Chan Became the Best in Baekha Without Trying

Chan kept his head down while festival drums shook the town, then got pulled into a tournament that used his mother's name like a chain. He had spent years handling the dead, not fighting the living, so every rule felt built to trap him. That ignorance made him easy to mock and hard to predict. It also let him notice what trained fighters missed, like a bad seal, a hidden witness, and a spear left where a body should have been. When fear cracked his calm, he still reached for the people who had once protected him. The hooked spear under his bedroll and the empty lantern in its pill case became the only proof that he was still choosing his own path. The one person he starts to trust is tied t...