Chapter 328

Chapter 328 The Crisis of Li Yang

 

The arena, while not prohibiting fights to the death, rarely saw fatalities in the underground world championships over the years. Even incidents of breaking limbs seldom occurred. After all, no one likes to make enemies unnecessarily—better to avoid trouble. At most, opponents would be knocked unconscious until they lost their fighting ability. Why go so far as to cripple someone?

It’s worth noting that turning a normal person into a disabled individual is an act that ruins someone’s entire life!

Li Yang sat at the table, looking at the report delivered by his subordinates, his eyes terrifyingly grim!

Why didn’t other gangs experience this situation, but when it came to his subordinates, this happened? Anyone could see this was deliberately targeting the Dragon Gang!

Eighteen subordinates crippled—Li Yang’s heart was bleeding!

The people who crippled the Dragon Gang members came from different gangs, with the Yuan Wei Gang taking the largest share—a full twelve people were from Wan Yan Zheng Yong’s subordinates!

In Li Yang’s view, this Wan Yan Zheng Yong was clearly retaliating, getting revenge for his previous kidnapping of forty-four people from the North Hall!

“This bastard must have placed his seeded fighters among the non-seeded contestants. Otherwise, it would be impossible to break my subordinates’ hands and feet!”

Looking at the names of the gangs that had acted like the Yuan Wei Gang, Li Yang’s eyes were filled with hatred! The actions of these gangs were practically slapping him in the face!

“Pass down the order: when facing these gangs, we must fight them to death!”

At this moment, Li Yang’s confidant Qiu Ming quickly ran in and said to him: “Boss, the Elders Council is waiting in the conference room, saying they want to discuss matters with you.”

“Discuss matters? What can I discuss with them?” Li Yang said with a cold laugh. “A bunch of shortsighted fools. They’re just going to start complaining about not going legitimate now that the Dragon Gang has lost face today.”

“Boss, then you mean…” Qiu Ming asked hesitantly.

Li Yang said indifferently: “I’m not going. It’s the same few sentences over and over again. My ears have grown calluses from hearing it.”

“Alright, I’ll go tell them now.” Qiu Ming was about to walk out.

“Wait.”

Li Yang suddenly stopped him, his eyes flickering, and said: “I’ll go personally. This approach isn’t sustainable. It would be better not to cause any trouble during the ten-year championship.”

Qiu Ming seemed somewhat dismissive. He smiled and said: “Boss, these elders have been jumping around for so long without causing any real problems. Don’t worry too much. Let me handle it.”

“This time is different.” Li Yang still refused. He was always very meticulous in his actions.

Li Yang walked into the conference room where the ten Elders Council members had been waiting for a long time. Most of these people had built the Dragon Gang together. Later, when Li Yang used some tactics to ascend to the position of gang leader, these people were quite dissatisfied.

As soon as Li Yang took office, he proposed gradually legitimizing the Dragon Gang, but this process faced heavy resistance from top to bottom. Opposing voices were constant, especially from the Elders Council, which was so great that it even caused Li Yang’s reform plan to be aborted at one point.

To reform, some people needed to taste the benefits first. The Dragon Gang’s business was already extensive, and once Li Yang’s business model was implemented, the entire gang’s income instantly reached more than ten times what it was before. Li Yang was also very generous, putting all these profits into his subordinates’ pockets without taking a penny for himself, which made the opposition forces begin to diminish a little.

However, if the Dragon Gang became the Dragon Group, and the gang leader became the chairman, would it still be a gang?

At this point, some elders began to reminisce about past glory. They didn’t lack money, and Li Yang’s dividends couldn’t satisfy them. Fighting and killing was what suited their mentality, so these people had been very active recently, especially with the ten-year championship approaching, putting great pressure on Li Yang.

If the Dragon Gang didn’t achieve satisfactory results this time, these elders might join forces to compel Li Yang to step down!

“Boss Li is really impressive, making us wait so long.” A fat man with a fleshy face sat in a chair, his body fat almost filling the entire seat. He raised his hand and looked at his expensive Rolex: “We ten elders have been waiting for nearly an hour. Boss Li, is your time valuable while ours is worthless?”

This man was named Wu Shikuan, nicknamed Fat Wu. He was a high-ranking figure in the Dragon Gang with seniority even greater than Li Yang’s. He had a chance to compete for the gang leader position but failed at the last moment. How could he not hate Li Yang?

However, this guy was quite open about it, seemingly convinced that Li Yang wouldn’t dare do anything to him. He constantly opposed Li Yang, giving the latter a headache.

Since his family all held positions in the Dragon Gang with deeply entrenched influence, Li Yang could only endure and was helpless against Fat Wu’s sarcasm.

Li Yang glanced at him without responding, and instead sat in his central position, saying: “I wonder why you all called me here in the middle of the night?”

Fat Wu sneered: “Boss Li, since you took the position of gang leader, you’ve been focused on making money but indifferent to the Dragon Gang’s status in the underground world. Do you know that eighteen brothers were crippled in the arena today?”

Saying this, Fat Wu slammed the table hard!

Daring to slam the table in front of Li Yang was already going too far.

Looking at his angry expression, Li Yang frowned slightly: “This time it was due to our previous conflict with the Yuan Wei Gang. They wanted revenge, and I didn’t think it through thoroughly…”

“Of course you didn’t think it through!”

At this point, an old man wearing a Tang suit with white hair also spoke up. His name was Qian Hugang, the former deputy gang leader who became the vice chairman of the Elders Council after stepping down, with the responsibility of supervising the gang leader.

“If you had thought it through, you wouldn’t have chosen to exchange hostages with the Yuan Wei Gang before the championship. In this business, face is everything. If you give others face, they naturally give you face in return! If you hadn’t pulled such a stunt before the ten-year championship, would the Yuan Wei Gang have deliberately sought revenge on you?”

Qian Hugang also slammed the table!

Today, two people had already slammed the table at Li Yang. His position as gang leader seemed truly precarious—at the very least, these people across from him didn’t seem to respect him much.

To be able to bring the Dragon Gang to its current height under such constraints, Li Yang’s abilities were indeed quite formidable.

Hearing Qian Hugang’s words, Li Yang silently cursed: “Old man, what a big idiot.”

“Elder Qian, you didn’t see how arrogant the Yuan Wei Gang’s North Hall was in our Dragon Gang’s territory, even threatening to destroy the Dragon Gang on the spot. If you had been there, you wouldn’t think my actions were excessive. The Yuan Wei Gang should pay the appropriate price for their behavior.”

Qian Hugang seemed to have developed a taste for table-slamming tonight and slammed it again, glaring at Li Yang: “Why would the Yuan Wei Gang’s North Hall cause trouble in Ninghai? Why would they dare to cause trouble in Ninghai? Who gave them the courage? Isn’t it because your actions in recent years have made them think the Dragon Gang is a soft target that any random person can push around? For this matter, as the gang leader, you must bear primary responsibility!”

Hearing this, Li Yang knew there was no reasoning with these people. They wanted to attack him and didn’t need any reason to do so.

Li Yang coldly replied: “I wonder what kind of responsibility Elder Qian thinks I should bear?”

“Do you even need to ask?” Qian Hugang said coldly: “The position of gang leader should be held by someone capable. The incompetent must step down for the worthy!”

Well, this was completely tearing off the mask. Qian Hugang was openly calling Li Yang “incompetent.”

Qian Hugang, still not satisfied, continued: “If someone occupies the position of gang leader and only does incompetent things, I’ll risk these old bones to pull him down!”

His intentions were now crystal clear.

Being scolded so directly, Li Yang didn’t seem to get angry, only slightly furrowing his brow.

“Elder Qian’s suggestion is meant to spur me on. I will do my best to correct my shortcomings and strive to give everyone a satisfactory account in this ten-year championship.”

After a minute of silence, Li Yang still lowered his posture. He might have his own methods in mind, but now was definitely not the time to act.

“Li Yang, do you think playing tai chi with me like this is fun?” Qian Hugang said dissatisfied.

At this point, a woman sitting in the corner spoke up: “Elder Qian, your words are a bit extreme. Don’t forget our topic for tonight.”

This woman wore a seemingly cool chiffon dress, with hair reaching her waist, giving off a soft beauty reminiscent of a woman from Jiangnan.

But those familiar with her knew that judging this woman by appearances would be a grave mistake.

Her name was Zhang Ziwei, the only daughter of former gang leader Zhang Fantian. After Zhang Fantian retired due to poor health, his only daughter Zhang Ziwei naturally followed in her father’s footsteps and entered the Dragon Gang’s Elders Council.

Although Zhang Ziwei appeared quite gentle, she was ruthless in her actions. Her subordinates controlled four halls of the Dragon Gang, one of which was the Discipline Hall, responsible for gang rules and punishments. This woman was extremely strict with her subordinates. If anyone in the Dragon Gang entered the Discipline Hall for wrongdoing, they would inevitably face very severe and even terrifying punishment!

Among all the members of the Dragon Gang’s Elders Council, Zhang Ziwei was considered a rare neutral party. She judged matters on their merits rather than the people involved. She supported what was beneficial to the gang and opposed what was harmful.

Because of this, Qian Hugang, Fat Wu, and others considered Zhang Ziwei to be on Li Yang’s side.

“Even a young woman can lecture me now. I must truly be getting old.” Qian Hugang sighed deeply and closed his eyes.

Zhang Ziwei paid no attention to this. Her beautiful eyes fixed on Li Yang as she said: “Boss, how have you arranged for the eighteen brothers who were injured today?”