Despite my warnings, a fair few fights continued happening. Three challenges went to Jingshu from opportunistic buzzards, and I wouldn’t lie, it was fascinating to watch.

The first opponent, Jingshu traded blows with, receiving bruises and bumps on his face and body and winning via KO, after which someone else immediately challenged him in order to capitalize on his injured state.

That fight was nasty. Several hard hits caught him on his face and head, and he was swaying by the time he finally put his opponent in the ground.

Finally, the third approached him: Zhou Hao, who had received sixty years worth of qi pills, a sword crafted from the finest mundane steel, and the Dragonheart Pearl, a medicine that could immediately boost one’s usable vital energy by ten years

“I wager everything I have against your Horsetail Whisk, your flute and your qi pills!”

Wei Jingshu nodded grimly. “Very well.”

Wei Jingshu assumed a stance. The Heavenly Funnel hugged around his body—I could sense it now, sense how the energies of the world subtly guided him. His resonance was weak, but there.

Only…

He cycled through several other stances, using a portion of the Basic Forms that were exceedingly gentle. Which was strange, because he shouldn’t have internal arts yet. Who had taught him?

His movements crisped up, like he was learning exactly what to do in real time, and it hit me. He was enjoying the fruits of enlightenment.

It had come relatively easy to me, but I didn’t have a monopoly on this state. All of us were special in this way, disproportionately beloved by the heavens. Wei Jingshu was no different.

The crier announced the start of the match and Zhou Hao rushed forward with a strike.

Jingshu dodged it by a mile, bending away from the strike like a leaf bends away from being grabbed mid-air. Zhou Hao struck again, and missed again, but to his credit, he didn’t hesitate to strike once more, refusing to fixate on his misses.

“What the hell?” Mei Ying said from besides me. “Was he always this strong?”

“No,” I said. “Enlightenment struck when he needed it the most.”

“Huh?! This really is a martial arts world!” she said in shock and surprise.

Jingshu danced out of the way in a clearly choreographed fashion, now fully immersed in the Basic Forms, actualizing them into true martial arts. Internal energy moved his body in evasive patterns. He could no doubt read the flow of qi in his opponent in a limited way, receive premonitions and move accordingly to avoid disaster.

Then he struck, his fist flying straight through all of Zhou Hao’s guarding appendages like a snake dodging through tree limbs, until it struck its target, the man’s jaw.

He didn’t really fly back or even stagger back from the punch so much as it seemed to push an imaginary off-button on the guy, disabling his control over his body. He fell instantly.

“It’s over?” Mei Ying asked.

“Why don’t you go ask Zhou Hao?” I quipped. Jingshu stepped back from the guy, straightened his posture and gave his prone form a martial salute while the crier announced his victory. Then he limped back to the sidelines to recuperate. I wanted to go up there and congratulate him, and I would in time, but I didn’t know how I was going to approach him on what he would do with his newfound wealth.

“You think he’ll finally win Xinyi’s heart,” Mei Ying muttered. “He’s got much to offer now.”

I thought it over for a moment, but settled on a good enough answer. “It’s none of my business,” I said. “Actually, I think it’d be kind of cool for him to do.” This was far different and more respectable than him paying me to throw my match, which was such an asinine suggestion that I couldn’t even begin to guess at what he was thinking. But I’d throw it aside because I was benevolent like that. I wouldn’t think maliciously of him, but… nobody could blame me for thinking less of his judgment, surely.

“Mei Ying!” Somebody roared. It was Xu Leifeng, one of Wenhao’s friends. The stocky man glared daggers towards her as he stepped into the ring. “I challenge you to a duel for forty-five years of qi!”

Mei Ying’s eyes widened into saucers as she looked at her challenger.

I sighed.

Here I go maiming again.

“I refuse,” I said, stepping forward.

Xu Leifeng’s glare focused on me, and spittle flew from his mouth as he shouted. “Stay out of this, Tianming! This is my right and you’re out of line!” He looked to the crier. “Tell him!”

The crier cleared his voice and cried. “All duels are meant to be one on one. As you have already fought three duels, and this is a lower-ranked individual, you can’t—”

“Okay, forget that then,” I said. I folded my arms and walked up to Xu Leifeng. “Right, consider I let you beat on Mei Ying for a bit and take her stuff. Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll find you after this game is over and break both your legs, and steal your ninety years of qi pills.”

“Y-you can’t do that.”

I cracked my neck. “I’m not here to convince you of anything, just warn you. I buried Wenhao. What makes you think I can’t or won’t bury you?”

“This isn’t fair!” He said through gritted teeth.

I scoffed. “And this is? None of this is fair. None of this is even meant to be fair. You can’t enforce fairness selectively. Either we live in a civilized world where nobody hits each other for resources, or we live this way, where the strong rules. And here’s some breaking news for you, my young friend: I am the strong.”

I walked away from him and towards Mei Ying, who was only glaring at Leifeng. “I can fight him,” she said. “Maybe gain enlightenment or something.”

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I clicked my tongue. “Unless you’re Xinyi with her own advantages, three weeks isn’t enough to catch up with the boys.”

“What if I still wanna fight? What should I do?”

“Exactly what you saw Jingshu do,” I said.

“Enlightenment?”

“No. Dim mak. Touch of death. First strike is the last. It’s your only way.”

Mei Ying stepped forward to Leifeng. “You still wanna fight me?”

Xu Leifeng’s eyes were torn between Mei Ying and I. Eventually, he focused on Mei Ying and roared. “Fuck it! I challenge you! Forty-five years of your qi pills against mine!”

I groaned. “Mei Ying, you have nothing to gain from this.”

“It’s not about the pills,” she said. “It’s about proving something. To the other girls. And to me. That we can do this.”

You can’t, I wanted to say. But it would only harm in this instance. Right now, Mei Ying needed all the support she could get. “Diamonds are created under pressure,” I said. “You can do it.”

She scoffed. “You might as well have told me to call an ambulance.”

“You do that,” I said. Then I smiled. “But not for you.”

Mei Ying chuckled.

“Ready yourselves!” the crier shouted, then counted down.

Mei Ying got down to a sprinting position, legs bent and hands touching the ground. That made things pretty obvious for Leifeng, who was keeping his legs wide, ready to move out of the way.

“Start!”

Mei Ying didn’t take off in a sprint. Instead, she just stood up, having no-doubt realized a hole in her strategy.

Instead, she just started skipping towards Leifeng, who was now grinning widely, ready to tear her down with his outstretched hands.

Mei Ying’s skip suddenly transformed into a slanted front-flip. Her leg straightened mid-air, sending her heel on a collision course with Leifeng’s skull.

He backed away, but not in time to prevent a hit to his chin that sent him staggering back. Then on his knees.

Mei Ying ran up to him with a knee to his face. Sending him lying flat on the ground.

“Who’s next?!” she shouted. “Any of you idiots still think you can take me? I’ve still got two more fights, right?! My knee feels bruised! Anyone wanna take advantage of that?”

By now, the distribution of wealth had shifted so massively in the lower brackets that a lot of them had experienced first-hand the disgrace of defeat. Those who hadn’t had already seen Jingshu’s performance, in which he absolutely slaughtered two low-rankers, and Zhou Hao.

At this point, the only people in this event that still had valuables in a decent capacity where I, Mei Ying and Jingshu. The rest had either nothing, having lost it to us, or they had a couple of qi pills they had won from someone else in their general level of strength, and been lucky enough to keep them uncontested.

The fight was over.

The crier raised their voice. “Are there any challengers remaining who would try their luck and skill?”

No one said anything.

“Very well then! I announce this bimonthly sponsorship event concluded!” he said. “Those among you who were left with nothing, take solace in the generosity of your classmate Li Tianming, who has seen fit to distribute one hundred and fifty years of qi pills equally among you! Unfortunately, this adds up to only ten among the twelve of you that have been left with nothing. Before we get to sorting that issue out, allow us to present you with peak masters that will explain to you the process of assimilating your qi.”

Mei Ying walked up to me with her hand raised in the air. It took me a moment to realize she wanted a high-five.

She didn’t even look at me as we slapped our hands together. “I’m so glad that taunt worked,” she said. “I think I broke my foot.”

Yes, now that she mentioned it, her entire posture was off ever since she finished Leifeng off.

“All’s well that ends well,” I said.

“Indeed, and here is some medicine to make the pain bearable, young warrior!”

I turned around in shock to see Dong Ho behind us both, holding a piece of paper with two pills on top.

“You too, young man,” he said. “For your headache.”

Right. I had been channeling my samadhi to be able to think, and it was slightly straining my little baby spirit. I took the pill and swallowed it, immediately feeling relief as the energies poured out and stimulated my meridians, imparting upon my qi a healing quality that wasn’t truly native to itself.

This sort of medicine wouldn’t work with normal humans who didn’t have awakened cores, because in the end it relied on your own energy body to do most of the heavy lifting.

I could even feel the wound in the back of my head closing up, and the pain was disappearing with every passing second. This truly was the good stuff!

“I have volunteered to coach you two,” Dong Ho said. “Let’s go somewhere private to talk. Do not worry. I have all of your gifts on my person.” He started walking towards the exit of the courtyard and we followed, Mei Ying’s limping steps slowly evening out as the pill worked its magic on her.

I looked him up and down. Since he didn’t have a two and a half meter long monk-spade hanging off his back, it was safe to say he was using some kind of extra dimensional storage. Good for him, those were expensive. Then again, what couldn’t a Transcendent not afford?

The closer I got in proximity to those at the peak of the jianghu, the more aware I was of the holes in my own knowledge. Short of what I read from the library in Shaolin and what little I could see of passing supremes, I knew almost nothing about what the jianghu really had to offer. I had read stories and such things, learned enough that I was confident I could make it big this time around, but experiencing it all first-hand was something else entirely.

I had only truly made the push to become a Supreme Peak Master around the time the second civil war had finally concluded, and the violence had reached me. All I wanted was for an end to the bloodshed, and foolishly I reentered the martial arts world unprepared, and the best I could boast was an entry into the Supreme Peak stage and putting the final nail in the coffin of the Heavenly Demon.

Didn’t matter. I just hadn’t been seriously training for all my time here. And I didn’t regret that, truly, even if it led to my own unhappiness. Regret would imply that it truly was my duty to make sure justice prevailed. Back then, it hadn't been. I had been the weakest of the litter. An absolute reject. My only problem was that I was powerless, not that I believed in the wrong thing.

Perhaps a point could be made that my beliefs gave me a responsibility to enact my vision, that to believe in anything, one must do their best to bring it to its highest form of reality.

But if that was the case, then I should be working hard to enter some bullshit music conservatory, playing the same ancient tunes and forcing myself to master them for some stupid concept like glory. I believed in music. That didn’t mean that I should grind it till level one-hundred even if I ended up hating it down the line.

I wasn’t neglectful or lazy in my past life. I was just me.

And I was still me, even now. Thirty-three years old, lording over teenagers sure, and having experienced the currents and eddies of life. And now I was ready to take on a role that I didn’t want, because it was the right thing to do.

But I didn’t do anything wrong by living my own normal life before.

Still, I couldn’t help a sense of… loss at seeing Wei Jingshu break out from his chrysalis, awakening a potential for martial arts that exceeded even what he was capable of at this stage in the last timeline. Or Mei Ying, who fought and won, against all odds, to prove that even in this terrible world that saw her gender as lesser, there was hope yet.

In comparison, I was just an old man.

Beating on children.

Dong Ho took us out from the main compound and to a forest trail leading further up the mountains while Mei Ying and I made small talk.

Contrary to her judgment of me, I really didn’t know much about her. I never bothered so much to learn what all of my classmates were up to at any given time, so I still couldn’t for the life of me make out why she had suddenly turned evil.

Against my better judgment and according to my own biases, I had to suspect Liang Mingyu now, the girl who had become such a promising student in healing, who Mei Ying eventually had to kill for the good of everyone else.

I’d have to start getting to know Mingyu more now. With Mei Ying, that would be easier to achieve, albeit a little risky as I had no idea what sort of history they already had, if they even had any at this point.

Ah well.

A problem for tomorrow’s me. Right now, I had some gifts to peruse through.