Soft, Flimsy Fist?

Bang!

Lin Chuan's door was kicked open with brutal force, slamming hard against the wall. Three not particularly tall figures strode inside, and at a glance they spotted Lin Chuan sitting by the bed, watching the doorway—as if he had been waiting especially for their arrival.

Although they had already seen Lin Chuan's true appearance, with his white hair and white eyes, the last time they met, seeing him again still sent a shiver through the child in the lead. Those white eyes, veined with bulging lines, were fixed coldly on him. He had the illusion that he was being seen through in an instant, and he was so frightened he nearly turned and ran.

The next moment, he remembered that his brother beside him had already reached the third level of the Qi Refining Stage, and managed to suppress the urge to flee. He glared viciously at Lin Chuan and shouted, "Brother, this monster is the one who used some kind of demonic trick to wear the four of us out last time. We nearly died at his hands! Brother, you have to avenge me!"

"Exactly! Today's your last day. If Lin Li's brother hadn't been cultivating in seclusion these past few days, we would've killed you long ago. You should be grateful we let you live this long!" Seeing Lin Li speak up, another child immediately glared at Lin Chuan with venom and cursed him.

"Hmph. You're just some brat they picked up outside. If you die, you die—nobody will care. And you actually dared lay a hand on my little brother. Today, I'll show you what I, Lin Qin, can do!" said the boy, who looked to be about ten. He gazed at Lin Chuan as if he were an ant he could crush at any moment.

Even though Lin Qin thought Lin Chuan's eyes were strange, and even felt as if they could see right through him, so what? He couldn't sense even the slightest trace of spiritual energy from Lin Chuan. That meant Lin Chuan hadn't succeeded in cultivating at all—he couldn't even be considered a cultivator. Lin Qin could kill ten ordinary mortals like him without breaking a sweat.

"You little piece of trash. Today, I'll teach you who you can mess with and who you can't." The boy named Lin Li watched Lin Chuan with smug delight, as if he could already see him knocked to the ground, begging for mercy at his brother's feet.

Lin Chuan sat by the bed without saying a word, quietly watching the three of them put on airs in front of him.

When they finally fell silent and prepared to attack, Lin Chuan slowly stood up, spread his hands, and assumed the opening stance of Gentle Fist. "Perhaps you'll be the ones hitting the ground."

"Hmph, you're full of yourself!" Lin Qin snorted. Spiritual energy immediately surged out of his dantian and flowed through his meridians. After circulating it just once, his strength had already reached twice that of an ordinary adult. He rushed forward and threw a punch at Lin Chuan's chest.

The corner of Lin Chuan's mouth lifted slightly. None of his opponent's movements—including the flow of his spiritual energy—escaped his Byakugan. He could clearly see the spiritual energy coursing through Lin Qin's meridians, and the immense strength it produced as it merged into his body at the arm.

Hiss, hiss, hiss, hiss!

Purple chakra flowed over Lin Chuan's hands, giving off a faint hissing sound. The two clashed in a flash.

Smack!

Lin Chuan's palm struck his opponent's arm. The moment they made contact, he sent chakra into Lin Qin's body, then drifted back to shed the tremendous force of Lin Qin's blow before closing in again.

"Hm?" Lin Qin furrowed his brow slightly. The instant the white-haired boy's palm touched his, his arm had gone a little numb, but he hadn't felt much else, so he paid it no mind. Besides, Lin Chuan's Gentle Fist wasn't meant to win through brute strength. To Lin Qin, his fist technique posed no threat at all.

"Hmph. You think those soft, feeble punches can hurt me? You're way too naive!" Lin Qin sneered, then stopped defending against Lin Chuan's punches and unleashed his full strength in an attack.

"Huh? Those soft, feeble punches look like nothing but flashy moves. You think you can beat my brother with a technique like that? Keep dreaming!" Lin Li said with scorn.

"Did some girl teach you that dance? Hahaha! It's so soft and feeble, just like a woman's, and you still dare show it off and make a fool of yourself! I'm dying of laughter! Hahaha!" The other child saw Lin Chuan fighting this way and burst out laughing at him.

At that moment, Lin Chuan was dodging all over the place beneath Lin Qin's ferocious attacks. The punches that occasionally landed on Lin Qin were so soft and weak that they showed no sign of any offensive power.

Yet Lin Chuan grew more and more invigorated as the battle went on, his eyes gradually brightening. Practicing Gentle Fist alone inevitably left many flaws he couldn't spot. Fighting Lin Qin now, he was discovering a great many problems with his technique.

Perhaps at first Lin Chuan had needed to spend some effort dealing with Lin Qin. But by now, with the Byakugan's help, none of Lin Qin's attacks could escape his notice. Often, before Lin Qin even threw a punch, Lin Chuan could judge its strength from the spiritual energy he was using. A slight twitch of Lin Qin's muscles told him exactly where the punch would land.

And that wasn't all. Lin Qin thought Lin Chuan's Gentle Fist lacked force and posed no threat, so he didn't bother to defend against it. Instead, he devoted nearly all his attention to knocking Lin Chuan down. As a result, every time Lin Chuan's fist landed on him, it sent a small amount of chakra into his body.

If Lin Chuan hadn't wanted to keep fighting this sparring partner who had so helpfully delivered himself to his door, and thus held back on the amount of chakra he used, Lin Qin would have been badly injured long ago.

That was the terrifying thing about Gentle Fist: it seeped in silently, like rain nourishing the earth. By the time you realized something was wrong, it was already too late.

Now that the fight had gone on this long, Lin Qin was beginning to frown. No matter how he attacked, he couldn't hit his opponent. Lin Chuan either dodged directly or used that strange, soft, feeble technique to disperse the force of the blows, leaving him unharmed.

Meanwhile, Lin Qin himself felt a strange sense of danger. He had checked the places Lin Chuan's fists had struck more than once, but they bore no marks, and he didn't even feel any pain.

By now, he had realized something was wrong. How could a brat with no spiritual energy fight him for so long without losing ground? Even if three or four adults surrounded him, he could defeat them with ease. Yet this child, a year younger than him, had been bouncing around beneath his fists all this time. And those strange white eyes kept giving him the hair-raising feeling that he was being seen through.

After a little while, Lin Chuan checked his chakra and found that he had used about a third of it. Lin Qin was no longer helping him improve his Gentle Fist, either. It's about time to finish this.

"Gentle Fist!"

With a low shout, Lin Chuan's hands shot out like lightning and struck Lin Qin in the chest. Chakra immediately poured from his hands into his opponent, stirring up the chakra he had planted in Lin Qin earlier and sending him flying.

Blood sprayed from Lin Qin's mouth as he hurtled through the air, terrified by what he felt happening inside his body. Without knowing when it had happened, his meridians and internal organs had all been badly damaged. Yet what he found impossible to believe was that not a single mark had appeared on his body from beginning to end.