In the departure hall of New York's Kennedy International Airport.
A short-haired young man dressed in black was pulling a suitcase through the hall. He wore a black sleeveless fitted athletic shirt, and his pronounced chest and abdominal muscles, coupled with his nearly perfect physique, drew the eyes of almost every woman around him.
He was Li Yang.
Li Yang had changed. After a year of frenzied training at the Life Research Institute base, coupled with the physical changes brought by the B1 Gene Potion, his face had grown more resolute. Yet it was not only his face that had hardened, but also his gaze and bearing! Perhaps Xue's departure had truly matured Li Yang, transforming him from a boy into a man. It was a transformation of the soul, and that was what had shaped Li Yang's current aura.
Li Yang's hairstyle had changed as well. His once sunny, unconventional long hair had been cut short—barely an inch long! That inch-long hair, paired with Li Yang's resolute features and his strong, almost perfect body, would definitely have made countless women scream. Yet not a single woman in the entire airport approached him!
That was because of his aura—an icy aura, an aura that kept people a thousand miles away. His black athletic shirt and black trousers only made the chill around him spread further.
"Take me to 57th Street, Manhattan!" Li Yang said to the taxi driver in English. Back when he had been a top expert in Dragon Fang, the ace special forces unit, Li Yang had been highly proficient in both high-tech weapons and English.
The driver's eyes immediately widened as he stared at Li Yang. He was not surprised by Li Yang's fluent English; there were plenty of Asians in New York who spoke excellent English. What shocked him was the place Li Yang had named.
57th Street, Manhattan!
57th Street and 58th Street in Manhattan were absolutely the most dangerous places in all of New York. On those two streets, even New York police officers did not dare arrest people casually. The number of murders occurring on those two streets each year was estimated to account for more than half of all murders in New York.
"Sir, do you know what kind of place that is? If you're a tourist, I'd still advise you not to go there. There are plenty of places to have fun in New York, such as the famous Broadway, the Metropolitan Opera House, art galleries, and so on. You can also go to Chinatown for some Chinese snacks—they're quite good. At night, you can enjoy the nightlife on Fifth Avenue or 42nd Street." Like a tour guide, the driver began introducing New York to Li Yang.
"Don't worry. I know what 57th Street, Manhattan is like. Isn't it just a little dangerous? Don't worry, just drive!" Li Yang said with a faint smile.
Upon hearing that, the driver nodded. "Oh! Since you know, sir, then I won't waste any more words." He immediately drove the taxi toward their destination.
Why were 57th Street and 58th Street in Manhattan so dangerous?
It was because those two streets were known in the underworld as the streets of fighters. Nearly all internationally renowned top fighters lived there. The fighters were powerful, but their tempers were not much to speak of. Thus, when disputes arose, accidentally killing someone was quite common.
New York was the economic center of the United States, and also one of the world's economic centers. New York had five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Richmond. Of them, Manhattan was the smallest, covering only a little over fifty square kilometers—not even as large as a small village in China. Yet this tiny Manhattan was the center of all New York. Major banks, major insurance companies, major industrial corporations, and globally renowned institutions such as the New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange all gathered here. Wall Street, in particular, was synonymous with American financial giants.
But—Manhattan was not merely an economic center. It was also the place where international underground forces were most densely concentrated.
Central Park, the Central Park of the United States, covered more than forty hectares. Everyone knew how extraordinary Central Park was, but how many knew what lay beneath it?
Beneath Central Park was the headquarters of the Underground Boxing Ring, spanning thirty hectares!
Yes, beneath famous Central Park—the symbol of New York, the symbol of the United States—was actually the headquarters of the Underground Boxing Ring, a paradise where dark forces gathered most densely. As countless tourists wandered through Central Park, could they have imagined that innumerable experts found only in films, fantasies, and novels were beneath their feet?
There was nothing strange about it. The Underground Boxing Ring was backed by two of the world's five major criminal organizations: the American Mafia and the Chinese Green Gang, which was filled with experts.
The world's five major criminal organizations were the Chinese Green Gang in the United States, the American Mafia, Asia's Hong Bang and Yamaguchi-gumi, and the Italian Mafia, which spanned all of Europe and stood at the head of the five major gangs! The American Mafia had originally broken away from the Italian Mafia through betrayal and division, so the Italian Mafia had always been hostile toward the American Mafia.
When Central Park had been built, construction on the Underground Boxing Ring headquarters beneath it had begun at the same time. With the American Mafia and the Green Gang's influence in the Senate and House of Representatives, coupled with the fact that the United States was a capitalist country and many major capitalists had the shadows of these two super criminal organizations behind them, building the Underground Boxing Ring headquarters beneath Central Park had been as easy as turning over one's hand. (Once again, this is a fantasy novel. Everything is fictional, so don't go running to Central Park in the United States to look for experts out of curiosity! Hehe.)
57th Street, Manhattan.
Li Yang arrived at the residential district on 57th Street. Naturally, all housing in Manhattan consisted of luxurious villas, each one priced so high it was frightening.
"Mm, this is the one!" Li Yang looked at the villa before him. Among the dozens of villas nearby, this one was among the more luxurious. By Li Yang's estimate, it could not be bought without several million dollars. Even that was not especially expensive. The same villa on Fifth Avenue would cost forty or fifty million dollars. Of course, that was because of Fifth Avenue itself, but Manhattan was a place where every inch of land was worth an inch of gold. The fact that villas on 57th Street cost several million dollars spoke volumes.
The villa's security guard immediately walked over when he saw Li Yang and asked with slight respect, "Sir, are you Mr. Mu Yi from China?"
Li Yang nodded. Mu Yi was the name he had decided to use in the United States from now on. It was the name he had told Xue. Perhaps Li Yang had made that decision because he had always missed Xue in his heart.
"Ah, Mr. Mu Yi, please come with me. Mr. Jack has been waiting for you for quite some time!" Upon hearing this, the security guard became even more respectful.
Li Yang nodded, thinking to himself, It seems the Hong Bang's name is more than a little useful!
"Ah, dear Mr. Mu Yi, I, Old Jack, am deeply honored to become your manager from now on!" A kind, plump old man narrowed his eyes and bowed to Li Yang.
Li Yang gave a slight nod. "You understand my purpose. I don't like dragging things out. Tell me what needs to be done next!"
Old Jack immediately smiled. "Dear Mr. Mu Yi, please come and meet my fighters. From now on, you will become one of them as well!" Li Yang nodded, then followed Old Jack into the villa's enormous training room. According to the villa's original design, this huge training room should have been a large backyard, but Old Jack had converted it into a massive enclosed training room.
Six burly men were currently training inside with wild intensity.
One burly white man was gripping a huge barbell in one hand as he trained his arm strength. Of the remaining five, four were furiously kicking sandbags. Li Yang saw at a glance that they were specially made sandbags; ordinary ones would have long since been kicked apart by these Underground Boxing Ring experts. The final person was actually Asian. Li Yang even determined at a glance that he was Chinese, because he could sense the man's aura. The burly Chinese man was continuously doing frog jumps, with weights strapped to both his legs and body.
"Mr. Mu Yi, these are all my wealth. Four of them are advanced fighters, while the other two are top fighters. That kid doing frog jumps—yes, him. Look at how standard his frog-jump posture is. He's from China as well, and he is one of the ten super fighters!" Old Jack proudly introduced them to Li Yang.
Li Yang smiled faintly and casually walked a few steps toward a sandbag.
"Whoosh!"
Li Yang's right leg turned into an afterimage in an instant and hacked viciously at the sandbag. The sheer power of the kick even produced a terrifying howl. That howl made every fighter training nearby stop and stare at Li Yang in shock.
Boom!
Like a car tire bursting in summer, the specially made sandbag was actually kicked apart with a single strike. The grains of sand within slowly spilled out, flowing down bit by bit like sand through an hourglass...
"Old Jack, what level of fighter do you think I should count as?" Li Yang asked the dumbstruck Old Jack with a smile.
Before you continue