I was half dead and nearly out of gas by the time I stumbled through the mostly empty square to try and make my way to Yu Li’s. What few of my neighbors were still outside all turned a blind eye to me, not one of them offering to assist as I slowly bled out and died. I guess seeing me with a busted jaw was one thing, but seeing me sliced up like this was probably something no one wanted to be a part of. Even the cool old dude with the hat could give me but a grimace of sympathy as I shuffled by. Still, I welcomed the shunning. The struggler was back in control it seemed, which was probably a good thing. I could barely remember what happened clearly after I’d cut off that bitch’s hand, the demon nearly taking full control.

I’d have to be careful not to let that happen again.

Yu Li screamed, waking Su Ling, when she finally opened the door from all my banging. I could barely even say anything to her as I stumbled inside. “Need… some help. Get a doctor.”

“Chun!” Yu Li yelled. “What is this? Who did this to you?”

I dropped my bloody axe and reached into my pocket for the tael of silver. “Use this. Go on, I’ll watch Su Ling.”

I couldn’t really remember what happened next. I collapsed in a sort of heap as darkness took me today for the third time that day.

Time passed.

Yu Li was suddenly there looking over me, holding Su Ling with an anxious look on her face. An old woman knelt on the floor next to me, dressing my wounds.

I went in and out…glimpses of consciousness.

Bandages and stitches, ointments and pain, then finally…sleep.

* * *

Master Hei Dong bristled with irritation as he stormed behind the servant leading him to the training wing of the compound. He often considered himself a patient man and in most things he was. Why was it then that when it came to Hein, his patience always seemed to wear thin? It was as if the boy sought to provoke him intentionally.

Or perhaps he was simply expecting too much of the lad.

At over eighty years old, it was sometimes hard to recall what it was like to be young. Or perhaps at his age, getting roused from his sleep in the dead of night was something Hei Dong could no longer tolerate.

Muffled moans echoed from down the corridor ahead. When Hei Dong entered the training hall, he found Hein already on one knee bowing to him. Beside him was the disciple from his sister’s enclave, Zu Tien. The girl was on her knees, trembling with what could only be tremendous pain as she cradled her left wrist, which was now little more than a bandaged, bloody stump.

“What has happened here!” Hei Dong bellowed.

“An accident, father.” Hein lowered his head to the floor in a kowtow. “I was sparring with Zu Tien and managed to sever her hand. She is truly as weak as my sister predicted.”

Hei Dong looked to the girl. Her body trembled with more than just pain, her eyes burning coals of anger and resentment.

“Is this true?” Hei Dong said. “Speak freely, girl.”

Zu Tien’s face twisted into a scowl as long seconds passed. Finally she spoke, spitting her words out as if they tasted bitter in her mouth. “It is true. This one…was careless. This one, underestimated the boy’s strength and ferocity.”

Hein snapped his head towards her as if wanting to slap her. And he probably would have if not for Hei Dong’s presence. But Hei Dong allowed the insult. Calling him a ‘boy’ was more than appropriate in this case.

“This one, begs your forgiveness, Master Hei Dong.” Zu Tien lowered her head in a kowtow. “It will not happen again.”

Hein let out a harumph. “Zu Tien has clearly shown she is not competent. She is not worthy to be my sister’s disciple nor my own. I request to have her expelled from the sect immediately for her weakness.”

Hei Dong could sense the chaos in the girl’s Qi, her spirit struggling internally. Hein was well skilled with a blade, trained in the sacred arts of the Silver Leaf Clan by his mother from birth, the same as his elder sister Fia some ten years before him. Fia in turn had trained Zu Tien for barely five years, but as a member of her inner enclave of Silver Shadows, her skills were superior to most. Hei Dong would consider her a good match for Hein in terms of skill, just a step lower perhaps. Where they differed greatly however was in their cultivation base. Hein held much greater internal power, benefitting from the enhancement pills that only being a family member could afford.

Hei Dong glanced at Hein. The boy was clearly lying as was she. He wouldn’t put it past him to have used a Qi-focused technique on purpose to punish the girl for losing to her in a match. Him requesting her dismissal further reinforced the idea—an open attempt to hide the shame of his defeat by a subordinate.

“I will not allow it,” Hei Dong said.

Hein raised his eyes defiantly. “But she is a cripple now!”

“True and your sister will never take back a cripple into her fold. Thus, Zu Tien remains your responsibility now. Permanently.”

The girl Zu Tien let out a sharp gasp or perhaps even a sob as tears streams down her cheeks. Hei Dong pardoned her pitiful display of weakness. She had indeed suffered a great loss this night. But loss could be cultivated into great strength if given the right motivation.

An inner grin came as his cunning went to work. He would once again turn the boy’s folly into a means of strengthening the sect.

“Give Zu Tien a month to heal and recover. In that time, you shall personally retrain her to overcome her loss.”

“What?” Hein said indignantly.

“That is not all. She will then retrial. If Zu Tien is unable to match the least of her former peers, she will be removed from the sect.” Hein’s continence softened a little, seeming to agree with the consequence. “But you also will lose your position, Hein.”

The boy’s eyes widened.

“If she fails, then you will become your sister’s disciple instead, taking Zu Tien’s place as the 10th Blade of the Silver Shadows.”

“What? Father, that’s completely unacceptable! I am your heir. I will not be made subordinate to my sis—”

“I have spoken!” Hei Dong said, silencing him. “And the choice to become Fia’s subordinate will be completely your own. Fail your subordinate and she will fail you. It’s as simple as that.”

Hei Dong paused to let his words sink in for the both of them.

“You will learn to take better care of this family’s assets, Young Master Hein. And you will start by cleaning up the messes you make.”

* * *

I awoke not knowing where I was for a moment. Warm blankets covered me and from the light that spilled into the room from the small window overhead, I figured it had to be morning. Memories came back to me. The assassin. The unleashing of frenzy and the chopping off of her hand. And then somehow making it to Yu Li’s.

I tried to move but my body felt like it was cast in concrete.

I raised my head a little and saw Yu Li tending to Su Ling in the corner, rocking the infant to sleep in her arms. I kept quiet until she finally laid the child to sleep in the simple wooden box that served as her crib.

“Hey,” I said, my voice raspy, my throat sore. “Got any water?”

When Yu Li turned to me, her mouth fell open and she quickly rushed to my side. “Gods, Chun!” she shouted in a hushed whisper, trying not to wake the baby. “I can’t believe you’re awake. What the hell?”

“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry about last night. I didn’t know where else to go. Didn’t have a whole lot of time to come up with alternatives either.”

“Last night? Try four nights ago. You’ve been asleep for almost five days, Chun.”

“No shit?” I tried to move again and saw what I thought was early morning light was actually late afternoon. “No wonder I’m so stiff.”

Her brows lowered into a scowl. “I have the urge beat the crap out of you right now. What did you get yourself into? You nearly died! You’re damn lucky I was able to find someone to help you.”

“Yeah, thanks for that. Did the tael cover it?”

“What happened to you? Was it Hein? Did you do something else to provoke him?”

Her glare said it all. She’d put two and two together alright, but was coming up with five instead of four. Forget that Hein had tried to kill me, what really mattered was that I must have done something to have earned it.

I guess she wasn’t technically wrong there either, but screw her for even thinking that.

“No, it wasn’t him,” I said, being technically honest with her as well.

She narrowed her eyes. “I know when you’re lying to me, Chun.”

I sighed. “What do you want me to say?”

“I want you to say that you’re going to stop all this.”

“Stop what?”

“Whatever this is that you’re doing, Chun. You’re getting beat up like every other day. No one even knows where you are. You know your coworkers came by looking for you? They said you hadn’t been to work all last week. Supposed to be out recovering. But I saw you running out of here every morning last week. So where were you even going?”

“Don’t worry about all that.”

“Hey, look at me.” She grabbed me by the chin, forcing my eyes to meet hers. “I know you’re trying to do this to protect me. Just like you always have. And I love you to death for it. But this isn’t the schoolyard anymore. And Hein isn’t some schoolyard bully. He’s a young master of the ruling clan of this entire province. Do you have any idea what that means?”

I gave her a cocky grin. “Enlighten me.”

She fumed and threw a cloth full of Su Ling’s burp juice right at my face. “Will you at least try to take this seriously?”

“Okay. I am. I am,” I said, tossing away the puke smelling cloth. “Man, that’s disgusting. Hey, how about that water?”

Yu Li rolled her eyes but got up to fetch me some in a metal bowl. The water tasted like heaven going down my throat and as soon as it hit my stomach, I felt it rejuvenating me. Without asking, Yu Li brought me some cold rice and vegetables. I downed the food like I hadn’t eaten in days and technically I guess I hadn’t.

When I was done, Yu Li let out a flustered sigh as she collected the empty bowls from me. “I’m going to go and apologize to him.”

“Who Hein? What are you going to do? Fly up to the pagoda and start looking for him?”

She cut her eyes at me, but other than that didn’t entertain my stupid rhetorical question.

“He’ll listen to me. I know he will. When we’re alone he always does. Whatever you’ve done, I’m sure I can get him to forgive you for it. We’ll just smooth this all out. Then we can just go back to normal, like nothing ever happened.”

It was the saddest words I’d ever heard.

“Are you even listening to yourself? Back to normal? What even is that? Him treating you like a damn slave while he yaks it up with his pals?”

It was kind of a low blow, but she needed to hear the truth. To my surprise, she didn’t get angry but instead spoke in a measured and serious tone that hit me right back with a gut punch.

“It’s better than him killing you, Chun.”

I resisted the urge to counter right away and let her words sink in. Yu Li was one of the first people I met in foundation school. I’d stopped a bunch of Yee kids from picking on her one day, teasing her for her darker skin and curly hair. A few days later, she came to my rescue in the classroom, telling off the entire class in perfect Yee for making fun of me for struggling with the words. We’d been looking out for each other ever since. And while her idea of talking to Hein was ludicrous to me, that’s all she was trying to do really. Protecting me the same way I was trying to protect her.

“Don’t worry. Hein isn’t going to kill me,” I said.

“He will if you keep pushing him.”

She said it with no anger, only concern.

It was my turn to sigh now. “Yu Li, I know everything you see me doing must look absolutely crazy to you. But you’re just going to have to trust me that I know what I’m doing. One day you’ll see that we don’t need to settle for this. And I won’t stop fighting until you can see that dream for yourself.”

“What dream? What fighting? What are you even talking about?”

I thought a while longer, pondering what I should share with her and what I shouldn’t. The less she knew the better, of course. But this was Yu Li not Mu Lin. She was like a sister to me and I owed her some kind of explanation for what the hell I was doing. “I’m going to enter the tournament of mortal champions. And I’m going to win.”

Yu Li’s eyes darted back and forth, searching my own as her brows lowered in disbelief. “You’re actually serious, aren’t you? Have you really gone and lost your damn mind?”

“Maybe. But I’m still doing it anyway. I’m going to win my citizenship and then I’ll buy this place from Li Fen, the whole damn block. We won’t need to worry about being pushed around ever again after that.” I then looked over to Su Ling. “None of us.”

“Are you hearing yourself? Now who’s the one being completely stupid? Buy the block, win the tournament? Did you see yourself four nights ago? You don’t know how to fight, Chun. All you know how to do is get your ass kicked and somehow survive.”

Ouch, that one kind of hurt, but she had a point too.

Yu Li fumed and stood. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on with you, Chun, but if you’re on some kind of self-destructive crusade, I don’t want any part of it. Don’t come back here if you get yourself messed up again. You hear me? I have a baby to think about. And I can’t take care of Su Ling if I have to worry about babysitting you too.”

Funny that she said it like that, but I suppose after the last five days I couldn’t argue. I tested my body again, cycling my frenzy. To my surprise it responded with a pleasant warmth and took away all the aches. I then sat up and after a brief, sharp pain, my body felt fine. It was like it was breaking out of a cocoon or something. I then stood fully, enduring the stretching of tightened skin and the popping of stitches, grimacing instead of screaming by using [Indifference].

Yu Li looked up at me like I was a walking corpse. “How are you even standing right now?”

“Guess it wasn’t as bad as it looked.”

But truthfully, I was wondering that as well. Had I just broken through to the third stage of Body Hardening from healing all those wounds? It certainly felt like it. But there would be no way to test until I fully healed.

I stretched in a yawn as I looked down at my bandages. They were caked with old blood, still needing to stay on for another day probably, but I could move around at least. I hobbled towards the door, grabbing my axe that was beside it.

“I’m headed out Yu Li. Thanks again for taking care of me. I’ll let you know when I win the tournament.”

* * *

I blocked out an ear-full of angry yelling as Yu Li called me an idiotic and selfish prick from behind, predicting my death if I didn’t give up on my stupid dream. I continued to pay her no mind as I slowly made my way back to my apartment, the struggler firmly in control with its [resolve].

I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised by her reaction. It was probably a perfectly normal thought process she was going through. And she wasn’t wrong either. I’d fought that assassin Zu Tien to a stalemate, but it wasn’t because of my skill and she’d damn near killed me in the process.

As I entered my apartment, I wondered for a moment if I should pack up my stuff and relocate. I was a marked man now after all and Hein knew where I lived. But then again, he’d had five whole days to kill me easily in my sleep if he wanted to, but he didn’t. It was probably for the same reason that Zu Tien had attacked me in the middle of nowhere while I was all alone.

Hein wanted no witnesses to my execution. Far better for me to simply disappear and not show up to our apology party out of ‘cowardice’, than for him to reveal his own by killing me prematurely in front of everyone. And besides, if I was going to own this place one day, I was going to have to defend it too. And you didn’t do that by running away and hiding like a little bitch.

I plopped down on my cot, pulled out the orb and began searching for answers.

As much as I’d progressed in my training, I now felt woefully ill prepared for what lay ahead. Zu Tien had pretty much kicked my ass, and Hein was likely far more powerful than her. And in the tournament, there were going to be people far more powerful than Hein.

Yu Li was absolutely right.

The only thing I was getting good at, was getting my ass kicked.

If I was going to beat Hein and win the tournament, then gaining power and frenzy alone wouldn’t be enough.

Somehow…I had to learn how to fight.