After teaching the beautiful woman with sinister intentions a lesson, Li Xingkong decided not to return to his room. Who knew when the others would come out? He found a secluded window and nimbly climbed out.
Although night had fallen, the city's nightlife was only just beginning. It was not as lively as the Divine Land at night, but the streets were far from empty. Plenty of young people could still be seen walking past in twos and threes. Many of them, however, could not help stealing a few extra glances at Li Xingkong.
Here in the Prisoner Continent, anyone who dared go out alone at night was either a tourist or someone not to be trifled with. Li Xingkong looked innocent enough, like a young man who had never seen the world, but the half of a gun grip sticking out of his pocket was enough to scare off anyone with ill intentions.
After walking for a while, Li Xingkong found an internet café by the street and settled in. As he recalled everything that had happened over the past two days, he pondered where he could find a place to conduct his experiment.
After searching online for a long time, Li Xingkong discovered that the Prisoner Continent was an unusual place. Nearly all its inhabitants were concentrated around the major cities.
In the outlying areas far from the cities, vast stretches of land were given over to farms, each covering a large area. Li Xingkong's eyes lit up at this. The land a farm owner oversaw was extensive enough, and there were relatively few neighbors, making it perfect for carrying out his plan.
He intended to take over a farm first and use it as cover for the first step of his development plan.
Li Xingkong browsed the internet carefully for a long time, picking out several farms for sale that satisfied him. Though they all looked different, a closer inspection revealed one thing they had in common: they were remote and sparsely populated.
After careful consideration, Li Xingkong decided to inspect the candidate farms in person to get a better understanding of their actual conditions.
Although the farms sounded enormous and likely to cost a fortune, the Prisoner Continent was a special case. A vast desert lay at its center, and much of the surrounding land was wasteland. Many farms looked large, but their soil was poor, and their prices were not as outrageous as one might imagine.
With the money Li Xingkong currently had, he certainly could not afford a high-quality farm, but he had more than enough to buy land with poor soil, even wasteland that had gone uncultivated for generations.
Having picked out a few candidates, Li Xingkong noted their locations and planned to visit them first thing in the morning.
As for tonight, he could not go back to the inn, so he would make do at the internet café. Going without sleep for a night would not affect him anyway.
Early the next morning, Li Xingkong grabbed a few bites to eat and set off for the first farm he had taken a fancy to. Of the candidates, he thought this one was the most suitable. It met his requirements in every respect, so he chose to visit it first.
It was still early, and Li Xingkong was wondering how to get there. In the Prisoner Continent, leaving the city was a real inconvenience without a car.
But Li Xingkong had no way of getting a car on short notice, so he could only wait and see if a taxi came along.
Unfortunately, it was too early for the people of the Prisoner Continent. The sun had yet to rise, and hardly any of them were to be seen on the streets.
After he had stood there for a while, no car appeared, but a few biker punks stopped him.
Two high-displacement motorcycles roared over from the side of the street. Seeing Li Xingkong alone, the riders began circling him, and the exhaust billowing from the bikes made him cover his nose.
The motorcycles had a jumble of garish colors that gave them an exaggerated look. One of the two riders sported a multicolored afro and sunglasses, and wore nothing but a tank top with a huge skull printed on the front. The other looked much the same, except his hair was green. Each bike also carried a lackey on the back, both dressed like petty thugs.
The bikes circled a few times before stopping, and the punk on the back of one jumped off.
"Well, what do I see? A foreigner standing on the street? Are you selling hooks?"
As he spoke, he casually pulled a baseball bat from the rack at the back of the bike.
"Look, we brothers ride around on patrol every day, acting as your bodyguards. Now that you've run into us, shouldn't you pay us a little tribute? These bikes do need gas, after all."
He swung the bat as he spoke in a mocking tone.
"If you can't afford to ride, then don't." Li Xingkong could not be bothered with pleasantries. He had barely met any decent people since coming to the Prisoner Continent, and he had no friendly looks for these punks either.
"Hey, you won't bow your head until you see the king of hell, huh?" The thug with the baseball bat took a few steps forward until he was right in front of Li Xingkong, then raised the bat to strike him.
Although Li Xingkong had always been a well-behaved young man and had never fought before, his years of study had not been for nothing, and his physical condition spoke for itself. Rather than dodge away, he simply turned sideways, letting the baseball bat graze past him, then followed up with a punch straight to the thug's stomach.
After years of studying human anatomy, Li Xingkong knew exactly where a punch would be most effective, so he had aimed for the stomach.
A sudden, intense pain shot through the thug's abdomen, and he doubled over. Li Xingkong then shoved his face hard, sending it toward the two men on the other bike.
"Blargh!"
The blow made the thug's stomach churn, and he vomited on the spot, spraying the men opposite him. The two punks on the other bike did not even have time to park it properly before hurriedly abandoning it and jumping clear.
"You dare fight back? Beat him up!"
Two of the three who had dismounted were already swinging their fists at Li Xingkong, while the other had run to the back of a bike to fetch a weapon.
Li Xingkong stimulated his adrenaline secretion and sharpened his vision. For an instant, the fists flying at him seemed to move in slow motion.
When a person exerted force, interrupting the motion could cause them serious harm.
Li Xingkong targeted one of them and kicked him in the waist, knocking him down. He blocked the other man's punch with his arm, and before the thug could throw a second, Li Xingkong's fist slammed into him, knocking him to the ground, unable to move.
Li Xingkong's attacks were simple and effective, his fists and feet striking parts of the body that produced particular reactions. In an ordinary fight, eight out of ten punches landed on inconsequential spots, causing at most some soreness afterward. But a blow to certain vital spots could cause vomiting at best and unconsciousness at worst.
Having dealt with the two unarmed thugs who had attacked him, Li Xingkong found the one with the weapon already coming his way. The weapon had been on the bike, which was not far away, and by the time Li Xingkong had knocked down the unarmed attackers, the last thug had already charged up to him with it.
The thug held a long-handled axe, which looked exceptionally fierce. With a deadly weapon in hand, the urge to kill arose of itself.
Without hesitation, the thug raised the axe and brought it down at Li Xingkong in a vertical chop. Li Xingkong quickly rolled backward, avoiding the blow. The axe crashed into a paving tile and split it in two, showing just how powerful the strike was.
He had spent too long in the Divine Land and was not sufficiently mindful of his safety. Even when there were thugs on the streets of the Divine Land, they would at most spout a few threats; they did not come at someone ready to kill.
Li Xingkong had assumed the street punks would only use their fists, breaking a bone at worst. He had not expected this one to come straight at him with the intent to kill. An ordinary person might not have had time to react to such a sudden change in perspective.
At this point, holding back any further would have been irresponsible to himself.
As he rolled, Li Xingkong had already pulled out the handgun he had stolen from the woman at the hotel. Without taking aim, he fired a shot straight into the thug's leg.
Although it was a woman's gun, the power of its bullet was no joke. The shot sent a flower of blood bursting from the thug's leg.
Shot in the leg, the thug could no longer spare a thought for the axe in his hand. The tremendous pain made him let go of it and clutch his wounded leg with both hands.
When misfortune strikes, even a drink of water can get stuck in your teeth. The axe he had dropped landed directly on the top of his other foot, giving it a nasty blow as well.
On hearing the gunshot, the other thugs stopped lying around. They endured the pain, scrambled to their feet, and ran, terrified that Li Xingkong would give each of them a shot too.