Path of the Berserker

“Duke Iron Bull, I think you may want to see this.”

I was disturbed from my meditation by Zin Tai’s voice. Popping open one eye, I saw the Grand Sage turned Arbiter bending down towards me as I sat in lotus position on the hard, iron grate floor of a starship’s underbelly.

Ling Wei had done an excellent job as always in taking care of the details. Her selection of ships had us aboard a small freighter named the Pai Ku that was piloted by a crew of four. It was slower than something like Lunalah’s Imperial Yacht of course, but if I was planning to get my hands on some Aetherite, which we were going to need quite a bit of, then a cargo hauler made absolute sense.

The crew was professional as well, their captain a young guy named Jin who looked to have inherited the vessel from his uncle only recently. That explained the favorable price according to Ling Wei. A young dude trying to pay off a massive debt but with little experience or track record to demand a higher fare. Which I didn’t mind at all, seeing as the fare itself would nearly wipe out half of the Terran treasury. Jin and his crew gave us free rein aboard the ship, made sure our meals were halfway decent and generally left us to our privacy.

Which was more than I could say for Zin Tai.

Back on Earth I didn’t have time to interact with him much, but here I’d been stuck in close quarters for three days. He had a habit of starting probing conversations masked as small talk. More than once, he had dropped stray comments about my fight on Luxor questioning my techniques. I played dumb as usual, weaseling out for the most part, but then asked him to not disturb me while I was meditating, to limit the interactions with him.

Which made me slightly pissed as to why he had chosen to disturb me now.

“What is it?” I said.

“We’ve reached Lung Zept, but there is something you should see.”

With a sigh, I hopped out of Lotus position and followed Zin Tai as we made our way up the ship’s internal decks and to the bridge. While the meditation was an excuse to avoid Zin Tai, it wasn’t a lie by any means, and I was genuinely irritated by the interruption.

For the last three days I used the meditation time to catch up on some well needed inner reflection. The short reprieve on Rhi Ben had led to me harnessing my hard-fought gains over the last few months both physically and spiritually, which now needed to be analyzed and categorized in terms of my progression. I spent as much time as I could inside my own head, taking advantage of the time dilation available there as well.

While in reality I was mostly seated as I had been, on the bottom deck of the Pai Ku, in my mind I was relaxed on the lakeside beach of Fia’s Sanctuary. I couldn’t cultivate, but I didn’t really need to. My Dantian density had grown at least 5% from all the demons I’d killed. Not only that, but my meridian pathways were far more efficient and refined now after using Lightning Techniques near constantly to both fly across the Earth and battle the hordes.

Shifting into my Lesser Deity form was also a technique that I was bringing towards mastery. Not that any skill mastery itself was involved, but rather I was growing more and more efficient at using it and maintaining it now. That went for my [Marks] as well. Their turbo versions—on top of my Lesser Deity Form—were Frenzy hogs and now I could say I’d increased their duration by at least 50%. That was still just a couple of minutes or two, but that was plenty of time to dish out damage in my most powerful form.

Which was a hell of a lot.

Still, I didn’t know what kind of obstacles lay ahead of me now. More demons for sure and I’xol’ukz ultimately once I learned how to kill him for good, but I was happy to be keeping up with my advancement regime while rebuilding my planet at the same time. Like the Sacred Soul Realm, there wasn’t a clear guide of how to progress, but I didn’t need that anymore. My senses of self-awareness were refined enough to know where I was by feel.

I was on the homeward stretch that most Cultivators spent their entire lives trying to reach. The glorious Lesser Deity Realm, a half step removed from true celestial ascendence. In that sense, the tiers were less about new abilities, but more refinement and expansion of what already existed. Like extending the duration of my Lesser Deity Form or the projection of my Inner World. If I was to give myself a grade, even after all my gains I was still perhaps just at the start of 2^nd Tier. Which meant this road was going to be a long one.

We arrived at the bridge where Ling Wei greeted me with a bow.

I waved a hand at her dismissively. “You gotta stop being so formal Ling Wei. It’s just us here.”

“Apologies,” she said with another bow, but also a smile, which told me she was now just poking fun at me.

“Very Funny. So what do we have?”

Captain Jin, who sported a clean-shaven head and looked all of about twenty, bowed to me, despite the little joke between myself and Ling Wei just now. “Duke Iron Bull. There’s an imperial battleship in orbit along with another vessel. They just signaled us a warning to stay clear.”

I looked to Zin Tai. “What did you disturb me for? Aren’t you supposed to handle shit like this? Tell them you’re here for the handover.”

“Yes, and I will,” he said. “But I just thought you’d want to have a bit of a forewarning first.”

“About what?”

“The second ship out there is a corvette sailing under a Lu Shui Territory flag. It is most likely Governor Tai Su Long.”

I huffed out a scoff. “Not surprised. Did he know we were coming or something?”

“Not likely. Which means he’s probably been here for quite some time.”

Ling Wei frowned. “Your instincts were likely right, Duke Iron Bull. I wouldn’t expect anything as drastic as what Princess Lunalah did, but I wouldn’t expect a warm welcome either.”

“We haven’t gotten one so far,” I said. “And he doesn’t even know it’s me out here.”

Which meant they had to be up to something they wanted no one from the outside seeing, I thought. I stared at the rust-colored planet and the two small outlines of the starships silhouetted against its surface.

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“How soon can we get over there?” I asked.

“Ah… perhaps as soon as we deal with the threat from this Imperial Battleship?” Jin said sardonically.

I chuckled as I squinted at the planet once more. “What’s the ships name? Is it the Xing Long?”

Jin looked up at me surprised. “Yeah. Nice guess.”

I cracked a smile. “Signal back and make sure you tell them that the Imperial Marshal Max Chun is aboard.” I then clapped Zin Tai on the shoulder. “Come on. This might not be that bad of a reunion after all.”

* * *

We took a small skiff and entered the opened mouth of the Xing Long, the giant space dragon floating against the red backdrop of Lung Zept’s sky. An honor guard of troops had been assembled to greet us, consisting of three whole platoons.

Despite that, there were only a couple of people I truly wanted to see.

General Gong and Captain Li Jeng were already at the head of the assembly, stood at attention. They then stepped forward in unison and fell to their knees, prostrating in a kowtow.

What the hell…?

The rest of the assembly then did the same, pressing their foreheads to the floor.

“Duke Iron Bull,” General Gong said. “The 566^th Battalion welcomes you. You grace us with your magnificent presence.”

I thought it was a joke at first, but he was completely serious.

I rushed towards them embarrassed. “Hey, come on please. No need for all that, General!”

I dragged both Gong and Captain Li Jeng off the floor and they laughed once I gave them hugs and slaps on the back. The rest of the battalion looked shocked for a second, as if not knowing how to react.

“Please, have your men stand, general. You honor me too much.”

“We must give you the respect you have earned, Duke Iron Bull,” General Gong said smiling, but then did signal for his men to stand. “Battalion, let us welcome back the great Iron Bull now made a Duke of his own realm! To the Duke Iron Bull!”

The hangar filled with thunderous applause and cheers. It was surreal, the outpouring of the admiration as genuine as their lemonade. I was almost too embarrassed to cultivate it, but there was no sense in letting it go to waste.

Then from the head of one of the platoons a smirking figure emerged. “So, you didn’t even have the decency to invite me to your wedding, huh?”

“Hein!”

I tackled my brother-in-law with a hug, laughing hard. “Damn, it’s good to see you, man!”

Hein looked the same as always—clean shaven and bald—although I did notice he was wearing a new uniform. He slapped me on the back and then shook his head as he pulled away. “Who the hell in their right mind would go and make you a Duke?”

“The High Council apparently,” Ling Wei said, and then did a little curtsey before him. “I am Ling Wei, the Duke Iron Bull’s political aide. It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Master Hein. I have heard so many stories of you.”

“All lies if they’re coming from this guy,” Hein said jerking his thumb.

“Hey, look on the bright side,” I said. “At least we’re not Brother-in-laws ‘to be’ anymore?”

He scoffed, deadpan. “Great consolation prize.”

I studied his uniform a little more and noticed his insignia. “And speaking of promotions, who the hell made you a captain? Congratz man.”

General Gong chuckled. “I’m the guilty party there. It took some convincing, believe me. I feared he was about to jump ship to a more prestigious battalion. Heard the 342^nd was scouting him, but thankfully loyalty won out in the end.”

Hein shrugged, smiling. “Well you can’t live on a lieutenant’s pay forever.”

I laughed, proud as could be. “Guess we’re all advancing around here. Speaking of which, once we get things sorted out back home, we’re going to have a proper ceremony.”

“I’m sure.”

“I also don’t believe we have met,” Zin Tai said, pushing himself forward. “Master Zin Tai, Grand Sage and Chief Arbiter of the transition of lands to the Duke Iron Bull.”

Hein gave him a bow. “A pleasure.”

“The brother of the Duchess Silver Light,” Zin Tai said returning the bow. “The pleasure is all mine.”

Hein cracked a wry smile. “Don’t think I’ll ever get used to hearing my sister called that. Or the fact that this planet now belongs to Chun here.”

I laughed at that. Hearing him call me by my old name brought back memories.

At least he didn’t call me Chun in front of all his men.

“Chief Arbiter,” Captain Li Jeng said. “I imagine you will have quite a bit of work to do.”

“Indeed, he does.”

The gratingly familiar voice killed the mood like a bad stench. We all looked over to where a second skiff had joined ours in the hangar with Governor Tai Su Long exiting in long haughty strides.

General Gong, Li Jeng and Hein gave him a bow, but I had no intention of doing anything like that. I waited until the bastard bowed to me first, doing so with a deep bend of his waist. “Duke Iron Bull, greetings in the name of Princess Rheutera and the Lu Shui territories.”

I barely gave him a head nod in return. “Governor.”

“I admit I was expecting to see you for sooner than this,” he said. “But I heard you had some issue with the transition of your home world?”

“Heard?” I let out a scoff. “You mean you weren’t invited to Empress Revenah’s pity party ball?”

Tai Su Long harrumphed. “I believe you know very well the disposition of Princess Rheutera when it comes to your former masters.”

Masters, I thought. What an asshole.

I bottled my reaction away with [Indifference] and decided to get down to brass tacks. “Master Zin Tai is here to take account of what you got, governor. I’m here to take over. And pronto. I want to see every tael of Aetherite you got.”

His eyes widened. “Straight to business. Very well then.”

He snapped his fingers and two women who had exited the skiff with him, came to the front and offered him a stack of leather-bound tomes. “Since you took so long to arrive. I in turn took the liberty of having my auditors prepare a complete asset registry. Master Zin Tai, I trust this will make your work much easier?”

He offered the stack of books to Zin Tai who accepted them with a look of surprise. “Well… I would have to verify them with my own auditing team of course, but yes this is most welcome.”

“Good,” I said. “Then we can get started. Let’s get to Du Gok Bhong.”

“I would not start there if I were you,” Tai Su Long said.

The shit-eating grin on his face was already spelling trouble, but I decided to take the bait anyway.

“Why not?”

He clasped his hands behind his back, chuckling. “You should really take some time to understand the hierarchy of your new responsibilities, Duke Iron Bull. Du Gok Bhong is but a tertiary program in the eyes of the state. It’s a repository for the fodder that clogs the legal system. In other words, the Empire does not pay much for your hosting of those prisoners, but neither do they expect much in return.”

“Really? They don’t expect their shipment of Aetherite every month?”

“That’s a secondary program. It may give returns and it may not. As a former legionnaire I need not tell you why that uncertainty is the case.” He grinned. “As for Du Gok Shang however, that facility is charged with housing the worse criminals in the realm. Were one to escape it would be a serious breach of contract indeed.”

“What contract?” I said, looking to Ling Wei, but she just shrugged.

Tai Su Long laughed. “It is perhaps easier to have the Warden herself explain to you. And you would be her new benefactor after all. It would be good for you to meet her.”

He was pushing my buttons on purpose, but I dug deep with [Struggler’s Resolve] to maintain my composure. New game, new tactics and I had to figure them out fast. I looked to Zin Tai and he nodded.

“We have to see both facilities eventually. I don’t care which we visit first.”

I sighed. “Fine, we’ll go see Do Gok Shang first.”

“Excellent,” Tai Su Long said. “I’ll alert the Warden. It’s not often His Imperial Majesty’s Prisons gets to receive one of your station. At least… not as a non-guest.”

I raised a brow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well executing royalty can be inconvenient at times. Imprisonment is often a more palatable option.” He then grimaced and I sensed anger in his soul. “Which is more than I can say for my nephew.”

His eyes met mine, hatred palpable.

He was fishing for another rise, but I ignored the bait this time, treating him instead to a view of my back and a cold dose of [Indifference] as I walked past.

“We’ll take our own skiff down,” I said. “See you on the surface.”