Risk It All (Potential Rewrite)

There is a larger AN at the bottom of the chapter, but I wanted to say this before anyone got their hopes up. Risk It All isn't back. This is me floating the idea of a rewrite to see how much interest there would be in one.

...

The stench of burnt rubber started to rise as I ran on the treadmill, staring blankly ahead as I sprinted at top speed. The smell wasn't that surprising considering I’d had it on max for the better part of three hours. My stride hardly broke as I lowered the incline and decreased the speed. The smell still lingered, but I'd get used to it soon enough.

One of the great things about a round-the-clock gym in my apartment complex was that at two in the morning, it was abandoned. Leaving me free to hop on the next treadmill directly to my right and put it on the settings that I preferred -- max incline and max speed. Within a minute, I was back to running at what felt like a pretty leisurely pace. It was a full on sprint, but once you got used to it, it felt more like jogging.

I was getting right back into the groove of things when I saw someone enter the gym. An Asian man in his mid-thirties with short black hair and thin glasses. Everyone knew him as Shanlong Song, but I better knew him as, “Dad?” I glanced over as I slowed my run, taking a headphone out of my ear. “You're back already?”

“Just for the day, I'm afraid,” Dad said, approaching with a note of concern in his voice. “Your mother told me you've been struggling to sleep again.” Struggling was a bit of an understatement. It implied that I had a chance in hell of actually going to sleep, even when I knocked back an entire bottle of melatonin.

“I'm just burning off some energy. It helps,” I said with a small shrug. Though, the fact that I needed to work out for a solid six hours a night to catch more than thirty minutes of sleep was an issue in itself. A visit to the hospital revealed nothing wrong with me physically. But there would be if I didn't at least catch some zzz's every couple of days, and I hadn't in the past three. “How was the trip?”

Dad offered a thin smile, “Uneventful.” He never talked about his work much, largely because there didn't seem to be much to talk about. He was an auditor for some company that frequently took business trips to check the accounts of subsidiaries. The job sounded a bit dull, but it came with some great perks. “Though, I did find something that'll help you sleep. Between it and your mother's acupuncture, you should get back to a normal schedule.”

As he spoke, he reached into a pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper that contained two light blue balls roughly the size of marbles. Picking them up, they felt like chalk but when I popped them in my mouth, they practically melted. The reaction, however, was almost instant. The seemingly endless chaotic sea of energy within me began to still. I was wide awake, but it was no longer accompanied with the feeling of needing to move.

“Better?” Dad asked, cocking an eyebrow as I stopped running entirely.

“Think so, yeah,” I admitted. I had been pretty weirded out by my parents' belief in traditional Chinese medicine, but given that it worked… “What was that stuff? Tastes minty.” Hopefully, it wasn't just a placebo.

There was a tension that bled out of Dad that told me he was more worried about my growing condition than he wanted to admit. “An herbal remedy that I picked up in China. The Phoenix Lotus pills. Third grade,” he said, earning a snort out of me as I hopped off the treadmill entirely.

“Sounds swanky,” I remarked, earning a chuckle from him. I had to hand it to their marketing team -- I was far more likely to buy some medicine called the Divine Dragon Healing Tears than I would some plain ol’ Advil or whatever. “Thanks, Dad.”

“Of course, Ren,” He said, patting me on the back. As he did so, his sleeve pulled up a bit to reveal a bandage. I immediately froze, but he was quick to wave off my concern. “It was an accident -- I was getting tea, only for the pot handle to break and spill on me as I poured myself a cup.”

That didn't sound too bad. But still, “Ouch.”

“Quite. The pain has faded, and the bandage has another day at most. It is nothing to concern yourself with,” he said as we left the gym that was on the fifth floor of the apartment building I more or less grew up in. The windows of the hall offered up a great view of Little Asia in Metropolis City -- it felt like its own little world despite only being around six blocks in total. English fell away for the most part, leaving most stores and restaurants written in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. Largely depending on which block in Little Asia you were in.

Heading up to the tenth floor, I opened up the apartment to find Mom sitting on the couch watching one of her soaps, casting a glance at us both like she hadn't been worried. Jiayi Song wasn't my real mother, but she might as well be. My birth mom wasn't in the picture, and given how tight lipped Dad was about her, I got the impression that was by her choice and he didn't want to have to tell me she abandoned me. Which worked fine for me -- Jiayi had been my ‘step’ mom since I was born, so I never really knew anything else.

“Did I miss anything good?” I asked, telling her I was fine without saying the words. That let a sharp smirk tug at her lips.

“Jennifer told Alice that she slept with her boyfriend to get payback, but when she confronted John about it, he revealed he had been having an affair with her mother for the past six months,” Mom gushed while I crossed the distance, getting a look at the TV that played the dramatic reveal.

“That bit-” I started, only for Mom to swat my hand. Lightly, because she agreed with me.

Dad just chuckled, “It's early but since we're all up, I shall make breakfast.”

I perked up, “I can help?” I offered, liking the sound of food. Even if it was two in the morning. Breakfast was the one meal of the day you could never have too early.

“I think it would be best if you had a shower first. You stink,” Mom informed, and I had worked up a bit of a sweat. She made a shooing motion and with a roll of my eyes, I headed into the bathroom. Dad’s job paid pretty well, letting us live in a pretty nice apartment in the inner city. A three bedroom, two bathroom apartment was expensive anywhere you went, after all.

But it let me have my own bathroom so I appreciated it all the same. Especially the heated mirror that stopped it from getting foggy, letting me check out my appearance. My eyes were a little bloodshot from staying up three days in a row, but that wasn't why they were so striking -- the only part of me that I seemed to have gotten from my birth mom were her plum colored eyes. A pinkish purple hue. The rest of me was all Dad -- black hair that was long enough to brush the nape of my neck, angular face with a sharp jaw.

Dad didn't have any pictures of him as a kid, but according to Mom, I looked a lot like him as he did at my age.

Freshened up and dressed in a pair of loose fitting sweats, I stepped out of the bathroom and was greeted by the smell of rice, eggs, and dumplings. All cooked in what bordered industrial amounts because of my dietary needs. My stomach was a bottomless pit, it felt like some days, especially now that I was getting my growth spurts. So, Dad put me on a sumo wrestler's diet and that seemed to be enough most days.

“So, did you see anything interesting this time?” I asked, grabbing the plates and setting the table.

“I did,” Dad replied, taking out his phone and bringing up his images as he effortlessly flipped about a dozen eggs in a pan. “There was a hiking trail near the job,” He said, showing me a breathtaking view of a mountain range with a waterfall feeding into a valley, the light creating a rainbow.

“Where was this at?” I said, looking at the picture. His phone was full of pictures like that one -- he didn't have photos of every trip he went, but often enough he was able to go sightseeing.

“Shangxi,” Dad answered easily. “A little known area of it. It's been spared the worst of urbanization, thankfully. But I don't believe that will last much longer.” He sighed, taking his phone back. He was a pretty big nature nut.

“Think I could come next time?” I asked hopefully. “I've got straight A's. Not sleeping is good for studying, at least.” I wasn't exactly brilliant, but I had gotten pretty good at regurgitating information on tests. I had been fairly middle of the pack at once I got a scholarship at Metropolis Academy, and the cram school my parents signed me up for. But, when the rest of the world was asleep, and you had empty hours to fill, studying helped time go by.

Dad offered me a thin smile, “Perhaps. I wouldn't want you to miss school… but perhaps this summer,” he relented.

“Sweet,” I replied, hearing a beep telling me that the rice cookers were done. Plural since I got one to myself. Helping Dad deliver the food to the table, my portion utterly dwarfed theirs three times over. Everything tasted fantastic too, even as I shoveled food into my mouth. If the whole accountant thing didn't work out for Dad then he had a future as a chef.

He and Mom were seated across from me, eating at a much more subdued pace. I was trying to avoid speaking with my mouth full, but it was a little difficult. “So, should we go get a passport?” I prompted, wanting to get all of it out of the way beforehand. I had wanted to go with Dad on one of his trips for years now, but there was always a reason why I couldn't.

My grades. School. Where he was going… it wasn't even the first time he had said yes to me coming along, but there was always a reason why I couldn't come. I was just working down the list until he finally let me go. Or broke down on the reason why he didn’t want me to come in the first place.

“I think-” Dad began, cutting himself off as if he had heard something. Then, with no warning at all, he slammed his palm into the dinner table with enough force that it slammed into me and sent me into the kitchen. The wind was knocked out of me, first by the table, then my chair flipping over.

A cough escaped me first, then a gasp as I rolled to my feet when I saw that the table had been split in two. My gaze followed the line, finding that the couch and the TV had a thin narrow cut that split them apart. As did the floor and walls, I realized when there was a distant scream that echoed out. My entire body locked up, pure uncertain panic freezing me in place as I tried to figure out what just happened.

“We've been found!” Dad exclaimed, holding out his injured hand before a fucking sword ripped its way out of the drywall and flew directly into his waiting palm. He took a step forward, slashing the blade as… something erupted from the wall, the same thing that cut our living room in half, I'm guessing. It was a white crescent of energy that he shattered with the swing before another erupted from the edge of his blade, this one cutting a chunk out of the wall that exposed the city below. “Jiayi! Protect Ren! There will be others!”

I was blue screening. Hard. I only snapped out of it when Dad leapt through the hole in our apartment and my heart jumped to my throat. We were on the tenth floor. “Dad!” I shouted, jerking into action even if it did feel like my limbs belonged to someone else. Only for Mom to grab me by the shirt and haul me behind her with shocking strength.

“We have to leave, now!” Mom shouted, yanking me towards the front door.

“But what about Dad?” I blurted, feeling like I was in a haze. This didn't feel real. Someone just cut a chunk out of my living room and now Dad was fighting them -- it felt like a dream.

Only it couldn't be because Mom smacked the shit out of me and my cheeks stung. “Ren. You need to calm down and do exactly as I say. Your father can take care of himself. He's strong. The only one you need to worry about right now is yourself,” Mom said, her voice severe but even. Despite the screaming around us, a slight tremor running from beneath us, and the sheer insanity of what was going on -- Mom was as calm as could be.

So, I took a breath and offered a jerky nod. That made her eyes soften, but only slightly. “Stay behind me, Ren. Stay close. Once we get through this, your father and I will answer your questions.” She said, opening the door and stepping into the hallway. The very same hallway that I was in just minutes before was filled with people running in panic, an emergency light flashing when the electricity sputtered.

Only not everyone was running. They stood like rocks on a river, people running past them. Men dressed in black -- tight fitting traditional robes, foot wraps, and black masks that covered their faces. Ninjas?

Mom didn't react to them beyond shifting into what looked like a martial arts stance and it was only then that I noticed that she had a small gord resting on the small of her back that was worryingly labeled ‘Poison’ in Chinese. In her hands were two daggers that were attached to wires that were wrapped around her forearms. There was a long painful moment of tension between us all and I struggled to breathe, feeling some kind of weight settling on my chest.

Then the moment that our neighbors were clear, Mom and the ninjas both sprung into action.

Despite the slap, it still didn't feel real to me as I watched them both clash, moving like they were in a kung fu movie, only sped up. The hallway became filled with the whistling sound of Mom spinning the daggers before sending them flying, cutting into the ninjas that pressed the attack. In an impossible feat of dexterity, the daggers seemed alive, moving at impossible angles as the dozen ninjas simply stepped over their… their dead friend.

Mom killed another three before they reached her, blood spattering from her daggers across the ceiling and halls from where she whipped the daggers back and forth. When the remaining ninjas closed in, the gourd on her back popped open to emit a toxic looking green mist. It flowed over the wires of her daggers, gathering at the blades themselves.

That got them to back off a half step, but by then it was too late. With the daggers in her hands, she leaped forward, throwing herself into the thick of them. She moved almost like it was a choreographed dance, her daggers thrusting out and jabbing into the men, or nicking them. My stomach churned at the sight when the ‘Poison’ turned out to be more like acid as the men began to dissolve. Their flesh practically liquifying as blood erupted from their mouths, nose, and eyes.

“What the…” I breathed, too shocked to even be horrified. Mom glanced over her shoulder at me, her eyes widening before she flicked a blade towards me. I thought her target was me until it went past my shoulder and there was a thunk behind me. Looking back, I saw that a ninja had snuck up from behind, a wound on his forehead killing him.

“Ren? Stay close to me,” Mom repeated once more. I licked my lips, nodding more firmly this time as I did exactly that. “We're going to take the fire exit. It will be expected and guarded, but we have no choice. If it's just these Outer Disciples, then we have nothing to worry about but the Sect wouldn't face your father unprepared. If we're lucky, it'll just be Inner Disciples…”

I had no idea what she was talking about, I realized. I knew what the words meant, but string together like that made them almost incomprehensible. Inner and Outer Disciples? Sect? What? But, none of that felt like it really mattered at the moment as we rushed towards the fire escape. “And if we're not lucky?”

“You need to run,” Mom said without looking back, her voice as harsh as the crack of a whip. “I'll stall them for as long as I can, but the moment I tell you to run, you need to run as fast as you can, Ren.”

That made me sputter, “What? No way, I not just-” I started, but the words died on my tongue when she came to a stop near the exit. Her gaze was cutting and it went right through me.

“They're not here for me, or your father. They're here for you,” she stressed and that was a gut punch because I couldn't imagine what I did to piss off a bunch of ninjas. “Even if they defeat us both, they won't kill us so long as you aren't in their hands. We're too valuable as leverage to use against you.” The gut punch was followed up by a right hook, then an uppercut. “But under no circumstances can you give yourself over to them, Ren. None. Understand?”

I didn't. Not in the slightest. But Mom didn't give me a chance to reply as she shoved the emergency exit open, revealing the fire escape that led down into a back alley. The coast seemed to be clear, which was a relief, all the way up until we reached the bottom.

Then Mom said a word that made my blood turn to ice.

“Run,” Mom said between clenched teeth, making me look around again to find that the coast wasn't clear anymore. We were surrounded, it looked like -- people standing on the balconies of the building, the fire escape, and posted up at the entrance of the alleyway. They arrived soundlessly, appearing from thin air and my stomach was doing flips.

However, Mom’s gaze was affixed to one person in particular. A man wearing a black gi, the sleeves torn off to reveal a patchwork of scars up and down his arms. His face was obscured by a demonic grinning mask that covered the bottom half of his face, leaving his eyes exposed that settled on them both in a thoroughly unimpressed stare. “Jiayi. It shames me to see you still relying on that gourd.”

His voice was rough, but devoid of emotion. Mom tensed, giving the man all of her focus. “Father,” she greeted him with venom in her voice. “Still a loyal hound, I see.”

“Better a loyal dog than a mutt without a home,” the man replied. “Give the boy to us. If you endure the appropriate punishment, the Sect Master has granted me permission to welcome you back into the Tang Clan once more.”

There was a tense silence between the two, that same pressure settling on my shoulders, telling me that it hadn't just been my imagination. This time, however, I had a reason to speak up, “Um… gramps?” I said, and, slowly, the man shifted his gaze to me. “Who in the hell are you and what the fuck do you mean by proper punishment?” There were other questions I wanted to ask -- like who was this Sect Master, what did they want with me, and so on.

But those two were far more pressing as this family reunion seemed like it promised bloodshed. The man held my gaze before he blew out a sigh, “It matters little to you, boy. Know this -- if you have any love at all for my fool of a daughter, then submit yourself to me.”

“Ren,” Mom stressed the word, settling into the same stance as before. “I'll clear the path. Just run,” she stressed, almost begging. And I…

I wanted to bluster. To dig my heels in. But the very thought was put down simply because…

I would only get in the way. It was a harsh and bitter truth that I had to force myself to swallow, but it was a truth all the same. If this guy was a whole ass problem that Mom was worried about after she just liquefied a baker's dozen ninjas like it was nothing, then there wasn't even a hope in hell that I could actually do something. To even think differently was to be outright delusional.

More than that, I trusted her.

Clenching my jaw, I broke into a dead sprint and before I could even take a proper step, everyone sprung into action. The poison mist funneled out of the gourd, shaping itself around Mom's daggers until it took the image of a roaring dragon. Her dad, however, had the same green mist emerge from his body, cladding himself in an almost armor like substance. They clashed above me, nearly knocking me off my feet, but I still ran straight ahead.

Exactly as she said she would, the ninjas that tried to jump me found themselves keeping their insides from becoming outsides before they could reach me. I passed them by, breaking into a full sprint as I just picked a direction and started running down the street, joining the people that were running in confusion. The bright lights of Little Asia became blurs to me as I ran as fast as I could.

Even before I struggled to sleep, I always knew that my body was weird. Because, even before I could spend six hours a night just working out, I had been faster than normal. Stronger. I had my limits, of course, but I could recover from hitting them far sooner than I should. Which was why I found myself breaking Olympic records as I ran, pure adrenaline in my veins as every shadow became a ninja.

I had no idea where I was running to, but once my thoughts started catching up with me, I had a thought. While I had absolutely no clue what in the hell was going on, all of this seemed right up Superman’s alley. Metropolis City was hardly Gotham with a charcuterie board of villains that terrorized the place, but I knew for a fact it wouldn’t be the first time Superman had fought ninjas for one reason or another.

The whole attack should draw the heroes to my parents, so they could get some help. Meanwhile, I should… I should probably go to the police-

I turned a corner before flinching back as I nearly barreled over someone. The moment I did so, I felt a pinch in my side. Slowly, I looked down to see a stark white sword was currently sticking through my gut, a trail of red dripping down the edge of it. I didn't really feel much there as I slowly looked back up at the person before me -- her face was covered by a veil, but she seemed to be around my age. Her eyes, though…

They were rather familiar. Plum purple.

“Ouch,” I heard myself say, taking a step back, then another before the sword wasn't buried in me. My hands went to my side and I felt… a burning pain in the wound.

The girl didn't respond, simply gazing down at me with dull eyes. Then she drug a finger over the edge of the blade, wetting it in my blood, before she brought it to her mouth- “Ew. That's so gross,” I said, the burning pain starting to lessen under my palm. I couldn't tell if that was a good thing or not.

The girl didn't respond, simply lowering her hand. I was sure I hadn't blinked, but it felt like I did because she was suddenly before me, slamming a hand into my chest and it felt like I got hit by a truck. My back hit the ground and she pinned me there with a hand that felt like it weighed as much as an elephant. It was then that I felt… something. It almost felt like electricity, except that was nothing like it -- it was just that same feeling of something traveling through me.

“You should be dead,” the girl observed, and her voice made a shiver run down my spine. The guy from before, my not-grampa, had kept his voice even. Decidedly neutral. The girl, however, sounded like she was completely devoid of emotion.

“Well… you did stab me…” I replied, struggling to even breathe. “Blame… your terrible… aim.”

“Your affliction goes well past an Extreme Yang Body Type,” the girl continued, making the observation without any sense of curiosity. “It would be more accurate to say that you are a mass of Yang qi in the shape of a human rather than a person.” More words that didn't really mean anything to me, but a picture was starting to form.

I was Chinese with parents that went all in on traditional Chinese medicine. It was impossible for me to not know what qi was.

“Why are… you people after me?” I asked, and I felt the burning sensation stop on my side. I moved my hand ever so slightly, and I felt it.

Smooth skin. No insides trying to become outsides. Just smooth uninjured skin.

“You are one of the few remaining sources of rich and pure qi left in this world,” she answered monotonously. It sounded less like she was indulging my curiosity and more like she didn't see a reason why she shouldn't answer. “More so than expected. You will be used as reagents in cultivation for the remainder of your life. Which likely won't be long. You should have died as it is.”

That was the final piece of the puzzle. All of it just clicked into place hearing that single word. Cultivation.

It wasn't my preferred genre. I prefer my protagonists to be good guys as there was enough villainy in the world as it was. The MCs in Xianxia cultivation novels… generally they were as bad as the Young Masters that they courted death to fight over their jade-like beauty childhood friend who steadily lost all characterization as she became part of a harem of jade-like beauties that the protagonist collected. It just didn't really click with me.

More so now than ever, I decided.

The girl paid no mind as she mercilessly delivered my fate, that same energy flowing through me. “Your father's actions make more sense now. He bought you some time, but no more than that.”

I closed my eyes as I just… accepted it. All of it. All of it was so utterly overwhelming and I was so out of my depth it wasn't even funny. Some cultivators were after me. Mom and Dad were apparently total badassess. I was dying and from the sounds of it, dying right here and right now was the best I could hope for because these crazy bastards were going to turn me into pill ingredients. There was no time for hesitation or indecisiveness.

I just had to accept it.

So, I did.

Snapping my eyes open, I grabbed hold of her wrist on my chest before lashing out with a fist at her elbow. I probably did more damage to my knuckles than her elbow and I was answered with an increased pressure on my chest, the concrete cracking under my back along with some of my ribs. Gritting my teeth against the pain, I lashed out again, punching her in the cheek and it felt like I punched a brick wall. Busted a knuckle, but that didn't stop me from punching her again.

She just ate the punches too, completely unbothered by them. “I see. Your qi is too dense to use. A pity. You would have been quite strong if you could utilize it,” she noted as I punched her square in the nose. Nothing. I didn’t even put enough strength in it to turn her head. It was frustrating. And vaguely horrifying as it settled in that I was staring a Bad End right in the face, and I couldn’t advert my fate.

Then what she said clicked into place. Qi. It was one of those alternative ‘medicines’ that I never put much thought into before. It never meant anything to me. Even when Mom did manage to get me to sit still long enough for acupuncture, I always just figured that shoving needles into nerve clusters and muscles had a stilling effect or something. But now, I felt it. That stuff she shoved into my body, I could feel it lingering as my body seemed to absorb it like a sponge.

It gave me awareness of it. It felt like suddenly discovering an extra organ you’ve had your entire life, only you never used it because you didn’t know it was there. So, on instinct, I tried to pull on that feeling. She said I’d be strong if I could use it, so I had to use it.

The result was the feeling of a sun igniting in my stomach and my blood boiling in my veins.

The girl yanked her hand back as if she had been burnt, and I realized she had been when I saw reddening flesh on the palm of her hand. “You’ll die,” she informed, not a trace of pain to be found in her voice. I couldn’t even respond as I rolled over to my side, gasping as the pain hit me full force. I was burning. It felt like I was on fire.

The pain was overwhelming to the point that I couldn’t even scream…

And then it suddenly wasn’t.

It was still there. The agony so potent that I couldn’t think, or even scream incoherently. It was just shoved in the back seat. I didn’t know how else to describe it really -- one moment, everything was just pure searing hot pain, and the next I could think clearly while feeling that pain echoing out in the back of my skull. It just felt distant.

“Oh?” The girl uttered, sounding interested as I shakily forced my way to my feet. Steam poured from the small cuts on my knuckles, healing over and reverting to unblemished skin in seconds. A sigh escaped me and steam erupted from my mouth, feeling myself sliding back into the driver’s seat of my body as the shock of the pain faded. “I see. Shall I take that as a sign you intend to continue resisting?”

I clenched and unclenched a hand, rising to my full height as I breathed in deeply. “Yeah,” I said after a moment, more steam seeping out of my mouth, “That feels like a safe bet.”

With that said, I rushed into action, throwing myself at her with a burst of speed that I hadn’t known I was capable of. The ground exploded under my foot and in a split second, I was before her, a kick aimed at her head. Yet, even before she leaned her head out of the way, I knew it wasn’t going to land as her eyes effortlessly kept up with me. Spinning sharply, I followed it up with another kick, forcing her to take a step back.

Her blade flickered out like the tongue of a snake and I felt a deep gash run across my ribs, blood gushing out and it was then that I realized that my blood was literally boiling when it steamed when it hit the ground. Yet, almost as soon as the gash was made, the wound vanished almost without a trace. Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly when she saw my regeneration and I clenched my teeth as I landed on my feet.

She effortlessly weaved around my punches and kicks, each one feeling like it was blisteringly fast, but they never came close to her. So, I tried to go faster. Hit harder. My fist carved a trench through the brick of the alley, showering her with rubble and dust. Taking a step forward, I caught a flash of movement a split second before the stark white blade erupted from the dust to punch through my chest.

Steam erupted from the wound and I threw all caution to the wind. I grabbed hold of the blade with a hand, keeping it in place as I took a step forward with a fist raised high. The girl, through the dust, looked faintly surprised at me as I threw the punch, keeping a tight grip on the sword. And, for the first time, she was forced to block.

With the sound of a canon going off, the punch struck her waiting palm but she underestimated the force of it. She was lifted off of her feet, sent flying down the back alley a good couple dozen feet before she lightly landed on the ground. My gaze dipped down to where her sword was, and the reason for her surprise was revealed -- she had stabbed through my heart, and as I knocked her flying, she yanked the blade to the side.

Steam rose from my chest, and from the stump of an arm. Blood didn’t even fall as my heart rapidly regenerated. The moment my heart was done, the steam doubled around my arm and I watched it in dull awe as within seconds, my arm was restored. It was identical to the one that was currently resting at my feet.

“Interesting,” the girl noted as I tested out the new arm before squaring up for round two. “However, if you are capable of regenerating to such a degree… then I no longer have reason to be so gentle.” She said, and with every word that she spoke, white qi gathering around her blade that started to shine with it. The dark alley became illuminated by the light, and I felt that same weight settle on my shoulders.

Every instinct told me that was not something I wanted to get hit with.

Right. So, the power up that I pulled out of my ass wasn’t doing the trick. Fair enough, I suppose. It wasn’t like I had gotten into many fights before and I wasn’t doing that great even before she took the kid gloves off. Instead… well, desperate times call for desperate measures, I suppose.

There was something that every child in Metropolis was told -- when you were in danger, and you really thought you were going to die… There was one person you could count on in your most dire of moments.

I breathed in before I titled my head back, “SUPERMAN! HELP! I’M IN DANGER! HELP!” I screamed at the very top of my lungs and it was then that I heard the first genuine sputter of emotion from the girl across from me. “THE PSYCHO CHINESE NINJA WIZARDS ARE ATTACKING ME! HELP!”

“Y-You!” The girl sputtered, genuinely shocked and staring at me with wide eyes. “Have you no pride as a warrior?!” She shouted at me, like this was somehow a shock to her. Like this was some fateful duel and not her jumping me in an alley.

“Pride is for chumps,” I replied. I’d much rather live, thank you very much. Now, where was I? “HELP ME, SUPERMAN! I’M A MINOR IN DANGER OF GETTING MURDERED!” I kept a close eye on her, just to be sure that she didn’t try something. The pure disbelief and bewilderment only lasted a short moment, and that moment gave way to indecisiveness. Which told me where she was on the powerscaling totem poll, and it was in the same place as most of the known universe was.

Beneath Superman.

“You… will suffer for this indignity, brother,” she muttered darkly under her breath and that made me choke on my breath. Before I could say another word, however, she sprung into action and despite looking right at her, in the narrow alleyway, I only saw her move when I felt a blast of air in her wake as she ran right by me.

Taking my severed arm with her.

“H-Hey, that was mine! Give that back!” I shouted after her, looking around but she was gone without a trace. Slowly, the burning sensation in my stomach started to fade a way, and there was a bone-deep weariness that replaced the strength that I had felt moments prior. I wobbled on my feet, stumbling to a wall to lean on as I suddenly found myself out of breath.

“Ren!” I heard Mom call out, making me glance up to find that she was flying down. There was a nasty looking burn on her arm, but she otherwise looked unharmed. It was more relieving than words could say, especially when I saw who was carrying her down to me.

It wasn’t the first time I had seen Superman, but he seemed even more larger than life as he flew down -- his bright red cape fluttering in the wind, bright blue jumpsuit with an iconic shielded S on his chest. There was no mistaking him for anyone else.

His presence was so relieving that I felt like a puppet with its strings cut and the ground started to rush up to greet me.

...

I have some mixed feeling about Risk It All back when I was writing it and more so now that it's been put to rest. It suffered a bit because of my burnout on DC, since it was one of the three fics that I was writing in the setting at the same time. But, looking back on it, I think my biggest mistake was that I didn't take any time to develop the cultivation aspects of the story because, honestly, I didn't know that much about it. It was a commission fic and the commissioner wanted more elements, so I moved in that direction without really knowing what I was doing. For that reason, I jumped the shark towards the end and because I didn't spend any time developing the cultivation aspects, it didn't feel justified.

It's always been something that has nagged me, to be completely honest. Especially now that I have read some cultivation works, like Beware of Chicken and Cultivation Nerd, so I realize in hindsight that I really had no idea what I was doing with them. So, this is my attempt to fix that.

​The cultivation aspects of the fic are going to be more at the forefront, but I'm going to keep it as newbie friendly as possible because I fully understand those who see stuff called the Nine Divine Phennoix Pill and Third Stage of the Heavenly Realm and the information just goes into one ear and out the other. To that end, the cultivation aspects are going to be more centered around Ren. The cultivators are going to essentially act as his personal rogue roster. Sometimes they'll be at the forefront of an arc, other times they'll take a step back and Ren will throw hands with someone like Poison Ivy or the Reach. It mostly depends on what kind of arc I'm writing because it is a DC story, not a Xainxia story with superheroes if you know what I mean.

As for Ren himself -- his story is pretty different. Rather than a bullet to the head awakening a system, he is the result of a thousand years eugenics program that has granted him a uniquely weird body. How so would be explained in further detail in later chapters, but the important part to know is that his body is weird enough that the first arc or two would be about the Sect's wanting to get their grubby hands on him. Additionally, his family life is pretty different. I knew if I was going to do a rewrite, it would need to be new enough that it felt fresh when I wrote it, or I would go the way of most rewrites and burn out because of boredom.

As for the Young Justice elements -- I've discovered something back when I was writing Risk It All, and that is some of the missions in YJ are just a slog to get through. They're not bad or anything, it's just not fun to cover a mission that you feel like you have to because the MC is part of the Team. So, to fix this, while Ren will be part of the Team but things will be different enough that I can skip the missions that don't interest me. How exactly would be revealed in future chapters but the important part is that I don't plan to stick to the rails of canon and I intend to break from them pretty early on.

And... I think that's it. Let me know what you think and if you would like to see more of this. I will have to change the name of the story since Risk It All doesn't apply anymore, so if you have any suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them.