Chapter 25: The Gambling Den

  Failing to find the honey, Li Meng felt frustrated and unwilling to give up. He then searched around several stone mountains, hoping to find a lone beehive, but to no avail.

  "My honey!" Li Meng was unwilling! He casually swung the big knife in his hand at a withered old tree beside him - "Bang!"

  "Hum! Hummmmmm..."

  The buzzing from the tree hole made Li Mang both startled and delighted, but seeing that bees were already flying out of it, he didn't dare to stay any longer, grabbed the pheasant and ran away in an instant.

  Under the tree, Li Mang was motionless on the back of the trunk until the bees inside the dead wood calmed down. Then he began to think about his strategy. He must get this beehive, but it had to be done under the premise of protecting himself well. Even if he was stung once, it wouldn't be allowed. Otherwise, when he got out of the Huang's courtyard, he would have no way to explain.

  But these are not the gentle bees from outside, they must sting when they see people. Not a single white gibbon can be seen in this forest, it's clear that these bees are not benevolent.

  The beekeeper harvests honey without destroying the bees' living environment, but now Li Mang has to make a bold decision - burn!

  He quietly swept the dry leaves around the withered wood together, surrounding the beehive in a circle. This took quite some effort, as he had to be cautious of the bees' movements. After finishing this, Li Mang didn't rush to light the fire. Instead, he thought through his plan again and ran back to Zhao Yao Mountain to fetch a bucket of water, preparing a full bucket of water.

  "Bang!"

  As Li Mang pressed down on the lighter, the dry leaves gradually spread out flames, while he ran far away and sat waiting for honey.

  The flames grew more and more vigorous, the smoke also thicker and thicker, soon enveloping the beehive in the center of the fire. Bees are afraid of smoke, as the thick smoke poured into the hive, all the bees inside went crazy, flying out one after another, buzzing loudly. But outside they could not bear it either, some flew away hastily, circling around and flying randomly, but many also plunged into the increasingly vigorous flames, awaiting them was undoubtedly death.

  When the dry leaves were completely ignited, even the dead wood where the beehive was located began to catch fire, which made Li Mang somewhat anxious, because there were still some bees that stubbornly defended their nest, and from the buzzing sounds coming from inside, it could be judged that there were still quite a few.

  Now with thick smoke covering, it was a great opportunity in the past. Li Mang picked up his machete and quickly rushed into the center of the smoke, taking advantage of the blurred vision to chop out a big mouthful of the beehive, allowing the disordered bees inside to fly out faster, and also allowing more smoke to pour in.

  "Cough, cough..." After doing all this, Li Mang immediately ran back to the wooden shed and wiped away his tears. Just a moment later, he was overcome with smoke again. He patiently waited for another few minutes, watching as the flames on the dead tree were about to reach the beehive, before grabbing a bucket of water and rushing over to put out the fire on the dead tree.

  "Crack!"

  A withered tree was split open by Li Meng, revealing a door and inside it, a beehive appeared before his eyes, which suddenly lit up. This was actually a new beehive, but it had already brewed four large honeycombs. The beeswax was crystal clear, emitting a strong fragrance of pomelo, tempting to look at.

  He poured out all the water in the bucket and wiped it dry with a handkerchief he was carrying, then carefully cut off the honeycomb with his dagger and put it into the bucket. He left one beehive behind, as for whether this hive of bees could survive or not, it could only be said that they would have to leave it to fate, the remaining beehive was the only thing he had to assuage his guilty conscience.

  Carrying a bucket of honey back to Tangting Mountain, he couldn't wait to break off a piece and put it in his mouth. It was sweet but not greasy, and as soon as it entered his mouth, a familiar fragrance filled his taste buds. The warm feeling in his lower abdomen was more pronounced than at any other time.

  Li Meng's pores were all open, exuding a lot of sweat, accompanied by some impurities. This was the effect of washing his marrow, but it was much faster than eating meat food, and its efficacy was more than ten times that of bitter fruit!

  The energy that suddenly filled his body made Li Mang urgently need to release it, so he started practicing the moves that Cheng Wei taught him yesterday on Mount Zhāoyáo.

  However, this attempt brought unexpected surprises. While consuming the energy of the honey, he also exercised, not only accelerating the digestion of the honey's energy but also quickly mastering these ancient martial arts moves that originally required a thousand hammerings and hundred refinements, which was an unexpected delight.

  ……

  In the afternoon, Li Meng came to the training base as scheduled, but this time he was blocked in front of Training Room 44.

  The first was Xiao Tu, with a gloomy face. Beside him stood a young man of the same age as Li Meng, who was younger than Xiao Tu, but Xiao Tu's attitude towards him was one of fawning humility, while the young man slightly raised his head, showing disdain through his nostrils, an arrogant demeanor that seemed to come from within.

  This young man is a member of the eighth group, named Liu Junchi, who is a martial artist. He has been practicing Nanquan since he was a child and has already gained considerable strength at a young age, inevitably having some arrogance of genius.

  Li Mang's face sank, and then he asked expressionlessly: "What do you want to do?"

  "Are you the one who beat our eight groups?" Liu Junqi asked with a raised nose.

  Li Meng looked at Xiao Tu and said calmly, "The two of you have already handled this matter. Please step aside and let me pass to train."

  "Hey, you think you can take me down?!" Liu Jun's face was cold and expressionless as he suddenly struck out with a massive fist that whizzed through the air.

  Li Mang was startled and instinctively dodged to the side. However, Liu Jun's fist didn't retract and instead swept horizontally towards him.

  Bang!

  Li Meng blocked with his arm, but was knocked back two steps before he could steady himself. His wrist throbbed with a dull pain from the impact, causing his face to darken. Having lived among the Han people for so long, he had grown accustomed to yielding to these strange and eccentric individuals. If this had happened in the past, he would have simply left quietly, after all, his status was already precarious, and struggling would only lead to further humiliation, no one would give him a fair hearing.

  Now he doesn't say that he has any special skills, but at least he has some self-defense skills and his mentality has also undergone a significant change. At least he can no longer be as tolerant as before.

  "Not bad, you've got some skills. No wonder you can beat Xiao Tu to the point where his own mother wouldn't recognize him!" Liu Junqi looked at Li Mang with a bit more interest in his eyes, but that was all. Perhaps for him, bullying the weak would only be shameful, and Li Mang's abilities could satisfy his competitive spirit even better."

  Xiao Tu smiled dryly and was displeased with Liu Junchi's words, but only flickered his eyes twice, and his face still showed a flattering smile.

  "Crack!"

  Just as the atmosphere on the scene was becoming increasingly tense, the door of training room 44 suddenly opened and Cheng Wei appeared in front of them with a limp, changing the atmosphere instantly.

  Liu Junji, who was originally proud and arrogant, raised an eyebrow, his smile suddenly became a bit dry, with a hint of awkwardness. His arrogance was undeniable, but more so was his mentality of pretending to be strong while being weak. Facing someone like Cheng Wei, a superior predecessor, he didn't dare show the slightest bit of pride.

  "Who would have thought that Cheng Wei looked at them and said astonishingly: 'Don't fight in the corridor, or the administrator will come out to stop you. Go into the training room!'"

  "...This time, Li Meng's expression stiffened, and he had already guessed what kind of idea Cold-faced Cheng Wei was getting at. He couldn't help but smile wryly, today he was going to teach a practical lesson!"

  “……Alright!” Liu Junqi was undaunted, respectfully cupped his hands together and gave Li Mang a sideways glance before leading the way into training room 44. Xiao Tu felt uneasy but could only follow him in with a stiff upper lip, but he was extremely worried - Cheng Wei was from the ninth group, if they were to play dirty, what would they do?!

  In the training room, Li Meng and Liu Junchi stood facing each other, while in the monitoring center, a group of people were also enthusiastically switching the surveillance video to the big screen, watching the competition in real-time. A question involuntarily floated into their minds at the same time: Who will win?

  "Why don't we find something interesting to do?" someone suddenly said.

  "What's going on?" someone next to him curiously asked.

  "Let's make a bet!" the man said with a laugh.

  "If you're the banker, I'll buy!" The person next to him laughed. What a ridiculous comparison! Li Meng and Liu Junchi's strength values were right on their table. How could Li Meng, who had just awakened his special ability, be a match for Liu Junchi, who had been practicing for over 20 years?!

  "No, no, no, this is a must-see gamble. I'm not stupid, but we can let Cai Guo and Yang Fan bet against each other, and then we'll take a 30% cut from the middle. No matter who wins, we'll both make money!" The man laughed slyly, and the people around him all gave him a thumbs up.

  Soon, Cai Guai and Yang Fan both received a text message, and the screens of their respective computers were also switched to the surveillance screen of Training Room 44 by the monitoring center.

  "I'll bet 10 million that Liu Junchi will win. Yang Guanshi, dare you to follow?" This is a text message sent by Cai Cai to Yang Fan.

  Yang Fan's eyebrows rose, this group of people was openly trying to swindle his money. If he didn't follow along, he would be said to not trust the members under his flag, and if he did follow along, then he had fallen into their trap. It could be seen that this time, whether he followed or not, he would lose face, unless Li Meng was able to win.

  "Tsai, your face is getting thicker, congratulations!" Yang Fan said sarcastically. Thinking about it, Li Meng was just a newly awakened person and previously an insignificant secretary of the 8th group. It wasn't right for formal members to bully him in the first place, now Tsai even took the opportunity to recklessly bet 10 million, his face was not just thick, it was extraordinary.

  Upon seeing the message from Yang Fan, Cai Guessed raised an eyebrow and responded: "This is a small game of the monitoring center brothers, I just participated in it. If Director Yang has any dissatisfaction, he can refuse to participate."

  Cai Cai thought this was a chance to make Yang Fan enemies, the monitoring center's actual power may not be great, but it is an extremely important auxiliary department. If Yang Fan offends them because of this, Cai Cai would be delighted.

  "It's just a game, no need to be so serious, Yang." The monitoring center also chimed in, not that they couldn't see through Cai's little trick, but rather they were playing along for the sake of their shared interests.

  "Alright, I'm following!" Yang Fan adjusted the glasses on his nose and gazed at the surveillance footage on the screen. A mysterious glint flashed in his eyes: Li Mang might not lose after all!