Path of the Berserker

THE MULTICOLORED HUES of neon Qi lighting ran criss-cross above the square of the central market district in the heart of downtown. It was twilight now and the Bloodmoon was on the rise, filling the city with an eerie red glow. Gui Zu walked next to me as we waded through the crowd, his large form now only slightly bigger than my own.

He still hadn’t said where we were headed yet.

After getting myself cleaned up and putting on some fresh clothes, Gui Zu told me we’d have to wait until nightfall to pay a visit to the mysterious cultivator who could solve all our problems. Even after pressing him for a name, he still wouldn’t tell me who it was, which raised all kinds of red flags for me.

I had my suspicions as to who he was taking me to, but I prayed to the heavens that I was wrong.

I finally dropped the issue with him and made myself busy for the rest of the day, ordering the supplies I needed for the wild as well as making arrangements with Master Edrik to find a tutor for Yu Li.

It turned out that cooking with Qi required the basic knowledge of alchemy. So after making some introductions, I approached a few master crafters with Yu Li and dropped a few Taels of silver to secure her training with both an Alchemy and Culinary sect. It was amazing what a reputation as the Iron Bull and a B-class citizenship could do. Were this three months ago, both Yu Li and I would have been chased from the artisan district like criminals, but now I was revered as a semi-celebrity.

Yu Li’s first lesson started in the morning and Gui Zu had graciously offered to mind Su Ling while she attended. That was one base of my master plan covered at least, but now covering this next one would be key. Finding someone who could defend the sect in my absence.

Gui Zu finally made a turn for the redlight district and then stopped outside a brothel.

“Really, Gui Zu?” I said with a raised brow. “Here?”

Gui Zu disappeared inside the brothel and then returned a moment later dragging someone behind him.

Yup, I was right, I thought, releasing a sigh.

I didn’t even need to see the stump for a hand to know who it was. There, dressed in a short skirt and a see-through top was Zu Tien, her face painted like a whore—which she literally was now, I presumed. A matronly-looking woman burst out the door behind them and began shouting obscenities, to which Gui Zu politely bowed and apologized.

“A thousand pardons, madame,” he said. “I’m just borrowing her for a moment.”

“It will still cost you, you pig! You pay for the full hour!”

“Yes, I’ll pay, auntie! I’ll pay!”

Zu Tien could barely look me in the face as Gui Zu dragged her before me, her soul trembling with fear. She was still as plain jane-looking as I remembered, dark hair, brown eyes, but the makeup did kick her up a few notches in the looks department. She hid her stump within the sleeve of her floral imprinted robe as she folded her arms across her chest self-consciously. She then immediately dropped to her knees and pressed her forehead to the ground.

“Most honorable and mighty Max Chun! Leader of the Terran Sect and Iron Bull of the arena!” she shouted towards the ground. “I beg your forgiveness for the multitude of sins I have committed against you and your sect! This Lowly One humbly begs for your boundless mercy once more!”

I looked at Gui Zu who was now grinning like an idiot.

“Did he tell you to say all that?”

A pause then more fear.

“Yes,” she said finally and then daring to glance up at me, she wailed with tears in her eyes. “But I would have said it anyway! Please I beg you, Master Chun! Give me but an opportunity and I will serve you with honor and loyalty. This I swear by the heavens!”

I didn’t know whether to feel honored or repulsed.

Zu Tien continued to stare at me with puppy dog eyes, but all I could remember was her being an arrogant little ass, hellbent on killing both me and Gui Zu.

“Stay here,” I told her and then looked to Gui Zu. “You, come with me.”

I left Zu Tien in a prostate position in the middle of the street, onlookers gawking at her while making snide comments and jeers. It looked humiliating as hell but that was probably just what she deserved considering all she had done.

“What the hell, man?” I grilled Gui Zu once we were out of earshot. “Are you serious? I knew it was going to be her! Why didn’t you tell me when I asked?”

“Would you have come if I did?”

He gave me one of his jacked-up smiles and I rolled my eyes.

Okay I guess he had a point there.

“Look, we’re not using her,” I said. “Did you forget she tried to kill you last week? Plus, the whole neighborhood associates her with Hein. They’ll want to kill her on sight.”

“Not if we vouch for her.”

“And why would we do that, Gui Zu?”

He frowned and looked over his shoulder at Zu Tien, her head still pressed to the tarmac. “Just look at her, brother. Is she the same woman that she was then? She’s broken now. You broke her. Just like you broke me.”

The invisible punch to the gut took me by surprise.

It was true.

I was the one who had shattered Gui Zu’s teeth and gotten him kicked out of the Silver Leaf Sect. But there was no malice in his words. From anyone else it would have been a dig, but from Gui Zu there was nothing but honesty and compassion in his tone.

He truly saw himself in her, I guessed.

“You took pity on me after my defeat,” Gui Zu said. “You showed me that true strength is found in the mercy of the strong and not in the callousness of the wicked, like Young Master Hein. And you, Brother Max, your compassion is rivaled only by your strength. Please have pity on her. She’s lost everything now.”

I sighed. “How’d you even find her?”

“She came and found me. After Master Hein sold her to this place.”

“What? He sold her?”

“After you spared her life, Hein apparently begged for permission to kill her. But her old mistress forbade it. Zu Tien said she was even going to take her back into the conclave of the Silver Shadows, but then Hein went and got rid of her in secret and sold her to this place.”

“Her old mistress? You mean Lady Silver Light?”

“Yes, the woman you will face in a year’s time.”

Wow, I guess Fia really does have a kind heart.

It made me long for her again.

For a real future with her even.

Somehow.

I glanced over at Zu Tien. She was the first person who ever tried to kill me and nearly succeeded. By the time I faced her again though, I’d grown so strong that she felt barely stronger than a mortal to me. Still, she was one of those ninja-like women that Fia commanded, a Silver Shadow, trained in the same martial arts as the Silver Leaf Clan.

“What did you promise her?”

“Nothing,” Gui Zu said quickly. “Just a meeting. I was going to bring it up later but when you brought forward this new need for a proxy… well…it seemed like the perfect fit.”

“Yeah,” I said sardonically. “A perfect fit…like a stump in a damn glove.”

Gui Zu merely grinned again.

I huffed out a sigh, considering it. I didn’t really trust Zu Tien, but I did trust Gui Zu. “You really think she’s changed?”

“Brother, she came to me in tears,” Gui Zu said. “What Hein did to her by selling her to this place was worse than death. She’s lost her dignity, her value as a woman, as a cultivator. When she saw what you did for me, she begged me to ask you for the same opportunity.”

Man… I thought. Scraping the bottom of the barrel was an understatement here.

But I guess beggars couldn’t be choosers and I couldn’t deny that what Gui Zu was saying wasn’t pulling on my heart strings either. It reminded me of a Shura from the Orb.

On empathy…

Think not, dear kindled, that your strength lies only in your fury. While fury is what is beheld by others, your true strength lies in your empathy. Your ability to sense the pain, fear, and anger of others can be your greatest asset.

I sighed. Was this you again, Flame? Guiding my path?

I looked back at Zu Tien. I couldn’t sense a single drop of rage or malice in her…only deep sadness and pain. Her soul was indeed broken just as Gui Zu had said.

“Alright,” I said. “Let’s go talk to this girl.”

Zu Tien glanced up at me as I approached but then quickly pressed her forehead to the ground again.

“Okay, Zu Tien,” I said. “What is it you want from me?”

“Just a chance, Master Chun,” she said, looking up. “I’ll do anything. I’ll labor. I’ll scrub floors. I’d even service you in the same capacity that I do now… if you desire me.”

Eesh!

I failed to hide the ick on my face, repulsed at the thought, but I quickly covered it with a smile. “Eh… that’d be quite alright. Look, I’m willing to give you a chance. But it will come with some conditions.”

Her eyes suddenly lit up. “Truly?”

“Yes,” I said. “But it’s only because of Gui Zu that I’m willing to offer you an opportunity. You still need to prove your loyalty to me.”

“Oh! A thousand thanks to you, Master Chun! I owe you my life!”

“I’m more worried that you might think I still owe you for taking your hand.”

“Please,” she said. “I lost it fairly for being weak. And you could have easily taken my life as well. But you chose to spare me. My shame would never allow me to think that you owe me anything.”

I sensed her heart again and there was truly no anger or resentment there.

“Fine,” I said. “But here are the rules. You will report to Gui Zu as your master. You will respect him as your superior no matter what. Understood?”

“Yes, of course!” She then shifted on her knees and bowed to Gui Zu. “Thank you, Master Gui Zu, for your great mercy and compassion.”

“It is fine, Zu Tien,” Gui Zu said. “We will work together. Both of us have a new start in a new sect, yeah?”

He smiled at her with his jacked-up teeth and she let out a little sob as she nodded.

“Second rule,” I said. “You will treat everyone in the Terran Sect with the utmost respect, even the lowest commoner, understand?”

“Yes, of course,” she said. “I will do so.”

“And finally, you will fight for the defense of the Terran Sect with your very life if need be.”

“Fight?” she said, looking up at me confused. “You wish for me to fight?”

“Yes,” I said. “I don’t need you as a cleaning maid or a whore. I need you as a cultivator and a former Silver Shadow of the Silver Leaf Clan. I need you to defend my sect along with Gui Zu.”

The amount of lemonade that burst from her soul was rivaled only by the tears that streamed from her eyes. “You’d do that? You’d truly restore my honor as a warrior?” Zu Tien then slammed her forehead into the ground so hard I thought she might break the pavement. “Oh, thank you, merciful master! Thank you! I will not fail you! I will pledge my life to your sect!”

The outpouring of her heart was almost embarrassing, but I wasn’t too ashamed to let the free lemonade go to waste. I cultivated it into my Dantian, further strengthening my solid core. I marveled for a moment. There were certainly very unique ways to cultivate as a Berserker. Who would have thought offering grace to your enemies and turning them into allies could be one of them?

“That’s wonderful!” Gui Zu said with another crooked-toothed smile. “Now it’s just the small matter of her contract to sort out.”

“Contract?”

“Yes,” Gui Zu said. “Master Hein did sell her to the brothel after all.”

Son of a bitch. “So not only do I need to give her a job, but I need to pay for her as well?”

Zu Tien slammed her head into the pavement again. “Please, honorable Sect Leader. This One knows she is not worthy of any of your great mercy, but please I can’t stand to work here another day. It’s.. it’s awful. The men, they––”

“Okay, okay, okay,” I said, not wanting to hear any details. “Let’s go talk to this madam of yours.”

We entered the brothel and Gui Zu did most of the talking.

The madam, a portly woman who was perhaps a mid-tier Foundation Realm cultivator by the way she carried herself, make a big huff and fuss about all the money she would lose if she released Zu Tien from her contract.

“Look, I don’t have time to hear all that,” I said, finally butting in. “How much?”

The old woman smiled craftily. “15 Taels.”

“15 Taels?” I said, balking.

“What? You expect me to make no profit? I had to buy this girl for nearly just as much. You’re getting a deal here!”

I couldn’t believe it. That scumbag Hein had sold her for less than 15 Taels of silver? 15 Taels would have been nothing to him, the same as it was to me now. But for Zu Tien it had subjected her to a fate worse than death. Accepting such a meager sum just to inflict cruel and unusual punishment was just the kind of thing that little prick would do.

Anger slowly burned within my soul.

Hein was one enemy I could never reconcile with.

It was just another reason why Fia and I could probably never work out long term.

As shitty as he was, he was still her blood and I didn’t want to marry into a family like that. The thought soured my spirits as I dug into my robes for my coin purse.

“You drive a hard bargain, lady, but okay,” I said and handed her the money.

The woman looked perplexed and then regretful that she hadn’t asked for more.

“Let’s go, Zu Tien,” I said. “It’s time to reintroduce you to the sect.”