Mortal Flesh, Forging Stars

Gene serums are everywhere—one injection and you're stronger, so who still practices martial arts? Lin Jin refuses to follow the trend. He stays in a rundown martial arts school, stubbornly training in ancient martial arts, getting beaten, mocked, and having his wages docked. Everyone says he's crazy, that only the poor train their bodies. The gene-enhanced prodigies in the city treat him as a joke. But when the martial arts tournament begins, he steps onto the ring with bare hands and takes down those geniuses who rely on injections one by one. After the match, a conglomerate offers him an endorsement contract, and he tears it up on the spot: 'Your serum killed my parents—rejection reaction.' It turns out gene serums are the biggest trap; injecting yourself is like turning yourself into crops in someone else's field. In this world, shortcuts are all pitfalls, and external aids are all shackles. Only this flesh and blood of yours can never be taken away. — Description from novelcodex.org