“Sure! My uncle runs the township’s store. This way.”

  Uncle Wei was quite an old fellow. He looked over tiny wire spectacles with cloudy eyes. It took him a moment to recognize Jin. He snorted at Jin’s bloody knuckles.

  “Back for more salves, you little rascal?”

  “Yup,” said Jin.

  He turned to Zane. “Hardest working assistant I ever had, this one. But he always had this hare-brained idea he’d be a cultivator, ever since he was a kid. Then he ran off to punch rocks in the woods. I keep waiting for him to grow out of it.”

  “Never!” vowed Jin.

  Wei paused, then squinted at Zane. His brows raised. “You're a cultivator.”

  “Something like that. I’m Zane.”

  Zane figured he should come up with a backstory sometime.

  A pause. “Well, Master Zane. I hope our Jin hasn't been too much of a bother.”

  “Hey!” said the kid in the background. Wei ignored him.

  “How might I serve you?”

  “I’ll need a map. News of strange natural events going on around here would help too.”

  “Qi flare-ups?”

  Qi meant essence, Zane assumed. “That’s right.”

  “Sure thing. Just a moment—”

  Wei shuffled into the back rooms.

  He came back with a scroll tied with twine. It looked to be inscribed by hand, on boar’s hide.

  “This map’s connected to the Kingdom’s grand arrays. Every qi hotspot in a hundred li is on there—anything you’ll want, Master Zane. It’s a favorite of the local treasure hunters.”

  At this point, Zane realized he had nothing to pay for it.

  “It’s only a map,” said the old man. “Take it—the Wei household has got many more. Besides, our Jin there must’ve been blabbing at you the whole way here. It’s only fair you get something for putting up with him.”

  “Hey!” said Jin again.

  “Thanks,” said Zane, pocketing it. “If you need a favor, just ask.”

  “Oh, no need for that,” said the old man. His bushy brows arched. “Well—there is one thing. Maybe you can get it through this one’s head—” He jerked his head to Jin.

  “He’s chasing sparrows. Save us all a great deal of trouble.”

  He turned to Jin. “How many times did you take that blasted entrance test, anyway? Fifty?”

  “Fifty-three!” Jin said proudly.

  “Fifty-three times. Any other kid would’ve given up by now—has given up by now! Not our Jin.”

  Though the old guy sounded exasperated, Zane did get a sense Old Wei found it begrudgingly endearing.

  “They all said the One-Armed Sage had no shot,” said Jin, puffing up. “I bet he heard all kinds of talk. Then he became a Saint of the realm!”

  “That's what you'll be, eh? A saint?”

  Jin bristled proudly. “Make fun of me now, Uncle. But just you watch. I’m gonna pass those exams and make you eat those words!”

  “‘Make you eat those words,’” scoffed the old man. “Can’t you see? I’m on your side, fool boy. I’m trying to give you a damned future! Ai… these kids…”

  “Well—” For a second, Jin faltered. “I just don’t know why you’ve got to be so down on me. Just like everyone else. Fine—say you’re right—maybe I’ll just go and give up, like they all say I should. Maybe I ought to know my place—maybe I’ll just go join the town watch, like Father.”

  He swallowed.

  His eyes did the thing again.

  “But I just know—I know I’ll be kicking myself my whole life knowing I didn't give it everything—knowing I had a chance at a dream—and I just let it go. Just ‘cause I didn’t believe in myself.”

  He clenched his fists again. “So… I’m gonna give it everything!”

  The old man treated Zane to a look. “Well, at least the kid’s got spunk.”

  Jin kind of reminded Zane of Evan, but much louder and prouder. Or maybe the kid was just trying to fake it until he made it. It was hard to tell.

  He wondered idly if that crystal soul made the kid that way.

  Zane had a hunch it wasn’t, looking at the defiance in Jin’s face. That look came from the heart. Something told him it was the other way around.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Probably this kid just kept on believing in himself, even when the world kept beating him down. He believed he could find a way so hard, that eventually the world gave it to him.

  Zane had seen a few like him. In the high courts of the elves, or even some of the top World Rankers back on Earth—folk who went on and on about their big dreams to all who’d listen. Maybe they had to keep saying it to keep the fire going. Maybe it helped make themselves believe.

  That sort of thing could take a man far.

  It was never really something Zane dabbled in, though.

  He didn’t need to tell other folk, or himself, that he would do big things. He needed no convincing of that.

  He knew already.

  Whether others thought he could do things or not didn’t really matter to Zane. He would simply do them anyway.

  He started inspecting the map—it took a bit to find Littleroot, out at the edge of a vaguely rooster-shaped kingdom marked ‘Four Winds Kingdom.’

  The kingdom covered most of a giant chunk of land shaped vaguely like a tortoise shell, in both shape and landscape.

  “Looking for anything in particular?” said Uncle Wei.

  “Something whose powers no one here understands,” he said. He paused. “Also, hot. Very hot.”

  “Well—there’s the Skullsand Desert. And the Thousand Springs of Xia—though, if you’re all the way out here in Littleleaf, safe to guess you’ve looked there already.”

  Zane gave him a blank look. “Never heard of them.”

  “Really?”

  “I’m from overseas.”

  Wei did a double take at that. “Master Zane? …The nearest sea’s a thousand li away.”

  It took a moment for Zane to realize that was considered a long distance to these folk.

  Now the old fellow was looking at him rather dubiously.

  “I hit my head recently,” said Zane. “I’m a bit befuddled about the details. Also, this has given me amnesia. I’ll need an introduction to this world.”

  The ‘hit my head recently’ bit was accurate, at least.

  “…"

  He could tell the fellow thought he was a bit weird. But lots of cultivators were a bit weird. The stronger you were, the weirder, in his experience.

  He figured it’d be fine.

  Sure enough—Wei shrugged and talked him through it.

  The continent they were on was called the Sealed Demon Continent. Named by Emperor Summer Wind after he vanquished an empire of demons and built the Four Winds Kingdom on its ashes. These demons sounded to Zane like some low-level monsters.

  Still—the demons were a sophisticated empire, Wei said, and knew secrets the human race didn’t. Deep secrets. They left mysterious relics behind—relics that still popped up to this day. If any were found, it was a kingdom-wide order that they be reported immediately so the King’s Saints could destroy them.

  Just then, there came a shout in the street. Old Wei squinted. “Six hells,” he cursed. “That’s trouble.”

  There was Jin, teeth clenched, fists clenched too—“This is Wei Family land, you bastard. If you think you can just come in and bully us away, you can screw off!”

  He was shouting at a man in flowing white silks, with long locks of hair tied in a man-bun. His face was sculpted, handsome in a classical way. His eyes gave off effortless disdain.

  “Did you hear that?” he sighed to a fellow beside him—six feet of pure muscle. The goon grinned toothily. “Not a thing, Young Master.”

  “Really?” The young master arched a brow. “I swear I heard the barking of a dog…”

  He turned to a beautiful girl beside him, who looked quite uncomfortable. She tried to hide behind her fan. “Fei-Fei? Did you hear something?”

  She seemed to be trying not to look at Jin. “No,” she said softly, turning her face.

  Jin looked stricken for a moment. Then even angrier—“Why, you—!”

  Zane frowned.

  “Fei-Fei was meant to marry little Jin,” sighed Old Wei. “But the Yi family’s got all the sway in this town. His father’s the headmaster of the Silverwind Sect… they said she could skip the exams, a spot straight in the Outer Sect. Even said they’d pay off all her father’s gambling debts. All Jin had to offer was that fiery heart of his. And, well—the boy was fool enough to think it’d be enough.”

  Wei shook his head. “It’s never been enough. All it’s ever done for him is get him beat up.”

  He watched as Jin grew redder and redder.

  “C’mon,” he said under his breath. “Just let it go, you little fool…”

  “This street has been claimed by the Yi Family as of this morning,” said the Young Master archly. “By order of my mother, Mistress Yi.”

  He took a look around, bored. “So… I don’t understand why your sigils all say ‘Wei.’”

  Behind him his goons cracked their knuckles. Across the street, a dust-streaked tome-seller flinched and tried to hide behind her counter.

  “But we of the Yi are reasonable. We’ll show mercy, this once. You’ll have two hours to change your colors, and another to pay your new rents.”

  The Young Master locked eyes with the tome-seller, and she squeaked. “Or I can’t be responsible for what my men do.”

  “No,” growled Jin. He looked straight at Young Master Yi. “I won’t allow it. I’m not the boy you knew, Liu Yi. I’m the man of the Wei house now—and if you think you’ll just run me over, you can think again!”

  “He never learns, does he?” sighed Yi to Fei-Fei. “How many beatings has it been now? My. He never did know his place. What did you see in him, I wonder?”

  The girl didn’t seem to want to answer, but he kept looking at her.

  “I don’t know,” she whispered.

  “Well, maybe this time it’ll get through,” the young master sighed. “One can only hope.”

  He gave a careless shrug. Then he made a ‘take care of it’ gesture.

  His goons surged forward.

  But Jin let out a shout. And a Skill exploded in his hands.

  There was nothing remarkable about it, as far as Zane could tell. But gasps rang out down the street. Even the Young Master looked stunned.

  Then Jin kicked off, and threw a punch. The barest ghost of a lunging tiger flickered over his body. He socked a guard, and doubled him over. He punched another in the belly so hard he coughed blood.

  Then the third whacked him in the face with a lightning staff.

  Jin let out a yell. The staff cracked him over the face again, and he went down.

  “Stop it—you’re hurting him!” cried Fei-Fei. She tried rushing up to them but Yi held her back.

  “Shh,” said Yi, amused. “We’re just getting to the good part.”

  They began to descend on him, circle him. Jin got up to a knee, and by the look in his eyes he wouldn’t stop fighting until they knocked him out.

  But they were four-on-one, and each guard had more than ten Levels on him. It was clear what was about to go down.

  The head goon cracked his neck, cracked an ugly grin. “So after ten years, you picked up a single Skill! That makes you about as strong as my kid cousin. You really thought that’d be enough, didn’t you?”

  Jin lunged at him, roaring—but it was clear Jin hadn’t really had combat training; he was more heart than skill, and this time the goon was ready. He sidestepped it, and caught the boy in the wrist. One big muscled hand swallowed Jin’s whole. It really did make him seem a child then, in over his head.

  It started to crush.

  Jin’s eyes widened. He tried pulling away, but it was like his wrist was stuck in iron—he cried out in pain, and the goon’s grin grew greedy.

  Then the goon blinked.

  An even bigger hand had closed around his own wrist.

  “You should let go,” said Zane.