When Ishin left his room as a new second-layer Initial Realm cultivator, he was surprised to find the morning rays of dawn. He’d thought for sure that it was night, but his room had no windows. The elderly innkeeper was at her usual spot beside the staircase, appearing bored as ever.

  “Good morning,” Ishin offered cheerily.

  The innkeeper spared him a brief look. “You’re awfully cheery this early. Are you happy to be at the second layer?”

  The question caught Ishin off guard. “How did you know?”

  Shrugging, she replied, “You were at the first layer when you came in for a room and now you’re at the second. Do you think I wouldn’t check the cultivation of my guests?”

  Ishin hadn’t expected that, but supposed it made sense. He opened his third eye to see the old woman’s own cultivation. It was at the seventh layer of the Initial Realm—the peak of the Initial Realm!

  “Not even trying to be subtle,” the innkeeper scolded. “Best learn some manners, boy, lest you offend someone who cares.”

  Embarrassed by the rebuke, Ishin apologized. “My apologies, ma’am.” I’ll have to work on using my third eye more covertly.

  The innkeeper gave a huff. “If you’re here for breakfast, get a move on.” She jabbed a thumb toward the dining hall. “The cook has the food out and ready. It’s roasted beets today. I hate beets.”

  Ishin thought about asking why the old lady didn’t tell the cook not to prepare the vegetable if she disliked it, but decided against it. He’d come out to get food, but also to inquire about something else.

  “Ma’am, I was wondering if you knew anything about the Dueling Pit?” Now that he had reached the second layer, Ishin was eager to test his new abilities.

  The old innkeeper actually met Ishin’s eyes, her curiosity piqued. “Cocky young man, aren’t you. Well, the Dueling Pit is a bunch of arenas where Initial Realm cultivators can go to fight one another for coin. Most who participate come from the Western Quarter and are in the earlier stages of the Initial Realm.” Her eyes traced the four scars across Ishin’s face. “You look like you’ve been in a fight before, so maybe you’d enjoy them.”

  One day I will get these scars removed.

  “Could you tell me where I can find them?”

  “Ten or so blocks south from here. You’ll find a walled-off neighborhood with an entrance on the southern side. It has a red-colored roof. You can’t miss it.” Considering Ishin again, she added, “If you get injured, you’ll have to pay for a healer yourself. I don’t think people die too often nowadays, but injuries? Those happen all the time.” Scowling, she further added, “If your blood stains your mattress, I’ll charge you for it.”

  “Of course, ma’am,” Ishin said jovially. “I’ll make sure not to get them messy.” He took out a silver tael and his remaining sixteen copper taels. “For three more days,” he said, handing her the coins. The innkeeper took the money, leaving him with one gold and one silver tael left.

  “Get some food before you go,” she grunted.

  Ishin did so but didn’t spend more than a handful of minutes consuming his breakfast. He had a busy morning and wouldn’t waste any more time than needed on something as trivial as eating. Once the necessity was completed, Ishin promptly left the inn, heading south.

  A dozen blocks later, Ishin saw a thirty-foot-tall wall with red roof tiling, just like the innkeeper had described. He followed the wall around the length of three more blocks until he turned a corner and saw a rectangular gateway underneath a sign that read, Dueling Pit.

  Straightforward enough.

  There were no doors or guards at the entrance, so Ishin simply walked inside. Spread before him were three dozen square dueling platforms, separated by dirt paths. The platforms were only about three hundred square feet in size—not big at all. Lining the sides of the Dueling Pit were rows of benches for spectators to sit on.

  Despite the early hour, a third of the dueling platforms were already occupied by fighters, and a fair number of observers were eagerly watching the matches. Before Ishin could get any closer to examine the fights in more detail, a burly man in his late thirties stepped forward.

  “Fighter or watcher?” he asked.

  The man reminded Ishin of a bear. He was hairy, wore a rough set of brown and red wool robes, and must have weighed at least two hundred pounds—a fair amount of it muscle. Ishin was fairly tall, but this man stood a few inches over him. Remarkably, it was the man’s putrid odor that caught Ishin’s attention. It reminded Ishin that he hadn’t bathed since leaving the Moonpetal Hotel, and after his week of cultivating the Rupture Wailing Storm Pills, he likely reeked too.

  “Watcher,” Ishin replied. He wanted to observe the fights before participating himself.

  Extending a meaty hand, the doorman said, “Three coppers.”

  Ishin stole a look at the man’s cultivation with his third eye. He was at the fourth layer of the Initial Realm. That was a good benchmark for Ishin to know. He handed the doorman a silver tael and was given seventeen copper taels in return.

  “Sit anywhere you like,” the man said.

  Before the doorman could leave, Ishin asked, “Is it often this busy?”

  “In the morning this is pretty usual. Gets more crowded after noon. Some of the more popular fighters only come out after their shifts are over.”

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  As Ishin made his way over to the stands, he considered what the guard had said. If the more popular fighters only came after they finished work for the day, then it meant that fighting here didn’t earn one enough money to live off of. That definitely means I’m unlikely to earn the money I need to purchase more cultivation resources.

  Frowning, Ishin found an isolated section of the stands to sit alone. He focused on the closest match to his seat.

  A young girl, no older than him, wielded two iron rods. She was dressed in tight beige-colored garb, had straight black hair down to her shoulders, and an athletic build. Her opponent was a man who looked to be in his early twenties. In contrast to his opponent, he had a muscular build more similar to Ishin’s and his head was shaven. The man only wore a pair of wool pants and was shirtless, revealing his muscular frame. Also, unlike his opponent, the man carried no weapons.

  So you can use weapons if you want.

  Like the guard before, Ishin examined the two fighters with his third eye. Interestingly, they were both only at the second layer of the Initial Realm. In a way, it made sense. The female combatant was around his age, and Ishin knew that back in the Daihu Tribe several of the senior disciples of the Martial Hall were only at the second layer too. He expected the older male fighter to be at the third layer at least, like Gou Bin.

  A middle-aged woman dressed in the same brown and red robes—the Dueling Pit uniform, Ishin assumed—walked into the center of the platform. She motioned the two fighters to approach, extending an open palm toward each. Both pulled out something from their pockets that Ishin couldn’t see and placed it into the woman’s palms. The two fighters then backed away to their respective ends of the platform, while the woman moved to the far side in the middle.

  Ishin heard the woman say a single word: “Fight!”

  The young woman darted toward her opponent, rods in hand, while the male fighter assumed a defensive stance, legs bent and arms braced at his sides. When the female was halfway across the platform, she suddenly exploded across the remaining distance, a cloud of dust left behind in her wake. Ishin recognized the usage of a wind movement technique.

  The woman appeared on the right side of her male opponent and swung both rods at him—one directed toward his head and the other his ribs. With impressive reflexes, the male combatant brought an arm up to protect the side of his head but took the full force of the blow to his side. Ishin knew what damage a successful strike like that could cause and thought the man would be left vulnerable to a follow-up from the attack, but that didn’t happen. Instead, the woman was the one who seemed alarmed.

  To Ishin’s astonishment, the male fighter had not only blocked the strike to his head but had managed to grab ahold of the rod, preventing the woman from moving back. He countered with a powerful side kick, impacting the woman’s stomach directly. Ishin watched as the young woman had the wind knocked out of her and began to fall backward. Unfortunately, she still held on to the rod trapped by the man, and he pulled it forward to bring the woman back in.

  Ishin watched the male fighter attempt another kick at the woman’s stomach, but this time she managed to bring her second rod up to block it. She released the trapped rod and allowed the momentum of the kick to move her away from her opponent.

  The male fighter let out a roar and threw the captured rod off the side of the platform. Ishin noticed that a deep purple bruise had formed where the woman’s earlier attack had landed. He hadn’t come away unscathed, but neither had the young female, who was panting for breath.

  Raising her rod like an axe, Ishin watched as wisps of wind started to form around it. She was preparing another technique, no doubt hoping to end the fight soon. Her opponent wasn’t oblivious and raced toward her, hoping to engage before the technique could be completed.

  Ishin noticed that the man’s knuckles reflected the morning sun. They’re coated with metal. The man was using a metal body enhancement technique. It now made sense how he’d weathered his opponent’s attack earlier.

  Ishin watched with anticipation as the metal cultivator neared the opposing wind cultivator. He moved faster than Ishin would have expected for someone of his girth—but that was cultivation for you. In mere seconds, the male fighter was on his adversary, fists raised to strike from both sides to trap her. The female fighter shot to the side and then pivoted around to appear behind her opponent. She swung her rod, engulfed by wind qi, and collided with her opponent’s exposed back. The force from the technique sent the male metal cultivator soaring through the air until he landed, rolling on the hard ground ten feet outside of the platform.

  The wind cultivator collapsed to the floor of the platform, her qi exhausted from the fight.

  The older woman from before—or rather, the referee—approached the sagging victor. She lifted a hand toward the fighter. “Victor!” A low applause came from the few spectators, and Ishin found himself joining in. The referee then knelt beside the victorious cultivator and handed her something, which the champion took graciously.

  Ishin noticed that no one tended to the defeated metal cultivator. After almost a minute, he watched the man pull himself to his feet, a horrid red mark across his back. He watched as the man limped weakly over to a sheltered booth on the side, where he collapsed onto a rough straw mat. The booth had a sign reading Infirmary over it. Beneath the words, Ishin saw smaller writing that read, No Free Services.

  Also good to know. Idly, he wondered how much it cost to receive treatment. It looks like winning yields something too. Considering the size of what the referee had taken from the two combatants prior to the fight and how she gave it to the victor, Ishin figured it had to be money. How much though?

  Ishin left his seat and walked around the edge of the Dueling Pit. He saw another booth where the victorious female cultivator headed. She joined a line only four people deep. The sign over this booth read, Fighter Registration, and below it was written, Wager: One Silver Tael.

  Well that answers that.

  For several minutes, Ishin just watched the line of fighters. He saw the female victor reach the front and then leave, presumably for her next match, and other fighters came to take her place. It was so tempting to get in line and participate himself. Ishin wanted to test his skills against other cultivators now that he was one too, but he thought about what he’d just seen.

  The female fighter had used two techniques—and perhaps knew more. Ishin hadn’t even mastered one yet, a shortcoming that he’d ignored until now. There was also the issue of his ability to fight unarmed. He knew some basic techniques based in the Ka-Tai Style taught at the Daihu Tribe Martial Hall, but he was by no means unbeatable with it. In truth, he had spent his life learning how to fight with a spear or staff. Considering what he’d seen from the two fighters earlier, he wouldn’t bet on himself to emerge victorious if he fought either with no weapon.

  Especially since they know techniques.

  He had continued to practice the Pale Azure Fore Lightning Strike technique while staying with Lou Heng, but still had yet to properly execute it. Considering the precautions his mother had made while having him practice on Tyrant’s Rest, Ishin was concerned about fully executing the technique while in a hotel room. That made it hard for him to become proficient while in a city.

  That meant his best option to level the field was to obtain a spear. Ishin nodded to himself. Yes, if I had a spear, I’d feel confident in my abilities. That left the question: where could he acquire one?