Chun had gotten to work on Mei’s wrist while Pairu explained the situation. Mr. Heiyin had bought the services of both Mei and Wong. Not to service him specifically, but each other, in front of him while he drank wine that he’d bought. All things considered, not the strangest things most of the prostitutes at the Studded Pearl have been asked to do.
While all workers had the right to refuse service to anyone, Mei and Wong did not. They made out on the bed in front of Heiyin before he decided to inevitably join in. However, he was considerably rougher with the two. While a particularly rough patron wasn’t anything new, hence the need for an apothecary within the brothel, it wasn’t normally an issue for the patron in question to use internal energy to strike them. Heiyin, however, drunk on wine, decided to do just that. While holding her wrists, Heiyin had squeezed Mei’s wrists while being fucked from behind by Wong- Chun had long since stopped questioning the specifics of how things occurred and skipped to the injuries- and had, ultimately, dislocated and shattered a few bones in the woman’s wrists. Upon hearing Mei’s screams, Wong stopped what he was doing and tried to get Heiyin off of Mei. Unfortunately, for as strong as Wong was, he wasn’t a martial artist. Heiyin had struck him across the face and knocked him unconscious.
Mei didn't get into detail of what happened after, but judging by her wrist being the only major wound on her, she had ‘complied’ with Heiyin’s demands as to not obtain further injury.
Chun nodded along as she had put a healing ointment on Mei’s skin. Due to her broken bones, it was more so a painkiller then its actual use, which was to help mend torn muscle and skin over time as it dried. He didn't have the know-how nor tools to help the fractured bones. Mei would need a proper medical professional or expensive rejuvenation pills to repair the injury.
Wong’s injuries were more simple to diagnose. He’d been backhanded with such strength that the skin on his left temple had torn and began bleeding. A part of his skull may have also had a hairline fracture, but Chun couldn't tell just by pressing around the wound. Wong’s left eye was also bloodshot; the blow had ruptured a blood vessel in one of his eyes. Surprisingly, this hadn't damaged his sight much before making it slightly blurry. But it would head in time assuming he didn't strain his eyes. Just to be safe Chun had put a patch over his eye.
“Why not send Baek to throw Heiyin out?” Chun asked while he cleaned the wound on Wong’s face.
The man in question looked away in embarrassment as Chun looked towards him.
Pairu sighed. “As skilled a brawler as Baek is, he cannot throw him out. He would likely get just as injured if not more so than these two.” She gestured to Mei and Wong.
Mei’s hand had been put in a mock-cast to keep her hand from moving while Wong simply had some bandages and a patch on his eyes.
Chun was about to toss away the issue about Heiyin and the issues he caused like he had all the other times. He'd injured their prostitutes before, but normally it wasn't anything more than a bruise from a hard slap. Or marks from being choked. It had never gone to the extent of breaking bone. For anyone else, they would have immediately been thrown out and banned from the Studded Pearl indefinitely. But Heiyin’s influence in the underworld could bring the establishment to ruins if he'd wished.
Then a thought struck Chun. One that, despite his normally quick mind, had never thought. In fact, this entire day felt so odd. It was like a handicap had been lifted from his mind when his past life’s consequences had intertwined with his own.
He was Chun Hyang, a man with more internal energy than he had right to. A man with three separate inheritance of incredible potency. A man called a prodigy by his teacher.
“I can beat him.” Chun said. That got a look from each one in the room.
“Don't joke like that, Hyang.” Parry stated. “You lack internal energy and have never fought before. I doubt you'd even be able to get a hit off. It's a kind offer but I won't-”
“You don't know that.” Chun said, looking to his superior with determination. He’d never bothered telling anyone else about his past. It had never been relevant to his work and nothing he knew particularly helped with healing bruises from people getting too rough during sex. But now he had a reason to tell them. To act like the utter monster of a person he was for not technically being within the realm of a martial artist.
Chun let his internal energy flow throughout himself. It was an instinctual action akin to a bear raising on its hind legs. An act performed to intimidate. The energy was in an odd mix of a red, teal, and blue and radiated a few inches from his body. The color of internal energy was considered to be the ‘color’ of one's soul. While the colors themselves didn't mean anything- with a few exceptions, there were many superstitions about what they meant. The three colors Chun had, for example, were from his three ancestries of a demon, beast, and spirit respectively.
Seeing his internal energy, Pairu took a step back, her eyes widening. At that, Chun suppressed his energy again, making the color vanish.
“You have internal energy.” She said it was more of a statement than a question. “Why have you never spoken of it to us?”
“I'm an apothecary. You didn't hire me as a warrior.” Chun said. “These two will have the day off to heal.” He pointed to Mei and Wong. “And send her to an actual doctor. Not someone with basic medical equipment in a brothel.” He then started towards the door. “I've got a man to beat to death.”
***
The walk to Mr. Heiyin’s room wasn't that long. He was within one of the Studded Pearl’s VIP rooms. And Heiyin had always insisted on having the same one. One with a window behind the bed gazing out towards the Great Lake, if one could see past the buildings at least.
On his short walk there, Chun mulled over information about martial artists and how they were compared to normal people. With a few exceptions from things like natural ability and physique, martial artists, even those in the first stage, were above normal people in practically every aspect.
One became a first stage martial artist by awakening their internal energy. By that rule Chun supposed he too was a martial artist, but it wasn't something he'd thought about.
The stages a martial artist could achieve range from the first stage, all the way to the tenth. But that was just the first tier of martial arts. In total, there were three tiers, each with ten stages. Beyond that, you were considered a cultivator, but Chun knew drastically little about cultivators and how they worked.
Heiyin, to Chun’s knowledge, and Chun himself were first-stage martial artists within the first tier, the weakest of the weakest in terms of category. That may have been true for Heiyin, but Chun knew he was an exception to this rule. Due to his various ancestries, closeness to them, unique biology, and all the other benefits his past life had chosen for his new body, he was far stronger than a first-stage martial artist. He didn't know the full extent of his power, but his rough estimate was around the third or fourth stage of the first tier, if not possibly higher.
Regardless, there was only one thing running through Chun’s mind as he opened the door to Heiyin’s room. ‘Time to finish the tutorial’. After all, to Chun and his past life, that was all Heiyin was, a test to see how far beyond the norm he was.
Walking into Heiyin’s room, Chun was met with a room with a large double-bed at the far wall with a window beyond it. A full-length mirror stretched across the wall to the left, and a dresser filled with all manner of ‘equipment’ was on the right wall. The floor was darkened wood, and Chun could see a small blot of dried blood on the floor, likely where Wong had been knocked unconscious.
Heiyin was lying on the bed when Chun walked in. A pitcher of wine was tipped over next to him, spilling its contents onto the white fabric of the bedsheets, staining them. The man rose up as the door opened. His hair was short and dark. He had the beginnings of a beard, and his cheeks were flushed red from intoxication. He wore what Chun assumed had once been a rather nice yellow robe. But its undershirt had been discarded at the foot of the bed, and the robes themselves had been opened to reveal his chubby form. Though Chun could see a bit of muscle beneath all the fat. Fortunately for Chun’s eyes, the man had put his pants back on.
“Who the hell are you? I expected that bulky bitch to come get me.” Heiyin asked. “Either go fetch another group for me to fuck, or bugger off.” He reached over to his toppled wine bottle and threw it at Chun’s head.
The apothecary simply reached out and caught the bottle before it struck him. “I’m the apothecary of this establishment. It’s my job to make sure the workers here do not sustain permanent damage.” He said simply, setting the wine bottle on the arm of a chair near the door.
Heiyin’s brows rose. “So you want me to pay for harming the whores?” He laughed and fished in his robes before tossing several glistening coins onto the ground. Over a dozen imperial coins had been tossed from Heiyin’s robes. It was enough to cover the equipment Chun had used to patch up the two prostitutes, plus some. But that wasn’t the point.
Chun closed the door behind him and flipped a hatch to lock it. “Normally, I tend to wounds. But today I’m ridding the issue at its roots.”
Heiyin sat up at this as he grimaced at Chun. He looked into his eyes for a few seconds before getting out of bed and starting towards the apothecary. As he did, he let his internal energy flow, a deep green energy that hardly left his skin. “You want to fight a martial artist, boy? You’re mad. Go back to tending to the whores as you do and take the coin with you,” he kicked a few of the imperial coins on the ground closer to Chun. “Or you’ll leave this room in more pieces than you entered.”
Chun didn’t respond; he simply took off the outer robe of his uniform and set it over the back of the chair.
“Cocky bitch.” Heiyin said as he dashed forward. He was only slightly faster than a normal person would be. He threw a blow toward Chun’s chest, but the man seamlessly stepped forward and around Heiyin’s guard before sticking his foot out and letting the older man fall unceremoniously against the door in front of him. His face slammed directly against it.
Chun then stepped back out of the man’s range as Heiyin threw another blow in annoyance at his blunder.
“You won’t beat me cause you can dodge you-”
Chun didn’t let the man finish his sentence as he threw a punch at the man’s nose. Without even using his internal energy, he moved faster than Heiyin could react. His blow was so powerful that it sent the man off his feet, smashing into the mirror on the wall and shattering it with the side of his face.
Heiyin shook off the shattered fragments of the mirror on him and looked at the apothecary in rage. Blood fell from his face from both his nose and a cut on his forehead from the mirror. “I’ll kill you!” He shouted. This time, he clenched his fist and dashed forward while holding it out to the side.
Chun saw the man’s internal energy coiling around his forearm, reinforcing it with iron bracers. He saw the way Heiyin ran forward in a different form than he had previously. He saw every minute movement Heiyin made as he used a martial technique. For a brief second, time stood still as a voice that Chun instinctively knew was the System chimed in his mind.
First Tier Martial Technique Learned: Iron Rush
As soon as Chun understood the words, the world moved again. Chun had ample time to simply duck below the attack if he wished. But he wanted to test something. His analysis of the technique told him it wasn’t that powerful. Stronger than a normal blow, sure. But compared to what Chun could withstand it wasn’t much. He wanted to see how far his 6 durability got him. That wasn’t even considering his Iron Body art. So Chun did nothing as Heiyin’s arm slammed into his head.
Chun was sent toppling over, his back slamming against the floor with a loud bang that echoed throughout the room. He’d felt the blow, but it didn’t hurt much. It was a similar feeling to a sportsball being thrown at his face. Mildly painful, but nothing he couldn’t just shake off. Then another System message echoed in his mind.
Damage Sustained: 2
Chun began to laugh as he rose from the ground. Only two damage from a martial technique?
Heiyin, who now stood behind him, glared at the man as he got to his feet with hardly a mark on his face. In fact, looking at the arm he had struck with, he felt a pulsing pain. It looked like the technique had done more damage to him than the apothecary.
“I knew you were a tutorial, but that was pathetic.” Chun chucked as he got up. He glared at Heiyin with his eyes widened. “Hit me again, I want to check something.”
Heiyin was taken aback by his opponent's words. His face went red with rage. “Do not mock my strength, scum!” He shouted and used the technique again. He didn’t have very far to run, so the attack hit much sooner than before. Nonetheless, when he stuck, it felt like he’d hit a wall. The movement of the technique still moved him before he could properly process the pain coursing through his arm.
“Gahh!” Heiyin shouted before collapsing to his knees and holding his arm at the elbow. The two bones in his forearm had both been snapped in two. The end of one is now stuck to the skin, leaving his forearm bent halfway across it. The fracturing of his arm had also caused one half of the bones to plunge into his wrist, dislocating it. Looking behind him, he saw the apothecary wrapped in a tight aura of red, teal, and blue. It was as if his body had become wrapped in a shell of steel.
In Chen’s mind, two messages from the System echoed.
Iron Body Art Used: -5 Internal Energy
Iron Body Art Effect: +10 Durability, +5 Strength
Chun looked at his body as his Internal Energy wrapped itself around his body and condensed. “Cool,” he whispered. Then he turned his attention to Heiyin as he staggered to his feet and pointed a finger at the apothecary.
“Why does this place have someone like you as an apothecary? You aren’t even a second-stage martial artist. I can feel it in your energy. H-how…” His voice trailed off in simple disbelief at what he was witnessing. As Chun took a step forward, the finger turned into an open palm as if to stop him. “Wait! If you want me to leave, I will go.” He stammered. “I-I will not come to this place and harm your people again. I-”
“Shut up!” Chun shouted, silencing the man’s next few words. “I said I’d be taking out the issue by the roots. And that means for everyone, not just this establishment.” He said. He pulled back his arm in a similar fashion to what Heiyin had a moment ago.
Heiyin’s eyes widened. He tried to speak, but he saw nothing more than a blur as Chun ran forward with his arm outstretched.
A message echoed in Chun’s mind again as he moved his Internal Energy just as Heiyin had and ran forward.
Iron Rush Technique used: -1 Internal Energy
Chun’s forearm struck Heiyin in the jaw, as he ran far faster than Haiyin ever could. The blow carried enough force without Iron Body active to cave in the man’s skull and kill him instantly. But with the art active, Chun’s arm barrelled through the man’s lower head with little resistance. He moved so fast and with such force that his body hardly got the chance to even get flung backwards, as his face from his nose down was completely destroyed.
Chun stopped before he collided with the wall and deactivated his Iron Body Art. He looked back at the corpse of the man but quickly looked away when his stomach lurched. Maybe he’d gotten a little carried away. Technically, he could have hit harder. He had three ways to increase his strength- four if one counted his Binding Oath sorcery. He could burn his blood for a boost in stats, limit one stat to increase the effectiveness of another, and use the Iron Body Art.
While trying not to stare at the corpse on the floor for too long, Chun grabbed his robes from the chair and put it on. A few fragments of blood had gotten on its cream colored fabric, but he made a note to clean it later. It was time to tell Pairu the trash had been dealt with. And preferably to tell some unlucky soul to clean up the corpse.