Streak.

Jin stayed perfectly still as he saw Yuhei rushing at him.

WHOOSH!

Yuhei swung the staff in his right hand as a feint, causing Jin to dodge backward preemptively. As if he was seeing what Jin would do in slow motion, Yuhei suddenly threw the staff in his right hand at Jin while he was dodging backward.

Even though he wasn't completely balanced, Jin managed to easily deflect the staff with a quick swipe of his left hand. Suddenly, Yuhei appeared on Jin's right and thrust a knee toward his face.

All of this happened before Jin even got the chance to land on the ground properly after dodging. Yuhei's speed was incredible for his age.

'I can't take this head-on! If I can't deflect or dodge normally then...'

Jin used the fact that he was off-balance to his advantage and allowed himself to fall backward, causing the knee to barely graze his chest as he fell.

'I just need to get close enough.'

As soon as Jin touched the ground, he pushed himself back up and tried to circle around Yuhei.

Yuhei suddenly threw the last staff remaining in his hand at Jin and rushed him empty-handed with his two fists extended in front of him.

Jin immediately picked up on what style it was.

'The Luohan 18 hands. Interesting pick.'

Jin caught the staff and decided to rush forward himself. It was time to end this.

With incredible speed, Yuhei fired two punches in less than a breath. They were so fast that they only looked like white flashes in the air. He was sure that Jin would've been caught by this attack.

Jin knew that he couldn't dodge both punches so he used the staff to block one as he took the other straight to his face. Blood poured out of his nose as his head snapped back from the force.

Yuhei smiled as he was sure that Jin would give up after experiencing a hit like that.

Thats when he felt a slight breeze passing his ear once again.

"NO-"

It was too late.

His vision started going black.

Jin struck at the back of the head once again.

Jin threw the staff to the side and made one step forward closer to his falling body as he closed both fists.

His eyes turned sharp as he struck Yuhei with three blows on vital points from his neck up. One on his chin, one on his throat, and one on his nose. Blood spurted out of his nose like a fountain as he fell face first you the ground.

"Arghhhhh!"

Yuhei was jolted awake and immediately started holding his nose in pain as he tried to get up from the ground. But it was too late. The damage was done. His breaths were haggard and his vision was still blurry. A quick recovery was impossible.

And Jin wasn't about to let him recover this time.

Jin raised his leg and dropped an axe kick on his chest, causing blood to spurt out of his nose even more. He wanted to surrender but the damage his throat suffered stifled his words.

Just as he thought that Jin was about to attack again, he saw Jin looking at him with a smile on his face, his hand outstretched.

"I know when to stop, Brother Yuhei. Forgive me if I was a bit rough haha."

Yuhei grabbed his little hand and pulled himself up. He was surprised at how sturdy Jin's body felt.

The two went to the side of the stage where Yuhei got some medical attention and Jin cleaned up his nose.

Just as Jin was about to head back to the middle of the stage, Yuhei grabbed him by the shoulder and said in a strained voice, "Little brother Jin, it was great that I got to fight you. Keep going as much as you can. Buy next time, I'll defeat you."

Yuhei was humbled by this defeat but he resolved himself to train. He couldn't fall far behind.

Jin smiled and nodded as he went back to the middle of the stage. The crowd cheered loudly when they saw him. Younger disciples defeating older ones didn't happen often. Especially with such a wide age gap.

This event was an upset.

"WOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH BROTHER JIN!!! BROTHER JINNNNN!!"

Daiei's screaming voice entered Jin's ear and he turned to his left to see the group he usually hung with cheering for him with all their might. Even Honkei, who wanted to fight him for his hair was cheering with them.

Jin chuckled and waved at them.

'It truly is good to have friends huh?'

"Number 756! Enter the stage!"

Jin immediately turned serious as another disciple entered the arena. This time, the boy looked no older than 10 years old and he carried a short staff with him.

From the way he was trembling, it was clear that he was a bit afraid.

Jin entered his usual stance with his left hand extended in front of his right and said, "Come."

The young boy steeled his resolve and rushed toward Jin, sweeping his staff at him as he went.

'Why do they all start off with these predictable quick attacks?'

Jin easily deflected the staff downwards and with one step forward, he kicked the boy in the chest, sending him skidding backward on the ground.

The boy started coughing and quickly surrendered before Jin could even say anything. Jin watched as the boy ran to the edge of the stage to receive medical attention without even talking to him.

"Heh, good match."

The cheers rang out again as Jin stepped back into the middle of the stage.

"Number 328!"

The result was the same as the last match. A quick defeat.

"Number 1001!"

"Number 243!"

"Number 316!"

The results were all the same. Except for the last match which was against another adult but he wasn't as skilled as Yuhei. So he was defeated after the first few exchanges.

At this point, Jin was tired and another fight would probably end in his loss. Secondly, most of the children were already eliminated so only adults were left. So he decided not to continue. The crowd cheered for him regardless as he left the stage.

Only about an hour passed since he came to the tournament and since his time was already done, he decided to leave. He had to go polish up his skills as he came to a certain conclusion during the match with Yuhei.

When he arrived at his courtyard, Jin threw his robe back in his house and started practicing [Snake] once again.

'I had a passing thought as I fought Yuhei. Why should I lock myself off to flurrying with my left and hard striking with my right? Wouldn't seasoned fighters figure me out quickly? Then it would be useless. So I wonder what would happen if I apply the flurry concept to all my limbs?'

Jin stopped moving, closed his eyes, and stood there in silence for a few minutes as he ran the simulations of what he was thinking about in his mind. Suddenly he struck out with his right hand in an angle, then his legs, then his left arm.

'Two punches, two kicks, each one as flexible and fast as possible. If I pull this off, I would be able to drastically increase my footwork.

HAAH!

All that could be heard in the courtyard was shouting as Jin completely focused on his practice.

Just like this, time passed swiftly as many years went by. He never changed his training schedule even once over the years. The only thing that changed was the intensity of said training.

A few years ago, he had finally started partial training to strengthen his limbs. He trained with sandbags, bamboo, stones, and even the flesh of wild beasts.

Jin now lived in a more secluded courtyard closer to the lower parts of the temple. This was closer to a pond and it was a mountainous area filled with trees. Wildlife wasn't that prevalent in this area but he still had to look out for the occasional boar.

It was a cold winter morning. The snow had just started falling and the sun could vaguely be seen behind the cloudy white sky. In the little hut down by the pond, a young teenager slowly walked out shirtless as if the cold meant nothing to him.

He wore black training pants, black Shaolin slippers, and white bandages wrapped around his forearms. His body was incredibly muscular for his age with no sign of anybody fat. The only thing that was strange about him was the number of scars present on his hands.

Some were shallow, many were deep. It showed how hard he had worked and crazily he had pushed himself over the last few years.

All because he enjoyed doing it. He had a truly strange mindset.

Jin was currently 15 years old and today was just another day in training. He calmly walked out of his house, headed to the nearest tree delivered a light punch to it, breaking through the bark with ease.

"Trees are useless now. Rock is the only thing that poses a challenge now."

Jin walked away and arrived under a small cliffside. This was where he had planned to undertake one of his first goals since arriving in this world.

He wanted to use pure martial arts to make a deep cave into the mountain and carve a statue of Guan Yu, the bodhisattva of war there. He only chose that statue because that's what he was born under and it was the one he meditated under every day.

'Just like the kaioh test from baki...if...no, when I manage to do this I would firmly set myself in the realms of top-level martial artists. I'm not leaving this mountain until I achieve this, regardless of how many months it takes!'

If only Jin knew how long this endeavor actually took, in retrospect, he might not have done it.

And with that goal in mind, 6 more years passed by in the blink of an eye.