Chapter 144 Training

Felt irritated, Yang Jiekai drank glass after glass of liquor, trying to drink himself into complete oblivion.

Yet for some reason, the more he wanted to get drunk, the more sober he became. Instead of numbing his senses, the alcohol made his mind sharper, filled entirely with the image of Han Ning.

"Master, please do something about Wang Xiang."

Zhao Xue was not drinking alcohol; she had ordered a bottle of orange juice. Noticing Wang Xiang sitting beside her and frantically winking and making faces at her, she unhappily chimed in, "What's wrong? Now you know how to wink at me? You told me not to say anything, but I'm going to say it anyway."

"Oh, what's wrong with Wang Xiang?" Yang Jiekai asked.

Zhao Xue glared at Wang Xiang and said angrily, "Master, Wang Xiang recently got hooked on gambling. He lost all his own money and even piled up a mountain of loan shark debts. Those people just now were the ones chasing him for money."

"Master, it's not actually like that. My luck has just been a bit terrible these past couple of days. Once I get a bit more money from home later, I'm guaranteed to win it all back—"

"Cut the crap!"

Yang Jiekai was already in a foul mood. Hearing this, he vented all his accumulated frustration directly onto Wang Xiang. "Impressive, aren't you? Grow some wings and you think you can fly? You've even learned how to gamble. Does doing this show any respect to the Party, the people, me, or Zhao Xue? You are an absolute idiot, a born idiot, and now I'm expelling you from the sect!"

"Ah!"

Hearing that he was going to be expelled, Wang Xiang instantly panicked. "Master, please, I'm begging you to give me one more chance..."

"Give you a bird's wing!"

Yang Jiekai looked angrily at Zhao Xue and said, "Xiaoxue, you should just break up with him. If he loves gambling, let him gamble to his heart's content. If I had known it was like this, I wouldn't have saved you just now!"

Zhao Xue nodded firmly. "I'll listen to Master. I'm breaking up with him right now."

"Master! Xiaoxue!"

Wang Xiang said with a mournful expression, "Don't be like this. I was wrong, okay? Just give me another chance!"

"No way!" Yang Jiekai and Zhao Xue shouted in unison.

Then Yang Jiekai unleashed another round of severe scoldings on Wang Xiang, which finally helped vent some of his anger. He turned to Wang Xiang and said, "You bastard, the guys chasing you just now were nothing more than a rabble of good-for-nothings. How could you not even handle them? I taught you those skills for nothing, you're a complete embarrassment to me!"

Wang Xiang grievance-riddenly muttered, "Master, I haven't slacked off on the skills you taught me at all. It's just that when I saw those guys all carrying machetes, I got a little scared."

After Wang Xiang pleaded like a drowning man clutching at straws, crying tears of snot and sorrow, Yang Jiekai and Zhao Xue finally calmed down considerably.

"How much did you lose?" Yang Jiekai asked.

"Not much, just over five million. But Master, don't worry, I guarantee I'll win it back."

As soon as Wang Xiang started talking about gambling, his eyes involuntarily began to sparkle with excitement.

"Win your sister! Even if you gambled a hundred more times, you'd still lose!"

Yang Jiekai looked at Wang Xiang angrily. Although he himself was not a fan of gambling, after witnessing Ouyang Tiedan's cheating skills, he knew that gambling was a massive whirlpool; once you dipped your toes in, you would sink deeper and deeper.

Then Yang Jiekai asked again, "It's only natural to pay back debts. Which casino did you lose your money at? Tell me, and let's see if I can help you."

Wang Xiang then gave the address of a casino, smacking his lips as he said, "Master, I suspect they might have cheated. Every time I got a strong hand, they somehow always managed to get an even stronger one. I basically lost every single round..."

"Wait!"

Yang Jiekai interrupted Wang Xiang. "Which casino did you just say?"

Wang Xiang repeated the name of the casino and asked, "What? Master, do you know that casino too?"

Yang Jiekai rubbed his head in frustration. Knowing it? Talk about an understatement!

Life really loved coincidences; Yang Jiekai had just acquired a casino from Chen Peifeng, and in the blink of an eye, his own disciple had run inside it to lose his money.

Yang Jiekai made a phone call to Ouyang Tiedan to check, and sure enough, it was true.

After hanging up the phone, Yang Jiekai said to Wang Xiang, "They were being polite by only taking a few million from you. I've taken care of this matter for you, but remember from now on, you are never to touch gambling again. If I ever find out you do, don't ever call me master again!"

"Right!" Zhao Xue chimed in from the side. "If you dare to gamble again, don't follow me around anymore either!"

Hearing that both his master and his girlfriend had forgiven him, Wang Xiang nodded his head frantically like a chick pecking at rice.

After the three of them chatted a bit longer, Yang Jiekai suddenly thought of something, and his mind was made up.

Early the next morning, Yang Jiekai summoned Dragon Hall core members like Dragon Xiaomao and Red Boy to the Dragon Palace Bar.

"Brother Yang, what's up? I pulled an all-nighter last night and just fell asleep," Ouyang Tiedan rubbed his eyes, looking thoroughly sleep-deprived.

Seeing that everyone had arrived, Yang Jiekai waved his hand and said, "Sit down, everyone. I called you all here today to discuss something."

Then, Yang Jiekai explained the purpose of this gathering to everyone.

"Training?" Qin Feng asked with a puzzled look. "What kind of training?"

Yang Jiekai said, "Never mind about that for now. All of you go back right now and notify all your subordinates to assemble tomorrow morning at the abandoned school playground behind the eastern suburbs."

Last night, Yang Jiekai had stood up for Wang Xiang and beaten up a group of thugs chasing him.

During the scuffle, Yang Jiekai felt that although those thugs were all wielding machetes and looked exceptionally intimidating, their actual combat effectiveness when things got physical was pathetic and completely substandard. That was why he decided to establish a training camp to improve their combat capabilities.

However, Yang Jiekai was doing this not only to train the Dragon Hall brothers, but also to keep himself as busy as possible so he would stop thinking about Han Ning.

Early the next morning, Dragon Xiaomao and the others led a dense crowd of Dragon Hall brothers to assemble punctually on the playground.

Standing on the platform, Yang Jiekai cast a glance over them and couldn't help frowning.

This sea of hundreds of people was an absolute mess. Their hair was dyed red, yellow, green, and every color of the rainbow.

Their clothing was equally bizarre, standing around in the playground chatting, laughing, and slouching lazily, filling the entire area with a chaotic and undisciplined atmosphere.

Having a military background, Yang Jiekai detested a lack of organization and discipline above all else.

However, this scene was well within his expectations, and having already made up his mind, he said to Dragon Xiaomao, "From now on, you are the commander-in-chief."

Then, looking at Old Stick, he said, "You are the instructor in charge of training."

"Then what do I do!" Hearing Yang Jiekai's words, Qin Feng found it quite amusing and quickly asked.

Looking at Qin Feng, Red Boy, and the others, Yang Jiekai said, "Each of you will be in charge of your own subordinates."

"Now, everyone take your men, line up into formations, and you have exactly three minutes!" After giving these brief instructions, Yang Jiekai issued the order.

Finding it all quite novel, Qin Feng and the others cheerfully shouted and called their men to assemble.

"Stop chatting, hurry up and get over here to assemble!"

Moments later, the hundreds of people in the playground had split into several groups, led respectively by Qin Feng, Ouyang Tiedan, Red Boy, Big Head Yuan, and Wang Sankui.

Yang Jiekai, Dragon Xiaomao, and Old Stick stood on the stage.

"Brother Yang, assembly complete!" Finding it all great fun, Qin Feng even gave Yang Jiekai a terribly non-standard military salute that looked thoroughly ridiculous.

Yang Jiekai surveyed the playground and frowned once again.

Although the hundreds of people had split into groups according to their respective teams, they were still slouching around with no proper posture, puffing on cigarettes and chatting away hilariously, completely failing to take the matter seriously.

Without blowing his top, Yang Jiekai called Qin Feng and the others up to the front, checked his watch, and said calmly, "I gave you three minutes just now, but more than five minutes have already passed."

"Hehe, we'll pay attention next time." Qin Feng flashed a cheeky grin, still treating it as a joke.

Yang Jiekai stared at Qin Feng for a few seconds. Qin Feng had still been slouching carelessly, just about to chat a bit more with Yang Jiekai, but upon meeting Yang Jiekai's gaze, he suddenly stopped talking.

Yang Jiekai's eyes were completely calm without the slightest ripple of emotion, yet Qin Feng somehow felt that Yang Jiekai was acting weird today, though he couldn't quite put his finger on what was different.

"Qin Feng," Yang Jiekai called out.

"Ah!"

Qin Feng snapped back to reality and asked, "Brother Yang, what is it..."

Bang!

Before Qin Feng could finish his sentence, Yang Jiekai delivered a fierce kick that knocked him flat on his back.

Yang Jiekai walked over in a few strides, hauled Qin Feng up from the ground by his collar, and glared into his eyes. "Remember, from now on while on the training ground, when I call your name, your first response must be 'Sir'!"

Although Yang Jiekai had only used thirty percent of his strength with that kick, it still left Qin Feng seeing stars and feeling completely dizzy, his head spinning as he utterly failed to understand why Yang Jiekai had suddenly kicked him.

"Do you know why I kicked you?!"

Yang Jiekai glared furiously at Qin Feng and shouted, "I gave you only three minutes to lead your men and assemble, yet it took you a full five-plus minutes!"

With that, Yang Jiekai turned his fierce glare toward Red Boy and the others, who were standing nearby with their jaws dropped in shock. "And you lot, listen to my command right now, all of you..."

Pointing at Qin Feng, Ouyang Tiedan, Red Boy, Big Head Yuan, and Wang Sankui, Yang Jiekai shouted, "The lot of you, run hard laps around the playground right now, and without my command, you are not allowed to stop!"

The few of them exchanged glances, none daring to utter a word, and had no choice but to start jogging around the perimeter of the playground as ordered.

They had barely taken a few steps when Yang Jiekai suddenly lunged forward and delivered a vicious kick to each of their rears. "Did you all skip breakfast? From now on, I'm running right behind you. Anyone whose speed drops off had better not blame me for being ruthless!"

Following that, Qin Feng and the others exerted every ounce of strength they had left to run forward.

Yang Jiekai jogged closely behind them at a steady pace. Whenever anyone fell behind, he would dash up and land a flurry of punches and kicks on them.

One lap, two laps, five laps passed. The men were utterly exhausted and reduced to gasping for breath, feeling as though their stomachs were churning violently.

"Remember, this is just a minor punishment I'm giving you. From now on, on the training ground, I am your instructor. Anyone who dares to slack off had better watch out!"