Iron Fang Town was not impressive. It was a collection of stone and timber buildings pressed together inside a low wall. The wall had holes in three places that someone had filled with stacked wood. The gate guards wore mismatched armor.
But after five days in Blackthorn Forest, it looked like paradise.
The caravan rolled in at midday. Doru paid Wen Dao, Mei, and Kun in copper coins. Enough for three days of cheap food and a shared room at a low-end inn.
The inn was called the Stone Cup. The owner was a woman named Aunt Fa, who took one look at them and gave Mei a bowl of soup without charging for it.
'You look like you walked through a war,' Aunt Fa said.
'We did,' Mei said.
The room was small. One bed, one pallet on the floor. Wen Dao took the floor.
He trained through the night. Strikes against the stone wall of the inn, one thousand per arm. The other guests banged on the wall twice before giving up.
By dawn his arms were past the raw ache of Body Tempering Level One and pressing toward something more. Not Level Two yet. But close. The flesh was responding faster now. As if the first gate opening had primed the others.
In the morning, he went out to explore the town.
Iron Fang Town had a market district, a fighting ring, three sect recruitment offices, and a bounty board near the east gate.
He stood at the bounty board for ten minutes.
Iron Claw Gang members: various bounties from five silver to two gold. Their boss, a man named Bao Shen: twenty gold. The Zhao family had no bounties — they issued them, didn't receive them.
He moved on.
The fighting ring was in a courtyard behind a drinking house. Open fights every afternoon for copper bets. A rough plank sign listed the current undefeated fighter: a man called Iron Gut Chen. Twelve consecutive wins.
A boy near the ring was calling out bets. He saw Wen Dao looking.
'Want to fight? Entry fee: two copper. Prize for a win: five copper. Beat Iron Gut: one silver.'
Wen Dao had six copper coins left.
'What are the rules?' he asked.
'First man down stays down. No weapons. No killing.'
'What counts as down?'
'Can't get up in ten counts, or submits.'
He thought about it.
'How strong is Iron Gut Chen?'
'Body Tempering Level Three. Nobody local can match him.'
Two levels above him. That would normally be a clear loss.
'Who would you put against him that's currently in the line?' Wen Dao asked.
The boy pointed. A large man with a shaved head was stretching near the ring. 'That one's next. Cao Bao. Body Tempering Level Two. He'll lose in two minutes.'
Wen Dao looked at Cao Bao. Watched him stretch. Watched how he shifted his weight. Left foot dominant. Right shoulder slightly raised — old injury, guarding it instinctively.
'I'll fight after Cao Bao,' Wen Dao said.
The boy looked him up and down. A thin fourteen-year-old boy in torn clothes.
'You sure?'
'I'm curious to see if I'm right about something.'
He paid two copper and waited.