Black Eats Black?

A few minutes later.

Following the map navigation, Li Jinshui arrived at No. 5 Third Lane.

This turned out to be an ordinary residential house, no different from the surrounding buildings. One could see signs of life, clearly indicating that someone lived here long-term.

Li Jinshui did not intend to waste time. Electric light surged violently over his legs as he delivered a simple, brutal kick.

"BOOM!"

The entire heavy anti-theft door was instantly kicked off its hinges by the immense force, crashing into the room amidst a cloud of dust.

"Who's there?"

A sharp shout rang out from inside the room instantly.

Through the rolling dust, a young man clutching a large saber stood up abruptly, his murderous gaze locked onto the doorway.

"Boss Qing sent me to pick up the goods," Li Jinshui said in a deep voice, his expression unchanging.

"Pick up your mother! Who picks up goods by breaking down the door like that?" The saber-wielding youth looked at Li Jinshui's young, unfamiliar face, cursed on the spot, and swung his blade in a horizontal slash.

"Damn it, you shameless thug, are you trying to double-cross me?" Li Jinshui was also incensed.

Electric light flooded his legs once more as his blood energy erupted. With an upward kick, he easily sent the youth's saber flying. Before the youth could react, a second kick followed, slamming heavily into his chest.

"Pfft!"

The youth spat out a mouthful of blood, flying backward like a kite with a broken string before crashing to the ground, his chest visibly caved in.

"Tch, only second-rate? Like an ant."

Li Jinshui brushed off his pant leg with disdain and strode inside, only to have his attention immediately drawn to a long box on the table.

"Is this the cargo?"

He stepped forward with a grin to inspect it. The box was a regular rectangle, about a meter long and thirty centimeters wide, wrapped entirely in black cloth.

"Who... who exactly... are you?"

The saber-wielding youth was not dead yet. He coughed up blood violently, trying to push himself up with his hands, but he couldn't manage it, only able to stare at Li Jinshui in shock and fury.

"Heh, you must have heard of my great name: the number one enemy of Wei Hu Security--Li Jinshui!" Li Jinshui introduced himself with a smile and tore the black cloth off the box.

"..." A look of confusion appeared on the youth's face; clearly, he had never heard the name.

Li Jinshui didn't have time to bother with him. He pulled the black cloth away completely, revealing a box crafted entirely from metal.

The quality of the metal alone made it look incredibly valuable.

Li Jinshui grew even more excited and prepared to open the box.

"Stop!" The youth's eyes suddenly widened in terror, and he shouted with his remaining strength, "Do... do you know... what is inside? You can't open it, you absolutely cannot open it, or we'll all die!"

"Hm?"

This near-breakdown warning made Li Jinshui pause for a rare moment of calm.

"Is it a bomb?" he asked, turning his head.

Could it be some kind of explosive that would detonate the moment it was opened?

"No, this... this was shipped from the front lines, it's for a high-ranking figure..."

The youth's injuries worsened rapidly, his breathing grew weaker, and his voice faded to a whisper: "No one... no one can touch it, or even the gang leader will die."

"Screw that, you should have said so earlier. If you had, I wouldn't have waited for nothing." Li Jinshui rolled his eyes in annoyance. If they died, it wasn't his problem.

If the goods were lost and the high-ranking figure was enraged, it would just be a perfect opportunity to use someone else's blade to kill off those scum from the Color Gang.

"Thump!"

At that moment, the youth could no longer hold on. The light in his eyes faded, his hands slipped powerlessly, and his head hit the floor with a heavy thud as he breathed his last.

Li Jinshui glanced at him, then turned his gaze back to the metal box, carefully undoing the latches on the lid.

"Click!"

He slowly lifted the lid.

Immediately, a "hiss" sounded, as if some heavy air pressure had been released.

An aura filled with violence suddenly permeated from the box.

Li Jinshui's hair stood on end, his scalp tingling as if he felt an absolute suppression in the hierarchy of life. His blood energy began to boil and surge of its own accord.

"Is... is it this intense?"

He suppressed the agitation of his blood to resist the aura and forcibly opened the box all the way.

What came into view was a strip-like, unidentified object nearly a meter long and about ten centimeters in diameter.

The thing was pitch black, and in the dim light, it looked like a translucent, gelatinous substance.

He reached out and pinched it; the texture was cold and hard, yet it possessed a resilient, springy quality.

"Wait, why does this thing look a bit like... a tendon?"

A flash of inspiration struck Li Jinshui's mind as he recalled a certain type of exotic beast meat.

Back when he was at the Youth Training Camp cafeteria, he had eaten a type of E-Class Exotic Beast Meat that consisted entirely of tendons: the Hundred-Tendon Rat.

That thing was also a pitch-black, translucent substance that was incredibly difficult to chew, leaving his jaw aching; it had left a deep impression on him.

And now, this strip-like, unidentified object before him looked exactly like a Hundred-Tendon Rat tendon magnified several hundred times—a "Pro Max" version.

Li Jinshui sucked in a sharp breath.

Good grief, just how massive must an exotic beast be to possess such thick, sturdy tendons?

The school teachers had never taught them about this!

The key was that this tendon wasn't even complete; the smooth, flat cross-sections at both ends made it clear that this was merely a severed portion.

"This isn't right... There are many legal channels to procure exotic beast meat, so there shouldn't be a need for such secretive smuggling, right?"

Li Jinshui's brows furrowed in confusion.

But soon, his eyes widened as the answer dawned on him.

Unless this Exotic Beast Tendon was a high-level, strictly controlled item—one that had never even appeared in textbooks—to the point where they had to smuggle it in.

But if this thing were truly that important, why not send someone with greater strength to handle the hand-off?

Was it because they feared that someone with high strength would attract too much attention?

"Whatever, regardless, the level of this exotic beast is definitely far above D-Class. My other Stake Standing techniques have a chance to be mastered quickly now."

Thinking of this, Li Jinshui hurriedly closed the box, locked the latches, wrapped it back in the black cloth, hoisted it onto his shoulder, and bolted out the door.

He had intended to find a place to hide immediately, but after running out onto the street, he couldn't help but think of the consequences the woman at the shop would face once this item went missing.

"My damn bleeding heart, my damn protagonist persona filled with the radiance of humanity."

Li Jinshui gritted his teeth, turned around, and sprinted back toward Ninth Street.

However, upon arriving outside the shop, he couldn't help but freeze in his tracks.

The bodies of the bald man and his cohorts, which had been relatively intact before, had now been hacked into a bloody, unrecognizable mess using an extremely brutal method. Blood flowed across the floor, leaving the place in total ruin.

Amidst the gore and pools of blood, a trail of messy footprints led from the doorway and extended deep into the shop.

"Damn it!"

Li Jinshui's expression shifted, and he rushed into the shop.

In the cluttered, cramped bedroom, the young woman lay curled up between her parents' corpses, covered in blood but with a calm and peaceful expression on her face; she had long since stopped breathing.

Li Jinshui stared at the kitchen knife gripped tightly in her hand for a brief moment of silence, then turned and left.

Over an hour later, the sky began to turn a faint white.

Li Jinshui finally returned to Shuanglong Street, slipping like a ghost into the old residential area near the new station.

After scouting several locations, he finally pried open the door to a dilapidated, empty house.

The room was covered in dust, devoid of people, and exceptionally quiet.

Li Jinshui tossed the heavy metal box and his duffel bag onto the floor and collapsed into the sofa like a pile of mud.

Exhausted, he was absolutely exhausted!

He had been fighting for almost the entire night; it wasn't just physical depletion, but more so a profound mental fatigue!

"Buzz! Buzz!"

Suddenly, the sound of a phone vibrating rang out.

Li Jinshui jolted awake, his body instinctively tensing up.

He had already removed the SIM card and turned off the bald man's phone, so the only thing that could be ringing now was his own.

"Huh?"

Li Jinshui wiped his face, pulled out his phone to look at the screen, and raised an eyebrow.

It was actually a call from Ye Mei!