“That was a great exchange of pointers! I’m next!” Suddenly another student jumped into arena directly from the spectator seats and approached the judge, “Here is his challenge ticket, I already signed it!”

The saint who fulfilled the judges role looked back at the youth, barely hiding his smile. In theory he had to be impartial, but on his watch a young saint might have just been crippled. Alex didn’t know it yet, but when Malik was carried away he had no signs of life and the judge was itching to kill Alex on the spot himself.

“Great! Both parties had signed the challenge ticket – begin!” Judge happily announced and spectators gasped in shock.

One surprise followed another and it was too much for many to recognize what was going on. First Malik was beating up the arrogant library boy, then out of nowhere the underdog won. But now, when he sat barely breathing and all covered in blood, another challenger appeared and the judge announced the start of the next match.

The present teachers as well as most saints understood clearly that it was a payback. They jumped on their feet cheering and shouting ‘beat him up!’, ‘punish him! and ‘kill him!’ and before Alex realized what actually went on, his vision turned dark and a heavy kick landed on his face.

Malik did beat him up well, but this kick broke Alex’s nose and the intense pain immediately sobered him. The problem was – even if he felt awake, everything around was covered in darkness. The judge obviously ignored someone using their mind powers thus assisting in Alex’s downfall.

‘Seriously?! Another saint?!’ Alex was shocked, but a kick to the stomach interrupted the thought.

“Hahaha! Not so mighty anymore, huh?” He heard someone laughing not too far away, but it seemed that the sound came from all over the place.

‘Wanna play? Fine!’ Alex resolutely spread his remaining soul particles across his body gaining another boost of power, but since he could not see or hear clearly, there was only one sense left he could use. Coincidentally it was the sense he trained specially for such occasions.

The challenger still loudly laughed, when Alex got up, apparently completely disoriented. Even if he was not blinded by a mind technique, it was obvious he would have hard time seeing because of all the blood covering his face.

His opponent circled around him, from time to time landing a kick or a punch here and there, but to the spectators it was obvious he was beating up an unconscious person who for some reason refused to fall down. The result of the match was clear and the ones who wished for the revenge already rejoiced when suddenly the obviously defeated person dashed to his left and landed a heavy right hook in the middle of the challenger’s face.

This time the sound of broken bones reverberated through the arena that immediately fell silent. Alex felt his vision return and even though it was still blurry, he could see the unconscious body next to him.

“Judge?” Gathering his remaining strength, Alex weakly asked.

“Winner – Alex Collins.” Judge blurted out and dashed towards the unconscious boy. A second later he shouted, “Stretcher! Quickly!”

Alex didn’t care for what would happen next. It was obvious someone would take revenge on him for beating up the saint, but currently his face, chest and, in fact, the rest of the body badly ached. He dropped down on his butt trying to catch his breath, but all he caught was a fewer. It was impossible to concentrate to check how many soul particles he had left, if any at all since he obviously suffered from the Qi deprivation.

“F*ck! I’ll be on the bed rest for a month!” He mumbled.

“That’s the least of your problems!” Alex heard Jamil saying as he approached.

During the last two years he was one of the very few fellow students Alex actually had a contact with and now he came over to see how Alex was doing. Them knowing each other was not a secret, therefore Jamil dared to openly jump in the arena.

‘Damn! I’m in a really bad shape if I didn’t notice the fatty coming.’ Alex sighed.

But on the outside he shrugged and said, “Ye, I know the saints will come after me, but there’s nothing I can do.”

“Saints? Boy, pray you won’t get executed! The news of Malik dying is spreading like a wildfire! I doubt even your library patron will be able to save you now.” Jamil said with a sigh.

“Seriously? I just headbutted him!” Alex was surprised.

“Headbutt? Not only I, none of the students saw what you did! My buddy only overheard the teachers – that’s why I know.” Jamil explained, then looked around and whispered, “They said one of the broken ribs punctured his heart and he died.”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“You see – not my fault at all!” Alex said, “Oh well, what’s done is done. It was an official match anyway – with judge, spectators and all of that crap. They can’t blame me. How is the other saint?”

“What other saint?” Jamil asked in confusion.

“The second one I fought.” Alex said.

“That was not a saint – he was one of the guys from your group! Didn’t you recognize him?” Jamil said.

“Truth to be told, I didn’t see clearly after Malik beat me up. And I still can’t see.” Alex said, but then furrowed his brows, “But which saint blanked my senses out? It can’t be the judge, right?”

“Hahaha! Who told you that only saints can use mind techniques?” The two boys were suddenly startled by a melodious, but condescending laughter, “Haven’t you learned anything in the library?”

‘F*ck! Now even my sense of smell is gone. I don’t know if I should be happy or sad about it.’ Alex thought.

For some reason his old nemesis, Nabia, came over as well. They didn’t have much contact after the entrance exams, in fact, Alex actively tried to avoid her. Unfortunately he now sat helpless on the ground barely breathing and there was no chance he could run away.

“What do you mean?” He asked while trying to put his nose in the proper position.

Alex didn’t want to pass out with a broken nose in case he would stay unconscious for a longer period and now that he knew he killed a saint, he realized there will be people making his life miserable on every step – he couldn’t even trust the local doctors to properly fix him up since they also were saints. The procedure was unpleasant to say the least, but the pain helped to stay conscious, although blood began to flow from the nose again.

“Ewww! Stop that! Disgusting!” Instead of explaining Nabia exclaimed in disgust.

“I’m sorry, beautiful miss!” Alex sarcastically said exaggerating politeness, “I didn’t know you were in this much pain and barely conscious. If I knew, I wouldn’t have dared to make you uncomfortable.”

“Hmph! Stupid hillbilly!” She snorted and walked towards the exit, but then paused and said, “Everyone can use mind techniques. You should read more!”

After saying that she quickly disappeared, but Alex didn’t see her clearly in the first place and wondered if he was actually hallucinating. All this time he did his best to avoid her, but for some reason she kept showing up in his life.

“Why are you trying to piss her off? Don’t you have enough enemies?” Jamil angrily asked, “Dude! You might get killed today!”

“Mhm.” Alex nodded.

The prospect of dying was annoying, especially since he had such good results in the current life, but if the situation came, he would just concentrate on a thought to be born in a proper cultivation world and verify one more time if his reincarnation theory worked.

But then he suddenly got an idea, “Jamil! Do you know if there is something special about the Western peak?”

If he was about to die, any bits of information could become useful in the next life. Until now Alex kind of hoped to get a permission to explore the Western peak by himself, but now it was crystal clear that would never happen. And if anyone knew a rumor or a secret, it was fatty Jamil.

“Seriously? What the hell are you thinking? Don’t you have enough problems?” Jamil angrily asked.

“Come on! Why don’t you help the dying man out?” Alex pretended to beg.

“Sigh, now I get why she hates you! You’re f*cking annoying!” Jamil intended to kick Alex, but then realized the guy really could pass out any moment. He sighed and continued, “There is nothing special about it besides the inhabitants and their nice residences. Compared to your shacks they live in palaces! Why would you ask?”

“Dunno, just wondering.” Alex shrugged.

‘Ok, let’s say there really isn’t anything special about the place.” Alex focused his thoughts ignoring the pain, ‘So … initially it probably was the lake where the Qi gathered, it had to be. The water became richer and then the streams carried it towards the place where Tabulan was built. And now … what the hell happens now? Do the young saints just absorb all of it? It can’t be right!’

“Did you pass out?” Jamil interrupted his train of thought.

“No, just thinking, sorry.” Alex apologized, but then suddenly asked, “Listen, Jamil! What would you do if you were Qi?”

“What? Qi? I would flow in to Nabia’s undergarments, you idiot! Go home and get some sleep! You obviously have multiple concussions!” Jamil said and then left while loudly laughing and muttering to himself, “What if I was Qi … what a nonsense!”

Alex didn’t get upset at all! The fatty gave him an idea he should’ve thought of long ago, but before he could start inwardly kicking himself, he passed out.

When he woke up it was dark and the first thought Alex had was that he was still in the arena, and his senses were damaged. After few moments he realized it was simply the night time and he was lying on his own bed. He had no clue how much time had passed, but it couldn’t have been days, because the slightest movement caused a stinging pain radiate thorough his body.

‘That bad, huh?’ He laughed at himself.

He had read about these symptoms before and everything pointed at severe Qi deprivation. He had overused the power he didn’t really possess and ‘broke’ his own body. Luckily there were methods to fix him, but that was a lot of work and would take time. The question was if the academy would still keep him after finding out his condition.

Alex spent the rest of the night slowly and gently revolving bits of Qi he could feel utilizing the simplest technique he knew – the one that the headmaster of the beast academy taught him. Of course, back then it was called a force of nature technique. It was uncomfortable and even painful, but if he ignored the death of his parents, Alex had to admit – he had a smooth sailing throughout this life. Up until now he was stronger and smarter than anyone of his physical age thus all he had to do was to get back ahead by practicing again and again.

With this thought Alex passed out and woke up when outside the window it was already a bright day. He looked around his room and found a jug of water on the nightstand. Unsurprisingly it was too heavy for him to lift with one hand so he rolled out of the bed, knelt at the nightstand, tilted the jug and slowly drank. Every gulp was extremely painful, but quenching the thirst was more important.

After few minutes he got up with a struggle and realized he was still in the same dirty and bloodied clothes he wore that day.

‘They must really hate me.’ Alex inwardly grinned, ‘In that case – f*ck you! This hillbilly doesn’t care about saints, nobles or their opinions! I’ve got something to do here and if you want to sop me, just kill me.’