Lin Chen has a qi-and-blood level of 78 drops.
With three months until the martial arts exam, he can’t even reach the minimum score to apply to a martial arts university.
Then one day, a spring inside him awakens.
Other people strain with all their might to throw a punch worth 80 drops. He opens the floodgates and lets the water flow: each drop counts for three, and the multiplier grows the more he stores.
An underground fight club. In his first match, his opponent has 90 drops. Lin Chen lets out four drops and sends him flying with one punch.
Five thousand yuan in prize money.
But he soon realizes this spring doesn’t come free.
Every time he opens the floodgates, his meridians feel like they’re being burned.
A Meridian-Nourishing Pill costs 12,000 yuan apiece.
His entire fortune comes to 15,127 yuan.
Buying one would wipe out the college entrance exam fund his mother spent three years saving.
Without one, his meridians grow more damaged, his training slows, and he gets poorer.
A vicious cycle.
He has no choice but to keep fighting.
Match after match, from underground fight clubs to interschool leagues, from Ancheng to Xijiang.
He thinks he’s doing it just to get into a martial arts university and make money.
Until the Sand-Erosion Zone in the west suddenly triples in size.
Until the countdown to the underground caverns’ minor tide begins.
Until he stands before the map in the front-line command center, staring at the red markers for disaster-stricken zones.
Lin Chen looks down at his fists.
The water level in his Life Spring is still rising.
At last, he understands.
Fighting is only the beginning.
What he needs to build up isn’t the money for a martial arts university application.
It’s a blood-soaked path to defend the nation’s borders.
