Previously, Yang Shuoxuan had considered recruiting some veterans to form his shadow force, but Yang Ce quickly dismissed the idea. People who came out of the military tended to be upright in their thinking; asking them to do murder and plunder—many would likely refuse. Even if they forced themselves to do it for a living, they would be uneasy in their hearts.

But these people before him were different. They were martial arts school graduates; their notions of good and evil were not so deeply entrenched. Yang Shuoxuan would find it easier to win their hearts.

Most of them had likely studied martial arts for the same reason the young man had just described—to stand up for the weak, rob the rich to help the poor. Such a group, who revered the heroes of the greenwood, would be all the easier for Yang Juehuan to assimilate into his way of thinking.

After all, most of what Yang Ce would have them do was also the underworld preying on the underworld—in a way, sharing a curious kinship with the greenwood heroes of old. That was precisely why Yang Minlan and the others had taken such an interest.

"All right, that's enough," Yang Ce said, nodding in satisfaction as he saw the young man fighting with ever greater ferocity. "What's your name?"

"My name's Li Qiang—Li as in Li Shimin, Qiang as in strong. Everyone calls me Brutus," the young man said, lowering his hands and addressing Yang Yanzhou.

"What does Brutus mean?" Yang Puqi asked, utterly baffled.

"Heh heh, it's because I look a bit like that Brutus from Popeye, so all my classmates call me Brutus." Li Qiang gave a sheepish chuckle.

"Heh, so that's it." When Yang Ce had been in Donghai, he had watched a few episodes of Popeye while keeping Lin Yanhe company watching cartoons, so the moment Li Qiang explained, it came back to him.

To be continued.