"My Berserker Mark…"
Su Ming had his eyes closed as he mumbled in the cave in the mountains. His Qi was circulating slowly and filling up his entire body.
A layer of red appeared on his skin under his robes. It was not a brilliant shade of red, but was rather dark. It looked as if they were clouds and fog swimming on his skin, spreading all over his chest, back, limbs, and face.
The red spreading on his body was not stable. Sometimes there would be a flash of piercing light. At other times, it would turn dark in an instant. It was as if it was reflecting Su Ming’s current state of mind – there was agitation lying within his calmness.
Once he completely calmed down, his Berserker Mark would also be finished.
Su Ming did not know of the change he was experiencing. An indistinct illusion appeared before his eyes in his trance. That illusion was bizarre. It was a lake without any ripples. It was shrouded by fog, causing others to be unable to see it clearly.
They could only glimpse the reflection of a full moon on the surface of the lake. It shone with a harmonious light, making those who saw be unable to differentiate whether they were looking at the moon or at the water’s countenance.
As he looked at the moon on the lake, Su Ming heard a sound calling out to him in a whisper.
That voice calling out to him was weak and he could not hear it clearly, but it made him want to hear what it was saying. However, all of this just made him feel at a loss.
"Where… is this..?"
Su Ming looked at the moon on the lake. He felt that his mind was still clear. He had even once a.s.sumed that his Berserker Mark would be related to the Moon of the Fire Berserkers.
"This is your heart…"
The whisper that sounded like a call seemingly answered his question. The voice was barely discernible, making those who heard it feel as if it was by their ears but also as if it was a lingering echo of a voice that came from afar.
"Who are you? Did you bring me here?"
Su Ming calmed down and looked around.
"This is your heart. You were the one who brought yourself here… Receive your Mark and take the moon with you. From then on… you will be the strongest Fire Berserker in the land…"
"Is the symbol of the Fire Berserkers the moon..?" Su Ming mumbled.
Since he was young, he heard the elder talking about Awakening to him. He also saw a few powerful Awakened Berserkers. Yet he only knew that when he Awakened, he would draw a permanent and personal Mark on his skin when he was in a trance.
This Mark held an important meaning to all Berserkers. The Mark was related to their entire life.
It symbolized an aim, a reflection of themselves on their bodies. The Berserker Mark could be seen by others. A person would usually only have this one chance in their entire lives to draw it, and they could only have one Mark.
Su Ming listened to the whispers by his ears and looked at the lake shrouded by fog. It looked as if the fog around the lake had become much thinner, allowing his gaze to fall on the full moon reflected on the surface of the water.
When he saw the moon, the voice calling out to him became stronger. That voice came from the moon on the water. It was as if it had been waiting for Su Ming’s arrival for ages. It had been waiting for him to come to this place and take it away.
"Take the moon… Take with you the will of fire and the might of Berserk. Burn the heavens with fire, sweep away the world, a.s.semble in you the body of the Fire Berserker!"
The whispering voice gained a hint of urgency. The instant the whispers echoed in the surroundings, the serene lake burned with raging fire, causing the lake to instantly turn into a lake of fire.
All the fog dissipated in the face of the lake of fire. As the area distorted, only the moon in the lake of fire continued letting out a soft glow. However, there was something strange about that moon in Su Ming’s eyes.
The moon was slowly turning red.
"Is my Berserker Mark the moon..?"
Su Ming felt his will urging him to move forward and touch the moon calling out to him from within the lake of fire.
As the lake of fire before him growled, it sounded as if it was wors.h.i.+pping him. The fire spread out and opened up a path for him.
The moon had turned to a brilliant shade of red. The moment Su Ming felt as if he was about to touch the moon, the scenes before him suddenly became clouded. In an instant, the world within his heart changed.
What appeared before Su Ming’s eyes was a fire red sky. The entirety of it was burning with an endless sea of fire. As the fire burned, the ground dried up. There were countless burnt skeletons on the land, and they scattered into ashes in the midst of the shrill cries penetrating the air.
There was a person floating in the red sky. That person wore a red robe. Even his hair was red and fell to his waist. He had his hands behind his back as he looked at the sky. His body seemed as if it had fused together with the sea of fire around him. In the direction of his gaze, Su Ming saw…
He saw the end of the world. There was an indistinct distortion over there, and there was a giant cauldron within. Golden light scattered out of the cauldron, as if it traveled through time and was similarly about to go through this place to arrive at another time.
"Begone!"
A cold harrumph fell out the mouth of the man in red who had seemed to be one with the sea of fire. He lifted his right hand and swung it towards the sky. The sky rumbled, and the indistinct distortion immediately cracked apart and shattered like a mirror. Cracking sounds rose from within, and the giant cauldron immediately crumbled as if it had just suffered grievous injuries.
The man in red turned around slowly to look at Su Ming and said in a hoa.r.s.e voice, "Come, accept the fire moon. Become one with the Fire Berserkers and receive the mark of the moon…"
The moment Su Ming saw the person’s face, he felt shaken. This person’s countenance was the exact same as his. Even his scar on the face was on the other person.
His gaze was profound. And as he spoke, he stretched out his hand as if summoning Su Ming to his side.
Su Ming took a deep breath and stared at the person who looked like a replica of himself before him with a dumbfounded expression. He had an inkling that this was not a duplicate of himself or an illusion, but a symbol of the Berserker Mark. If he accepted the mark of the moon, then it meant that he would very likely turn out like this in the future.
After a brief period of pensive silence, resolution appeared in Su Ming’s eyes.
"The moon is the mark of Fire Berserkers… but I’m not one of the Fire Berserkers. Even if I receive the mark of the moon, it will only turn into lightning… My Berserker Mark isn’t set just yet. I won’t take this Mark!"
The instant Su Ming said his words, the fire-red world before him instantly fell apart. The person in red also dissipated. Once they disappeared, the lake that appeared once more before Su Ming’s eyes let out a loud boom. After a moment, the lake dissipated before him as if it was disa.s.sembled from the world. Even the moon disappeared in the blink of an eye.
It was also during this moment that the old man sitting in the sky cried out in surprise.
"He discarded it?!"
The old man’s expression was grave as he looked at the ground. He used a unique Timeless Art to see how Su Ming’s Berserker Mark was formed. He also sensed that Su Ming’s Mark was a moon.
‘Marks are categorized into three categories, and each experiences nine levels of alteration. The sky, the earth, and the world are the three categories. Each of them will go through nine alterations. Once any type of Mark reaches the ninth alteration, then they will allow a Berserker in the Awakening Realm to have enough power to break into the Bone Sacrifice Realm…
‘The sun, moon, and stars are known as the sky mark… he sensed the presence of the Sky Mark, which is enough to show that he’s not an ordinary person… but he chose to give it up!’
The old man looked at the ground and he instantly swung his right arm before him. The sea of blood behind him immediately boiled and tumbled as if there were giant waves roaring about.
"Everyone’s Berserker Mark is different in the Awakening Realm, but most of them only have one choice. It’s not something that they can discard at will. The moment the will of the Berserker Mark appears, it’ll naturally gather on the body… Hmm?"
The old man’s words came to an abrupt halt.
The moment he stopped speaking, the dark and dull blood fog on Su Ming, who remained in the cave abode deep in the mountains down below, gathered together on his skin and gradually formed the shape of a full moon on his chest. The Mark may have been indistinct, but the outline could be clearly seen.
At the same time, a hot wave of heat filled the entire cavern. Some of it even spilled out of the cave and surrounded the mountain.
Yet the moment the moon was about to be formed, Su Ming trembled, and as he did so, the fog forming the outlines of the moon on his chest rapidly tumbled about like waves. After a moment, the fog dissipated from Su Ming’s chest as if it was reversing. It appeared once more on his entire body and turned into an unstable fog.
Soon after, the heat in the cave also dispersed as if someone was fanning it away with great strength. In the blink of an eye, it disappeared, along with the heat that had spread outside the mountain. It disappeared like a bonfire and would never exist again.
"He really discarded it?! How did he do it?! That’s just absurd!"
Shock and amazement appeared on the old man’s face, but he quickly frowned and was about to risk revealing himself to prevent the act he deemed preposterous when his movements suddenly faltered.
A white snowflake floated down before him. It was this snowflake that caused the change on the old man’s face. Even his breathing became rapid.
"Snow… Snow has never appeared in the Land of South Morning, especially where Han Mountain City is located…"
The old man took a deep breath and lifted his head swiftly. He saw a lot of snow forming in the sky. The heat in the air instantly turned into cold.
"Could it be…" The old man slowly lowered his head and looked at the remote mountains on the ground. A piercing glare appeared in his eyes. "He actually… sensed a second Berserker Mark!"
In the caverns where Su Ming isolated himself deep within the mountains, the instant the heat that existed moments ago disappeared, a large amount of frost appeared on Su Ming’s body. In a short amount of time, it spread through his entire body, causing him to look as if he was covered in snow. Even his brows and hair were covered in white.
The snow on his face released a chill that was completely different from the heat before. As the chill spread out, the entire cave abode became cold. Very soon, a layer of frost gathered on the walls in the cave and turned into ice.
Cracking sounds resounded, and after a moment, the entire cave turned into a world of ice. Even the ground was covered in a layer of ice.
The entire mountain was covered in ice. The plants on the mountain instantly turned into ice statues and froze there, unmoving. It was as if the entire mountain had turned into an sculpture.
As the chill spread through the ground, a lot of snow appeared in the sky. The snowflakes gradually floated down, causing a strange sight to appear in the Land of South Morning, a place where it rarely snowed.
The snow floated down, but it did not cover the ground. They gathered on the mountain where Su Ming’s cave was instead and gradually gathered into a thick layer of snow.
The figure of a boy and a girl could be seen vaguely in the snowstorm. They were holding hands and walking forward through the snow… walking… as if they wanted to continue walking together until their hair turned white with age.