They Throw Punches, I Read the Lines

In this world, source energy determines everything. The Martial Arts Council rules over the four corners of the land, while powerful clans and financial conglomerates monopolize cultivation techniques. Ordinary people spend their entire lives as stepping stones for the strong. At fifteen, Lin Qi tested at zero for source energy affinity. A menial worker at a martial arts school, he was widely dismissed as a good-for-nothing. Until the day he fell into a mine in the back hills, opened his eyes, and saw the world change. He could see energy flowing through the air, the clumsy nodes in the circulation of cultivation techniques, and the fatal flaws in the secret arts warriors were so proud of, flickering like stars. Bottlenecks that others spent their whole lives failing to understand made perfect sense to him at a glance. The talents others took pride in were riddled with holes in his eyes. From a menial worker at the Ironwall City martial arts school, to a dark horse in the Federation Tournament, to the first person to face a thousand-year calamity head-on... Everyone told him the same thing: These are the rules. Accept your fate. Lin Qi wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and rose to his feet, one step at a time. “Rules? I am the rules.”