Chapter 5: I don't negotiate with thugs

Everything that made this mud hut his home was destroyed beyond repair. And three burly men that wore ugly grins on their faces were standing over his father. One of the thugs had a scar that went across his face as he touched the sword on his hip.

"Hand over everything you have and you and your old man can leave with your lives." The thug with the sword said, seeing the anger in Yoze's eyes.

"Fine, let my dad leave the hut first and I'll hand you everything that I got for becoming a scholar. I will not even take a single step or resist as long as you let him go." Yoze suppressed his anger and calmly said.

"What makes you think that we need to listen to your demands?" The scared thug stopped his hideous grin as he replied to Yoze.

"I can either hand you everything in one package or you and your lackeys will have to find every last coin in the field."

The Scared thug fell silent before agreeing to let Yoze's father go beforehand. 

"Son, be careful."

As his father was walking outside, Yoze saw the look of concern for a son in his eyes, and the flames of his rage grew brighter.

"You old man's outside now, hand over everything you have." Feeling impatient at how long it was taking Yoze to take out his valuables, one of the thugs urged him.

After taking a deep breath Yoze untied his pouch and walked over to one of the thugs.

"Hold on, give me the pouch." The scarred man called out seeing that the pouch was filled to the brim and couldn't help but swallow his saliva.

"Even better," Yoze thought to himself before walking towards the scarred thug.

As he handed the pouch to the scarred thug, the anger in his heart burned and Yoze started his counterattack.

"Woosh,"

A swift Bear Fist slammed into the scarred thug's face before he and his lackeys could react. Not giving him a chance to retaliate, Yoze quickly threw five Koi Fists before he heard a sickening crunch come from the scarred thug's head.

"Ahhh, you're a martial artist!" The two remaining thugs became frightened and ran out of the hut.

"Whoosh, Whoosh, Whoosh, Whoosh, Whoosh, Whoosh, Whoosh, Whoosh, Whoosh, Whoosh."

Still, in a state of wanting blood, Yoze attacked one of the slower thugs and caved his head in until he heard a crunch and the body went limp.

By the time Yoze regained his composure, he ran out the door to find that his father was safe and the last thug had run away with his tail between his legs.

"Dad, are you okay?" 

Concerned that the thugs treated his father poorly, Yoze checked to see if there was any bruising before sighing a breath of relief.

"Son, you are strong." Yoze's father said with surprise.

Yoze puffed his chest out in pride as he felt that he had made the best choice of his life to practice martial arts.

"This is something that I learned from a martial artist when I was taking the Scholar exam."

"Speaking of becoming a scholar, Dad, I got you some medicine." 

Remembering the whole reason he wanted to become a scholar, Yoze ran back into the hut and grabbed his pouch. After hesitating for a minute, Yoze also grabbed the thugs' pouches and the scarred man's sword.

"Here Dad, take this medicine, this should help you with your fever. Once you take it we will travel to Jade City."

Seeing that the son he always had taken care of, now taking care of him, Yoze's father shed a silent tear before he took the medicine to not be any more of a burden.

Seeing that his father was not commenting about staying at their mud hut, Yoze couldn't help but feel a weight fall off of his shoulders. Taking one last look at the mud hut he had called home for the last 13 years, Yoze bid it farewell.

Several days later, Yoze and his father made it to Jade City and were both moved by the beauty of the city. There were lines of people lining up to enter the city, so they entered the line.

By the time they reached the gate, it was starting to get dark. 

"Dad, we should be able to find a place to stay tonight so that you can get some proper rest."

Seeing his father's haggard appearance made Yoze's heartache but he felt happy to see that the medicine was effective as his father's sickness had gone away.

"What is your purpose for coming to Jade City?" 

Getting out of his head, Yoze noticed that they had reached the gate and two bored guards were waiting for his answer.

"I'm a scholar coming to the city to offer up my services," Yoze said while showing a wooden badge with a blue leaf on it to the guards.

Seeing the badge that represented new scholars, the two guards put on smiles on their faces and warmly made recommendations for places Yoze should visit.

"Thank you for your recommendations. I will make sure to follow your advice." Pretending to be warmed by the fake kindness, Yoze said that if they saw each other again they should go to dinner.

When Yoze enter Jade City, he felt that he had returned to a city back on Earth. The buildings were several stories high and there seemed to be an endless amount of people walking the streets.

"Here, this inn looks good." 

After settling down, Yoze soaked in the long-awaited warm bath. 

[Name: Yoze]

[Age: 21 years]

[Talents: Literature Comprehension(Grade 3), Martial Arts Comprehension (Grade 2), Networking (Grade 2), Logical Reasoning (Grade 1), Mathematics (Grade 1)]

[Techniques: Twin Fists (Rank 1: 10%)]

[Talent Mark: 1]

Yoze saw that his progress had slowed down after reaching the first rank of Twin Fists. And according to the book, there are three ranks in the technique. Rank 1 is considered entry-level and means that the user can throw out a chain of 10 comfortably. Rank 2 means that the user can throw a combo size of 40. And Rank 3 Twin Fists maximum is a combo of 70 punches. 

Right now, Yoze felt he could throw 12 koi punches without any issue. 

"I have a long way to go before I even reach the limit of this basic technique. I should try to find someone with better talent to speed up the process."