A giddy excitement filled me as I hobbled towards the city gates.

Even the extra weight of Mu Lin, slung over my shoulder in a fireman’s carry, didn’t seem to slow me down. Luckily most of the damage was limited to my torso, leaving my legs relatively functional. Luckily? The logic of that was probably backwards, but whatever, the pain was still there as a reminder of how close I’d come to actually dying. Each shuffled step was a lesson in agony but with my newfound knowledge it was also a chance to cultivate.

Or so I hoped.

I could still remember the basics of the nine tiers of cultivation mastery within the Body Reformation Realm and the grueling exercise regime that came with it. The first five tiers were relatively mundane and were devoted to bringing the body to its peak performance through physical effort alone.

1st Tier, breathing exercises.

2nd Tier, muscles refinement.

3rd Tier, bone strengthening.

4th Tier, skin hardening.

5th Tier, organs refinement.

I suppose I was a natural athlete of sorts because those tiers came somewhat easy to me in school. The endless running and the repetition of basic martial forms, the lifting and carrying of weights. Even my routine beatings, I suppose, had added to my bone strengthening and skin hardening mastery. The next few tiers were a bit more challenging for me, though. The 6th Tier was the Focusing of Mind which involved meditation and studying mantras. Although I had struggled with the memorization at times, I got the practice down at least. The next tiers however I knew in theory only, but I could see them clearly laid out in my mind.

7th Tier, Meridian Opening.

8th Tier, Meridian Channeling.

9th Tier, Qi Perception.

I was stuck on the 7th tier, knowing where the meridians were on the body, but no matter how much I meditated I could not sense them, much less open them.

Until now.

If what Threja had told me was true, then I had not just skipped the 7th and 8th tiers of mastery and mastered the 9th Tier of Qi Perception—or our version of Qi perception anyway—but I had also broken through to the first tier of Foundation Mastery, which was Qi gathering.

So, for the last half mile or so, I had been testing the theory out, trying to detect the pain coursing through my body. I didn’t think I could detect anything at first, the pain running through my side so sharp that it caused me to hiss with each step. Finally, I tried to ignore the pain, focusing my mind on something else, the same way I had endured the beating in the square by focusing on my childhood loss. I knew I could slip into a state where I could feel almost nothing at times. I tried that, but the effort of trying to walk, while at the same time balancing Mu Lin kept breaking my focus.

It was too much, I thought. I could passively transport myself to someplace else when someone else was causing the pain, but not when I seemed to be causing it myself. I needed something simpler perhaps, something more focused.

I thought back to something Theja had said and paraphrased it within my mind, turning it into a mantra of sorts. A berserker has no master, we have no sect. Rage, pain and struggle are our only teachers.

I repeated it over and over again with each step, but then I personalized it some more.

I am a berserker. I have no master, I have no sect. Rage, pain and struggle are my only teachers.

I continued until I began speaking it aloud and hearing my own voice seemed to reinforce my belief. “I am a berserker. I have no master, I have no sect. Rage, pain and struggle are my only teachers.”

Suddenly I began to feel something. The pain was still there but I could detect something else as well. A prickly sensation that was almost like pins and needles began forming on top of the pain. I focused on that as my chanting continued and the more I did the more pronounced it became.

Holy crap, am I really doing this?

I tried not to let my excitement break my focus as I sought to attempt the next tier of mastery. If I could sense this energy, could I now try to gather it?

I knew the theory as to how, by redirecting it through the meridian points of the body and gathering it at the central point known as the Dantian. I knew where it was: three finger widths below and two behind the navel, but it was a bit like trying to drive a car by reading only a book and also having no idea of the basic concepts, like what a steering wheel looked like, or what a hand brake was. I knew the meridian points and could sense them now, but I didn’t know how to match what I was sensing to the mental images of them in my mind.

The energy flowed wildly as a result, sometimes concentrating in a single leg or arm, or bouncing in between. But I was really doing it. I was cultivating my own Qi! Well, sort of. Threja had called it something else.

Frenzy…

Normal cultivation absorbed the life force energy of all things and then through refinement turned it into your own personal form of energy: Qi. But the Qi was flavored by the particular process used—no different than how the lightning core had taken on the characteristics of the martial arts form that monk had practiced for perhaps most of his life. If this tingling sensation was Pain Qi? Then how exactly did I go about processing it into Frenzy?

I knew where the answers lay.

The metal orb was now almost burning a hole in my backpack for how desperately I wanted to put everything else aside and just dive into it. I was almost tempted to read a few verses now, but with the Bloodmoon on the rise I needed to get both Mu Lin and I to safety.

Still, the fine script I’d seen on its surface reminded me of the complicated cultivation manuals that they used to force us to memorize in school. I had hated it at the time. It was pointless to me after all, plus I had an axe to grind against the whole damn system. But now it was a godsend. I at least knew the basics to start to attempt to understand this new form of cultivation and my thirst for knowledge had me on the brink of turning into a bookworm.

But even more than that there was the elation of feeling true power. To finally feel for myself what was simply ‘magic’ to me before. The things I just couldn’t do, were now possible.

I can now do this, I thought. “I can actually do this!”

“Ugh, Chun…” Mu Lin suddenly groaned. “What are you shouting about?”

“Mu Lin?”

“What’s going on? Put me down...”

The tingling of the pain energy quickly dissipated as I lost focus and the full-on regular hiss-through-your-teeth pain returned. I stifled it as I stooped to rest Mu Lin as gently as I could against the side of the barrier wall. The sun was nearly gone now, and the shadows stretched long across the ground. It hadn’t really registered before, but it had been at least 4 hours or more since we fought with those sect members.

Mu Lin was still opening and closing her eyes groggily and holding a hand to her head. “What happened?”

It took me a moment to answer, not knowing quite what to say. As she lay there in the grass against the fading light though, I realized that I had never really seen her without her glasses before. I also wondered why she even wore them at all, but I supposed even Body Refinement mastery could only take you to your peak natural ability. It would perhaps take her reaching the 3rd Tier of Foundation mastery or Qi Body Refinement to enhance her eyes to the point of not needing glasses anymore. But without them, I realized for the first time how pretty she was. Deep sparking brown eyes, a slender nose and high set cheeks bones despite the couple of extra pounds. I immediately felt like a bit of an asshole though for looking at her in that way, especially in the state she was in.

“Hey, are you okay?” I said and then more importantly added, “do you remember anything?”

It took her a few more seconds to come around, but then her eyes shot open. “Those men! The Fire Bird members, they killed the old monk! Where did they—”

“It’s okay, they’re gone now.”

“How? What happened to them?” Her eyes then darted back and forth, growing even wider as she studied me. “Heavens, Chun! What did they do to you? You look awful!”

“Thanks,” I said with a cheesy grin. “But don’t worry, I’m okay, and they’re all…” I paused a moment, pondering just how much I should share with her. Telling her about Threja being a berserker and killing them was probably a bad idea. “…they’re all dead,” I said. “I managed to get them to chase me and I ran them into a Rapling nest.”

“You what?” she said, her dark brows pulling together with a furrow of skepticism. “You actually managed to do that?”

It felt bad as hell lying to her, so I just gave her a sort of nod. I probably should have picked a more plausible monster too. Raplings were dog-sized lizards that hunted in packs; faster and more vicious versions of a Komodo Dragon that could also spit fire. Against a normal human, even one was deadly, but they were only D rank monsters, which meant against three cultivators at the level of the Fire Bird members were, even a pack of them would give only a ‘lively’ challenge at best. Still, I had to stick to my story now.

“Yup.”

I could tell her scholarly mind was already ticking away behind those dark eyes of hers, tearing my story apart. Mu Lin probably knew all this ranking stuff and comparative power levels way better than I did. The imperial government had published rankings on all the known creatures in the wilds. If there was one thing I could say for the cultivators, it was they liked to categorize damn near everything. It was like an endless dick measuring competition that crossed all segments of their society, from cooking to the magic Kung Fu I could now wield. Or at least I soon hoped to wield anyway. I wondered if it was kind of racist or something to say Magic Kung Fu these days. People didn’t even use the word Kung Fu anymo—

“Chun! Did you hear me?”

“What?” I said, realizing it was lost in my own thoughts.

“I said are you sure they’re all dead? For what they did to that old man, they’d want no witnesses. Trust me.”

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

“Gods, I hope so…” She breathed out a sigh and seemed to calm down some. “I’m not sure they even were true Fire Bird Sect members. They were more like thugs.”

I shrugged. “Hey who knows what kind of ilk they fill their outer disciple ranks with these days?”

“Come on,” she said. “We need to go and report this.” She then glanced up at the twilight sky. “Nine hells! It’s this late? Why are we even out here talking, Chun? We need to get to the gate! Quick!”

“Come on then, let’s go,” I said, welcoming the shift in focus.

I lifted her up and was about to hoist her over my shoulder again when she stopped me. “No, let me ride on your back. Your shoulder digs into my stomach too much carrying me like that.”

I did as she asked and after a few painful winces from her as she locked her wounded thigh about my waist, she then wrapped her arms around my neck while I supported her weight the best I could with my good arm.

I then started my shuffle again, enduring the full pain without trying to cultivate this time. Luckily there wasn’t much farther to go anyway and the lights from the gate were already in view. Still, I pressed on with relative speed as the wind picked up and the echoing howls of unnatural creatures drifted upon it. The eerie sound had my imagination stirring. Normally, hearing them at night would have reminded me of my family again, but for some reason it didn’t give me that same sense of fear anymore. Perhaps it was my [Death Mastery] kicking in or something, but I thought instead of Threja and wished her well against her soon to be demonic foes.

“Thank you, Chun,” Mu Lin suddenly whispered softly and her grip around me tightened with what I supposed was a kind of hug, her face nestling into my back. “You saved my life.”

I heard her sniffle a little and then realized she must be crying. With the initial shock wearing off, I guess the full impact of the trauma she’d been through was just now starting to take hold.

“Hey, I don’t know if I can take credit for that,” I said while cracking the cheesiest smile I could, hoping that she could hear it in my voice. “Running blindly for your life from three maniacs and then having the misfortune of diving right into a Rapling nest just happened to work out for me this time.”

She laughed and I counted the lie well worth telling to change her mood.

I then added to soothe my own conscience a bit and perhaps give credit where credit was due, “I guess you could chalk it up to some divine intervention being involved.”

She laughed again and then as if our minds were connected, Mu Lin said: “Hey, what happened to your client? The big giant woman.”

“Dunno,” I said. “She ran off after a bit. Guess she was hell bent on going at it alone.”

“Seriously? What an idiot. I guess that’ll be the last we’ll ever see of her.”

I chuckled half-heartedly, the thought bittersweet. I then stared out into the darkness. “Yeah, I guess so.”

As we finally approach the light of the gate, I saw something that made my chest tighten. I had been preparing myself for dealing with Sumatra—the big idiot was no doubt going to throw a fit when he saw us returning without the clients, but never did I expect to see him like this.

Standing just outside the gate, he was surrounded by no less than ten enforcers and one high-ranking member of the imperial guard, who also appeared to be a member of the Silver Leaf Sect.

“Oh crap,” I whispered as my heart rate sped…

The lightning core tucked away in my sling seemed to start burning a hole against my arm. My stupid bag of cocaine in a customs line analogy had just become very, very real.