Chapter 1005 — Underground Boxing Ring, Part One

Wei Zhao! Lei Zhenyu! If I, Xie Yufeng, don't kill the two of you, may I never be counted a man again!

"The poor bastard. Who knows how he managed to offend the mob, getting beaten up like that. I wonder if he's hurt badly?" one passerby sighed.

"Yeah, he's not going to die, is he? He should get to a hospital and have himself checked out before the beating leaves him with internal injuries!" another passerby chimed in.

"What are you looking at?" Xie Yufeng glared at the onlookers through gritted teeth, gave a cold humph, and stalked off at a brisk pace.

He had no face left to return to Wei Zhao's private room; the only place for him now was his own.

When Xie Yufeng walked in, he was met with a room full of puzzled stares. In this private room Xie Yufeng was the star — he was, after all, the host, and his classmates had all treated him as the center of attention. So when he came back with his face bruised and swollen, they were stunned into silence.

Li Panghu and Wang Congming hurried over, two steps at a time, and eyed him with some alarm. "Young Master Xie, what happened to you? Your face..."

"It's nothing. The road was slippery just now and I took a tumble," Xie Yufeng said with a wave of his hand, his tone sullen as he explained.

"Slippery road?" Li Panghu and Wang Congming knew perfectly well what Xie Yufeng was capable of. A top-notch expert at the peak of the early Mystic rank — how could a slippery road possibly bring him down in such a heap? But the situation was clear: Xie Yufeng plainly did not want to say more, so they had no choice but to let it drop.

Wei Zhao had only meant it as a passing remark. After returning to the private room, he did not go out again. He had merely been trying to frighten Xie Yufeng — if the fellow wanted to hide his strength, then he could just keep taking his beating.

Inside the private room, Shen Yushu and Feng Xiaoxiao were at it again, chattering away in some argument or other, and Wei Zhao could only smile wryly. These two were a perfect match, neither willing to yield to the other, forever trying to prove who was the better.

Their topic, though, wandered all over the map, drifting from their initial contest over Wei Zhao to the question of who was the more formidable.

"I once dealt with Zhong Yongliang, one of Sister Yaoyao's suitors, and made him run a whole kilometer to buy me grilled squid!" Shen Yushu declared.

"That's nothing. I once set someone up and made him treat me to a meal worth hundreds of millions!" Feng Xiaoxiao shot back, refusing to be outdone.

Seeing the two of them chatting so animatedly, Gu Mengyao did not interrupt. When she grew tired of singing, she handed the microphone to Tang Zhi. "Would you like to sing for a while?"

"Me... I'd better not," Tang Zhi said. She had never been to a place like this before, and she never sang at home either. She did listen to some pop songs, but only listened. If she were asked to sing, she was afraid she would only make a mess of it.

"Give it a try? Otherwise it'll be me singing all by myself..." Gu Mengyao glanced at Xiaoshu and shook her head, then lowered her voice to ask Tang Zhi, "This Feng Xiaoxiao... what on earth is going on with her?"

"Let Wei Zhao explain it to you tonight. It's not something to talk about here..." Tang Zhi was still cautious, afraid Feng Xiaoxiao might notice something amiss.

"I see... all right." Gu Mengyao nodded. Since Tang Zhi put it that way, there had to be something hidden behind it.

"Aren't you two tired?" Wei Zhao asked, looking at the high-spirited Shen Yushu and Feng Xiaoxiao. "You two get along so well — why not just form a duo? Who knows, you might even win a big prize."

"No way. I don't like people who are too much like me," Shen Yushu said with a shake of her head, refusing at once.

"One mountain can't hold two tigers. You think I like you?" Feng Xiaoxiao refused as well.

"Heh..." Wei Zhao chuckled. "So are you two going to sing or not? If not, we're going home to sleep!"

"Sing! Of course we're going to sing!" Hearing this, Shen Yushu jumped to her feet, then shot Feng Xiaoxiao a glance. "And now it's time for the Singing Shu performance..."

Beneath the night sky, Songshan City shimmered with neon and blazed with lights. Cars filled the lots outside every entertainment venue along the streets, and crowds surged to and fro in a clamor of prosperity. Yet amid this flourishing, joyous nightscape, there was one place steeped in blood and darkness!

"That's the way! Beat him to death! Purple Wolf for the win, go Purple Wolf!"

"Left hook, right hook, kick him in the head! Kill Purple Wolf! Black Bear for the win!"

This was the workshop of an abandoned factory, though after renovation it had become an underground prizefighting arena. Rings upon rings of spectators' seats surrounded the pit, packed with hordes of screaming young men. In the VIP seats up front, however, sat a number of composed, boss-like men, cigars clamped between their teeth, faint smiles at the corners of their mouths as they watched the blood-soaked spectacle in the ring...

"Boss Li, who'd you put your money on today?" a fat man with a cigar asked the middle-aged man in sunglasses beside him.

"Who else but Purple Wolf? He's won three in a row. I've got three million riding on him today!" the man called Boss Li said with a chuckle, though despite his words he hardly looked like a man who had three million to lose, as though the sum were mere pocket change.

"Heh, I put mine on Purple Wolf too, though not as much as you—only two million!" The fat man with the cigar laughed. "A little betting for fun, is all. If I lose, it's no more than a few bottles of fine wine."

"You said it. What we're here for is the thrill of it! This place is great—real adrenaline. Those fixed fights can't hold a candle to this. Here they really beat a man half to death!" The man in sunglasses nodded.

Down in the center of the pit, two men wearing full-head masks patterned in different colors were locked in close-quarters combat.

One wore a mask patterned with a purple wolf—clearly the Purple Wolf they spoke of—while the other wore a mask patterned with a black bear, the one these people called Black Bear!

Black Bear had already been battered bloody all over by the fierce Purple Wolf. With another heavy punch, Purple Wolf sent Black Bear flying, and he crashed down hard onto the platform.

"Whoa—!" The whole arena erupted in cheers, some elated, some dejected! Elated, naturally, were those who had bet and won; dejected, naturally, those who had bet and lost! Most, of course, had not bet at all, but came here to watch the fighting and get their thrills!

And even for those who came just for the thrill, two hundred yuan a ticket was not cheap. The factory's stands could hold tens of thousands. Apart from the first few days, when the seats weren't full, word spread from one to ten and ten to a hundred, more and more people were brought here, and every fight sold out—tickets were in such demand they couldn't keep up with supply!