Path of the Berserker-Chapter 40Path of the Berserker 5 -

I added the last brushstroke of the technique and then leaned back to take in the ten foot long scroll I had just completely filled. I had spent the last three days bullshitting on this but now both Master Zin Tai and Patriarch Wing Lang were hovering over my shoulder and examining my work.

We were in the main library hall of the Fire Bird Sect, a multistory building filled with dusty old tomes and scrolls. It wasn’t much compared to the grand archives mind you, but it would put any academic establishment back on Earth to shame.

I hid my anxiety with a cool exterior of [Indifference] as they scrutinized every character and meridian sequence I had scribbled down. I had done my best to keep it legit, using as much real lightning technique as I could conjure up, but when it came to the Frenzy parts, I had to fudge it a little by just substituting in Qi.

Thankfully the [Lightning Kiln of Fury] technique was mostly just a creative way of using lightning, but the way in which you had to employ it required a great degree of control. Even I didn’t realize it until I was forced to write it all down. Although it was the inverse of [Wrath of a Million Slain Souls], I couldn’t just release the lightning all at the same time like that. I had to send the lightning in a specific sequence of pulses that rotated through my meridians at a speed of perhaps ten bolts per second. The result was this ten foot long scroll detailing every meridian sequence along with the strict timing.

The result had both Wing Lang and Zin Tai’s eyes growing wide.

“You can do all this?” Zin Tai said. “Switch meridian sequences so quickly?”

I shrugged. “Never said it would be an easy technique to master. I just do it mostly by feel now. Looks kind of complicated when you write it all out though, I’ll admit.”

That part wasn’t bullshit.

I was actually impressed with myself being able to achieve something like this. I recalled my first ever technique, simply making a flame in my hand and how difficult that was. And now, less than a decade later, I could perform a technique that could burn the very sky.

It gave me all the more satisfaction to those years I had spent on Ri Ben.

I’d honed more than just my martial skill.

I’d leveled up my cultivation as well and this scroll was proof of that.

Wing Lang giggled like a schoolkid as he fawned over it. “A true Prodigy! I shall summon the lightning masters right away so that they can turn this into a curriculum.”

Zin Tai shook his head. “I would not wager that many of your disciples could perform this technique, your eminence.”

“Nonsense! The Iron Bull has demonstrated it perfectly. Even if it takes two decades to master, we shall add this to our repertoire.”

“Apologies,” Zin Tai said. “I meant in terms of Qi capacity. Give me a moment please.”

A new river of anxiety flowed through me as Zin Tai took a fresh sheet of parchment and began scribbling down numbers, going through each of my meridian sequences like a checklist. He then added them all up and let out a whistle.

“The Qi required for this technique is even greater than I first surmised.” He shot me a questioning stare. “How are you able to store this much Qi? It shouldn’t be possible at your present cultivation level.”

Ah shit…I thought.

I played it cool with even more [Indifference]. “What can I say? When you’re fighting for your life battling demons on the Hell Worlds, you just do shit, y’know? Whatever it takes. Same with this.”

Wing Lang seemed pleased with the nonchalant answer, grinning from ear to ear. It seemed as if Zin Tai had bought it as well for a second, but then his face went from bemused, to rife with interest.

“Perhaps there is some correlation there,” he said. “I would very much like to study your Dantian in detail. Perhaps it’s been somehow affected by the Demonic Qi of the Cursed Stars.”

Shit! I’d just made it go from bad to worse.

“Wait here a moment,” he said. “I need to collect some instruments from my room.”

I was just about to make up some excuse to delay him, when a voice called from outside the library hall.

“You’ll have to wait on that, I’m afraid.”

We all looked to the doorway to see Hun Wu.

She was decked out in her deep orange and red robes of the Rising Pheonix subsect and wearing her douli as usual, her fiery red hair flowing wild underneath. For the last few days, I’d been avoiding her like the plague, but now she was a godsend.

“Did you need me for something?” I said hopefully and was already walking away from Zin Tai and Wing Lang towards her.

“You have some special visitors at the main gate,” she said.

Finally, Ling Wei to the rescue, I thought. Albeit somewhat later than I had first hoped.

It’d been nearly a week now and my time within the Fire Bird Headquarters was growing more claustrophobic by the day. Not that the treatment was bad, mind you. Rather the opposite, in fact. After my fireworks display I was doted on like royalty. My quarters were a mini palace that overlooked the main square, complete with servants. I also had a platoon of lesser disciples to boss around as I pleased, or so Hun Wu had explained to me when she had given me the tour and introduced me to my ‘school’.

Most of my students were accomplished Lightning Masters who had jumped ship from the main school and were looking to learn the secrets of [Furious] Lightning. It felt like I was back in Foundation school again, only this time I was the teacher, instead of the student, but a dumbass all the same.

I spent an entire day bullshitting them with the philosophy of anger and rage that I made up on the spot. It reminded me of my time back with Hong Feng. It wasn’t too much of a stretch given my true path, but finding aimless crap for them to do to ‘cultivate’ their rage was both nerve wracking and amusing.

I gave them the tried and true [Face Slapping] technique to piss each other off while maintaining a visage of [Indifference]. I had to use [Indifference] myself not just to bust out laughing as I had the whole class slapping each other.

Once I came up with enough dumb exercises to keep them busy, I made up an excuse to work on the [Lightning Kiln of Fury] technique to keep me away from them and on my own in the library. That’s when Hun Wu would come to seek me out.

I’d successfully delayed her from calling a meeting with her enclave using the same excuse. But now as I walked out of the library with her, ahead of Zin Tai and Wing Lang, I could sense the anger and frustration steaming off of her.

“You fly far too close to the flame with this sham of yours,” she said in a hushed whisper. “You are lucky I was there to save you in time from Zin Tai’s prying eyes.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, thanks for the save.”

“It is not I who have saved you. You can thank your visitors.” She harrumphed. “I suppose now we will be off to conquer this secret world of yours.”

“Hopefully,” I said.

A moment of silence passed as her anger steeped. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

“You’ve prioritized the wrong things,” she said. “This was a chance for us to advance in our knowledge of the true masters, instead you’ve squandered it placating Wing Lang.”

I glanced back at the Patriarch as he strolled behind us with Zin Tai. “Well, he’s the boss, right? What else you expected me to do?”

“Just remember who your true master is here,” she said cockily. “When we visit this planet of yours, I wish all the details of your excursions on the Hell Worlds. Your cultivation has clearly been accelerated by it. But you must share the secret of how you suppressed your demonic seed from blooming.”

“Seed from blooming?”

She gave me a disgusted look. “It’s offensive how much you do not understand about our true nature. You owe my sister to at least learn the knowledge you stole from her.”

I bit my lip to not retort.

It was laughably ironic how much she didn’t understand about her true nature, but I went along with the dumb guy routine. I’d actually forgotten that the demonic cultivators did place a demonic seed within themselves. Given exposure to a Bloodmoon they would turn instantly. Thus, me coming back from a Hell World still intact made me an anomaly in her eyes.

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Thankfully, her hubris was enough to blind her from the reality staring her right in the face. That I wasn’t one of them. That I wasn’t just some gifted demonic cultivator who had figured a new methodology out, but something else entirely. An enemy. My Flame stirred as I considered that I now had unfettered access to the followers of I’xol’ukz and their true inner workings. Fitting I supposed as I was now about to hunt down and kill their master.

But it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to play along, long enough, to learn how to recognize these people and masquerade being part of the secret club. I couldn’t help but admit posing as one of them had provided me cover from the real Fire Birds thus far.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “We’ll have time to speak freely on the way to Dokumu. Just so long as you can keep running interference between me and Zin Tai. That bastard is itching to get a peek at my core now. Like a damn pervert.”

She chuckled. “Don’t you worry. I have plenty of ways to distract a man like him.”

I saw the twinkle in her eyes and knew exactly what she was talking about.

Sisters indeed, I thought.

But I wasn’t complaining. I’d just pitted two of my problems against one another and had them cancelling each other out. Plus, with a bit of luck, I could lose one or both of them on my dangerous mission ahead.

We passed through the rest of the sect grounds in silence until we arrived at the main gate. The disciples on duty bowed to me obsequiously and I wasn’t too proud to cultivate their lemonade, even if it was misplaced.

As the gates opened, I saw my entire entourage gathered there. Blue Rose, Mal’Kira, Tu’lok, along with Xi Xha and Mu Lin. I didn’t see Ling Wei though, which gave me a bit of pause, until I noticed an ornate sedan chair with a gleaming ivory carriage parked behind them.

As I approached, my friends gave me nervous looking smiles, but didn’t say anything.

What the hell?

They stood there stiffly, looking almost sheepish.

“Guys, what’s going on?”

“I told you your visitors were special,” Hun Wu said, nodding towards the carriage.

Did the damn Empress herself come? I wondered.

Just as the idea began to take hold, the carriage doors opened, and Ling Wei stepped out. I fully expected to see Empress Revenah step out behind her, but the person I did see, caused my heart to jump.

And not in a good way.

“My dearest Iron Bull!”

Princess Lunalah gushed at me from afar with a wide smile, complete with lemonade. She was dolled up in what looked like a wedding dress, red and gold with all the trimmings and tassels. She threw her arms wide and my entourage all yelled out a haft-hearted “Surprise!” while wearing their plastic smiles.

I stood there stupefied.

What in the actual hell…?

“Oh look! He was surprised! Just like I said he would be!” Lunalah said, well pleased with herself as she giggled with delight.

I shot a questioning stare at Ling Wei but she shook her head with a helpless shrug.

“Alright, enough of this nonsense,” an authoritative voice called out from within the carriage. A man with a salt and pepper beard then emerged, wearing imperial robes. I recognized him immediately as the Councilman I had met with Empress Revenah on Scalia. Jin Yoo Sai or something. “Don’t just stand there, Marshal Bull. I have important matters to discuss with you. We shall converse in the carriage on the way to the starport.”

“Starport?” Hun Wu said looking up at me. “You plan to travel now?”

I gave her a shrug. “I guess so.”

“Then we should prepare to travel as well,” Zin Tai said, stepping behind us.

Hun Wu scowled for a second, before plastering on a pleasant smile as she turned to face him. “Yes, we should. Come.”

And with that she casually took his hand into hers.

Damn, I thought. This chick works fast.

“Will you hurry up please!” Jin Yoo Sai snapped.

A flicker of anger sparked within me at his hostile tone.

“I’ll meet you guys at the starport,” I said and then turned my attention to Jin Yoo Sai. “I’m coming!”

As I stepped into the carriage, I did my best to ignore Lunalah’s grabby hands as she tried to hug me, while shooting a deathly stare at Jin Yoo Sai.

“And it’s Iron Bull,” I said.

*

*

*

I endured more of Lunalah’s sickening lemonade as she sat across from me in the carriage and rested her hand on my knee. Ling Wei thankfully sat beside me and across from her was Jin Yoo Sai. Servants then hauled the sedan into the air and we began a slow and totally unnecessary carriage ride to wherever we were headed.

“So, were you truly surprise?” Lunalah asked.

I used [Indifference] to hide the eyeroll but not the ironic tone. “Very…”

She gave herself a little clap. “Splendid. It’s because the Omni Gate is now completed. And ahead of schedule.” She let out a haughty laugh as she pointed at Ling Wei. “And can you believe that ‘This One’, said I should not speak to the work crews when I visited them?” She then leaned forward towards her. “You are a complete novice when it comes to ruling Ling Wei. It’s my words of encouragement that saw the gate now completed well ahead of time. If I’d listened to you I might well have missed my own court date. I truly hope that such was not your true intent.”

“No! Of course not, your majesty!” Ling Wei said, blushing with embarrassment and alarm. “Yes, this one simply gave poor advice. I am to blame for that.”

“You certainly did,” Lunalah said with a scoff. “Idiot.”

I burned inwardly at the berating and recalled that slap she had given Ling Wei before.

Damn evil bitch, I thought.

But outwardly I played it cool.

“Well Ling Wei’s done a great job for me here,” I said. “I couldn’t have gotten half the things I needed accomplished without her. She’s top notch in my books.”

Lunalah blinked surprised. “Oh? Is she? Well, good job then, I suppose, Ling Wei.”

Ling Wei blushed again. “Thank you, both.”

“Can we please drop these pointless trivialities now?” Jin Yoo Sai snapped again. “There are far more important things to discuss.”

I glanced at him again and could see the tension and stress on his face. I’d only met him once before, but he was a hell of a lot more chill than this. “You’ve got the floor, councilman. I’m all ears.”

Jin Yoo Sai let out a long sigh. “I should blame myself for all this, really. It’s I who gave the empress the idea, after all. But nevertheless, I have approached the High Council on your behalf Marshal Iron Bull, with a petition to restore the cursed planet of Dokumu if they allowed you access and to grant the royal title of Duke if successful.”

“And he succeeded!” Lunalah blurted. “You have your ac—!”

“It wasn’t as easy as that,” Jin Yoo Sai cut her off. “To be honest I was nearly laughed out of the damn council chamber. But thankfully a handful of my colleagues had heard news of your potent demonstration at the Fire Bird clan. Your patriarch Wing Lang and Grand Master Zin Tai submitted written testimonials supporting the petition. You should really thank them for your access.”

Damn, I thought. Zin Tai had come through for me yet again. Not sure if he was a friend or foe, really. Maybe a bit of both.

“Well, that’s great,” I said. “I’m ready.”

“I certainly hope you are,” Jin Yoo Sai said, still sounding agitated. “Because now, thanks to my stepdaughter, you need to accomplish all this ahead of the trial in barely three weeks’ time.”

“I am not your stepdaughter!” Lunalah screamed at the top of her lungs. “You are not married to my mother!”

The outburst shocked me.

It was like she had transformed into a bratty six-year-old kid instantly.

“Silence, you insufferable child!” Jin Yoo Sai shouted right back at her. “Do you realize how much of my reputation I have risked on this petition? It would have been better off for him to attempt this task well after your trial. Years from now perhaps. The way I’m feeling now, however, it would serve you damn right if he failed and left you to defend yourself in court!”

A long an uncomfortable silence took hold as Ling Wei and I shared a nervous glance.

“Well, it doesn’t matter what you feel or think, Jin,” Lunalah said cockily. “Because my mother has already approved of it. So it’s happening now, whether you like it or not.”

Anger steamed from within Jin Yoo Sai. “Your mother has ruined you far worse than any of your sisters. Her precious little baby Lunalah.”

“You’re just jealous.”

What the hell was going on here?

“Look,” I said. “While I appreciate the family dysfunction on display, what’s happening with the court case now? What has changed?”

“Go on and tell him,” Jin Yoo Sai spat, throwing his hands in the air. “Go on and tell him the spoiled little brat plan of yours.”

I looked to Lunalah. “What is he talking about?”

Lunalah waggled her eyebrows at me with a huge grin. “Well…I was thinking what would be the best occasion to reveal our secret to the world? And I thought why not at the pinnacle of your success and in the largest public eye possible. So…after you do the thing with the planet and the council makes you a Duke, you’ll have your fight in the ring to defend me and upon your victory, we shall announce our betrothal to be wed.”

“Betrothal?!” Ling Wei said.

She took the words right out of my mouth. “Are you serious?”

“Of course I am!” she said. “We can even be wed in the capital. It will be a grand affair. I’ve already made most of the preparations. You need only show up and win the match and my hand will be yours.”

I let out a huff, stupefied.

I was hoping to have some time to plan on how I was going to slowly work my way out of the engagement after I secured my title, but now this crazy bitch was forcing my hand. And before I had even succeeded upon Dokumu no less.

I was starting to understand Jin Yoo Sai’s irritation earlier.

It had nothing to do with me.

And stepdaughter?

This family was really messed up.

“So you see now why we are suddenly under a strict time schedule,” Jin Yoo Sai said. “It will take 5 days to reach the planet and back, which will leave barely a week for you to accomplish what would take, in my estimation, a full month’s campaign by a skilled battalion with seasoned infantry.” He then harrumphed. “You, on the other hand, are headed into this blindly with only yourself. I don’t care how powerful you are. No plan survives contact with the enemy, and I doubt you even have one.”

He was kind of right there, but shit, I barely had a plan for anything besides staying true to my path.

“He does have powerful allies,” Ling Wei said. “And the lady, Blue Rose, is a legionnaire as well.”

“On a planet that, were you to die, your soul would be trapped forever?” Jin Yoo Sai shook his head. “Even I would not risk my men upon such a place. You could have picked a much easier world to liberate, Iron Bull.” He then cast a baleful glance at Lunalah. “Especially if you had more time.”

“Enough about the time,” Lunalah said. “It’s happening.”

“Only because you force it to!”

“That’s right!”

“But why?”

“Because it’s what I want!”

I tuned them out as they went back and forth again.

The [Odds truly were Against Me], but I knew that from the start. What I didn’t know, was that now, even after I survived, I would have to somehow survive this sham marriage as well. Once she made that announcement, especially before the High Council, it would be nearly impossible to back out of. Which left killing her off after we got married the only option. Which might not be a bad way to go, but crap, I didn’t want to have to get married to her at all.

And with a jacked-up family like this?

Shit, I much rather stay dead on Dukumu.

My irritation steeped as the bickering continued.

Finally, I’d had enough.

“Look, its fine!” I shouted. “I was already prepared to do this. Her timeframe makes no difference to me. I thank you Councilman for making the arrangements. I won’t let you down.”

Jin Yoo Sai raised his brows in surprise. “Well…that’s somewhat refreshing. A little gratitude for once.”

I sensed his appreciation was genuine and as he gave me a little head nod, I returned the gesture.

“I truly hope you are successful as well,” he said. “For your own sake, at least.” He then cast a side eye at Lunalah. “As for your betrothal to my stepdaughter, may the heavens help you both.”