Qin Zen had just fought with another boy; A boy younger than him at that but he lost miserably.

He moved his beaten body until he arrived at his place. It was a place with written on it the sign " Qin".

The Qin was a family of martial artists based at Qin town, Three days of travel away from Whiteriver City.

Their clan was not as powerful or influential as the Li or Duo family. After all, the strongest fighter in his family was his grandfather who was their only fighter at the twelfth stage of the body tempering realm. The Li and Duo family had dozen of fighters like that. There were even rumors about them having fighters that had reached the higher realm of martial arts.

Although Qin Zen was stronger than ordinary people, he was a nobody among those of his generation back in his clan. After all, he possessed a weak constitution since his birth. He could not train as much as the others and he could not obtain as much results as them with the same amount of effort. Since two years ago, he remained at the third stage of the body tempting despite all his training.

At that stage, despite being stronger and tougher, you were not that different compared to untrained people.

The worst thing was that he could not train in the special martial arts of his family: " the hidden wave technique" or else he would not have lost that badly.

The scariest thing about the martial artists was not their fists or their body muscle; it was the technics that their punches and kicks were carrying. It was also the reason why Qin Zen was considered garbage. Despite all the resources invested in him, he could not bring any results.

" you are useless..." Qin zen remembered the words that the little boy said while leaving. 

" the Du Clan..." Qin Zen said with gritted teeth.

When Qin Zen opened the door of the shop, he saw a woman behind the counter. She was his mother Qin Lu. She was pretty, she looked calm and kind. But the moment she saw the state of her son she was shocked.

" Zenzen, what happened to you?" she asked while hurrying over.

He seemed to have been beaten by a group of people. The perpetrator has mostly targeted his face, his nose, his eyes, and the joints of his arms. His clothes were also torn in someplace, showing the bluish skin.

" What happened to you. Who did this to you?" Qin Lu asked with a hurt voice, she tried to contain her sadness, her rage.

If possible she wanted to make justice for him.

" I got in a fight with another boy from the Du clan. And he won" he said softly while his mother was inspecting his injuries.

His uncle Qin Dan had entered the shop just in time to hear their conversation.

He was a handsome middle-aged man, with a short goatee.

After checking the state of his nephew and finding that there was nothing dangerous, just some superficial injuries and some bumps, he asked him to elaborate on how things happened.

Qin Zen started to tell what 'happened'. How he was in the market and was attracted by a pendant. He wanted to buy it but a certain Du Ren arrived and started to compete with him. Qin zen did not want to lose out so he raised the price. Soon the bide was above a hundred silver Jing. Seeing that he could not win, the brat from the Du family decided to beat him before leaving.

Qin Zen did not say anything about the fact that his opponent was ao much younger than him. Nor did he mention a challenge that he accepted. It would have been too humiliating.

At the end of the story, everyone was angry.

" They are too much!"

" The people of the Du Clan..." Qin Dan sighed.

After a while, Qin Zen went to his bedroom and locked the door behind him.

There was something else that he did not mention earlier: the reason why he wanted to buy the pendant so much.

He searched in his inner pocket. The next moment he was holding two pendants one in each hand. Apart from their colors, one being white and the other being black, the two pendants were similar. The motifs on them were identical and they weighed the same.

Qin Zen cut his finger and dripped his blood on the newly brought White pendant.

The next moment the white pendant started to heat visibly. The two pendants started to vibrate in his hands. Soon, they flew at the level of his head clothing in the hair. They were glowing with two opposite colors.

Soon, the two glows started to merge in a strange forming a ying-yang diagram.

At the speed of light, the diagram entered through Qin Zen glabella and he disappeared. 

There was no one in the room anymore.

Two hours later, Qin Zen appeared again on his bed.

There was something different about him. He was releasing an air of confidence. Apart from that, his body had changed. His constitution had changed. He was stronger, faster and he had broken through the fourth stage of the body tempering. He could feel the battle qi coursing through his body. If he were to face Du Ren now, he would not even need to land a blow to crush him.

"Du Clan..." There was a strange glint in his eyes now.

********

In the meantime, Du Ren was still walking around. He did not know that he had just met a powerful and talented enemy, lost the most precious treasure of his father, failed to reunite with the rest of his family, and escaped a dangerous uncle.

He was not searching for his place anymore. He was just touring around White river city.

He saw the place called Bright Garden. People said that it was a high-class brothel, but he could not judge, the guards at the front did not let him enter.

There was also the Li martial pavilion. It was a place where you could buy anything related to martial arts be it, weapons, medicines for training, martial skills.

He could only visit the first level of the building that looked like a pagoda.

Du Ren was impressed by their display of weapons.

"I don't know much about blacksmithing, but these people for sure know their stuff. Those blades are so pretties...."

"Now I understand, the prettier the weapon is, the highest in its price" Du Ren said in enlightenment.

The other customers, mostly men were looking at him flabbergasted.

"Who lost his child in the martial pavilion?" Someone asked and the people around laughed.

Du Ren did not care about them and continued to walk he arrived at the section on martial skills.

On a sign plate, very visible were the words: " you can not touch, only seeing his allowed"

The books were behind glasses and on the cover, you could see an awesome illustration of how the skills could be used:

" dragon shattering fist", " dragon tiger fist" "banana jump" "crane dash" and "heavy Mountain slash".

The illustration was full of color showing a human silhouette shattering the earth and overturning the sea.

Even the cheapest book costed 2000 silver, Jing. He did not have that much money.

Du Ren was entering the section of medicine when a fair and delicate hand caught him.

It was a pretty young woman. She was wearing the beautiful blue uniform with the symbol of the martial Pavillon, a dragon coupling around a pagoda.

" Please little boy, follow me"

Du Ren followed her thinking that she was sending him out.

But after walking for a while he saw his mother. She was waiting near the entrance of the building.

She has that familiar smile on her face and there was holding a wooden box in her hands.

" I'm sorry if my son importunated you. I was careless and let him wander around " Lan Xi said to the young woman.

" there was no problem. He is a good kid"

Lan Xi and the woman exchanged pleasantries with the woman. Du Ren never saw her that polite.

When they finished talking, they bided farewell, and the mother and son duo left.

They were walking hands in hand when Lan Xi suddenly stopped.

" I heard about what happened. And even though it was dangerous, l am proud of you." She said while caressing his cheeks.