Chapter 253 - 230 The Beginning of The Riot
Hongmen Tai Chi Fist Hall, second floor.
This was considered backstage, where the two competitors for today’s fight were preparing.
Li San sat calmly on a chair with his eyes closed, restoring his energy, while opposite him sat a young man. Dressed in the white gi of Japan’s Karate, a black belt tied around his waist, it was Xiaoze Wutian.
Around Xiaoze Wutian stood four people, all armed with handguns, staring at him intently.
The night he was detained by Hongmen, Xiaoze Wutian had seen Li San and knew that the Guandong Association’s assassination attempt had failed.
A sneak attack by twelve gunmen lying in ambush, coupled with the intervention of a swordsmanship master like Watanabe Ryosuke at the end—Xiaoze Wutian admitted to himself that had it been him, he probably wouldn’t have lasted until Watanabe Ryosuke’s attack; even if Li San’s mental state cultivation had reached "Void" and could sense others’ hostility in advance, surviving such a situation showed terrifying strength that exceeded Xiaoze Wutian’s expectations.
Therefore, when Li San later suggested an open fight with Xiaoze Wutian, not only did Xiaoze’s companions who went to the martial arts hall with him object, but Xiaoze Wutian himself didn’t take the initiative to accept the challenge.
Had it been before he came to the United States, hailed as a once-in-five-hundred-years fighting prodigy, Xiaoze Wutian would have accepted Li San’s challenge without hesitation. But after his arrival, first being repeatedly frustrated by Wu Li, and then witnessing Li San’s terrifying strength indirectly, Xiaoze’s spirits were significantly dampened, and thus he did not agree to Li San’s challenge.
However, Li San— or rather Hongmen—had taken a very tough stance on this matter. Regardless of what Xiaoze Wutian thought or how the Guandong Association protested, in short, "I want to fight you, and you have to fight even if you don’t want to!"
The reason they hadn’t killed Xiaoze Wutian outright was to give him an honorable reason to die, also to show others that Hongmen didn’t kill indiscriminately; this was just the consequence of provoking Hongmen!
"Kill one to warn a hundred," although Xiaoze Wutian didn’t know this Huaxia phrase, he had figured out the reason behind Hongmen’s actions. Hence, he could only hope that the Guandong Association could exert enough pressure on Hongmen to let him go, but now that the fight was about to begin, Xiaoze Wutian had no choice but to resign himself to fate.