"No... don’t come over, I beg you, don’t hit me." Seeing the old man, Hu Heng screamed instinctively, leaving the old man slightly bewildered.
The old man was dressed in tattered clothes, all patched up.
Moreover, it seemed he hadn’t tidied up in a long time. He looked very shabby, with a long, messy beard, appearing like a beggar.
But he moved with ease, full of vigor. If cultivators were around, they would know he was a cultivator, and a very powerful one at that.
"Yo! Looks like you’ve been beaten pretty badly, but I have no grudge against you, so I won’t hit you." The old beggar teased with a smile, seeing Hu Heng’s miserable state.
"Really?" Hearing that the old beggar wouldn’t hit him, Hu Heng finally breathed a sigh of relief and asked, "Then what do you want?"
"I can teach you skills. I see you have extraordinary bones, very suitable to inherit my mantle. Would you be willing?" The old beggar handed Hu Heng a steamed bun, smiling as he asked.
If it were in the past, even if Hu Heng starved to death, he wouldn’t eat a bite of such a bun.
But now, having been hungry for a long time and with no money on him, he couldn’t wait to snatch it the moment he saw the bun and began to eat it excitedly.
After eating happily, Hu Heng couldn’t wait to ask, "Is there more?"
"You haven’t answered my question yet!" The old beggar gave him another bun reluctantly and continued to ask.
"Mantle? What skills do you have?" Hu Heng asked curiously while eating the bun.
"Look over there." Upon hearing Hu Heng’s words, the old beggar pointed to a stone in the distance and smiled.
"What about it?" Hu Heng looked puzzled.
At that moment, the old beggar lightly pushed his palm forward.
Instantly, a golden dragon shadow appeared on the old beggar’s palm and flew toward the stone.
The moment the golden dragon shadow hit the stone, it immediately exploded, shattering into pieces.
The golden dragon shadow from the old beggar’s hand looked far more profound than the one used previously by Deacon Hai, and its power was much more terrifying, as if it were a more advanced palm technique.
"Ah?" Seeing this scene, Hu Heng was dumbfounded, too shocked to continue eating his bun.
Only then did Hu Heng realize that this old beggar was a master, and an incredibly powerful one at that.
Upon this realization, Hu Heng excitedly grabbed the old beggar and asked eagerly, "If I inherit your mantle, can I become this powerful?"
"Of course." The old beggar nodded proudly.
"Great! I agree." Upon hearing this, Hu Heng agreed without hesitation.
At the same time, Hu Heng showed eyes full of hatred and secretly vowed, "Xu Family, Hu Family, Ye Feng, you all wait for me. When I complete my training and return, I will repay today’s humiliation a hundredfold."
In an instant, Hu Heng was consumed by hatred, with a single-minded desire for revenge.
"You should think it over. Following me to learn not only requires enduring pain that ordinary people cannot withstand but also involves self-mutilation; it’s going to be very hard. Do you still want to?" Upon seeing Hu Heng agree, the old beggar quickly confirmed.
"I do. No matter how hard it gets, I will fight to learn, and I won’t consider myself a person until I succeed." Hu Heng was determined.
"Good! Then today I’ll take you as my apprentice." Seeing Hu Heng’s firm resolve, the old beggar nodded excitedly.
Today’s setback was something Ye Feng never anticipated, unexpectedly creating a future formidable opponent...
Meanwhile, Li Lingui, upon receiving the samples, instructed the company’s employees to start applying for various procedures.
Whether it was patents, trademarks, or brands, as long as it was needed, they were all being orderly applied for.
Moreover, after the previous events, all departments had been informed to expedite all procedures for Huanmei Company seamlessly.
In fact, as soon as something was applied for by Li Lingui, someone would come to provide backdoor assistance, allowing for unimaginably quick approvals.
This was something Li Lingui never expected.
At the same time, Li Lingui marveled at Ye Feng’s formidable power, as he was very clear that without Ye Feng, things wouldn’t have gone so smoothly.
Seeing how smoothly everything was being applied for, Li Lingui instructed the workers to prepare for the project start ahead of time as work was about to commence.
Before the official launch, a certain inventory needed to be stockpiled.
Upon receiving Li Lingui’s instructions, the factory manager organized people to thoroughly clean the entire facility and perform maintenance on the machines.
Once the machines and factory were completely cleaned, they would be ready to start at any moment.
However, at that moment, the man in the suit hiding in the shadows saw the factory people start to get busy, and he snickered coldly.
Originally, he thought he’d have to wait longer before taking action; little did he expect such an opportunity to arise so soon.
So he hurriedly made a phone call.
And with his call, one by one, the departmental cars orderly entered the factory.
"Stop, everyone stop." After entering the factory, the departmental personnel shouted, halting all the workers.
Seeing this setup, all the workers looked puzzled, not knowing what happened.
"We need to conduct a routine inspection and hope for your cooperation."
"Routine inspection, who’s the factory manager? Please ask them to cooperate with us."
Once the workers gathered, the departmental personnel respectively explained their purpose.
"Of course, we’ll fully cooperate. Rest assured, this is a legitimate factory." Hearing it was a routine inspection, the factory manager greeted them with a smile and began cooperating.
"This is unqualified!"
"This too is unqualified!"
"This, this too is unqualified!"
During the inspection process, these people found all sorts of faults, turning even non-issues into problems.
Upon hearing this, the factory manager felt something was off.
These standards were very clear to him; the factory met them, yet the other side kept saying they were unqualified. How could this not be suspicious?
"Deadline to rectify; halt operations for three months." Indeed, before they even completed their inspection, the other party had already issued a penalty, which was their objective.
"Really? How are we not qualified? We’ve followed the standards, can’t you see?"
"Exactly! If we’re unqualified, then what is qualified? Isn’t this nitpicking?"
"Hmph! I say these people are just making things up, probably trying to extort money, kick them all out!"
Instantly, the workers were infuriated and poised to drive these people out.
"Are you thinking of resisting? Have you considered the consequences?" Seeing this, the departmental personnel frowned and threatened.
As for the man in the suit hiding in the shadows, he was delighted.
In his view, the bigger the scene, the better, preferably causing a mess beyond control, preventing the factory from commencing operations—that was his goal...