We, the several of us, followed another man in black outside,繞過 these houses, and in front of us was a row of sheds built from wood.
The sheds were about four to five meters high and seven to eight meters wide. Inside, instead of ground, there were many pools of water.
The pools were filled with water, very murky, and their depth was unclear.
Each pool was about ten meters long. Bubbles were constantly churning inside, and above the pools was a wire mesh cover, enclosing the entire pool.
As we approached, the water suddenly churned up, and a giant dark monster rushed out. I stared for a long time before realizing it was a massive crocodile. It thrashed in the water, then submerged, leaving only its head exposed. It opened its enormous jaws, revealing rows of fist-sized teeth, and emitted a deep growl.
We involuntarily took a few steps back, as if it had lunged at us.
Several other crocodiles were swimming in the water, half their bodies exposed, each about two to three meters long.
The man in black spoke to us, "Yesterday's brother has been completely digested by them. With Brother Hui, only victors survive. Remember, if you betray Brother Hui, the outcome is the same. To avoid becoming food for crocodiles, there is only one way: complete the mission! You may return to training."
With that, he turned and left, completely ignoring our dumbfounded expressions.
I nudged A Bei, who jumped back a considerable distance. A Bei's face was pale; he was clearly terrified, as if he were the one being thrown in to feed the crocodiles.
I looked at the terrified A Bei with a wry smile and said softly, "We should go."
He was our leader now, and he needed to act like one.
We went to the training ground with dejected spirits. The man in black stood in the center of the mat and beckoned us to attack him.
A Bei was easy; he didn't know much kung fu, so he could just fight with his own strength. The rest of us, however, had to pretend to be novices and hide our skills.
We charged forward, flailing our limbs, as if putting all our might into it, swinging our fists at the man in black.
Before we could even reach him, the man in black executed a somersault and swept his leg towards us, knocking us all to the ground.
We struggled to get up, staring at him blankly.
The man in black continued to beckon us, signaling us to try again.
We exchanged glances. This time, we wouldn't rush him all at once. The Daoist brothers formed one group, and A Bei and I formed another. We charged at him simultaneously.
The man in black clearly saw through our ploy. He dodged the Daoist brothers with a swift movement, then struck at our chests with both hands. He then leaned back, grabbed the arms of the two Daoist brothers, and threw them to the ground.
I had to admit, his reaction time was excellent, and his techniques were readily applied.
Even if I faced him in hand-to-hand combat, I might not be able to take him down in five or six moves.
I had to consider the strength of these men in black who were close to Brother Hui. With them protecting Brother Hui, it would be difficult for us to get close.
The man in black gave us no chance to catch our breath and continued, "You bunch of useless trash, get up quickly and come again!"
This time, we changed our tactics again. We stopped fighting in groups and went one by one.
I let A Bei go first, the two Daoist brothers in the middle, and I went last.
A Bei was bound to be an easy target; he was taken down before he even got close.
The Daoist brothers made a feint, flashing past him from left and right. I seized the opportunity when he was dealing with the Daoist brothers, jumped up, and punched him in the chest.
However, I didn't put much force into it; the impact was soft, like a tickle.
He paused, then laughed heartily, "Good! You have potential, young man. It's just that your strength is like a woman's, almost like a tickle. Alright, that's enough sparring for now. You all go hit the sandbags."
He pointed to several sandbags on the other side of the room and told us to hit them.
We stood by the sandbags. A Bei counted "one, two, three, four," and we all punched the sandbags in unison.
The man in black stipulated that we hit them for half an hour without stopping.
It wasn't much for us, but it was tough on A Bei. He didn't have much of a foundation and had to exert himself to count. After ten minutes, his voice grew weak, and he could only utter faint gurgles from his throat, making his counting unintelligible. My punching speed began to slow down.
The man in black held a whip and lashed at A Bei, yelling, "Are you not eating? Shout louder!"
A Bei's tears streamed down his face from the lashes, but he mustered his spirits and amplified his voice a little.
Then, the whip turned towards us. A lash brought excruciating pain. I didn't resist, only gritted my teeth, enduring the pain as I hit the sandbag.
The two Daoist brothers, like me, made no other move, each punch harder than the last.
I knew what they were thinking: the humiliation we suffered today, we would repay tenfold.
The man in black who trained us was said to be a former provincial underground fighting champion, whom Brother Hui had heavily recruited to be his bodyguard. The others were similar, having all placed in underground boxing matches.
This was what Zhou Yingying had told me when she was in Lijiang.
Half an hour of hitting sandbags was not much for the three of us, but we had to keep up with A Bei. When the time was up, we all collapsed onto the floor.
The man in black looked at us with disdain and then said, "Go eat something. We continue in ten minutes!"
Food was prepared for us on a side table: boiled beef and plain boiled eggs. Each person received about a pound of cooked beef and ten eggs.
The man in black demanded that we eat everything!
The beef and eggs were high-quality protein, and generally considered delicious. However, the moment we took our first bite, we were all stunned.
The beef was simply boiled in plain water, with no seasoning, just the taste of meat. There were no condiments, not even salt.
Each person had a liter of warm water. All we could do was swallow the bland, tasteless beef with the water!
We only had ten minutes, and we didn't dare waste it. We quickly used small knives to cut the cooked beef into small pieces and stuffed them into our mouths.
It was said that in Sakura Country, sumo wrestlers were trained this way, allowing them to consume large amounts of quality protein to maximize their size, strengthening their muscles and bones, and developing immense strength.
I never expected Brother Hui to use such a method to rapidly enhance the stamina of his fighters.
Pitiable us, we suffered under this method of force-feeding.
I stuffed the last egg into my mouth as time was up.
The three of us were fine, but A Bei still had a small piece of beef and three eggs left on his plate.
He was then whipped again and, under our watchful eyes, finished the remaining food.