Chapter 5

Volume 1 Chapter 5: The Kowloon Walled City Stage

As the speaker stepped into the venue, the crowd on both sides parted like the tide.

He was a young man in his twenties, wearing a leather jacket, tall and slim, with a somewhat baby face—so delicate he looked like he was still a student.

Hua Shanjiu leaned back in his seat and said carelessly: “Red Ghost, you scared me. What’s this? Has Old Ghost Wu torn all ties with us, and now even Wo Hop Sing people can’t come watch fights in Kowloon without being chased off so high-handedly?”

The young man called Red Ghost walked to Hua Shanjiu’s side and sat down next to him, lit a cigarette, and said indistinctly: “The grudge between Wo Hop Sing and Mr. Wu has nothing to do with us folks who make our living off the boxing stage. We follow Taishui, after all. But you treating my boxing stage like a chicken coop—climbing up whenever you want, jumping down whenever you want—isn’t that breaking our rules? Does that mean from now on anyone who comes to watch a fight can just hop on stage? Then how are we supposed to collect the slips and take bets, you tell me?”

Hua Shanjiu snorted. He pointed at Li Yan on the stage.

“I’ll be straight with you—my Little Zhou has been wanting to test hands with a Baguazhang master for a long time. You’ve heard about it, more or less. It’s not that I, Hua Shanjiu, want to stir up trouble. I’m afraid that once I leave here, your people won’t even agree to meet me. When all’s said and done, Old Ghost Wu and Taishui both serve on the Kowloon committee—they can’t avoid seeing each other. You don’t want to get your hands dirty with me, I understand that completely. To put it plainly, I don’t want to break Kowloon’s rules. I just want my man to fight one of your fighters. If you won’t even agree to that much, then let’s lay our cards on the table.”

Red Ghost crossed his hands and slowly shook his head.

“Rules are rules. I can’t be bothered with anything else, but today, your man going on stage is causing trouble in Kowloon.”

Hua Shanjiu laughed in fury: “Fine, then there’s nothing to discuss—”

“Ninth Brother!” Little Zhou jumped down from the platform and called out to Hua Shanjiu. Then he turned to Red Ghost and said:

“You just said I’m not a Kowloon stable hand. Does that mean as long as I follow the rules and fight on the boxing stage, I can test hands with him?”

Red Ghost lowered his eyelids.

“Then you’d have to start from the first stage. If the committee determines your records are comparable, and someone’s willing to put down a heavy bet, then of course there’s no problem.”

“Good. Then I’ll fight my way up from the bottom of the Kowloon stage.”

Red Ghost nodded, his indifferent face turning to Hua Shanjiu.

“What does Ninth Brother say?”

Hua Shanjiu’s face was frighteningly dark. He said nothing.

Little Zhou walked to Hua Shanjiu’s side, his throat working. “Ninth Brother.”

Hua Shanjiu shot him a sideways glance: “What boss doesn’t care about his own stable hand?”

Little Zhou smiled a little awkwardly.

“Ninth Brother, I can handle this myself.”

Hua Shanjiu muttered something—probably cursing.

“Let’s go.”

Hua Shanjiu stood up from his seat, and with a clatter forty or fifty men rose to their feet and headed outside. A few of the young gangsters even shot provocative looks at Red Ghost, who sat steady as a rock, pretending not to see.

Before leaving, Little Zhou walked up to Li Yan.

“Master Li, there aren’t many traditional martial artists on the Kowloon Walled City stage. Today wasn’t satisfying. Once I’ve established a foothold on the Kowloon stage, let’s have a proper fight.”

Li Yan nodded and said:

“Say, Master Zhou, does that fifty thousand your Ninth Brother mentioned still count?”

Little Zhou was stunned for a moment, then after a good while nodded with a strange expression.

“It counts…”

…

“You have obtained five Yanfu points. You have opened additional purchase authority in this Yanfu event (0/1).”

“Your purchase quota is as follows:

A Fleeting Glimpse
Category: Skill Scroll
Quality: Common
Allows you to obtain others’ personal information, with a certain chance of identifying their weakness.
You may use this skill directly. Each use to obtain another’s information costs one Yanfu point. You may also choose to spend ten Yanfu points to purchase this skill. After purchase, you may use this skill freely.

ES Hematopoietic Cell Enhancer
Category: Consumable
Quality: Fine
Origin: Big Ben Research Institute
Has an extremely strong therapeutic effect on physical and mechanistic damage caused by blood and hematopoietic cell lesions. It can also enhance the user’s blood vitality. Ordinary people who use it have a very small chance of comprehending the skill: Blood Activation.
Mo’s message: Although it can’t cure your illness at the root, it’ll at least keep you from dragging a sick, injured body onto the boxing stage.
You may spend ten Yanfu points to obtain it.

ES Hematopoietic Cell Completion Agent
Category: Consumable
Quality: Rare!
Origin: Big Ben Research Institute
Has an extremely powerful therapeutic effect on blood and cellular lesions, and can also enhance the user’s blood vitality. Those with normal bodily functions who take it will comprehend the skill: Blood Activation.
You may spend three hundred Yanfu points to obtain it.
Please note: The additional purchase authority gifted to you by Mo can be opened once per Yanfu event. After three Yanfu events, the gift disappears.
Mo’s message: Newcomer, I think I’ve been pretty generous.
After reading through this information, Li Yan suddenly felt as if a window had opened.

ES Hematopoietic Cell Completion Agent!

This was the thing that fat man had promised—the thing that could cure his illness.

And all he needed to do was earn enough Yanfu points!

Only now did Li Yan seriously consider what “confirming ownership” actually meant. After all, this determined his method of acquiring money—and in this world, there were far too many ways to make quick cash.

Li Yan sat in a corner, pretending to be lost in thought while making calculations in his head. A figure walked up beside him and looked down at him.

It was Red Ghost.

“Your name is Li Yan, right? How long have you been in Hong Kong?”

Li Yan looked up and pretended to rub his eyes.

“Just recently.”

The young man called Red Ghost crouched down.

“From now on you follow me. Fight under me—money, women, I won’t treat you badly. Understand?”

Li Yan nodded with a cold face.

Red Ghost smiled.

“Come with me.”

With that, he turned and headed upstairs. Li Yan stood up without a word, quietly sizing up this young man with the gentle appearance who was called Red Ghost.

Even Li Yan himself didn’t notice that after he’d been staring at Red Ghost for a short while, a black ripple actually rose in his pupils!

“You have obtained some information. Viewing requires one Yanfu point. View?”

Li Yan calculated in his heart for a moment, and ultimately chose not to view Red Ghost’s information. He simply followed Red Ghost up the stairs.

The two went up one after the other onto the rooftop. Crooked antennas bristled from the concrete rooftop, leaving nowhere to put your feet.

As far as the eye could see were buildings crammed together, crooked and stacked high—crude, dilapidated, congested. But also busy, spectacular, brimming with vivid, everyday life.

“Kowloon Walled City—people make it sound terrifying when they talk about it, but it’s actually not bad here. When I have time I’ll take you to eat dog-meat hotpot. Guaranteed you’ll swallow your tongue.” That was what Red Ghost said.

“Kowloon is a famous enclave—nobody governs it. Malaysia, Macau, Taiwan—who knows how many fugitives run out of options every year and flee here. Either they become enforcers for the triads, or most of them end up on the Kowloon stage, just like you.”

He paused, then added:

“Ninety percent of Hong Kong’s Miss White flows out from here. Half of the entire Kowloon Walled City has used drugs. Guns, smuggling, human trafficking, casinos, brothels—demons dancing wildly. Wo Hop Sing, 14K, Hung Yi On—triads everywhere.”

He held up one finger.

“But in Kowloon, if the committee doesn’t allow it, no one dares cause trouble. When the committee says a word, not half a triad dares say no. Here, even the Governor of Hong Kong isn’t as powerful as the committee. Understand?”

Red Ghost didn’t expect Li Yan to answer and just kept talking.

“You’re fighting in Kowloon, following Taishui to earn a bowl of rice. Taishui is the executive committee member of the Kowloon Executive Committee. Every boxing stage business in Kowloon, big and small, has Taishui as the man behind it. I heard about your business from Fei Bo—you were especially fierce today, huh? Putting down Chachai in two exchanges? Even Fei Bo said he misjudged you.”

“When I first came to Hong Kong I wasn’t used to the climate and got seriously ill. I’ve only just gotten a bit better.”

Red Ghost nodded noncommittally, showing no interest in pressing further. He lit a cigarette and said:

“Taishui admires young men with sharp fists the most. You’ve got a future.”

Li Yan stared at the cramped, dilapidated buildings before him and asked, as if casually:

“Brother Red Ghost, I heard them say I was fighting on the fourth stage. How much money can you make on the higher stages?”

Red Ghost sniffed.

“The fourth stage—small venue. Normally only Kowloon workers off shift and workshop owners come to watch. Win a fight and you get five thousand; lose and you still get one thousand. The first five stages open every day—as long as someone’s willing to put you on, you can earn. The sixth stage doesn’t open every day. Not many fighters—maybe three or four times a week. A fighter who wins gets thirty thousand; lose and it’s five thousand. There’s more variety too—if a big spender’s willing to put up extra money, cage fights, weapon fights, anything goes. You could earn hundreds of thousands in one night. But often, people die.”

Red Ghost spoke lightly, but Li Yan could imagine it—on the stage, two men holding blades, fighting for their lives, blood everywhere, while the crowd in the stands screamed more and more frantically…

Thinking of this, a cold gleam flickered at the corner of Li Yan’s eye.