Chapter 866: Unstoppable! Pang Tian

On the first floor of the villa, in the living room.

There were four people in the living room: Pang Tian, Regional Director of the Thunder Martial Arts Guild in Shanghai, Ma Shan, Regional Director of Jiangsu Province, as well as Xu Jingming and Ling Shuang.

Song Qiuyun and Jiang Chu were still in the training room, and since they had not yet joined the Thunder Martial Arts Guild, they did not participate.

"Inspector Xu, I am Pang Tian, Regional Director of the Shanghai area."

"Inspector, I am Ma Shan, Regional Director of Jiangsu Province."

Both Pang Tian and Ma Shan rose from their seats and bowed respectfully as they introduced themselves.

Although Xu Jingming might already know them, the proper formalities still had to be observed.

"No need for formalities, please sit."

Xu Jingming nodded slightly and spoke casually.

"Inspector, you are young but already accomplished; as your subordinates,

we will follow your orders directly without any hesitation.

Of course, if we make any mistakes, please point them out—we will correct them immediately."

Pang Tian immediately revealed his intent.

Loyalty!

He must make this newly appointed young inspector notice it.

"Is that so? Actually, I do have some questions for you." Xu Jingming replied indifferently.

"Inspector, please ask," Pang Tian hurriedly said.

"I heard you two are very close to Deputy Director Hu Jinyu. Is that true?"

Xu Jingming looked at them and asked.

Yet this simple question instantly froze Pang Tian and Ma Shan's expressions, drenching them in sweat.

They had not expected Xu Jingming to be so blunt, with no preamble whatsoever.

Answering this question was extremely difficult.

If they admitted it, they might be targeted by Xu Jingming later.

If they denied it and he found evidence, it would be even worse.

"Inspector, it is true we have worked with him, but only within the scope of normal duties—nothing more."

After a moment's hesitation, Pang Tian spoke first.

Since they had chosen to realign themselves, these matters would have to be clarified sooner or later.

Ma Shan realized this too and quickly added: "Inspector, my situation is much the same."

"You're surprisingly honest."

Xu Jingming smiled, took a sip of tea, and spoke in a low, powerful voice:

"I don't care how you two related to Hu Jinyu in the past.

From now on, I demand you sever all ties with him."

That old fox, Hu Jinyu.

Since I joined the Thunder Martial Arts Guild, he's been stirring up trouble—and now that I have the chance, I won't let him off.

First, I must firmly control Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Suzhou-Hangzhou.

"Rest assured, Inspector, we will terminate all cooperation with Deputy Director Hu."

Seeing Xu Jingming had no intention of punishing them, Pang Tian and Ma Shan quickly replied.

"Besides Hu Jinyu, the same applies to the Li family."

Xu Jingming spoke again: "How many members of the Li family are there in the Shanghai and Jiangsu regional branches of the Thunder Martial Arts Guild?"

"There aren't many Li family members, but they hold key positions.

In Shanghai, one-fifth of all supervisors and above are from the Li family."

After a moment's thought, Pang Tian replied.

"Jiangsu's situation is better, but there are still quite a few Li family members."

Ma Shan followed up.

"One-fifth? The Li family's reach has extended this far!"

Ling Shuang snorted coldly, her beautiful eyes now glinting with icy disdain.

One-fifth was enough for the Li family to orchestrate plenty of small schemes in these regions.

"Thankfully, we've already removed the Shanghai Inspector—had Liu Shan taken over, things would've been far worse."

Ling Shuang thought silently.

At this moment, Xu Jingming turned to Pang Tian and Ma Shan and said:

"I give you one month to remove every single Li family member from your respective regions."

The Li family and Hu Jinyu were cut from the same cloth; if he was severing ties with Hu, he must also expel the Li family.

"Remove them all?"

Pang Tian and Ma Shan were stunned—they realized Xu Jingming intended to confront the Li family head-on!

Worse still, they were the ones who had to carry it out.

Once this was done, they would be irreversibly aligned against the Li family, with no possibility of future cooperation.

"What? Are you unable to accomplish this?"

Xu Jingming looked at them coolly.

Realigning oneself isn't that simple—he wouldn't consider using them unless they fully alienated Hu Jinyu.

"No problem! In one month, you won't see a single Li family member left!"

Ma Shan gritted his teeth and made the promise outright.

In truth,

replacing so many people in a month was extremely difficult.

But to gain Xu Jingming's

"Same here," Pang Tian quickly realized and added.

"Good. Then let's have a successful partnership."

Only now did Xu Jingming smile and shake hands with each of them.

Of course, whether they were enemies or allies would depend on the results after one month.

"By the way, why wasn't the Suzhou-Hangzhou Regional Director here with you?"

Xu Jingming asked.

"Only Ma and I came this time—we didn't notify him."

Pang Tian replied cautiously.

After what had just happened, he no longer dared to see Xu Jingming as an inexperienced youth.

"Of course—he's one of the Li family."

Xu Jingming shook his head.

To control Suzhou-Hangzhou, this Li family Regional Director must be removed.

But since he had just taken office, he could wait a while to get familiar with his position before acting.

"Then let's end here for today. See you at tonight's banquet."

Seeing Xu Jingming had dismissed them, Pang Tian and Ma Shan quickly took their leave.

Only after stepping outside the villa gate did they both exhale in unison.

"So? Regional Director Pang, you look pretty stressed." Ma Shan teased.

"Of course I'm stressed—aren't you?" Pang Tian rolled his eyes.

"Stressed? Of course I am."

Ma Shan chuckled, then sighed:

"I thought Xu Jingming could be easily fooled, but he threw us a tough challenge right away.

If we don't clear out all the Li family members in a month, our troubles won't be small."

"Tell me about it."

Pang Tian also looked deeply impressed: "Xu Jingming isn't just talented and powerful—he handles affairs with razor-sharp precision. It's unbelievable."

Unstoppable! Fierce and brilliant!

That was his first impression of Xu Jingming.

But it was understandable—achieving this by under twenty-one was truly worthy of pride.

Today's meeting had achieved its goal: they had realigned themselves.

Yet the cost was far higher than he had imagined...

PS: Working overtime at the company—still only one chapter today. The program keeps crashing with random errors, and the boss is waiting to demo it to the client—pressure is exploding (unbearable).

PS: The company is working overtime, but still only one chapter today—the program keeps crashing with inexplicable errors, and the boss is waiting to demo it for the client; the pressure is unbearable.