Although this was still part of the city, the surrounding houses were old and dilapidated from years of neglect. The windows on many floors had been altered beyond recognition, and chimneys had been installed in some of the taller buildings. Smoke was pouring out of them; it looked like people were cooking at home.
The streets were just as chaotic, with piles of trash everywhere. The walls on both sides were a riot of colors.
Li Xingkong walked along the street for a while and came to the so-called slums. Tree-lined Street was already rundown enough, but the buildings in the slums had reached a whole new level of dilapidation. If he hadn't seen people still living there, Li Xingkong would have genuinely doubted whether anyone could even walk through them. From the outside, the buildings looked ready to collapse; it seemed a puff of breath could blow them over.
Li Xingkong's arrival also alerted the people inside the building. Before long, several young men dressed in rags came out and surrounded him.
"I'm looking for Ellie. I came from the Beautiful Lady."
Li Xingkong spoke to the young men in front of him, following the contact instructions the woman had given him. Then he saw their expressions change. They had only surrounded him before, but now they were rubbing their fists and getting ready to fight.
"So it's you people! This is the Bonfire Gang's turf. What are people from the Beautiful Lady doing here? Get lost!"
"Fuck." Seeing that things were going wrong, Li Xingkong prepared to fight as well. It looked like these people had mistaken him for someone from the club.
"I'm not from the club. I just need to see Ellie about something."
Li Xingkong spoke while keeping his guard up.
"You're here to make trouble for our boss? Get him!"
The group looked fierce, and their actions really were pretty brainless. As soon as they heard Li Xingkong was looking for someone, they attacked without another word.
Li Xingkong wasn't the kind of person to take a beating without fighting back. The moment they closed in on him, he struck first.
With his current strength, dealing with a few thugs was easy enough. Still, on the chance that they had guns, Li Xingkong kept himself on full alert.
A man swung a club straight at him. Li Xingkong punched the club, and the tremendous force sent it flying from the man's hand. The man himself was lifted off his feet and carried into a backflip before crashing to the ground two or three meters away.
Li Xingkong had no time to waste fighting this bunch of thugs. Following up on his punch, he swept a spinning kick around him, kicking away all the thugs closing in. The worst-hit were sent flying five or six meters, while even the luckier ones couldn't hold on to their weapons.
He had controlled his strength and hadn't killed or seriously injured anyone. With his current strength, a kick could leave a crater in the paving stones.
Having kicked the ring of thugs away, Li Xingkong prepared to go in and find Ellie himself. Just then, an extremely dangerous premonition rose in his heart. He immediately threw himself backward, bending his entire body flat like something out of The Matrix.
A bang rang out, and a bullet flew through the spot where he had been standing.
As Li Xingkong fell backward, his hand touched the ground. He immediately pushed off with one hand, propelling himself to the side and darting behind a wall.
He had been right to be careful. The guns here really were dangerous.
"Damn it, come out! You had the nerve to come looking for me, so why won't you face me?"
A woman's voice, tinged with madness, came from inside. It trembled slightly and was full of menace.
"Come out, damn it! I've already worked at that hellhole, the Beautiful Lady, for two years. I don't owe you people anything anymore. Leave me alone!"
She pointed her gun at the spot where Li Xingkong had just been, her whole body on edge. From her words, Li Xingkong could also hear the unmistakable madness in her voice.
Li Xingkong looked around. He had to think of something; there was no point in just hiding here.
The cluttered surroundings gave Li Xingkong a bit of an advantage. After looking around for a while, he picked up a stone from the ground.
The woman's mad voice continued to curse loudly from behind the wall, while several thugs on the ground were still struggling and rolling about. Li Xingkong hefted the stone in his hand, aimed at the opposite wall not far away, and threw it with a little force.
The stone struck a trash can beside the wall with a loud crash. It caught the woman's attention, and she pointed her gun toward the sound.
Taking advantage of the moment, Li Xingkong pushed off with one hand. As though he weighed nothing, he easily propelled himself onto the top of the wall.
He glanced over and saw that the woman was still distracted by the noise, her back turned toward him. Li Xingkong adjusted his posture so he could put more force into his next move, then pushed off hard with his feet and leaped through the air at her.
Hearing the rush of air behind her, the woman turned and raised her gun, but it was already too late. Before she could lift it to her chest, Li Xingkong seized her in a grapple and tackled her to the ground.
After pinning the woman down, Li Xingkong's first reaction was to take her gun and toss it aside. Only then did he look her over.
Her clothes and gear weren't as ragged as those of the thugs outside, but they weren't anything good either. Judging by her exposed skin, she was also someone who did heavy manual labor.
"Are you crazy? I just came to see Ellie about something!"
The woman pinned to the ground twisted wildly, but it was no use against Li Xingkong's grip. Finally, after several attempts, she stopped struggling, because she realized that Li Xingkong hadn't done anything else to her beyond holding her down.
If he really were an enemy, he would have attacked her long ago instead of just pinning her down like this.
Seeing that she had stopped struggling, Li Xingkong loosened his grip on her a little.
The woman lay half-reclined on the ground and didn't sit up right away. She merely lifted her head toward Li Xingkong's face and glared fiercely into his eyes, as if she wanted to eat him alive.
"I'm Ellie, you pervert, you devil! Since you've already found me, why waste your breath?"
Li Xingkong was a little bewildered. He crouched down, brought his face close to the woman's, and spoke to her earnestly.
"I don't know if you've got something wrong. We do have a bit of a grudge, but I wouldn't go so far as to kill someone over a little thing like that."
The woman's rapid breathing slowed considerably. She looked at Li Xingkong, seeming to search her memory for where she had seen him before. Unfortunately, too much had happened over the past year, and she could no longer remember.
"More than a year ago, you worked at the front desk of a hotel in Nature City."
Li Xingkong stood up and spoke slowly, watching the woman's movements.
"That's right, but don't mention that damned hotel to me! I did so much for them, and just because I failed once, they kicked me straight to the curb!"
Ellie reacted strongly when she heard Li Xingkong mention the hotel. She muttered a few complaints, then seemed less panicked.
"What? Did I honey-trap you? Have you come to settle the score?"
She wasn't nearly as frantic now. Although the man in front of her had also come to make trouble for her, as long as he wasn't from the hotel, everything could be talked over. After all, not everyone was as unscrupulous as that bunch of lunatics. She straightened her clothes and slowly got to her feet.
"So you've come to settle the score? Fine. If you don't mind, the two of us can finish what we started that night, right now."
There was no feeling in her voice as she said it; instead, she sounded as though she were talking about something utterly ordinary. Li Xingkong stared into her eyes. There wasn't a trace of guilt or the slightest hint of emotion in them.
"Here? That works too." As Ellie spoke, she began to unfasten her clothes.
Li Xingkong reached out and stopped her.
"You're right. You did indeed scam me at the hotel."
On his way here, Li Xingkong had still been thinking about how he should get revenge on her. But seeing her now, the urge for revenge in his heart had faded considerably.
Look at the sorry state she was in. There was nothing left of how she'd been last year. Whatever could change a person so much, she probably hadn't been living a good life.
"If you don't want it, forget it. Then what did you come looking for me for? To see how miserable I am now? To laugh at me? Or to take some money from me?"
Ellie didn't straighten her clothes again. Instead, she pulled out a cigarette.
"I don't have any money."
She really did look ready to refuse to pay him back, but Li Xingkong found that there really wasn't anything he could take from her.
She had nothing left. What else could she lose?
Li Xingkong watched her for a while. There wasn't a spark of life in her despondent appearance. She was like a corpse with only a little warmth left in it.
He wanted revenge, but Li Xingkong really couldn't think of anything she still had to compensate him with.
Look at the state she was in. She didn't even have a decent place to live, and her clothes gave off the stale smell of someone who hadn't washed in years, like the dusty odor of an old room left unattended for years.
"How about this?"
Li Xingkong hefted the gun he had just taken from Ellie. Seeing what he was doing, Ellie couldn't help looking a little panicked.
"Since you have nothing, I won't ask you to compensate me for anything."
Li Xingkong gripped the handgun and pointed it at Ellie.
"This gun is yours, and I don't know how many bullets are in it. Let's bet on whether the next shot fires."
He slowly raised the handgun and pressed it against Ellie's head.
Although she said she had nothing and acted as though she wasn't afraid of death, no one could face a moment like this without fear.
Ellie naturally knew very well whether there were bullets in her own gun. If he pulled the trigger, she would have absolutely no hope of surviving.
But faced with Li Xingkong's skills, whatever she did would be futile. She could only close her eyes slowly.
Her face was streaked and smeared, tears mingling with grime as they dripped onto the ground.
"Click."
The trigger fell, and the sound of the firing pin striking was exceptionally crisp.
Ellie thought she was about to die and fell stiffly to the ground.
After a long time, she opened her eyes. Li Xingkong was still holding the gun, pointing it at her.
"Looks like you're lucky."
Ellie slowly slumped onto the ground. She could no longer make out what Li Xingkong was saying.