Su Ming walked forward into the deeper parts slowly and carefully. He remained alert on the way and regularly made sure the coast was clear before he moved further. As he moved, he also held onto the horn and activated the Qi in his body. He prepared himself to fight with the power of all 11 blood veins at all times.
He also searched for possible hiding places along the way so that he could hide himself when there was any danger or when the Wings of the Moon suddenly returned.
Su Ming was filled with curiosity towards the unknown but his cautiousness kept his curiosity in check. It was especially so in such a dangerous place.
As he moved forward, the cave colder. As the crossroads increased, Su Ming’s speed also increased.
It was completely dark around him. There were also a lot of cracks on the walls. By the looks of it, they were caused by years of heating. However, Su Ming noticed that some cracks were just recently formed. The color on those walls were different from the others.
‘That’s odd, these cracks must have just been formed recently… Just what kind of energy could have caused the walls to form new cracks..?’
An answer began to form in Su Ming’s head.
‘Could it be because of the sudden cooling of the strong heat, causing an unimaginable force of energy to explode..?’
Su Ming scratched his head. He did not think too deeply into it but he remembered it.
He did not know how long he walked but it felt like a long time. Suddenly, he stopped. The cave before him had obviously become much bigger. In fact, the deeper he went, the wider it became.
‘Have I arrived at the deeper parts of the cave?!’
Su Ming scrutinized his surroundings and walked forward slowly. Before long, the cave before him grew wider. When he arrived at the end, Su Ming took a deep breath and started thinking as he absorbed the sights before him.
Before him was a cave the size of his tribe. There were dozens of other small holes around the cave. The hole Su Ming exited from was one of them.
In his silence, Su Ming went forward, his eyes bright. He looked at the other small holes in the cave. Then he narrowed his eyes and leapt forward, stopping at the entrance of each hole in the cave to take a sniff.
Once he went through all the small holes, Su Ming stared at one of them. Without any hesitation, he crawled in. Among the small caves, only this one had a faint stench of blood.
It was obvious that the Wings of the Moon flew out from this hole.
As he ran, Su Ming stopped at times to think. As he did so, he would slice off a big chunk of rock from the walls around him using the horn. The rock was about as tall as the tunnel.
It was bothersome but Su Ming insisted on doing it. Su Ming cut out a few rocks of the same size as he moved forward.
Each time he sliced them out, he would place them aside once he positioned them properly.
Gradually, Su Ming’s speed increased. He still kept his guard up. He could tell that he was going towards the bottom of the mountain. That was why the area was becoming bigger. Su Ming continued running downwards. It was not until he felt that he had run a long distance before he gradually saw a red light before him.
The red light was like fire but he could not determine what it was.
When he saw the fire-like red light, Su Ming slowed down. His heart pounded against his chest. Somewhere in his mind, he felt that he was near the end. As he drew near, he had a hunch that the blood in his body was going to boil. It was not a feeling he was unfamiliar with…
The rocks on the walls had numerous scratches. There were also some bite marks on the rocks. It created a strange atmosphere that made Su Ming nervous. Nonetheless, he did not stop. Alternatively, he walked towards the red light.
It was indeed the end of the tunnel. Instead of a road ahead, there was a giant fire cave in its place. Su Ming remained alert. He stood at the exit and looked downwards.
As he did, he stood there stunned as if he was struck by lightning. Then he instinctively took a few steps back, drawing a sharp breath.
There was a giant basin in the cave. Within the basin were numerous stalagmites as sharp as thorns. They were shaped like hills. The thorny structures were entirely gray but they constantly emitted a chilly wind which surrounded the area. The temperature in the cave dropped to freezing cold.
That did not really affect Su Ming. No, what astonished Su Ming was what he found covered by the cold thorns within the basin!
It was a tribe!
There were numerous houses made of stone, a barricade and a watchtower made of stone. Su Ming even saw stone pots used to cook rice scattered everywhere in the tribe.
On the walls outside of each house, was a picture of what looked like a blazing fire!
All of the houses made of stone were huge and built in an orderly manner. They looked much more luxurious compared to the houses in Dark Mountain Tribe.
Su Ming even saw roads made of stone. There were a large number of protruding stones on some of the smaller paths as well. Su Ming took a long time observing them but he still had no clue what the small pavements were for.
It was not a normal tribe or a complete tribe.
Su Ming’s gaze fell upon some of the houses at the edge of the tribe’s settlement. Those houses seemed to be split apart by a mysterious force. Only half of them remained within the basin.
As for the other half, no one knew where they went…
It was especially so on the tribal grounds. Besides the stone pavements, the other parts looked like dirt, forming a clear difference between the stones in the mountain.
Su Ming’s breathing quickened. As he marveled at the sight before him, he remembered what the elder once said – The legend of the Fire Berserker Tribe… Gradually, a picture began forming in his head. In this picture, he saw a gigantic tribe which seemed to span endlessly across the land.
All the houses in the tribe were made of stone and on their walls were the emblems of a blazing fire. The emblem represented the name of the tribe!
However one day, a change occurred within the tribe. It was split apart by an unknown force like it was shattered. The unknown force also scattered the tribe and its members along with the land it was built upon. They were all forced apart.
A small part of the tribe and the land shifted into Dark Mountain…
‘That wasn’t a legend…’
Su Ming looked at the bizarre and incredible sight before him.
He swept his gaze across the tribe and when he looked at the center of the tribe, he narrowed his eyes.
There was an even stranger thing in the middle!
It was a giant tree or more accurately, it looked like a giant tree! The entire thing was blazing red and it emitted a light which looked like fire. The light Su Ming saw from the tunnel was from this giant tree.
The tree was as thick as dozens of grown men. Its roots had penetrated the ground and looked as if they went deep into the ground. No one knew how deeply they went.
Only the tree trunk was visible. The top of the tree had already penetrated the top of the cave. Only part of the tree was visible.
‘A tree growing within Black Flame Mountain…’
Su Ming stared at the tree. Over there, he saw some familiar red flowers displaying their enchanting beauty.
As he looked at the red flowers, Su Ming remembered the strange sights he saw at the swamp in the forest.
Su Ming averted his gaze in his silence and looked at the ruins of the tribe that had been buried within the passages of time. A sudden sadness formed in his chest. He sighed and jumped down to stand amid the ruins of one of the eight great Berserker Tribes. The Fire Berserker Tribe had fought against the God of Berserkers.
‘Then, the Wings of the Moon must also be as depicted in the legends. They are the changed form of the Fire Berserker Tribe that had been granted immortality by the Fire Berserker Elder’s Berserker Art… But… This is unbelievable. How could such an Art truly exist..? Just how strong was the Fire Elder of the Fire Berserker Tribe..?
‘It’s mentioned in the beast skin scroll that after the Blood Solidification Realm is the Awakening Realm, and after the Awakening Realm is the Bone Sacrifice Realm. There was no mention of what comes after the Bone Sacrifice Realm though, the practitioners are only known as Berserker Masters.‘
As Su Ming looked at the ruins of the tribe before his eyes in silence, he began walking forward.
The tribe was empty. Besides the houses and some stuff scattered around, Su Ming did not even see any bones lying around. The silence was suffocating.
He stepped quietly onto the small pavement, filled with protruding stones. When he stepped on them, he felt them pricking his feet. He lowered his head and looked at the pavement but he still could not figure out their use. He walked forward slowly but stopped suddenly as he caught a glimpse of something from the corner of his eyes. He turned his head towards the direction and saw a corpse hanging on the wall. It was at the border where the tribe had been cut away!
The corpse was hidden by some of the houses, which was why Su Ming did not see it initially. However as he stood there, he could see it clearly then.
The moment he saw the skeleton, Su Ming narrowed his eyes. This was the only corpse he saw at the place. He walked towards the corpse quickly. When he looked at it closely, Su Ming shivered.
The corpse was very strange. Its top half was that of a person but it was shriveled up. The lower half of the corpse was even stranger. It looked as if it had melted away and mutated. It was different from the skeletal frame of a normal person. The frame of a pair of wings also seemed to materialize on its back. Looking at the corpse, it even looked similar to the Wings of the Moon!
It was as though the person experienced a change in his form before his death! He imagined the pain of a person changing into Wings of the Moon but there was no shred of pain in the corpse’s face. Instead there was only mockery and pride on his face!
It was unknown who he was mocking…
The index finger on his right hand had pierced into the stone wall by his side. Su Ming lifted his head to look at the stone wall by the corpse’s side and he saw a clear string of words on the wall!
They were the words of the Berserker Tribe!
The moment Su Ming looked at them, the sound of wings flapping traveled through the entrance of the tunnel. There were bone-chilling roars mixed in between. Su Ming could even vaguely hear cries of despair among the sounds of flapping and roaring!
The Wings of the Moon have returned!
Su Ming’s expression immediately changed.