Path of the Berserker Chapter 24

Xi Xha woke early the next morning to continue what we ended up doing late into last night. By the ti we finished, she collapsed onto my chest, both of us breathing heavily as the first rays of dawn peered through the windows from outside.

“Ugh, I have to get going,” she said with a groan. “I really do need to teach classes today.”

“Sa… well, kill monsters, not teach kids.”

She laughed giving a quick peck on the cheek while tickling my abs with her fingertips. “Thanks for the great night.”

“Thank you,” I said with a grin. As I watched her getting dressed, I had to admit that Xi Xha was in many ways nothing like the person I expected her to be. My first impression of her intentions when it ca to Mu Lin especially. “Hey, thanks for what you’re doing for Mu Lin, by the way. I know you’re taking a big risk by helping her. It’s really nice of you.”

She smiled as she slipped on her underclothes. “Mu Lin’s a smart girl. She deserves a chance at the academy. She may even surpass . Take care of her for , out there, will you? She’s so close to being able to pass this exam. I really hope she can focus.”

“Yeah. Timing’s not great for that. Work is picking up like crazy with all the off- worlders coming in for the tournant.”

“I can imagine.”

“Speaking of which… you never really answered . Can you help out or what?”

She laughed, shaking her head. “You really are sothing, you know that? But who am I to stand in the way of a man and his ambition? Yes, I can help you, Chun. But the most I can give you is a contact. From there you’ll be on your own. Are you sure you want this, though? These can be dangerous people.”

I flexed with [Struggler’s Resolve], showing off my scars while giving her a cheesy grin. “Does it look like I fear danger?”

She laughed with lemonade again, playfully whipping one of her stockings at . “Give a few days. I’ll arrange sothing. I’ll contact you through Mu Lin.”

“Thanks.”

I then thought back to those Fire Bird mbers and that strange Frenzy I felt coming from them. I still had no idea what it was. Could they have been unkindled? All three of them? Maybe I wasn’t the only Berserker here, but three altogether seed unlikely. Although I had no idea how likely or unlikely finding another Berserker even was.

I gazed at Xi Xha as she fixed her hair. If there was ever a chance to ask an expert on the matter, now was the ti. It was a risk but screw it. I was already risking enough just trusting Xi Xha with the Jianghu connection.

“Hey, have you ever heard of Berserkers before?”

She paused, looking at bemused. “That’s an odd question.”

I quickly ca up with a lie. “A client I was with ntioned them once. I’d never heard of them.”

She chuckled. “I’d be surprised if you had. I don’t think anyone has even seen one of those Daoists in centuries.”

“Centuries?” Perhaps Berserkers were not as wide-spread or well known as I had assud.

“From what I can recall, yes. They were quite an obscure group. More the realm of myth and legend now.”

“I see. And what’s a Daoist?”

“Sorry. I forget you might not know these terms.” She rushed about, kicking on her sandals. “They’re like… knock-off cultivators that utilize unorthodox practices. Usually form cults and such.”

“Cults. Are they illegal?”

“Illegal? No. Well so may be depending on what they practice. So artisans are Daoist, but martial Daoists like the Berserkers you ntioned are rare and not tolerated. That’s why the Dynasty put an end to them centuries ago.”

“How would you even recognize one?”

She laughed. “I truly do not know. But I must go.” She leaned down to give another kiss on the lips. “We should do this again soti.”

I smiled at her. “Definitely.”

She then gave a wink. “But next ti, let’s just skip the dinner.”

* * *

After Xi Xha left, I ditated a bit on what she’d said. While the warnings from Threja and the orb were quite pronounced, perhaps they were both speaking from a more historic perspective, especially considering how old Threja might actually be. According to Xi Xha, Berserkers seed more like boogie n from the past. Although knowing that didn’t an I was going to start advertising my Frenzied Fla, it at least made feel a bit better that no one would instantly point at and shout “Berserker” if I pulled off sothing a mortal shouldn’t be able to do.

Although those Fire Bird mbers did just that, I mused.

They were able to peg Threja for exactly what she was. Perhaps that had given a false impression about how commonly known Berserkers were. But after having experienced that strange Frenzy, maybe they knew sothing about Berserkers. Xi Xha just said they hadn’t officially existed in centuries, but could the Fire Birds be so secret sect of Berserkers?

It didn’t quite gel with my Fla though. First, Berserkers didn’t have sects. And what I sensed was ‘like’ Frenzy, but it definably wasn’t the exact sa thing. If Frenzy was wine then what I tasted from them was more like vinegar. The sa substance just corrupted. It made wonder even more exactly what the hell it was.

But one thing was clear. They must have found a way to mask it sohow. Unless only I could detect it due to my Fla. Sothing else beca clear to too. While people might not recognize as a Berserker right away, a guy with no Qi cutting loose like I could, was eventually going to raise enough brows for people to start looking deeper. Plus, if I was going to pull off competing in the martial tournant at anything above the shit-tier league or do anything significant for that matter, I’d have find so way to explain my abilities.

Hell, even last night I’d gotten lucky that those three Fire Birds were less than Foundation Realm. knocking one of them unconscious could be explained away. But I wasn’t always going to get so lucky, and my path wouldn’t allow to back down from a challenge.

As I thought so more, the beginnings of an idea started to take form, but then I realized I was already late for work.

“Shit,” I cursed. I’d have to ponder that so more while on the trail. Right now, I needed to get to killing more monsters.

* * *

Sumatra gave the usual shit for showing up late, making fun of my new haircut especially. I ignored him with [Indifference] and went straight to work with my three handlers from the day before. Today’s client seed of the sane variety thankfully. A low-tier Core Realm cultivator from off world who used a spear style she called the Heavenly Lance. When she told that she wanted sothing to test her agility, I took her past the swamps to an estuary that was ho to horse-sized crabs and man-sized birds.

The birds were for her. They were quick and annoying things, like giant angry seagulls that attacked in mobs. It proved the perfect prey for her, keeping her on her toes with her flashy spear techniques. The beaks and livers were also valuable and once I showed my guys how to harvest them, I set them up in an assembly line to process her seemingly never-ending stream of bird corpses as she went to work. Satisfied they had everything under control, I then skived off to go ‘scout’ for more prey.

When I got far enough away from all of them, I went to work on the crabs.

They were a lot faster than the belrugs and their pincers proved able to pierce my skin after one of them managed to snag my forearm right before I cut off its claw off. I used the opportunity to build more Frenzy from the pain and then utilized that to add to my reflexes and strength.

It dawned on then that if I were able to use [Iron Skin], I might have been able to withstand the claw attack completely. That got to focus on developing concentrated Frenzy. Recalling the chapters from Mu Li’s Foundation manual, the process of concentrating one’s internal energy involved a sort of refinent technique. That ant cycling my Frenzy through various ridians and purifying it before eventually compressing it into my Dantian.

I set that as my next goal.

As an hour went by, every few crabs I gave myself a break to try compressing my Frenzy while it was still freshly circulating within my body. Finding a nearby bay-leaf tree, I sat upon the branches in lotus position as I focused on my ridians.

Opening my mind’s eye, I visualized the process of my Frenzy circulating through my body. I imagined it being like heated water running through pipes and as the pipes passed beneath the pores on my skin, the heat was enough to let the bad parts evaporate away, leaving pure concentrated Frenzy behind. After about ten minutes of this I forced it all into my Dantian and imagined the walls of my mystic core squeezing down on it.

Sweat beaded on my brow as I strained with the process, trying to cycle in more concentrated Frenzy to increase the pressure. I wasn’t sure how long I was at it, losing all sense of ti as I focused on nothing else. And then with a strange ‘pop’-like sensation, the pressure in my Dantian suddenly decreased.

Shit, I thought. Had I just ruptured it or sothing?

As I fearfully tested my Frenzy again, I found that everything still worked fine, but where my Dantian had once been full, now it felt like my Frenzy barely filled a tenth the volu it had before. When I sampled it however, it was like taking a shot of straight plum wine.

“Man, that’s powerful,” I said, my eyes squinting.

Had I just done it, though? Had I just made my first batch of concentrated Frenzy?

Hopping out of the tree, I set about fighting a new crab, utilizing my techniques from my stored Frenzy alone. Sure enough, I could perform far more techniques than I could with the small amount of Frenzy in my tank. Once I killed the crab, I used the fresh Frenzy from my [Lust for Battle] to cultivate and concentrated so more.

It was a slow-going process as the crabs took so ti to fight and kill. But their quick movents and hard shells forced to make use of both evasive defensive skills and strong axe techniques to bust open their hard shells. This cultivated both Body Strengthening and Reflex Sharpening at the sa ti.

Once stored in a concentrated state, I found my Frenzy seed to be stable within my Dantian. With it now half full, I experinted a bit and found that I could use it normally, greatly increasing the number of techniques I could perform, or I could chug the stuff straight and greatly amplify a single technique.

But I wanted to do more with it than that.

After taking a break to make a brief check on the cultivator and my guys, I decided to move locations, finding her even more birds to kill. Thankfully they seed a decent challenge for the cultivator and she was happy to stick with the sa quarry.

By the ti I managed to get back to crab killing, I was eager to put my concentrated Frenzy to use in the form of a manifestation technique. I spent a good half hour studying the ridian technique for [Iron Skin] from mory and when I figured I had it down, I set up for a test.

Turning to the tree I was sitting in, I focused on a branch that was a good five inches thick. Exhaling, I focused directing my concentrated Frenzy to the heel of my palm. The technique lasted only a second, but it felt like it had worked. There was no visual confirmation of it though, just the feeling of my hand becoming as hard as rock.

“Ti to really test this out,” I said, squaring up with the tree.

I leapt into the air, performing [Two-Log Chop]. Mind reeling, I applied the complex ridian sequence to perform [Iron Skin] at the sa ti. My hand hit the tree and I cried out as if felt like every bone inside it shattered.

“Ah, shit!” I swore, dancing around in a circle while holding my swelling hand. “Dammit!”

What the hell was it with and trees? I thought. The branch in question looked none the worse for wear, my hand instead taking the full brunt of the technique. Thank goodness I didn’t use [Three-Log Chop]. I focused my concentrated Frenzy on healing as I dissipated the pain.

After twenty minutes I worked up the nerve to give it another go.

One thing was clear, this technique had very tight timing. If I was ever going to make use of it, I would have to be very fast at its execution. That made think of the value of ntal Quickness as an attribute. If I wanted to be able to perform multiple techniques in quick succession, I’d definitely have to increase my prowess within it.

Once I was ready, I jumped into the air once more, performing both techniques near simultaneously this ti. Concentrated Frenzy flowed into my palm and my entire hand went numb just as it struck the tree branch. With a splintering crack it broke in two, not quite a clean chop, but what was left was hanging by only a sliver of bark.

My heart pumped vigorously as the remnants of the technique surged within .

I looked at my hand, expecting for it to start throbbing again, but there was nothing.

No pain at all.

I smiled with satisfaction.

I could now successfully use manifestation techniques, but more than that, I realized that I had just reached mid-tier in my Foundation Realm training.

* * *

I practiced the technique a few more tis, getting down the timing just right before deciding to call it quits for the day. I rounded up my troops and the cultivator, stuffing our backpacks full of bird livers and beaks before heading back for the gate in the mid-afternoon sun.

As I led the way, I thought more and more about how quickly I was progressing, but I was about to hit a wall soon. While I was now able to hack down a tree with a damn karate chop, the more powerful I beca the more danger there was of revealing my secret to the world. When I was just starting out my skills could easily be interpreted as just a very strong mortal, but now I was really getting into true superhuman territory.

I would soon no longer be able to progress easily if I couldn’t start acting out in the open. At least sowhat anyway. As we neared the gate my brain was nearly fried trying to think of a solution. How did people even detect various Qi levels anyway? Was it similar to how I detected Frenzy? Perhaps I could ask Mu Lin.

A strong sense of déjà vu hit as I approached the gate. I recalled how panicked I was trying to hide the new-found gifts I’d just received from Threja, just a few weeks ago. I was starting to feel that way permanently now. Like at any mont I could be exposed.

And then a wild and radical thought occurred.

An idea maybe. But could it work?

As we got inside, I rushed around looking for the only person who could answer that question for .

“Mu Lin!”

I found her knee-deep in backpacks, stowing supplies for the next day. She frowned when she saw .

“Dammit, Chun! You made lose money.”

“Huh?”

“I bet Lee you weren’t going to show for work today, but I guess you just ca in late as usual.”

I laughed. “Yeah, that was a pretty wild night.”

“Yeah, it was. Thanks for taking us all out.”

“Hey, are you busy tonight?”

“What, again?” She shook her head. “No way. Go check Lee. I barely dragged myself through work today. I’m going straight ho and going to sleep.”

“No, no,” I said. “I want to co over.”

She looked at like I was stupid again. “What part of ‘going ho and going straight to sleep’ did you not understand?”

“Seriously, it won’t take long. I have sothing I want to show you.”

She furrowed her brow at suspiciously now but there was so curiosity there as well. “Show what?”

I grinned, throwing off my uniform. “You’ll find out when I get there. See you in about an hour.”