The Dragon Rises in the Underworld: Li Zhengguang of Harbin

Winter, 1990. Harbin.

The day Li Zhenggang was expelled from university, he saw the most despairing expression of his life in his father's eyes.

Fueled by spite, he walked out and stepped straight into Gao Tianpeng's underworld.

Forced demolitions, dockside brawls, murder and robbery: he wielded his blade until it went from rusted to bloodied, killing his way from Harbin to Tianjing and rising from a street thug to the "Number One Killer" who made all of Shuguang District tremble.

His brothers fell before his eyes, but the knife in their backs came from one of their own.

He once tried to leave the underworld behind, but it told him: Getting in is easy. Getting out will cost you your life.

This isn't about helping him climb the criminal ladder. It's about helping him survive.

Only after power, women, and money were all his did he realize that he had died long ago, on the winter day he first picked up a brick.

He wants to rise again. He wants to become his true self one last time.

This is the beginning of a road with no return, and the destination from which he longs to escape.