Other people might not know Morgan's whereabouts, but one person definitely did.
His butler.
As the saying went, the monk might run away, but the temple couldn't. Li Xingkong might not be able to find the man himself, but with Morgan's extensive holdings in the city, his very real home couldn't run away.
Li Xingkong traveled light. To prevent another drone attack, he switched off his phone and removed every electronic device on him.
Following the city's streets and slipping past its buildings, he soon found his way to Luke Morgan's home.
The place was easy to find. He was the richest man in the city, after all, so naturally his home was in the most luxurious district.
It was as lavish as a palace.
A dozen or so people were coming and going around the perimeter alone.
Li Xingkong wasn't in the mood for a patient infiltration now.
He found a section of wall close to the building and climbed it on all fours. Leaping from the top, he landed on the balcony on the house's top floor.
He pushed open a window and slipped straight inside.
It looked like a collection room, though the things inside were rather unusual.
There were all kinds of stuffed animals: bears, deer, tigers, leopards, and fierce beasts Li Xingkong couldn't name. The taxidermy was exquisite, and they still looked lifelike.
Besides the specimens, however, there were some other peculiar things.
There was a bloodstained dagger, a shotgun broken in half, and even several pistols. These collectibles were all carefully preserved in glass cases.
There were no descriptions around them, though, so Li Xingkong had no idea what made them worth collecting.
The room was spotless. Someone definitely tended to it regularly.
Li Xingkong walked to the door. Before long, footsteps sounded outside.
Judging by the sound, he waited until the person was about to pass, then yanked him inside and restrained him.
"I ask, you answer."
Li Xingkong smiled when he saw whom he'd dragged in.
He'd found him without the slightest effort. Who else could it be but the butler?
"I know you."
Even restrained by Li Xingkong, the old butler remained calm, as though someone else were in Li Xingkong's grip.
"That makes things easier. Tell me, where is Luke Morgan?"
"Don't you know? Master already told you the location, didn't he?"
That was an interesting answer. If the old butler was telling the truth, was the guy really in the prison?
Li Xingkong restricted his movements and brought him to his feet.
"How could someone like him possibly tell the truth?"
Naturally, he didn't believe that answer.
"Although master is admittedly somewhat cunning in everyday matters, he never lies to his prey when he hunts."
Though the old butler couldn't move, he still adopted a rather gentlemanly stance.
"As it happens, this is master's collection room. Allow me to show you around."
"The first dagger on the left in the case belonged to the first formidable opponent master encountered while he was still running with the Bloody Hand Gang. The blood on the dagger came from master's chest. He nearly died then, but heaven favored mankind, and it was the other man who died."
"The second gun belonged to the Bloody Hand Gang's former boss. To commemorate taking down that prey, master put it up here as well..."
After pointing out and explaining each item in the collection, the old butler pointed to the empty space at the end.
"This is reserved for you. Master is already waiting for you there."
Li Xingkong looked where he pointed. The space had clearly been cleared only recently.
What kind of strange quirk is that? I don't get it.
Still, according to the butler, Luke Morgan really was waiting for him at the prison.
Can I believe this guy? Li Xingkong studied him a few more times.
He used every technique the system had taught him when he was earning his first pot of gold, but he couldn't detect the slightest sign that the man was lying.
Whenever a person lied, there were all sorts of subtle signs, whether in their body language or their manner of speaking. Li Xingkong had learned how to make those judgments while earning his first pot of gold, but until now, he hadn't applied that knowledge to everyday life.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have been cheated several times as soon as he arrived on Prisoner Continent.
The proper way to develop a skill was to move from theory to application, then incorporate it into real life.
If he treated an ability as nothing more than a skill and only thought to use it when the need arose, he would never become particularly proficient in it.
It was half an hour later by the time he left Luke Morgan's home.
Li Xingkong hadn't taken the old butler's life. Now that he had confirmed Luke Morgan's whereabouts, taking him down came first.
If what happened at the house caused Morgan to change locations, he would have to go to a lot of trouble all over again.
Li Xingkong first took some time to restore himself.
At full strength, he would be in a different state from the one he was in now.
All was deathly quiet around him. Li Xingkong adjusted his breathing several times, and his mind gradually calmed. He began circulating his energy and regulating his breathing, guiding the flow of mana within him. As time passed, his mana gathered like trickling streams, gradually returning to a full and abundant state.
He opened his eyes and felt a powerful force surging within him. His fatigue had been swept away.
He was back to full health. In that respect, he was already completely different from an ordinary person. Ordinary people needed a long time to rest, but with the help of his breathing exercises, his recovery period was extremely short.
Li Xingkong took a deep breath. Freedom City's prison, was it? He wanted to see what kind of sights awaited a prisoner among prisoners.
But before he went, he had one last thing to do.
He needed to prepare some special-purpose projectiles.
He had to admit that learning about military special-purpose projectiles had given him considerable inspiration. The functions and effects of different projectiles could often work wonders on all sorts of missions.
What he was preparing this time would enhance his means of defense.
The ammunition was simple: small vials of water.
He hadn't decided what to carry it in, but the clinic had a ready-made solution: sample tubes.
Small, convenient, and able to hold enough.
He prepared a whole bag stuffed full of them and hung an entire ammunition belt on himself.
There was actually no need to go to so much trouble. As long as there was water or another liquid he could touch wherever he was, it could serve as a projectile. But it was always good to have extra.
Before long, Li Xingkong took the dozens of tubes he had prepared and headed straight for the prison.
Freedom City's prison stood outside the city, a standalone castle-style structure in a highly defensible location. It stood alone, encircling an entire abrupt little hill, with sheer cliffs on every side and towering walls to boot. The place was a natural stronghold.
Once he had driven close enough to see the prison in the distance, Li Xingkong continued on foot. There was no help for it: a car made too much noise, and he didn't believe the other side would let him walk in so peacefully.
The prison was surrounded by plains, with barely even any weeds. The ground had clearly been cleared, giving the prison walls an exceptionally broad field of vision.
It would be extremely difficult to evade the watchers inside.
So rather than trying to sneak in, he might as well force his way through.
More importantly, Li Xingkong had already noticed signs that the earth had been disturbed. Mines were very likely buried underground, so driving over them would have meant bad luck.
It was different with Li Xingkong on his own. His movement technique was already extremely fast, and with his footwork, even stepping on a landmine wouldn't set it off. When he ran, he was as light as a feather.
Li Xingkong didn't hold back. He charged toward the prison wall at top speed, his figure seeming to turn into a single line, running so fast he almost left afterimages.
The prison had also suspended its normal operations, and the situation inside was now extremely tense.
Automated machine-gun turrets ringed the perimeter, while a considerable number of drones carrying heavy firepower patrolled overhead.
By the time Li Xingkong charged to within fifty meters, the prison's defenses had begun to deploy.
The drone formation attacked first once again.
A squadron of drones charged at Li Xingkong on a collision course, while many more drones carrying heavy weapons gathered behind them and took aim.
Li Xingkong didn't wait for them to assemble. At a time like this, waiting was out of the question.
He swept one hand forward and fired his first Shotgun Spell.
This shot used ordinary ammunition: sand he had scooped up from the ground.
For the drones circling at low altitude and the formation charging at him, Li Xingkong's current attack range was more than sufficient.
A cloud of dust swept past like mist, and the charging drones were blasted apart, scattering across the ground. The drones were disabled, and the bombs they carried could no longer be triggered.
As for the heavy firepower threatening him from the air, Li Xingkong had a way to deal with that too.
He hadn't come empty-handed this time.
Approaching the nearly ninety-degree cliff face, Li Xingkong leaped and pushed off the wall, launching himself more than ten meters into the air in a single bound.
Another Shotgun Spell followed immediately, this one clearly aimed at the firepower in the sky.
At the same time, the heavy-firepower drones coming straight at him opened up with a violent barrage, their weapons forming a crisscrossing net of fire.
Li Xingkong was right at the center of that net.
Without hesitation, he immediately followed up with his first special Shotgun Spell.
He crushed a tube in his hand. This time, the projectile for his Shotgun Spell was a ball of pure water.
The Shotgun Spell spread out, opening a thin shield of water around Li Xingkong.
The water shield rippled outward, forming a transparent barrier. It was completely different from ordinary shotgun pellets: rather than separate particles, it was like a solid shield.
The surface of the water shield was as smooth as a mirror, clearly reflecting even the surrounding scenery. As it spread, it blocked the barrage sweeping toward Li Xingkong.
Even if some bullets penetrated the curtain of water, they no longer had enough force left to threaten him.
This was the protective method Li Xingkong had come up with-a disposable water shield technique.
This defensive method worked exceptionally well against dense, wide-area attacks.
A single water shield technique had wiped out a considerable barrage of bullets.
That wasn't all it could do. When it struck the drones, it could also deal sufficient damage to their electronics. At the very least, those few drones were no longer flying as steadily.
In less than ten seconds, Li Xingkong had climbed to the top of the wall.
He had already torn the outer drone group to pieces.
Now that he had the high ground, Li Xingkong quickly looked into the prison, searching for a good place to land.
Standing on high ground was no advantage. For him, it undoubtedly exposed him to numerous firing positions. Even so, this was the best way in, because he was fast enough.
Before the defenses could bare their fangs, Li Xingkong could make his move.
If he went through the main gate, he would have to spend quite some time fighting his way through that entrance alone.