"Why did everyone go quiet? Was Li Qing wrong?" Su Xin asked, looking down at the silent crowd.
Li Qing rubbed the corners of his reddened eyes and gave an awkward laugh. "Don't take it to heart, Boss. I was just venting, talking nonsense."
"Li Qing, you weren't talking nonsense. What's wrong with wanting money? Today, I, Su Xin, will speak frankly too. I joined the Flying Eagle Gang for money—and for power!"
Looking down at the crowd, Su Xin called out, "You're all men in your prime. Who wants to spend his whole life as a laborer, watching others eat meat and drink wine while he can't even get enough coarse bran and vegetables?
"Once you enter the jianghu, it's as deep as the sea. Li Qing is willing to risk his life to leave a descendant for the Li Family. Do you have the guts to do the same?"
"We do!"
The gang members below roared with bloodshot eyes. Even the veterans who had been in the Flying Eagle Gang for years were fired up by Su Xin's words and joined in the shouting.
"Guts alone aren't enough! You need strength, too! You may want to eat meat, but without the strength, you won't get the chance!"
Su Xin drew the heavy sword at his waist and slammed it into the ground. The three-finger-thick marble floor shattered beneath it!
"Only with strength can you have ambition. I, Su Xin, reached my position today not through luck, but through strength!"
Su Xin pointed east. "Shenglong Pavilion in Changde Ward is seven stories tall. It's the tallest and largest restaurant in all of Changning Prefecture. In the past, only princes and nobles were qualified to stand on its rooftop and look down over the land.
"Now, no more than ten people in Changning Prefecture are qualified to ascend to Shenglong Pavilion's top floor. But today, I, Su Xin, swear that within three years, I will stand there and put all of Changning Prefecture beneath my feet!"
What domineering words!
Su Xin's speech had the gang members below boiling with excitement.
If anyone else had said those words, they would have been laughed at for not knowing their limits.
But Su Xin had taken his place in Happy Forest within a month, then successfully assassinated Dai Chong and become a hero of the Flying Eagle Gang. He had every right to say them.
Just as Su Xin had said, he had reached his position through strength, not luck!
"Starting today, I'll take turns teaching you all internal energy and martial skills. If you want to climb higher, first you need the strength to get up there!
"Remember, I, Su Xin, don't keep useless people under me. If you want to eat meat and drink wine, if you want to rise higher, then train and fight with everything you've got!
"If all you want is your monthly pay, don't blame me for showing no mercy. Get out! You can haul loads by the city gate and still keep from starving!
"Now, I'll ask one last time: do you want to eat meat, or go back to the shacks in Joyful District and live on coarse bran and vegetables?"
"Eat meat!"
"Eat meat!"
"Eat meat!"
The gang members shouted with bloodshot eyes. Everyone present joined in except Li Huai—even Huang Bingcheng, that sly old fox, roared along with them.
No one had ever spoken to them like this before.
Even the veterans who had been in the Flying Eagle Gang for years had never heard words like these.
The Flying Eagle Gang's higher-ups only told them to be loyal to the gang and promised it wouldn't mistreat them. In the end, they had learned to be slippery, to live in fear of danger.
Now, Su Xin was telling them what ambition meant!
It was a seed, one that could take them farther. Even if their innate potential was limited, once that seed sprouted, they would never again waste their lives in mediocrity.
The Flying Eagle Gang's higher-ups didn't dare say things like this, because blindly loyal people were easier to control than ambitious ones, even if they seemed lifeless.
But Su Xin wasn't afraid. As long as he was strong enough, then no matter how powerful the others became, they could only look up at him from beneath his feet.
In the headquarters, the seeds of ambition began to sprout. The atmosphere had been roused to a fever pitch, and Su Xin smiled to himself, out of sight.
These people were easy to fool—or rather, a little too innocent. It only took a few words to stir up their desires.
In his previous life, Su Xin had once given a motivational speech to several hundred employees.
He'd talked about dreams, life, hard work, promotions, raises, and marrying a beautiful woman. He'd rambled on for nearly an hour before he could barely stir up a little enthusiasm.
Compared with those slick young people from his previous life, these gang members, who had come from the slums and some of whom couldn't even recognize many written characters, were much easier to fool.
"Starting now, one-third of you will take turns patrolling Happy Forest as usual every day. The other two-thirds will come to the Martial Arts Arena to practice internal energy and martial skills. Li Huai will teach you how to fight for real."
Huang Bingcheng had already worked out the shifts for the nearly two hundred men the day before. They sent off those assigned to patrol, then packed the rest into the Martial Arts Arena behind the headquarters.
The arena had originally just been a rear courtyard. It was a little cramped with more than a hundred people in it, but they could still move around.
"Old Huang, go tell Boss Liu and the others we'll pay to rent their back courtyards, too. They don't use them anyway."
Beside Happy Forest's headquarters stood Drunken Moon Pavilion and an inn. Their back courtyards were of little use, serving only to store odds and ends. Su Xin figured he could probably get them even without paying.
That morning, Su Xin didn't teach them much. He only had them memorize the internal energy manuals so they could practice at home. After all, this depended on talent. Anyone could train, but the results varied from person to person.
Take Third Master Hu and the three hall masters, for example. They were all about the same age, but Third Master Hu had spent decades failing to open all thirty-six acupoints, while the three hall masters had already opened seventy-two and reached the Post-Heaven Mid-Stage.
The spiked short staffs Su Xin had asked Huang Bingcheng to make the day before had been completed, with several blacksmith shops working together on them. Everyone took one and began practicing the Dog-Beating Staff Technique.
The Dog-Beating Staff Technique's eight-character formula was simple, but mastering it still required long hours of practice.
The real event came in the afternoon, when Li Huai began teaching them how to fight for their lives.
Li Huai had once said he had never learned any particular sword style. All his martial arts had been honed in fights to the death. They boiled down to three words: fast, vicious, accurate.
Those three qualities, however, were the foundation of every martial skill—simple and practical.
His methods were much like Jing Wuming's Quick Sword. Su Xin had once considered passing it on to him.
But Jing Wuming's Quick Sword was far too unusual. Other people couldn't even get started with it. Without the 5% proficiency granted by the system, Su Xin probably wouldn't have learned it himself.
The Great Sumeru Sword Style didn't suit Li Huai's style. Forcing himself to learn it wouldn't increase his fighting ability; it would only interfere with the way he fought.
Neither of the only two martial skills Su Xin had could be practiced by Li Huai, so he could only wait until he found one that suited him.
Nor was he worried about Li Huai betraying him. Li Huai had never been one of Third Master Hu's people.
Third Master Hu and Li Huai were, at most, using each other. Ji Gang was the one who belonged to Third Master Hu.
And with a personality like Li Huai's, it would be hard for any superior to treat him as a trusted subordinate and groom him.
Only Su Xin didn't mind. In his eyes, someone like Li Huai was actually the safest kind of person. He needed very little, and without an exceptionally powerful temptation, he wouldn't betray anyone lightly.
In his previous life, Su Xin had managed hundreds of people for nearly ten years. What kind of person hadn't he seen?
The company's veteran engineers were all conceited about their talents, but they were actually the easiest to manage.
The ones who smiled all day and treated you with the utmost respect were the ones who would stab you in the back the moment you let your guard down.
Li Huai's training methods were brutal.
It would be more accurate to say that he wasn't teaching them at all—he was just beating them one-sidedly.
He had five gang members step forward and attack him with their spiked short staffs. Li Huai had only a wooden sword in hand.
Five against one, and yet Li Huai beat the five men black and blue, stabbing and whipping them until they howled.
Even with a wooden sword, a hard strike from Li Huai left a bloody welt. Wherever he stabbed, a bruise bloomed.
After beating all five men in turn, he explained what they should do, then beat them again. He repeated the process until they could last more than ten moves against him, then he switched to another group.
The gang members groaned under this method, but because of what Su Xin had said earlier, they endured the pain.
None of them wanted to go back to the slums and live on coarse bran and vegetables!
Su Xin watched all afternoon. Some people cried out in pain, but not one complained. He nodded in satisfaction.
Li Huai's methods were certainly brutal, but they were also effective.
The only advantage his men had was that they were young and strong. In a real fight, they probably wouldn't even be as capable as a bunch of street thugs.
Their foundation was too poor. The only way to make them improve quickly was to force them to grow, like pulling up seedlings to help them grow.
"Old Huang, tell everyone they don't need to go home for dinner. Once training's done, they'll eat here. We'll provide meat-filled steamed buns every day, but no wine." Su Xin summoned Huang Bingcheng and gave the order.
"These brats are blessed to have met you, Boss. They must've done good deeds in their previous lives." Huang Bingcheng immediately stepped forward to flatter him.
Su Xin shook his head. "Not necessarily. Maybe they did something awful in their last lives."
Huang Bingcheng scratched his head, but Su Xin had already walked away.
Over the next few days, training continued on schedule. Su Xin was in charge in the mornings, while Li Huai taught them fighting techniques in the afternoons.
The gang members were being put through the wringer, but the results were immediate.
At the very least, any one of the nearly two hundred men could now last more than ten moves against Li Huai.
Just a few days earlier, it had taken five of them to barely withstand ten moves.
During this time, others also tried to join Happy Forest, but Su Xin turned most of them away, keeping only a small number who were in good physical condition—about twenty people.
It wasn't that Su Xin didn't want more people. It was that recruiting more would likely cause unnecessary trouble.
An ordinary underling had only a few dozen people under him, a hundred at most.
Su Xin already had more than two hundred men under him, far too many. Third Master Hu only had a little over six hundred.
If a small-time boss had nearly as many men as a big boss, what was he trying to do? Could Third Master Hu possibly let that slide?
Su Xin didn't want to fall out with Third Master Hu just yet. Although they were already at odds beneath the surface, at least he still had to show proper respect.
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