By all accounts, this was my first real fight.

  The spirit tiger did not count. I had outleveled it by twenty levels. Huang Long did not count either, because that was an ambush. The spider demon was clearly weakened by something, probably hunger. The past month of skirmishes with the sects was not combat at all, just harassment. Huang Yong… I cheated by lacing his tea. As for the four days of training with Meng Rong, that was simply me getting beaten up over and over again.

  Dong Li was different.

  He was a Level 255 cultivator, someone who could genuinely threaten me, yet still sat within a range I could overcome. If I had to compare him to something familiar, he was like a named character in YKU. Strong, proud, and dangerous, but not untouchable.

  “Here I come,” Dong Li said.

  He stomped forward, and the ground beneath his feet cracked as he burst into motion. In three steps, he was already in front of me. The sheer speed was ridiculous.

  [Energy: 20%]

  I needed to recover, fast. Normally, I would have relied on consumables or dragged the fight out by guarding until my energy trickled back. But after gaining Energy Mastery, I could recover faster by breathing in qi, as long as I stayed active. The system was still a system. Basic attacks were the key.

  “Oraaa~!”

  Dong Li guarded cleanly.

  I followed immediately with a multi-hit basic attack. “Ora-ora-ora!”

  He blocked every strike, despite wielding a weapon as large as my torso. His defense was solid, disciplined, and backed by raw power. Even after all my sparring with Meng Rong, fighting someone who could truly hurt me was still intimidating.

  “That’s a bit disappointing, Yakuza Man!” Dong Li shouted.

  He stomped down, energy surging through his leg as the ground caved in. I raised my guard just in time.

  “Rock Smash!”

  He swung the flat of his blade, and I parried it perfectly. The shock on his face was unmistakable. He was clearly proud of his muscles and brute strength. It showed in every movement he made.

  My parry gave me the initiative, and I did not waste it. I triggered Double Jump, gaining elevation, and brought my bat down with force.

  “Heavenly Punishment!”

  I poured fifty percent of my regenerated energy into it. He blocked the blow, but the stun effect landed exactly as I expected. Even Meng Rong had been shocked that my stun effects worked on her during our sparring.

  I stayed still, counting silently as I drew in qi, my breathing steady and controlled. It increased my energy regen. I let my intimidation trait seep out naturally as I stared down at him.

  From the outside, it must have looked strange. I was just standing there, looming.

  “You scoundrel!” Dong Li cursed. “You are looking down on me, aren’t you?!”

  It took a little over four seconds before he recovered.

  Four seconds was an eternity.

  It seemed Energy Mastery did more than just recover energy faster. It amplified the effectiveness of my techniques.

  “Boulder Slash!” Dong Li roared.

  This time, I parried again.

  He froze, stunned in place.

  [Energy: 100%]

  This was it.

  I unleashed everything in a single strike. “Tyrant’s Path!”

  The bat connected.

  Dong Li was sent flying, his massive body hurled across the arena as if struck by a falling mountain.

  I turned to Yao Yazhu and said calmly, “It seems to be my victory.”

  Dong Li crashed into a tree at the edge of the arena, snapping the trunk clean in half as wood splintered and dust exploded outward. For a brief moment, the crowd erupted, but Yao Yazhu did not move. He only shook his head, lifted his chin slightly, and gestured toward the wreckage.

  “Look again,” he said.

  I followed his gaze.

  What stood amid the broken wood was not Dong Li.

  It was a clay figure bearing his likeness, its surface cracked and fissured, the massive blade in its hand nothing more than hardened earth shaped into steel’s form. The doll stared blankly at me for a heartbeat before crumbling into fragments that scattered across the ground.

  My stomach dropped.

  What exactly had I been fighting?

  Before I could react, my right foot suddenly sank into the ground as if it had turned to mud. An arm burst upward from beneath the earth, grabbing my collar and yanking me down. My face slammed into the ground hard enough to draw blood from my nose. I tried to push myself free with my remaining foot, but it sank as well, the earth swallowing me further.

  Another violent pull smashed my face into the dirt again.

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  I could not even properly block. I stabbed downward with my bat in desperation, but the weapon was caught mid-motion. Dong Li appeared beside me, his grip ironclad as he held the bat with one hand.

  “Cultivators battle with myriad techniques,” he said evenly. “Spells, martial arts, poison, spirits. I can see your roots lie in martial arts, but that alone is not enough.”

  More arms burst from the ground, restraining my shoulders and torso, dragging me deeper as the soil pressed in around me. Dong Li pried the bat from my grasp and raised his massive blade, resting its edge against my throat.

  “Surrender.”

  So this was it.

  I had really underestimated cultivators.

  I had beaten Huang Yong and thought I could beat Dong Li too. The arrogance tasted bitter now. My limbs were locked by the earth itself, wrestling me into submission. Darkness crept into my vision as soil closed in.

  Dong Li turned his head slightly toward Yao Yazhu. “You should declare it.”

  “He can still fight,” Yao Yazhu replied. “And you haven’t made him submit.”

  Dong Li scoffed. “The result is obvious. I suppose I should finish this. When you wake up, Yakuza Man, you’ll be my junior.”

  The earth sealed over me.

  Darkness swallowed everything, and with it came suffocating fear. Then, a whisper echoed in that void.

  “Do you want power?”

  It was the Yakuza Man within me.

  [Quest: Yakuza Man]

  [Description: You are on the verge of losing. Yakuza Man has offered his help.]

  [Reward: Victory]

  [Do you accept?]

  No.

  There was no need.

  I took a slow breath, forcing calm into my chest. I was glad I had learned this much already, even if it was clear I still had far to go. I focused, breathing in qi, topping off my energy despite being immobilized. I was trapped, not defeated.

  I pulled on the Heaven-Silk Art.

  From the very start of the fight, I had been scattering threads of energy without drawing attention to them. I did not know what Dong Li saw above ground, but I knew exactly where my bat was. I tightened the threads, feeling their pull, and activated a special move at the same time.

  “Bat of the Wild Dog.”

  The earth exploded.

  Soil and stone burst upward as the ground tore itself apart. I triggered Double Jump instantly, launching myself skyward as Dong Li staggered back in shock. The bat flew into my grasp, guided by the silken threads.

  I gripped it firmly as gravity reclaimed me.

  As I descended, I raised it high and shouted, “Heavenly Punishment!”

  Dong Li blocked, holding his blade out in front of him.

  The bat connected with a heavy clang, the impact stunning him in place just as I had planned. I immediately let go of the bat, feeding energy into the Heaven-Silk Art and ensuring the weapon stuck to his blade as if glued by invisible threads. The art was voracious, continuously draining my energy pool, so I knew I had to finish this quickly.

  I rushed in and tackled him, hooking the back of his legs and throwing him onto the ground. Throwing techniques were basic close-quarters maneuvers back in YKU, nothing fancy, just timing and leverage. Dong Li recovered almost instantly, which told me I hadn’t poured enough energy into Heavenly Punishment earlier.

  His hand clamped around my throat.

  “Yakuza Man, just submit! You are no match against me!”

  “You are just a clay doll,” I said mockingly. “Don’t get too excited.”

  The moment he touched me, I knew. This was not the real Dong Li.

  I yanked on the silk-like energy of the Heaven-Silk Art, making the bat dance violently in the air. I unleashed a charged basic attack and shouted, “Oraaa~!”

  The fake Dong Li’s head exploded into fragments of earth, followed by his torso and blade crumbling into dust. I pulled the bat back into my hand just as another Dong Li rose from the ground a short distance away, his form assembling itself from soil and stone.

  So he was hiding underground.

  I almost felt flattered. This meant Dong Li had prepared seriously for this match, treating me as a genuine threat. Beating Huang Yong must have earned me that much respect. Still, I had not come here expecting to fight someone who relied this heavily on misdirection.

  “Was that qi telekinesis?” Dong Li’s voice echoed from somewhere unseen. “No, that’s not it. An art that mimics strings, interesting. Judging by the movement of your qi, your sensory abilities are poor. That’s basic knowledge, you know.”

  He was right, and that irritated me.

  I needed a way to find him while staying alive. I was terrible at minesweeper-type problems, but I had no choice but to improvise. I stabbed my bat into the ground and shouted, “Oraaa~!”

  The impact sent a shockwave through the earth, dust erupting outward in a wide radius.

  “Wrong,” Dong Li said calmly.

  A hand burst from the ground and grabbed my foot, trying to drag me under. I reacted instantly, triggering Double Jump and tearing myself free. I held onto the second jump, saving it for an emergency.

  Another clay Dong Li rushed at me with an overhead swing. I pulled the silk threads sharply to my right, accelerating in a sudden change of direction. I threw the bat forward in a wide arc.

  Dong Li parried it upward, exactly as I expected.

  I yanked the silk downward, reversing its trajectory, and activated a special move mid-air. “Tyrant’s Path!”

  The bat slammed into the clay doll’s back, the knockback launching it straight toward me. I met it head-on and smashed it into the ground, reducing the construct to fragments of earth and dust.

  This one felt weaker than the earlier dolls.

  Even so, if this dragged on, I would exhaust myself first.

  I caught the returning bat with the silk and called out loudly, “Come out, Dong Li. Let’s fight it out like real men!”

  Of course, Dong Li did not fall for my provocation. Another clay doll rose from the ground, its features forming with unsettling familiarity.

  “Do you know how spiders hunt?” I asked aloud, already moving. “They spread their webs first.”

  My silk-like energy dispersed into the earth, weaving outward in an invisible network. The Heaven-Silk Art trembled faintly as it spread, feeding back subtle sensations from within a limited radius. The clay doll rushed toward me, but I ignored it completely and sprinted to my left, driving my bat forward as I shouted, “Heavenly Punishment!”

  Before my weapon could connect, a massive blade erupted from the ground and parried it cleanly.

  The clay doll finally reached me, and I activated the adhesive property of the Heaven-Silk Art. The construct stuck fast, its movement slowing as if caught in tar. Based on my observations so far, Dong Li could only maintain one doll at a time.

  A wide slash came next. I guarded, but the impact still sent me flying sideways. Dong Li formed a hand seal, and the clay doll dissolved into loose soil.

  I pulled sharply with my left hand, tightening the silk threads, and rushed straight toward him.

  “Too straightforward,” Dong Li said calmly.

  He swung his blade and shouted, “Mountain Rise!”

  I triggered Double Jump, vaulting upward and swinging down from above. As if he had foreseen it, his blade shifted trajectory mid-motion, arcing along an impossible path. I burned the second jump, dropping low into a crouch and reversing my momentum in one smooth motion.

  “Tyrant’s Path!”

  Dong Li raised his blade like a shield. I released the bat at the last second, letting it slip through and bounce between his legs, the silk setting it perfectly behind him. I pulled the threads, aiming for his back.

  Dong Li gestured with one hand, and a clay doll hastily rose behind him, absorbing the strike.

  “This is your end,” Dong Li declared as he dashed forward, swinging with the flat of his blade. “Mountain Crusher!”

  I reacted on instinct. I tore my sunglasses off and hurled them straight at his face, triggering my improvisation trait. The lenses shattered in a flash of reflected light, blinding him for half a second.

  That was enough.

  I pulled the silk and dashed left, catching the bat as it snapped back into my hand. Dong Li stumbled, one of his feet snapping in place as the Heaven-Silk Art tightened around his leg.

  “Clench your teeth,” I said.

  I swung with everything I had left and roared, “Tyrant’s Path!”

  The blow connected cleanly, sending Dong Li flying backward and out of bounds. He tried to recover, summoning a clay doll to catch him or soften the impact, but my bat reached it first, shattering the construct before it fully formed.

  Dong Li crashed into the betting stalls, scattering wood, cloth, and shouting spectators.

  I pulled the bat back and rested it on my shoulder, breathing heavily.

  “How’s that?” I called out. “That counts, right?”

  Yao Yazhu nodded once. “Victor,” he announced. “Yakuza Man.”