"Whoosh!"
Li Jinshui landed and let out a long breath as the blue arcs of electricity crackling over his body slowly died down.
At last, that was taken care of.
There was no denying that Baldy had some skill. Even without those bracers, he would have been a tough opponent.
Recalling the fight, Li Jinshui realized that if he hadn't overwhelmed his opponent with his Qi-Blood and forcibly shut down his punches, or if he hadn't mastered several martial arts techniques, he might not have won. In the end, he probably would have had to turn and run, leaving neither side able to do anything to the other.
By comparison, those gang leaders on Shuanglong Street were laughably weak, despite also claiming to be First-rate Martial Artists of the ninth rank.
When he looked at the Heaven Rewards Diligence panel again, a bright smile spread across Li Jinshui's face.
[Violence for violence, Heaven Rewards Diligence, Lightning Pulse Step +200] [Violence for violence, Heaven Rewards Diligence, Meteor Chasing Moon +100] [Violence for violence, Heaven Rewards Diligence, Basic Lightness Skill +100] ...
"Three martial arts techniques all gained proficiency, and by this much?"
He hadn't expected that.
"Could it be because my opponent was so strong this time?"
Li Jinshui had a vague suspicion.
It seemed Heaven Rewards Diligence's feedback depended not only on how dangerous his surroundings were, but also on the caliber of his opponent.
To show his opponent the utmost respect, he crouched down and swiftly removed the bracers with practiced ease.
He slipped them onto his own arms to try them on. They were a little loose, but not enough to matter—in effect, they fit perfectly.
"Just the right size. And people say these bracers weren't tailor-made for me?"
Li Jinshui sighed, then searched the corpse carefully. In the end, all he found was a phone.
"A First-rate Martial Artist, and this poor?"
Still unconvinced, Li Jinshui went over to the other gang members' bodies scattered nearby and searched them one by one.
But soon, he stood up with a dark expression.
"Damn it, you've got no money on you, fine—but not one of you even has a phone? And you had the nerve to call me a broke loser?"
Cursing under his breath, Li Jinshui grew angrier the more he thought about it. He kicked one of the bodies hard. "What the hell were you doing all day, anyway? You go out looking for trouble without a single cent on you. You die and don't even drop any gold coins. What a bunch of degenerates!"
Stepping over the bodies, he straightened his clothes and walked into the old shop.
The light inside was dim. Judging by the furnishings, it was just an ordinary little general store.
In a corner, a frail figure huddled up. She was a pretty young woman, her clothes almost completely torn off, her skin covered in purple bruises.
"Hey, miss. I killed all those scumbags. You won't mind if I take a bottle of water from your shop, right?"
Li Jinshui walked over, picked up a bottle of purified water, unscrewed it, and took a sip. He continued, "And listen to me, bro. Pack your things and get out of here as soon as you can. Better yet, leave Rong City. Otherwise, those gangs might come looking for trouble again."
"..."
The woman didn't react at all. She clutched her knees and huddled tightly in the shadowy corner, her body still trembling violently. Her eyes were vacant and lifeless, staring blankly at the floor.
"..."
Looking at her, Li Jinshui could only fall silent.
In her state, she might not even be able to look after herself, let alone flee. He didn't know whether she would ever be able to live independently again.
He went to a nearby shelf, pulled out a clean length of cloth, and draped it over her.
"Where's your family?"
"..." The woman remained motionless, as lifeless as a husk.
Li Jinshui frowned, turned around, and leaned forward to look into the back room.
Just as he expected, a middle-aged man and woman lay in a pool of blood by the bedroom door. They were already dead.
Li Jinshui calmly looked away.
Things like this happened far too often, playing out almost every day in the back streets of different neighborhoods.
Even if he hadn't come today, the woman might eventually have pulled herself together enough to report the crime. But by the time the Inspection Bureau caught the perpetrators, the rest of her life would only have grown darker. She would have faced the Color Gang's frenzied, murderous revenge.
This was the true plight of countless ordinary people at the bottom of society. Over time, most grew numb and chose to accept reality, writing it off as bad luck. No one dared hold the Drifter Gang accountable anymore.
That was why the Drifter Gang grew increasingly brazen, becoming a source of terror for countless people.
Li Jinshui knew he couldn't change any of this. He shook his head helplessly.
But looking at the woman, he stood there thinking for a moment. Then he took out Baldy's phone and called the police.
"Hello, Inspection Bureau? I'm turning myself in!"
Li Jinshui shouted into the phone, his tone arrogant.
"Listen up! I'm Baldy from the Color Gang. I've got a few underlings with me, and we're in the middle of committing crimes—murder, robbery, and abducting women. If you've got the guts, come arrest me! If you're too late, I'll kill myself right in front of you!"
"What do you mean, stop joking? I'm dead serious! If you don't get here soon, I'll find a delivery guy and make him run us over. Just wait and see..."
"And as for the victims, there's only one survivor. Either you get her out of here, or the Color Gang will never let her go!"
After issuing his threats, Li Jinshui gave them the exact address and promptly hung up.
"That's what I call the perfect crime! No, wait—it's an act of civic courage. How did I even think of calling it a crime? Amitabha!"
He pocketed the phone and turned to leave this place of trouble.
"Ding!"
Suddenly, the phone chimed with a new message.
It was Baldy's phone. He hadn't needed to unlock it to call the police, but now he needed to unlock the screen to read the message.
Luckily, Baldy's phone was a newer model with fingerprint recognition.
Li Jinshui immediately left the shop and returned to Baldy's corpse. He grabbed one finger and tried it, then another.
Soon, the screen unlocked.
Li Jinshui opened the message, and his eyes widened slightly.
"The goods have arrived. Pick them up and return immediately."
Those simple words gave Li Jinshui a whiff of money.
Then he noticed that the sender was saved as "Boss Qing." His eyes lit up, and he thought of the Green Wind Hall.
Huang Lichen had mentioned before that the Color Gang's full name was the Four-Color Gang, made up of four branches: the Yellow Turban Bandits, the White Bright Society, the Green Wind Hall, and the Purple Cloud Association.
The Green Wind Hall was mainly responsible for smuggling and transporting goods.
So could this "Boss Qing" saved in Baldy's phone be the Green Wind Hall's leader?
Whatever goods he'd personally issued instructions about had to be worth a fortune.
"The goods and I are fated to meet. But where are they?"
Li Jinshui rubbed his chin and continued swiftly tapping through the phone.
First, he used Baldy's fingerprint to change the screen lock password. Then he searched for relevant terms, trying to find chat records that might reveal the goods' pickup location.
As it turned out, he really did find a clue.
There was only one message exchange between Baldy and "Boss Qing," which meant they must have deleted each message after reading it.
But Baldy hadn't been nearly as careful in his messages with others.
In a conversation with someone named "Old Jin," he mentioned that the delivery location had changed to No. 5, 3rd Lane, 10th Street.
The message had been sent last month, and it didn't say which district or road the 10th Street was in.
But Li Jinshui was currently on Chenghua Avenue in the outer city, on Ninth Street.
Baldy had a delivery to make, yet he'd been here enjoying himself at this hour. That meant the delivery location couldn't be far away.
So the 10th Street in the message was most likely nearby.
"As expected of me—my intelligence is practically demonic!"
Li Jinshui was delighted.
He immediately pocketed the phone and leaped forward, pushing his Basic Lightness Skill to its limits as he landed lightly on the exterior wall of the building opposite. Then he used Gecko Wall Crawl, racing along the wall and scrambling upward.
A moment later, he easily cleared the rooftop. Electricity wrapped around his legs as he became a blur, darting toward the street opposite.