When he opened his eyes, a cosy house came into sight. From the chimney, smoke gently rose.

A wide grin came over Liu Qiang's face. Then it faded for a bit.

"Urgh... the qi here is really thin," he mumbled.

"Mama!" he shouted right after.

"Liu Qiang!" after a brief moment, a voice from inside shouted back.

He could hear hurried steps from inside the house and something metallic crashing to the ground. The door opened swiftly, knocking against the wall.

A somewhat chubby woman rushed out, giving Liu Qiang a hug. She even patted him on the head.

Slightly embarrassed, his eyes darted around for a bit. Luckily, no one was in sight.

"You still treat me like a child, mom..."

His mother laughed.

"Oh yeah, I bought something really good back for you!" he grinned.

"Hmm? What is it?"

With glee, he opened his lunchbox. As the aroma wafted out, his mother gasped.

"Whoa! You bought cultivator food! Amazing!"

He and his mother were basically salivating as they put the box on the table eagerly. Liu Qiang reached inside and pulled out trays of food from inside, covering the table.

"Ah... this is a bit unfortunate actually." she sighed.

"Hmm? Why?"

"Your dad isn't at home right now. The leftovers will be cold by the time he gets home."

Ah. That's right, he wouldn't return till night. But Liu Qiang had a bright idea all of a sudden.

"I can bring the food to him after we're done eating!"

"Mmm. Oh my, there are quite a lot of vegetables inside! You're finally eating your vegetables properly!"

Liu Qiang smiled awkwardly, deciding not to mention how he wasn't in charge of picking the dishes.

The two began to eat after a bit more chatter. It was rather quick as well, as they didn't want more time for the food to get cold by the time he reached his dad.

"That was crazy good! And I feel ten years younger after eating that!" his mother said as they finished up.

Liu Qiang laughed.

But he could understand why. Throughout his body, he could feel gentle qi coursing through. It was almost a weird sensation as if he was getting a massage as he ate, but it wasn't unpleasant.

He packed the remaining food back into the box.

"I'll be going now, mama!" 

"Stay safe!"

As he ran, suddenly, he caught sight of someone.

"Qiu Hai!" he shouted.

"Oh, Liu Qiang, you're back!"

That, someone, was a slender young boy that seemed to have a mischievous smirk permanently stuck to his face. His long hair was tied into a ponytail and his baggy clothes flopped as he ran.

Qiu Hai wrapped one of his arms around Liu Qiang's back.

"You're a cultivator now, huh? Your mom wouldn't shut up about how you were going to 'cultivator school'!"

Liu Qiang laughed.

"Do you mind showing off some of your new powers? Can you fly?"

"Nah, I can't fly yet. But..."

He released his aura, garnering looks from passersby. Then, he tried to focus his qi into his fist and punched a nearby tree. He had yet to learn any combat arts, but he knew at the very least that focusing qi could make him stronger.

It let out a loud "pang!", the tree shaking and leaves falling. A squirrel fell too, quickly scampering away. 

There was now a dent in the tree, some sap flowing out from it.

"Amazing! Haha, the other boys wouldn't dare oppose us now!" Qiu Hai laughed. "You've got to show it to the rest of the gang!"

The passersby gave awed looks as well.

"Well... but..." Liu Qiang looked sheepishly to his lunch box.

Eh, it probably wouldn't matter if he delayed it a bit.

 

---

 

As they walked through the town square, they caught sight of something.

A boy was crying on the ground, a cup of spilt tea beside him. A burly man had put his foot on him, leaving dirty footprints.

Beside the burly man, a man in a grey scholar's outfit was staring coldly at the boy. On the left of his chest, the words Er Yong were embroidered in white.

Many people were staring, but none of them stood up to help. It was almost as if they were used to such scenes.

It wasn't hard to tell why they were angry at the boy. There was a huge tea stain on Er Yong's clothes.

"Do you realise what you have done?" he shouted.

"I-I'm sorry! It was an accident!" the boy cried.

Snot was running down his face, making him look quite pathetic.

For a moment, Liu Qiang frowned, until he realised something. Now that he was a cultivator, he could easily help!

"Stop bullying that boy!" he shouted.

The eyes of the crowd turned to him. Qiu Hai gave him a supportive thumbs-up.

"Bullying?" the scholar let out a cold snort. "I am merely teaching him a lesson. Would you like to join him?"

His bodyguard let off the boy, turning to Liu Qiang and cracking his knuckles.

Liu Qiang was sure that if he released his aura at this moment, they would let the boy off. But what was the fun in that? He wanted to show off and give them a good beating! They deserved it anyway, right?

"Hah, come at me if you dare!" he smirked.

"Yi Ming, teach him a lesson," said Er Yong.

"Understood."

As Yi Ming charged over, Liu Qiang focused 10% of his qi into each of his handed and pushed hard!

The bodyguard let out a scream as he flew off, crashing into the walls of a nearby shop.

The windows shattered, but the walls were practically unharmed.

Yi Ming, however... was bleeding all over. He was covered in blood and an arm of his seemed to point in the wrong direction. The blood pooled on the ground.

"You..." Yi Ming muttered.

The burly man gritted his teeth hard, trying his hardest to stop the tears. He lost conciousness a few moment later.

The crowd screamed.

Liu Qiang paled, gasping in horror. He wasn't planning to do that! All that was supposed to happen was them getting a mild beating... and then...

"You... you... what do you think you're trying to do!" Er Yong screeched. "You are committing murder!"

The scholar was shivering in fear, but he knelt down and looked back and forth at Yi Ming and Liu Qiang.

"Dammit... don't die... it's all my fault..." Er Young mumbled.

Trying his best to ignore Qiu Hai's horrified look, Liu Qiang grabbed him and the boy on the ground, running off.

All he could think of at this moment was how his mother was going to be implicated because of him... and the poor bodyguard.

A tear rolled down his cheek. He wished he wasn't such show-off. If only he hadn't done that...