Breaking Limits in Martial Arts: Grinding Your Way to Becoming a Martial Saint in a Chaotic Era

When Sun Ping saw Xu Qing approaching, he shrank back suddenly, like a mouse cornered against a wall, his eyes filled with fear.

"Senior Brother Xu..." His voice trembled, and his body shook as well.

Xu Qing stood outside the prison door, looking down at him without saying a word.

Officer Qi filled in the details: "Before the Tiger Head Gang went to Qin Liang, they also went to Sun Ping. The same thing: trick your sister out, hand her over to the local temple outside the city, and after it was done, they would give her one hundred taels of silver and promise to help her break through to the Dark Force realm."

He glanced at Sun Ping, his tone turning colder: "Sun Ping agreed. This morning, he sneaked off to the private school with his men, but they were stopped by our people before they even got close to the entrance."

"Lord Su has been secretly sending people to protect your family. I told you about this before. There are people watching outside your second uncle and aunt's noodle shop, your aunt's steamed bun shop, and your sister's private school."

Officer Qi glanced at Sun Ping one last time, then shook his head: "You decide how to deal with him."

Xu Qing stood there, motionless.

His gaze pierced through the iron bars of the cell door and landed on Sun Ping. Sun Ping huddled in the corner, trembling all over, his lips quivering, tears streaming down his face.

Qin Liang and Sun Ping, who used to live with him, both reflected aspects of his past. He wanted to help them and treat them as friends.

The same thing, two friends.

One of them, beaten half to death with a broken arm and three broken ribs, lay in a pool of blood in his own yard, refusing to nod.

The other one, dressed neatly, took the money and went to the private school with his men.

Xu Qing closed her eyes, then opened them again.

"Open the door." His voice was completely flat.

Without asking any further questions, Officer Qi gave a signal, and the jailer quickly took out a key and unlocked the door.

Xu Qing opened the iron gate and went inside.

When Sun Ping saw him come in, he jumped up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, and knelt down with a "thud," his forehead hitting the cold brick floor with a loud thud.

"Senior Brother Xu! Senior Brother Xu, I was wrong! I was really wrong!" His voice was shrill and urgent, as if afraid that if he spoke too slowly, he would never have another chance. "I'm not human! I'm not even human! I was blinded by greed! They gave me silver, saying they would help me break through to the Dark Force realm. I was confused for a moment, I was really confused for a moment..."

Xu Qing didn't speak, but just stood there, looking down at him.

Sun Ping knelt on the ground, his forehead pressed against the earth, his whole body trembling like a leaf. He dared not raise his head, dared not look Xu Qing in the eye, and just kept kowtowing and begging for mercy.

"Senior Brother Xu, please forgive me this time, for the sake of us being from the same hometown and growing up together... I'll never dare to do it again... I'll never dare to do it again..."

Xu Qing remained silent.

Sun Ping kowtowed dozens of times, his forehead was cut open, and blood flowed down his nose, mixing with his tears and snot, covering his face.

He gradually sensed something. Xu Qing didn't speak, didn't make a move, and didn't leave. That silence was more terrifying than any reprimand, like a knife hanging over one's head, slow to fall, sending chills down one's spine.

He slowly raised his head and saw Xu Qing's eyes.

There was no anger, no disgust, not even disappointment in those eyes. There was only a calm, cold gaze, like looking at a dead person.

Sun Ping's heart sank completely.

He suddenly stopped crying.

The tear tracks on his face were still there, but the pleading expression peeled away like a mask, revealing another face underneath. A distorted, resentful face, riddled with holes, as if gnawed by something.

"You..." His voice changed, no longer pleading, but a hoarse, hateful cry squeezed out from between his teeth, "What right do you have?"

Xu Qing looked into his eyes.

"What makes you think you're so special?" Sun Ping's voice grew louder and shriller, as if he were about to unleash months' worth of pent-up emotions. "What makes you worthy of Master's favor? What makes you have meat, medicinal soup, and elixir at every meal? What makes you the top performer in the Golden Scale Society, holding a position in the government office with a monthly salary of five taels of silver? What makes you so special?"

He stood up abruptly, the chains rattling. He was like a wild beast trapped in a cage, his eyes bloodshot and his voice hoarse and almost cracking.

"My natural talent is better than yours! I've endured just as much hardship in my training as you! But why do you have everything while I have nothing? Why is it that Qin Liang has broken through to the Ming Jin realm while I'm still a useless piece of trash? Why are you all moving up while I'm stuck in the same place?"

He was panting heavily, his chest heaving violently, and blood mixed with saliva was flowing from the corner of his mouth.

"Your second uncle and aunt moved to the city and opened a noodle shop, Xiu'er went to a private school, and your aunt is pregnant. Your whole family is living happily ever after, but what about me? My parents are still wearing tattered cotton-padded coats and squatting in the kitchen eating dry biscuits!"

"When I went to collect money from the Yulong Gang, do you know the way the villagers looked at me? I understood that 'What happened to you?' look, but I can't go back!"

"I'm not reconciled! I'm not convinced! Young Master Lin gave me a chance! He gave me pills! He gave me money! What's wrong with me risking my life for him!"

He suddenly went limp again, as if all his strength had been drained away, and collapsed to the ground. Tears welled up again, but this time they were not tears of begging for mercy, but tears of despair, resignation, and the last bit of unwillingness.

"Is it fair? No, it's not fair! Why does God give you everything but leave me nothing?"

He raised his head and looked at Xu Qing, the last glimmer of light in his eyes extinguished.

He shouted with all his might, "I refuse to accept this!"

The cell fell silent.

Xu Qing looked at him, at the boy who once sat in the carriage and said, "I practice martial arts to protect my family," and watched him climb out of the mud step by step, only to sink deeper and deeper into it.

When he first called himself "Senior Brother Xu", the light in his eyes was clean and bright.

When did that light go out?

Was it when he first received five taels of silver from the Fish and Dragon Gang? Was it when he returned to Blackwater Bay wearing a new cotton-padded coat and saw the envious looks in the eyes of those fishermen? Or was it when he stood on the dock and told his old neighbors who called him "A-Ping" that "it's time to pay this month's bill"?

Perhaps it was destroyed even earlier, without even knowing it itself.

Xu Qing squatted down and looked Sun Ping in the eye.

"Sun Ping, you say you're not convinced. But have you ever thought about..." His voice wasn't loud, and his face was expressionless. "Senior Brother Qin had his arm broken and three ribs broken this morning, and he was knocked unconscious. He didn't say anything. When the Tiger Head Gang came looking for him, he had the same opportunity as you. He chose not to."

Sun Ping's lips trembled slightly, but he didn't say anything.

"I can't answer your questions about the unfairness you mentioned. God gives everyone different things, and that's not something I can choose. But there's one thing I can choose—"

Xu Qing paused, then glanced at Sun Ping one last time: "I can choose how I live my life."

"You chose your path, and I chose mine. What happened today is your own doing; no one forced you to do it."

Sun Ping opened his mouth, as if to say something more, perhaps out of resentment, or perhaps to try and argue his way out of it...

But Xu Qing didn't give him another chance to speak.

He threw a punch.

The Five Elements Fist, the Crushing Fist, tenfold force. This punch left no room for retreat, landing squarely on Sun Ping's chest.

"Click—"

The sound of a rib cracking echoed in the cramped cell, like a dry twig being snapped underfoot.

Sun Ping's body flew backward suddenly, crashing into the wall with a dull thud.

His eyes were wide open, his mouth was agape, and blood gushed from the corner of his mouth, flowing down his chin and dripping onto his newly changed clothes, one drop, two drops, more and more.

His body slid slowly down the wall. He sat in the corner, his head tilted, his eyes still open, but his pupils had already dilated. The last things remaining in them were hatred and resentment, but in the end, they turned into an empty, void where nothing existed.

Xu Qing withdrew his fist, stood in front of Sun Ping's corpse, and looked down at it for a long time.

Sun Ping said, "I don't want to be bullied anymore," but he became the one who bullied others. He stood on the dock and reached out his hand to the fishermen who were as poor as his father. He stood at the entrance of the private school and reached out his hand to a seven-year-old child.

He went from being a simple fisherman's boy to becoming the kind of person he once hated the most.

What exactly turned him into this? Jealousy? Ambition? Self-interest? Xu Qing couldn't say for sure.

But he knew in his heart that he and Sun Ping were ultimately not on the same path.