Chapter 43: Ambition For Power
“This month’s money!” After Brother Jun finished eating, he took out 1000 bucks and placed it on the table.
“The money’s almost all paid back. I’ll save this money for you.” Chen Hanliang glanced at the money and said, then glared at Chen Wuhong with a look of hating iron for not becoming steel.
“You’re several years older than Second Son. Look at Second Son, then look at you!”
“I definitely won’t gamble anymore from now on!” Chen Wuhong vowed solemnly.
As for Second Son… he had a bellyful of words, but didn’t dare to say them.
Brother Jun got up and went back to his room to get some things.
“Then I’m heading back to the martial arts school!”
“Second Brother, we can’t even see you anymore now!” Chen Wuqi shouted from beside the dining table. Half a year ago, Second Brother could still watch cartoons with him.
Now when he came home on weekends, he couldn’t see anyone.
“I’ve been a bit busy lately! It’ll ease up in a few months.” Brother Jun smiled.
Half a year ago, he could still accompany his younger brother watching Saint Seiya and Magical Hero Altar.
But now his heart was full of ambition to climb up, full of yearning for strength, status, and money.
He arrived at the casino all the way and found that the casino had already opened today.
Walking in, he saw seven or eight henchmen inside, plus a few he didn’t recognize, but no guests.
“Brother Jun!” The henchmen greeted one after another.
This time was different from before; the news had already come back—Brother Jun had really risen to power.
Seeing the many henchmen greeting him, Brother Jun was in a good mood; he liked this kind of scene.
He was the center of everyone’s attention, and everyone had to respect him.
This made him enjoy it very much.
The ambition for power grew endlessly in his heart; he wanted more.
“Brother Jun, Sister Sha Jiu sent people to help. The casino hasn’t opened these past few days, the gamblers don’t know it’s open yet, it’ll take a few days to recover.”
“Brother Jun! Sister Sha Jiu sent us to help.” Those few unfamiliar henchmen walked over to greet him.
Brother Jun asked a few questions and learned they were all card dealers and accountants, so he told them to get to work.
“Where’s Curry?” Brother Jun asked.
“He’s watching the other gambling den.” Ah Fei said.
“You guys watch these two gambling dens first. Every month besides the original money, you’ll get 1.5% of the gambling den’s net win flow as dividend. Figure out a way to make the place thrive.” Brother Jun arranged.
“Thanks, Brother Jun!” Ah Fei immediately thanked him.
Ordinary henchmen made 3000 bucks a month; small leaders like them who practiced new technique made 8000 to 12000 a month, and there was other money for doing things.
Those with magnetic field reinforcement below 25% had strength not much stronger than ordinary people; over 25% opened up the gap, and over 40% was another level.
Over 40%, it wasn’t just about salary anymore, but like A Hao and Cun Bao, leading a group of little brothers, responsible for part of the business, with diverse sources of income.
He and Curry both had magnetic field reinforcement reconstruction just over 25%, so they could only get 8000 bucks a month.
1.5% of the net win flow from these two gambling dens was about three or four thousand bucks a month; they could each get an extra 2000.
“Do a good job!” Brother Jun patted Ah Fei’s shoulder.
He had understood before that to become a boss, not only did he have to act like a boss, but also do what a boss should do.
Internally, he had to know how to distribute benefits.
If he took all the benefits himself, no one would follow him.
Brother Jun took out a photograph again.
“Arrange two henchmen to go to a place and wait. When they see this person, break his leg.”
Ah Fei looked at the photograph; the person in it was a bit older than Brother Jun and had some resemblance in appearance.
“Brother Jun, this guy looks a bit like you. Isn’t he your relative?”
“Strike when he’s alone, don’t hit the leg that’s already broken, hit the other one!” Brother Jun didn’t answer and continued instructing.
“Got it, I’ll arrange it well!” Ah Fei nodded.
After giving instructions, Brother Jun walked around inside and outside the gambling den.
Because of that gambler at home, he used to quite dislike gambling dens.
But now this was his own… wherever they went, it was gambling. The Walled City had over 100 gambling dens; without this one, there were others. It wasn’t him making them gamble anyway.
“You watch things here; there shouldn’t be anything lately. Call me if there’s something.” Brother Jun instructed Ah Fei, then went to the gambling den at Yong Fa Building on Elder Street, circled around, and returned home.
“Gambling dens are arranged; just show up occasionally and there’s money every month. Next, focus fully on preparing for the gambling duel in four months!”
“This place is a bit small…”
Brother Jun felt this place was too small and crude; he couldn’t even stretch his fists and feet.
Maybe he should change places to live.
Thinking about it, Brother Jun set this aside for now and picked up that book 《Cold Steel Combat Technique》.
“This is army combat skills. Don’t know where Sister Sha Jiu got it from, but with so many people enlisting and discharging every year, it’s bound to circulate. Maybe some new technique martial arts schools practice it too…”
Opening it, the table of contents was a row of items:
1. Tactical Philosophy and Victory Conditions
2. Magnetic Field Reconstruction Body Usage
3. Stance, Footwork, and Impact-Resistant Structure
4. Striking Templates: Short-Range Explosive Power and Three-Point Destruction
5. Clinch, Takedown, and Wall Corner Offense and Defense
……
Brother Jun looked at the table of contents and his head started to ache, but he patiently flipped through page by page and soon became engrossed.
“This military combat technique is different from old technique; it takes ‘rapidly depriving the opponent of combat ability’ as the sole goal. All movements are for suppressing—destroying—controlling the opponent!”
“Movements are short and direct, no superfluous stances, straight for vital points. More direct than Wolf Fist, fewer variations, almost no defensive moves…”
“Lots of anti-strike training, especially forearms and shoulders facing straight lines; bone density is very high, excels in short-distance explosive power, strong pain tolerance…”
“So when fighting Yu Wei, must be careful of his forearms and shoulders; opponent’s pain endurance is high, non-lethal areas won’t easily make him lose counterattack ability—this point must be noted!”
“Everything pursues efficiency: life and death in 3 seconds at the start, resolution within 15 seconds is the tone of this military combat technique, almost no complex changes. Yu Wei’s from the army, definitely holds this mindset too…”
Brother Jun usually got sleepy reading books, but now the more he read, the more interesting he found the content, giving him an intuitive understanding of army combat skills’ thinking and combat style.
It also included a lot of new technique training content.
And the most important thing in new technique is willpower, so the higher the new technique level, the more people believe in their own willpower, the more paranoid they are.
Those not firm enough or paranoid enough can’t reach high levels in new technique.
Brother Jun happened to glance at his watch and realized he had read from 8:30 PM to midnight.
And with this volume of 《Cold Steel Combat Technique》, he had flipped through a third.
“It’s so late already…”
“Missed the evening training; have to get up at five tomorrow morning to practice kung fu.”
Brother Jun stuffed the book under his pillow, turned off the light, and went to sleep.
……
Elizabeth Hospital, public morgue.
“Bing Ye!”
In the morgue, two young men bowed to the person who entered.
Bing Ye expressionlessly walked past the corpses on the autopsy tables one by one, lifting the white sheets to examine the wounds.
Then he asked the man beside him: “Any thoughts?”
“It’s an old hand! Every knife is fatal, almost all to vital points. This person really likes stabbing the neck…” The man beside him said after checking.
“Different from last time’s technique.”
He had seen A Hao’s corpse before; this time the wounds were completely different from last time.
Brother Jun’s kung fu had grown greatly in these months, so his force application and knife entry angles were different from before.
“Not the same person?” Bing Ye snorted coldly.
“I think it’s the same person!”
“Specifically targeting my people with stabs, and always stabbing the neck.”
He wasn’t federal police; if he thought it was one person, it was one person.
As for why the technique was different, he didn’t care at all.
“You’ve been targeted. Recently offended anyone?” Bing Ye’s cold gaze turned to a henchman beside him.
Months now, robbed twice in a row—he was about to explode with rage.
Loss of money was minor.
With this happening one after another, if he couldn’t find the culprit soon, he might as well quit.
“No, we just lend and collect debts; no conflict with Walled City forces! If we have to say offending people, we collect debts, sometimes we have to scare them a bit…” The henchman said, face pale.
“Check those borrowers, see if any have martial arts practitioners at home. Start from the last few months!”
“One month. I want to see the person; I’ll skin him alive!”
……
Walled City south, warehouse in Ma Tou Wai. Brother Jun was continuously “treading open” the fine sand up to his knees in the sand pit, stepping out step by step.
Each time he walked, his hip drove his thigh to pivot, feeling the flow of the fine sand, toes like a plow scraping the sand backward.
However, his speed in the sand pit wasn’t slow, just a bit slower than on flat ground; movements weren’t clumsy at all, upper body completely still, instead giving a natural sense of treading on flat ground.
Creak—
The warehouse door opened; Zhou Qing walked in and saw Brother Jun continuously circling in the sand pit.
“Master!”
Seeing Zhou Qing enter, Brother Jun lifted his hip, yanked his back, and his body bounced out of the sand pit, two trails of sand sprinkling down his legs.
The whole movement was like someone had yanked him from behind.
“You’ve practiced this Mud Treading Step well!” Zhou Qing nodded slightly, a flash of approval in his eyes.
Getting the Mud Treading Step to this level in such a short time was truly rare.
Talent and effort, neither could be lacking.
And jumping out from knee-deep sand pit like that—normal people struggled just to walk in it, yet he popped right out.
Enough to show his whole body strength was now connected, thigh explosive power and waist and back strength both extremely formidable.
How long had it been?
He really hadn’t expected to meet a Little Sixteen with such talent in a place like the Walled City.
Among all the martial artists he’d seen over the years, top tier.
Of course, extremely bold and stirring up trouble—not lacking there either.
This made Zhou Qing like him even more.
