JIn didn’t pull his punch. His rage pushed him to employ all the strength he could muster. A sickening crunch rang out when his fist connected with the ringleader’s mouth. The youth didn’t even have the time to wipe the grin off his face, before he crashed to ground, his lips broken and his teeth scattered on the floor around him.

“Senior brother!” the two boys who were pinning Hao jumped up and charged at Jin. “How dare you sucker punch him!”

They rose with their fists out, indignation clear on their faces, but Jin met them before they even made a single step. A flash later, they joined their leader on the ground, coughing up blood and whimpering.

Jin wasn’t interested in them.

He knelt on the ground. “Lil’ Hao,” he said softly.

“Brother Jin,” the boy tried to look up, but his eyes were too bruised and swollen to be opened. He tilted his head, like a deaf man relying on his hearing. “Sorry for the trouble…” he said with a pathetic smile.

“It’s okay, you don’t need to worry about anything…” Jin whispered. He scanned Hao’s condition as he spoke. The gash on they boy’s head was alarming, but it looked worse than it really was. It only needed to be bandaged. His hands however…

Something boiled inside Jin.

The right hand looked bad, but its condition wasn’t actually that unusual among the newly arrived miners.

Those at the first layer were tasked with sifting through the crushed rock, separating the tiny spiritual crystals from the useless rubble. It was a difficult work, and tiny cuts accumulated quickly. The corrupting energies seeping from the spiritual crystals used these openings to enter, causing all sorts of health issues.

Luckily, Jin had come in time to stop the ringleader before he delivered his strike. The swelling present on Hao’s middle and ring finger, though painful, was fairly typical.

His left hand, however…

If the fingers on Hao’s right hand looked like a pair of overstuffed sausages, then the index finger on his left hand told the story to its conclusion.

It was just a squished down mass of tissue.

Jin stared at it, rage boiling over him. No amount of corrupting energies could’ve led to that. It was obvious that somebody had stomped on it. Repeatedly.

“Devils…” Jin whispered. He rose from the ground and walked up to the fallen ringleader.

The boy had impressively managed to maintain his consciousness. He spat a ball of blood from his mouth and stared hatefully at Jin.

His hands were pristine. A clear sign of talent. The youth must have felt great pride when he had mastered the difficult skill of simultaneously working and circulating his qi, necessary to protect from the invading energies.

Jin grabbed his forearm. He squished it, feeling out the bone hidden within the flesh. The ringleader’s eyes abruptly flashed with terror, as he guessed Jin’s intent.

“No!” he cried out. “You can’t do this!”

Jin stared at him with an impassive face. “You wanted to witness the justice of the Immortals?” He nodded his head. “I’ll show you.”

He positioned the ringleader’s forearm perpendicular to his knee. The boy had already risen to his feet and flailed desperately, using the weight of his whole body to yank his arm free from Jin’s grip, but it wasn’t working. Jin held him like a vice. One of his hands was on the boy’s wrist, while the other gripped him just below the elbow.

He pressed down, pushing the youth’s arm against his knee, as if he was breaking a wooden stick.

“STOP!”

A warden finally made his appearance. He was an older man, the years of hard labor in the inhospitable environment of the mine clearly reflected in his face. His complexion was sallow and pasty. Jin guessed that he must be in his late twenties, pushing on the natural lifespan of the unawakened miners. Two other men, his lackeys, stood by his side.

“Cripple him and there’ll be no escape for you,” the warden declared in a grim voice. “To disable one of the Sect’s servants is taboo. No penance can wash away such sin.”

Jin laughed.

Rage boiled within him, begging for release.

The image of Lil’ Hao’s finger flashed in front of his eyes. He needed to hit something, but tormenting little boys wouldn’t satisfy him.

He rose to his feet and opened his mouth. His voice was shaky, not out of fear, but the rage that was about consume him.

“And where were you before!”

The qi in his dantian churned dangerously. Jin let it out. It surged through his meridian pathways like a racing steed, quickly completing the circuit described in the manual. And then another. One loop. Two loops. Three loops.

“That boy,” the warden pointed to Hao Lin, “broke the rules of seniority that bind us.” As he spoke, his eyes flicked to his lackeys. Years of experience told him that simple words wouldn’t be able to defuse this situation. The men got the signal and advanced on Jin, flanking him from two sides.

“These boys were too eager in their actions,” the warden continued to explain, as if he truly wished to mediate. “But their motives were good. After all, if we don’t keep discipline ourselves, the Heavens will do it for us.”

Stolen novel; please report.

Jin stood still as the two lackeys closed in. He wanted them to come.

The gathered mob was able to read the mood as well. They pulled Hao and his tormentors away from the ring, clearing space for the impending clash.

The three men were all at the second layer. Lil’ Lu was an exception to have reached the third level on his own. The only other miner from their section who had accomplished this feat was Big Lu himself, and he had gone even further. He had reached the fourth layer, stopping at the unbreakable wall that lay waiting at the end of the severed dao they cultivated.

The men who approached him were unarmed. Miners weren’t allowed to bring their tools from the lower shafts. Neither did they carry wooden clubs, like the younger miner. The years of labor had hardened their fists, making them stronger than any ordinary wood.

“Give up and accept your punishment, and this will be the end of it…”

Jin stood his ground, his qi humming, as it ran one circuit after another.

9 loops. 10 loops. 11 loops.

The two lackeys exchanged a glance and lunged at the same time.

Their moves were telegraphed, but even if Jin could easily follow their actions, it didn’t mean he could avoid them.

He had never learned any combat techniques, not even the most basic ones found in the mortal world. The circle of spectators restricted his space to manoeuvre even more.

Instead of futilely trying to sidestep them, Jin charged at the man to his left, ignoring the other assailant all together.

Their bodies collided with a rumble. Jin had hoped to quickly push the man to the ground, but he had overestimated himself. The miner held steady. The muscles on his arms bulged as he locked Jin in a powerful hold, constricting himself around his chest and shoulders.

Jin retaliated in a similar manner. One of his arms snaked to the man’s throat, the other to his shoulder. For a brief instant they were evenly matched, pressing agains each other with all their strength.

THUD!

Jin shuddered as a powerful blow landed on his unprotected back. The second miner wasted no time, raining his fists down with a savage intensity.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

A barrage of hits bombarded his body. The punches came hard and fast, one after another, with no respite. The miner alternated his fists between each strike, as if he wanted to reduce the time between impacts to zero.

Jin’s body trembled every time another blow landed on his body. The attacks were merciless. It was clear the assailant wasn’t holding back at all.

And yet.

So weak…

It wasn’t arrogance. Jin had only yesterday experienced perhaps the most thorough beating in the history of the mine. You could even say he was an authority on the subject.

The blows were strong, true, but they weren’t debilitating.

He closed his eyes and centred on his qi. When the barrage began, the flow of energies in his meridians was thrown into chaos. Common sense dictated that he should’ve stopped circulation altogether, and draw all the wayward strands of qi back to his dantian.

Jin, however, wanted to reassert his control over the energies.

Maintaining the necessary concentration in such circumstances wasn’t easy. In fact, it should’ve been impossible, but Jin thought he could do it.

The miner who held him in a lock smiled. When he saw Jin closing his eyes, he figured he had already given up resistance and resigned himself to his fate.

In Jin’s mind, the structure of his meridian pathways revealed itself to him. The image wasn’t as clear as when he had entered deep meditation, but it was enough. Jin expanded his consciousness and reached out to all the errand strands of qi. One by one, he pulled them away from the incorrect channels they had invaded and corralled them onto the right path.

One loop. Two loops. Three loops.

Power surged through him. Jin opened his eyes and grinned at the miner holding him in a lock. With his qi circulating again, even the blows landing on his back weren’t as painful as before.

A crazy idea struck him. One that would take advantage of his newfound sturdiness.

A grin crept up on Jin’s face. The man he was wrestling noticed that something had changed, but only blinked confusedly when Jin flashed him a brilliant smile.

Abruptly, he jerked his head way back, pulling it as far as he could. When his eyes gazed on the ceiling above them, the smile on his face grew even wider. He snapped his head back, head-butting the man in front of him with all his might.

THUD!

Jin’s forehead connected with the space right above the man’s nose. Something cracked and Jin could feel the iron grip that held him in place since the start of the fight beginning to loosen.

The impact didn’t leave any visible injury. But Jin noticed the man’s gaze became unfocused, the direction of his eyeballs no longer coordinated with each other. It was clear he was about to fall unconscious.

Before he could do that, Jin jerked his head again.

THUD!

Bright sparks exploded in Jin’s eyes. When he could see again, he noticed that this time his attack had managed to leave a mark. There was an indentation in the man’s brow ridge. His eyes were rolled back in his head, revealing only the whites. There was no strength left in his grip, the only reason he still stood upright, was because he was held up by Jin.

Jin opened his arms, letting the man crumple to the ground.

He turned to the other miner, his chest heaving with exertion.

“Now it’s your turn—“

THUD!

Before he could finish, a sudden blow struck him on the side of his head.

Jin staggered and fell to the ground, landing next to the miner he had just defeated.

The warden stood over him, rubbing his fist with a malicious look on his face.

“You miserable son of a bitch…”

Jin tried to catch his bearings. Three strikes to the head in a row had left him hopelessly dazed. His qi slipped out of his control once again, turning chaotic and invading random channels in his meridian pathways.

The warden didn’t give him any chances. He pursued him with a relentless intensity, stomping down on his face and hands whenever Jin tried to evade.

Panicked, Jin rolled on the floor like a grounded fish, trying to catch just a moment of reprieve to stabilise his qi. Merciless kicks followed him wherever he went.

Unexpectedly, he rolled into something large and heavy. Instinctively, he used it to shield himself, crawling underneath to escape from the warden's ferocious attack.

The grimace on warden’s face turned into an outright snarl, as he saw Jin hiding behind the body of his unconscious brother.

His kicks turned even more vicious, but as he didn’t dare to accidentally strike his brother, he was forced to abandon targeting Jin’s head, opting instead for his unprotected legs.

The other lackey rushed towards Jin, doing his best to yank the body he was holding onto from Jin’s hands.

Jin didn’t waste the opportunity he was afforded. He managed to grab a hold of his qi even faster than before.

One loop. Two loops. Three loops.

When the second lackey finally managed to wrench his brother’s body free from Jin’s grasp, Jin was ready.

He pounced like a cheetah, slamming himself against the warden’s legs. The man lost his balance and fell to the ground. Before he could try to stabilise himself, Jin was already on him, his hands interlaced in a knot and raised above his head, primed to deliver a devastating blow.

“Boss Lu!”

A sense of pressure, powerful enough to jolt him even in the midst of battle, washed over Jin.

He turned to look.

The gathered crowd had parted. The miners who just seconds ago were all clamouring like a crazed mob had turned silent, their heads lowered in a respectful bow.

Boss Lu stood amidst them. The silver amulet bearing the sigil of the Sect glinted on his bare chest. Jin shivered. The man’s face was stoically impassive, devoid of any strong emotion. But Jin recognised the grim look in his eyes.

It was the same one he'd seen when time had frozen.

When Boss Lu tried to kill him.