“Poor Brother Wu, your match was just like you: ugly.”

The speaker could not be more different than Wu. Tall, lithe, and with a crystal-clear complexion, the speaker was by far the most beautiful man Henry had ever seen. He wore silken gossamer robes that clung loosely to his lanky frame and had long black hair down to his waist. He moved like he was floating and looked so out of place here. Hell, he looked more in line with the Southerners than he did here in the harsh North.

“Brother Shi, I hope Brother Hen Ri breaks your stupid smug face,” Wu said as he returned to his seat.

“Never mind him, Brother Hen Ri; let us show these simpletons what the meaning of true grace and beauty is,” Shi said as he threw his head back and pointed one steel-tipped finger into the air.

Great. Henry thought we had a literal walking trope. Ten gold says he says something crazy, sexual, and violent.

“You look stunned, Brother. I know it must not be every day that you get to gaze on something as magnificent as this Shi. All those southern cows could not hold a candle. Worry not, brother. When I rip the eyes out of your head and wear them as trophies, you’ll be with me forever.”

Bingo, I owe myself ten gold now, Henry thought to himself.

“Give me just a minute here, then we can tussle,” Henry said as he absorbed three coins. The rush of energy cleared his mind and revitalized his body from fatigue.

Henry did a couple of stretches and slipped the metal rings onto his forearms. He wished they were smaller so he didn’t have to wear them on his wrist like that; it made his arms feel clunky and slow. As if responding to Henry’s will and wishes, the rings flew off his wrist and shrank into ringer-sized ones before slipping themselves on his fingers.

“Damn, Brother Wu, these things are tight as fuck; thanks again,” Henry shouted, waving like an idiot to Wu.

Wu just looked at him quizzically, choosing not to say a word.

“How tacky, Brother Henry. Those rings are hideous,” Shi said dismissively.

“Says the guy with two blades for fingers. How do you even pick your nose?” Henry said as he shoved food and drinks into his mouth. Using so much of his ki was both mentally and physically taxing. It made him so goddamn hungry.

“Tacky? It won't be tacky when I paint them red with your blood, Brother Hen Ri.”

“Enough pillow talk, you two,” Fei said in exasperation. “You may begin.”

****

Henry didn’t know what this cultivator's fighting style was like, but he knew he had to avoid those steel fingernails. He channeled his ki into the shape of his Water Strands. From what Wu had told him, he felt he needed to keep this a long-range fight. He let some strands latch onto two rings from his fingers. He needed information and the best way to get it was with violence.

He sent two spinning rings rocketing Shi, who just let them pass through him.

“What the fuck? That’s cheating. You can phase through shit.”

Henry felt a prickling on the back of his neck from his battle precognition and spun around just in time to avoid being stabbed through the neck by a steel fingernail. Shi had missed eviscerating him but still scored a cut, drawing blood. Henry leaped back to get some distance. Shi just lazily walked to the side, smiling impishly.

“Brother Hen Ri, you must be more observant of your surroundings. I almost got you there.”

How had Shi snuck up on him like that? He knew his battle precognition should have helped him predict that attack, so what happened? There was only one way to find out.

Henry sent two more spinning rings at the ethereal cultivator. Four spinning steel bullets rocketed at Shi, and they promptly phased right through him. Then he was gone completely disappeared. One moment, he was there, and in between the blink of Henry’s eyes, he had disappeared, with no trace of him to be found.

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He hated being on the defensive, but blindly attacking did not work.

Henry visualized the rings getting bigger, and they became the size of bracelets again. With a flick of his concentration, he sent all eight orbiting around himself like planets. Let's see that sneaky bastard.

No sooner than he finished that thought, he felt a searing bolt of pain emanate from his chest. He looked down and saw two deep grooves scoring his shirt scarlet.

“I told you, Brother Hen Ri, you must be observant, and you didn’t listen. Oh, well, it's always fun when the animals struggle before the kill.”

Shi was smiling laviciously at Henry as he licked his metal fingernail. His perfect face was relishing in orgasmic delight, apparently at the taste of Henry’s blood.

“You are one sick puppy; you know that, Shi. I’m gonna figure out how you're doing this, and I'm gonna shove those nails up where the sun doesn’t shine.”

Shi just smiled at him again before blinking out of existence. Henry was bleeding hard from his chest. Something was in those blades that made the blood leak out. There might be some poison rubbed on them.

If this continued, he would bleed out, and Henry doubted Daddy Fei gave a shit if that happened. He wracked his brain, trying to think what he could do. His battle precognition was useless, and Shi was doing something to obscure himself completely.

He didn’t have time to plot any longer as he felt two searing lines of pain in his arms. Shi was playing with him because, of course, he was. The guy was a sadist, and he probably lived for this shit.

Blood flowed freely down Henry’s arms. Yes, it is definitely some poison, most likely some kind of anticoagulant.

“Oh, Brother Hen Ri, I wish this fight never ended. You are so much fun, but sadly, like most things that bring me joy, I eventually break them.”

Henry watched as the blood pooled on Shi’s nails and noticed something he had not before. The blood never left, and it all seemed to pool at the tip. He focused on the blood with his ki sense and saw a tiny little thread that linked it to himself.

That son of a bitch, that was how he was doing it. He linked him somehow to those nails. That's why he couldn't sense it. His battle precognition thought that the nails and, in effect, Shi was him. Just because he figured out the trick didn’t mean he knew how to stop it.

Henry observed his blood closely and saw that there were traces of his ki still embedded in it.

Something clicked in his head, and he remembered what Wu had said. The rotund cultivator said he would need the rings for this fight. What if he did not mean the rings themselves but the technique that got him the rings?

He concentrated on that sliver of ki and willed it to move. The ki in the blood responded immediately. It yearned to obey him. Perfect, Henry thought. Now, how do you use this? He needed to be able to hit Shi. That phasing ability was utter bullshit. There had to be something his ki-infused blood could do.

“Let me play with you a little longer, Brother Hen Ri. I want to see you bleed out and stain my nail this beautiful crimson,” Shi said as he licked the blood again.

Gotcha motherfucker.

Henry sent his intent into the blood and willed his ki to travel into Shi.

Divide, invade, devour.

Henry pushed all of his will into these commands, and like some ki STD, his blood started to do just that.

It started slowly at first, but soon, Shi began to scream.

Full-on death screams. His flawless skin lost its health sheen, and he started to hyperventilate.

“ What did you do to me, you freak? Why are you inside of me? Stop it whatever you are doing, stop it now,” Shi shrieked.

He rushed at Henry. All semblance of grace was lost, replaced with an animalistic fury.

He disappeared, but Henry could see him as easily as if he were looking in a mirror. Shi was phasing into the ground and traveling straight at him. He saw where Shi was about to pop up and dodged. This time, Henry sent two rings right for his head instead of getting cut. Henry staggered them one after the other. One ring went right through him, but when he tried to phase the second one, Henry forced his ki into Shi’s core, shattering his technique, and the ring hit him square in the face, shattering his teeth.

“Aahh, you son of a bitch, my face, my beautiful face,” Shi screamed as blood leaked out of his mouth.

“Hurts, doesn’t it, you freak.”

Henry felt his ki-infused blood eat more and more of Shi’s core. The pain was too much as Henry felt his ki grow larger and larger inside Shi’s core. The pain must have been incredible because Shi dropped to the floor and dug into his flesh, trying to rip the ki out of his body.

“That is enough, Hen Ri. You will pull back your technique,” Fei said, rising from his seat, ki flaring angrily.

“I don’t know, pops. Brother Shi seems kinda like a right asshole to me, and you know what they say, spare the rod, spoil the child. As a sibling, I should step up and educate him.”

Henry dug deeper into Shi’s core, and his blood was taking more and more.

“Hen Ri, I warn you to stop it immediately, or there will be repercussions.”

Henry felt pressure descend on the arena, and his concentration broke. His ki evaporated inside Shi, but the damage had been done. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he twitched violently on the floor.

Pulling his rings back onto his hand, Henry flicked the blood off them and looked at the three remaining cultivators with his most challenging stare.

“This Hen Ri awaits further instructions from his new brothers and sisters.”