“Oh well,” Hein said. “Looks like our plan didn’t work, Chun.”

“What are you talking about?” Lin Fei said. “What plan?”

“That’s him!” the crippled man shouted, pointing at me while clutching his stomach. “That’s the one. That’s the bastard who crippled my Dantian!”

Well, shit… I thought. Guess Hein was right after all.

I cycled my Frenzy as I stepped out in front of Captain Lin Fei. “I’ll handle this. My problem really.”

She looked up at me perplexed. “Did you actually cripple that man?”

“Kind of,” I said.

Hein stared at me as well. “Kind of?”

I rocked my shoulders with a shrug, loosening up for a possible fight.

Or however the hell this was about to turn out.

Just my luck the same guy I needed for the manual was also the one now looking for me to exact some kind of revenge. There were a couple ways I could play this, I supposed. I could be apologetic and claim it was all an accident or something, or maybe even suggest some kind of settlement.

But screw all that.

That wasn’t the Berserker way.

That bastard deserved his punishment and possibly more. No way in hell was I back-peddling on that. Even if it cost me the manual in the end, being straight up was the only way to handle trash like this.

“Yeah, it was me,” I said with [Struggler’s Resolve]. I then squared up with the man Mak Tung. He was a couple inches shorter than me, but had a tattoo on his body for every scar on mine. His eyes were completely black, including the whites, which gave him an unnerving gaze, like that of a shark.

He grinned, displaying teeth that were filed down to points, completing the shark motif to a Tee. “You admit it so easily, eh? A brazen bastard, you are. Just like Lu Pin said.”

“Yeah! I told you,” the injured man, Lu Pin said, echoing him. “A brazen bastard!”

I cycled my Frenzy with [Fear the Flame] ensuring I used enough perfume from my [Devel’s Shadow] technique so they could sense it as Qi. “He deserved that and more for what he was about to do. And I’d do it again, and to anyone else if they fancy the idea of killing a damn kid.”

I stared right at the bastard Lu Pin as I said it and then paused to let the words sink in.

The fear already spiking in his soul tripled and he looked as if he was about to flee.

Fear emerged from the man Mak Tung as well, but to a far more measured degree.

It was a cautious energy more than anything else.

He could detect the power of my Dantian, but wasn’t scared shitless like his pal. Which meant he was either the same caliber or used to dealing with Sacred Soul Realm cultivators like me. Either way he wasn’t a pushover like Lu Pin.

“You come to my territory, cripple one of my captains and then have the nerve to say you’d do it again?” He smirked at me. “That’s some balls you got, legionnaire.”

I glanced about at the cultivators with him.

They were all within the core realm more than likely, which meant a good work out if I decided to take them all on. But that wasn’t the way I needed this to go down. Especially not if this guy truly possessed the manual I sought.

“I’d call it just a matter of fact,” I said with a shrug of [Indifference]. “But I’m honestly not looking for another fight tonight. In fact, I was looking for you to make a deal.”

His brows creased in a furrow. “You want to make a deal with me? What kind of deal?”

“He speaks the truth, Boss Mak Tung,” Captain Lin Fei said stepping next to me. “I was just about to bring him to you.”

“And who the hell are you?” he said, jutting his tattooed chin at her.

“Captain Lin Fei of the 566th Imperial Infantry Battalion and Commander of Saphire Company,” she said with a hint of authority. “But before that, I was just a girl from Tai Pan Street.”

His dark eyes widened with interest as he clearly recognized the name. “A local gal, are you?”

“One that made it out of the Jianghu,” she said. “But I know my roots. You were just a street soldier yourself when I was a girl, but it’s nice to see that we’ve both come a long way since then.”

I thought he might be offended in some way at the comparison, but the way he smiled at her and licked his lips, said he might have some other kind of interest in Captain Lin Fei. He then looked to me. “And who is this one, little sister?”

“He is legionnaire commander, Iron Bull, of the 28th Deployment of the 5073rd campaign,” she said. “He’s enroute to the Hell Worlds, so whatever issue he’s caused here, I’m sure something can be worked out.”

“Damn right,” he said, eyeing me. “You just cost me a captain, asshole. Lu Pin is next to useless to me now.”

I looked at Lu Pin and laughed. “You sure he wasn’t useless before?”

Anger spiked inside Lu Pin “You watch your tongue, you—!”

Mak Tung cut a hand in front of him to be silent, and Lu Pin instantly complied.

“You know, for someone who says they’re looking for a deal and not a fight, you send a lot of mixed messages. So I’m going to go and set the terms of this ‘deal’ from here. You owe me compensation for the loss of a captain.”

“He’s not lost,” I said. “I didn’t kill him for a reason. He can still recov—”

With a quick swipe of his bare hand, Mak Tung struck Lu Pin in the neck, crushing his throat. He fell to his knees, eyes bulging as he gasped for air. My stomach sickened, but I hid my reaction with [Indifference] as he fell fully to the ground and began to convulse. Mak Tung snapped his fingers and a handful of flunkies next to him reacted without skipping a beat, dragging Lu Pin’s thrashing body away as he slowly and painfully expired.

Mak Tung grinned with his sharklike smile again. “Oh? Do I have your attention now?”

He certainly did, but perhaps not in the way that he was hoping.

This was a man capable of anything and I’d have to be on my guard about that.

Still, he hadn’t attacked me yet, so he perhaps knew where to draw the line.

I shrugged. “Killing a Qi-less man supposed to impress me?”

Mak Tung scoffed. “That’s to show what you owe me. A captain. The question now is, how are you going to repay me legionnaire?”

“So it’s blood money, you’re after?” I said with a chuckle. “Fine I’ll pay the 50 Wen.”

Surprisingly, that got a couple of chuckles from his own crew and Mak Tung himself then laughed. “A damn comedian, are you? Lucky for you, I’m not looking for your cash, Prison Boy. And I’m not looking for a fight either. If I wanted that, we would have busted into the Golden Spire and dragged you out hours ago. But I got too much respect for the 566th for that.”

I raised my brows in surprise. “Nice to see you respect the home team. So what do you want then?”

“Your service,” he said. “Six months in my employ should probably do to pay off the debt.” His eyes then shifted to Lin Fei. “Or this one permanently maybe. What do you say, Tai Pan Street? A captain for a captain is only fair?”

To my surprise Lin Fei laughed instead of scowled. “I’m not a part of this deal, Mak Tung. You want a piece of this, you’re going to have to pay my price.”

She leered back at him and got a series of hoots and hollers from his gang.

Mak Tung threw his head back with a cackle. “Feisty! I love it!”

I merely chuckled.

Lin Fei was proving as tough as the streets she came from.

But none of this was going to get me the win I needed.

“You named your price, Mak Tung,” I said. “Now let me name mine.”

“Your price?”

“I’m looking for something, that Captain Lin Fei here says you maybe got?”

“Eh?” he said looking to Lin Few with his shark smile again. “And what’s that, love?”

“A cultivation manual,” Lin Fei said. “The Sacred Soul Realm variety.”

Mak Tung paused for a moment and then threw his head back with a laugh. His men laughed with him, only dying down once he focused on me again.

“You got some nerve,” he said. “Kill one of my men and then come round begging for a prize?”

“Technically, you killed him,” I said. “And I’m not coming here begging. I’m willing to pay, if you truly have the goods.”

“How much?” he asked. “Including the debt of course.”

“Depends on what you got first. I want to see proof.”

Mak Tung furrowed his brow again and then shifted his eyes to Lin Fei as if for some kind of confirmation.

She shrugged. “I told you that I was on my way to bring him to you.”

Mak Tung thought for a moment and then eventually harrumphed.

“Fine then,” he said. “Come with me, legionnaire.”

* * *

“I still don’t see why I need to come,” Hein muttered as he dragged his feet next to me. “You two seem to have it under control.”

We were now surrounded by Mak Tung and his gang, walking through what looked like the worse parts of the capital in the dead of night. Nervous faces peeked out at us from the alleyways, no doubt curious as to what was involving a full-fledged outing of the Black Crow gang or whatever the hell Mak Tung’s group was called.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

I still hadn’t bothered to even ask what they were called yet.

“You’re coming because you’re my brother-in-law, man. I need someone to have my back.”

“I’m your brother-in-law to be,” Hein said. “And this isn’t how I wanted to spend my leave.”

“Easy Lieutenant,” Captain Lin Fei said with a smile. “You’re among my people now. You’ll be fine.”

But I wasn’t sure how much of that was just bravado by the fear rising in her soul.

I honestly didn’t feel a thing.

The conquering of the [Fear of Certain Death] had that effect, I guessed.

Which placed me on the [Fear no Death] path now. For my next breakthrough to occur past the Sacred Soul Realm, I would need to follow Threja’s route and challenge the [Death Wish]. But I was a couple of realms from that stage as yet, and key to getting there would be knowledge.

Knowledge like the kind I was trying to get my hands on tonight.

I still wasn’t sure how legit any of this was, or how I’d even pay for a manual, if one were there.

But where there was a will there was a way.

I kept a loose sense of my bearings as we navigated the run-down city blocks and eventually, we came to a walled compound that looked as big as a city block itself. Guards atop the twenty-foot-high wall, called out at seeing us and two steel gates, adorned with Crow emblems slowly swung inwards to welcome us inside.

The interior was comprised of a large courtyard and in the center was a surprisingly stately looking building with multi terraced roofs that was at least five stories high. Around it, were smaller tenement-block like buildings where I guessed the outer disciples all lived.

“Wait here,” Mak Tung said, and he departed with a couple more of his captains while the rest of his posse circled us in a tight formation.

“This how they normally do business?” I asked, looking to Lin Fei.

She merely shrugged. “I haven’t been here in over twenty years. I wouldn’t really know, but I would say he is treating us fairly thus far.”

“Yeah, I suppose,” I said.

But the proof would be in the seeing.

The opportunity finally came a few minutes later when Mak Tung returned with what looked like a scroll case in one hand and one of his men carrying a table. His man set the table down in from of me and then Mak Tung opened the scroll case and laid out a small booklet sized document that looked only a few pages thick.

“Feel free to inspect,” he said. “But nothing leaves the table.”

I opened the booklet and scanned through the text.

My eyes widened at what I saw.

After the formation of one’s Sacred Soul, the cultivation of one’s spirit must double in intensity. One must nourish both thine own Dantian and that of thy Sacred Soul. The formation of one’s inner world is the next step of progression.

Only by eschewing the cares of the mundane realm and preparing thy inner space, can one truly prepare thyself for the transition to the next realm and the celestial realm beyond. Neglect thy inner spirit and growth and rely only upon the power they grant thee, and thou shalt have thine reward in but the mortal realm.

But true transcendence comes from the strength of the inner man.

Not the outer.

I turned over the page and finally saw the progression route I’d been craving.

Sacred Soul Realm

1st

Sacred Soul Formation

2nd

Sacred Soul Refinement

3rd

Sacred Soul Inhabitation

4th

Sacred Soul Evocation

5th

Sacred Soul Projection

6th

Inner World Creation

7th

Inner World Refinement

8th

Inner World Projection

9th

Sacred Soul Manifestation

I quickly committed the list to memory and then flipped the page to see how each stage was accomplished.

2nd Tier Mastery – The physical and spiritual being of your inner soul must be first nourished and then cultivated with—

A hand slammed down on the page, blocking my view.

“I think you’ve seen enough, my friend,” Mak Tung said, sweeping the manual off the table. “Convinced it’s the real deal now?”

I hid my interest with [Indifference].

“You call that a manual?” I said. “That thing’s barely a couple pages long.”

“What do you expect? You think anyone would possess more than this? It’s more than you’d find anywhere outside a martial sect’s inner library.”

The bastard was probably right. Still, now came the real challenge.

How do I get it from him?

“What do you want for it?” I asked plainly.

He laughed. “Oh, it’s not for sale. But you can read it for a price.”

“Which is?”

“Considering what you owe me for Lu Pin,” he said, glancing upwards in thought. “I’d say a good two years’ service should cover it.”

I scoffed out a laugh. “Let me make this clear. I’m not in the business of trading my time. I’ve got deadlines and commitments to keep. What’s the cash price?”

He showed me his shark teeth again. “Not looking to invest, huh? Too bad. That would be a good price for what I offered. But if you want cash, 50,000 spirit stones sounds about right for a day’s viewing.”

“What?” Hein said. “You must be joking!”

“Who asked you?” Mak Tung snapped. “My price is my price. You think you can do better, try finding it elsewhere.”

I grimaced, my inner desires betraying me.

Time to go on the offensive, I thought. It was hostile negotiation time.

“What makes you think I couldn’t just take it from you now?” I said with [Fear the Flame].

Mak Tung responded with a leer. “Because you would have done so already. It’s the same reason you didn’t kill Lu Pin, or me for that matter. I pegged you for what you were the moment I saw you, soldier boy. You’ve got the curse that’ll likely be the death of you one day.”

“Oh yeah? What’s that?”

“A hero’s honor,” he said and then laughed out loud mockingly and his men echoed him doing the same. “Or a fools honor as we call it here.”

My Flame stirred.

The Demon wanted to prove him wrong, but the Struggler looked at me disapprovingly.

Shit, I thought, looking to the Struggler within me. You’re proving him right, you bastard!

The Struggler shrugged his shoulders at me with a “no shit” expression.

Damn it.

“Further more,” Mak Tung said, stepping back a bit. “I wouldn’t make the assumption that taking it from me would be so easy either.”

Both Hein and Lin Fei’s eyes widened, and they took a quick step back.

I figured it must have been something Qi related to trigger them, but confirmation came a second later when a flash of dark energy burst from out of Mak Tung. The air was pushed back in a gust, and from within him emerged a translucent form that looked at first like a shadow but then formed in the shape of a massive crow, that had a human skull for a head with glowing purple eyes.

Eesh, I thought.

“You’ve got to work on cultivating that inner soul some more, bro,” I said, cycling my Frenzy to summon my own Sacred Soul. “Not gonna catch too many ladies looking like that.”

As I completed the technique, my red-hued Struggler emerged, bull’s horns and all.

A bit of fear and lemonade came from his gang as they marveled at the two Sacred Souls on display.

“Mine’s a lot prettier, I’d say,” I said with a cheesy grin, making it clear it was a joke and not a true taunt.

“I’d take him!” some woman cried out from the gang and her comrades all laughed.

Mak Tung himself then laughed, folding his arms as he looked up at my secondary soul, a bit of lemonade emerging from within his own. “Now that’s why I’d prefer the service and not the cash. But you only prove my point, Off Worlder. A soul looking like that comes from honorable intent. So you’ll either pay my price, or piss off. So which will it be?”

I blew out a sigh and let my Sacred Soul dissipate. “Look, I’m in transit right now. I don’t have that kind of cash on me. But I can probably get it to you in the future.”

“This shop don’t work like that,” he said. “Cash up front. You think I don’t know you’d probably memorize this book in a day? Because it’s what I did. Money or no deal.”

I glanced at Hein and Lin Fei for help, but they both just stared right back at me shrugging.

Shit…

I needed a plan.

But what?

I was right back to those early days again, groveling before a crime boss for secret knowledge with nothing but pennies in my pocket. 50,000 spirit stones? How the hell could I come up with that kind of money?

And then it hit me.

Bo Ren, I thought.

“Look,” I said. “I don’t have the money now, but I got a surefire way to get you it, or however much as you want in only two days.”

“What are you talking about?”

“They do bet on this world, don’t they?” I said. “I got a special showcase match coming up in two days. Me against some royal Sacred Soul Realm cultivator from the Twin River Clan. I’m an outsider and the organizer, Governor Tai Su Long hates my guts. The [Odds are bound to be Against Me]. If you bet on me, I guarantee I will win, and you can get whatever payday you’re willing to wager.”

He scoffed. “Are you serious?”

“He can probably do it,” Lin Fei said. “I witnessed this man kill a Thrantor in a single technique. Plus, he is only twenty years old. A prodigy. The odds will sway quickly when he starts to win.”

Mak Tung looked to the ground, his dark, shark-like eyes unreadable. “Sway quickly, you say…? If you want to read this book then, I’m going to need more than just a win.”

“Huh?” I said.

“People will expect you to win mid-fight if you’re as good as she claims. But to make the money I need. I need you to do more than just win. I need a swing back.”

“Hell’s a swing back?” I said.

Lin Fei chortled. “Are you serious Mak Tung?”

“I repeat,” I said. “What’s a ‘swing back’?”

“Odds will be against you at the start, like you said. I’ll buy up some cheap bets. And then when you look to be winning, I’m going to trade all my position at a premium to those rich assholes who see they’re about to lose for my first pay day. And then, right before you win, you throw the fight and I collect more than double by cashing in all the bets they sold to me. That’s a swing back. You think you can pull it off?”

Shit, talk about upping the ante. “Winning once not enough for you, huh?”

“That’s my counter. You want to read the manual or not?”

“Fine, I’ll do it.”

“Good,” he said. “But since I’ll be putting up my own money, I need some collateral. Just so you don’t renege.”

“Collateral?”

“The captain here looks worthy,” he said grinning at her. “You wouldn’t want nothing bad to happen to her, would you?”

She gave him a rude finger gesture, but smiled. “I told you. I’m not part of this deal, asshole.”

He merely smiled back at her with his shark teeth, chuckling.

I looked to Hein. “Him!”

“What?” Hein said.

“He’s my brother-in-law. You can take him as my collateral.”

“What!?” Hein exclaimed.

“Come on, man.” I turned to him, pleadingly. “Do this for me, please!”

“Is this for real?” Mak Tung asked, looking to Lin Fei.

She nodded. “They are kin, apparently.”

Hein fumed at me. “For one, I’m your brother-in-law to be. Emphasis on ‘to be’!”

“Oh, that’s not as good,” Mak Tung said with a frown.

“Just give me a minute,” I said and then dragged Hein to the side with me.

“Hein, please you gotta do this for me,” I said, in a whisper. “I’m not going to let you down.”

“Let me down? As in get me killed if you screw up? Do you forget your nickname is Chun?”

He was practically shouting for everyone to hear now, but I couldn’t care.

“Come on, Hein. I’m not going to screw this up. I need that manual.”

“And I need to live!”

“Come on, he probably won’t kill you anyway. He’ll just make you work off the debt.”

“No. I’ll kill him,” Mak Tung said, plainly overhearing us. “No real collateral for you otherwise. Plus, there’s more incentive that way.”

“See?” Hein said, jutting his hand at Mak Tung.

I sighed. “Come on, Hein, you owe me for all the jacked up shit you did to me and Yu Li before.”

“I already paid for that! Broken sword? Busted ass? Remember?”

“Yeah, but you said that all helped you in the end, so it doesn’t really count as an apology.”

“Are you frigging crazy?”

“You’re right,” Mak Tung said, nodding to Lin Fei. “They are definitely kin. He’ll do fine as collateral.”

“You see?” I said. “Even Mak Tung agrees.”

“You must be the biggest Chun in the—!”

“Look,” I said more seriously. “I promise I’ll make this up to you, Hein.” I then spoke with [Struggler’s Resolve] to let him know I wasn’t bullshitting. “I’ll put in a good word with your family, and with Yu Li and Su Ling. I know by how much you’ve changed that you’ve got to give a shit about them and what they think of you now.”

Hein scowled but remained quiet, his eyes flicking back and forth in thought.

“You’re a real bastard you know that?” he said.

“So you’ll do it?”

“Only if you promise to do what you said.”

I grinned. “I was gonna do it anyway, but hell yeah, man! A deal’s a deal!”

“What?!”

“Mak Tung,” I called out. “We have your collateral!”

* * *

We spent another fifteen minutes hashing it all out, settling on the logistics of the deal, with Hein turning himself over to Mak Tung at the start of the match. Once he had his winnings, he would turn Hein back over to me and then allow me to read the manual for a day.

“We seal the deal with a drink,” Mak Tung said and one of his lackies poured three shots of whiskey for us on the table. Hein and I took one, Hein more begrudgingly so, but we saluted and all three of us downed the fiery liquid in a single gulp.

“Remember,” Mak Tung said, wiping his tattooed chin. “Don’t deliver and it’ll be his head.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said, jerking my thumb at Hein with a grin. “He knows.”

Hein just glared at me.

Mak Tung’s entourage then escorted us back to the main gate.

“You two can find your own way back, right?” Captain Lin Fei said as she stopped just shy of the gate. “I’m going to hang out here for a while.”

“Are you serious, captain?” Hein said.

She shrugged. “A woman has needs boys and like hell will I be fulfilling them with anyone in the battalion.”

With that she turned about and walked back into the compound. She grabbed the bottle of whiskey from Mak Tung and then pulled him after her by the robes as she walked towards the main building.

“You see that shit?” Hein said incredulously. “She could have been the damn collateral!”

“Yeah, who’d have thought she would have gone for old shark face, huh?” I grinned. “But nah, I like you more as collateral anyway, buddy.”

I laughed and Hein slapped me across the shoulder. “Damn Chun. Now what?”

“Now you help me train for two days,” I said.

“I’m already helping you!”

“This will be helping you as well. You don’t want me to lose, do you?”

He harrumphed “Fair enough.”

As we walked into the deserted streets another idea came to me.

“Oh, I need your help with one more thing,” I said.

“What now?”

“I need you to help me find out as much as we can about who I’m going to face in the ring.”

“And why would you think I could help do something like that?”

“Cause you’re still high society, sorta. You can hit the tea houses and find out about them. Plus, you like that sort of stuff still, don’t you?”

“Tea houses? Not really” he said. “But fine. I’ll do it.

“Great!”

“But there’s one thing missing though,” Hein said as he gave me a frown.

“Yeah?”

“We still don’t know who it is.”