Chapter 44

I was reduced to little more than a slave for the next four hours, cultivating Frenzy while I busted my ass. The Struggler was having a damn field day, the Demon roiling furiously in his cage while I kept my anger pent up deep inside.After sweeping, mopping and tidying the dorms, Shen Ju sent me to clean the latrines. My dad used to tell me stories like this about when he was in the army, but I barely paid attention to them back then. Now it was the only think I could think of as I bit my lip and scrubbed a damn toilet.

This shit had to be way worse than being in the army, I thought.

When I finally got done, I was allowed to go eat in the dining hall, which was located on the top-most floor, next to the kitchen. But before that, I had to join a handful of other similarly dressed initiates to serve soup and noodles to our more senior brethren.

I was starving by the time they allowed us to eat, and thankfully they gave us a common pot of food to eat from. Knowing the death threat from Shen Ju, I wouldn’t put it past him to try and poison me on the first day.

The food was absent of any real flavor. The same as the conversation between the six or seven of us initiates as we sat down at a table to eat together. All of them were younger than me, but had probably been in the sect a lot longer. A couple of them glanced at me with a measure of awe, knowing my reputation for killing Yin Chu perhaps, but the rest held the same disdain as the bulk of the sect, it seemed.

I kept to myself after dinner, avoiding contact with anyone as I sat on my cot waiting for nightfall. Thankfully most of my roommates kept their distance from me as I sent out a low-key aura of [Fear the Flame], but eventually a group of four of them gathered a few cots away, whispering between themselves as they stared at me like some kind of zoo exhibit.

“What do you think he did?” one of them said.

“It’s punishment for killing Yin Chu, obviously.”

“Who cares? Master Hong Feng has put him in his rightful place. No one should start at the top.”

“Yes, especially as a Terran. Master Hong Feng said they are the most useless fodder the empire has ever seen.”

“Is that true?”

“I don’t know. I’m just glad I was born Yee.”

They all laughed and chuckled after that.

I listened while they continued to speculate about my source of power and my position within the sect, taking it all in with a mask of [Indifference]. Inwardly, I focused on my cultivation, turning the anger and resentment building within my heart into sweet, concentrated Frenzy.

If there was any silver lining to this place, it was that.

So far, being in the Fire Bird Sect was generating me a shit load of Frenzy.

Hopefully I’d have the opportunity to unleash it on them all someday.

These four jackoffs in particular.

“Master Hong Feng has summoned you,” someone called from the doorway, and I saw it was the same portly doorman with the eyebrows who I’d encountered earlier. Ju Gong, I recalled his name was.

Grabbing my lightning and fundamentals manual, I got up and followed him downstairs, eliciting fresh stares of resentment from the jackoffs due to being summoned by the master, no doubt. Ju Gong led me to a closed door somewhere on the second floor where Hong Feng was waiting for me.

He grinned. “Adjusting well to your new home, Brother Chun?”

I remembered to bow before I spoke. “Yes, it’s quite a nice place, Master Hong Feng.”

He harrumphed at the ice in my tone. “I will show you where you can study.”

Dismissing Ju Gong, he led me inside where a small room was outfitted with several bookshelves, a prayer mat and a small desk and chair.

“You have access to all of this,” Hong Feng said, gesturing to the bookshelves. “And you may work as late as you like. You may even sleep here as well.”

That sounded a lot more appealing than sleeping with those assholes.

I glanced up and down the shelves. There were titles on history and philosophy and some manuals on cultivation. Too many to digest in a brief scan. “Is there a manual here for learning the techniques you showed me the other day?”

He paused for a second, looking at me as if I just asked for a thousand Taels of silver. And hell, maybe I had. Finally, he laughed. “Such a thing must be earned, Brother Chun. Both through blood and trust.”

I guess that was to be expected. Sharing contraband martial manuals was one thing, but showing me the secrets to an illegal form of cultivation was another. But I had no interest in learning how to become a soul-sucking demon. The ability to mask my Frenzy like them however was a different story. “I was more referring to the ability to bolster your spiritual aspect as a mask. The one you use to keep hidden from the empire. I think that might help me in my breakthrough of the lightning technique.”

I purposefully pulled on our common hatred of the empire to elicit trust, but by the frown on his face it wasn’t enough. He finally just tapped on the desk where a stack of paper and pen was prepared.

“Let’s see what you can produce first,” he said with a smile. “A secret for a secret. See you in the morning, Brother Chun.”

* * *

Hours went by as I leafed through the books of the library. There were more history books than anything else, records of thousands of years of Imperial conquest over hundreds if not thousands of worlds. Some of it was interesting but I didn’t have time to waste on that. By the time I finished cataloging what was actually useful, I wound up with a more detailed version of the fundamentals manual and several tomes on fire aspect cultivation.

This had to be their lowest grade of library, I figured. Hong Feng had a better selection from his chest full of black-market wares than this. This was probably what was available to all outer disciples and initiates. Especially the fire manuals. Which was perhaps more of a front than a fundamental core teaching.

It made me wonder if all Fire Bird Sects were rooted in this demonic heritage, or if perhaps only this particular branch was. Maybe the hundred or so history books would have the answer, but likely this was a localized thing.

Hong Feng did say the Yee had conquered his homeworld and forced them to assimilate. Perhaps fire was the easiest aspect they could use to mask their Dark Frenzy cultivation. It made me wonder if lightning would be any easier. I didn’t know, of course, but to even get that far I needed to create lightning first.

That spurred me into action, and I paged through the lightning manual even though I had already memorized it. I knew the meridian sequences, the core of the techniques, but without solid Frenzy, there seemed no way to turn my Flame into a spark.

I tried nonetheless, aiming to condense my liquified Frenzy even further. Test after test, all I could create was a ball of fire in my palm. I referred to the fundamentals manual again.

Foundation Establishment

1st

Qi Gathering

2nd

Qi Channeling

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Qi Body Refinement

4th

Qi Mental Refinement

5th

Qi concentration

6th

Qi Manifestation (internal)

7th

Qi Manifestation (external)

8th

Qi Condensing

9th

Qi Hardening

According to the path of ascension, I was certainly on the 9th Tier of Foundation Establishment by now. I had pretty much maxed out everything else. The thought made me pause for a minute. Frenzy wise, I was only a Foundation Realm cultivator, but I had just defeated someone who was a Core Realm Qi cultivator. Was the power of my Flame a whole bracket above normal cultivation standards? So far it seemed to be. But did that mean I’d be fighting Gold Bracket cultivators when I reached Core, or Jade and Diamond Bracket cultivators when I reached Sacred Soul? The idea stirred a hunger and thirst for power within me. It seemed almost too good to be true, but Threja did say Berserkers were feared for a reason.

Everything I’d experienced thus far pointed to that being the case, that the Frenzied Flame was on an entirely different tier than Qi cultivation. Perhaps Hong Feng knew this as well. Which was why he was affording me so many privileges to unlock my secrets.

But I’d have to take advantage of them quickly. I could only bullshit Hong Feng for so long. Sooner or later he was going to figure out I was selling him a lie. Still, this was perhaps the trickiest part of my path thus far. I was skirting the edge of my Flame, but only by learning how to mask my abilities completely and gaining open acceptance in the wider society could I truly let my powers soar to the heavens. I’d gotten a taste of that when I’d fought Yin Chu. I was outclassed in skill, but it didn’t matter.

In the end, strength was all it took.

And being able to wield that strength freely in the arena and on the streets was why I needed that bastard Hong Feng to sign those papers and make me a bona fide sect member. And for that I needed to create lightning.

I scoured the fundamentals manual for what it took for Qi solidification. After an hour I had pretty much found the same result in both books and it was what I already knew. It took a shitload of Qi to make a breakthrough to the Core Realm and solidify Qi. Most did so by using potions and pills created from high-quality beast cores harvested from S-rank monsters. Either that or mountains of spirit stones.

But what was the equivalent of that for me?

My generation of Frenzy depended on the challenge I faced.

Maybe I’d have to challenge something so massive it’d pretty much kill me.

Like an S Class maybe…

Suddenly that thought reminded me of something else.

There was one more requirement for me to break through to the next realm. I recalled Threja’s words to me, the image of the giantess forming in my mind’s eye. “The [Death Mastery] technique I mentioned earlier is one of our core tenets. You cannot break through into higher realms of cultivation without advancing it. Your next advancement will be to gain mastery over the fear of certain death.”

[Death Mastery]… that was the key. And the fear of certain death…that was my next plateau. But what would that mean in practical terms?

I let out a sigh.

“One step at a time,” I told myself.

Before I could do any of that I needed to be able to cut loose. And that meant learning this secret technique from the Fire Birds. And for that, I needed to offer up something to Hong Feng. A secret for a secret. I let out a sigh and prepared for what I needed to do next.

Then, sitting to the desk, I picked up the pen and began to write.

* * *

“What is this?” Hong Feng said, squinting at my page full of prose.

I’d stayed writing till past midnight, sleeping on the floor. As promised, Hong Feng had come to find me early in the morning. His eyes flicked back and forth over the Yee characters, his brow deeply furrowed.

“Shura 1: The path of fury. Fury within the heart of the strong is profane, but Fury within the heart of the weak is strength. Train your fury through a thousand slaps to the face. If you are one of strength, choose one who is lesser than you. If you are one of weakness, choose one who is stronger than you. Contemplate on the Fury this generates in your heart and you will have made the first step towards mastering your inner rage.”

Hong Feng glared at it even more skeptically as he finished reading. I’d written a lot more—details on how to prepare your face to be slapped, meridians to focus on. It wasn’t complete bullshit. I’d borrowed a few pieces from the orb and the [Indifference] technique, but it was definitely all made up.

Hong Feng cocked an eyebrow. “Face slapping?”

I shrugged with [Struggler’s Resolve]. “It’s what I did to start. If you don’t believe me, ask Du Mak. He’ll tell you.”

He harrumphed again. “Du Mak?”

“He’s the man.”

He seemed even less convinced, but I didn’t care. I knew his curiosity was piqued enough to follow through. After another second or so, he confirmed it.

“Ju Gong!” he called into the hallway and a moment later the portly cultivator appeared.

“Yes, master?”

“Send Du Mak to meet me in my study,” he said and then pausing a moment he added, “And tell him to bring a glove.”

Ju Gong bowed and then ran off.

I had to use [Indifference] to keep from laughing. I could only imaging how their first face slapping session would go. Just as he was about to leave, I stopped Hong Feng by tapping on the stack of papers on the desk.

“Um…I believe you said a secret for a secret?”

Hong Feng squinted at me for a moment as if surprised I was asking him to deliver on his promise, but finally he grabbed the pen and wrote down a series of characters.

He handed it to me and it looked like steps in a meridian opening sequence.

“The masking technique you’re so interested in,” he said. “Part of it.” He then shook the script I’d written in his hands. “You will get more, when I get more of this.”

As he turned and walked away, I couldn’t help but wonder if we weren’t both playing each other. Who was to say if what he had written down was any more credible than the nonsense I had. Fortunately for me, there was no way for him to fact check my scribbles. But for him, I had the perfect way to get to the truth.

After his face slapping session with Hong Feng, I would have to seek out Du Mak.