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The Struggler was on one side of the campfire, the Demon on the other.

I’d long since quit on trying to combine the two and instead focused on the various texts I had consumed from the library, still seeking the key to strengthening the Spiritual Root of my Dao. I’d been reading for hours, but the best passage I had found thus far was the last chapter of a book entitled, Chasing the Heavens.

I read it again as the words formed in my mind.

Who can truly know oneself?

Is our self-image not clouded in one’s own prejudices and bias?

How then can we trust what we see in ourselves?

Or what we perceive ourselves to be?

Or how can one gauge oneself when within oneself?

Those around us are no better to judge, for they see only what we choose to present.

The knowledge of self is paramount to truly discover the strength of one’s Dao.

And to truly see oneself a mirror is required.

But a mirror reflects only one side.

But a mirror which reflects all sides, is truth.

An all-seeing mirror is the key to revealing one’s true self.

Therein lies the path of true self-discovery.

The all-seeing mirror of one’s soul.

“All seeing mirror,” I said and the Struggler gave me a slow nod.

The Demon merely shrugged.

The two of them was perhaps a type of mirror.

But of what?

My split soul?

Maybe.

Perhaps I had been trying to solve the problem the wrong way. I was shouting at the image in the mirror to do something, when in truth it was I who needed to do something all along.

It was I was needed change…not them.

The Frenzied Flame flared before me, resonating with a new truth.

Shit…finally getting somewhere, I thought.

But change what?

I’d already changed so much already.

Even my Struggler inner self had grown from an eight-year-old me to where he was now. A carbon copy of my current self. Did I need to grow even further? Or perhaps it was the Demon that now needed to change.

To grow.

The demon looked at me and growled.

I scoffed back at him. “Like you would even know.”

But maybe he was right.

Maybe I did need to push my demon self-further. The one time I had embodied the Demon completely was in that desperate fight against Hin Wu and I had nearly lost full control then. Was that the way to go? To go even beyond that?

The Struggler shook his head.

“Yeah, I don’t like that idea either,” I said but the Demon continued to growl.

My true self.

What did that even mean?

Did it mean becoming a monster?

The Struggler suddenly looked at me and pointed at the Bloodmoon in the night sky.

“Yeah, I know,” I said. “No beuno.”

He then shook his head at me again.

“No,” he said in my own voice. “It’s time to wake up.”

Light flashed, blinding me as my eyes opened in the real world.

I took in a huge gasp of air, like I’d been holding my breath and someone let out a started cry next to me. I turned to see Blue Rose seated in a chair by my side. I was in a bed in the infirmary, the stone walls of the former prison cell hemming me in. I looked down at myself and found bloodstained bandages encasing me like I were a mummy. I was still dazed, my head foggy.

“You scared the hell out of me, Bull Man,” Blue Rose said with an annoyed scowl, but inside I could sense she was happy to see me, bursting with lemonade. “I didn’t think you were ever going to wake up.”

I had to pause a moment to what had happened.

I’d spent what felt like an afternoon in my own head, reading and training.

But how long was it truly?

I flexed my body to give me some kind of indication, and to my surprise I felt not a stitch of pain as I stretched. My joints popped and creaked like they hadn’t moved in ages though.

“How long was I out for?” I asked Blue Rose.

She huffed out a snort. “Eleven days. Everyone thought you were going to stay like that forever.”

Eleven days? Holy crap.

“Damn,” I said. “I think that’s a new record for me.”

It was then that I noticed her robes.

They were no longer white, but Black.

“Oh shit!” I said. “Blue, you ranked up? You’re a Black Robe now!”

She smiled. “Yes, you missed quite a lot.”

“What was the exam like?” I asked.

“Easy,” she said with a smile. “When you have the skills.”

I chuckled. “Who’d you have to fight?”

“Guess,” she said with another grin.

“Don’t tell me Jei Su Long…”

Her grin grew even wider.

“Holy shit, so you ended up kicking his ass?”

“You see the new robes, don’t you?”

“Oh man, I really did miss a lot.”

The last time I saw Jei Su Long he was shooting eye daggers at Blue Rose for disobeying his orders to help me and then embarrassing him in front of Chief Instructor Yora “That bastard must hate the shit out of you now. Get him in trouble and then kick his ass in the ring?”

“He hates the both of us,” she said. “Hence why I’m here. I wouldn’t put it past him to try something cowardly while you were recovering.”

“Thanks, Blue Rose,” I said and held out my hand with a fist bump.

She looked at my fist strangely. “What is that?”

“It’s a Terran custom. We touch fists. It’s a sign of camaraderie.”

She smirked and tapped my fist with hers. “Such silly ways you have, Bull Man.”

I grinned. “Yeah well, they don’t call me Max Chun for nothing.”

She jerked her head back. “Max what?”

I laughed and then spent a few minutes explaining my personal name and nick name.

By the time I had finished she was shaking her head even more. “You a mystery, Max Chun. How one as strong as you can be so simple minded is…perplexing.”

“Now you sound like my friend, Mu Lin,” I said. “She calls me the wonder that is Chun.”

Blue Rose laughed. “I can see why those farmer brothers are so loyal to you now. You’re basically just like them. You know they came here almost every day to check on you?”

“Lo Ren and Chu Ren?”

“Yes, or so I learned their names were.”

That reminded me of something I still needed to do for them, but I had a few other concerns first.

“Hey how’s Tu’lok doing? Did he pass the exam too?”

“He did,” Blue Rose said. “With a little help from me. He’s a Black Robe now. Joined the Phalanx Division.”

“Wait,” I said. “You actually helped somebody?”

She rolled her eyes.

“It was a joke,” I said quickly. “So what did you do?”

“Helped him with a breakthrough,” she said. “He’s mid-tier Core Realm now. Although you more so helped with that than me.”

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“What do you mean?”

“We were rewarded top place that week thanks to your kill. Chief Yora said never before has a White Robe platoon defeated a Jolup. The core yielded over a hundred high tier elixirs. We were each awarded half a draught as a reward.”

“Damn,” I said. “Did you go up a tier as well?”

“I’m close,” she said. “And you? You must be halfway to Lesser Deity Realm now, right? How in the hells are you so strong anyway?”

I laughed good naturedly, but I didn’t answer the question.

I did wonder if hadn’t had some kind of advancement though.

My body had completely healed naturally.

All those injuries had been converted into gains.

I had no manual to guide me, but I figured I had to be Stage XV in my body refinement now. My natural skin was perhaps the same toughness as [Iron Skin] back in the day, which meant my [Steel Skin] was even tougher.

I didn’t feel the heaviness of the world’s gravity anymore either.

If felt normal.

Which meant I was a lot stronger.

“Speaking of rewards,” Blue Rose said. “The Chief instructor said to send you to her the moment you awoke. Are you well enough to move?”

I threw off the covers and spun my feet to the side of the bed.

I felt my strength return as I stepped onto the hard stone floor.

Blue Rose stared up at me, spilling a little lemonade. “You healed remarkably well from those injuries. Your body cultivation is incredible.”

I grinned. “Yeah, I’m pretty much all made of meat. Speaking of which, I’m freaking starving. Let’s hit the mess hall before I see the Chief, yeah?”

* * *

I got more lemonade and bows when Blue Rose escorted me to mess hall.

Most were from Brown Robes and White Robes, a few guys from my old platoon included. I cultivated the respect and added it to my Dantian, which I sensed was now quite a bit denser than before. My fight with that giant monster had paid off in more ways than one.

“I see news must have gotten around,” I said.

Blue Rose chuckled. “You’ve been the talk of Du Bok Ghong for days. I’m sure you either earned or lost people a lot of money as well.”

“What do you mean?”

She smirked at me. “There was a betting pool on if you’d ever wake up or not.”

“Damn,” I said and took in the onlookers with new eyes.

There were a few Black Robes that glanced at me with hints of disdain, but most still smiled with respect and in whispers I heard the phrase ‘Jolup killer’ more than once. The free lemonade was refreshing though and it refreshing to not care so much about how strong I was.

No one knew my background here.

I could just as easily have been a top tier Sacred Soul Realm cultivator before I arrived.

And no one here knew any better.

A bunch of Brown Robes made way for me as I approached the mess line.

“It’s the Iron Bull!” one of them shouted. “Stand aside!”

“The Jolup slayer!”

“He’s alive!”

I got a few pats on the back from the Brown Robes and an extra potion of braised pork from the chefs in the kitchen. When I sat down to finally eat, my appetite assaulted me like a linebacker. My body must have been surviving on Frenzy only for the last eleven days because my stomach was a bottomless canyon. I polished off the food in seconds and Blue Rose assisted by heading back to the line to get me some more.

“You’re really cleaning up,” she said, studying me like I was a science experiment as she set down a fresh bowl of noodles. “Should I get you even more?”

“Maybe,” I said in between slurps of noodles and dunking the pork in chili oil.

“This One looks like he has had more than enough.”

The haughty tone came from behind me and didn’t even bother to glance over my shoulder to confirm that it was Jei Su Long.

Blue Rose looked up at him. “Jei Su Long. Greetings to you.”

Jei Su Long stepped from behind me but didn’t give any kind of acknowledgement to Blue Rose.

“So you are awake,” he said, like he’d just heard a rumor and then came to verify that it was true. “You truly are the luckiest man in the world it seems.”

I shrugged at him with [Indifference]. “Your words not mine. Sorry if you lost money on the bet, bud.”

“What did you call me?” he said suddenly infuriated. “You still wear a white robe! And you are still within my platoon. You will refer to me as Commander!”

“A shame he still needs to do so,” Blue Rose said. “You should have passed your leadership curriculum already, Jei Su Long. But it seems even with the slaying of the Jolup, Chief Instructor Yora has seen fit to extend you for another term as Platoon Commander.”

“Thanks to you!” he snapped, finally acknowledging her. “I don’t think you deserve those Black Robes either. You won that match by pure trickery!”

“Trickery?” I said raising an eyebrow at Blue Rose. “I thought you said you had the skills.”

She merely laughed. “I did.”

“No skill was involved!” Jei Su Long said. “That bitch hit me once and then disappeared for the rest of the match. A clear violation!”

Blue Rose shrugged. “A win is a win. You should have thought about who you were facing before you stepped in the ring.”

I let out a laugh. “Sneaky Blue. Very sneaky.”

“You should have nothing to laugh about,” Jei Su Long said looking to me again. “You will have to face me in the ring as well if you wish to become a Black Robe and I relish the chance to put you in your place.”

I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Oh yeah?”

He lifted his chin to look down at me smugly. “You may be strong, but I’ve seen you fight. You have no skill. I however have been trained in the sacred arts of the Heaven Twin Rivers Sect since birth. There is no-one in this dump who can match my skill.”

“Not even Chief Yora?” Blue Rose said with another testy leer.

It was then that I noticed the entire mess hall had quieted down and was listening in on the conversation. Jei Su Long became suddenly self-conscious, and side-stepped Blue Rose’s pitfall of a direct question.

“You’ll report to me when you are done eating, Bull Man,” he said. “You will be on Martial Skills rotation. Then we’ll see what you are truly made of.”

“No can do,” I said, rising from the table. “I’ve got a meeting with Chief Instructor Yora.” I then pinched the edge of his Black Robes. “So unless you got some Jade Trim hiding under there to outrank her, I’ll see your ass later.”

* * *

Blue Rose couldn’t stop laughing as we made our way to Chief Yora’s office.

“I can’t believe you said that!” She nearly fell down as she leaned on my shoulder for support, still laughing. “You are far worse than me.”

“Yeah, I try.”

The office door opened before we even reached and Blue Rose straightened to attention as Chief Yora stepped into the doorway.

She nodded to Blue Rose. “You may wait here, Tribute. Iron Bull, please come inside.”

I left Blue Rose in the hallway and closed the door behind me as Chief Yora took a seat behind her rusted metal desk which looked more like a place to perform metalwork than paperwork.

“So,” she said, easing back in her chair as she folded her hands atop her desk. “Tell me how you managed to kill a Jolup mostly by yourself?”

I tried to play it off with [Indifference]. “I wouldn’t say it was by myself.”

“I did say mostly. I’ve interviewed every Tribute within your platoon and the reports all concur. You killed that thing nearly single handedly as a Core Realm Cultivator and I’d like to know how.”

I studied her a moment, wondering if this was genuine curiosity or conjecture leading towards outing me as a Berserker. Whatever I would say from this point would define me as something: whether anomaly, oddity or heretic cultivator were all up for grabs.

I decided to go with something that would hopefully throw her off.

The truth.

“I killed it due to experience,” I said.

That got her attention immediately, and she sat up in her chair. “You’ve encountered Jolup before?”

“Not exactly,” I said. “But my world has a Bloodmoon and I’m no stranger to killing awakened spirit beasts out in the wild. Yes, I am strong, a half step from the Sacred Soul Realm, but its not my strength that killed it. It was my confident in knowing exactly how to kill it.”

That response got a curious raise of an eyebrow, but also a little lemonade. “Explain further what you mean.”

“You can’t hurt a creature like that from the outside unless you have a hundred well-armed cultivators. To kill it by yourself, as I have done in the past, you need to be willing to put yourself in harms way. Jump right into its mouth like I did and take out its main weapon. Its jaws.”

Yora nodded slowly. “I see. And you were confident you could accomplish this when you jumped off that cliff?”

I kept a straight face as I answered with [Struggler’s Resolve]. “Hell no. You can never be sure with a monster like that. The trick is to not give a shit if you survive or not. My only intention was to kill it. And that I did. Luckily Blue Rose got me the help I needed so that I could survive thereafter. I survived because of Blue Rose, not my strength.”

It was using words summoned straight from the Berserker handbook, but I hoped it wouldn’t come across as anything like that. Blind bravado maybe? It was the truth though and in a situation like this, showing full honesty and confidence whet over much better than trying to be deceitful.

I was playing a Berserker in plain sight.

Luckily, most of the time that was indistinguishable from a madman with a death wish.

I waited to see which Yora would peg me to be.

She said nothing for a long while, tapping her desk as she studied me, still filled with lemonade. Finaly the smiled and nodded.

“I’ve studied your home world,” Yora said. “It was one of the new planets boasted by the empire to possess the potential for a high percentage of cultivation prodigies. I do not know you very well, Iron Bull but by what you’ve demonstrated along with your age, I’d say you fall squarely into that category.”

I nodded at the compliment and was relieved the old ‘prodigy’ explanation was providing me a decent way out. “Thank you, Chief Instructor.”

“You are a rarity in more ways than one,” Yora said. “Your cultivation capabilities aside, you possess, as you said, experience, that is very applicably to our mission.”

“You mean jumping into the jaws of giant monsters?”

She chuckled. “I mean jumping into danger headfirst without giving a shit, but yes, more specifically, taking on creatures like that. The Hell Worlds of the Cursed Stars are filled with them. Most who come through here only experience a taste of such here at the academy. But your experience and ease to face such dangers can be very useful on those worlds. And I would know.”

I nodded, reminded that Yora had been once of the few to fight and come back.

“I wish to give you this,” Yora said and reaching into her desk drew, she produced a set of Black Robes and three glowing vials. “You have well proven your worth. I understand you were to come here as a free tribute anyway. It’s time to quickly get you back on track to become a Legionnaire. You are promoted to a Black Robe immediately and as reward for your great victory and to further your advancement, here are three full vials from the Awakened Jolup you killed.”

My eyes widened as she pushed the robes and vials towards me.

I had no use for the vials myself, but I knew who they could go to.

As for the robes, however.

“I’ll gladly accept the elixirs,” I said. “But I can’t accept the robe. I haven’t passed the test to earn it. If I’m to earn one, I want to earn it before my peers.”

Yora jerked back looking almost insulted. “Excuse me? Am I not the Chief Instructor? I know your background. You are Gold Bracket. You need not prove yourself in a tournament combat.”

“Yes,” I said. “But with all respect, Chief Instructor, I wish to prove it to those around me. I don’t wish to get by on what may be considered a favor.”

She harrumphed. “So its pride is it?”

“No ma’am,” I said. “Just want to earn my status fair and square.”

Plus, I wanted a crack at that asshole Jei Su Long, if I were being totally honest, but I wasn’t going to tell her that part.

She shook her head. “Uncertain what ‘square’ means in this context , but I understand fair. Rest assured your reputation in the academy now precedes you. Your elevation to a Black Robe after what you achieved would be well accepted and respected.”

“I know that but…I wish to earn my ascension the normal way.”

“Meaning by a tournament match.”

“Yes.”

“And you do realize who you would be facing correct?”

Lady, I’m damn well counting on it, I wanted to say, but settled for a simple “Yes” instead.

“I see,” Yora said. “Jei Su Long may lack leadership capability as you may no doubt have seen for yourself, but he is proficient with a blade. Are you certain you wish to challenge him? He is rumored to have qualified for Jade Bracket before coming here.”

That got my juices stirring even more.

A true challenge indeed.

I nodded. “Yes ma’am. I’m sure.”

Yora chortled. “I see. Strange. But commendable in a way. Very well, I shall permit you your request, Tribute. You shall be allowed to take the ascension exam and will face Commander Jei Su Long in tournament combat.”

“Thank you,” I said. “I have only one additional request.”

“Oh?”

“Can I take the test tomorrow?”

* * *

I left Chief Yora’s office with a mile wide smile.

“What happened?” Blue Rose asked looking both concerned and intrigued. “What did she say?”

I handed her one of the vials. “I’ll tell you on the way. I need to make a delivery first.”

I was as vague as possible with Blue Rose about Yora’s actual questioning for fear it might trigger some questions from her as well. Luckily, she was so taken aback by her gift that she was more focused on it than asking me questions.

“Are you certain you want me to have this?” she said. “This is extremely high grade. And I’ve received a half portion already.”

“Think of it as payment for keeping watch over me,” I said as we entered the farming area. “And considering that that, I have two more payments to make.”

I called out to Lo Ren and Chu Ren who were in the fields and the two of them came running to greet me.

“You’re alive!” Chu Ren shouted, giving me a bro hug. “Thank the gods!”

“It’s good to see you upright,” Lo Ren said giving me a bow. “You gave us both a scare.”

“Thanks for helping to keep an eye on me,” I said. “Blue Rose said you guys came almost every day.”

“It was the least we could do,” Chu Ren said.

They then both bowed to Blue Rose. “Greetings Senior Sister.”

Blue Rose smiled. “Bothers.”

“I have something for both of you,” I said and presented each of them a vial. “I know only one of you has chosen to progress, but these vials are special. Its from the beast I killed, the Jolup. I’m not sure if it’s the same one that took your dad, but what I know of them it probably was. It won’t bring him back, but it’s as close as you can get to avenging his death.”

They both stared back at shocked as I handed them the vials and then together fell to their knees and pressed the foreheads to the ground in a kowtow.

“Master Iron Bull!” Chu Ren said. “You have given us the greatest gift. Thank you for avenging our father. We can never repay you for this.”

I chuckled. “Well, there may be one way.”

Both Chu Ren and Lo Ren looked up at me.

“Anything,” Lo Ren said.

“Assemble after breakfast in the square tomorrow and bring as many others as you can,” I said. “There’s going to be a big show and I’m going to need as many supporters as I can get.”

“What show?” Blue Rose said looking perplexed.

I grinned at her.

“I’m going to give Jei Su Long that ass kicking you cheated him out of,” I said. “Tomorrow is going to be a duel to be remembered.”