“What the fuck happened to you,” Lin gasped. The tavern was dark and empty, only a single light illuminated her surprised features.
Shawn gingerly sat down on a barstool, his wounds from the battle hampering his movements. “Nothing much, just got in a fight with the Crimson Lotus.” Lin passed him a half-full glass of liquor. “Why are you still up,” Shawn said as casually as possible.
“We just finished the strategy meeting. But that’s not important. Are you going to be ok?”
Shawn reached out with his bruise-covered arm and grabbed the glass. “I think so. I got hit pretty hard but I don’t think anything is broken.”
“Did you win,” she asked as she eyed the stained scorpion medallion he wore?
He chuckled. He immediately regretted the action as his cracked ribs made themselves known. “Ya, I won.”
She outstretched her fist, offering him a fistbump. “Nice. Maybe make it a little prettier next time, you look like a zombie.” He winced as his bruised knuckles made contact with her fist. “Congrats on the win. I got something for you.” She pulled a small green ball out of a hidden pocket in her skirt.
Shawn recoiled as its deep herbal scent hit his nose. The pill smelled like old broccoli, absolutely disgusting. “Is that moon leaf? I don’t want to take any drugs.”
Lin fought the urge to hit him. “No you idiot, it’s a healing pill.” She sighed. “Don’t waste it, it's expensive.”
“Thank you,” Shawn said, tears welling up in the corner of his eyes. This was the first genuinely nice thing someone had done for him in this new world. He wiped the moisture away before it could fall.
“Don’t make it weird, it’s no big deal.”
Shawn swallowed the pill. The second it passed his throat, warm vital energy exploding within him. Spurred on by the energy, his body began functioning at a higher level. His heart began to beat more powerfully, sending rushes of fortifying blood racing through him. His veins bulged as they struggled to contain the sheer power of the stream. His muscles itched as they entered recovery mode.
“Are you sure this is safe, I feel like I’m going to explode,” he said?
“Don’t be a baby. They’re perfectly safe as long as you don’t take too many of them.”
Though he was worried, he could tell that the pill was helping, his wounds were healing at an almost visible rate.
She slammed back the rest of her drink and stood up. “We’re raiding some of the Crimson Lotus’s territory early in the morning, I got to go. See you in the morning.
“Good night,” Shawn said with a smile. Though she had a prickly exterior, she was a genuinely nice person. Though he could do with her not calling him an idiot as often.
Now that he was alone, Shawn looked over the blue screens that he had minimized and ignored during his fight with Chen. Multiple of them were rather useless, informing him that he was low on Qi and Hp. He didn’t need the system to tell him that he was low on health, he could feel it. It was his body after all.
Other system announcements were more exciting. His new skill [Qi Enhancement] had leveled up multiple times. Which was rather surprising because he hadn’t used it for more than ten seconds in the fight. It kind of made sense, in the novels he read the characters usually got more experience while fighting. He would have to check if he could game the system somehow.
It would be convenient if he could quickly level up [Deception] by telling lies while fighting. It hurt his ego to be so bad at lying. Plus, it was inconvenient, he wouldn’t be in half the trouble he was now if he was better at lying.
He took a sip of the drink Lin had given him and almost spat it out. The stuff was too powerful, it tasted like rocket fuel. He put down his glass and opened his [Skill List] then selected [Qi Enhancment].
Qi Enhancement Lvl 3: A basic skill that all powerful cultivators must master. Spend 2 Qi per second to increase strength and agility by 7. You can spend extra Qi to enhance your muscles further, but at a decreased rate of efficiency. Be warned, flooding your muscles with too much Qi can lead to irreparable damage.
The cost of the skill had remained the same, but it gave him four more stat points. The description wasn’t lying when it said [Qi Enhancement] was an essential skill for all cultivators. He could more than double his strength with it. Though the Qi cost was rather prohibitive, he could only use it for 11 seconds if he was fully rested. However, he had a suspicion that the cost wouldn’t be a problem in the future with how fast his Qi pool was growing.
Shawn dwelled on the fight. If he actually knew how to throw a punch, it would have been over quickly. He had been lucky that his opponent was slowed down by moon leaf. He resolved to make the next skill he got one that would teach him the basics of fighting. He didn’t know if there was a skill like [Fighters Instincts], but if it existed, he wanted it.
He knew learning how to fight wouldn’t be a quick process, so in the short term, he resolved to carry a weapon with him when he went outside. He wouldn’t be caught unaware again.
The thing that stood out to him the most about the fight was the gust of wind he summoned. He hadn’t earned a skill for it, but that made sense. He was out of skills slots. He would have to reach the next stage of cultivation to unlock more.
Still, the wind was powerful. He was only able to move a knife an inch or so now, but he felt if he mastered that skill he would be able to win any fight. Well, maybe not any fight. He doubted too many people would be stronger than him.
His memories of Green’s life had grown hazy, but he still remembered the raw power Green had been able to summon using the wind. He vaguely remembered the insect being able to summon tornadoes. He was under no illusion that he would be able to do that anytime soon, but fights would be a lot simpler if he could just fly away, that’s for sure.
“You look rough,” Tian said as he exited a hole in the wall. Shawn blinked, there were multiple different hallways hidden within the walls, if he was being honest it sounded a bit impractical. Why couldn’t all the hallways be centralized?
“Ya, I got in a fight.”
“Did you win,” he asked, curious but not overly concerned.
“Ya.” He appreciated how simple Tian made the encounter, he didn’t have the energy to tell the full story of what happened at the moment.
“Good.” Tian shot him a thumbs up and a grin. In addition, Tian tossed him a small blue crystal. “It’s a video crystal, just pour some Qi into it and a screen will appear. A cool documentary on the Founder is playing tonight, you should watch it.”
Shawn struggled to contain his laughter, Tian really was obsessed with the Founder. “Thanks, I will.” Tian waved goodbye and left.
As evil as he had been told the Scorpion’s Den was, the people in it truly cared for him. Slowly he felt his loyalty to the organization build. He wouldn’t pass on an opportunity to join an organization with better perks, but he would help the Scorpion's Den in any way he could that wasn’t too dangerous.
Shawn smiled, he felt warm on the inside, though that may just be the healing pill doing its work.
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He dragged his tired body into his room and locked the door. Sitting on his bed, he poured some Qi into the crystal, causing a holographic screen to be projected out of it. Explosions marked the screen as the Founder's documentary began. He watched the screen with fascination, just from watching for a few seconds he could tell the show was going to be bad. Hopefully, it would fall into the special category that was: so bad it’s good.
“The all-powerful founder of Najian, Shi Bai was not always the man we now know. Once upon a time, he was a child with no possessions to his name,” an over-dramatic narrator said as corny music played in the background. The screen flashed as they showed Shi Bai transforming into a small child.
He had to admit the special effects were quite good. Now that he thought about it, it made sense. Special effects were a lot easier when people could shoot fireballs out of their hands.
“He grew up in the depths of poverty, without a mother or father. It is here where his supreme talents made themselves known. He taught himself the art of cultivation by observing the wildlife. By the time he was four, he had finished the flesh tempering stage of cultivation. At this point, his speed only increased. He completed all nine stages of the spirit forming level in a single day.”
Shawn’s eyebrow twitched as he listened to the man talk. If people with this level of talent existed there would be no way he could pass the test at the golden wall. However, he didn’t fully believe what the narrator was saying. It reminded him of the many reality tv shows he had watched with his mother growing up.
“Bandits constantly attacked his home village, but with his newfound power, they were no longer a problem. By the age of ten, he had won over ten thousand battles. However, ten thousand victories were the least of his accomplishments. At age eleven he scaled the tallest mountain in the world using only his pinky. Later, when asked why he did it, he said, “The greatest challenges provide the greatest rewards.” Truly wise words to live by. The Founder was not done yet, at the age of twelve."
Shawn switched the channel unable to listen to the narrator spout more bullshit.
How could Tian actually believe this drivel? The Founder may have been talented, but there was no way everything they were saying about him was true. It had to be exaggerated.
The second channel was no better than the first, but for different reasons. “The great jungle has devoured another city, if you are in its predicted path be sure to evacuate,” a fast-talking anchorman said. The picture changed to a map of the area, showing the jungle's path of devastation. For a jungle, it moved surprisingly fast, around a mile a day.
He wasn’t sure if he was reading the map correctly, but it seemed like Najian was the only major city for thousands of miles. The map dashed any hope he had of escaping the city. There was nowhere to run away to. All that surrounded the city was miles of dangerous wilderness.
He switched the channel hoping to find something lighter in tone but was once again disappointed. A different news channel covered a different set of events. The contents shown on screen were once again quite depressing.
From a handheld camera, a young man captured a shaky video of a horde of identical giant boars slowly traveling. The most shocking part of the video was the destruction they left in their wake, not a single object survived their hunger.
The ground was left bare, not a single blade of grass remaining, the most daring of the beasts even ate stone, leaving large holes in the ground. Individually the beasts were threatening, but the problem was the sheer number of them. From a quick estimate, Shawn guessed that there were over 100,000 of them shown in the video.
“The great beast horde is migrating to the west, showing unusual levels of activity for this time of year. Is this evidence of something bigger brewing in the shadows? Let’s go over to our resident monster expert to find out,” an attractive young woman said. Shawn switched the channel, his eyebrow twitching.
The news in this world reminded him too much of tv on Earth. Even the captions on the bottom of the screen were similar. He sighed, counterintuitively he didn’t want to see things that reminded him of home, it made him miss it too much. It wouldn’t do him any good to be swallowed whole by homesickness.
Would it kill them to have some normal tv shows? I’d even settle for the Jersey Shore at this point.
Once again, he switched to a news channel. “The brave heroes of the Divine Purity sect have pushed back the demon king’s forces,” a monotone voice said over footage of combat. The cultivators were skilled, each of their strikes were strong enough to crush boulders, but something about the footage didn’t sit right with him.
It didn’t feel real to him. Something in the cultivator's eyes made him doubt that it was a truly life and death battle between them and the demons. He cracked a smile, he had read enough books to recognize this trope from a mile away.
The demons weren’t actually evil. Though he wasn’t sure how useful his genre knowledge actually was, multiple things he had seen in Najian went against what he had learned from his late-night reading sessions. It was entirely possible that the demons were actually evil.
With a flick of his Qi, he turned off the video crystal. The picture the news painted was a bleak one. Life outside the city somehow sounded even more dangerous than living in it.
However, the video crystal wasn’t a total waste of time. He found it interesting how the crystal was able to react to his Qi, he felt he could improve his own abilities by studying it. However, more experimentation would have to wait till later.
Shawn yawned. He was tired, he hadn’t slept the night before. He placed the crystal on the floor and went to sleep.
Burning red eyes roused him from his sleep. “Where’s the coin,” the robed man said as he stood over him menacingly.
“What,” Shawn looked around the room in confusion. How had he broken into the Scorpion's Den, Chule said there were arrays protecting the place.
The robed man shook him. “Look at me. “Where is the coin?” Shawn tried to look around, but the man shook him each time, not letting him get a good look at his surroundings.
Something was off about the encounter, it didn’t make any sense. How did he find me? Tian said he covered our trail. Furthermore, the pain of the robed man's grip felt muted: distant, the sensation fading away in seconds.
“I’ll tell you what I know if you tell me your name,” Shawn said. Even his emotions felt distant, he had trouble feeling anything. In the back of his mind, he knew he was scared. Surprisingly, he also felt anger, but it was all covered by a sleepy daze.
“I’m Dorian.” Shawn mentally filed away the name. The name tried to slip from his consciousness, but he used all his willpower to clamp down on it. He wouldn’t forget his name, not after what he had done.
The wall behind him changed colors from purple to yellow. Neither were the actual color of his room.
“Where is the coin,” Dorian repeated.
“I don’t have it anymore.” A dull headache built behind his eyelids, caused by his warring consciousness. Some outside force was suppressing his mind, making it harder for him to think. He didn’t like it one bit. His anger grew.
“What.” Dorian’s appearance shifted, blood ran down his arm and his skin bruised making him look like he had just lost a fight. “What do you mean you don’t have it. It was worth millions of yi coins. Who has it now.”
“I don’t know where it is now.” Shawn felt [Deception] protest his answer, but his mind was too cloudy to interpret its instructions.
“Don’t lie to me,” Dorian screamed as he hit him. The punches felt weak, they didn’t even leave a mark. Shawn languidly laid back as Dorian rained blows down on him. Dorian no longer scared him, he was like a rabid dog, dangerous but beatable. The punches became weaker, barely even registering to him.
Seeing that his approach wasn’t working Dorian stopped. He disappeared for a moment before reentering the room with Lin.
“If you don’t tell me where it is I’ll kill her.”
Her black hair covered her eyes as she shook in terror. Dorian’s knife hovered next to her throat.
“Wait, don’t do it. She doesn’t deserve to die.”
“Wrong answer.” Lin’s head hit the floor as the rest of her body stood stock still.
Shawn screamed as a lightning bolt of shock ran down his spine. That man, that animal had killed Lin. The spark of rage that Dorian had lit him long ago erupted into a fire that burned away the fog clouding his find, giving him lucidity. No longer did his emotions feel distant and muted. Now, they were almost too powerful to control.
Lin’s head rolled to a stop at his feet, her eyes cold and glassy, dead of emotion. He realized he was standing, his bed had disappeared. More inconsistencies appeared to him.
Lin had brown hair, not black. Lin would never let herself be beaten so easily, she was a fighter, she wouldn’t give up till she was dead. Golden flies appeared in the room, producing an irritating buzzing sound.
“This isn't real,” Shawn whispered. The dark black light of Scorpion’s wisp poured out of his body, bringing him into perfect clarity and making the rest of the world blur.
“Let’s try this again. This time with the person most important to you.”
His mother appeared in Dorian's arms, shaking in fear. However, her appearance was cartoonish, lacking detail. Her eyes held none of their usual warmth. She was a pale imitation of the original.
“Help me, Shawn. Don’t let him hurt me.” She pleaded, her long hair covering her caramel eyes. It wasn’t her, he was sure of it. That didn’t stop his heart from pounding in his chest as she shivered. Even a pale imitation was enough to fool his emotions.
Dorian moved his knife closer, cutting into her arm, letting a stream of blood flow down it.
“Dorian.” He paused too angry to form words. “That was a mistake.” The buzzing of the flies increased in intensity drowning out Dorian’s response. The world faded to white and Shawn woke up in a cold sweat.
Had it been a dream? No, it felt too real, he could remember it too clearly for it to have been a dream.
He checked the video crystal, he hadn’t been asleep for more than 40 minutes. That was nowhere near enough time to enter the R.E.M cycle of sleep and experience a dream so vivid.
"Dorian,” he said the name slowly, rolling it over his teeth. Despite all the odds he had remembered his name, He clenched his fist. The name had been seared into his memory, he doubted he would ever forget it now.
He wasn’t a vengeful person, but Dorian had crossed a line, he had gone too far. Even if it was just an illusion; no one hurt his mother and got away with it. He was long past the point of forgiveness, only one person would walk away from their next encounter, he was sure of it.
He forced his aching body into a meditation pose and began absorbing the world's natural energy. He had a fight to prepare for.