'Four Steps of the Crane Palms' was an odd martial art as there didn't seem to be anything martial about it. Reading through the entire manual there was no sign of martial techniques and instead just included advice on gathering ki and applying it in minor ways before jumping to extremely advanced concepts such as fist energy. Pages upon pages filled with words upon words. I thought that martial arts were supposed to have drawings of each step of the martial art yet only one drawing existed and it was a person sitting in the lotus position, the meditative position that even kids on the street knew about. Such a martial art was no martial art at all.

The manual was ramblings about the fundamentals of all martial arts followed by vague guides for the peak yet its creator, a man calling himself the 'White Crane Sage' boasted about himself and his greatness at the end of every single paragraph.

'To feel Qi is to feel nature itself and to gather Qi is to make nature part of yourself. This will give you internal energy purer than that residing in a millennium ginseng. When I made my way to the top one hundred martial masters I was an object of envy as my internal energy was so pure that there were no impurities to be expelled from my body during body reformation, instead the cave I had been residing in gave away the smell of roses for ten whole days after my departure.'

How could the creator of a third rate art used by a beggar not good enough to make five stripes be this conceited? But I had no other choice. I had to learn what I could get my hands on. So I followed the man's art, disregarding his vanity. Or at least what I at the time perceived as such.

Six hours. With that man's guidance, I had forged an energy core and circulated my internal energy all throughout my body in six hours. I didn't know much about martial arts but I knew that six hours was too fast. I was new and had no master. Forging an energy core without the guidance of a master was supposed to take weeks, months even. But six hours? That's something not even the demonic cult, an institution made under the rule that strength conquers all, could achieve in anyone but the Heavenly Demon's disciples. That was my first step into the martial world and despite being no more than the water simply touching my toes at the most shallow point of a vast ocean, I was there. And it was exhilarating.

Qi had a unique feeling to it. I had just felt a single drop yet I was hooked. I felt strong and I wanted more. The only way the feeling of Qi running through my body could be explained was that I felt like I existed more. Existence was not something one could feel. Even the very moment of my death I did not exist any less. But with the strange energy called Qi running through my body I understood why many would risk their lives for a sliver of power. To exist a little more.

I wanted to revel in this new feeling but something felt wrong. If he had access to such a marvelous martial art, how could the beggar have died from such a simple poison? It couldn't be. Was the beggar not actually dead? I looked through the manual, at great speed and in due time I fell upon something that made every hair in the back of my neck stand.

'Many martial masters will tell you that you need to learn how to expel poison from your body and at least gain immunity to a hundred poisons. I don't disagree with them, especially given those Tang bastards running around in the murim with all sorts of poisons. But we don't need them. Once you reach the level of condensed energy, assuming you didn't lose any purity in your Qi then you don't have to fear poison. It will simply burn in contact with your internal energy. I was once in a cave doing isolated training. But instead of using grain balls I fed exclusively on the local snake population. Those snakes happened to be venomous and the longer I stayed the stronger their poison became in an attempt to take their main predator, me, down. They never managed to of course but they managed to make their poison strong enough to warrant its own name and a title as one of the 10 great poisons. The azure, blood melting poison. '

I felt steps reverberating through the house's old wooden floor. My heart grew weary and pounded so hard I could feel it in my ears. My stomach churned and my tongue started licking the top of my teeth. My hand instinctively reached under my clothes looking for the dagger always carried in my life as an assassin. But in this life I had no reason to be armed, or so I had thought.

A heavy hand knocked on my door, startling me and causing me to drop the manual on the ground where it opened to a random page. My eyes locked onto the page and as they did my surroundings molded together in an amorphous mass. The scratched up walls of my baren room, my dusty desk and even the streaks of light coming through my window all blended into the background as I read the page.

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'The Qi that runs through your body is purer than any and thus you are forbidden to dilute its purity by consuming pills, miracle drugs or partaking in rituals of any kind. From the simplest cultivation pill to the True Nirvana Pill of the Shaolin. All of them are below you. I spent my whole life mastering every facet of Qi and thus the purity of my Qi is superior to any other. No mythical beast, ancient drug or sacred ritual can even dare to compare their Qi purity to mine.'

"Hey Jin. Why aren't you up yet? Don't make me come in there." Mister Joo's voice shattered the silence.

"Y-yeah. I'm coming." My tunnel vision broke and I was sent back to reality.

Beads of ice cold sweat ran down my face and fell to the ground.

I took a deep breath, firmly grabbed the manual and put it under my clothes before exiting my room. With heavy steps I made my way to my adoptive father who was waiting for me by the front door of our minimalistic house.

We had less things that I had at my dwelling in the cult. But it didn't matter. A table, some chairs and my desk were all the furniture we had apart from our beds. But that much was enough for us. We weren't greedy for more.

Mister Joo mixed my hair with his big hands and rubbed my face with a cold wet towel before wordlessly patting me on the back and nudging me to move forward.

The walk to the shop filled me with the greatest amount of stress I had ever felt. I dreaded the option that the beggar could still be alive. If that were the case I would be done for. Even though I had just used the martial art for the first time I'm sure he'd be able to find traces of it in my body.

Yet my fear never came true.

As we reached the shop, a group of small kids were poking the pale body of the beggar.

"Hey, kids. What are you doing? Let that man be." Mister Joo shouted from across the street.

"Pork Bun Mister. Mister Beggar isn't moving. We were trying to wake him up as a prank but he's really cold." A young girl with a missing front tooth shouted back at us.

"What's happening? Is he hurt?" I spoke slowly and turned my head to the ground.

"I'll go look. You stay here." Mister Joo approached the kids and checked in on the beggar. A minute later he shooed the kids away and returned back to me.

"He's dead." Mister Joo said monotone.

"W-what? He's dead?" I rushed to inspect the body. He was cold. There was no breath, no pulse and no heartbeat. He was dead.

"He's really dead? It can't be. It just can't be." I made my voice tremble and bit down on my lip hard so my eyes would produce tears as this body wasn't trained to do so on command. Until then, I turned to the kids.

"What happened to him?" I asked with a shaky breath.

"He took something. He was probably sold some fake pills which ended up killing him. There don't seem to be any external symptoms so the only option is Qi deviation. Or a great poison." Mister Joo said. He held a fistfull of brown coloured pills in his right hand and a simple pouch in his left. He put the pills back in the pouch and put them under his clothes.

As tears started streaming from my eyes I bit my lip even harder to stop myself from grinning. He had broken the Shit Crane Sage's rules and he wasn't able to withstand even a simple poison. He was dead. I had won. But my victory had a note of bitterness for I understood the fragility of the art I had praised.

"Jin? Are you crying? I didn't know how much martial arts meant to you. But don't worry. You'll get a chance to learn in the future if it's the heavens' will." Mister Joo placed his hand on the top of my head to console me.

"We're going to be just fine." He whispered, taking me in for an embrace.

"I-it's not that. I, he, he gave me a book last time. It's on me right now. B-but." I rushed my breath and cracked my voice to give my words more meaning but the more I lied the more it felt like my heart was being squeezed by an iron hand.

"Huh?" Mister Joo flinched. "What do you mean he gave you a book? Did he say anything else"

"He told me how he was preparing for a fight with some bandits and that if anything were to happen to him I should grab anyone and anything I care about and leave." I turned my head to look him in the eyes. "I think he called them Green Forest. He told me they're dangerous and that they're planning to raid us soon."

Mister Joo tensed up. He clenched his fists and grinded his teeth loud enough that I could hear it. His reaction wasn't that of someone who had simply heard of the group. Green Forest is the greatest bandit coalition of all time, founded four years before by a renowned martial artist, the Golden Spear Jo Pyo.

Despite their size and infamy in the wider world the green forest was no more than a rumor in such a small city. A folk tale merchants and drifters spoke of sometimes.

"You said he gave you a manual right? Did you read it at all?" Mister Joo's voice sounded stronger than before and full of conviction.

"I did. I did the meditation technique and it made me feel weird. Why? Is it bad?" I was taken aback. Mister Joo seemed way too comfortable in the situation. His eyes were stern but he wasn't panicking.

Mister Joo sighed. With one hand he hoisted the dead beggar and put him on his shoulder.

"Kids, go back home for now. Kids shouldn't be seeing the dead. I'll give him a proper burial. You can come by later and I'll give you some pork buns. Now go." The kids nodded and ran back to their homes as Mister Joo walked towards the shop and I followed suit.

Once we were alone, Mister Joo rested the beggar's body on the ground and turned to

me. He took a deep breath and sighed.

"I have something I need to tell you."