Shawn followed Lin through the building till they reached their destination. Lao hadn’t been lying, they had the whole fourth floor to themselves. It wasn’t luxuriously large or anything, but it was still nice. Weights lined one side of the room, punching bags hung from the ceiling and a boxing ring dominated the center of the room.

All in all, it looked like the type of place Rocky would train at. His heart beat in anticipation, he couldn’t wait till their lesson started. He had always loved fighting movies as a child. Now he was going to get his own training montage.

“Don’t worry about what old Lao says, he has gone senile in old age.” She threw him a pair of boxing gloves. “Do you know how to use Qi Enhancement?”

“Ya, right now the skill is level 5.” Shawn opened [Qi Enhancements] description from the [Skill List].

Qi Enhancement Lvl 5: A basic skill that all powerful cultivators must master. Spend 2 Qi per second to increase strength and agility by 9. You can spend extra Qi to enhance your muscles further, but at a decreased rate of efficiency. Be warned, flooding your muscles with too much Qi can lead to irreparable damage.

In the past couple of days, he had trained the skill, but it had proved hard to level. He could only use it for 23 seconds at a time, and he didn’t have anywhere he could let loose with the skill and really push its limits. The rush of power he gained from the skill was so great, that he had trouble controlling it, his strikes were a blur that he was unable to track when he activated the skill.

“Good, not everyone gets the skill. Without it, you probably wouldn’t be able to beat any high-level fighter. What stats are you enhancing at the moment?”

“Strength and agility,” he said, his tone questioning, unsure why she would ask.

“Makes sense, those two are the easiest to improve. Are you able to control your movements when you use the skill?”

“Not really, if I go all out, I don’t have that much control.”

“Then we will start off the lesson by teaching you how to enhance your dexterity, all the power in the world means nothing if you can’t hit your target.” Shawn nodded. “Increasing your strength is easy, all you have to do is focus your Qi into your muscles. However, to increase your dexterity, you must enhance your nervous system. Does that make sense?”

Shawn nodded then sat down on the floor. What she said had made sense, and if took what she said to the logical extreme, he could probably enhance his perception stat by bringing his Qi to his eyes. It was simple, he should have figured it out earlier.

“Don’t be discouraged if you don’t figure out how to do it on your first try. The process gets easier the higher skill level you have in [Qi Enhancement], but even with a high level, the process is not easy. You have to fundamentally change the way you use the skill.”

Shawn brought his attention to his stomach, where his Qi was stored. Pinching off a portion of the energy, he brought it to the base of his spine. The cluster of nerves located there greedily devoured the energy, almost without needing to direct it, it surged down his nerves like lightning, kicking his body into overdrive and slowing his perception of time.

He could tell this was a highly precarious process, if he misdirected the Qi even the smallest amount, it would leak out of his nerves and the energy would be wasted. To make matters even more difficult the energy traveled down multiple different branching paths at high speeds. But, for some reason, the task was incredibly easy, like he had done it thousands of times before.

The energy flowed through the complex maze that was his nervous system without him needing to direct it much. From time to time, his instincts would lead him astray, but he was always able to guide the energy back to the correct path before anything could go wrong.

After what felt like an hour of effort, his Qi suffused every inch of his nervous system. A qualitative change took place, that he could only describe through his spiritual senses as his nerves being set on fire.

When he opened his eyes blue screens cluttered his vision.

Congratulations! Your skill, Qi Enhancement has grown to level 6. Congratulations! Your skill, Qi Enhancement has grown to level 7. Qi Enhancement Lvl 7: A basic skill that all powerful cultivators must master. Spend 3 Qi per second to increase strength, agility, and dexterity by 11. You can spend extra Qi to enhance yourself further, but at a decreased rate of efficiency. Be warned, flooding your body with too much Qi can lead to irreparable damage.

“Done,” Shawn said. It had felt like the process had taken hours, but judging by the clock in the corner of the room, the whole process had taken only a couple of minutes. The effort had definitely been worth it, the cost of the skill had increased slightly, but the addition of dexterity not only increased the amount of stats the skill gave by 50%, but also made his strength and agility more valuable by allowing him to use them better.

She narrowed her eyes. “You’re telling the truth? Most people take much longer to upgrade the skill. I guess Lao was right, you are a bit talented.” She strapped on a white pair of boxing gloves. “Let's see if that talent extends to other aspects of combat. Show me what you got. Let’s spar.”

He fumbled with his gloves, struggling to put them on. She stepped into the ring in the center of the room and he followed, clearing the rope barrier with a single hop. Shawn smiled as he shook out his arms, he was stronger now. Lin had even said he was talented. He should be able to hold his own, at least for a little bit.

“Don’t get overconfident. Just because you picked up Qi Enhancement quickly doesn’t mean you know how to fight.” She fiddled with an object in the corner of the ring. “Let’s start with a short round; 60 seconds. I’ll only defend, try to hit me.”

The timer started and he surged into action. He had seen what she had done to the Crimson Lotus Gang, he wouldn’t make the mistake of going easy on her. He activated [Qi Enhancement] and immediately felt his body lighten. Like a rocket he lunged forward, so quickly his surroundings blurred and threw a punch with all his might.

Lin stood still, her hands down at her sides. For a moment Shawn feared that he would hurt her, but at the last possible moment, she shifted to the side letting Shawn shoot past her. Unable to control his momentum, Shawn crashed into the ropes.

Not wanting to waste any time, he got up and threw a flurry of haymakers. Each strike contained his full force, but his punches never landed. Every time he would get close she would subtly shift her body a couple inches causing him to miss.

Adapting to her strategy, he stopped throwing punches to her head. Instead, he focused on throwing body shots in hopes of making it harder for her to dodge. His strategy worked, now it looked like she expended a slight amount of energy. All his punches still missed, but at least she wasn’t standing still anymore.

Growing frustrated at his failure to hit her, Shawn decided to do something she wouldn’t expect. He pivoted his body and threw a roundhouse kick with all his weight behind it. A look of surprise flashed across her face. Through his Qi sense, he could tell she had activated [Qi Enhancement]. In a blur of movement, he wasn’t able to follow, her hand snaked upward and caught his foot, completely stopping the kick.

Lin stifled a laugh. “You probably shouldn’t try to kick someone if you don’t know the proper kicking technique.” She slowly swept her leg forward, knocking him off balance and causing him to crash to the ground. “At least if you throw a kick don’t leave it out there for someone to catch.”

Shawn groaned on the ground. His muscles spasmed as he ran out of Qi. While his skill was active he had been able to ignore it, but his endurance and resilience stats simply weren’t high enough to keep up with his power.

Sweat streamed down his brow as he glanced at the timer. He had only been fighting for ten seconds. “Lesson two, don’t stay on the ground. Get up fast or get hit.” He rolled out of the way, barely avoiding her foot as it crashed into the canvas.

He ignored his strained body and stumbled to his feet. “I thought you said you were only going to defend.”

She scratched the back of her head with her glove.“I got caught up in the moment, sorry.”

“Whatever, just don’t hit me too hard, I’m fragile.” Shawn approached her once more and threw heavy punches. Without his [Qi Enhancement] it was even easier for her to dodge. She barely had to move to avoid his punches, which frustrated him to no end. He tried to catch her off guard by varying where he struck, but nothing worked.

“Good. Lesson three, not every punch has to have your full power behind it. If you’re not sure you are going to hit them, leave some power in reserve. Attacking leaves you open to a counterattack.” She dodged one of his punches and tapped him in the ribs while he was over-extended.

Taking her advice to heart, Shawn started to vary the strength of his punches, mixing jabs into his attack repertoire. As his fighting knowledge expanded, he began to see more potential avenues of attack. The problem was he lacked the technical skill to take advantage of them. His strikes were still clumsy and telegraphed.

Despite his lack of skill he continued trying to hit her, experimenting with different combinations of punches, seeing what worked the best. Shawn gasped for breath as he glanced at the timer, he only had to last ten more seconds. Putting on a final burst of speed, Shawn executed a basic boxing combo.

“Your offensive is improving quickly, but in a real fight your opponent will fight back,” she said while weaving in between his punches. “Lesson four, keep your hands up, protecting your head is important.” She tapped him on the head to punctuate her point.

Heeding her advice he brought his hands up. He protected his head with his gloves as she let loose a flurry of punches. The impacts rattled him, but he managed to keep his hands up. He could tell that she wasn’t trying that hard, though even with the gloves it still hurt. He glanced at the timer; two seconds remaining.

Using the last dregs of his Qi he activated [Qi Enhancement] for one final attack. His exhaustion faded to the background as his Qi reinforced his body. Slipping past one of her light punches, he threw a short punch as fast as he could. Due to their close proximity, the punch managed to lightly graze her cheek. However, in return, he received a hard hit to the stomach.

As the timer rang, he collapsed to the floor in pain. “Shit, I’m sorry. Are you okay?” Lin crouched down beside him, her face scrunched up in concern.

“I’m fine, let me lay here for a bit,” Shawn said through clenched teeth. He lifted his shirt, to reveal a fist shape bruise in the center of his stomach. The wound hurt, but it was by no means fatal, with his newly improved body the bruise would likely be gone in a couple of days.

Lin helped him to his feet and grabbed him a bottle of water. They sat on a bench in silence for a few moments. “Lao may have been right, you are talented at this.”

“What do you mean? I only managed to touch you once. Plus, you weren’t even trying,” Shawn said then wiped some sweat from his forehead.

“You got a hang of the basics of fighting quickly, much faster than I did at least.” She sighed. “It took me a month of practicing [Qi Enhancement] to be able to improve my dexterity. You, on the other hand, picked it up in a couple minutes.” Shawn felt the comparison wasn’t fair to Lin. He had a whole lifetime of practice with [Qi Enhancement] in the form of Green. Some of the details may have been different, but the details didn’t matter to his subconscious mind. Some part of his mind was able to fill in the gaps and basically do the process without any conscious effort.

The comparison was unfair, but he wasn’t going to tell her that. Shawn smirked. “So you’re saying I’m the most talented and handsome man alive.”

She playfully shoved him, almost knocking him over. “Don’t get too big of an ego. I’m still better than you at everything.”

“Not for long, give me a week and I’ll be better than you at fighting.”

She laughed. “You think you’ll be able to do this in a week,” she said as blood-red Qi leaked out of her hand, completely dissolving the water bottle she was holding.

Shawn gulped and scooted away from her. He had almost forgotten how much she had been holding back, at any moment she could erase him from existence. “Maybe, that specific skill could take two weeks.”

She laughed. “Sorry again about hitting you so hard in the stomach. My body moved by itself when you swung at me, you’re surprisingly fast when you use [Qi Enhancement]. "

“It’s no big deal, I barely felt it.”

She rolled her eyes. “This was surprisingly fun, I haven’t had a chance to spar with someone like this in a long time.” She looked down at her scorpion necklace. “I’d be willing to give you another lesson some other time,” she said quietly.

“As long as you don’t punch me in the stomach again, I’m down.” Shawn outstretched his fist towards her. She brought her hand down and bumped his, sending a surge of happiness through him. All the negative thoughts seemed to fade out of focus. No longer, were his thoughts dominated by fear and revenge. He had finally made a friend in this new world. He was no longer alone.

“Only if you promise to last longer. Girls don’t like guys who can’t even last a minute,” Lin said cheekily. Shawn groaned and hopped off the bench, the moment ruined.

“Lin,” Lao screamed angrily from the stairwell. His tiny form heaved with exertion as he burst through the door. “Is this how you repay me for all I’ve done for you? You come to my gym and destroy my water bottle, with the technique I helped you make.”

“Oops,” she rubbed the back of her head.

He waved his cane around wildly. “Get out before I wack you on the head.” Shawn and Lin rushed out of the building before the angry old man could hit them. He panted with his hands on his knees as they stopped outside of the building.

“Well, there goes our place to train,” Shawn muttered sullenly.

“Don’t worry about it. He never stays mad for longer than a day. Besides, the extra running is good for your stamina; you really got to work on that.” The pair began their journey back to the Scorpion’s Den.

Few people roamed the street at this hour of the night, leaving it eerily quiet. Shawn’s gait stiffened as he walked by the alley Crimson Lotus Gang member was beaten in. He averted his eyes as he walked past. He didn’t have the heart to see what happened to the man. Though he didn’t need to look to know what had happened, his enhanced hearing told him all he needed to know. The man was dead.

Noticing his discomfort, Lin patted him on the shoulder. “He would have tried to kill us if they hadn’t gotten rid of him.”

“Maybe.” He wanted to believe that humans were innately good, unwilling to harm others unless provoked, but at this point, he wasn’t sure. They walked back to the Scorpion’s Den in companionable silence as he wondered if what she said was true. Was everyone out to get him? It certainly felt that way, but maybe that was just his lack of sleep talking.

By the time they had gotten back to the tavern, he was no closer to having an answer than when he started. Peng, an acquaintance he had met working in the kitchen, who less than an hour ago, helped brutally murder the man in the alley, waved at him with a big smile on his face as they walked through the door.

Shawn waved back but quickly turned away when he spotted the slight smattering of blood on Peng’s knuckles. He wasn’t yet acclimated to the sight of violence, its evidence still left him squeamish.

A large man stepped through the door breathing so heavily that he could almost feel it on the back of his neck a couple feet away. Shawn turned to greet the man, but his words got caught in his throat. There was something off about him. Beads of sweat rolled down the man's neck as his eyes rapidly glanced around the room. In a way the man reminded him of himself, the large man was obviously nervous about something.

“We are currently not serving customers who are not members of the Scorpion’s Den. I’m sorry to say this, but you have to leave.” Lin said from beside him.

“Trying to act polite? There’s no need to hide your true nature, I know what all of you are.” He slowly took off his coat, revealing a mesh of wires, jade, and strange box-like compartments strapped to his chest. With a sudden unnatural calmness, the man pulled out a button that was also connected to his chest with a thin wire.

The world slowed to a crawl as Shawn made a grim realization. The man had a bomb strapped to his chest. Shawn forced his tired muscles into action as he turned to run away, but he was too slow.

“Fuck you, bastards, you’ll never beat the Crimson Lotus.” The man pressed the button, causing the bomb to explode.