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"Oh? You have your own crew too?" Shawn Young asked curiously.
"Yep, that's right! If you want to survive in Myanmar, there's no way you can do it without your own power base!" Martin Yang nodded as he spoke.
"Oh? If you already have your own crew, why do you still need to rely on the Kachin Tribe?" Shawn Young couldn't quite figure it out—his street smarts weren't nearly as sharp as Martin Yang's yet.
At this point, Yanyu couldn't help but chime in: "Oh, come on! If you can use someone else to reach your goal, why show off your own strength? Of course you save your power—if something urgent or unexpected happens, your hidden forces become the secret weapon that can turn the tables!"
"Oh, oh! So that's how it works, I get it now! Haha—" Shawn Young blushed, suddenly enlightened.
"Yep, you're as sharp as ever, Miss! Nailed it in one! Haha—besides those main reasons, our hidden forces only come out for the big moves. Once we take down Nick Carter's leftovers, the whole northern Myanmar power structure gets shuffled. Don't be fooled by how smoothly things are going with the Kachin Tribe now—it all depends on having Nick Carter as a common enemy and shared interests. Once his crew is wiped out, that delicate balance will break. If the Kachin Tribe gets all the spoils, they'll act like they did all the hard work and start charging us top dollar! Us Chinese folks won't have it so easy anymore! So, no matter what, we have to fight for our biggest share!" Martin Yang laid out his carefully considered analysis, not hiding a thing from Shawn Young.
"Oh! Haha, looks like I've still got a lot to learn about the underworld!" Shawn Young said, deeply moved by Martin Yang's words.
Martin Yang gave a small smile and gestured to his two bodyguards. "Notify our people right away. Have them bring weapons and split into two teams to rendezvous at Nick Carter's old stronghold, Raveneye Mountain. Once they're on the outskirts, tell them to lay low and not make any moves yet. Let General Mangshan's Kachin forces clash with Nick Carter's crew first. We'll plan our next step when we get there." Martin Yang announced loudly.
"Got it, boss!" The two bodyguards immediately whipped out their phones, dialed several numbers, and began contacting the Hung Society brothers as Martin Yang ordered.
"Mr. Shawn, we're only about ten miles from Nick Carter's old base—Raveneye Mountain. Should we go check things out first and wait for everyone to arrive before making a move?" Martin Yang had this plan in mind, but he still respectfully asked Shawn Young.
"Yep, you're way more experienced than me in this. We'll go with your plan for taking down Nick Carter's leftovers! If anything special comes up, I'll step in." Shawn Young knew this was a technical job and let Martin Yang take charge.
"Alright! Let's head out now! Once we're out of this valley, we'll get over there and our people should arrive soon enough!" Martin Yang led the way with his two bodyguards, heading out of the valley. Shawn Young and Jade Swann exchanged a glance and followed.
The five of them trekked through the leech-infested jungle, making their way toward Raveneye Mountain. But thanks to the strange liquid Jade Swann found on Grandmaster Zenith's corpse, which smelled like a mix of daffodils and urea, they'd all smeared it on themselves before leaving. Shawn Young sniffed it and figured out it was some kind of protective potion to ward off poison and evil. Otherwise, Grandmaster Zenith wouldn't have made it through the jungle so easily.
After crossing the dense jungle, they kept heading north for more than half an hour. Rounding a patch of forest, they saw a range of rolling mountains ahead, blanketed in thick woods. But what really stunned them was the sight at the foot of the mountains—vast fields of opium poppies. It was dusk, and in the glow of the setting sun, the poppies looked almost eerily beautiful. Shawn Young stared, dazed, feeling like he was back in the war-torn mountains of Afghanistan.
"Hmm, this is the Raveneye Mountain range, and those poppy fields at the base are grown by Nick Carter's men and the local villagers he hires. I didn't expect they'd plant so much! No wonder he's such a notorious drug lord! Just the profits from these drugs are enough for him to build a mini kingdom in northern Myanmar!" Martin Yang stopped, shaking his head in amazement.
Jade Swann asked Martin Yang, "Mr. Yang, do a lot of these drugs end up in China?"
"Yep, that's right. Nick Carter's main market is Asia. At first, he wasn't that big, mostly dealing in Southeast Asia. But as China opened up and got richer, Myanmar's location gave him an edge, so he started working with mainland gangs to run organized cross-border drug deals and made a killing. That's how he got so powerful—drugs built his empire! And he's been planning to expand his market in China, developing new drugs and pushing hard these last few years. But now, he's run into you, Mr. Shawn, and it's payback time!" Martin Yang shared what he knew with Jade Swann.
"Hmph! These things ruin lives. Once we've taken this place, we'll destroy all the poppy fields—wipe them out for good!" Jade Swann, being a government official, had zero tolerance for this stuff.
"Oh, uh—well, we'll see about that—it's not totally up to us—" Martin Yang was a man of the underworld, so his sense of right and wrong wasn't so clear-cut. He knew drugs were bad, but also that banning them wasn't so simple, especially in unstable Myanmar. He didn't really agree with Jade Swann's approach.
Plus, Martin Yang didn't know Jade Swann's true identity, but he could guess her background was anything but ordinary—and she was Shawn Young's woman. So he had to tread carefully around her.
"No need to wait. Once we've taken this place, it's our call, and we'll destroy every last poppy plant!" Jade Swann said coldly, her pretty brows furrowed.
Martin Yang could only look helplessly at Shawn Young, who actually agreed with Jade Swann. But after his mission in Afghanistan, Shawn knew that fighting drugs was a global headache—banning them completely was way harder than it looked. So he just shrugged at Martin Yang and said, "If that's the case, after we take this place, let's see how much say we really have!"