<b>YEAR 14,754 of the Imperial Yee Dynasty</b>


    <b>Native Housing District </b>


    <b>D Block</b>


    <b>Jurin Province, Terra</b>


    “<i>This!?</i>” the cultivator shouted incredulously from across the square. “<i>This</i> is the Iron Bull? More like Bull<i>shit</i>!”


    I held my tongue as the likely mid-tier Foundation Realm cultivator threw his back with a hearty, scoffingugh. The two buddies he’d brought with him did the same, mocking and jeering me from afar.


    The sight ignited ire within my soul, kindling my inner me.


    “Assholes,” I muttered. “How many more of these clowns do I have to deal with today?”


    “As many as you attract, I suppose.”The answer came from the pretty ck girl with hazel eyes standing by my side, Jian Yi. She was a good two feet shorter than me, but she held herself with a confidence that made her stand tall, the smoldering ember in her soul ying no small part in that.


    The other part, I knew, came from the imperial court documents in her hands.


    It was barely mid-morning in the center of the market square of D Block, but most of the residents had already cleared out, anticipating the violence that would soon erupt from the three cultivators showing up unannounced just after dawn.


    A good portion of them had stayed on to watch from the sidelines.


    There were a few dots of fear from my neighbors but most of them blessed me with the gift of lemonade as their hearts poured out their faith and adoration in tangible form. Utilizing my [Your Fear is my Strength] technique, I sampled their essence, cultivating it into fresh Frenzy to strengthen my limbs and increase the size of the solid core within my Dantian.


    Although the technique was designed to siphon fear, fear had a positive form as well. If fear was lemons, then fear that equated to respect was lemonade. And my neighbors were producing a ton of it for me. I could see their faces in the crowd, smiling, silently rooting for me. It was all I needed to face down the interlopers threatening our home.


    “Can I go smack them now?” I asked.


    Jian Yi shook her head. “Not unless you wish to be found guilty of assault as the Iron Bull. Which will add moreplications than any of us want. You’ll need a bit more evidence to im self-defense as the Warden of the Terran Sect.”


    I sighed and looked back to the three cultivators.


    They were all middle-aged-looking, with stocky builds—robes of some unknown low-ranking martial sect hanging loosely from their sloppy frames.


    The sight both annoyed and disgusted me.


    <i>What the hell made these guys think that they were even on my level? </i>


    The answer was simple.


    Me being a Terran, they obviously thought they were already far above it.


    “Seems I’m going to have to give these guys an education today,” I said, cycling my Frenzy through my solid core.


    “What are you going to do?” Jian Yi asked.


    I merely grinned. “Just be ready with the paperwork.”


    Taking a step forward, I channeled my Frenzy through my meridians, employing a different technique.


    “Bullshit, huh?” I shouted to them with a healthy dose of [Fear the me]. “You really want proof that the Iron Bull is truly the Warden of the Terran Sect?”


    I directed my words towards the one who seemed to be the leader, a short, balding man with a trimmed beard. He balked at the power of my technique, his inside quivering with fear and uncertainty as Iid it on.


    I thenpped up his fear to further strengthen myself.


    I couldn’t sense the power of his Qi—my talents weren’t geared towards that, but from what I could tell the guy was probably on the lean side when it came to internal strength. He likely relied on martial arts and for weapons I could see a set of curved swords at his sides.


    As for mine, I gripped the solid metal shaft of the Corrupted Steel Axe with eager anticipation, cycling my Frenzy through it.


    I couldn’t wait to bury it into his thick, obnoxious hide.


    “Terran Sect, I can believe,” the man said, pushing back his fear to steel himself. “But no way would the <i>real</i> Iron Bull be shacking up with the likes of the local wildlife. You weak Terran scum should consider yourselves lucky to even be alive!”


    More anger stirred.


    The racist prick truly needed a lesson.


    “Now?” I asked.


    “Close,” Jian Yi said.


    “Oh?” I said, throwing the axe casually onto my shoulder. “Have youe to exterminate us then? To do what even the Great Princess Lunh herself couldn’t manage? The Terran Sect will rule this and you along with it, you dumb bastard!”


    “What!” he screamed as his anger red, whipping out his two swords. “You dare curse to me, you uppity Terran? I’ll destroy the entire lot of you myself for saying that!”


    He began charging forward with a warcry, his two pals surging behind him.


    “Okay now <i>that’s</i> a direct threat to the sect,” Jian Yi said.


    She didn’t have to tell me twice––the predictable psyche of the typical, arrogant cultivator was way too easy to manipte. I jumped through the air with a burst of Frenzy to meet them, charging my axe with lightning. I mmed it down on the ground just in front of all three of them, releasing a shockwave of blue bolts that ripped through the tarmac to meet them.


    Their screams of pain and shock were music to my ears as the three of them fell to the ground convulsing. I followed up with a [Spinning Chop], and brought my axe down on the leader, sinking my de into his meaty shoulder.


    He screamed a second time as his blood painted my axe head with crimson.


    My me red with [Bloodlust], filling me with fresh Frenzy, but I curbed it with the Struggler’s embrace to prevent his demise. I stood over him as he continued to wail in pain.


    “That proof enough for you?” I ripped my axe from his shoulder, eliciting yet another scream. “Now get the hell out of here before I decide to be less merciful today.”


    I turned to walk away and got all of four steps before the inevitable happened.


    “You piece of shit… you think I need two arms to kill the likes of you?”


    I paused to nce over my shoulder.


    To his credit the leader was back on his feet again, one arm dangling loosely at his side while his other held his curved sword in a high guard above his head. I huffed out a scoff as I slowly turned.


    “The true cultivator mentality…” I choked up on my axe as the other two cultivators recovered and rose to their feet. “You’d rather face death than lose face, huh?”


    “I’d lose more face by killing a mere Terran like you,” he said. “But if you somehow are the true Iron Bull, then I’d have only glory to gain!”


    As ifmunicating secretly, all three of them sprung at me at once, twisting and twirling with martial forms. I cycled my Frenzy to my reflexes, diving into my own repertoire of defensive stances as I swung my axe to meet each one of their des with a parry.


    Sparks flew as ngs of metal filled the air.


    “[Sky Razor’s Edge]!” the leader screamed as he flipped through the air to annunciate his technique. As he spun, slivers of blue energy left the edge of his sword and came flying at me like a trio of boomerangs. I could have dodged them easily, but I chose to plow straight into the attack instead, reinforcing my body with [Iron Skin].


    The counterintuitive move took the cultivator by surprise and his eyes widened with iprehension as I barreled right into his technique. His inner strength proved as weak as I’d suspected as the boomerangs hit me––a mid-tier Foundation Realm cultivator at best. They tore my robes to shreds, but against my hardened skin they were unable to break through, resulting only in pain.


    Pain that ignited the rage in my soul.


    “You just made yourst mistake, asshole!” I shouted. “[My Turn]!”


    I unleashed my retaliatory technique with a huge downward chop, returning every ounce of the pain I’d endured in the form of rage. He managed to raise his sword in time to meet my axe with a block, but the steel of his de shattered like ss as my axe tore straight through.


    “[Two Log Chop]!”


    I plunged it downward, straight into his head.


    With a satisfying cleave, I sundered his head in two, the look of iprehension and shock on his face split in two parts. As his body hit the ground, I flexed the full strength of my core, sprinkling it with Qi from my [Devil’s Shadow] technique.


    “You two want the same fate?” I asked.


    As I said the words with [Struggler’s Resolve], the man’s two subordinates instantly backed away, lowering their swords.


    “Good,” I said and then grimaced at the corpse at my feet. “Looks like you’re both smarter than him. Now get the hell out of here and take this dumbass with you.”


    I ripped my axe from his skull, cultivating the Frenzy produced from my [Bloodlust], replenishing what I’d spent as well as storing the excess in my Dantian. I truly wasn’t nning to kill him, but the situation called for nothing less.


    Still, doing so would bring a different kind of challenger toe looking for me now.


    Ones that wanted glory for killing the Iron Bull more than retribution against the newly established Terran Sect.


    “Spread the word, shitheads,” I said with enough [Fear the me] to make their knees go weak. “The <i>real</i> Iron Bull protects the Terran Sect.”


    The two cultivators high-tailed it out of the square, carrying what was left of their so-called leader with them. Before they left, Jian Yi pped them with one of the forms in her hands.


    “This is a deration of self-defense by the Terran Sect,” she said. “If you wish to challenge the death of yourrade as anything but, feel free to file a writ in the courts, and our Warden, the Iron Bull, will dly meet you in the arena of battle to contest the matter.”


    They took the paper, shaking their heads, bowing out with low kowtows.


    Jian Yi sighed as she stepped next to me, watching them leave.


    “Really?” she said. “Spread the word? And you wonder why they keep oning?”


    I shrugged. “They’reing regardless. Better to paint yourself a badass than an easy target though, right?”


    I grinned and Jian Yi smiled with a shake of her head.


    “You’d know better than me, Max <i>Chun</i>.”


    She’d said my Yee name with the alternate tone that changed its meaning to ‘stupid’, an old joke now between friends. Iughed in return.


    “Come on then,” I said. “Let’s get back to work.”