they'll go out and make big money!"
Swallowing, the man boasted so enthusiastically that spittle flew everywhere. "After the one-year training period, any qualified good man will sign a twenty-year employment contract with us. If he's lucky enough not to die after twenty years, or if he earns enough merit for our mercenary group, every charge against him in the federal judicial system will be cleared. Then he can take a large, glittering pension and settle down wherever he wants."
"You have fifteen seconds left, young man. What do you think?" The middle-aged man smiled at the thoughtful Gu Xiechen. "Are you a fine hero? Would you like to go to our training camp, or jump back into the sea right now? Ah, we're a mercenary group, not a charity. Riding for free is impossible."
Clearly, the middle-aged man did not believe Gu Xiechen's story about being robbed by pirates. In his eyes, Gu Xiechen was already the same kind of scoundrel as the other three thousand recruits aboard the ship. Would a law-abiding federal citizen appear naked in the middle of the ocean? Would a law-abiding federal citizen be able to climb barehanded onto a ship's deck dozens of meters above the water? Someone of unknown origins with such skills could only be one of the "fine heroes" he had described!
Gu Xiechen smashed the bottle against the deck and threw back his head with a laugh. "I'm joining! But, uh, I don't have any identification."
All his identification documents had been destroyed in the battle the night before. His naked body was more than enough to explain everything.
"Oh, we don't need identification!"
The middle-aged man and all the sailors erupted into laughter again. Bent over with laughter, the man cackled, "Your naked body is the best identification there is. We want fine heroes, and there's no question that you aren't a woman! Hahahaha!"
"Damn it!" Gu Xiechen's face reddened. He strode up to a sailor holding an assault rifle and knocked him unconscious with one punch before the sailor could react. Under the approving gazes of the middle-aged man and the other sailors, Gu Xiechen stripped everything but the unlucky sailor's underwear. Thirty seconds later, fully dressed, Gu Xiechen was welcomed into the ship's cabin as a "highly promising" fine hero.
The three-hundred-and-twenty-meter-long Naked Angel belonged to the Hell Angels Mercenary Group. Inside was a huge rectangular atrium, with densely packed honeycomb-like cabins arranged around it. When Gu Xiechen entered the cabin, deafening howls filled the air.
Several thousand ugly, vicious, savage, and brutish men stood on the walkways before each level of cabins, waving their arms and roaring with wild excitement. In the center of the enormous atrium stood a twenty-by-twenty-meter arena, where two naked, powerfully built men were fighting madly. Both dark-skinned men stood nearly two meters tall. They were equally massive, equally muscular, and equally vicious and violent. Their fists tore through the air with sharp explosive cracks, and faint gusts of fist wind churned before their punches.
The moment Gu Xiechen stepped out of the passageway and entered the atrium, the two brawling men decided the match. One man's arm was twisted broken by the other. The victor lifted the howling, struggling loser high into the air, swaggered around the arena twice, then hurled him heavily off the stage.
Whether intentionally or not, the loser's huge body came crashing toward Gu Xiechen, who had just entered.
The middle-aged first mate who had brought Gu Xiechen into the cabin, a man calling himself John Lawrence, nimbly retreated several steps. Only when Gu Xiechen was about to be struck did he shout, "Watch out!"
Gu Xiechen kicked the loser. The man, who had been howling in pain, flew more than twenty meters. Blood sprayed from the unfortunate man's mouth, and Gu Xiechen's violent kick cleanly knocked him unconscious. Gu Xiechen glared darkly at the victorious man on the arena, who was eyeing him like a tiger, and sneered. "You did that on purpose?"
The several thousand men on the surrounding walkways froze for a moment, then shouted in unison, "Kill this brat! Kill this yellow-skinned monkey!"
Many more excited men climbed onto the railings, waving their arms and jumping about. "Oh yeah! Another one came to die!"
Boots and stinking socks rained down. John Lawrence swiftly slipped back into the passageway, turning to shout, "Kid, take down that guy on the arena! Heh heh, they're fighting over the title of strongest among these three thousand recruits! Heh heh, only the strongest warriors get the best treatment!"
Gu Xiechen dodged the barrage of boots and stinking socks in embarrassment. He shot John Lawrence a furious glare, then took a large step and jumped onto the arena.
The men on the walkways applauded and cheered. Some shouted for the black man to tear Gu Xiechen apart, while others stirred up trouble by demanding that Gu Xiechen flatten the black man before him.
The black man on the arena shook his head disdainfully at Gu Xiechen, who was barely over 1.8 meters tall. He crossed his arms over his chest and proudly raised his head.
Without a word, Gu Xiechen rushed forward. He struck the black man in the chest with his palm and sent him flying straight off the arena. The man's arm and several ribs in his chest were shattered into powder. The victor who had been so arrogant just moments earlier did not even manage a groan before passing out.
The enormous cabin fell dead silent. Several thousand men simultaneously fell quiet. The powerful man Gu Xiechen had sent flying with one palm had defeated more than a hundred challengers over the past few days. Everyone had tacitly accepted that he was the strongest among the three thousand, and the loser he had just thrown from the arena had been the last person with the courage to challenge him.
When such a powerful man was sent flying by a single palm strike from Gu Xiechen, these "fine heroes" freshly taken from federal prisons all shut their wildly shouting mouths.
"I'm the strongest!" Gu Xiechen smiled with pursed lips. He raised his middle finger at the thousands of burly men on the surrounding walkways and shouted, "Anyone got a problem with that?"
No one had any objections. Gu Xiechen, who had just boarded the Naked Angel, became the acknowledged strongest among the three thousand recruits.
Inside the Naked Angel's bridge, the captain, holding a corncob pipe, watched Gu Xiechen swaggering arrogantly around the arena on the monitor with a broad smile.
"John! It seems you found a very impressive little fellow! He really climbed aboard without relying on any tools?"
John Lawrence stood respectfully beside the elderly captain and smiled. "I saw it with my own eyes, respected Mr. Yuan. If we hadn't installed surveillance cameras on the hull, he could definitely have sneaked aboard without anyone noticing."
"Very good. List him as a priority training target."
Mr. Yuan knocked his pipe hard against the sole of his boot.
There will be another chapter this afternoon. Uh, clicks, votes, reviews—I want them all!
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