He had successfully begun Qi Refining, so he had accomplished what he came to Prisoner Continent to do. Li Xingkong was already making plans to go home.
Life on Prisoner Continent wasn't bad, but it was still far more chaotic than the Divine Land. Although he had lived here for over a year and gained something of a foothold, what Li Xingkong needed most for his future cultivation was a peaceful place.
Besides, his family and friends were all in the Divine Land. Cultivation would give him an increasingly long life, but his family and friends would have a hard time keeping pace with him. If he went back sooner, he could spend more time with them.
Of course, what weighed more heavily on Li Xingkong was that the food on Prisoner Continent tasted awful! After a year of cooking for himself, he could still only manage ordinary home cooking. He had long wanted to go back and treat himself to a proper feast.
Having decided to return, Li Xingkong didn't hesitate. He listed his farm online and waited for the right buyer to come along. Meanwhile, he began packing his belongings to mail to his home in the Divine Land.
Of course, Li Xingkong hadn't neglected his cultivation over the past few days. He had begun constructing the meridians in both hands. At the same time, he had begun using Spiritual Qi to forge his bones and cleanse his marrow, with his qi sea as the core.
Starting from the location of his qi sea, he slowly spread the process to the surrounding structures of his body. Since he had only one particle of Spiritual Qi, his progress in forging his bones and cleansing his marrow couldn't be very fast.
At the current stage, the so-called marrow cleansing mainly involved using the theoretical knowledge he had learned earlier, together with the effects of Spiritual Qi, to adjust the fundamental structure of his bones and increase their overall strength and density.
He estimated that once the initial transformation was complete, his bones would already be strong enough to look down on high-strength carbon alloys. Most importantly, they would still be biological tissue. In other words, at his core, he would still be human after the transformation, not a cyborg or a robot.
His cultivation over these days had changed Li Xingkong so much that he was different with each passing day. The first and most obvious change was that he could clearly feel his waist had hardened. Muscles had begun to take shape around his waist and abdomen, and the flesh there had become completely different from that of the rest of his body.
The flesh in that area was much tougher. Li Xingkong had even tested it with a kitchen cleaver, and even when he swung with all his strength, it was hard to injure the flesh that had finished being tempered by Spiritual Qi. He even felt that once his entire body had been tempered, he would be able to ignore small-caliber bullets altogether.
At the same time, the waist was the source of the body's power. With a stronger waist, Li Xingkong could put more force behind his punches. Now, when he punched or kicked, his only concern was whether he might use so much force that he broke his own arms.
As for his punching speed, he could strike fast enough with both fists to leave afterimages. At this point, Li Xingkong felt he could even imitate Sun Wukong's Eight Arms Fist from Dragon Ball.
After about two weeks, Li Xingkong's farm finally sold. The buyer was also from the Divine Land. These days, wherever one went in the world, there seemed to be crowds of people from the Divine Land, so Li Xingkong was no longer surprised.
But before leaving Prisoner Continent, Li Xingkong remembered that there were still a few things he hadn't done.
As a man of letters, Li Xingkong wholeheartedly agreed with the saying that ten years was not too late for a gentleman to take revenge. Although his own conduct hardly made him a gentleman, he was very much in favor of the idea that ten years was not too late.
He had suffered plenty of losses since coming to Prisoner Continent. Now that he was about to leave, what was he waiting for if not to settle them one by one?
The first person Li Xingkong planned to get back at was the one closest at hand: the hotel clerk who had received him when he first arrived on Prisoner Continent. Back then, he had nearly been caught in a honey trap. Fortunately, he had already suffered a few losses and had only just managed to dodge it. Now, of course, it was time to get even.
A long time had passed. When Li Xingkong returned to the hotel, the person at the front desk had long since changed. The beauty who had caused him trouble was gone, and another young, beautiful woman stood at the desk.
Li Xingkong had naturally come disguised as a customer. He carried a bag of luggage, wore a gray trench coat and a wide-brimmed hat, and had on a pair of black sunglasses. He looked like a traveler who had just arrived on Prisoner Continent.
He walked up to the front desk and handed over his ID card.
"A single room, please."
The young woman at the desk was efficient. She took his ID card and got straight to work.
"How long have you worked here?"
While waiting for her to check him in, Li Xingkong struck up a conversation.
"Not that long, about a year or so."
The young woman also enjoyed chatting with people. After all, Li Xingkong looked like a stylish man, and she was happy to talk to him.
Li Xingkong did the math. So the person he wanted revenge on had already left the hotel a year ago.
"This place looks like it's been open a long time. How many clerks were here before you?"
Li Xingkong wanted to know where the woman had gone, so he asked a few more questions.
"Why are you asking? Do you know Ellie?"
The young woman at the desk was clearly a little wary of the subject. From the way she spoke, her whole body had begun to tense up.
"Who's this Ellie you mentioned? A former clerk?"
Li Xingkong really didn't know the name, though he had a pretty good idea that it belonged to the clerk from before.
"Do you really not know her?" The new clerk breathed a sigh of relief. "I don't know much about the clerks before me. Ellie's the only one I know of. She was here when I started."
Li Xingkong looked around. She was the only one working.
"So you were better at the job and took her place?"
The clerk got a little angry at that. "What do you mean, I took her place? She quit on her own." Her tone grew a little agitated. "The last time I saw her, she seemed to have gotten involved with some gangsters. She went out with a few men that night and quit the next day."
"Oh? Prisoner Continent is so dangerous. Couldn't the gangsters have kidnapped her?"
Li Xingkong went on, "I felt Prisoner Continent's warm welcome as soon as I got off the plane."
"Heh, that's an old Prisoner Continent tradition." The clerk smiled when she heard about Li Xingkong's experience. "But she came in to quit in person. I never saw her again after that. I heard she went to some strip club. Pfft, whores are still the ones making money these days."
Li Xingkong breathed a sigh of relief after learning where Ellie had gone. Luckily, he still had a chance to take revenge instead of taking a piss on her grave.
Once he had checked in, Li Xingkong went upstairs and tossed his luggage into his room. He waited until evening drew near before coming out of his room, ready to leave.
He had just asked where the strip club was. The next step was to find it and take revenge. It was that simple.
Outside, he flagged down a taxi and quickly got in.
"Beautiful Lady, please."
"Well, well, another gentleman who can't bear to be lonely. Make yourself comfortable."
The driver whistled, and the car roared to life.
"Judging by your appearance, have you just arrived on Prisoner Continent?" the driver asked, chatting with Li Xingkong as he drove.
"Yes, I'm here for a few days of sightseeing." Li Xingkong played the part well. He clearly remembered what he had been like when he first arrived, and all he had to do now was recall it to perfectly portray an outsider who had just set foot on Prisoner Continent.