A/N: Bonus chapter!

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  Zane sat cross-legged and weathered the storm.

  Collisions ran through his mind. Waves crashing and crossing, and in their violent wakes, making new and dangerous energies.

  Energies he mastered, line by line.

  He saw flares screaming out of newly-born stars, spiraling into deep space.

  Brow furrowed, he put himself in that trance-like state. Field after field took shape…

  Hours passed like this.

  Soon it was growing clear he was right—it was not the sort of thing he'd finish in a day, or even a few weeks.

  But the more he worked on it, like a smith at the anvil, the more he could see it taking shape. He was certain now—it was only a matter of time.

  At the end of the day, he was two layers deep. A few thousand to go.

  He nodded.

  ***

  His Law built in his mind, and it seemed to him like some great weapon whose pieces were slowly being welded together. The Radiation bolstered his Flare. So would this field. It only grew more and more complex—harder to keep together, but even just layers in, he was starting to feel the difference.

  Making this Concept, forging it in his body, would be a greater undertaking than any he’d tried. It’d take time, but it was shaping up to be quite an enjoyable grind, toiling away in the dark.

  But he was quite looking forward to the reward. Enough time had passed; he was getting used to this place. As he went outside, the misty breeze, the waning afternoon sunlight, felt natural on his face. He liked the roars of the waterfalls. He found them soothing.

  He felt some fluctuations in the distance.

  It had to be Jin—hard at work, getting stronger. He could sense the tiger’s blood in the blows.

  In the past few days, the boy had broken all the boulders in Thousand Falls Valley. He’d run off to find more in the woods. The kid just kept going, punching again and again. And slowly but surely, he really was getting better.

  He was sort of hard-headed in that way. He took to Zane’s training philosophy quite well—but the kid gave him a little too much credit, he felt.

  The kid already had what made it all work, even before Zane got to him. He just kept going, and when you put him down, he never stayed down.

  All Zane did was give him some direction.

  It was surprisingly satisfying seeing the kid growing. Jin kept coming over at lunch time, and though Zane had said he’d teach the kid one technique only, somehow he just kept teaching him. Just random one-offs, mind you.

  “I’m not your Master,” he would hastily remind the kid every so often when he saw Jin getting too excited, and Jin would nod quickly. “Yes, Senior Zane!”

  Then he would give the kid the day’s homework, and the kid would bow and run off.

  ***

  “Nineteen thousand, six hundred and five…”

  Jin wiped a line of sweat off his brow and marveled at his fist. “It’s really working!”

  It felt like he’d been trying so hard for so long, and all he got for it was the underside of Liu Yi’s shoe.

  Then it all changed.

  He sniffed a little. “Senior Zane…”

  He vowed to do the big guy proud.

  First, he was going to take those entrance exams. He wasn’t just gonna pass them, he decided. He was gonna come first! Then he might take up a side job as an alchemist, just to earn some extra stones as he trained—maybe even make master in that too. Then he would try to make Elder so he could go out on the Frontier, fight wild Monsters, and make a name for himself as a martial hero.

  He even heard of mysterious lands beyond the seas, lands where every cultivator could tread the skies.

  Just the thought was enough to get him fired up.

  It was all stuff he wouldn’t have even thought about just a week ago. But now…

  “One day,” he said, eyes shining.

  He was still wandering back home, happily daydreaming, when they caught him.

  They fanned out slowly from the tree line, blocking off the path.

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  “Liu Yi!” said Jin, frowning.

  The young master looked paler than usual, more disheveled. But when he saw Jin, he put on a lazy smile. “What a coincidence. If it isn’t the trash of the Wei Family himself! What might you be doing out here, little Jin? Could you be hiding something?”

  He sounded a bit shriller than usual.

  He swept over. His goons followed, hulking walls of muscle.

  “We'll ask you one question,” said the Young Master. “We don’t have to hurt you. But if you insist on resisting… my friend here is rather keen.”

  The Hunchback licked his lips. “Come, little Jin,” he sang. “Let Hunchback Lang get a taste of your flesh!”

  He laughed all manic, one eye bulging crazily.

  But Jin stuck out his chin.

  “I’m not telling you a thing. I’m not scared of you!”

  “Eh?” The hunchback scratched his head. Then shrugged. “Most piss themselves when they see it.” He made his eye bulge again and cackled. Then he sighed.

  “But some bunnies take a little more tenderizing…here’s a dirty secret, little Jin. They all get scared in the end.”

  He licked his lips.

  “Tch!” Jin’s hands balled into fists.

  He got a good look at the guy as he stood there. Senior Zane always said to go in with a plan. Once he was fighting, there was no time to think—then it was time to trust his body.

  “Last chance,” said Liu. “Where is Zane?”

  Jin just put up his fists in response.

  “Fine, then,” Liu swallowed. “Let’s get on with it, then. Hunchback, if you would? And please—less messy this time?”

  Hunchback Lang leered at the Young Master. “It’s just a little blood, that’s all! You’ve never tasted blood before, Young Master?”

  He laughed like a hyena. “Not to worry. You’ll get a taste for it by the time I’m through with him.”

  The Young Master looked distinctly queasy at that, like he’d seen what was coming.

  Then the Hunchback jerked his head to Jin.

  “You lot hold the boy down. I’ll do the breaking.”

  Four hulking executioners came right for Jin.

  But he was ready, and he was telling the truth.

  He wasn’t scared.

  He’d sized them up already, just like Senior Zane said. They were all high Condensation, and he was only early, and there were four of them to his one. But he had something they didn’t.

  He let out a battle cry and went for it.

  “Crouching Tiger’s Fist!” he moved—and a tiger roared out of him.

  The first goon nearly fell over at the sight. The tiger caught him in the chest, and he went flipping into the treeling.

  “What the—” was all the second got out. Then Jin pounced. They exchanged one move, and Jin landed hard. The goon went down.

  “You said he was an amateur!” laughed the hunchback.

  “Not anymore,” said Jin proudly.

  He thought back to all his days working with Senior Zane in the Valley. He thought back to every Tiger’s Fist he threw, thousands upon thousands.

  He put up a battle stance.

  The last two looked a bit wary. They nodded at each other and came roaring at him.

  One tackled him, and Jin caught him coming up—he battered the guy’s face, but the guy still managed to ram him in the legs. He flailed, off-balance.

  The other goon caught Jin with a stone club of a fist.

  It snapped the boy’s head all the way back. A crack echoed across the clearing.

  It should’ve been enough to put down a Late Condensation fighter.

  But this was Jin Wei, and he came right back.

  A Crouching Tiger’s fist sent the man rolling.

  Then he stood there alone, breathing heavily, four goons flat at his feet.

  “How…?!” whispered Liu Yi.

  “I said,” said Jin, blood trickling from his mouth, “I’m not afraid of you!”

  “Ai…,” sighed the Hunchback. He shook his head. “This kid… He just doesn't know when to quit.”

  He cracked his neck. It cracked a few too many times.

  Then he stepped up, spindly little arms clasped behind the bulge of his back, and grinned at Jin, the way a butcher might grin at a cute little piglet.

  His aura roared out.

  Foundation.

  Jin’s eyes widened—but he gritted his teeth.

  “I like your spirit, kid,” laughed the Hunchback. “So I’ll make you an offer. Give in now, and I’ll leave you half your teeth! How about it?”

  “Never!” shouted Jin.

  It was like Senior Zane said. He couldn’t afford to be scared. If he was scared, the enemy already beat him in his mind—and if he lost there, he was done.

  He had to be brave.

  So he cried out and charged the Hunchback head-on.

  The Hunchback hit him with a fist that shattered half the bones in his torso.

  Blood splattered the length of the clearing.Jin looked shocked.

  Then the Hunchback clubbed him on the head, and he went down.

  “Eh?” said the Hunchback. He turned back to the Young Master. “Would you look at that! The kid’s still going!”

  It was true—Jin was trembling, but he was pushing himself back up.

  He shouted, lunged—gave it his all.

  He never got there.

  The Hunchback’s other fist ballooned, stretching the skin tight, pale flesh turning pink.

  He landed a grotesque hit on Jin, and the boy went flying. He hit a tree like a ragdoll and slid down, looking dazed—barely there.

  The Hunchback walked up leisurely, whistling.

  “I love this kid—look at him,” he said. “He just won’t stay down!”

  He crouched right next to Jin.

  “I’ll ask again,” said the Hunchback. He was enjoying himself a little too much. “Where is Zane?”

  “I’ll … never… tell—”

  WHAM!

  Jin spewed blood.

  Even Liu Yi winced—“Why do you care? Six hells, just say it! Get it over with!”

  By now Jin could hardly talk; his face was so swollen. He coughed blood. He rasped out every word.

  “You’re never gonna get me to give up Senior Zane,” he said. Tears welled in his eyes. “He was the only person I ever met who never laughed at my dreams. The only person who never called me trash. No one’s ever believed in me, except for Senior Zane!”

  He spat in the Hunchback’s face.

  And though nearly every bone in his body had broken by then, when the two of them stared into his eyes, they saw, to their shock, they hadn’t broken the one part of Jin that mattered.

  “So do your worst, you bullies!”

  “He’s gone mad,” Liu Yi moaned.

  The Hunchback wiped his fist.

  “Oh,” he said in a low whisper. His grin went so wide it was nearly a frown. “Oh, now you’ve done it.”

  He lifted his arm, and it began to swell. Twice its size. Three times—

  “Don’t—you’ll kill him!” croaked Young Master Liu.

  “Good!” shrieked the Hunchback.

  Then a hand closed around his wrist.

  One moment, the man wasn’t there. The next, there came a gale like a hurricane striking, and he was—fifty trees flattened on the other side of the clearing. It almost bowled the Hunchback over himself. It would’ve, if there weren’t an iron grip around his arm.

  A shadow fell across his twitching face.

  He looked up.

  The man before him had hardly shown any emotion when Liu fought him. But this time, something in those black eyes made the Hunchback flinch.

  “You were looking for me?” said Zane.