Path of the Berserker

The square was relatively quiet by the time I reached home. It was getting late and most of the residents had already turned in for the night. With [Mask of the Despised] and the poncho, no one even looked in my direction as I shuffled past the empty tables and the one or two food vendors still left in the square. My entire arm was on fire now, the extent of my injuries fully setting in.

Fatigue was setting in as well and I could have just about collapsed and fallen asleep in the street, but my stomach was growling for attention. I dropped a few coppers on some noodles and a double portion of beef tendon smothered in chili oil, before finding a table far away from everyone else.

I fumbled with my chopsticks for a bit, trying to eat with my left hand. After several failed attempts I finally just gave up and started shoveling the food into my mouth with my fingers. I didn’t realize how hungry I was and the more I ate the bigger my appetite seemed to become.

A couple of my neighbors glared at me from the corners of their eyes with disdain. Whether it was as a result of my poor eating habits or just being plain ‘ole me, I didn’t know, but I was too tired and beat up to care. I was chowing down on my second order of noodles when a gravelly voice came from behind.

“Pleasant appetite.”

I glanced over my shoulder to see Hong Feng pulling up a chair beside me.

Holy crap…did he actually follow me here?

A quick glance about didn’t reveal any of his men, though. For whatever reason, he’d decided to come alone. He’d also dressed down as well, his orange and red robes replaced by common clothing. The question as to why stirred my Flame.

“I thought we were done talking,” I said. “I’m not interested in joining your sect. Or any sect for that matter. Nothing personal.”

“Yeah, I heard you earlier,” he said, running his fat fingers through his thick beard. “But I have a feeling you may change your mind about that soon.”

What the hell was going on here? I thought irritated, but I played it cool with [Struggler’s Resolve].

“I sincerely doubt that, but anything’s possible, I guess.”

“True, anything is possible,” he said with a grin. “Even a Terran winning the Wooden Bracket Tournament apparently.” He paused for a chuckle. “But a sect-less Terran competing toe-to-toe in the Iron Bracket? Not so much.”

I furrowed my brow at him. “What do you mean?”

He shrugged while easing back in the chair, his portly stomach proudly on display as his robes shifted. “Some things are just easier to explain than others, you know? Imagine, for example, explaining how you managed to learn lightning techniques without being in a sect? That would be very difficult to explain now, wouldn’t it?”

My jaw set as he continued to smile. The bastard had a point. I was originally just going to use the knowledge as cover for my stolen lightning core, but explaining how I obtained that knowledge, much less if I actually managed to wield it, could raise more than a few questions that I didn’t have good answers to.

Perhaps he’d known this all along, the bastard. Clearly, he wanted me in his club for some reason and was willing to pull a chess move like this to do it.

“It wasn’t always like this, you know,” he said. “In ancient times, an ambitious and independent young man like yourself would be both despised and feared by the sects. If you just happened to come across some secret knowledge, they’d either snuff you out before you got a chance to master it or bow down to you once you proved yourself superior. It was sink or swim, black or white, but at least no one interfered with a man’s inventiveness. Now the imperial laws of the empire both coddle and stifle progression. No practice of martial cultivation techniques outside of the officially recognized sects. And if you’re caught doing so, it’s a death sentence for you. Now where’s the fun in that, eh?”

He looked at me as if wanting an actual answer to his rhetorical question.

Eventually he just smiled again. “Oh, for the long-lost days of the mountain masters, free to roam and practice whatever craft they wished. The only thing that could stop you, was running into someone stronger than you. Today the Emperor and all of his bastard offspring are pissing on everyone’s fun. Nothing is sacred or special anymore. Everything is regimented and by the books. A sect elder can’t even fart without the damn princess’s say so, much less develop a new and unorthodox technique.”

I pretended to ignore him by shoveling another handful of noodles into my mouth. He was fishing for something, but I wasn’t taking the bait. He obviously knew more than he was letting on. If his men were able to recognize Threja as a Berserker then there was a good chance that what I’d done in the arena might have given him a hint that I was one as well.

His mere being here was proof of that.

Maybe he couldn’t truly sense my Flame, just like everyone else, but he was fitting the puzzle pieces together.

Looks like I was playing chess with both Hein and Hong Feng now.

“Tell you what,” I said. “I’ll give it some thought.”

He smiled. “You do that. And don’t forget my other deal with you still stands.” He glanced at my bandaged arm. “I’ll wait for you to heal up first, though, before I send my first assignment through Sumatra.”

“Thanks, I’d appreciate that.”

A few more seconds of silence passed as he watched me eat, but not once did I remove my eyes from my bowl. I tried to sense any emotion coming from him: anger or hatred, but there was nothing coming from him at all. If anything, there was maybe a small hint of lemonade.

Finally, Hong Feng tapped the table and then got up to leave.

“See you in the ring, Bull Man.”

* * *

When I finally reached home, I flopped onto my cot in pain and exhaustion, but my mind was going a mile a minute.

One step forward and two steps back indeed, I thought.

The Struggler had a strange way of making his presence known. An hour ago, I was completely gung-ho, ready to plow full-steam ahead into my next level of cultivation and joining the Iron Bracket Tournament, but now I wasn’t so sure.

What Hong Feng said had truth to it, but did he tell me all that just to spook me into joining his club? Probably. But for what purpose?

I reached for the lightning technique manual and paged through it with a sigh.

This was to be my next challenge. For as much as I’d been studying it, I knew I was close to being on the verge of a breakthrough. I just needed some more knowledge. And of course, I had the perfect person to bug for that. But even if I could manage to harness lightning from my Flame, would it all just lead me into a trap?

I could either risk being exposed and executed by the empire or risk joining the Fire Birds as a cover. Both options had about as much appeal as a belrug’s ass. The only thing I knew for sure, was that I trusted Hong Feng even less than I did the empire. No way was I joining his gang. Not that I could even pass for one of them without the use of real Qi. But I had a feeling Hong Feng knew that already.

What the hell could I do then?

I needed to advance in my cultivation to reach my goals and I needed my citizenship to protect my people. I was planning to do both, but now they appeared to be almost mutually exclusive.

Being able to win my citizenship without being exposed as a fraud was shaping up to be much harder than I had thought. I closed my eyes and tried to meditate on it a bit. That official Lein Cho seemed somewhat bemused by me being a Terran but nothing more. That meant that what he’d seen hadn’t rocked the boat too much.

Maybe if I could stay low key and fight only at that level it could work. If I could rank up high enough using just my axe skills, raw strength, and speed to reach the top twenty, I could claim my citizenship and then just withdraw from the tournament.

But could I prevail against the competition by using just that?

Somehow I doubted it, but only time would tell.

Once I revealed my true strength though, I’d have to be willing and ready to put it all on the line.

Like Hong Feng had said about the old days, the only thing that mattered back then was how strong you were compared to the next guy. There was some savage beauty in that. But what he had said about the empire was true also. There was a reason why Hein didn’t just murder me the first time I stood up to him, or why the Fire Birds didn’t just openly attack their rivals in the streets instead of participating in tournaments and engaging in Trials by Might. As jacked up as the empire was, it provided a sense of law and order to this crazy cultivator world. Order that I could exploit and take advantage of until I was strong enough to break away from it.

If I moved smart enough, that was.

Being a citizen, even a C class as I now was, had to give me access to some kind of rights. But in truth I had no idea what those rights were.

I made a decision.

If I was going to win this chess match, then I needed to know the rules in and out. And that meant learning about shit I was far too uninterested in at school to grasp as a kid. I needed to make up for lost time and Mu Lin would have the knowledge to help me bridge the gap.

In the end, though, there was just one common denominator to all of this. Only one thing I could do to ensure my success. No matter if I skirted inside the rules, followed the rules, or simply broke them, I needed to continue with my progression.

That was the only thing that granted true protection and freedom in the end. As the old saying went, the best defense was a good offense. Or in my case, an unbeatable one.

Grow stronger.

Exponentially.

That was still the plan.

I thumbed through the lightning manual once again. Tomorrow I’d continue my studies and be damned with all the risks. I’d defy the empire and the Heavens themselves by cracking the code of the lightning arts. And then, I’d meet with Mu Lin to learn how to break the very foundations of the empire itself.

I cracked a smile as a renewed confidence fueled the strength of my Flame.

Things might have gotten a bit more complicated, but I wasn’t about to let that deter me. It would only make me stronger and smarter in the end. Exactly what I needed to be to ultimately free the Earth from her chains.

Going up against the empire head-on would come in time, but for now, this shit was getting dismantled from the inside.

With that thought I finally felt peace and the welcome call of slumber soon came.