Hao Qi's knowledge came from an invitation Su Shiyan had given him to drink tea in a quiet room just before she went into seclusion. During that time, she also shared some common knowledge and advice regarding martial arts training and exercise. In that quiet room, he had inadvertently seen a newspaper report about a fire—a fire at one of the venues now run by Lin Xiong, located in the familiar neighborhood he knew...
Ominous premonitions, worry, and lingering doubts that he had seemingly put to rest but could not truly let go of—all of these made it impossible for Hao Qi to remain indifferent. As soon as Su Shiyan entered seclusion, he set off for the street where Lin Xiong operated in the underworld to search around. This time, he intended to find Lin Xiong and ask him in person. Confronting him face-to-face, listening to his words and observing his demeanor, would be far more reliable than simply hearing a voice over the phone.
Just as Hao Qi was wandering about, searching for traces of Lin Xiong or any of Lin Xiong's underlings, a heavily made-up and outrageously dressed woman suddenly grabbed his arm. In a coquettish voice, she said, "Oh, big spender! It's been ages since we last saw you. Do you still remember Xiao Qian? Come on over to Xiao Qian's place, and Xiao Qian guarantees to treat you like a king." With that, she pulled Hao Qi along and dragged him toward a narrow alleyway.Hao Qi was startled at first and was about to shake the woman off when his body suddenly froze. Recognizing her voice, he remembered it was the exact same voice of the woman he had overheard talking to Lin Xiong by the window the other day. Taking advantage of the moment, he let her pull him into the alley.
Once inside the alley, the woman did not let go of his hand and kept bantering playfully the entire way. Had Hao Qi not acutely noticed that her fingers were stiff and her palms covered in cold sweat, he truly would have thought she had mistaken him for someone else.
Thus, the two of them entered a single-story house. Naturally pulling him into a room, the woman closed the door, immediately drew the curtains, and even began stripping off her outer garments, intentionally making loud sounds of undressing. Hao Qi waved a hand at her, walked straight up to the glass window to listen intently, and after a long while said, "There's no one outside, at least no breathing or footsteps that I can hear—unless the person is vastly stronger than I am. But someone that strong probably wouldn't be casually keeping tabs on you anyway, so just say whatever it is you need to say."The woman stopped undressing and pulled Hao Qi away from the window before lowering her voice. "Why did you come back?! Do you have a death wish? Don't waste everything your brother did for you! Don't throw away his sacrifice!"
Hao Qi’s pupils constricted. A thick, ominous feeling surged into his heart, and he immediately demanded, "What do you mean? What happened to Lin Xiong? Tell me everything you know!"
"Keep your voice down!" the woman whispered urgently. "There are people watching outside today... I will tell you what I know, but you must promise me: unless you are certain you can defeat them, do not try to avenge Lin Xiong. That was Lin Xiong's wish, too. Unless you become one of the Li Family yourself, don't seek revenge for him. Can you promise me that?"
"I understand," Hao Qi nodded solemnly. "Unless I have the strength to avenge Lin Xiong, I won't be foolish enough to throw my life away. I promise you."
The woman let out a long sigh and began to slowly recount what she knew: the things Lin Xiong had done, his insistence that she leave, and the catastrophe that occurred a few days prior. It was said that a massive fire had broken out, wiping out several powerful gangs in the Black Street District. Their bodies had been burned to charcoal, then hauled out of the city by the government and dumped directly into the Blue Sea. Now, there was no sign of the living or the dead; they were all completely wiped out.
"...It wasn't just the gang members. Even those associated with them and their families were slaughtered. Several of my sisters died in that fire. If Lin Xiong hadn't slapped me twice to force me away, I would have probably been..."
The woman was sobbing uncontrollably. Hao Qi stood there, completely stunned. A buzzing sound filled his head; he could not believe this had actually happened.
Throughout his decades on Earth and the more than nine years since he had crossed over, his life had been peaceful and mundane. Even his fights had been nothing more than children's scuffles, and his sparring had only been with his own people. It could be said that he had never seen blood, nor had he ever experienced this dark side of society. Yet, in this moment, the brother he would have died for was gone, killed by that very darkness. And he had actually thought his brother had turned against him—he had actually thought that, about a brother he trusted with his life...
He...
Was a complete bastard!Hao Qi stood up in a daze, intending to leave the room, but the woman grabbed him by the arm and said anxiously, "Your condition isn't right. If you go out now, those watchers will spot you—you can't leave! Here, stay with me for a while. When dusk comes, the watchers will change shifts, and I'll take you through the back alleys. Trust me."
Hao Qi gradually calmed down, though beneath that calm, a fiery rage threatened to burn his heart to ashes. Still, he said evenly, "Thank you, Sister-in-law. Call me whenever you think it's safe."
The woman looked blankly at him, waving her hands repeatedly. "No, I'm not your sister-in-law. He and I... we were just a transient encounter..."
"By doing what he did, he had already considered you his wife in his heart. I believe that if he were still alive, or if he had survived that day, he would be the one taking you away from me right now."
Hao Qi spoke with a cold expression, then closed his eyes tightly, unmoving. Thinking of nothing, doing nothing, he simply sat there in silence.
Though his body remained still, the thoughts within his heart surged like a raging tide.
This was reality...
This was the chilling reality!
Reality is ruthless, and the world is unpredictable!
Never before had he felt the cruelty and coldness of reality so profoundly. It was this very coldness that had left him alone and friendless when he first transmigrated to this world; it was this coldness that had once driven him to the brink of despair and suicide; it was this coldness that had sparked no more than his simple desire to see how big the world was; and it was this coldness that had led his sworn brother to die and become just another corpse in the great dyeing vat of the underworld...
This reality...
Made him want to smash it to pieces with a single punch!
Hao Qi no longer remembered how he had made it back from the dark streets to the campus. When he finally regained his senses, he was already standing on the topmost floor of his dormitory. On an open space on the rooftop, facing the weighted and thickened punching bag he used for training, he began throwing punches in the Arhat Fist form, one after another.
Lin Xiong, my brother, protect me! Let me successfully cultivate the Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic, let the Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic generate Inner Force, and also...
Protect me in finding those responsible for your death!
Hao Qi didn't go to class, didn't eat, didn't sleep, and didn't even rest...
Twenty-four hours of continuous punching had left his fists bloody and mangled, and the Arhat Fist was now just a tiny fraction of phantom-swing experience away from reaching the pinnacle realm of perfection. At this moment, there were still two days left until his nineteenth birthday...
Then, early in the morning while Hao Qi was still punching, a man and a woman rushed onto the rooftop. The man was refined and elegant, and the woman had red hair. The moment they entered and saw him, both let out a sigh of relief. The woman immediately exclaimed, "Are you an idiot!? Why didn't you tell me when something happened? Do you still regard me as your older sister?"
"Big Sis..."
Without turning his head, Hao Qi kept throwing punches—slow in speed, yet with complete and undivided focus. Every strike seemed delivered with his entire essence, spirit, and vitality. He simply asked slowly, "Big Sis, what have you found out?"
The woman was none other than Xue Na. With a heart full of anguish, she looked at the blood on Hao Qi's fists, the torn flesh, and the bloodstains smeared across the punching bag. After a long moment, she said, "I know everything. Lin Xiong's death, and the fact that you went to the dark streets—you've already been recognized. The Xu Family lost a cargo worth tens of billions, and Lin Xiong got dragged into it, but the goods still haven't been found. Xu Wen, the eldest young master of the Xu Family, has gone blind with anxiety. He won't let go of anyone even remotely connected to these gangs. I know it all."
Hao Qi let out a soft acknowledgment, threw two more punches, and then continued asking, "So, Big Sis protected me, right? I am indebted to the Li Family's favor."
Li Pancheng stood quietly to the side, watching without a word. Only now did he frown and say, "Brother Hao, you've already harmed your body. Stop now."
As he spoke, Xue Na seized the opportunity to grab Hao Qi's arm. Hao Qi stopped punching, though his eyes remained hollow. "The Xu Family, Xu Wen... Is there anyone else?"
Instead of answering, Xue Na simply pulled out some wound ointment and gauze from her tunic, gently dressing Hao Qi's battered hands with a heart full of pain. Li Pancheng took over the conversation, saying, "Brother Hao, I couldn't intervene too much in this matter. By the time my wife and I found out, Lin Xiong had already met his fate—it was our failure to protect him. However, the Xu Family will not make a move against you. I believe they wouldn't dare completely fall out with our Li Family."
"I know." Hao Qi shook his head. "I don't blame you. The fact that you two came to see me now shows how true you are to our friendship... Brother Li, can you tell me? Aside from Xu Wen, were there any others involved in this?"Li Pancheng hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and said, "No, there's nothing more. The whole thing was orchestrated by Xu Wen. This batch of goods belonging to the Xu family was lost, and to this day, no one knows who hijacked them; the trail has gone cold. Xu Wen is desperate now, and he's just waiting for someone to jump out so he can shift the blame. Otherwise, his own family won't let him off. So, Brother Hao, please forgive me, the Li family won't step forward at a time like this. My wife and I rushed over hoping to take you to the military. We'll leave this afternoon. The Xu family doesn't have much influence in the military, so they won't dare cause trouble for you there."
At this point, Xue Na had already finished bandaging Hao Qi's fist. She pulled out a meat pie and said, "You haven't eaten yet, have you? Get something in you first. We can have a proper meal on the train later."
A mix of warmth and sorrow washed over Hao Qi. At the same time, his consciousness turned back to the System. The Arhat Fist had reached its peak, with just the final three punches remaining...
Hao Qi took the meat pie and devoured it in big, ravenous bites. Finished in a few seconds, he said, "You two go on downstairs. I'll be down in a moment."
Xue Na instantly wore a look of dissatisfaction and confusion, while Hao Qi's face was set with absolute determination. Beside them, Li Pancheng could only sigh and say, "Brother Hao, I have to repeat myself... When you say you'll be down in a moment, is that a promise?"
Hao Qi cupped his fists once more and said, "I promise!"
Without a second word, Li Pancheng grabbed the disgruntled Xue Na and headed for the stairwell. The two of them disappeared into the stairs, leaving Hao Qi all alone on the rooftop. He stood up, looking at the brightening sky above, the gradually reddening sun on the horizon, the bandages wrapped around his fists, the lingering taste of the meat pie in his mouth, and thinking of the final envelope of money from Lin Xiong he had received not long ago—though by now, only the envelope remained, the money having been entirely spent...
Lin Xiong, my brother...
Bless me!
"Clap!"
The first punch!
"Clap!"
The second punch!
"Clap!"
The third punch!
Closing his eyes, looking at the System through his consciousness...
On the character stat panel, right over the entry for Arhat Fist, a large red character blazed: Peak... The Realm of Extremes!
Next, within the martial arts section of the System, the Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic was mounted onto the character template...
"Boom!"
Walking down the stairs in silence, the two of them simultaneously heard a deafening roar. The entire building seemed to shudder slightly, and the next moment, through the stairwell window, they saw a figure dropping from above at an unbelievable speed...
"Watch out!"
Li Pancheng had only enough time to let out a roar before he leaped straight out the window. As he jumped, his body curled inward, legs tightening. Upon hitting the ground, his legs sprang outward, pushing and stepping against the pavement a few times before coming to a halt. The moment he steadied himself, he saw Hao Qi standing right before him.
"You..."
Li Pancheng managed only a single syllable before a suffocating wave of pressure choked off the rest of his words. This aura made his entire body tense up, goosebumps erupting across his skin, while his body instinctively fell into the stance of the Spirit Snake Fist.
Inner force...
An Inner Force Expert!
Seconds earlier, Hao Qi had mounted the Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic onto his character template. This was one of the three strongest conventional internal cultivation arts within his System. The game represented by this System featured three supreme conventional internal arts: the Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic, the Nine Yin Manual, and the Nine Yang Divine Skill, representing the ultimate apex of harmonizing inner force, yin-attribute inner force, and yang-attribute inner force respectively. And right now, the art he was about to learn was none other than the divine Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic!
The instant it was mounted, Hao Qi felt his entire body tighten, much like when he had mounted the Arhat Fist. A massive flood of postures, movements, inner force circulation drills, acupoint energy-gathering methods, and microcosmic orbit circulation principles poured naturally into his mind, as if he had known them all along. At the same time, on his character panel, the entry for Level 1 Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic began to appear in the second martial arts slot.
Yet, unlike the Arhat Fist, Hao Qi found his body completely immobilized. He felt a sensation starting from his arms and moving inward, from his legs and moving upward, from his waist extending both ways—his muscles growing progressively tighter, denser, and more compact. Those three areas where he had practiced the Arhat Fist for ten years had already been forged into something exceptionally solid, but now, under the influence of the Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic, this solidity began to spread across his entire body. Although those other parts of his body—muscles, bones, and internal organs—had not been conditioned for an equal duration, they transformed until they were completely uniform, without the slightest shred of difference.
Hao Qi felt as though his body had tightened to its absolute limit, unable to contract any further without being crushed to death. Just then, cascading waves of cool energy poured in from above his head, from beneath his soles, and from every direction all over his body. This energy felt so exquisitely comfortable that he unconsciously lost himself in it. His body, wound as taut as a bowstring, filled with this cool current, slowly shifting from a sense of being squeezed to a sense of swelling, and from swelling to tightness, over and over again...
All of this took a long time to describe, but it all transpired entirely within Hao Qi's consciousness. To an outside observer, it took no more than a few seconds. Hao Qi maintained his punching posture for a brief moment, and then he moved. He threw a single punch—still just a plain, ordinary Arhat Fist. Yet the speed and power behind this strike were fundamentally different from before. The air around his fist was actually pierced, forming a visible wake of turbulent airflow. A tremendous surge of force blasted forward, directly slamming into the punching bag. With a deafening crash, the heavy bag was blown completely to smithereens. With a flash of movement from his feet, Hao Qi instantly crossed a distance of over ten meters, leaping straight down from the rooftop of the eighth or ninth floor.
"Inner force... it must be some kind of energy from heaven and earth absorbed into the body, then fused with a physical form already tempered to its absolute limit, combining the two into a brand-new form of human energy."
Mid-air, Hao Qi was already 100% certain that he had indeed acquired inner force. Although his physical body had not been tempered to the limits typically seen in this world's inhabitants, a system was a system, and a cheat was a cheat. Even though he had countless times over the past decade looked down on this system, countless times felt cheated by it, this system was undeniably an extraordinary thing.
The Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic he had mounted directly granted him Level 1 inner force. This meant he truly possessed internal cultivation, true inner force—and moreover, it had materialized in accordance with the rules of this world, forming the authentic inner force of this realm rather than the inner force found in the martial arts novels represented by the System.
First of all, suspended in mid-air, he confirmed that this inner force could extend outward from his body. It was a tangible yet formless presence. Though this tangible quality was extremely faint, barely superior to air and certainly no match for a liquid, it was nevertheless a purely energetic force projecting beyond his physical form. Furthermore, his senses had become razor-sharp, allowing him—even with his eyes closed—to perceive everything within a ten-meter radius around him in a flawless, 360-degree sphere.
Next came the application of this inner force. If he didn't expand it in a spherical shape, but instead projected it in a membrane-like layer, he could stretch it outward for over twenty meters before reaching his limit. Within this twenty-meter membrane, he could leverage force mid-air, allowing him to exhibit special effects akin to the lightness skills found in novels.
Then there was the massive boost to strength and speed during combat. This had been unequivocally demonstrated when he struck the punching bag just moments ago. His physical strength had increased by at least tenfold, while his speed—though harder to quantify—had multiplied severalfold at the very least. Furthermore, these enhancements were permanent, baseline increases rather than momentary explosive bursts of specialized leverage.
At the same time, his body's recovery rate and stamina had also sharply risen. Ever since his inner force erupted, the wounds on his fists had closed up, accompanied by a faint, warm, itching sensation—clear proof that the injuries were rapidly healing.
Finally, there was the massive enhancement to his thinking speed. This was blatantly obvious from his current state. He had jumped from the rooftop only seconds ago, yet from his perspective, he felt as if he were descending in slow motion. He could actually see a single leaf on a tree not far away drifting downward at an agonizingly slow pace. He could also see Li Pancheng leaping out of the window, alongside the expression of absolute astonishment and lingering confusion on Xue Na's face behind him.
The enhancement of cognitive speed was far more useful than sheer physical strength or speed, because it encompassed reaction time, calculation speed, and dynamic visual tracking all rolled into one. Hao Qi believed that even without any increase in physical power whatsoever, this boost to mental processing alone would allow an Inner Force Expert to utterly crush anyone without inner force. This was a suppression occurring at the biological level itself.
Inner force undoubtedly possessed many other functions and applications, but those were minor details; he would have plenty of time in the future to slowly train and understand them. For now, there was no doubt about it—he was unquestionably an Inner Force Expert!
Ten years of hardship, ten years of agony, ten years of struggle, ten years of anxiety—all condensed into this long-awaited inner force in this very moment. It was only a pity that one of the people who should have shared this joy with him was now gone...
"Brother Li," Hao Qi said, cupping his fists. "Thank you for everything you and Big Sister-head have done for me. I have engraved it in my heart, and I owe you a favor. At the same time, I have a question I'd like to ask you."