The driver seemed to have long since grown accustomed to corpses.
After praising Song Ren, he waved toward the others.
Not far away, two men in suits walked over at the same time.
With swift movements, they packed the shattered corpse into a body bag, then carried it away without another word.
The driver, however, had gotten a good look. Unable to resist, he whistled and sized up Song Ren:
"Tsk, tsk. I really couldn't tell. You're quite something. You actually beat someone into that state with your bare hands. Impressive."
Song Ren jumped down from the container, only then noticing that the surroundings were a silent wilderness.
A short distance ahead stood a fairly large villa.
The villa was brightly lit, as though a pair of eyes had opened in the wilderness.
Several paths surrounded the area, but two men in suits stood guard at the entrance to each one.
After taking a few glances, Song Ren immediately judged that these suited men were most likely skilled gunmen.
From their actions, they seemed more like security guards—or bodyguards, to be precise.
The driver switched on a flashlight and spoke again: "Come with me."
Lu Zhengyang finally couldn't hold back and asked, "Where are we going?"
"Weren't we told we were coming to participate in the underground boxing matches at the Fook Shing Building?"
"Where is this place? Why are you bringing us here?"
The driver stopped and turned around. "You didn't think the boxing matches at the top level were something anyone could just participate in, did you?"
"Even if you're death-row inmates from Stanley Prison, don't dream of going there without an entrance ticket."
"No one will promote an unpopular challenger. You still need a stage to truly show yourselves to those big spenders."
"In other words, you need an entrance ticket that will get you straight to the top-level boxing matches."
After saying this, the driver prepared to lead them away.
At that moment, two men in suits came down one of the paths. One of them called out, "Wait."
The driver frowned. "What is it?"
The two men in suits walked over together, bypassed the driver, and stood directly in front of Song Ren.
Song Ren asked in surprise, "What do you want?"
The instant he finished speaking, one of them suddenly seized both his shoulders.
The next moment, the man forcefully pressed his body down, simultaneously driving a vicious knee strike upward.
Song Ren's expression changed for an instant, but he reacted quickly.
He brought his elbow down directly onto the other man's knee, but the other man's heavy kick slammed into one side of his chest.
His body staggered backward three or five steps. After steadying himself, he felt a burning pain in his chest.
His chest felt terribly stuffy as well. That kick had truly shown no mercy.
A vicious glint flashed beneath Song Ren's lowered eyelids.
Just as he was about to counterattack, the driver suddenly shouted, "Stop! Zheng Qizhi, what are you brothers trying to do?"
Song Ren could only halt his advancing step, his expression dark and unreadable.
The two men in suits had already withdrawn their hands. Only at close range could one see that their features were extremely similar—they were twin brothers.
Zheng Qizhi straightened his suit cuff. "It was Mr. Guo's intention. This guy killed, without authorization, someone whose spot Mr. Guo bought out of Stanley Prison."
"Mr. Guo sent us to greet him and get acquainted first."
The other man rubbed the sole of his shoe against the ground, as if disgusted at having just kicked something filthy.
"We were only helping him warm up a little. What we did doesn't count as breaking the rules, right?"
The driver said with a dark expression, "This is the only time. Don't let there be a next time."
The Zheng Qizhi brothers exchanged a glance, chuckled, then turned and left. They did not spare Song Ren another look throughout.
Song Ren watched their retreating backs with lowered eyes and said lightly, "Who were those two just now?"
The driver glanced at him. "The brothers Zheng Qizhi and Zheng Qixiong. They're Mr. Guo's personal bodyguards, while Mr. Guo is one of the honored guests at the top-level boxing matches."
"So you'd better not take that kick to heart."
"Just consider it being bitten by a dog."
"Something of this level doesn't count as breaking the rules, and it wouldn't be convenient for us to interfere."
Song Ren neither agreed nor disagreed. He merely silently memorized the names of the twin brothers.
Inside a detached villa
One broad wall in the main hall was covered with liquid-crystal screens displaying surveillance footage.
Six exceptionally well-dressed men and women sat in the hall.
Any one of them would be an influential figure capable of making waves with a mere stomp of the foot.
There was the King of Home Appliances, Guo Can; Liu Jinxiong of the steel industry; Luo Youyi, a leading figure in shipbuilding; and Xu Jiaqi, a real-estate tycoon.
The two women were Tong Peipei, the widow of the late newspaper tycoon Wen Zhaoren, and Zhu Bao'er, the daughter of the famous Sir Zhu.
The six sat in their respective places, leisurely savoring red wine.
In several corners of the hall, security personnel in suits could also be seen standing silently in the shadows.
People often said that the richer someone became, the more twisted they were. In truth, there was some basis to it.
Money could satisfy most of a person's material desires.
Thus, the wealthy inevitably developed certain unusual psychological fixations, especially things capable of stimulating their hormones.
For example, bloody and violent underground boxing matches...
They would not enter the arena themselves like Song Ren to savor that blood-pumping thrill, but that did not stop them from experiencing unprecedented excitement through it.
It was precisely because of the attention of these big spenders that the underground boxing matches at the Fook Shing Building could flourish.
The middle and lower levels attracted attention through betting and combat, while the upper levels and especially the top level used higher-value, more exhilarating battles to the death and Weapon Combat to attract the big spenders and secure their support.
Some powerful honored guests would also occasionally visit.
This was also the main reason the Fook Shing Building could continue operating normally. Too many interests and too much attention from the upper echelons were tied to it.
To bring down a place like the Fook Shing Building, it was virtually impossible without the intervention of some truly powerful figure at the very top.
At that moment, the King of Home Appliances, Guo Can, sat on the sofa, drinking with a gloomy expression.
He had only drunk less than half the wine when he suddenly smashed the glass onto the floor, the gloom on his face barely contained.
"What a useless piece of trash. He died on the way before even making his entrance. And I thought the culprit behind that serial dismemberment case from back then was something special."
And this was all?
Damn it!
As one of the honored guests at the very top of the Fook Shing Building, a big spender like Guo Can would select several challengers he took a liking to every time.
For this round of matches, Guo Can had selected three people in total.
The first was Basong, a Muay Thai master skilled in the art.
The second was the karate expert Shinkawa Tatsuya from the Land of the Rising Sun.
The last was Xu Shao, the culprit behind the dismemberment case, whom he had specially chosen from the list of death-row inmates at Stanley Prison.
He had come here this time to see just how fierce the one he was particularly interested in among his three cards truly was.
In the end, he had not seen any fierceness—but he had seen the culprit!
The money he had lost over this was irrelevant. The key was that he had lost face among his circle.