Robbing My Brother's Compensation? One Punch to Death!

Spirit Calendar, Year 108.

Qingcheng First Advanced Academy, principal's office.

The atmosphere was grave.

Lin Yun stared at the death notification on the desk, its red letters on white paper making his head buzz.

A Vanguard Army officer said solemnly, "Comrade Lin Hai died heroically while carrying out a classified mission to cover his comrades. Please accept our condolences."

"Lin Yun, if you have any difficulties, come to me anytime." The principal also patted Lin Yun's shoulder in consolation.

Lin Yun did not cry.

"Thank you, sir. Thank you, Principal. I don't have any difficulties." He paused, his voice somewhat hoarse. "My brother once said that a man should defend his home and country, and dying for that cause is a worthy death. I just never thought... this day would truly come."

After transmigrating into this world where spiritual energy had revived and exotic beasts had risen, his brother had been his only family.

The year he arrived in this world, he had merely been an abandoned infant. Knowing nothing, he had crouched alone on a street corner, until his brother, only nine years old at the time, took him home.

That half-grown boy could barely feed himself, yet he had stubbornly raised Lin Yun to adulthood.

Eighteen years.

Now, the man who had raised him was gone.

"I hope you can become Comrade Lin Hai's pride."

The officer handed Lin Hai's urn and two hundred thousand in compensation to Lin Yun, then gave him a crisp military salute.

"I will."

Lin Yun's voice was hoarse, but his hands remained steady as he received them.

The principal sighed. "Lin Yun, take your brother home first. Don't put too much pressure on yourself over the martial arts examination in seven days. After all, you know your own martial arts talent."

"Thank you for your concern, Principal."

Holding the urn, Lin Yun silently walked out of the school gates.

The early summer sunlight hurt his eyes, and the streets were filled with youths discussing the martial arts examination.

Some cheered over their blood vitality reaching 7 points, while others showed off newly purchased first-tier blood vitality potions.

None of that bustle had anything to do with him.

Over the years, he had trained several hours more than everyone else each day. When sleepy, he poured cold water over his head; even when exhaustion left him limp, he refused to slacken.

Because he knew that only by becoming a true martial artist would he have a chance to fight side by side with his brother.

Yet the chasm of aptitude seemed impossible to cross through effort alone.

In martial arts cultivation, blood vitality determined everything. The realms, from low to high, were: trainee martial artist (1–9 blood vitality points), martial apprentice (10–99 blood vitality points), martial master (100–999 blood vitality points), great martial master...

Ordinary people his age should have at least 4 blood vitality points, even at the lowest, enough to become an intermediate trainee martial artist.

But what about him? No matter how hard he worked, no matter how frugally he lived to buy cultivation resources, he still had only a pitiful 2 points.

In this life, he was destined to hide in the rear as a desk clerk, without even the right to personally avenge his brother.

At last, he could not hold back the scalding tears. They dripped onto the cold urn in his hands.

"Well, if it isn't Qingcheng Academy's top scorer in the written exams? Why are you crouching here crying like you're at a funeral?"

A mocking voice reached Lin Yun's ears.

He abruptly looked up, wiping away the tears on his face, and saw Wang Erhu leaning lazily against a roadside plane tree with two delinquent-looking lackeys. Their eyes were filled with undisguised mockery and greed.

Wang Erhu was a notorious school bully. With 6 blood vitality points, some family influence, and an elder brother who was a martial apprentice specially cultivated by the academy, he usually enjoyed extorting students with poor aptitude and no background. Now that graduation was near, he was naturally even more unscrupulous.

After all, in Wang Erhu's eyes, these people with no power, no influence, and no aptitude could do nothing to him.

At that moment, his gaze was fixed on Lin Yun's bulging pocket—the two hundred thousand in compensation.

"Please move aside." Lin Yun stood while holding the urn, his voice as cold as ice.

"Move aside? Why should I?" Wang Erhu sneered. With his two lackeys, he took several steps forward and surrounded Lin Yun. "Lin Yun, stop hiding it. The officer coming to school has already spread through the entire grade. Your brother died in an exotic beast's jaws, so the Vanguard Army must have given you quite a bit of compensation, right?"

Lin Yun's gaze instantly turned even colder.

"What does that have to do with you?"

"How could it have nothing to do with me?" Wang Erhu crossed his arms, looking utterly justified. "Why don't you piss and take a look at yourself? So what if you topped the written exams? In the martial arts examination seven days from now, you won't even touch the passing line. For the rest of your life, you'll only be a desk clerk hiding in the safe zone writing reports. What do you have to compare with someone like me, who has hopes of becoming a martial apprentice?"

He stepped forward, looking down at Lin Yun, and his tone abruptly became "sincere."

"Lin Yun, I truly want to help you. What can you do with that compensation in your hands? Buy cultivation resources? With your lousy aptitude, even throwing in a million would be like pouring water down a drain. You might as well give it to me. Consider it an investment in me."

Counting on his fingers, he laid it out. "Look, I'm already at 6 blood vitality points and am about to break into the advanced trainee martial artist stage. Once I enter a martial arts academy, I'll definitely become a real martial apprentice within three years. When I join the Vanguard Army, I'll look after you. You'll be a desk clerk in the rear, and having a connection like me is better than having no one to rely on, isn't it?"

Lin Yun looked at him coldly without saying a word.

Seeing that he remained unmoved, Wang Erhu softened his tone further. "How about this? I won't take it for nothing. Give me the two hundred thousand, and I'll write you an IOU. Treat it as a loan. Once I make something of myself, I'll pay you back three hundred thousand, principal and interest included. How about it?"

"Are you done?" Lin Yun's voice did not ripple in the slightest. "If you're done, move aside."

The smile on Wang Erhu's face finally slipped.

"Lin Yun, don't refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit!" His expression darkened. "I'm discussing this nicely with you because I'm giving you face! Who do you think you are? A piece of trash who can't even pass the martial arts examination. You're holding two hundred thousand in compensation—do you think you can keep it?"

He sneered, leaned close to Lin Yun's ear, and lowered his voice. "I'm telling you, today, you'll hand over that money whether you want to or not. If you know what's good for you, take it out yourself and we can both keep some dignity. If you insist on making me use force, then this won't be settled with just two hundred thousand."

Lin Yun took a step back, clutching the urn tighter to his chest, his gaze icy. "In your dreams."

Wang Erhu stared at him for several seconds, then suddenly laughed.

That smile made Lin Yun's heart sink.

"Fine, Lin Yun. You've got backbone." Wang Erhu straightened up, shoved his hands into his pockets, and spoke unhurriedly. "Then let's play it another way."

He glanced at his two lackeys. They immediately understood and blocked Lin Yun's retreat from the left and right.

Wang Erhu turned back to Lin Yun, his tone suddenly dripping with mockery.

"Though come to think of it, your brother really was unlucky. He fought like his life depended on it at the front lines, only to raise a useless little brother like you. What do you think he was doing it all for?"

Lin Yun's hand suddenly clenched.

"He worked hard for eighteen years, never even started a family of his own, all to raise you, this deadweight he picked up off the street." Wang Erhu clicked his tongue and shook his head. "And what happened? Once he died, you didn't even have the right to avenge him. Do you think his spirit in heaven would feel that he raised you for nothing?"

"Shut up."

Lin Yun's voice trembled.

"Why should I shut up?" Wang Erhu laughed, laughing happily. "I'm telling the truth. If your brother had a spirit in heaven, seeing you clutching his compensation without even daring to fart, he'd probably be so furious he'd crawl out of his grave."

"I said shut up!"

Lin Yun's voice suddenly rose, and his eyes had already turned red.

But Wang Erhu became even more enthusiastic, even taking a step closer to look down at Lin Yun.

"What? I talked about your brother and now you're upset? So what if you are? With your pathetic 2 blood vitality points, can you beat me?"

He extended a finger and jabbed Lin Yun in the chest again and again.

"Your brother raised you for nothing. Understand? For nothing. He raised a piece of trash, raised a coward, raised someone who can't even protect his compensation—"

Lin Yun's mind went completely blank at that moment.

All he knew was that the mouth before him was still endlessly insulting the person who had picked him up from the streets.

"I told you to shut up!"

With a furious roar, Lin Yun let out a hoarse growl and threw a punch at Wang Erhu's face.

But he only had 2 blood vitality points.

Wang Erhu easily sidestepped it, then casually threw a punch that knocked Lin Yun to the ground, nearly leaving him unable to breathe.

"Oh my, Lin Yun, why did you attack someone first?" Wang Erhu's voice brimmed with smugness. He released his fist, stepped back twice, and raised both hands in feigned innocence. "Everyone saw it. You were the one who hit me first. I was merely defending myself."

The two lackeys immediately caught on and shouted in unison, "That's right, that's right! We saw it! Lin Yun was the one who attacked first!"

Wang Erhu crouched down and looked at Lin Yun, who was kneeling on the ground with a pale face, his smile brilliant.

"Lin Yun, you're finished. Look at my face—it's all red from your punch. Asking you for two hundred thousand in medical expenses isn't excessive, right?"

He patted Lin Yun's face and said word by word, "I'm taking your brother's compensation."

Gritting his teeth, Lin Yun curled up on the ground and tightly covered the compensation in his pocket.

"I won't hand it over! I won't, even if I die!"

"Still talking tough, are you?" Seeing that he would not budge, Wang Erhu's expression turned completely cold.

He snatched the urn from Lin Yun's arms, raised it high, and assumed a posture as though he were about to smash it to the ground.

"You won't hand it over, huh? Then I'll smash this lousy box and feed your brother's ashes to dogs!"

Lin Yun's pupils suddenly constricted.

"Give it back!"

"Trade money for it!"

"You..."

"I'll count to three. Three—"

Just as Lin Yun was on the verge of collapse.

[Ding! Detected that the host's will to protect has reached its peak. The Spend-to-Cultivate System has officially bound itself!]

A cold mechanical voice exploded in Lin Yun's mind without warning.

Lin Yun's entire body stiffened. Even the searing pain in his back seemed to vanish in an instant.

A system?

He had actually awakened a system?

Eighteen years!

He had been in this world for eighteen years, and at his most desperate moment, the system had finally arrived.

[System function: Any legal currency may be consumed to exchange for blood vitality points (increases regardless of aptitude), various spirit medicines, weapons, cultivation techniques, and more.]

[Current system level: 1. Blood vitality points and third-tier or lower spirit medicines may be exchanged for (rare spirit plants, finished medicinal pills).]

[Current host balance: 200,372 Dragon Nation currency. Exchangeable blood vitality: 20.0372 points.]

The flame of hope that had just ignited was instantly doused by a basin of cold water.

Other than the two hundred thousand in compensation, he had only 372 on him—not even enough to exchange for 1 blood vitality point.

Did he have to use the compensation?

It was the last thing his brother had left him, money bought with his life.

But if he did not...

"Two—"

Lin Yun no longer hesitated.

The compensation was certainly important to him, but his brother's ashes... were even less to be desecrated!

"System! Exchange for 10 blood vitality points!"

He roared in his mind.

[Ding! 100,000 Dragon Nation currency deducted. Exchanged for 10 blood vitality points!]

[Warning! The host has not undergone body tempering and cannot adequately bear the current blood vitality. There is a risk of the body exploding! Recommendation...]

Lin Yun did not listen to the rest.

A violent force erupted from his dantian, like scorching magma flooding into every vein.

It hurt.

It hurt like hell.

But he could not spare any attention for that.

"One!"

Just as Wang Erhu shouted the final number and the urn left his hand, Lin Yun moved.

His figure was as fast as an afterimage. His right hand shot out and steadily caught the urn.

At almost the same instant, his left fist, carrying the terrifying force of 12 blood vitality points, smashed viciously into Wang Erhu's chest.

Bang—

As though struck by a cannonball, Wang Erhu flew backward and crashed into the plane tree behind him with a dull, heavy thud.

Then he slid to the ground like a heap of mud. A large section of his chest had caved in, blood poured from his mouth, and his eyes were wide with disbelief.

After twitching twice, he never moved again.