Chapter 6: Razing the Establishment

Chapter 6: Smashing the Venue

The three main streets of Jie'e District formed a "two horizontal, one vertical" layout: Ghost Street ran vertical, while Guimin and Jiulong Streets ran horizontal.

After leaving the Crow Clinic, Li Jun sprinted along capillary-thin, dim alleyways for nearly half an hour before managing to infiltrate back into the Jiulong Street sector.

The name Jiulong Street originated from a significant "Cantonese Go North" trend during the reign of Emperor Longwu, Zhu Yuanping.

Wealthy merchants from Liangguang seized the opportunity while the New Donglin Party and the Eunuch Party tore into each other, heading north to pick a side.

Cantonese underworld syndicates, smelling money like hyenas, followed suit, invading the interior with force.

Many of these men hailed from the Kowloon Walled City on Hong Kong Island; thus, upon entering Chengdu Prefecture, they renamed their claimed territory Jiulong Street.

As the court situation clarified and the New Donglin Party solidified its rule, the vast forces that had backed the wrong horse were liquidated.

The Cantonese gangs' territory was seized in one fell swoop by the Paoge Society; they were driven back to the coast, leaving only the name Jiulong Street behind.

Consequently, Jiulong Street possessed a unique style in Chengdu Prefecture; everywhere one looked, signboards written in traditional Chinese characters hung.

Cantonese teahouses, dog meat hotpots, all-night inns, bustling dance halls...

Red lanterns hung in dense rows beneath the signboards, the continuous crimson reflecting the neon glare of the dome above; the whole street resembled a crimson dragon coiled upon the ground.

But these were merely the legitimate businesses on display.

The real money on Jiulong Street lay hidden beneath these signs: casinos, brothels, underground fight pits, and illegal Yellow Millet Dream Parlors.

Li Jun's steps halted before a nightclub; this establishment was the most profitable venue under Zhao Dou's name.

Of course, the profit here came not from selling liquor or synthetic courtesans, but from fight betting.

This was the most famous underground fight arena in all of Jie'e District: the Jiulong Fight Stage!

Perhaps because the entire street was Paoge Society turf, the door guards simply didn't believe anyone would dare cause trouble at the Crown Prince's venue.

So the entry check was cursory; Li Jun entered the nightclub without the slightest difficulty.

The moment he stepped inside, the pounding drums that pumped the blood and the piercing guzheng notes that split gold and cracked stone crashed over him; the dance floor teemed with men and women driven to a frenzy of excitement.

Li Jun had been here before, so he navigated the crowd with practiced ease, head lowered, heading straight for the depths of the club.

There, a hidden door waited; behind it lay the Jiulong Fight Stage, known as the "Blood Gold Platform."

The deeper he went, the more Paoge brothers with Yazi tattoos on their necks appeared; one of them rose to block Li Jun's path.

"Hey, the dancing's up front. No loiterers allowed in the back."

The Paoge brother took Li Jun for a drunk who'd lost his way, about to shoo him off, but then he suddenly caught sight of the cyan claws and teeth revealed at Li Jun's collar; his raised hand froze in mid-air.

Li Jun lifted his head and smiled. "Do I count as a loiterer?"

The blocker's pupils shrank violently the instant he recognized Li Jun's face; his gaze immediately darted away, and he bowed his head respectfully. "Brother Jun... how... how did you come here?"

Li Jun scanned the surrounding Paoge brothers, who looked like they faced a great enemy, and said to the man before him, "What, I can't come to Zhao Dou's place?"

The man was visibly panicked; his mouth kept saying "no," but his fingers, pressed against his trouser leg, twitched slightly.

"Enough. Cut the small moves. Go tell Sun Jiu that Li Jun is here to smash his venue."

With those words dropped, Li Jun shoved the man aside and kicked the hidden door open.

Beyond lay a vast space, the size of a basketball court, with over a thousand tiered seats rising and falling around a central fighting platform raised a meter off the ground.

At this moment, the match on the platform had just concluded.

A burly fighter had his belly ripped open by a blade; blood gushed forth like a waterfall.

Great steaming heaps of viscera spilled onto the stage, and the already murky air instantly acquired another layer of reeking, bloody stench.

"What 'Five Tigers Gate-Breaking Saber'? He got gutted that easy? Cost me three hundred Great Ming Treasure Notes, damn it!"

"Right, I told you that turtle son of a bitch was a fake through and through."

The gamblers who had lost stared with bloodshot eyes at the corpse on the stage, itching to rush up and tear off a couple of chunks of flesh.

Just as the crowd was rubbing their hands ready to bet on the second bout, the electronic screens displaying fighter info suddenly flashed the words "HALT."

Before the gamblers could react, over a dozen Hunshui Paoge brothers began clearing the floor.

Before long, the entire fight pit stood empty and hollow, save for the still-crimson blood on the stage bearing witness to the previous frenzy.

Li Jun sat in the stands, arms spread across the backrests, looking down with a haughty gaze at a Hunshui Paoge brother wearing a sleeveless armor jacket.

This man was Zhao Dou's confidant, Sun Jiu. He specifically guarded this cornucopia, the Jiulong Fight Stage.

"Didn't expect you'd make it back to Jiulong Street. Tough life you got."

Facing Li Jun, who held the post of Red Flag Fifth Brother, Sun Jiu didn't even salute, just stood there with brazen arrogance.

A layer of metal coated his thick neck, making it look as if his head were mounted on a steel block.

Confronted with such overbearing insolence, Li Jun didn't fly into a rage; instead, a smile curved his lips.

This proved Sun Jiu surely knew what Zhao Dou had done; if he could pry open Sun Jiu's mouth, he'd have the evidence of Zhao Dou's betrayal and fratricide.

Exposing the truth—that was the purpose of Li Jun's return to Jiulong Street to challenge Zhao Dou's venue.

Only this way could Li Jun seize the moral high ground, the word "Righteousness."

As long as Zhao Ding, the Paoge Society's Grand Leader, didn't want the Society to disintegrate, he would have to adjudicate fairly.

"Whether my life is tough or not, Sun Jiu, you aren't qualified to judge. I just want to ask: following Zhao Dou in his treachery, aren't you afraid of the Three Knives Six Holes?"

The moment Li Jun's voice fell, the sound of sharp intakes of breath filled the fight pit; the surrounding Paoge brothers looked at Sun Jiu in shock.

In the Paoge Society, where "Righteousness Comes First," "Three Knives Six Holes" was the punishment for traitors.

No one wanted to bear that infamy.

Sun Jiu might be a muscle-brained enforcer, but he knew better than to play along with Li Jun's line of questioning now.

"Li Jun, you may hold the post of Red Flag Fifth Brother, but you can't just slander people with empty words, right? Brother Dou is our future Grand Leader; how could he possibly betray his brothers?"

Sun Jiu's knuckles cracked as he clenched his fists, a ferocious grin on his face. "I heard you led men into Guimin Street to deal with those Wokou from the Jidao Society, and got caught red-handed by the Tianfu Guards."

"The Grand Leader once decreed the Paoge Society and the Wokou are mortal enemies. You doing this... aren't *you* the one who deserves the Three Knives Six Holes?"

"Rebellion really does unlock potential, huh? You, an idiot, actually spouting so much high-sounding rhetoric."

Li Jun raised a hand to brush his brow ridge, his eyes cold as blades, and slowly stood up.

"Time is short, so I'll skip the trash talk. Once I rip the chip from your head, we'll all see who's the cat and who's the mouse."

"I've disliked you for ages. Paoge Society's toughest Red Flag Fifth Brother? What a joke! My chip's right here, come and pull it if you can!"

Sun Jiu slapped his own head, spat a glob of thick phlegm, and roared savagely: "Kill him!"