The cool night air brushed against Ethan’s freshly washed face as he guided Roy down the quiet residential pathway. The boy kept his head buried in his chest, his hands trembling as he clutched his bruised ribs.

"Lead the way," Ethan said, his voice level and smooth.

"Nothing happened," Roy muttered, his voice cracking with a mixture of shame and fear. "I... I just tripped on the way back from the butcher. I dropped the stone into the drainage ditch and some guys got mad when I got in their way. It’s fine."

Ethan stopped walking. He didn’t turn around, but the sudden, absolute stillness of his posture caused Roy to freeze in his tracks. When Ethan spoke again, the gentle warmth of the polite refugee was entirely gone, replaced by a razor-thin edge that sliced through the dark. "I said, lead the way."

Roy violently shuddered. For a split second, the air around Ethan felt so heavy and freezing that the boy felt like a blade was resting directly against his throat. Without another word of protest, Roy swallowed his pride, turned down a narrow alleyway, and began guiding Ethan back toward the lower market district.

As they approached the rear of the marketplace, the scent of cheap grain wine and roasting grease grew thick. Loud, boisterous laughter echoed from a dilapidated wooden tavern with an open courtyard.

"I’m telling you, the brat didn’t even scream!" a burly man shouted, slamming a heavy clay mug onto a wooden table. "He just gripped that shiny medium-grade stone like it was his own mother’s hand! I had to break two of his ribs just to get his fingers to open up!"

"A medium-grade stone from a scruffy hunter family? What a joke!" another man roared, tossing a handful of cards onto the table. "They must have stolen it from a real master. We did the Pavilion a favor by taking it off his hands! Pass the jug, you bastard, this is the best haul we’ve had all week!"

Around the table, nearly twenty men—rough, seasoned thugs and low-tier mercenary guards—were drinking, gambling, and mocking the boy’s weakness.

Ethan halted at the edge of the courtyard, his hands resting casually behind his back. He didn’t look at the thugs; his eyes remained fixed on Roy. "Here is what is going to happen. You are going to run inside. You are going to find the exact man who laid his hands on you, and you are going to punch him in the face. And you will not stop hitting him until you have completely emptied all the anger in your chest."

Roy looked at the courtyard, his face turning a ghostly shade of white. "But... but there are more than twenty of them! I can’t take them all on! I’m just a low-level cultivator, I can’t—"

Before the boy could finish his sentence, Ethan’s hand snapped forward like a striking viper. His fingers wrapped around Roy’s collar, effortlessly lifting the teenager completely off the ground until they were eye-to-eye.

Ethan’s amethyst eyes didn’t glow, but the absolute, merciless vacuum of emotion within them made Roy’s heart completely stop. "You have two choices," Ethan whispered, his voice dangerously quiet. "You go in there and fight for your dignity, or I will break your legs right here and leave you in the dirt. Choose."

Looking into those cold, terrifying eyes, Roy realized with absolute certainty that Ethan wasn’t joking. This elegant young master would truly destroy him right here if he showed cowardice. Clenching his jaw until his teeth ached, Roy gripped his iron spear, a desperate, wild fire finally igniting in his eyes.

"I’ll do it," Roy hissed through his teeth.

Roy didn’t wait for Ethan to drop him. The moment Ethan’s grip loosened on his collar, the teenager sprinted forward, fueled by a volatile cocktail of pure terror and suppressed rage. He bypassed the outer tables of the tavern courtyard entirely, his boots kicking up dust as he targeted the center of the noise.

Sitting at the main table was the largest man of the group—a burly, heavily bearded thug with a scar slicing through his left eyebrow. He was currently throwing back a massive gulp of grain wine, completely lost in his own booming laughter.

"And then the little piece of trash—"

BOOM!

The bearded giant never got to finish his sentence. Roy’s fist, packed with every ounce of physical strength his Body Refining cultivation could muster, connected directly with the thug’s jaw.

The impact was deafening. The massive man didn’t even have time to register the shadow before the sheer force of the blow flipped his heavy wooden chair backward, sending him crashing onto the hard-packed dirt floor.

Roy didn’t hesitate for a single microsecond. Driven by his instinct he didn’t know he possessed, he threw himself onto the fallen giant’s chest, mounting him instantly.

"Give it back!" Roy screamed, a mixture of hot tears and raw fury exploding from his throat. "You took my family’s livelihood! You piece of trash!"

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

Roy’s fists rained down like a relentless pair of iron pistons. He didn’t care about form or elegance; he just swung with absolute, unbridled hatred. Blood erupted from the bearded man’s nose and mouth, and several shattered teeth flew across the dirt, glinting under the lantern light. The giant tried to raise his massive arms to defend himself, but the sudden concussion had completely scrambled his senses. Within seconds, his arms fell limp to his sides, his eyes rolling back as he lost consciousness under the brutal barrage. But Roy didn’t stop. He kept striking, his knuckles splitting open as he cursed the man over and over again.

"What the hell?! Get this brat off him!"

"Kill him!"

The remaining twenty mercenaries and thugs finally snapped out of their collective shock. With roars of anger, they drew their daggers and heavy iron clubs, surging toward the center of the courtyard like a wave of violent steel to tear Roy into pieces.

They didn’t even make it three steps.

Ethan moved. To the onlookers, he didn’t run; he simply blurred out of existence. A phantom in snow-white and gold drifted through the charging mob like a gale of wind.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

Ethan didn’t draw his blackened weapon. He didn’t utilize a single drop of spiritual energy. He simply extended his index and middle fingers, executing precise, lightning-fast thrusts directly into the solar plexus of every single attacker. The pinpoint accuracy of his strikes bypassed their crude armor, instantly seizing their diaphragms and collapsing their nervous systems.

One by one, the twenty hardened thugs dropped to their knees, their weapons clattering against the stones as they clutched their chests, desperately suffocating for air. Within three seconds, the entire courtyard was a landscape of groaning, paralyzed men staring up at Ethan with absolute, unadulterated horror. They couldn’t understand how a single youth had dismantled an entire mercenary squad with bare hands.

Through it all, Roy was still screaming, his fists covered in blood as he continued to pulverize the bearded thug’s unrecognizable face.

Ethan stepped over a groaning mercenary, his white boots completely unblemished by the surrounding chaos. He reached down and placed a gentle, rock-solid hand on Roy’s trembling shoulder.

"Stop," Ethan said, his voice smooth, calm, and carrying an absolute authority that instantly cut through the boy’s hysteria.

Roy froze, a fist hovering in the air, his chest heaving violently as he looked up at Ethan through a mask of tears and sweat.

"That’s enough, Roy," Ethan murmured, his expression cool and indifferent as he glanced at the bloody pulp beneath the boy. "He doesn’t deserve to be the one you kill. A worm like him simply isn’t worth the stain on your hands."

-------------------

From this moment forward, to avoid confusion regarding cultivation ranks, I will include this footer with the current established levels.

Note: These are only the ranks mentioned so far to avoid spoilers.

Body Refinement Realm

Skin Refinement / Bone Refinement / Organ Refinement

Spiritual Gathering Realm

Spiritual Perception / Spiritual Mist / Spiritual Condensation

Spiritual Core Realm

Core Solidification / Core Awakening / Spiritual Collapse (Half-step Spiritual Core)

Spiritual Soul Realm

Spiritual Soul Awakening / Soul Nourishing / Soul-Core Fusion

Golden Core Realm

Prime Fusion / Core Perfection / Core Destruction

Spiritual Sea Realm

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??

Dao Manifestation Realm

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??

Spiritual Transcendence

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??