An old man with long white hair and a mustache that drooped below his chin sat on a rug in the center of an empty room. His eyes were closed, and his aging body almost seemed dead. Not a single breath escaped his lips as he lost himself in meditation.
A dark, ghastly aura quickly filled the room, and the man's eyes shot wide open. The aura vanished as soon as he opened his eyes, but all the hairs on the back of his neck stood on edge as he listened carefully for any movement.
"Who's there?" he asked hesitantly as a cold sweat drenched his clothes.
"I came to congratulate you," a woman's voice echoed around his head, but the room remained perfectly silent.
"It's you," the man let out a sigh. "What are you congratulating me for?"
"It seems the Li Family has gained another martial artist. I think it's about time that you step up and act in a way that a grandfather should. I can tell you don't have long left," the woman's voice echoed inside his head once more.
"Another martial artist?" the man asked hesitantly before his eyes shot open. "You don't mean!?"
"I do. You know your son adored that boy. I'm leaving him in your care from now on. I don't think I need to tell you the consequences if something were to happen to him. Do I?"
"I know, Senior, trust me, I know the consequences," he sighed heavily. He didn't dare to be disrespectful in her presence; only he knew the truth of her identity.
"Well then, it's time for me to go. Take care of him, but don't spoil him too much." Her presence left the room as she said those final words, but the old man had one final question.
"Wait!" he shouted, unsure if she could still hear him. "Where will you go?"
"To avenge my husband," the voice whispered back as the old man finally fell silent once more. He tried to close his eyes again and continue meditating, but the sudden visitor shook him to his core. It would take a while before he would be able to relax again.
***
Li Jun stared at his hands after striking the tree for far too long. He had lost track of time due to his excitement, but it was time for breakfast. He also wanted to ask his mother about the feeling in his stomach when she helped him consume the tendon-repairing pill.
As he turned to head back to the house, a voice cried out from the other side of the gate.
"Li Jun! Get your arse out here right now!"
He recognized the voice instantly; how could he not when he had been tormented by it for as long as he could remember? A smile crossed his lips as he thought about how he could now enact his revenge.
He had waited for this day his entire life, but no matter what he tried, he was simply too weak to fight back, not to mention the unfair conditions he often found himself in.
"I'm warning you! If you don't open the gate right now, I will kick it down!" Li Chen cried out once more.
Li Jun thought about grabbing a weapon, but he wanted to see just what would happen if he used his palm technique against his older cousin. Would it knock him out in a single hit? It seemed to shake the apple tree pretty violently.
Li Chen was about to shout once more as the gate slowly opened, and Li Jun stood before him with a calm demeanor.
"What do you want? It's too early in the morning for your nonsense," said Li Jun as he let his right arm relax by his side, feigning injury despite the fact he had been healed.
"Nonsense? Is it nonsense that you slapped my mother!?" Li Chen erupted as he pointed his finger towards Li Jun with a ferocious expression.
"No, I did slap her. Although I would say she deserved it," Li Jun said casually, a smile formed across his lips once more as he spoke. His slick tongue never failed to infuriate whoever he directed it at.
Li Chen couldn't hold back anymore. He rushed forward with his arm raised behind his head. He swung his entire body as he threw a wild punch in Li Jun's direction.
Li Jun calmly responded by bending his legs and taking a step forward. His arm shot out, and his palm struck Li Chen's stomach.
Li Chen let out a gasp for air as his lungs quickly deflated. He stumbled backward ten steps before falling to his knees and dry heaved as he tried to inhale.
Li Jun looked at his hands in shock. He didn't expect that his palm strike would contain enough power to push him back so far. He had expected the attack to hurt him, but not nearly as much as it did.
It seemed the name Iron Mountain Palm Strikes was a fitting name for the technique. It was as if his hand was made out of iron.
"That was for my arm," Li Jun said as he approached Li Chen with a cold look in his eyes.
This was the first time Li Chen had confronted him without his gang of friends around to help, and the first time Li Jun held the upper hand.
He let the power go to his head as he stepped closer with a sinister smirk.
"And this is for what you said about my mom!" he shouted as he stomped on the back of Li Chen's head.
Li Chen let out a sorrowful howl as his face slammed against the paved road, then stopped abruptly as his mind went numb. A silent darkness swallowed his consciousness and took away the pain of broken teeth that had scattered around the edges of a bloody puddle.
Without another word, Li Jun turned and headed back inside. His heart thumped violently against his ribs.
An overwhelming feeling of bloodlust lingered around him. At that moment, he wanted to kill Li Chen, and he was afraid that if he stayed out there for too long, he would have. The bottled-up rage from his cousin's constant torment was fighting to escape and claim its revenge.
He closed the gate and made his way into the kitchen. He wanted to tell his mother about what happened, but as he entered the house, he didn't see her in her usual location.
"Mom!?" he called out, but there was no response. He heard footsteps upstairs and ran up as fast as he could.
Hu Mei, the youngest of the three maids, was standing in the doorway to his mother's bedroom, holding something in her hands. She turned with a dark expression as their eyes met.
"It's the Lady! She's gone!" she exclaimed as Li Jun snatched a sheet of parchment from her hands.