The car’s engine roared as it flew out of the parking garage at top speed. Just in time too, the robed man skidded to a stop in the parking space they occupied moments ago. But they were not out of the woodworks yet, a spear of ice formed in the man’s hand. His muscles bulging with power, the red-eyed man threw the spear of ice with pinpoint accuracy, forcing Tian to swerve to avoid being hit.

Shawn’s head smashed into the glass window, dazing him, but that was the least of his concerns, another ice spear was headed their way at high speeds. Tian angled the car downwards causing the seatbelt to painfully restrict Shawn as they entered a freefall. The spear narrowly missed the car, but due to its extreme temperature, it left a faint coating of frost on the car's engine.

The engine faltered for a moment before roaring back to life. At the last moment, Tian pulled up, saving them from a painful collision with the ground.

“Watch out,” Shawn screamed, as multiple ice spears flew their way. He gripped the door, the ice spears were spread out in a way that would make it impossible to dodge them all. They were going to crash

Tian smirked as his Qi shot out of him in a powerful heartbeat-like pulse. Out of nowhere, another flying car swerved behind them, intercepting the torrent of ice spears that were about to hit them. The car burst into smoke and flames, hiding their path of retreat. Shawn relaxed into his seat as he saw no more ice spears were headed their way.

They had gotten lucky, unbelievably so. If that spear had hit them, they wouldn’t have survived.

“What was that about, that guy looked pissed,” Tian said as he wiped a bead of sweat off his forehead.

Shawn wracked his brain searching for an answer, no matter how he looked at the situation it didn’t make sense. The man had nothing to gain from attacking him.

“I honestly don’t know. I’ve only met the guy once.”

"Oh, did you steal something from him? Is that why he’s mad at you?"

"The opposite actually, he tried to mug me in an alleyway. The guy has a screw loose. He chased me down an alley with throwing knives. When I finally hit a dead end, he gave me a Shi Coin and left.”

He had left out some of the details, but he felt the abridged version got the main point across. Besides, he didn’t know how much of what the man had said was true. Based on the red-eyed man’s actions, it would be naive to take his words at face value. Everything he said could have been a lie for all he knew.

Shawn shivered, he didn’t like remembering that day. But now that the man was actively chasing him down, he couldn't afford to ignore the issue any longer.

The only thing he knew for certain was that the man in the robe was being chased by an organization and he had given him a coin shortly before he had left. Maybe those two were connected somehow, but he wasn’t sure.

“So you’re telling me he tried to kill you over a shi coin.” Tian pulled out a coin similar to the one the robed man had given him.

The coin’s surface depicted the same long-haired man and was the same shape, but something was different about it. It was missing something, the problem was he wasn’t sure what it was missing. A higher intelligence stat would have been useful about now, he didn’t have a photographic memory.

Though he figured he didn’t have to have a photographic memory to solve this mystery. Chule may still have the coin, after all, he hadn’t given it to him that long ago.

“That guy’s an idiot then, you can’t even buy anything of value with a shi coin. That stunt he pulled back there, on the other hand, is definitely gonna cost him. The gangs near the wall don’t take open combat in their territory lightly.“

Shawn hoped that a gang would get rid of the man for him, but he doubted it. The robed man was faster than anyone he had seen, including Lin.

“Don’t worry, even if he comes after you, we’ll be here to protect you. No one attacks the Scorpion’s Den and gets away with it.”

Shawn nodded. “Thanks.” They spent the rest of the car ride in silence.

Before long they had returned to the Scorpion’s Den. After parking the car they entered the main dining room of the tavern.

Chule stood behind the counter dutifully cleaning cups. Aside from the occasional person eating a midday snack, the tavern was mostly empty. From experience, he knew the real rush came at dinner time.

“What happened to you? I swear every time you leave this place you come back looking like you walked through a warzone,” Chule said after noticing Shawn's pale appearance.

“Some guy attacked us,” Tian said. “He was pretty strong.”

“Is he going to be a problem?” Chule put down the glass he was cleaning.

“No, I covered our trail, there’s no way he would be able to track us.”

"Good. Even so, keep an eye out, enemies are popping up out of nowhere, something big is coming.” Tian nodded, returning to his cleaning.

Shawn raised his hand to gain Chule’s attention. “I think I know why he attacked me. Can you show me the coin I gave you two nights ago?”

Chule grumbled and disappeared behind the bar counter. He returned moments later holding a box full of small coins. “You’re lucky, normally we don’t keep such small coins, but with how busy we have been recently, we haven’t had time to trade them in yet.”

Shawn sunk his hands into the box and shifted through the coins. Finding the coin he was looking for was like finding a needle in a haystack. Or more precisely a coin in a box of identical coins, not exactly the easiest task in the world. He cringed, the lack of sleep was affecting him more than he thought. He normally wouldn’t come up with a metaphor that dumb.

Luckily for Shawn, the coin wasn’t exactly the same as the others. Sifting through the box of coins had jogged his memory, the one the man had given him had a green dot the size of a grain of rice on it. Using his new knowledge he quickly found the coin.

Chule gasped as Shawn pulled it out of the box. “Do you know what it is,” Shawn asked?

“Let me take a closer look, I want to be sure.” Shawn handed Chule the coin. Immediately, a gentle blue light appeared around the coin, causing it to float in mid-air. With a surgeon’s precision, Chule used his Qi to separate the coin from the green dot at its base.

He ran his fingers over the unknown material before a frown settled on his face. “It’s an information jade, I don’t know how I didn’t notice this.” Chule stroked his beard deep in thought.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself boss, it’s not your fault some lunatic stabbed a scorpion to death and broke one of your precious plates, that could distract even the smartest man in the world.”

Shawn blanched, news of his actions had spread to too many people. He doubted if anyone in the Scorpion’s Den hadn’t heard the story by this point. Hell, he wouldn’t be surprised if the whole neighborhood knew.

Chule chuckled. “Even still I should have noticed it. It would have been disastrous if the jade contained an observation array. If that happened I wouldn’t even want to imagine the results, our enemies would know our every move before we even made them.” Chule pointed to Tian. “Gather a team and sweep the base. I want to be sure there are no unaccounted for arrays in the building.” Tian scurried off, eager to fulfill Chule’s orders.

“As for this jade, whoever made it was truly paranoid, they locked the information away behind a password.” Chule hummed in concentration as he held the small jade up to his eye, examining the engravings upon it. “We only get one chance at opening it, if we get the password wrong it will self-destruct.”

Shawn stared at the jade in fascination, the engravings on it were so small that he hadn’t even noticed them the first time he looked at it. To think something so small could do so much was truly mind-blowing to him. Once he had his feet underneath him, and some money saved up he wanted to try making jade arrays. It sounded fun.

“How are we supposed to open it then.”

With the discovery that the coin had an information array hidden on it, the robed man’s actions made more sense. Shawn hypothesized that the reason the robed man was being chased was that the jade contained important information and he had given it to Shawn to throw his pursuers off his trail.

He felt that he was close to solving this mystery, but he was still missing some important pieces of information. If he was just able to see what information was hidden inside the jade, he felt the situation would all make sense. Alas, neither of them had the skills required to break past the information jade’s security.

“The information held on this jade must be important if someone was willing to kill you over it. I’ll call in a hacker to decrypt it.” Chule picked up a phone. However, Chule was interrupted before he could dial the number by Lin kicking open the door.

She slumped down onto the barstool next to Shawn. She was slightly scratched up and clearly exhausted, but overall fine. “Drink, please,” she said.

Chule placed a mug of ice-cold water on the counter before her. “Report first, then you can get a real drink.” Lin glared.

“We tore up the Crimson Lotus Gang’s base, but I doubt they’ll stop being a problem,” she said in her characteristic fast speech pattern, however, due to his increased stats he no longer struggled to keep up with what she was saying.

“Why? The Crimson Lotus is a small-time gang filled with moon leaf addicts, without their base they should be done for,” Chule said.

“They’ve joined an alliance, there was only a token amount of men at their old headquarters, I suspect they’ve relocated to a more central location for their alliance.”

“How big is the alliance,” Chule asked?

"From what I've gathered so far seven different gangs are part of the alliance. They’ll want revenge on us.” Lin sighed. “They’re all weak individually, but together I don’t know if we can match their sheer numbers.”

“It’s okay, quantity never trumps quality. Though this does put us in a tough spot. We’ll have to prepare, we’ll hold a strategy meeting tonight.”

“Now can I get a real drink, I’m tired.” Chule chuckled and poured her a mug of ale.

“Sorry Shawn, hacking the information jade is going to have to wait, this takes precedence. Though as an apology I’ll let you off work a bit early tonight.”

Shawn thanked him and meandered his way back to the kitchen. Though he was a bit disappointed that he wouldn’t get to learn what was on the jade, he couldn’t complain, gang warfare was serious business.

After a boring shift of washing dishes and cutting carrots, he returned to the main room of the tavern. Based on some rudimentary calculations he guessed he was let off work four hours earlier than last night. Which left him with more time than he knew what to do with. He hadn’t had this much free time since the day he first got here.

Shawn took a seat at the bar where he found Lin, she hadn’t moved an inch since he had left. The only difference now was that she was surrounded by a wall of empty glasses. She had been busy. How she fit so much liquid inside her small body he wasn’t sure, maybe it was a cultivation technique.

“Aren’t you supposed to attend a strategy meeting tonight?”

She finished her drink. “It won’t be a problem, I know a technique that can clear alcohol from my system in under a minute,” she said, her pale cheeks tinted red from the alcohol.

"Sounds useful, how does it work?"

“You don’t have enough Qi to use it.” She squinted at him. “Actually you do? How did you gain so much Qi so quickly.”

“I just started cultivating, you got any tips for me?”

“A bit of a late start don’t you think? Most people start when they are children. What are you twenty?”

“Ya, I’m twenty. I thought cultivation wouldn’t be possible for me till a couple days ago”

Lin looked at him like he was an idiot. From her point of view, his action didn’t seem the most reasonable, hell, even from his perspective he knew he wasn’t the most logical person.

Lin ordered another drink. "The most important part of advancing through the cultivation stages quickly is wealth. Not talent, not hard work or willpower, that’s all worthless in the face of money."

“They have giant farms, the size of cities, filled with spirit herbs in the Golden Fire sect. A single pill made out of those spirit herbs would more than double your strength.”

“Is that why everyone wants to join the sect?”

“Yes, It’s not rare for a scion of a sect elder to have devoured hundreds of pills, boosting their power. Even the ordinary members get a small stipend of materials to work with.”

Shawn snaked his hand out and snatched Lin’s mug before she could drink from it. He took a sip of it and grimaced, whatever was in that cup tasted terrible. It somehow tasted worse than Bud Light. He gave the cup back to her. She raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

“You seem to know a lot about the inner workings of the sect, have you made it past the wall.”

“No, but Chule has, he used to be a member of the sect.”

“What happened?”

"I don’t know. He doesn’t talk about it much."

Shawn looked at the bartender in shock, if he was so powerful why was he wasting his time here?

"Do you want to join the sect? Is that why you’re asking so many questions about it?"

"Isn't that why we're all here?" In truth, he didn't know if he wanted to join the sect. It was hard not to wonder what life was like behind the golden wall. But at the same time, he didn't want to put himself under the control of an organization.

He would be perfectly happy if he was able to live peacefully in Najian. Though he doubted that would ever happen. The sect may very well be the only peaceful area in a thousand miles.

Lin hummed in agreement. "Don't lose hope if you're not talented enough to walk through the wall. There are other ways to get in."

"Like what, bribe my way in? They seem corrupted enough for that to work."

Lin laughed. "You don’t have anything valuable enough to bribe them with, everything we have in Najian they have a better version of inside the sect. No, the safest way for you to get into the sect would be to pass the entrance exam. The next one is in 5 years if you want to take that route."

Shawn didn’t know what he wanted to do a week from now let alone five years, that was way too far into the future. “What’s the unsafe way of getting in?”

"Winning the Carnival is the most dangerous, but the easiest option. Once every few years the Founder hides coins in the city. The first person to find a coin has it easy, all they have to do is walk through the gate with a coin on their person and they will be let into the sect."

"That sounds easy. I could do that."

"It sounds easy, but it's not. Once the first person uses a coin to pass through the gate, the Founder will officially announce its start. That’s when the real bloodbath begins. The city was burnt to the ground in the last Carnival."

Shawn gulped, that didn’t sound easy. The mention of death and destruction put him on edge, he didn’t have time to be casually chatting at the bar.

He excused himself and locked himself in his room. He had delayed for long enough, he had cultivating to do. He sat on his bed and absorbed the world's natural energy for the better part of four hours.

By the time he had stopped, he advanced a cultivation stage and his [Devourer] skill had recharged ready to be used again.

Name: Shawn Jones Cultivation: Qi Gathering 3 29/150 Hp: 25/25 Qi: 22/22 Strength: 4 Dexterity: 5 Perception: 5 Endurance: 4 Resilience: 7 Agility: 9 Intelligence: 4

He was happy with his progress but he knew it wasn’t enough.

With a gang war looming on the horizon, he knew the danger of staying in the Scorpion's Den would only increase. The danger level of his life was already high, practically every time he stepped outside he was attacked, he couldn’t imagine it becoming any more dangerous.

He couldn’t leave the gang either, without The Den’s protection, the man in the robe would kill him in a matter of days. He was stuck in between a rock and a hard place. Whatever decision he made, he would be exposed to danger.

Shawn clenched his fist, his knuckles going white. This all wouldn’t be a problem if he was stronger. Right now the fastest way he could gain strength was through his [Devourer] skill. He searched his room but found nothing he could use the skill on.

He stepped out of his room and searched the tavern, failing to find anything. It seemed whoever was on cleanup duty tonight had done a good job.

Shawn gripped the handle of the front door with shaky hands. He couldn’t let his life be ruled by fear. Steeling his nerves, he set out into the night in search of something to use [Devourer] on.