Era of Mist

The skewers boss turned and left without a second word. A chaotic CLANGING and BANGING came from the back kitchen, as if he were packing up his belongings.

Ah Fei and the others ran outside.

Outside, the wind was cold and fierce. Amidst a continuous series of CLANGS, the shops on both sides of the road closed up, one after another. People who did business in this day and age were always sharper, their methods well-practiced. They cut the power, turned off the lights, and made sure not to stick their heads out. The block was quickly plunged into darkness.

CLICK. From the back, the skewers boss cut the power to this shop as well, staying in sync with his peers in an attempt to blend in and go unnoticed.

However, things didn’t go as planned.

More than ten cars came roaring in from every direction along various routes in an organized fashion. They blocked every possible escape route, like a tight net closing in fast. The sound of engines converged from all sides, creating the feeling of an ambush, their presence overwhelming.

“Run!” One of the underlings couldn’t handle the pressure. He hopped on a motorcycle and tried to escape down a side street alone. The way he scurried off like a cornered rat perfectly encapsulated the essence of a street punk, just another face in a motley crew.

Then, just as he reached the intersection, he was sent flying by a large vehicle that suddenly shot out sideways. Immediately after, the car behind it mercilessly crushed him under its wheels.

With two dull CRUNCHES and a short, sharp scream, the underling fell silent.

SCREECH. The cars surrounded the small shop, their headlights beaming down in a blinding glare. The skewers boss rushed out, a cleaver hanging from his clothes and a cutting board strapped to his back. The moment he burst out in a panic, he saw countless figures leaping from the cars.

Silhouetted against the light, their figures were indistinct, but a quick glance revealed more than fifty people.

The boss didn’t waste a single word, not even a “This has nothing to do with me.” He just nimbly ducked back inside.

Ah Fei stared nervously at the opposing group. After his eyes adjusted slightly to the bright lights, he realized the ones surrounding them were all fellow gang members. To be precise, they were all underlings of Brother Sanfan and Ah Hui.

And the leader was none other than Ah Hui!

Ah Hui was empty-handed, an arrogant smile on his face. No, on closer inspection, the smile wasn’t one of arrogance… it seemed frozen in place.

CLANG. Someone stepped out of a large vehicle—it was Brother Sanfan. Brother Sanfan always wore a zombie-like expression, so there wasn’t much difference now, except that his movements seemed a little stiff.

“Brother Hui, Brother Sanfan!” Ah Fei secretly sent a message to Guobing and Mai Ba while trying to stall for time. He forced a laugh and cracked a joke. “What a coincidence! You guys here for a bite, too? The skewers at this place are pretty good. Since you’re here, let’s eat together! Brother Fa is on his way, too!”

He dropped Brother Fa’s name, hoping the Hall Master’s title would intimidate them a little and make them realize they were attacking their own comrades.

But those men wasted no words.

CLICK, CLICK, CLICK. Brother Sanfan struggled to work a lighter, but his fingers were too stiff to manage it.

“Son of a bitch. They made it sound so good, but there are still side effects…” Brother Sanfan didn’t even look in their direction. He jutted his chin toward the small shop, his voice flat. “Go.”

With a flick of his finger, the strangely smiling Ah Hui pointed at the shop. Twenty of the underlings immediately stepped forward and strode toward them.

They didn’t shout or whoop, none of the typical howls of a street brawl. There was only the uniform pressure of their shoulder-to-shoulder advance, their stiff movements, their silent march, and their unstoppable momentum.

These men weren’t carrying weapons; they were all bare-fisted.

But their muscles were bulging, and every one of them was tall and powerfully built, looking extremely formidable.

“Stay back—!” The underlings instantly panicked. A few of them pulled out guns, ready to fire. Then, a gunshot rang out from behind the vehicles. A bloody hole immediately burst open in the chest of the underling who had tried to draw his weapon, and he collapsed to the ground without a sound.

“It’s playtime. No cheating,” Brother Sanfan said, his voice grim and level. “No weapons. Pure hand-to-hand combat. The loser dies.”

Watching the twenty brutes advancing on them in unison, Ah Fei and his men felt they’d have a ghost of a chance of winning a fistfight!

“Get in.” A loud shout gave them a backbone. Ah Fei and the others scrambled back into the shop, where they saw Shi Tiexin just finishing his meal.

Shi Tiexin stood up. He was taller and more powerfully built than the men advancing on them.

He twisted his neck and rolled his shoulders, his bones letting out a series of CRACKLES. For some reason, Ah Fei just felt that his boss had gotten even stronger.

“Ah Fei, take the boss and find an escape route.”

Shi Tiexin positioned himself directly facing the shop’s entrance. Across from him, the twenty brutes advanced in unison, yet he showed no fear.

‘He carefully sensed the false pill in his lower abdomen; it was already the size of a chicken’s egg. Not only was it large enough, but the form of the false pill had undergone a further change. At the very beginning, it was irregular, then its surface gradually became smooth and round. Now, the false pill’s shape had become a nearly perfect sphere.’

‘A spherical false pill meant he had reached the Primordial Pill Realm!’

‘As he focused his mind, Shi Tiexin could almost see an image of his false pill. In this realm, the bond between the false pill and his body was much tighter. He could now perform a simple internal inspection, though he could only get a preliminary look at the false pill’s condition.’

‘It was a round mass of essence and qi that, through internal inspection, looked like a planet. This planet seemed to be in a period of intense geological activity, with veins like molten lava spreading across its surface. Wisps of heat were already affecting the false pill’s appearance and radiating a stronger power throughout Shi Tiexin’s entire body.’

‘A scorching power was slowly brewing in the core of the false pill. Once this power was fully developed, he could achieve Burning Pill and break through to the next stage. Therefore, the Primordial Pill was the foundation for entering the Sharp Qi Realm.’

‘An ordinary person who cultivated to the Primordial Pill Realm, even without having undergone Body Refining, could reach the peak of human strength with the amplification from their Primordial Pill. And even if one did practice Body Refining, it was still impossible to break through that limit without enduring immense hardship, suffering greatly, and tempering the physical body with the utmost willpower.’

‘That’s why the vast majority of Cultivators, especially those from privileged backgrounds, didn’t bother with Body Refining. They could reach the same limit whether they refined their bodies or not. Eating, drinking, and living a simple, pleasant life was much easier—so who would choose to go through Body Refining?’

‘Shi Tiexin privately quantified this limit as 1.0.’

‘By this measure, when the Champion Scholar Stone persona was only focused on studying, his strength was about 0.34. After some preliminary training, it rose to about 0.53. The strength of his original body in his home timeline was roughly 0.9. When he first arrived in this timeline, his body’s strength was about 0.94.’

‘And now, Shi Tiexin made a rough estimate: 1.7. At least 1.7.’

‘He hadn’t measured the exact number, and his internal inspection ability wasn’t advanced enough, so he couldn’t say for sure.’

‘But facing the brutes advancing on him, Shi Tiexin knew instinctively that they were no match for him at all.’