I stopped by the market on my way home and after spending my last full tael of silver on a ‘potent’—according to the alchemist vendor, anyway—healing balm, I was officially broke again.

The cost turned out to be worth it though. The next morning my wound had finally sealed itself up and with the additional aid of some bandages kindly ‘donated’ by Sumatra’s medical supplies at work, I was pretty much mended by the end of the day.

After work, I paid another visit to the arena as a spectator. The qualifying matches for the wooden bracket were over, but there was still plenty of action to be had in the ring. Without an official battle royal match, the arena was transformed into an array of smaller rings where individual combatants faced off.

Most were groups of two or four, set up for sparring and using wooden weapons. I watched with keen interest as the cultivators went back and forth, trying to memorize their martial forms as they jousted with one another in a choreographed dance of blocks, feigns and parries.

The practitioners weren’t using any form of Qi as far as I could tell, besting one another with pure skill alone. A hunger grew inside of me the more I watched. I was able to bulldoze my way through the qualifiers thanks to the strength of my flame, and I could probably do the same for the wooden bracket itself too; face-tanking hits and winning by brute force.

But that wouldn’t cut if for the Iron Bracket.

There my adversaries would be able to match my power and it would all come down to martial skills. Skills that I severely lacked at the moment. The point was driven home as a far more interesting match took place. A large area was cleared next to the mats and an official in imperial robes took to a megaphone at its center to make an announcement.

“By order of the courts, this Trial by Might, entered into by practitioners of equal ranking, is hereby sanctioned by the throne,” the official declared. “May justice be served and the victor lay claim to end this dispute. The result shall be enforceable by Her Majesty’s will. I will now read the writ as prepared by the magistrate.”

The announcer then went into details about the dispute. It took forever to read out, filled with background details laying out the justice being sought by the aggrieved party, but in the end, it all boiled down to something as trivial as not showing proper respect at a dinner party. I nearly laughed when I heard it, but when the two cultivators took to the ring, the matter became deadly serious.

The bell rang and the two men went at it with a ferocity that I’d only seen out in the field. Flames met lightning bolts as the two faced off, both of them clearly core realm cultivators at least. They moved so quickly it was hard to keep track of them, sweeps and kicks interlaced between clashes of their straight swords. The battle went on for nearly half an hour and by the time they were finished, the clay surface of the arena was scorched with the collateral destruction of their combined Qi. Bloodied and battered, one of the men finally conceded and then both were hauled off on stretchers.

So this was the cultivator’s version of people’s court, I mused with a chuckle. Sanctioned duels to the death to settle petty differences.

I wondered why Hein didn’t try to drag me into something like this, but then I figured it’d probably be an even greater loss of face for him to challenge a mortal in a formal setting like this. Or maybe it wouldn’t be possible at all considering the official had mentioned the two men being of equal ranking.

But whether that meant social status or cultivation ability I wasn’t sure.

Still, it reminded me that Hein would likely be in the top tiers of the Iron bracket if he were in the tournament. And, as entertaining as it was to watch cultivators beat the living crap out of each other over dumb shit, I wasn’t going to learn how to fight this way.

I needed that manual.

* * *

The opportunity to obtain it finally came the next day, with Mu Lin passing me a message from Xi Xha.

“She said to meet her after work,” Mu Lin said. “She didn’t say where, but she said you’d be able figure it out.” She then rolled her eyes. “Whatever that means.”

I cracked a grin. “It means she wants to charge me twice.”

Mu Lin’s eyes widened. “What? She charged you money?”

“Not exactly.”

Mu Lin scrunched up her face and used her air quotes again. “What do you mean, ‘not exactly’?”

I merely laughed but didn’t bother to explain.

A few hours later I was lying in bed with the lady in question, succumbing to the drowsiness of post coital bliss. I was thankful I’d found the remedy to my core wound problem the day before. It would have been a tragedy not being able to satisfy Xi Xha on the account of a tummy injury. And a self-inflicted one at that.

“So…do you trust this guy?”

I asked Xi Xha the question as she was getting dressed, me staring at the name and address on the piece of paper that she had given me. Xi Xha looked over her shoulder at me with a furrowed brow as she buttoned her shirt.

“As much as you can trust anyone associated with the Jianghu, I suppose.”

“How do you know him?”

She gave me a sly grin. “The same way I know you.”

Damn, I thought. I guess Xi Xha got around, but I wasn’t going to judge. I looked at the details on the card again: Kai Wong, River City Tea House, 8 O’clock. “How will I recognize this guy?”

“You won’t. But he’ll recognize you.” She then gave me a wink. “You’re a bit easier to describe than he is.”

I gave her a look of mock offense. “What are you trying to say?”

She laughed and blew me a kiss. “Not too many Yee men have a body like yours. Or such a handsome face.”

“You sure you’re not just attracted to Terrans?”

“I’m sure I’m attracted to at least one,” she said with a smile. “Now stop flirting with me or you’re going to end up being late. Kai Wong won’t appreciate being kept waiting and neither will the people he’s taking you to.”

* * *

I arrived at the River City Tea House with ten minutes to spare. It was in the middle of the restaurant district and as I entered my senses were overwhelmed with the aromas of steamed dumplings, noodles and the constant cacophony of clattering china. The din was so loud that people had to shout over it as they conversed. Servers circulated around the room filled with dining tables, setting down tea pots, cups, and saucers filled with steamed delights.

One of the servers looked at me strangely as I entered, like I wasn’t supposed to be there. But with a quick flex of [Struggler’s Resolve] he immediately seated me next to a table with a bunch of old men playing dominoes while smoking Qi infused herbs.

I ordered some tea while I waited, the old men pretending not to stare at me while they continued their game. A few patrons were less discreet about their perturbance at my presence. An older, heavy-set man in particular kept glaring at me while pointing and whispering to his friends. I kept sipping my tea and stared right back at him.

Eventually the fat bastard got up and started walking towards me.

Ah shit, here we go again.

I refused to look up at him as he came to stand next me. I sipped my tea with [Indifference] instead. Eventually he grew impatient, the anger boiling over inside of him.

“You need to leave. This is no place for your kind.”

“Your name Kai Wong?”

The man looked puzzled. “My name is none of your—”

“Well if it ain’t Kai Wong, I ain’t got shit to say to you, friend.” I fueled my words with frenzy, triggering [Fear the Flame]. “Now, I suggest you go sit back down and enjoy your tea, else you’re going to start pissing me off. And you won’t like me when I’m pissed off.”

My flame burned brighter, reinforced by my adherence to the path. The man reacted to my technique with a mixture of anger and apprehension. I stared him in the eye and could sense the conflict there. He was being called out by a Terran commoner, but I was no longer just a mortal. This close to me, he could no doubt sense the power of the lightning core within me and was probably trying to backpedal, weighing up the cost of losing face to a Terran or the risk of trying to teach me a lesson.

He chose the latter.

His clumsy punch moved like slow motion to me, but I let it hit me anyway, fortifying my jaw with [Iron Skin]. His wrist buckled and he cried out in a shock and pain, shaking his hand.

“Nine hells!” he screamed.

I gauged his strength by the force of his hit—a low tier Foundation Realm Cultivator at best. I stood slowly as he continued to nurse his hand and he looked up at me like I was something that shouldn’t exist.

“You finished?”

His mouth fell open lost for words.

“Oh…so you are finished…”

I swiped the teapot off the table and smashed it against the man’s head with [My Turn]. The scalding hot water puffed into a cloud of steam as he cried out in a wail of agony. With a swift kick, I knocked his feet from under him and he crashed hard onto the wooden floor, causing every cup and saucer in the place to jump.

All noise ceased as the patrons froze, only the pathetic cries of the man filling the void of silence. The man’s friends stood up, but I cast a glare at them while pouring concentrated frenzy into [Fear the Flame.] “Anyone else want to tell me that I should leave?”

The silence extended for a few seconds more, my aura of fear permeating the room, and then like someone hit the play button again, the conversation and the clinking of china resumed. No one even looked at me, except for the guy’s friends who bowed apologetically to me before collecting him off the floor.

“You must be Chun.”

I turned about slowly to see a man dressed in black robes with a neatly trimmed beard. He looked at the man being carried away. “Looks like you had a bit of trouble, but Xi Xha did say that you could handle yourself.”

“When there’s cause for it,” I said. “You must be Kai Wong.”

He pressed a fist into the flat of his palm and I did the same in greeting.

“Now, please don’t hit me for saying this,” he said. “But I really do think you should leave.”

As he turned to exit, I downed the rest of my tea and then dropped a few coppers to my server.

“For the teapot,” I said and then followed the man Kai Wong outside.

* * *

Two things dawned on me after my brief visit to the River City Tea House.

One, they made pretty damn good tea. And two, when it came to cultivators, strength trumped everything, even racism and classism it seemed. If I’d done something like that as an outsider in some redneck bar back on old earth, the whole place would have turned against me and kicked the crap out of me. But just like those six competitors who chose to fight against each other instead of against me, or even how Green Bird Girl choose to betray her friends, cultivators would rather do anything besides team up, it seemed. Solidarity was non-existent. It was every man for himself and only strength reigned supreme.

Even when that strength came in the form of a lowly outsider like me.

I smiled with satisfaction at the investment of my fake core. The thing was paying dividends already. For a mortal to defeat a cultivator was an afront that needed to be stomped out at all costs. But for a cultivator to best another cultivator, even as a Terran, it was simply the way of the world.

I pondered these things in silence as I followed Kai Wong deeper through the side streets that made up the backside of the restaurant district. Heat from kitchen woks flooded the narrow alleyways where chefs smoked on breaks; or cut the heads off live ducks and chickens while letting their blood run into the gutters.

“So where are you taking me exactly?” I asked.

“Xi Xia told me what you were looking for,” Kai Wong said. “I’m taking you to a place where you can find them.”

“The manuals, right?”

“Yes. And I hope you have the money to afford them. They are not cheap.”

“Not on me,” I said. “I’m not stupid. I’m here to make a connection, not get robbed.”

Kai Wong huffed, but I couldn’t tell if he was amused or insulted. Maybe neither.

After a few twists and turns, we arrived at a nondescript black door at the back of a red brick stone building.

“This is it,” he said. “And I would advise you assume better manners than you did in the tea house. There would be no pardon given for insolence here.”

“Wouldn’t be asking for any,” I said, unsure if I was liking this Kai Wong dude or not. He rapped on the door and a bald man with a goatee, dressed in orange and red robes opened it.

“I have a buyer,” Kai Wong said, but the guy at the door was already looking at me funny. And then the recognition hit.

“Hey,” I said pointing at him with a grin. “You’re the cartwheel guy.”

“You!” he shouted his eyes going wide. “You damn cheat! I want a rematch! And you’re not Hein Dong!”

I shrugged. “Never said I was. I just advised you not to mess with him.”

Kai Wong folded his arms bemused. “You two know each other?”

“Not really.”

“You owe me money, you bastard,” the Fire Bird said. “I’ve been busted down to door duty because of you!”

“You want to play again? Regain your honor?”

“No time for games,” Kai Wong said. “Whatever this is, it will have to wait. We’re here to see the boss, Du Mak. He should be expecting me.”

The Fire Bird member, Du Mak, flared his nostrils at me, his anger building within him. I sensed that strange dark frenzy coming from him as well. “This isn’t over. I’ll have that rematch. Whatever the hell your real name is.”

With that he turned and led us both inside.

A narrow corridor opened up into a sizable training compound, complete with a ring and weapons mounted on the walls. A lion’s den of angry faces greeted me as at least fifty or so Fire Bird members briefly stopped their training regime to size me up.

I could read the confusion on their faces, each of them looking at me as if to say, ‘What the hell is a Terran doing here? And why the hell is he so strong?’ Or that was what I imagined they were thinking anyway. I played it all off with [Indifference] and that seemed to only infuriate them more. But more than their disdain, I sensed that same dark frenzy coming from within all of them.

What the hell was it? And could they sense mine as well?

Before I could ponder the question further, the man Du Mak took us through to a back room where a trio of cultivators were drinking and smoking at a small table, women seated on their laps. The women pandered to them, laughing at their crude jokes while the men gambled, playing some kind of card game.

“Wait here,” Du Mak said and meekly shuffled over to the trio, bowing low before them. A burly man, with a thick beard and a deeply receding hairline ushered Du Mak forward. Du Mak whispered into the man’s ear and the cultivator’s thick brows raised in surprise before shooting down in a scowl. He glanced over at us and then threw his cards onto the table with disgust. Finally, Du Mak beckoned us over and I followed Kai Wong’s lead by performing a deep bow before the cultivators.

“Thank you for this meeting, Master Chow Feng,” he said. “This man is Chun. He is the one who wishes to make the purchase.”

Master Chow Feng eyed me in silence for a moment, perhaps examining the strength of my core. “Whores…leave us.”

The women instantly shot up and exited the room, one of them tossing me a bit of lemonade on the way out. The man Chow Feng eased back into his chair, taking another draw on his pipe as he looked me up and down.

“So,” he said, his voice coarse and gravelly. “Tell me why a Terran is looking to study martial techniques from a book.”

I shrugged, meeting his stare. “I dunno. Guess I like to read.”

He chortled. “Perhaps you’ve just had no luck joining a sect.”

“Not interested in joining a sect,” I said.

“Maybe you haven’t found the right one yet. Du Mak here told me what you did to him in the restaurant last week. I didn’t believe him until just now. Having a look at you, I may be willing to take you on as an initiate if you can pass a trial.”

I couldn’t sense if he was being sincere or not, but I laid on [Struggler’s Resolve] to make my intentions crystal clear. “Appreciate the offer, but just looking for a manual right now.”

“I see.” He stared at me a moment more. “And what do you plan to do with this knowledge?”

“Win my citizenship in the tournament.”

I kept it as clean and simple as that.

“Ah… ambitious. You would make the empire proud. A conquered native pursuing the track of citizenship. I’m sure you’d be the stuff of Princess Lunalah’s wet dreams, or at least the star of her next propaganda broadcast.”

He laughed at his own joke, but I didn’t respond any further, not sure if the anti-imperial sentiment was some kind of bait or not.

“What type of manual do you seek?”

“What types do you have?”

He snapped his fingers and one of the men at the table got up and then returned a moment later with a large chest. He placed it on the table and Chow Feng flung it open, revealing what had to be over a hundred manuals within. They were all stored neatly with the spines facing upwards, their titles on display.

“Come and see,” he said.

My heartbeat sped as I approached. This was the secret knowledge I’d been craving. I scanned over the books, trying to find what I was looking for, but heart sunk a little when I didn’t see anything obvious. “You have anything pertaining to axes?”

“Axes?” The man who brought out the chest snorted in amusement. “An ancient weapon. Not very common now.”

“I can’t be too picky on what I can get my hands on.”

The man ran a finger across the spines and then pulled a book free. The title read Basic Infantry Weapon Techniques. “You should find it in there.”

As he handed it to me, I flipped through the pages and saw three different weapons within: the spear, the mace and sure enough the last one was the war axe. I hid my inner smile. What I needed was in my hands. As I scanned across the remaining books within the chest, I saw all manner of techniques and styles. Crimson Fire Spear Technique, Lotus Fan Blade, Earthen Hammer. I almost wished I could take them all., but one of them caught my eye in particular—a book labeled simply: Lightning Techniques.

I pondered a moment. I had no idea if I could even learn such a thing, but I had a lightning core in my stomach. I could at least learn enough about the techniques to bluff my way through any challenge to the origin of my powers in the future. And hell, if I could actually manage to pull off a lightning bolt I wouldn’t complain.

“How much is this?” I asked pointing to the book.

“Interesting choice,” Chow Feng said pulling it out of the chest and handing it to me. “150 Taels for that one. I’ll throw in the other manual for 20. Now… I’m very much interested in how someone like you will be able to afford all this.”

“I’m just shopping for prices right now,” I said.

“What?” one of the men at the table shouted, his anger swelling within in. “You dare to waste Master Chow Feng’s time?”

“Not waste…I’ll be back with the money.”

Chow Feng merely laughed. “Is that right?”

Initially I was going to offer the lightning core as a trade, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out that these were probably the same guys who arranged stealing the damn thing in the first place. And offering it back to them with a slice of it cut out of it probably wasn’t a good idea. I hadn’t figured out a backup plan as yet. Maybe I could use Kai Wong to sniff out a different buyer. But as for right now I needed to end this interaction.

“I’ll come back tomorrow. I’ll have the money then.”

I bowed and prepared to leave, but Chow Feng raised his hand.

“Wait. I have a proposition for you,” he said. “You’re one of Sumatra’s guys aren’t you? The great chun.”

My insides shook at the mention of my nickname.

Chow Feng belly-laughed along with his gang as my heckles went up. I was only speculating about Sumatra involvement before, but this was full blown confirmation. And if Chow Feng could somehow sense the unique flavor of the lightning core within me, maybe the jig was already up. Just too many coincidences here. I channeled my building apprehension into frenzy before funneling it into [Indifference], maintaining my poker face.

Chow Feng’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, come now. No need to be so offended. Sumatra said all your friends call you that in jest. Don’t they?”

“No offense, but you’re not really a friend.”

The cultivator grinned and I felt a huge swell of Dark Frenzy growing within him. “Indeed we are not. But I have something you want. And you are in a unique position to give me something that I want. Plus, you’re a unique sort of fellow in general. Someone I might be willing to invest in.”

I wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but there was no way he’d take interest in a mere Terran commoner. He either suspected I knew about the missing lightning core, or he somehow could sense my frenzied flame—perhaps both. Either way I had to play it cool.

“What are you talking about?”

“I have need for handlers to take care of specific clients from time to time,” he said. “Having a man like you on the inside would make things run a lot smoother. Especially with all the new safeguards Her Majesty has put in place.”

Shit…he wanted me to help them kill cultivators out in the field. But I couldn’t let him know I knew that much. I just shrugged. “That doesn’t sound too bad.”

“Good, good,” he said. “So you’ll agree?”

“I get both of these for doing that?” I held up the books.

“Not to keep,” he said. “I’ll loan them to you. For a year. And you’ll give me a year’s service in return.”

Damn, this was really sounding bad now. I didn’t want to be involved with ilk like this, but no one said the path to immortality would come with clean hands. Although when it came to cultivators like Li Gong Qui, I would gladly assist. But it wasn’t really them I was concerned about. It was the other handlers.

I thought some more. Perhaps this could be a good thing. If I were the contact, then at least I could ensure that my people would be protected no matter how bad things got. Right now, it was left to Sumatra to pick which hander went with which client, and they would just kill the handlers to leave no witnesses. This way at least I could control the outcome. Plus, I needed the books. Whatever would come with this, I’d just have to work it out.

“Fine,” I said. “You have yourself a deal.”

“Good.” The man Chow Feng smiled widely. “We’ll be in touch through Sumatra when we need your services. Until then…happy reading.”

* * *

“That was quite the score,” Kai Wong said as we left the Fire Bird den, the guy Du Mak, threatening me with another rematch as we did so. “Never seen anything like it.”

“Yeah, guess I’m just lucky like that.”

But I was no fool. A cultivator like Chow Feng didn’t become a boss of the underworld by being altruistic. These manuals had all kinds of strings attached, some of which I was sure I wouldn’t like when they were finally pulled. But to hell with it. I was one step further on my path. And besides, I was going to become strong enough to kill all of them one day. Then the strings wouldn’t matter.

“Thanks for the introduction,” I said. “I can find my way back from here.”

Kai Wong gave me a polite bow. “I’m sure you can.”

“How do I get in touch with you again?” I thought about still needing to offload the lightning core. “I might have need of your services in the future.”

“Going through Xi Xia is fine. But this was as a favor to her. The next trip into the Jianghu will cost you.”

I smiled. “No doubt.”

As we departed, I couldn’t help but feel the struggler’s grip as the irony of his words took hold.

This trip into the Jianghu was bound to cost me indeed.