Pursuit of the Truth

After a moment of hesitation, Su Ming looked at the light coming from the house but he did not walk forward. He walked back to his own house underneath the moonlight, surrounded by falling snow.

His house was cold. Perhaps it was because he had been away for a few days. He could even see his own breath coming out in white puffs. A bystander would have felt cold just by watching it.

The house lacked warmth. It was completely different compared to Lei Chen’s house when he visited.

Su Ming quietly searched for some firewood and coal. He then quietly kindled a fire alone in the house. He could have resisted the cold easily with the Qi of a third level practitioner of the Blood Solidification Realm. Yet for some unknown reason, he felt that the house was lacking something.

He sighed and lit up the firewood. The fire slowly spread to all the wood in the pile and brought about a sense of warmth to the house. It chased away the cold and spread the heat around all corners of the house.

Su Ming sat beside the fire and stared into it, letting his mind wander as he did so. He had always been envious of Lei Chen, Bei Ling and Chen Xin since he was young because they had a home. They had parents.

No matter how well the elder took care of Su Ming, he was still the Elder of the tribe. Most of his time was spent protecting and helping the members of the tribe. Since he was young, Su Ming already learned how to be independent. He learned how to live by himself and most of all, he learned how to be alone.

It was snowing heavily outside. The winds also moaned as they blew past the tribe. They caused the leather flaps on the door to flutter, making crunching noises. Sometimes, wind would escape through the door and flaps into the house, causing the fire to move about violently.

Su Ming sat by the fire hugging his knees as the light from the fire shone on him. He looked into the fire and after a long while, he sighed.

‘The elder said I was adopted… Then are my mom and dad still around..?’

Su Ming’s eyes were filled with loneliness. He had kept this thought buried deep within over the years because he did not want anyone to see that he was lonely. He always hid it behind a smile.

On that snowy night however, after feeling the warmth in Lei Chen’s house and returning to his own cold wooden house¹, he could not hide it any longer.

"Bai Ling’s dad and mom are also not by her side. I wonder if she’s already resting or is she like me, sitting by the fire thinking about…" Su Ming mumbled as he recalled Bai Ling’s figure and her bell-like laughter.

He froze all of a sudden. Somewhere in his mind he began formulating an answer to why he felt so strangely towards Bai Ling. Part of it was perhaps related to her beauty but that was not the main reason.

It was mostly because Su Ming felt the same sort of loneliness beneath her smiles and cunning.

As time passed by, the warmth within the house increased and chased away the cold. Condensed droplets of water began forming on the walls of the house.

The heat seemed to warm Su Ming’s heart, causing the loneliness he felt to dissipate slightly. Right then, as though the heavens were against it, a huge gust of wind blew past. It brought a large amount of snow from the lands outside into the tribe. The wind was so strong, it was like an invisible hand sweeping across the tribe.

The creaking noise from Su Ming’s house immediately became louder and even the door connected to the leather flaps was thrown open. The howling sound of the wind immediately filled the house. Some of the snow also found its way into his house and fell on the fire. It sizzled furiously, before dying away quickly.

Su Ming lifted his head and looked at the door shaking in the wind. Then he looked at his house that was invaded by the cold so easily just as it finally started to warm up. He stood up silently and left his house. He then stood in the blizzard and stared at the sky.

A vague outline of the moon was in the sky, which was being ravaged by the blizzard.

As he looked at the moon, Su Ming thought of the Wings of the Moon and of the corpse he saw in the ruins of the Fire Berserker Tribe. Most of all, he thought of the words left behind by the corpse.

"The desire to obtain Berserk spreads to all corners of the earth. Let fire burn in mine blood, let mine thoughts burn the skies, let fire burn heaven into ashes… If 't be true the moon of fire appears from the clouds on the endless earth… I wilt sink into deep bethought as the fire in mine blood burns, the nine is the utmost of all, and the one is the law. Light up the Berserker Fires and worship the nine, did let us all becometh the authorities of Fire!"

Su Ming mumbled. These words had appeared in his mind numerous times. He was still trying make sense of them but felt that he was missing something.

‘The desire to obtain Berserk spreads to all corners of the earth…" I understand what he meant by the desire to obtain Berserk. It basically means the lust for Berserk but it’s not something good… But who… exactly was the persona…? Was the corpse talking about himself…? Doesn’t seem likely.’

Su Ming sat outside his house in the blizzard. To him, there was no difference being outside or inside the house. There was no warmth in both places.

At the very least when he was outside, he had the wind as his companion and he could also look at the moon.

‘Who was the persona…? I don’t know. Then there’s the second half of the lines, "...spreads to all corners of the earth. Let fire burn in mine blood, let mine thoughts burn the skies, let fire burn heaven into ashes." These lines are illustrating a picture. It’s as if they’re talking about fusing fire into blood and just by thinking about it, they can burn the skies…’

Su Ming’s eyes shone brightly. He sat in the snow and looked at the moon in the sky as he sank into his thoughts.

‘If 't be true the moon of fire appears from the clouds on the endless earth..." The elder once said that the sun was Yang and the moon was Yin. What he said made sense. During daytime, you will usually feel warmth but when it’s nighttime, it would usually be cold.

‘But what is the moon of fire though? The color of fire is red. Could it be referring to the red moon, the blood moon?’

Su Ming frowned, unable to understand it.

‘I wilt sink into deep bethought as the fire in mine blood burns, the nine is the utmost of all, and the one is the law. Light up the Berserker Fires and worship the nine, did let us all becometh the authorities of Fire…" This seems to be referring to an action… the authorities of Fire…’

Su Ming looked at the moon in the sky as a thought flashed through his mind, causing his eyes to brighten up.

‘Could it be…? This is actually a Berserker Art!’

Su Ming’s breathing quickened. He took a deep breath. After he analyzed the words in his head, his belief that they actually conveyed a Berserker Art was even stronger!

‘"The desire to obtain Berserk spreads to all corners of the earth. Let fire burn in mine blood, let mine thoughts burn the skies, let fire burn heaven into ashes…" These lines are actually talking about how strong the Berserker Art is!

‘"I wilt sink into deep bethought as the fire in mine blood burns, the nine is the utmost of all, and the one is the law. Light up the Berserker Fires and worship the nine, did let us all becometh the authorities of Fire…" These words could only be talking about how one could learn this Berserker Art!

‘That’s right, that’s what it should be. As for "If 't be true the moon of fire appears from the clouds on the endless earth"… this should be talking about the prerequisites for learning this Berserker Art!’

Su Ming brightened up. These words had been bothering him for the past few days. Now that he had analyzed them, he immediately cheered up. Nonetheless, after a while he frowned again.

‘There’s still something wrong. The prerequisite to learn this Berserker Art is the moon of fire but now it is not… Must I wait for a few more years until the blood red moon appears again before I can learn this?’

Su Ming fell silent until the moon in the sky was replaced with the light from the sun. Even when morning had arrived, Su Ming still had no idea how to learn the Berserker Art.

With a sigh, Su Ming stood up and moved his body. As the members of the tribe came out of their houses and began to busy themselves with a new day of work, Su Ming went out of the settlement.

‘The requirement to reach the fourth level of the Blood Solidification Realm is 25 blood veins. I only have 11 blood veins now, so I need to hurry up with my training. I still need to create that Mountain Spirit as well. I wonder what its effects will be. I hope it’ll be useful for my training.’

Su Ming ran towards the forest. His speed had increased once again ever since he reached the third level of the Blood Solidification Realm.

He arrived at Black Flame Mountain by noon and climbed towards the cave. Halfway up the mountain, a smile appeared on his face. He heard Xiao Hong’s voice. He lifted his head and saw a red silhouette lying beside the entrance of the cave. In its paws was a wild fruit, which it was eating away at lightning speed. As it ate, its eyes kept wandering around.

When Su Ming saw the monkey, it also saw Su Ming. Its eyes lit up and it ran towards Su Ming as it threw away the half-devoured fruit. It even climbed onto Su Ming’s back and let out a few cries of excitement.

A happy smile appeared on Su Ming’s face and he continued climbing. Not long after, he arrived outside the cave. He took in a deep breath of the mountain air before climbing into the cave with the little monkey.

Time passed by peacefully. Su Ming once again returned to his daily life of quenching herbs and training. During the night, he would also look at the moon in the sky and think about the true meaning of the moon of fire.

He even spent some effort to create some small holes on the walls of the cave he used for quenching herbs. This was so that he could observe the moon outside through the little holes even if he was sitting in the cave.

Muffled sounds came out from the cave and as time passed by, the sounds gradually became much less. On the seventh day, Su Ming finally managed to create Mountain Spirit.

It was a dark blue pill. The medicinal scent from the pill was not strong but when he placed it under his nose to sniff it, it was like sniffing mountain air. There was also an indescribable feeling roaming about his entire body.

‘Mountain Spirit.’

Su Ming squatted down outside the cave and looked at the pill in his hands as he welcomed the sunset. The creation of this pill was much harder for him than Scattering Dust. The chances of failure were very high.

He had already used half of the Cloud Gauze Grass he bought back but only managed to create two of them. Due to the difficulty in creating Mountain Spirit, Su Ming was reluctant to even use one of them for an experiment.

‘It should not be poisonous…’

Su Ming sniffed the medicinal scent coming from the pill. He took a long time observing it, trying to decide what their effects could be based on his experiences. Gradually, the sky darkened. When it became completely dark, Su Ming’s eyes became resolute. He placed the pill into his mouth.

The pill was different from Scattering Dust. It did not melt when he placed it on his tongue. Su Ming frowned. He chewed it a few times before the pill was crushed. Then he swallowed it.

Nonetheless, he felt nothing after waiting for a while. Su Ming touched his stomach and waited a little longer. He even went back into the cave to activate and circulate the blood in his veins. Even so, it was just like before. There was no difference.

‘That’s strange…’

Su Ming sank into deep thought. After a moment, his eyes brightened up and he took a small bottle containing Scattering Dust from his bosom and swallowed one of the pills.

The Scattering Dust immediately melted in his mouth and a shred of heat spread through his entire body. Yet at that moment, a sudden astonishing burst of heat erupted from his body!

Translator’s Note :

¹ Now then, for all readers who compared this to the RAWs, in chapters 1 to 25, the houses were wooden houses, and so for consistency’s sake these houses will remain as wooden houses, not leather tents.