A few minutes later.
Following the map, Li Jinshui arrived at No. 5, Third Lane.
This turned out to be an ordinary home, no different from the other houses around it. There were signs of life inside, and someone clearly lived there long-term.
Li Jinshui had no intention of wasting time. Lightning surged around his legs, and he delivered a straightforward, brutal kick.
"Boom!"
The heavy security door was instantly blasted off its hinges by the force of the kick, crashing into the house as dust billowed everywhere.
"Who's there?"
A sharp shout rang out from inside.
Through the swirling dust, a young man gripping a broadsword sprang to his feet, his murderous gaze fixed on the doorway.
"Boss Qing sent me to pick up the goods," Li Jinshui said evenly.
"Pick up your ass! Who picks up goods by kicking down the door?" Seeing Li Jinshui's young, unfamiliar face, the swordsman cursed furiously and swung his broadsword at him.
"Damn you, you shameless bastard! You're trying to rob us?" Li Jinshui snapped back.
Lightning once again coursed around his legs as his Qi-Blood erupted. A rising kick easily knocked the broadsword from the other man's hands. Before the young man could react, Li Jinshui's second kick landed squarely on his chest.
"Pfft!"
The young man spewed blood and flew backward like a broken kite, crashing heavily to the ground. His chest caved in.
"Tch, only a Second-Rate Martial Artist? You're nothing but an ant."
Li Jinshui brushed off his pant leg with disdain and strode inside, only for a long box on the table to catch his eye.
"Is this the goods?"
He walked over with a smile to inspect it. The box was a neat rectangle, about a meter long and thirty centimeters wide, completely wrapped in black cloth.
"You... who... are you?"
The swordsman was somehow still alive. Coughing up blood, he braced himself with both hands and tried to rise, but couldn't manage it. He could only stare at Li Jinshui in fury and disbelief.
"Heh, you've surely heard of me. I'm Wei Hu Security's number-one enemy—Li Jinshui!" Li Jinshui introduced himself with a grin, then tore off the black cloth.
"..." A puzzled look appeared on the swordsman's face. Clearly, he'd never heard that name.
Li Jinshui had no time to bother with him. He pulled away the rest of the cloth, revealing a box made entirely of metal.
Just the material alone looked incredibly valuable.
Growing more excited, Li Jinshui reached to open the box.
"Stop!" The young man's eyes suddenly widened in terror. He shouted with all his strength, "Do... do you know... what's inside? Don't open it! Whatever you do, don't open it, or we'll all die!"
"Hm?"
The near-hysterical warning made Li Jinshui pause and regain some composure.
"Is it a bomb?" he asked, turning his head.
Could it be some kind of explosive that would go off as soon as he opened it?
"No, this... this was transported from the front lines. It's something meant for a big shot up top..."
The young man's injuries were rapidly worsening, and his breathing grew weaker. His voice faded as he spoke. "No... no one can touch it. Otherwise, even the gang leader will die."
"Damn, you should've said so earlier. I wouldn't have waited around for nothing." Li Jinshui rolled his eyes. It was their lives on the line, not his.
If the goods went missing and the big shot flew into a rage, that would be a perfect way to use someone else to kill off the Color Gang scum.
"Thump!"
At last, the young man could no longer hold on. The light faded from his eyes, his hands slipped limply to the floor, and his head struck the ground with a heavy thud. He was dead.
Li Jinshui glanced at him, then turned his eyes back to the metal box and carefully undid its clasps.
"Click!"
He slowly lifted the lid.
Then came a hiss, as if some kind of intense pressure had been released.
A violently oppressive aura abruptly poured out of the box.
Every hair on Li Jinshui's body stood on end, and his scalp prickled. It felt as though he were being absolutely suppressed by a higher order of life, and the Qi-Blood within him began to churn on its own.
"Th-this thing is that powerful?"
He suppressed the turbulence in his Qi-Blood and resisted the aura, forcing the box fully open.
Inside was an unidentified, rod-shaped object nearly a meter long and about ten centimeters in diameter.
It was jet black, and in the dim light it looked like some kind of semitransparent, gelatinous substance.
He reached out and squeezed it. It felt cold and hard, yet also resilient, springing back against his fingers.
"Wait, why does this thing look a bit like... a tendon?"
A flash of inspiration struck Li Jinshui, and he thought of a kind of Exotic Beast Meat.
Earlier, at the Youth Training Camp cafeteria, he'd eaten an E-Class Exotic Beast Meat made entirely of tendons: the Hundred-Tendon Rat.
That stuff was also a black, semitransparent substance. It was so tough to chew that his jaw had ached. It had left a deep impression.
And now, this rod-shaped object in front of him looked exactly like a rat tendon magnified several hundred times—a Pro Max version.
Li Jinshui sucked in a breath.
Good grief, what kind of enormous Exotic Beast had tendons this thick?
The schoolteachers had never taught him about anything like that!
What mattered was that this tendon wasn't intact. The smooth, flat ends made it clear that it was only a portion that had been cut off.
"Something's not right... Exotic Beast Meat can come in through plenty of legal channels. There shouldn't be any need to smuggle it in so secretly, right?"
Li Jinshui frowned, puzzled.
But he quickly widened his eyes as he realized the answer.
Unless this Exotic Beast Tendon was a highly restricted item, one that had never even appeared in the textbooks, forcing them to smuggle it in.
But if it was really that important, why hadn't someone more powerful been sent to handle the handoff?
Were they worried that someone stronger would attract attention?
"Whatever. This Exotic Beast must be far above Class D. Maybe I can quickly master my other Stake Standing techniques."
With that thought, Li Jinshui hurriedly shut the box, fastened the clasps, wrapped it in the black cloth, hoisted it onto his shoulder, and rushed out the door.
He had planned to find somewhere to hide, but as he ran into the street, he couldn't help thinking about what would happen to the woman at the shop now that the goods were gone.
"Damn my bleeding heart. Damn this protagonist persona, full of the radiance of humanity."
Li Jinshui gritted his teeth and quickly turned back toward Ninth Street.
But when he reached the shop, he froze.
The bodies of the bald man and the others, which had been mostly intact, had now been hacked to pieces in an appallingly brutal manner. Blood covered the ground, and the place was a mess.
Among the chunks of flesh and pools of blood, a trail of muddled footprints led through the doorway and into the shop.
"Damn it!"
Li Jinshui's expression changed, and he rushed inside.
In the cramped, disordered bedroom, the young woman lay curled up between her parents' corpses, covered in blood but wearing a peaceful expression. She was already dead.
Li Jinshui stared at the kitchen knife clutched in her hand. After a moment of silence, he turned and left.
More than an hour later, the sky began to lighten.
Li Jinshui finally returned to Shuanglong Street and slipped like a ghost into the old housing district near the new station.
After scouting several spots, he finally picked the lock on the door of a derelict, empty house.
Dust covered the place. It was empty and utterly quiet.
Li Jinshui threw the heavy metal box and his luggage bag onto the floor, then collapsed into the sofa like a lump of mud.
He was tired—so tired!
He'd spent almost the entire night fighting. It wasn't just physical exhaustion; he was mentally drained, too!
"Bzz, bzz!"
Suddenly, his phone vibrated.
Li Jinshui jolted awake, his body instinctively tensing.
He'd already taken the SIM card out of the bald man's phone and switched it off. That meant the phone ringing now could only be his own.
"Huh?"
Li Jinshui wiped his face, pulled out his phone, and glanced at the screen, raising an eyebrow.
It was Ye Mei calling!