Flesh and Fury

At the entrance trials for the largest sect in the region, a rival house sets out to humiliate the Hawke clan in front of everyone, and the Hawkes are all but knocked out of the trials. The one the rival house laughs at hardest is Yarrow Hawke, who they say can do nothing but throw punches. Yarrow was born with an innate force stronger than the spirit energy other practitioners use, and his body technique is trained to the first rank. His master, hurt badly years ago, has been drawing that force out of him to keep himself alive, and for years Yarrow has looked like a body-cultivator with nothing else to him. During the trials the master stops drawing. Yarrow's strength comes back at once and he beats the rival house's son, who had been the loudest of them. The rival house will not take the loss. It brings in a fighter who was thrown out of a sect called Heaven's Gate and sends him to finish the Hawkes. The master takes over Yarrow's body to drive the man off, and the effort leaves him drained and unconscious. Before he goes under he gives Yarrow a jade pendant.